The spaces deep within the castle, which had previously maintained their own order, suddenly trembled violently in an instant. First, an extremely low and deep rumble emanated from one of the deep passages. The sound was not piercing, but it directly penetrated the stone walls, restrictions, array patterns, and spatial folds, like a burst of destruction that had been compressed to its Limit and then suddenly went out of control, exploding horizontally throughout the entire castle.
Qin Yu was standing deep within a grand hall, the ancient patterns on the giant pillars in front of him still slowly flowing. In that instant, the floor of the entire hall suddenly sank, the light patterns on the dome shook violently, and the spiritual energy in the air was shattered and scattered.
Even his Fate Soul trembled violently in that instant, as if he had been hit hard by something heavy. Waves surged in his sea of consciousness. He suddenly looked up, his eyes narrowed sharply, and he clearly sensed that the explosion that seemed to destroy each other was not an ordinary battle, but rather that someone had directly detonated an extreme force somewhere in the castle that was enough to tear apart space and the foundation of the magic array.
Not only Qin Yu, but almost all the cultivators in the entire castle who were searching for opportunities, breaking restrictions, and vying for magical treasures stopped at the same time. Someone was collecting spirit source crystals in a side hall, and the moment his palm touched the treasure, the entire side hall was shaken so badly that the walls cracked and the treasure flew out of his hand.
At the end of the passage, someone was engaged in a fierce battle. Their divine powers had barely clashed when the aftershocks were forcefully dispersed by this deeper explosion, forcing both to retreat. Hua Yuening abruptly stopped deep within an ancient corridor, her long hair slightly tossed, her eyes locked on the direction from which the explosion had originated. Chi Ninghua was tracking an aura in another secluded, winding passage when a crack suddenly appeared in the stone wall beneath her feet.
She froze, her brow furrowing instantly; even the Rogue Cultivator and sect experts who were still breaking formations, searching, and dodging restrictions all felt the terrifying tremors emanating from the depths of the ancient castle at that moment.
That power carried an extremely strong sense of mutual Annihilation, as if someone had burned away their very essence, even tearing apart the laws themselves. In that instant, the atmosphere inside the castle shifted from everyone fighting their own battles to a shared shock and vigilance towards the same direction.
After a brief silence, figures throughout the castle sprang into action almost simultaneously. The cultivators who had been vying for side opportunities turned and raced towards the source of the explosion without hesitation; several powerful figures locked in combat even disregarded their immediate opponents.
After being forcibly separated, they transformed into streaks of light and sped into the depths; the Hua Lineage, the Chi Lineage, and the other surviving cultivators all realized that the explosion likely concealed a true core opportunity, and the crowds originally scattered throughout different areas of the castle began to quickly converge.
A series of presences swiftly moved through the castle's crisscrossing corridors and secret passages, footsteps echoing on the stone steps, ancient patterns on the walls shimmering, and even the air itself seemed to be torn apart by the ripples of these figures.
The entire castle seemed to be completely awakened at that moment, and everyone pressed in the same direction, no one wanting to miss the real entrance revealed after the explosion.
Inside that passage, the aftershocks of the explosion continued to reverberate. The multiple layers of restrictions that had originally sealed off the golden lotus platform's magic array and the entrance to the secret passage had now been directly blasted through by that mutual destruction.
The outermost spatial chains snapped inch by inch, the light spheres suspended in mid-air exploded one after another, and the huge golden ring rotating around the lotus platform developed cracks in the tremors before shattering into large golden light fragments that scattered and fell in all directions;
The invisible mirror trembled violently, and the ever-flowing fragments of the future and reflections of the past within it were torn into countless pieces. Then, the entire mirror exploded from the center, and the remaining mirror light illuminated the entire dark passage.
The central lotus platform also completely lost its balance during the impact. A vertical crack appeared on the surface of the crimson crystal core, and the power sealed inside leaked out wildly, burning black cracks into the surrounding stone walls.
With a final, heavy roar, the entire restrictive magic array finally disintegrated completely. The wall that had been sealed in front of it caved in inch by inch amidst the violent tremors, and then cracked open from the center, revealing a secret passage hidden behind the magic array.
The secret passage was not wide, but it was extremely deep. The stone steps leading downwards were covered with ancient runes, and at the end, an extremely ancient and heavy aura slowly emerged, as if some kind of heritage that had been dormant for countless epochs had finally been forcibly awakened.
