Time and Karma Severed, the Sovereign of Silence Returns
The Eternal Annihilation Heavenly Emperor slowly sat cross-legged in the core area surrounded by causal breaks and remnants of time. His hands held the Seal of Karma, Time and Dimension and Dimensions before his chest, and his breathing became utterly still in an instant. The previously floating and chaotic causal threads around him seemed to have suddenly heard some ancient call, and began to slowly converge towards the jade seal before him.
The colors of heaven and earth also faded at this moment. The broken sky in the distance, the collapsed spiritual source underfoot, and the misaligned and overlapping remnants of time and space in mid-air were all gently covered by a layer of gray-white desolation, as if the whole world was being dragged back to a primordial moment deeper than silence.
Qin Yu at the front, with the Primordial Dao-Extinguishing True Emperor and the Void Finality Saint Emperor guarding his left and right respectively. Behind him, the clone he had personally created silently suppressed the end of the array. The energy from all four directions interlocked, sealing this ten-mile area into an Absolute Forbidden Domain, detached from external cause and effect, and isolated from all detection and interference. And at the very center of this forbidden zone, the mark of Annihilation light between the brows of the Eternal Annihilation Heavenly Emperor suddenly trembled slightly.
As the three engravings on the surface of the Seal of Karma, Time and Dimension lit up simultaneously, one was silver-white, one was golden-yellow, and one was pitch black. The three colors of light did not radiate outwards, but slowly rotated inside the jade seal, like three laws that had been dormant for several cosmic eras were biting each other, reviving, and echoing. In an instant, the scene at the center of the entire formation completely changed.
The once-ruined core of the Final Abyss was wiped from reality as if by an unseen hand, replaced by a boundless, greyish-white sea. This sea had no tides, no waves, no boundaries; it was more like the final, still surface left by the river at the end of all time after it sank. The sky Does Not Exist sun, moon, or stars; only a greyish-white pillar of light, descending from an unknowable end, pierced the heavens and earth. That pillar of light had no temperature, no radiance.
It simply rendered everything that witnessed its existence meaningless, as if "description" itself became an unworthy impurity before this light. The consciousness of the Eternal Annihilation Heavenly Emperor had been swept into that sea. He stood above the nine heavens, the starry river behind him fading, the realms beneath his feet rising and falling. He was still the supreme being who had once shattered the Mystic Void and attained the Dharma of Annihilation. But when his gaze truly fell upon that gray-white pillar of light...
A faint yet real tremor still flickered deep in his eyes, for he understood that all the paths he had walked and all the ways he had attained were merely approximations here, far from the true "end."
He took a step forward, and the void beneath his feet shattered as if countless panes of glass had simultaneously appeared. Behind him, the myriad realms emitted a low, drawn-out lament, not an attempt to obstruct him, but rather an instinctive mourning from a world about to touch the one destined for Annihilation. Then, he plunged into the sea. There were no ripples, no impact; the greyish-white seawater enveloped him, piercing directly through the nine layers of Annihilation halo surrounding him.
Those once-powerful, unyielding laws that commanded the utmost respect from all the heavens and myriad paths could not even withstand a single breath in this sea. Like snow falling into a deeper, colder abyss, they were assimilated before they could even melt. The perception of the Eternal Annihilation Heavenly Emperor began to plummet, plunging into a depth without up or down, without direction, without the length of time. His memories peeled away piece by piece from behind him: the mountain gate of his childhood, the aura of his sect, the feeling of slaying a powerful enemy for the first time, the starry sky he saw when he broke through, the magnificent scene of all beings bowing down on the day he became a Transcendent Emperor.
Everything crumbled into foam in the greyish-white seawater, the foam rising only to instantly lose its very existence. He didn't look back; he knew these things never truly belonged to him. They were merely layers of names the universe had lent him, and now the Annihilation Sea was taking them back, layer by layer. Until an unknown amount of time had passed, or perhaps no "time" at all, his feet finally touched the solid object.
It was a single, solidified black ice crystal formed from seawater that had never flowed. Completely black, without any texture or reflection, it possessed a weight greater than any physical object. And at the center of this ice crystal, a palace slowly grew from within. There were no bricks or tiles piled up, no trace of carving; it was part of the ice crystal itself, or rather, the entire ice crystal existed solely to support this palace. Dense runes on the pillars slowly grew outwards from the inside, each rune resembling a slumbering ancient dragon.
Lost in a long dream of endings and solidification, the palace gate was merely a vertical crack from which greyish-white mist slowly seeped. The moment it touched the face of the Eternal Annihilation Heavenly Emperor, he clearly felt his features begin to blur, even his facial features being questioned by the mist. It was as if, here, concepts like "appearance," "look," and "face" were superfluous. He walked step by step into the passageway beyond the crack.
