The pulse of the Heart of Buried Thoughts suddenly slowed down.
The starry sky within the main hall seemed to be gently lowered by an invisible hand, and billions of points of light dimmed for a moment. The platinum crystal core suspended in the center of the pillar of light suddenly changed the direction of its internal light patterns, and an extremely fine yet Ultimate wave of thought rippled out from it, piercing through the air and directly entering Qin Yu's sea of consciousness.
The absence of sound yet the existence of language is not presented in words and sentences, but rather directly imprinted by "will".
"Those who have made it this far have already passed the test of the previous Palace Master."
A scene appeared in the mind waves: the remnant soul of the Leaf Guardian stood holding a sword, Age Devourer stretched across the sky. All of this was not random, but a selection left behind by the deceased Palace Master.
"The Thought Burial Heavenly Hall was not established for the purpose of inheritance, nor does it exist for suppression. It is a place to end obsessions."
The light patterns of the Heart of Buried Thoughts suddenly lit up, and two beams of light slowly appeared from both sides of the pillar of light.
The first treasure: A tiny speck of white dust floated in the void—no ordinary dust.
It was a tiny particle emitting a faint silvery-white luster, and the space around it gently collapsed, as if the dust did not belong to any boundary.
The will of "Thoughtless Realm Breaking Dust" conveys an explanation.
"This dust is a substance formed at the very beginning of the collapse of the Thought Realm. Consuming it can return the mind to zero, freeing it from the constraints of any boundaries. Realm Breaking is not done by force, but by using 'no thought' as the key."
The white dust particle slowly rotated, and the surrounding air seemed to stand still as if it had been sucked out.
The second treasure, a pill that was entirely deep gold but had dark patterns, appeared.
The inside of the pill seemed to contain a piece of primordial chaos, which was gently churning.
The Primordial Return to Oblivion Pill.
"This elixir can reverse the foundation of existence, returning all damage and causal incompleteness to their original state. It can also help one enter a higher realm, but its primary function is to repair the foundation of Fate Soul."
The two supreme treasures floated side by side. The Heart of Buried Thoughts once again emitted fluctuations of will.
"Qin Yu, you may choose one and take it with you."
The pillar of light trembled slightly. "If one wishes to obtain both, one must undergo the judgment of the Thirty-Six-Layer Thought Realm. This judgment is not a battle, but a 'measurement of thought.' It is extremely dangerous, with no chance of survival."
The entire main hall fell silent. Qin Yu stood outside the pillar of light, his gaze calmly fixed on the two supreme treasures.
Within her sea of consciousness, Xiao Yue's voice rang out, carrying a hint of urgency yet unwavering determination.
"Little Qinzi, both the Thoughtless Realm Breaking Dust and the Primordial Return to Oblivion Pill are extremely precious treasures; neither can be lost. I suggest you choose to accept the judgment. Go ahead and choose; I'm here for you. Don't worry."
When Qin Yu closed his eyes for a moment and then opened them again, his gaze was completely unwavering.
He clasped his hands slightly in a fist salute to the Heart of Buried Thoughts, his voice steady and respectful. "Very well, I choose to accept the judgment of the Thirty-Six-Layer Thought Realm."
At that moment, the Heart of Buried Thoughts suddenly lit up with a boom---
It wasn't the sound, but the entire spatial hierarchy that was torn apart.
The billions of stars on the main hall's dome ignited simultaneously, and the thirty-six halos suddenly expanded, each halos transforming into an independent sky dome, pressing down on Qin Yu from all directions.
The first Thought Realm unfolds.
The sky turned a burning crimson, the ground cracked open into a bottomless abyss, and countless lingering remnants transformed into black shadows that roared within the fissures.
The second Thought Realm followed immediately.
Time is out of order; Qin Yu sees his own figures at different ages overlapping and intertwining, the future and the past tearing each other apart.
The third Thought Realm.
Gravity suddenly increased, space collapsed into countless fragments, and the air seemed to turn into sharp blades.
