Waves surged on the Ink River, a towering inky shadow overlooking the six figures. Golden chains pierced through the void and the river's heart, tightening the rules of the entire space at this moment, like a net about to collapse being forcibly held to its Limit. The Cycle Lord Mo Yuan slowly raised his left hand, holding nothing of substance.
But the moment it was raised, a ball of gray-black light condensed. The ball of light was riddled with cracks, each crack collapsing inward and spreading outward, as if connecting countless unclosed void boundaries. An aura that could devour everything slowly emanated from it, and even the waters of the Ink River showed slight collapse around the ball of light.
The next instant, the Void Ink Leak was thrown out without any trajectory or pause.
The moment the ball of light left their hands, it split into countless fine, gray-black light arrows, raining down upon them. These arrows shot directly at every void rift and newly drawn pattern that the six had previously repaired. The instant the light arrows touched the rifts, the previously filled boundaries were abruptly torn open, and the cracks rapidly widened.
The ethereal energy erupted like a long-suppressed torrent, causing a noticeable collapse in space. The light arrows that had struck the regular patterns spread rapidly, like ink seeping into white paper. The once clear, regular lines blurred and disintegrated in an instant, and the newly formed structure was pulled back into an unstable state.
At the same time, the gray and black energy reversed and coiled back to the main body along the cracks in the rules. A dark halo appeared on the Dao foundation, the circulation in the meridians became intermittent, the power of the Ink River was forcibly disturbed, and the resonance that had already formed was torn apart at this moment.
At the very moment the rules collapsed, the void gaps on both sides of the Ink River suddenly came to life. Those fissures were no longer just static "wounds," but like open eyes of the abyss, with invisible tentacles extending from them. They had no form, yet formed an extremely clear pulling force the instant they touched the Fate Soul.
The system directly targets the "flaws" on the six individuals, and ethereal images appear around them. These images are not illusions, but rather true reflections of the inner workings of their Dao foundations. Areas in their cultivation that were not yet perfect, fleeting moments of hesitation, and foundations that were not yet fully stable are all magnified infinitely at this moment, becoming entry points for the invasion of ethereal power.
One of the cultivators' gazes suddenly froze. A moment of hesitation from a crucial decision resurfaced in his mind. That lingering fluctuation, which should have been concealed, was now stretched infinitely. The power of nothingness invaded directly through that point, instantly disrupting his aura, and causing the Ink River beneath his feet to tremble.
The other person quickly focused their mind the instant the illusory image appeared, treating it as a fleeting shadow. Their Fate Soul no longer responded, and the tentacles hovered around them, unable to find a true point of entry.
The two Ancient God Clan reacted almost simultaneously. One of them snorted coldly, and an extremely ancient layer of rules within his Fate Soul suddenly unfolded, completely sealing his Dao foundation. All past karma was suppressed into an untouchable place at that moment. Although the illusory form continued to appear, it could not connect with its core.
The tentacles roamed around him, yet found no place to penetrate. He took a step forward, letting the power of the Ink River wash over him without moving an inch. The other person directly activated the causality within his body, Return to One all the unstable parts of his Dao foundation. The ethereal form that had just emerged was immediately suppressed and dispersed.
Although his aura fluctuated briefly, it quickly returned to normal. The two of them almost didn't pause before completely dissolving the impact. Beneath that calm, their Fate Soul secretly intersected, and a hidden cause and effect was quietly planted, pointing directly at Qin Yu and the others.
They hadn't made a move yet, but they had already begun setting up. The two of them simultaneously raised their eyes, their gazes coldly fixed on what lay ahead. Their auras were restrained, yet they carried a distinct sense of oppression.
Su Qingyuan's aura was extremely stable at this moment. The instant the illusory images appeared, she fully activated the method Qin Yu had taught her. The Dao Rhyme Ink Mass slowly rotated in her dantian, guiding all the invading illusory power to the outer layer. She did not suppress those images, nor did she respond to any fluctuations within them.
Instead, she kept her own Dao foundation absolutely stable. Those ethereal tentacles lost their footing the moment they touched her, and could only hover outside her body. She drew out a wisp of the Ink River power from her hand and placed it directly on the torn crack. The ink slowly seeped in, closing the widened hole again. Under her guidance, the rules and patterns were redrawn, even more stable than before.
