After the grayish-white aura of the Age Devourer completely dissipated, an almost unnatural silence suddenly fell over the ruins. The wind stopped, dust hung in mid-air, and even the fallen leaves drifting among the distant crumbling walls seemed to be held down by an invisible hand. The huge ancient tree that stood in the center of the ancient city suddenly trembled slightly.
It wasn't the wind, but a pulse emanating from the depths of the tree's heart.
The next instant, the cracks on the tree trunk began to shimmer with a faint golden light, like magma flowing beneath black rock layers. The dry bark peeled off inch by inch, but instead of falling to the ground, it transformed into golden-green particles of light in mid-air, swirling around the trunk. The withered leaves on the branches detached one by one, but instead of falling, they floated upwards against gravity, burning into a soft mist of light in the air.
The entire ancient tree began to "shrink," but that wasn't a collapse; rather, it Return to One.
A deep rumble emanated from within the tree trunk, like the slow breath of an ancient beast in its chest. The roots were pulled from the ground, yet the soil remained unmoved, as if the earth had never borne its weight. The thick trunk began to collapse inward, the layers of annual rings receding in the light, the traces of billions of years of growth being rapidly compressed.
Qin Yu stood rooted to the spot, the Silent Origin Stainless Sword resonating slightly. He didn't make a move, because he saw it—it wasn't destruction, it was "restoration."
A burst of golden and emerald light erupted from the heart of the tree, bathing the entire ruins in a warm and solemn hue. Branches converged toward the center like countless rays of light, the trunk transformed into a rotating pillar of light, and the roots traced intricate ancient patterns on the ground before being drawn back into the pillar of light.
Space distorted slightly, and the sky seemed to have a curtain drawn back, revealing a deeper layer of dark golden void.
Boom—After a deep but not piercing tremor, all the light suddenly collapsed inward.
The ancient tree that once blocked out the sky has vanished, leaving only a single golden-green leaf hanging in the air.
The leaf, no bigger than the palm of a hand, exuded an aura far more profound than the entire ancient tree. Fine golden light flowed through its veins, like countless tiny rivers slowly circulating within. The leaf surface had a translucent jade-like texture, as if a miniature world was sealed within, with mountains, palaces, and stars appearing and disappearing.
It floated quietly in front of Qin Yu and Xiao Yue, causing faint ripples in the surrounding space, like a fallen leaf being lifted by a lake.
Xiao Yue's eyes lit up, her star-blue pupils almost overflowing with light. She couldn't help but laugh out loud, "Little Qinzi, this is that leaf. So the entire ancient tree was transformed from it. It only truly appeared after slaying the remnant souls of the Age Devourer and the Leaf Guardian."
Qin Yu nodded slightly, his gaze calmly fixed on the leaf, sensing the profound aura contained within it.
Xiao Yue let out a soft breath, her tone suddenly relaxing. "Alright, Little Qinzi, you can go in by yourself now. I'm exhausted from dealing with Age Devourer, I need to rest for a while."
Qin Yu glanced at her sideways and replied casually, "Mm."
The star-blue radiance slowly receded from Xiao Yue's body; her form shrank, transforming into a soft stream of light that entered Qin Yu's sea of consciousness from between his brows. The afterglow of the star-blue radiance lingered briefly in the air before completely dissipating.
The ruins fell silent again. Qin Yu raised his hand, and the golden-green leaf slowly floated towards him, gently landing in his palm.
The moment he touched it, the golden light in the veins of the leaf suddenly shone brightly, but he did not use his power to forcefully break through.
Instead, he immersed himself in it, and the veins of the leaf, like countless interwoven threads of thought, trembled slightly beneath his palm. It was not merely matter, but a "gate."
The way to enter was not by tearing through space, but by being "acknowledged." Qin Yu closed his eyes.
The Silent Origin Stainless Sword gently lowered, Primordial Hongmeng Great Luo Heavenly Chapter quietly unfolded deep within his sea of consciousness. He did not put pen to paper, but simply allowed his aura of existence to slowly align with the fluctuations of the leaves.
