After the ancient tree demon annihilated the sword-wielding cultivator with that single strike, its entire body slowly trembled. The ancient tree that had pierced through it undulated and pulsed, as if absorbing and releasing the mysterious aura originating from the "End of the Path." Suddenly, the Mystic Void Non-Stillness Seal embedded in the female corpse's chest lit up.
Strands of eerie light flowed upstream along the tree trunk, all converging into the "World-Burying Flower Staff" in its hand, causing a twisted black vortex to appear in the heart of the staff, as if the end of all worlds was being compressed within it.
The next instant, it slowly raised its staff.
Suddenly, the world fell into an extremely strange "stillness," not a halt in time, but rather—all existence seemed to have prematurely entered a state of lingering echoes after an end.
"The Stillness Flower Return Burial" compresses the entire "existence process" of the target into a completed endpoint, and then uses this endpoint to overwrite its past and present, causing it to fall directly from "existing" to "destroyed". It is not a reversal of time, but a forced alteration of the ending.
Once a defense is formed, it is defined as "destroyed" and thus collapses on its own; an attack, before it can even take shape, is categorized as a "failed tactic" and disintegrates on the spot.
Life was directly overwritten as "terminal state," with vital energy and soul consciousness decaying simultaneously. In the void, a huge, pitch-black flower slowly emerged, its heart reflecting the "dead appearances" of Qin Yu and the cultivator. At the same time, the light and shadow of heaven and earth reversed, and the air, divine power, and rules all showed signs of "collapsed ahead of time," as if reality was being overwritten by a predetermined end.
Boom! The divine power descended, causing space to collapse. The Xuan Kong Mystic Void Realm cultivator's expression changed drastically. He roared and suddenly formed hand seals. The ancient black tower reappeared, this time directly burning with primordial fire, and the star patterns on its walls spun wildly.
Layer upon layer of defensive barriers stacked upon each other, transforming the ancient tower into a colossal defensive structure capable of suppressing all realms, firmly blocking his path. At the same time, he roared, "Block it--!!!"
Qin Yu didn't back down; his gaze instantly turned cold, and he unleashed a series of hand seals: "Heavenly Cause Judgment Sequence - Six Severances Seal." "First Seal - Fate Cause Sealing Mirror - Logic Abyss Core."
Boom! Countless mirrors suddenly unfolded in the void, each vibrating at high speed, reflecting the descending black flower and its logical structure, attempting to lock onto its operating mode.
Then, with a flick of his fingertips, he uttered, "Third Seal— Orbital Collapse Lock and Chain Annihilation."
In an instant, countless chains composed of cause and effect and logic burst forth from the mirror, forcibly locking the trajectory of the spreading black flower, tearing and breaking its "end point coverage" path piece by piece, preventing it from descending completely.
The two forces erupted simultaneously, one using a tower to withstand the attack while the other severed it with a causal lock, directly confronting the "Stillness Flower Return Burial." Rumble--!!!!
The black flower pressed down, causing the ancient pagoda to tremble violently. The pagoda walls cracked wildly, and the star patterns crumbled one by one.
Meanwhile, Qin Yu's countless mirrors were shattering violently, and the chains of cause and effect were forcibly broken one after another. But every time one chain broke, another would regenerate, desperately delaying the complete coverage of that supernatural power.
Veins bulged on Qin Yu's forehead, and his mind trembled violently. He could clearly feel his "existence" being forcibly dragged toward the end, a kind of oppression that even his will was being defined as "dead".
The Mystic Void Realm cultivator coughed up blood, his knees nearly hitting the ground, and the ancient tower in front of him collapsed, lasting only a few breaths.
With a crack, the ancient tower shattered completely. The next instant, the remaining power of the black flower crashed down. Boom!!! The mirror-like surfaces around Qin Yu shattered, and the chains broke.
Both were blasted away simultaneously, their figures shooting backwards for hundreds of meters like broken strings before crashing heavily into the ground, which instantly shattered, sending dust billowing into the sky.
The moment Qin Yu landed, his chest convulsed violently, and he spat out a mouthful of blood, his qi becoming disordered.