Her voice came softly, reaching the minds of the other two. "Don't resist, stabilize your Dao foundation, let the power of the Ink River bypass it, and then repair it."
The two cultivators did the same almost simultaneously. They quickly gathered their Fate Soul, no longer trying to resist the erosion of the void. Instead, they used the Dao Rhyme Ink Mass as the core, guiding all the invading power to flow through the outer layer, while simultaneously repairing the torn holes.
The ethereal form kept appearing around them, but they could never truly reach the core. Their movements gradually became smoother from the initial panic. The power of the Ink River began to be mobilized in their hands, the rules and patterns were reformed, and their aura quickly returned to stability.
Qin Yu at the forefront, his figure motionless the moment the Void Ink Leak erupted. Gray-black energy swirled around him, and the ink intent surged within his meridians, yet it failed to shake his core in the slightest. All the changes in his sea of consciousness had been completely absorbed. He did not attempt to resist that wave of impact, but instead followed the path of that power.
By reversing the flow and identifying the "breakpoints," the power of the Ink River formed a stable cycle within his body. With a wave of his hand, a wisp of ink intent was drawn out and directed towards the most violent crack. The void energy that had just surged out was immediately suppressed back in.
The regular patterns quickly took shape under his hands. The originally broken lines were not only repaired, but even became more complete, as if the blow had made the regular structure clearer.
His aura remained steady, and the ethereal image constantly appeared around him, yet it could never truly interfere. The images reflected in his Fate Soul were naturally returned to their original positions the moment they appeared, leaving no ripples. His Dao foundation did not leave any entrance for the ethereal, and all erosion lost its meaning the moment it touched it.
The impact of the second tribulation gradually weakened, and the tremors in the Ink River returned to normal.
Two members of the Ancient God Clan stood to one side, their gazes fixed on Qin Yu and Su Qingyuan. The coldness in their eyes deepened. One of them whispered, "Something's not right. How can they be so relaxed?" The other's gaze darkened, a subtle tremor running through his Fate Soul. "They've figured out the key." After a brief pause, his voice grew even lower, "We can't wait any longer."
Their gazes met briefly in the air without a word, yet the cause and effect had already taken shape.
Above the Ink River, a towering inky shadow pressed down on the entire void. Golden chains pierced through the river's heart and its fissures. The Ultimate manifestation of the Cycle Lord Mo Yuan resembled an ancient writer rising from the depths of reincarnation and nothingness, holding a massive ink brush horizontally in his palm. The moment the brush tip fell, the entire Samsara Ink River trembled.
The countless regular patterns on the river surface lit up simultaneously, like countless ancient Dao traces being awakened and rising from the bottom of the water. At this moment, only six figures remained in the Ink River. Two Ancient God Clan cultivators stood side by side, their auras as gloomy as lurking snakes. Su Qingyuan and two other cultivators were in the center of the Ink River, while Qin Yu stood at the very front.
The ink flowed endlessly beneath his feet, and the Dao Rhyme Ink Mass in his dantian had condensed into a deep, dark core. A faint yet stable primal luster shone through the blackness, like a drop of thick ink that could bear the first draft of the world, quietly suspended.
The next instant, the Cycle Lord Mo Yuan moved first. Boundless ink tides surged outwards from its body, transforming into a colossal, dark light shield that descended from the void, instantly enveloping the six people along with the entire section of the Ink River. Countless golden runes rapidly moved along the inner walls of the shield, like invisible blades repeatedly slicing through the depths of the ink. Thick, primordial ink adhered to the six people's bodies from all directions.
It seeped into the skin, Fate Soul, meridians, and foundation of the Dao, attempting to completely dye them into a part of the rules of the Ink River. At the same time, the figure of the Cycle Lord Mo Yuan suddenly disintegrated, and the Xuanmo Giant Brush also transformed into thousands of ink dots in the same breath, directly merging into the Samsara Ink River and the void on both banks. The entire space no longer had any concrete existence, only the Ink River itself flowing.