A golden-green glow spread from the leaves, along his palm, across his entire arm, and then enveloped his whole body like a tide.
Space began to rotate, not collapse, but unfold layer by layer.
The ruins beneath his feet dissipated into fragments of light and shadow, receding outwards like a set being stripped away as a movie camera zooms out. A crack appeared in the sky, but there was no darkness, only golden-green light flowing through it.
Suddenly, the leaf transformed into a giant luminous totem, spinning before him.
The next moment, Qin Yu took a step forward. Without any impact or penetration, he merged into the golden-green light patterns.
My field of vision flipped instantly.
Countless afterimages of the Thought Realm swept around him, like a galaxy rushing through at high speed. The outlines of the Thirty-Six-Layer Thought Realm lit up one by one in the distance, and then went out one by one. Golden and green light streams converged in front of him to form a magnificent gate, on which countless ancient patterns were engraved, each pattern like a buried obsession.
The portal slowly opened, and an extremely solemn and spacious atmosphere greeted us.
The true core of the Thoughtless Burial Domain — the Thought Burial Heavenly Hall
Qin Yu's figure passed through the golden-green portal, stepping into a deeper silence. The leaf behind him slowly dissipated in the light, as if it had completed its final mission.
The golden-green light slowly dispersed at the edge of his vision, the spatial rotation stopped, gravity returned, and Qin Yu's feet gently landed on the wide avenue in front of the palace, which was as soft and white as a sea of clouds yet incredibly solid.
The moment he looked up, the entire Thought Burial Heavenly Hall was laid bare before him.
It was a magnificent palace, almost beyond imagination, not ruins, not wreckage, but a perfectly preserved temple, its glory still intact.
The entire palace was bathed in a warm, white-gold hue, as if cast from solidified dawn and first snow. The towering dome rose higher and higher, with the central main hall's dome resembling an inverted star. Countless fine gold patterns were inlaid on the dome; these patterns were not decorations, but rather resembled some kind of ancient runes from the Thought Realm, flowing slowly under the light.
Surrounded by secondary halls, towers soar into the clouds, each topped with a golden spire, like a needle of spiritual power pointing towards the higher heavens.
Above the sky, a sea of clouds surged.
Even higher up, an enormous halo hung behind the dome, its translucent golden light covered with intricate, chilling patterns, like an unfolded scroll of the Thought Realm, slowly rotating in the sky.
The halo didn't exude any oppressive aura; it simply existed silently, yet it created an illusion—
It was as if the entire world was built around this palace, its doors wide open.
The staircase stretches upwards like a galaxy, unfolding layer upon layer, leading all the way to the depths of the main hall. Countless sculptures line both sides of the staircase, some holding scrolls, some sitting cross-legged in meditation, some with their hands behind their backs gazing up at the sky, each with a different posture, yet all without faces or eyes.
There was no wind, no sound, no birdsong, no insect chirping, no echoing footsteps.
There was not a trace of life in the palace; it was intact, magnificent, and sacred, yet utterly Space Silence.
Like a holy city forgotten by time, Qin Yu slowly took a step forward, his foot landing on the white-gold ground without echoing.
He looked up at the magnificent dome, his eyes reflecting the splendor of the entire palace, and murmured:
"This is the Thought Burial Heavenly Hall... It's so magnificent and splendid. No wonder it was sealed inside a leaf."
The sound did not echo in the air, as if even the echo had been buried deep within the Thought Realm.
His gaze slowly swept over the statues on both sides of the steps, then looked towards the golden door deep inside the main hall.
The door was unlocked, yet no one greeted it, no one guarded it, no one breathed; the entire palace was like a perfect shell, but devoid of a soul.
Qin Yu before the hall, the Silent Origin Stainless Sword hanging at his side. He could sense that there was no killing intent here, yet it was more eerie than any battlefield.
Because "emptiness" is the most terrifying thing; a breeze suddenly sweeps by, but it is not the movement of air.
Rather, it was a subtle tremor of some kind of mental energy; deep within the main hall, there seemed to be an extremely faint fluctuation breathing, as if waiting.