The fourth level.
Countless familiar faces appeared—not enemies, but former comrades and old friends, their gazes filled with questioning and expectation.
The fifth level.
Absolute darkness descended; there was no sound, no light, and even consciousness was compressed into a single point.
One halo after another expanded, and the thirty-six Thought Realm pressed down like thirty-six layers of the universe.
The floor of the main hall cracked open and became a sea of stars.
The dome split open, revealing countless rays of light.
The Thought Realm rotates like a giant gear, each rotation accompanied by a shock that tears at the mind.
Qin Yu stood in the center, his robes fluttering.
Each Thought Realm does not rely on power, but rather on "attachment" as its weapon.
Fear - Desire - Regret - Responsibility - Loneliness - Sacrifice - Destruction - Rebirth...
Thirty-six kinds of thoughts, thirty-six kinds of judgments; the main hall is no longer a palace.
It transformed into a vortex of the Thought Sea formed by the superposition of thirty-six layers of universes, and Qin Yu's figure was drawn into it.
A golden halo spun in the sky, followed by the appearance of crimson flames, darkness, galaxies, thunder, the deep sea, and a desert.
The scene was as grand as the end of the world. Thirty-Six-Layer Thought Realm unfolded simultaneously, turning heaven and earth upside down and the starry sea reversed.
Consciousness was torn apart and then reformed; the pulse of the Heart of Buried Thoughts grew rapid. The trial—officially began.
The moment the first Thought Realm truly descended, the main hall completely vanished. It didn't collapse, it didn't shatter. Instead—it was erased.
The ground beneath Qin Yu's feet had vanished, the dome had vanished, and the pillar of light from the Heart of Buried Thoughts had disappeared. All that remained was a pure, gray void.
It was neither darkness nor light, but a kind of "emptiness" that could not be categorized.
There is no flow of time, no scale of space, and even the concept of "existence" begins to become blurred.
The First Thought Realm – The Thought Severance Void Domain. A will slowly manifested in the depths of the void.
" In the Severed Thought Realm, all thoughts cease and intentions are extinguished; Thought Has No Root. Consciousness does not exist, and intentions do not arise; thus, one transcends all realms of reasoning."
As soon as he finished speaking, Qin Yu suddenly realized that his consciousness was being stripped away, not by an attack, not by tearing.
Instead, memories fade naturally, emotions become bland, and even the thought of "who am I" seems to be gently pulled away.
Countless fragments appeared in the void. He saw his own figure in battle, his comrades, his enemies, and the life-or-death choices he had made time and time again.
But those images lacked impact and emotion, like watching phantoms that had nothing to do with oneself.
The judgment in the first Thought Realm is not fear, but rather—deprivation.
Stripped of the foundation of thought, stripped of the fulcrum of emotion, stripped of the meaning of existence, the void begins to collapse into a single point.
Qin Yu's figure gradually became transparent in the gray and white. He could feel that if he continued to sink into it, he would completely lose the definition of "self".
But right at the edge of that deepest Annihilation, his consciousness suddenly came to a standstill, not in resistance, not in struggle.
Instead, he became completely silent; he no longer grasped at his "self"; nor did he try to prove his "existence." Thoughts returned to zero; emotions returned to zero.
Even the desire to "pass the trial" vanished; he stood there.
Without thought; without intention; without attachment; the void suddenly trembled slightly, and the gray-white of the first Thought Realm began to waver.
Because what it judges is obsession, and at this moment Qin Yu —without obsession Severed Thought Realm, his mind is cut off and his thoughts are extinguished, leaving Thought Has No Root.
When consciousness ceases to exist and thoughts do not arise, he has not perished in this pure emptiness.
Instead, it became part of "emptiness" itself. The gray-white void slowly cracked open, and the power of the first Thought Realm receded like the tide.
A ray of golden light fell from the crack, passing through the first level. The next instant...