The cultivator tumbled several times before barely managing to steady himself, kneeling on one knee, his aura extremely weak.
The two were severely injured. In the distance, the ancient tree demon stood silently, its flower shadows swaying, as if waiting for them to completely collapse.
Qin Yu slowly raised his head, his breathing heavy, but his consciousness becoming increasingly clear. His gaze fell on the female corpse.
It landed on the Mystic Void Non-Stillness Seal and also on the tree trunk connecting the two. Meanwhile...
Another thought surged wildly in his mind, "Xiao Yue..." As long as she makes a move, all of this will end instantly.
This demon had no chance of survival. But Qin Yu's hand slowly clenched, his gaze darkening slightly.
He glanced sideways at the Mystic Void Realm cultivator beside him. This person's identity and stance were unknown. In fact... it was highly likely that he was Hua Jingmeng's henchman.
Now that his appearance has changed, if Xiao Yue reveals all her cards and completely exposes them, it won't just be a problem for this battle.
Instead, all subsequent situations would collapse. Qin Yu closed his eyes, struggled intensely for a moment, and then slowly opened them.
His eyes held only calm. "It's not time... to use her yet." His voice was extremely low but incredibly firm.
He slowly stood up; despite his serious injuries, his fighting spirit remained undiminished.
The Xuan Mystic Void Realm cultivator was now on the verge of madness and desperation. His aura was Ultimate chaotic, and his inner power surged like a raging inferno. He suddenly threw his head back and roared, his voice tearing through space. "Damn it--!! I refuse to believe I can't kill you!!!"
He suddenly turned to look at Qin Yu, his eyes bloodshot yet unusually clear, a calmness born from seeing through life and death. "Fellow Daoist... today, no matter what, one of us must leave alive... otherwise, we will both die here in vain..." He took a deep breath.
The next instant, his aura suddenly collapsed, and he sat cross-legged in the void. "You... must find its weakness." As soon as he finished speaking, he closed his eyes.
The world suddenly changed. He slowly formed a hand seal, and an extremely strange hand seal formed between his fingers. The hand seal had no energy fluctuations, yet it caused "cognitive gaps" to appear in the surrounding space.
"Imagination - Silent Void." At that moment, the world seemed to have been gently wiped away. In the first stage, the gate opened, and his body began to collapse inward.
It wasn't a change in form, but rather—a disappearance of presence. Standing not far away, Qin Yu had a fleeting illusion. "Is... something... missing there?"
He clearly saw the cultivator right in front of him, yet he couldn't quite make out who he was; the cultivator's face began to blur, and his breathing became intermittent. "Who is this person?" This thought crossed his mind.
A thought flashed through Qin Yu's mind, and then the void cracked open, revealing a fissure that could not be described by color, within which churned an indescribable mist.
That was not power, but the unknowable itself. In the second stage, the thought of sacrifice, a "hand" slowly reached out from the rift.
It has no shape, yet it is "recognized as a hand." It gently presses on the cultivator's head, and the first crack appears between his brows.
That was "memory"—crack—the second crack spread across his eye; that was "emotion"—crack—the third crack pierced through his chest.
It was as if countless cracks were spreading across his entire body, each crack taking away a part of the "self that could be thought of," and his aura was declining.
Yet what is rising and falling is "humanity," and what is rising is the "unknowable." When cracks cover his entire body, he suddenly opens his eyes, and there are no more pupils in them.
Only the third stage of rotating nothingness: Fanciful Thought Silent Void, he did not speak. Yet a "meaning" spread out. It was not an attack, not energy.
It wasn't supernatural power, but reality itself that was being rewritten. For the first time, the ancient tree demon showed a "slowness," and its tree full of flower-filled pupils trembled in unison.
It was as if something was disappearing on an "invisible level." The flowers began to sway, space itself began to shift, and even the "World-Burying Flower Staff" in its hand experienced a brief "cognitive rupture." At that moment, it sensed danger. The real danger was not destruction, but "an existence never before recognized."