Ninety-nine stone statues stood on both sides, each bearing the posture and obsession of the intruder before their death. An ancient god-king raised his arm as if to shatter the heavens; a chaotic ancient demon knelt and roared; a sage who controlled cause and effect still held his hands in a mudra; a Buddha who had transcended reincarnation even retained a final smile on his face. Yet, at this moment, they were merely gray-white stone shells, their cracks seeping with lingering resentment. When the Eternal Annihilation Heavenly Emperor passed through them...
Those empty eye sockets simultaneously and gently turned, all looking at him, without hostility or resentment, only a persuasive voice that transcended the long silence. But he did not stop. The stone door at the end of the passage was sealed by three engraved marks, silver-white, golden-yellow, and pitch-black intertwined, forming a slowly rotating, silent vortex. He raised his hand, condensing his own Dao of Annihilation into a ripple, and gently pressed his fingertip against the stone door. The vortex suddenly exploded, and three beams of light burst forth from it, condensing into three living beings in the void.
The first Guardian of Time manifested from the silvery white, its form constantly changing. Sometimes it resembled an inverted clock tower, sometimes a dragon's shadow, and sometimes a time layered image torn into hundreds of pieces. In its left hand, it held an hourglass, the sand flowing upstream, and in its right hand, it held a long sword made up of countless second hands, each of which rotated at a different speed. When it opened its mouth, there was no sound, only the crisp sound of billions of timelines snapping simultaneously echoing in the depths of space.
The second Judgment of Cause emerged from the golden light, its form resembling a giant cocoon entwined with countless threads of cause and effect. Countless eyes on its torso opened simultaneously, each reflecting the entire cause and effect of a being's birth and death. Its hands transformed into a pair of giant, transparent crystal scissors, one blade inscribed with "Origin" and the other with "Extinction." With each breath, the threads of cause and effect in the world vibrated like harp strings.
The third being Stillness of Dimension, emerged from the darkness. It had no limbs, no organs, no facial features, only a black sphere that was constantly collapsing inward and slowly rotating. Countless figures imprisoned within the sphere struggled eternally on its surface, yet even the struggle itself was separated by an insurmountable dimension. These three beings were the transformations of the three "final remnants" that the Annihilation Ancient Emperor had severed from himself, each wielding one-third of the Ancient Emperor's absolute power.
The Guardian of Time struck first, reversing the hourglass. Billions of grains of sand transformed into countless threads of time, enveloping the Eternal Annihilation Heavenly Emperor from all directions. Each grain of sand represented a past that had never occurred but could have. Once it touched him, it would pull him back into that endless current of fate, destroying his true "present." The Eternal Annihilation Heavenly Emperor did not retreat; the aura of Annihilation surrounding him spread silently like a tide.
All the incoming threads of time were pinned to the void. The threads did not shatter, but were frozen into a suspended time museum, forever stopped at the moment of "what could have been." Judgment of Cause followed closely, their giant shears intertwining, and countless causal threads surged forth like a raging torrent, locking onto his hands, his throat, his heart, and all his connections with heaven and earth, with all living beings, and with his own identity. They sought to cut him into a void with no origin, no Return Path, and no causal entanglements.
The Eternal Annihilation Heavenly Emperor closed his eyes, and the Great Dao of Annihilation within him flowed upwards against the current. Instead of severing the threads, he allowed cause and effect itself to lose its memory of "where it should go." The threads instantly loosened, slipping away like a swarm of lost snakes. Finally, the Stillness of Dimension approached silently. It wasn't pressure, nor killing intent, but a pure, utter alienation, as if an eternal, insurmountable rift separated it from all things in the world. Wherever it went, space shattered into thin fragments, time crumbled into ice shards, and cause and effect broke into spiderwebs. Any "connection" lost its meaning before it.
The Eternal Annihilation Heavenly Emperor took a step back for the first time. That step wasn't out of fear, but rather instinct telling him that once truly dragged into this core that "no dimension would tolerate," even he would never be able to return. But he didn't take a second step back. A vertical line split open between his brows, and the Eye of Annihilation slowly opened. There were no pupils in his eyes, only a gray-white deeper than the entire Annihilation Sea. He met the gaze of the Stillness of Dimension, not to launch an attack, but to directly allow the very act of "isolation" to accept Annihilation. The Stillness of Dimension was still spinning at first, but after one breath, two breaths, three breaths, the black sphere finally stopped.
A barely perceptible crack appeared on the surface. What emanated from the crack was not light, but a kind of "emptiness" never truly perceived by any being. The three remnant spirits simultaneously stopped and slowly retreated to the sides, revealing the stone door that had reappeared behind them. The silver-white, golden-yellow, and jet-black markings on the door now moved as if alive, finally coalescing in front of the door into a jade seal shaped like a black sundial. The sundial's surface had no graduations, only three grooves of varying depths.
It perfectly matched the Seal of Karma, Time and Dimension in the outside world. The Eternal Annihilation Heavenly Emperor slowly raised his hand, pressing his index finger onto the first groove. In an instant, his consciousness was pulled into a boundless river of time, in which countless "him"s existed—him as a child, his future self who had attained enlightenment, and his self who made different choices in countless parallel destinies—all the figures turned their heads simultaneously.