Boom!!! Without transition or buffer, eleven halos of light simultaneously crashed down from the depths of the void.
Like eleven crashed stars, space was instantly restored, but not the main hall.
Rather, it is an eleven-fold overlapping field of judgment.
The sky split open into eleven layers, each displaying a different color and pattern.
The second level is filled with rolling crimson lightning. The third level is where time reverses. The fourth level is where gravity increases tenfold.
On the fifth level, space is compressed into fragments of a mirror. On the sixth level, familiar figures become phantoms, surrounding the area. On the seventh level, the scene of the destruction of all worlds reappears.
The eighth level: the absolute solitude of the deep sea swallows the heavens and earth. The ninth level: will transforms into chains that bind the limbs. The tenth level: countless future failures simultaneously manifest.
The eleventh layer, the primordial chaos and disorder. The eleventh layer--
An invisible blade of thought slowly formed from the depths of the void. It was not a weapon; it was "measurement." Eleven judgments pressed down simultaneously.
The air exploded, the earth collapsed, and the starry sky crumbled. Eleven worlds overlapped and intertwined, like eleven universes pressing down on Qin Yu.
His robes were billowed by the shockwave, and his black hair flew wildly in the violent energy.
The Thought Realm rotated like giant gears, interlocking and meshing, producing a piercing roar.
Light and shadow distort, space fractures. Countless rules tear each other apart amidst overlapping conflicts.
This is no longer a judgment based on a "single thought," but rather a comprehensive suppression. If the first layer is stripping away, then this eleventh layer is complete crushing.
The afterimage of the main hall loomed faintly in the distance. The pulse of the Heart of Buried Thoughts accelerated, and the second stage of the Thirty-Six-Layer Thought Realm truly began.
The moment the eleven overlapping pressures truly descended, the "ground" beneath Qin Yu's feet first appeared and then was compressed into layers of thin, cicada-wing-like lenses. Beneath these lenses lay not rock, but a surging sea of crimson lightning and a reversed flow of time.
Gravity pressed down from the heavens like an invisible giant hand, increasing tenfold, a hundredfold, a thousandfold, even squeezing out the air with sharp explosions, turning into white sound waves that exploded beside his ears; the second layer of time reversal caused his energy to briefly retreat.
The third layer of gravity compressed each breath into a muffled, shattering sound; the fourth layer of spatial mirror fragments spun around him like countless transparent blades, slicing him into different "positions" with the slightest deviation; the fifth layer reflected a familiar figure and the ending he loathed most in the mirror.
Forced his consciousness to hesitate in an instant, the sixth and seventh levels were like two hordes of corpses from two universes, the scenes of destruction and the absolute loneliness of the deep sea swallowing him up at the same time, the waves carrying countless cold and hard thoughts, as if to crush him from "human" into a fragment of a sentence for judgment;
The eighth chain of wills was the most direct; tens of thousands of dark gold rings extended from the void, first binding his limbs, then his meridians, and finally attempting to entangle his thoughts, making the very act of "I want to move" sluggish, heavy, and even impossible. Qin Yu did not retreat; amidst all that pressure, he raised his eyes.
His gaze was as cold as an unsheathed blade. The Silent Origin Stainless Sword hummed softly in his hand, and the sword's serene aura spread through the air, forming thin, White Frost patterns. Wherever these frost patterns touched, the sharpness of the mirror-like blade was dulled, and the roar of blood thunder was suppressed into a silent tremor.
He took a step forward, as if using his physical body to support the heavens. Then, he pointed his left hand into the void, Wordless Heavenly Book of the Primordial Hongmeng Great Luo Heavenly Chapter unfolded behind him. The pages were without ink, yet as they turned, the concept of "overlapping" was written into visible sentences—time reversal was the flashback of Chapter Two, the surge in gravity was the annotation of Chapter Three, the shattered mirror of space was the interruption of Chapter Four, the familiar phantom was the narration of Chapter Five, and destruction and loneliness were the echoes of the final pages of Chapters Six and Seven.