In that instant, the ancient tree demon went berserk. It suddenly raised its head and let out a silent screech. The sound did not travel, but it caused the entire space to distort.
The next instant, the tree trunk that had pierced through the woman's corpse suddenly swelled and contracted wildly—absorbing!! The woman's corpse even began to tremble slightly.
The Mystic Void Non-Stillness Seal within her body erupted with a blinding, eerie light, and countless divine powers were forcibly drawn out, surging wildly along the tree trunk into the ancient tree demon's body!
At the same time, the entire ancient tree burst into bloom! Boom! Countless flowers bloomed at this moment, and it was no ordinary bloom.
Rather, it was a "world-class outbreak." The Realm of Ten Thousand Burial Flowers - Barrier of Ignorance
Using the myriad flowers as a boundary, and "being perceived" as a boundary, it forcibly breaks down its own existence into billions of "cognitive fragments," scattering them among countless flowers, so that it is no longer "a single existence," but "a collection of countless partially perceived existences."
Any erasure targeting the "whole" will be distributed among billions of flowers, making complete deletion impossible. This creates an absolute diversion of "concept erasure" type abilities.
Completely immune to "targeted attacks"; the "existence" is split up, so that it no longer has a single target attribute.
The entire world was submerged in flowers, countless blossoms exploding from the void, each reflecting a different "fragment" of the ancient tree demon:
Some are just branches, some are just shadows of flowers, some are just scents, and some are even just "a fleeting moment of being seen"—they are no longer complete.
However, this also means that it cannot be completely deleted. At the same time, light and shadow distort and time splits wildly, and space shatters and reassembles like ten thousand mirrors.
The power of "Fanciful Thought Silent Void" descended and began to erase. One flower disappeared, ten flowers disappeared, a hundred flowers disappeared, a thousand flowers disappeared, but ten thousand remained.
Ten thousand, a million—its existence was infinitely dispersed and could not be erased all at once. Boom!!!! The two forces collided head-on.
The unknowable struggle against the infinite division caused the entire space to collapse completely, creating a rift in reality, and even "existence" itself began to tremble.
A few breaths later, everything suddenly froze, the sea of flowers vanished, and the ancient tree demon re-formed, but its aura had weakened considerably.
The tree trunk was broken in several places, and many of the flowers withered. The World-Burying Flower Staff was also cracked; it was severely damaged.
The Xuan Mystic Void Realm cultivator had completely fallen; he crashed heavily to the ground, his body like an empty shell, his aura so weak it was almost gone.
He slowly opened his eyes, his gaze empty yet retaining a last shred of clarity. He looked at Qin Yu, his lips moving slightly.
"Fellow Daoist..." "I... I tried my best..." The voice was barely audible. "The rest... is up to you..."
As he finished speaking, his eyes slowly closed, his breath almost extinguished, and the world returned to deathly silence, leaving only Qin Yu standing alone in this shattered world.
Facing the ancient tree demon, still terrifyingly powerful despite its severe injuries, Qin Yu stood on the collapsed earth. Though his breathing was disordered, his gaze was frighteningly calm. In that instant, he no longer looked at the ancient tree demon, but instead focused all his attention on the thick trunk that had pierced through the woman's corpse.
The scene from just now kept replaying in his mind: the rhythm of the tree trunk frantically absorbing the female corpse's divine power, the resonance when the Mystic Void Non-Stillness Seal lit up, that strange cycle that was both like plunder and like dependence... Suddenly, an extremely clear realization exploded in his mind—this was not "feeding" at all, but "symbiosis," and symbiosis under the threat of death.
The ancient tree demon's true form had long since withered and died, with only the remaining half maintaining a minimal existence. It continuously channeled the cultivator's essence into the female corpse, allowing the divine corpse to maintain that wisp of divine energy, and then extracted the purest wisp of divine energy from the divine corpse to nourish itself.
It was in this way that it lingered on, and the Mystic Void Non-Stillness Seal was the key to maintaining this "death coexistence". It was because of this that it was not completely erased under the "Fanciful Thought Silent Void" attack just now - because its "existence" did not completely belong to itself.