Golden, regular patterns of light spread across the river's surface, smoothing out all the repaired cracks and outlined lines of rules. The loopholes that Qin Yu and the others had stabilized were torn open again, and the vortex of reincarnation grew stronger at the bottom of the river. The Ink River was forcibly pulled back to its initial chaotic state, precisely because "Rules of Ink Staining - Assimilation and Annihilation" and "Mystic Void Ink Silence - Rules Return to Nothingness" were pressed down simultaneously.
Qin Yu sensed something was wrong at that moment. This was not a simple suppression, but an Order Adjudication of two layers of assimilation and nothingness. One layer was to dye the challengers into a drop of ink in the Ink River, and the other layer was to erase all traces of their previous refinement. If they only focused on stabilizing themselves, the Daoist principles would be slowly rewritten by the light shield. If they only focused on repairing the cracks, the power of nothingness would directly erase the new rules back to blankness.
His Fate Soul sank to the deepest depths in that instant, and a wisp of voice transmission entered Su Qingyuan's sea of consciousness first. "Senior Su, guard your heart. Do not try to fill in the entire river. The Ink River has its own blank spaces. Filling it in completely will only lead to stagnation and being devoured by it. Only seek out the key cracks, use the Dao Rhyme Ink Mass to draw the void into them, neutralize their sharpness, and then use the ink clumps as brushes to polish the flaws in the river. Go with the flow, do not go against it, and the rules will naturally acknowledge it."
Su Qingyuan barely hesitated; her Fate Soul essence immediately became still. She was inherently intelligent, and having already gleaned the key from Qin Yu, she quickly changed her mind. The Dao Rhyme Ink Mass trembled gently in her dantian, and an illogical primal fluctuation silently spread out. She no longer resisted the ink-colored light shield, but instead allowed the Ink River's primal source to flow along her meridians.
She gently guided that flowing force towards the first opening rift in the void. Under her guidance, the rift did not continue to expand; instead, it slowly closed up like an ancient page soaked in water. The golden, regular patterns of light swept over, but she dissolved them and returned them to the Ink River. Her figure became increasingly steady. Although the ink around her was thick, it could not penetrate the pure light that belonged to her from the depths of her Fate Soul.
At that very moment, the two Ancient God Clan cultivators simultaneously saw the opening. Clearly, they had planned this all along; with a flick of their Fate Soul, an extremely subtle ancient causal link had already formed deep within the Ink River. They did not choose to confront it head-on, but instead each used their clan's secret techniques to temporarily conceal their Dao traces within the cracks of the Ink River's rules.
One man's pupils suddenly darkened, and his Fate Soul essence shed a layer of illusory form like a snake shedding its skin. When the dark light shield descended, that illusory form was first stained and smoothed out, while his true Dao foundation had already slipped into the edge of the vortex of reincarnation in that instant, and then turned back to the main stream of the Ink River, actually managing to forcefully extricate himself from the gap between assimilation and nothingness;
The other was even more ruthless. He directly severed a segment of his own destiny and threw it into the void rift, letting that segment of destiny perish in the nothingness. In exchange, he caused a momentary shift in the rules of the Ink River, after which the Dao Rhyme Ink Mass quickly added a stroke along the shifted trajectory.
They briefly stabilized the cracks and lines of rules around them. Almost simultaneously, the two neutralized the two supernatural powers of Cycle Lord Mo Yuan. Then, their gazes turned cold, and the causal trap they had secretly laid earlier was finally activated.
That wasn't an ordinary ambush; rather, it was a manipulation of the Ink River's return to nothingness, simultaneously distorting the rules beneath the feet of two cultivators who hadn't yet fully stabilized their Dao Rhyme Ink Mass. The two had already begun compressing their own energy, searching for a crucial opening, as Su Qingyuan had just warned them, but the Ink River beneath their feet instantly split into two layers. One layer was the main current of reincarnation after the Cycle Lord Mo Yuan's reset.
The first layer was a causal trench planted in advance by the Ancient God Clan cultivators. The two layers of rules suddenly overlapped at the same position, directly tearing a thin crack in the Dao Rhyme Ink Mass of the two people. It was this crack that allowed the ink color of "Rules Ink Staining - Assimilation and Annihilation" to instantly penetrate into their dantian, and at the same time allowed the golden patterns of "Mystic Void Ink Silence - Rules Return to Nothingness" to fall on the crack that they had just repaired.