Each gazed upon him with different yet equally profound eyes. At the end of the river, a meaning beyond language descended: Do you know that to nail down time is to nail down yourself? The Eternal Annihilation Heavenly Emperor did not respond, but firmly traced the first groove with his fingertip. The silver-white engraving suddenly lit up, and all "him" in the river of time froze simultaneously, as if time had pressed a pause button.
Silvery light burst forth from the grooves, coiling around his arms, shoulders, and heart, finally condensing into a silvery vertical line on the left side of his brow, signifying the return of the Annihilation of Time. He didn't stop, pressing the second groove, his consciousness instantly drawn into an endless web of cause and effect, countless threads intertwining around him, each connecting to a person, an event, an identity, a layer of destiny.
The voice descended again. "Do you know that Sever Karma is severing oneself?" He still did not answer, but slowly pressed his fingertips down along the second groove. The golden engraving lit up, and the thickest causal lines—the core connections with heaven and earth, with the past, and with his identity as the "Eternal Annihilation Heavenly Emperor"—severed simultaneously. In that instant, he felt a profound and almost Emptiness isolation.
As if nothing in the entire world could name him, golden light climbed up his other arm and shoulder, condensing into a golden vertical mark on the right side of his brow, where the Annihilation of Karma returned to its rightful place. The third groove was the deepest and darkest; the moment his fingertips touched it, his consciousness was dragged into an absolute void where even "consciousness" could barely exist. There were no dimensions, no rules, no inside or outside, no up or down; even "I" slowly dissolved at the edge.
The final meaning descended once more, carrying a sigh deeper than a funeral bell: Do you know that sealing a dimension is sealing oneself? The Eternal Annihilation Heavenly Emperor's hand did not hesitate for a moment; his fingertips slowly traced the third groove. The pitch-black engraving suddenly lit up, and a stream of black light instantly engulfed him completely. In that deep darkness, he saw the phantom of the Annihilation Ancient Emperor, a being whose face had been Annihilation Sea of Annihilation, sitting cross-legged in the deepest part of the gray-white seabed, surrounded by countless permanently sealed remnants of life.
They cried out in silence, while the ancient emperor simply opened his eyes and met his gaze. In that gaze, there was no instruction, no revelation, only one final answer— Annihilation. It was not killing, not destroying, not wiping out all things, but rather letting everything remain forever frozen in that moment when "nothing had happened," without suffering, without joy, without beginning, without end, leaving only absolute and irreversible stillness.
The illusory figure nodded very slightly, then vanished like smoke. In the instant the darkness receded, the Eternal Annihilation Heavenly Emperor stood before the stone gate, three-colored light marks slowly converging at his brow, finally condensing into a very faint gray-white mark. The Seal of Karma, Time and Dimension and Dimension in his palm was also completely connected to his mind. The stone gate slowly opened at this moment. Behind the gate, there were no tomes, no treasure troves, only an endless gray-white void. Suspended in the void were two relics: a short blade formed from Time Splitting and a bead so black it almost devoured all senses. The short blade had no edge, yet every strand of timeline wrapped around it whispered, "The End."
That was the Blade of Severed Time and Karma; sealed within the bead were countless folded layers of dark dimensions and a struggling, imprisoned shadow— the Annihilation Dimension Pearl. The Eternal Annihilation Heavenly Emperor slowly raised his hand, and the two relics flew into his palm simultaneously. The instant they touched, everything about their uses, costs, taboos, and ultimate fate surged into his sea of consciousness like a torrent. He uttered not a sound, yet his aura underwent a fundamental transformation at that moment.
--That was not simply an improvement in cultivation, but the authority of "Ending". For the first time, it truly had a single wielder. On both sides of the passage, three remnant spirits knelt down at the same time, and the last bit of determination in the eyes of the ninety-nine intruder statues was extinguished at this moment. Their mission had ended, because a new guardian had been born.
Outside, the Eternal Annihilation Heavenly Emperor form at the center of the grand array suddenly trembled. The Seal of Karma, Time and Dimension hanging on his chest abruptly erupted with a three-colored light surge. The silver-white River of Time, the golden chain of causality, and the pitch-black dimensional abyss—three illusory figures—simultaneously rose from behind him, transforming into a colossal phenomenon that pierced through heaven and earth. Within the Logic and Karma Grand Formation, all the floating remnants of causality instantly fell silent.
The distorted timeline around them quickly stabilized, as if this region had finally regained its true master. The Primordial Dao-Extinguishing True Emperor and the Void Finality Saint Emperor simultaneously looked up, their anticipation transforming into shock and ecstasy. Qin Yu stood before them, his robes fluttering without wind, calmly gazing at the figure enveloped in tri-colored light in the center.
A faint ripple also appeared deep within his sea of consciousness. He knew very well that from this moment on, the Eternal Annihilation Heavenly Emperor was no longer just the Beast Emperor of the past, but the true successor to the Annihilation Ancient Emperor lineage's power of ending the era— the Eternal Silence Sovereign.