With this sudden realization, a cold glint flashed in Qin Yu's eyes. "So that's how it is..." "Then—I'll sever your lifeline." In the next instant, he didn't hesitate for a moment.
The figure suddenly lunged forward, not to attack the ancient tree, but directly at the female corpse! The ancient tree demon instantly sensed this, and all the flowers on the tree contracted their pupils.
That wasn't anger, it was panic, genuine panic. Qin Yu's speed surged, he directly burned his essence blood, his internal energy erupted, and his blood energy burned like flames on his body. His hand seals formed instantly.
"Three Forms of Fate Construction - Cause and Effect Deconstruction!" Boom--!!!
At this moment, he forcibly grasped the invisible thread of cause and effect. The main root connecting the ancient tree and the female corpse was no longer just a physical entity in his perception, but a causal chain that ran through "life and death, supply and demand".
Instead of attacking the ancient tree, he slashed at the main root with his palm. Boom! This strike, without dazzling light, was like an invisible blade.
Sever Karma directly! Crack--!!! The thick trunk trembled violently and snapped in the next instant!!! At this moment, the ancient tree demon completely lost control.
It wasn't rage, but rather the "fear of death." The entire ancient tree trembled violently, countless roots twitched wildly, and flowers withered and bloomed again in a frenzy. It completely abandoned its attack on Qin Yu, and all its branches and all its strength retracted frantically, trying to reconnect with the severed main root.
It was desperately trying to prolong its life, but its vital energy plummeted to an extreme level. And in that moment of chaos— Qin Yu made his move.
Without any hesitation, he moved like a blur, passing directly through the fractured area, leaping into the air, and landing in front of the female corpse.
Just an arm's length away, the female corpse was pale and still, the Mystic Void Non-Stillness Seal on her chest flickering slightly.
Qin Yu's gaze sharpened, and his hand shot out. "Get out here!!!" Crack! His five fingers embedded themselves directly into the female corpse's palm.
With a Mystic Void Non-Stillness Seal Xuan Kong Wu Ji Seal out! In an instant, the entire space trembled, and the symbiotic relationship shattered!
The instant Qin Yu pried the Mystic Void Non-Stillness Seal Ji Seal out, he sensed that the remaining divine essence within the female corpse was spiraling out of control. The power that had been locked in by the symbiotic bond surged back like a burst dam, and the lifeless body trembled slightly at that moment.
As if about to break free of its restraints and undergo some uncontrollable transformation, Qin Yu's eyes remained Ultimate calm, without the slightest hesitation. He flipped his palm, and the Book of Fate Law - The Realm Severing Origin Brush had already manifested a faint outline in the void.
He neither unfolded the pages nor wrote any words. Instead, using the Source Pen as a guide, his fingertips drew a severing path directly in the void, his voice low and resolute. "Final Order Interrogation - World Silent Judgment."
The instant the finger touched the ground, the entire space seemed to be forcibly dragged into some kind of "judgment." An invisible force of judgment converged from all directions, completely locking the divine corpse into an "abnormal existence." Immediately afterwards, a huge mark of silent judgment suddenly appeared in the void. The mark was not a physical entity, but a final judgment on "whether existence should continue to exist."
The force directly covered the female corpse, and in the instant that it touched her, all the remaining divine essence within the body was forcibly compressed and condensed. Then, under the judgment of that power, it abruptly reversed, collapsing and disintegrating from the inside out. The surface of her body was instantly covered with spiderweb-like cracks, and within these cracks was not flesh and blood.
Instead, the severed rules and broken cause and effect were frantically dissipating. Then, a deep, booming sound, as if from the depths of the world, exploded, and the entire divine corpse was completely "judged to termination" at this moment. It disintegrated inch by inch from the inside out, turning into countless tiny ashes and dust, which quickly dissipated in the void. Even the last trace of remaining divinity was forcibly suppressed and completely returned to Silent Void.
Qin Yu turned and retreated without hesitation!!! At the same time, the ancient tree demon completely collapsed.