Before the two could even utter a cry of alarm, a violent collapse resounded from the depths of their Fate Soul. One person's meridians were completely blackened first, the blackness spreading along the texture of their flesh, and their body quickly became transparent, like a thin sheet of paper soaked in ink; the other person's newly formed rule-based bones were wiped away on the spot by the power of nothingness, and the cracks collapsed directly from the chest inward, and their Fate Soul was peeled away bit by bit.
They could have barely managed to retreat despite their severe injuries, but the causal chasm of the Ancient God Clan turned on them at this moment, locking down their last escape route. The three forces combined, and in just a breath, the two figures were completely torn apart in the middle of the Ink River, turning into two wisps of black smoke that sank to the bottom of the river Wuhen.
Su Qingyuan immediately sensed something was wrong. Her pupils turned cold, and her gaze swept over the two Ancient God Clan cultivators like knives. She understood that given their position and cultivation level, even if they couldn't withstand Cycle Lord Mo Yuan's dual divine abilities, they shouldn't have died so easily, unless someone had tampered with the causal chain beforehand.
But she had no time to investigate at the moment. The rules of the Ink River were still being reset layer by layer, and the golden light patterns were still smoothing the surface of the river. She had no choice but to suppress her anger and continue to circulate the Dao Rhyme Ink Mass according to the key points pointed out by Qin Yu.
She raised her hand and gently guided it into the Ink River. Several drops of dark, star-like light flew from her palm, landing on the three most crucial rifts on both banks. A counterintuitive principle quietly unfolded at these landing points, neither clashing with nor being swallowed by the Ink River. The rifts seemed to be held still by a gentle yet undeniable hand.
The edges slowly closed, and even the continuously pressing golden patterns slowed down around those few drops of ink light. Her figure remained stable in the center of the Ink River, the ink waves surged, her robes fluttered, but her eyes were fixed on the two Ancient God Clan cultivators, and the chill grew stronger.
The real breakthrough came in that instant of chaos and killing intent, when Qin Yu saw through it all. The Cycle Lord Mo Yuan was not the enemy; from beginning to end, it was merely an incarnation of the Water Realm's original Order Adjudication. It could not be killed by force, nor could it be crushed by supernatural powers, because it was the same entity as the Ink River, Reincarnation, and Nothingness.
To break free from this impasse, one must complete the final step. "To transform ink without melting it, to be moistened without being bound by it." The vortex of reincarnation will fully activate after the power of nothingness is unleashed, dragging all challengers to the edge of destiny's reflection. If, at that moment, one still struggles as an outsider, they will ultimately be erased by the Ink River as a foreign object. Only by truly integrating one's own Daoist essence into the core of the Ink River, becoming a part of its operational rules, can one succeed.
Yet, he remained true to himself, only then could he gain the approval of the Cycle Lord Mo Yuan for this refinement. The thought formed in Qin Yu's mind, and his body moved instantly. He didn't use any forceful suppression techniques, nor did he unleash any attacks intended to sever the Ink River. Instead, he first activated the "Cause and Effect Reshaping" technique within the * Void Source Truth Command *.
He gently intertwined the Dao Rhyme Ink Mass in his dantian with the main current of the Ink River beneath his feet, causing the ink ball to resonate with the flow of the entire river in an instant. Immediately afterward, he raised his finger and lowered it, casting the "Fate Cause Sealing Mirror - Logic Abyss Core" from the "Heavenly Cause Judgment Sequence - Six Severances Seal," but not to seal the enemy, but to seal himself.
He firmly nailed the unalterable Dao trace deep within his Fate Soul to its original point, preventing the source of the Ink River from touching that core. Then, he slowly parted the river's surface with his other hand; no sword appeared in his palm, but a faint, Silent Origin Sword intent emanated from his body.
It was the sword principle of "Silent Origin Stainless Sword - Causeless Disillusionment Sword" that he incorporated into the Ink River, not cutting existence, not cutting the river, but only cutting those superfluous, solidified, and stagnant "old causes" that made reincarnation rigid.