The chains of will are the punctuation shackles of Chapter Eight; Qin Yu uses his thoughts as a pen, directly placing the first stroke of "blank space" on the wordless page. That blank space is not an emptiness, but a pause that temporarily pulls him out of the overlapping narrative. He then uses the second move of the Silent Origin Stainless Sword [Causeless Disillusionment Sword] to slash horizontally. The sword's edge does not seek to shatter any entity, but only to sever the root of "why they can exist simultaneously"—
With a single sword strike, the second layer of reverse flow and the sixth layer of destructive imagery collided first. The reverse flow attempted to revert the destruction to "not having happened," while the destruction sought to incinerate the basis of the reverse flow into ashes. The two collided violently before him, exploding into a distorted vortex of silver and black energy. Immediately afterward, he clenched his palm, Heavenly Cause Judgment Sequence of the Six Severances Seal— [Master Book Seal Severance — Naming Reconstruction]—fell down.
Yin Guang, like a cold brand, slammed into the vortex, forcibly renaming "reverse flow" and "destruction" as "mutual exclusion." In an instant, the silver-black vortex seemed to be broken in two, splitting into two opposing waves that tore at each other and receded. He then used the [No-Thought Absolute Silence Sword] to suppress his mind.
The sword intent descended silently, only layers of grayish-white, desolate patterns spreading from between his brows, like a silent tide, pressing the familiar phantoms that the fifth layer tried to cram in into a thin mist, and the loneliness of the seventh layer's deep sea into fragmented echoes, leaving "fear" without a foothold and "regret" nowhere to be written.
He stood firm amidst the crushing weight, like an unyielding spine supporting eleven collapsing buildings.
In that instant when he finally regained his footing, Qin Yu suddenly realized: the second to eleventh levels were not the same path; they were eleven narratives vying for the "right of interpretation," stacked together by forceful juxtaposition, and juxtaposition meant conflict. He no longer stubbornly resisted, but began to dismantle them one by one—the second level, "Reversal of Time," aimed to pull everything back to "before it happened," but the tenth level, "Primordial Chaos and Disorder," aimed to deprive everything of its premise.
The countercurrent can only flow back by relying on the riverbed of order. So he turned to the intersection of Chapter 2 and Chapter 10 in the Wordless Heavenly Book, and with a flick of his finger, he created the [Fate Cause Sealing Mirror - Logic Abyss Core] of the Heavenly Cause Judgment Sequence Seal of the Six Severances Seal. A cold Cause Mirror stood between the two chapters, sealing the logic of the riverbed that the countercurrent relied on within the mirror. The countercurrent immediately became like water without a shoreline, flowing back halfway before dispersing into countless meaningless silver sands.
The third layer of "Gravity Surge" was about to crush him into dust, but the fourth layer, "Spatial Mirror Fragments," was at the cutting point. Gravity required continuous spatial support to solidify, so he raised his sword and flicked it. The first move of the Silent Origin Stainless Sword, [No-Thought Absolute Silence Sword], transformed into a circle of extremely still Stillness Veil, enveloping himself and freezing the condition of "continuous support" into a blank. Immediately afterwards, he used the Heavenly Cause Judgment Sequence of the Six Severances Seal, [Orbital Collapse Lock and Chain Annihilation], to strike the rotating track of the spatial mirror fragments.
The rotating track, like a locked chain of gears, clicked three times in succession. The rotational order of the mirror blade broke, the spatial fragments lost their meshing, and the pressure of gravity instantly lessened by half. The fifth layer, "Familiar people transformed into phantoms to surround him," wanted to force his consciousness to make a choice, while the ninth layer, "The future outcome of failure is revealed," wanted to give the answer in advance. Both were essentially vying for the sovereignty of his "self-narration." He neither explained nor argued, but directly turned over the Primordial Hongmeng Great Luo Heavenly Chapter.