All the roots danced wildly, but could no longer reconnect to the divine corpse. Its aura plummeted like a burst dam, and the once vibrant sea of flowers began to wither rapidly, one after another falling away. The entire ancient tree seemed to age ten thousand years in an instant.
It let out a silent roar—a cry of despair. It had lost its parasite, lost its life-sustaining power, and was heading towards true death, but it was unwilling to accept it.
Even if it means death, they will drag others down with them. In the next instant, the entire Shi Lin began to collapse. Countless roots burst out from the ground, tearing the earth apart. Space shattered, rocks exploded, and the entire area turned into a destructive storm.
The ancient tree demon used its last remaining strength to press all its remaining divine energy into its staff. Then it swung it down at Qin Yu; this attack was no longer a divine power.
Instead, it was "dying and dying". Boom--!!!! A beam of destructive light pierced the heavens and the earth, shattering everything in its path, tearing space into countless fractures, disrupting the flow of time, and lifting the earth hundreds of feet off the ground.
Qin Yu's pupils contracted, but instead of taking the hit head-on, he instantly attacked, "Three Forms of Fate Construction - Time Flow Reversal!" Boom! His figure blurred.
It was as if one had "detached" from the present moment, rewinding to a fleeting instant before destruction, using that sliver of space—
The moment he vanished, he reappeared hundreds of feet away, and the destructive beam of light completely blasted down the entire Shi Lin in this single blow.
Complete collapse! Rumble! The heavens and earth trembled, dust soared into the sky, space collapsed, and everything was reduced to destruction.
In those ruins, the ancient tree demon slowly stopped; its branches began to wither inch by inch, and all its flowers faded away.
The World-Burying Flower Staff also lost its luster, turning into a decaying wooden staff. It stood there like a dead ancient artifact.
Then it gradually weathered away and dissipated, returning to complete silence. Heaven and earth returned to deathly stillness, leaving only Qin Yu, holding the Xuan Mystic Void Non-Stillness Seal in his hand.
Within the Shi Lin, the aftershocks of destruction continued to spread slowly. The entire land was no longer what it used to be. The once towering stone pillars had all collapsed into ruins, and huge cracks stretched across the area like abysses. Dust churned, and the remaining fragments of space continued to twist and flicker unstablely, as if this area had been completely torn apart from the world order.
Qin Yu stood atop the ruins, his breath slightly heavy, his robes stained with blood, and the Mystic Void Non-Stillness Seal in his hand glowed faintly, making his gaze appear cold and profound.
He slowly raised his head and glanced at the spot where the Mystic Void Realm cultivator had fallen. It was now completely buried.
Countless boulders and fractured space pressed down, and not a trace of life could be heard. The attack that the man had delivered by burning away his very essence ultimately left no chance of survival.
Qin Yu remained silent for a moment, showing neither sorrow nor any other emotion, only letting out a soft breath. "Alas, what a pity," he said, his voice extremely soft, yet as if bidding farewell to a true cultivator.
The next instant, he no longer paused. With a single step, his figure transformed into a blur, hurtling towards another direction beyond the Shi Lin, quickly disappearing into the gradually falling ruins.
Meanwhile, outside the arena, above the huge plaza, a magnificent "Realm-Reflecting Disc" floated in the center of the void. Light and shadow flowed on it, and countless Fate Soul points twinkled like stars. Each point of light represented a cultivator who had entered this place.
At this moment, one of the light spots suddenly changed. The light spot, which was originally just an ordinary brightness of Realm Breaking Realm · Middle Stage Fate Soul, suddenly emitted a circle of deep, dark light. The light was stable and solid, as if some kind of "qualification" had been completely confirmed.
That was the mark of the Mystic Seal holder. The first Mystic Seal had been obtained. On the four high platforms above the square, four figures looked up almost simultaneously. They were the patriarchs of the Lineage.
Their auras were calm and unwavering, their gazes unfathomable. "... Realm Breaking Realm · Middle Stage?" One of them frowned slightly, his voice low. The other sneered, his gaze already fixed on the point of light. "Indeed unexpected. To be able to seize the first Mystic Seal in that region of the Endless Abyss... this person is no ordinary individual!!!"