At that moment, the scene suddenly changed. The Ink River beneath Qin Yu's feet first shrank slightly inward, and then the entire river split into two layers along his palm. One layer continued to flow along its old course, while the other layer was gently lifted by him with the calligraphic intent of "Primordial Hongmeng: Great Luo Heavenly Chapter," as if a scroll of wordless heavenly chapters was being turned in the void. Every drop of ink in the Ink River became a punctuation mark that could be moistened and written.
He did not create entirely new rules, but simply made light strokes at the torn edges, using Dao Rhyme Ink Mass as ink and his own Daoist traces as meaning, to fill in several extremely concise rule lines on the river surface—one line to gather the stagnation of reincarnation, one line to calm the devouring of nothingness, and one line to guide the Ink River to moisten itself.
As soon as those lines appeared, the whirlpools that had been churning wildly at the bottom of the river began to slow down one after another, and the main stream of the Ink River no longer tried to indiscriminately swallow everything, but instead flowed naturally according to the rules that Qin Yu had added.
As the power of nothingness pressed down again, he activated the "Source-Cause Construct Heart" in that instant, reversing the force that was trying to pull everything back to the beginning and incorporating it into the Ink River's own causal cycle, so that it would no longer target the challenger, but return to its original purpose of repairing nothingness and stabilizing the river channel.
At this moment, the Ultimate manifestation of the Cycle Lord Mo Yuan finally experienced a true tremor. The ten-thousand-foot-tall ink shadow, along with the boundless waves, swayed simultaneously. The thousands of golden chains surrounding him stretched taut one after another, and then loosened one after another. The Xuanmo Giant Brush was raised high, but the rules and void energy condensed at the tip of the brush could no longer bring down a single stroke to erase it.
Qin Yu stepped towards the core of the Ink River. With each step, a serene inky light emanated from beneath his feet, gradually calming the river's turmoil and chaos. His Dao Rhyme Ink Mass spun more and more steadily in his dantian, eventually becoming more than just a protective barrier; it truly became part of the Ink River's core, with the power of reincarnation flowing past him.
The ethereal energy receded from his palm, and the source of the Ink River and his Dao traces reached a balance. It could both use his ink to embellish the river's course and not erase his own identity. Just as this balance was completely formed, the last bit of ink light from Qin Yu's fingertips fell towards the center of the river, as if writing the final draft on a long and chaotic ancient scroll. The entire Samsara Ink River suddenly became still.
Immediately afterwards, all the whirlpools at the bottom of the river extinguished simultaneously, and the void rifts on both banks closed inch by inch. The wounds that had been torn open were completely and firmly sealed. The ten-thousand-foot-tall figure of the Cycle Lord Mo Yuan began to disperse from above, and the golden chains transformed into large streams of light that disappeared into the riverbed. The Xuanmo Giant Brush disintegrated inch by inch into ink droplets, which flowed back into the now-smoothed riverbed.
Finally, even the boundless tide of ink slowly receded, and the Ink River itself began to undergo a dramatic change. The blackness gradually faded, the power of reincarnation subsided, and a vast expanse of clear water surged from the end of nothingness. The entire Water Realm was like an ancient scroll that had been washed clean, revealing itself once more to the light of day.
The Ink River that once pierced through the void vanished completely at this moment, leaving only a clear body of water lying between heaven and earth. A clear and stable Dao mark slowly emerged on the surface of the water. That mark was none other than the finishing touch that Qin Yu left in the core of the Ink River.
When everything had completely subsided, only four figures remained in the arena. Qin Yu before the clear water, his robes fluttering slightly, his aura as steady as ever; Su Qingyuan stood to his side and slightly behind, her sharp gaze unwavering, clearly having also seen through the insidious scheme of the two Ancient God Clan.
The two Ancient God Clan cultivators stood at a distance, their faces so gloomy they seemed to drip water. Although they had barely survived, they had witnessed Qin Yu single-handedly complete the Ultimate breakthrough of the entire Water Realm, even turning Cycle Lord Mo Yuan into nourishment and completely dissipating.
The Water Realm returned to its clear state, Samsara Ink River ceased to exist. In the end, only two members of the Ancient God Clan, Su Qingyuan, and Qin Yu truly passed through this page.