Turn to the bottom of both the fifth chapter's narration and the ninth chapter's ending, then leave a crisp, blank punctuation mark—he wouldn't allow them to write for him. He used the "Final Order Interrogation: World Silent Judgment" from the "Heavenly Cause Judgment Sequence: Six Severances Seal" to question the two chapters: By what right do you exist? Where the question falls, the phantom's gaze first freezes, and the future's ending first fades.
In the interrogation of the silent judge, the two revealed each other's secrets. The illusion was no longer human, and the ending was no longer fate; both turned into ashes and were swept away by the wind. The sixth level, "The Scene of the Destruction of Myriad Realms," and the seventh level, "The Absolutely Lonely Deep Sea," seemed different—one noisy, the other silent—yet both pushed him to the edge of "meaninglessness." He swung his sword [The Causeless Disillusionment Sword] and severed the causal chain between the two.
Destruction cannot be amplified by solitude, and Silent Void be named by destruction. Then, with [Star Structure Returning Ring - Source Cause Severance], a pale gold seal ring is driven into the boundary between the two layers, like wedging two doors that are pushing against each other. The wave of destruction is frozen into a still painting, and the silent tide of the deep sea is frozen into a silent shadow; and the eighth layer, "Chain of Will," is the most cunning.
It doesn't oppress you, it doesn't kill you, but rather it "permits" you for every action you take. Qin Yu didn't struggle against the chains; he stared at the trajectory of the dark gold rings winding into his thoughts, and suddenly understood that its core lay in the connection between "I want to move" and "I can move." So, he gently flipped the punctuation shackles of Chapter Eight on the Wordless Heavenly Book, turning it to the point where it connected with the gravity of Chapter Three.
With a flick of the sword tip, the third move of the Silent Origin Stainless Sword, [The Historyless Void Severance Sword], suddenly exploded into a void—a void where there was no historical continuity, only the present moment; the chains needed the "continuous self" to bind the movement, but the present moment was sliced into fragmented frames by the void, and the chains had just bound the previous moment...
The next moment marked the beginning of a new chapter. With a snap, the dark gold lock rings around him broke off all at once, like thousands of iron leaves falling from the sky and crashing onto the shards of the mirror, making a continuous shattering sound—the eighth layer had been forcibly dismantled by him.
But at the very instant the eighth layer shattered, the air in the entire main hall seemed to be gripped tightly by an invisible hand, and the pulse of the Heart of Buried Thoughts suddenly surged violently, as if someone in the distance had violently turned a deeper valve.
The remaining twenty-four Thought Realm appeared ahead of schedule. Layers of sky, like giant rings, fell from the void, crashing into this domain of judgment with indescribable pressure. The heavens and earth were squeezed out with dazzling golden-white cracks. Inside the cracks were not light, but the gates and execution platforms of the "Thought Realm."
Even more terrifying is that the ninth to eleventh levels changed at this moment—the ninth level was no longer just a "failure ending," but rather the failure ending was directly solidified into tangible fragments of reality, like countless corpses of the future falling from the sky;
The tenth level was no longer merely "primordial chaos disorder," but rather the condensation of chaos into twisted torrents of primordial energy, attempting to overwhelm the severance ring he had just established; the eleventh level's invisible blade of thought no longer "weighed," but began to "judge," with extremely fine golden lines emerging from its edge, as if to erase his existence entirely from the pages of a book.
The moment Qin Yu looked up, he seemed to see the remaining gates of the Thirty-Six-Layer Thought Realm opening their eyes from a higher vantage point, coldly looking down upon his tiny figure. The broken chains beneath his feet were still falling, the shards of the mirror were still trembling, and the new execution platform had already pressed down on his head.
He gripped the Silent Origin Stainless Sword, turning the pages of the book behind him even faster, his knuckles turning white, but his gaze was deeper and more steady than before, as if he had cut off all escape routes before a bloody battle. In the next moment, he would truly use his body as a pen and his sword as sentences to meet all judgment.