The moment Qin Yu stepped onto the first platinum step, the entire staircase leading to the main hall seemed to be awakened by an invisible force.
Countless statues on both sides trembled slightly at the same time. The tremor was neither a collapse nor a resurrection, but rather like the first gentle breath after slumbering for eternity.
The statue's original faceless and aimless outline slowly emerged with clear facial features in the golden light—eyebrows like distant mountains, eyes like the deep sea, and a solemn and dignified expression. Faint patterns of light flowed through the stone's texture, each line like a sealed memory.
They did not raise their troops, draw their swords, take any steps, or launch any attacks; they simply slowly turned their gaze.
One after another, from the bottom of the steps all the way to the entrance of the main hall, the gazes of the statues on both sides passed on like waves, finally all landing on Qin Yu.
The gaze held no hostility, nor any probing; only a silent, profound scrutiny, as if confirming whether he was worthy of embarking on this path.
Qin Yu did not stop walking. The platinum staircase under his feet shimmered with a faint light. With each step, a circular pattern appeared on the staircase, like ripples spreading on the surface of water after a pebble has been lightly touched.
The entire long staircase stretched upwards like a galaxy, and Qin Yu's figure appeared extremely small under the magnificent dome, yet remained straight and stable.
The statue's gaze followed him slowly upwards, as if in a welcoming gesture.
As Qin Yu stepped onto the last step, the towering platinum gate of the main hall slowly opened inward without any friction sound; as the hinges turned, only a very fine golden ripple appeared.
He stepped inside. The next instant—the world completely changed. The interior space of the main hall far exceeded the scale of its exterior.
The dome hangs high, like an inverted sea of stars.
The sky above was not made of stone, but a semi-transparent, deep blue dome, with billions of tiny points of light suspended within it, like stars frozen in the sea of consciousness. Those points of light were not decorations, but rather sealed coordinates of the Thought Realm.
The surrounding walls are hundreds of feet high, made entirely of white gold like jade, and are decorated with layers of world scenes in relief—collapsed mountains, surging tides, falling stars, and slumbering beings. Each relief seems to be slowly flowing, as if it were not a static pattern, but a real world compressed into the stone wall.
In the center of the hall was a huge circular plaza, with a pillar of light suspended in the center of the plaza.
The beam of light rose from the ground and pierced the dome, its entire body displaying a soft golden-white hue.
And in the very center of the pillar of light—there is a "heart"—a crystal core suspended in mid-air.
It is not a heart of flesh and blood, but a crystal core of consciousness that appears as a transparent white-gold color.
Its surface is covered with fine, flowing patterns of light, spreading out in concentric circles like veins. With each pulse, the entire main hall trembles slightly.
That wasn't a physical vibration, but a resonance at the level of the Thought Realm.
Thirty-six halos radiated outwards from it, each halos displaying a different color.
Cyan, blue, purple, red, gold, black... Within each halo, the image of an independent world faintly emerges.
Some worlds are burning, some are sleeping, some are silent and still, and some are as Emptiness as a mirror.
That is the true core of the Thirty-Six-Layer Thought Realm: the Heart of Buried Thoughts.
It is not simply a source of power; it is more like a matrix that records the "end of all consciousness."
With each pulse, extremely fine rays of light extend from its interior to the reliefs on the temple walls, connecting the remnants of the Thought Realm buried here.
Qin Yu stood outside the pillar of light, his gaze fixed on the Heart of Buried Thoughts, a feeling that defied description.
It was not oppression, not a threat, but a complete Space Silence.
It's as if, with the beating of this heart, all obsessions are soothed, all emotions are reduced to zero, and all desires sink into the deep sea.
There was no wind, no sound, only the slow and steady pulse of the Heart of Buried Thoughts within the main hall.
Qin Yu's reflection was mirrored on the crystal, slightly distorted.
Just then, the pulse of that Heart of Buried Thoughts suddenly stopped for a moment.
The entire starry sky above the Thought Burial Heavenly Hall dimmed for a moment, and then...
It started beating again, but this time, the rhythm was clearly different. It was as if it sensed a new presence. It sensed— Qin Yu.