The remaining restrictions on both sides of the passage continued to extinguish, the light dimmed in segments, and shattered fragments of the magic array were scattered all over the ground. The entire area was filled with the Extinction Trace of the mutual destruction, while the true entrance had been completely opened.
In the corridor on the other side of the castle, the lingering light of runes slowly flowed along the walls. A figure swiftly emerged from the depths, her aura restrained yet her sharpness concealed. She stepped over the broken stone steps, her long hair billowing behind her without becoming disheveled. Her entire being was like a True Annihilation intent compressed to its Ultimate; even the remaining laws around her were slightly pushed aside as she moved.
The woman was none other than Ju Wanning of the Ju Lineage. The aura of the True Annihilation Realm · Peak was condensed into a single point within her body. The outward fluctuations were minimal, yet they created a subtle, unbalanced pressure throughout the passage. She did not stop, advancing in a straight line along the aftershocks of the mutual destruction. Wherever she passed, the cracks in the ground expanded on their own, and the forbidden patterns on the stone walls were forcibly suppressed. Her gaze remained fixed on the depths ahead, and her speed did not decrease in the slightest.
When she stepped into the area torn apart by the explosion, the entire passage was in a state of complete destruction. The stone walls were charred and cracked, the space was displaced, and residual energy was still silently churning. The air was filled with traces of a forcibly severed cause and effect. She paused half a step at the entrance, her gaze sweeping across the cracks in the ground and the void. She gently raised her right hand, her fingertip touching the air.
The remaining fragments of cause and effect around her were forcibly drawn out, and the broken trajectories were pieced together again before her eyes. The scene unfolded silently, with Shangguan Lingxiao standing in the center, surrounded by six people, forbidden divine powers overlapping, his Fate Soul burning out, the Primordial Limitless Pearl appearing, the void expanding, all power being dragged into the same point, and finally everything completely returning to silence in the silent collapse. Her pupils narrowed slightly, and the scene of cause and effect broke and dissipated at this moment. She already knew the ending.
Without pausing or showing any emotional fluctuation, she took another step, directly crossing the area of wreckage and stepping into the entrance of the blasted-open secret passage. The aura deep within the passage rippled slowly the moment she stepped in, and her figure was quickly swallowed up by the darkness.
Not long after, the space outside the passage trembled again, and a series of auras approached one after another. Hundreds of cultivators converged from different directions, stopping abruptly at the entrance, staring at the area that had been completely torn apart before them.
Everyone fell silent for a moment. The lingering aura of shared destiny in the air had not yet dissipated. Some people had solemn expressions, while others had slightly tense breathing. No one spoke; only the energy between them seemed to be clashing in the shadows.
The next instant, someone's gaze fell upon the fully opened secret passage. Taking the first step, a figure rushed inside, followed by a second, a third, and dozens more figures simultaneously. No one hesitated any longer.
They rushed into the secret passage, tearing through the space with waves of air as they moved at high speed. The remaining fragments of the magic array were trampled and scattered, and the entire area instantly went from deathly still to a frenzied surge, with everyone pressing deeper into the same direction.
Deep within the ancient castle, a colossal palace stretches across the folds of space. Its doors have long since crumbled, yet the interior still maintains an ancient and somber order. The dome rises immeasurably high, with dark gold and eerie blue patterns extending along its arched structure, as if some long-dormant structure is still slowly functioning. The surrounding pillars are as thick as mountains, each engraved with extremely complex primitive runes, which do not emit any light.
Yet, under close observation, it distorted slightly, as if rearranging itself. The ground was covered with a complete array structure, with nested rings, and a suspended crystal core at the center. Inside the crystal core, fragments of a constantly reconstructing structure were visible.
The array patterns extended outwards from its interior, completely enveloping the entire hall. This was not a single array, but a super array formed by the interweaving and overlapping of countless sub-arrays. The space within the array sometimes contracted and sometimes expanded, and even the flow of time shifted in different areas.
Each array exudes a completely different aura of law; some are as fiery as flames, some as cold as an abyss, some shimmer with pure azure light, and some are as still as a deathly starry sky. The array patterns are not fixed, but are constantly and slowly rotating, recombining, splitting, and then re-merging, as if they are deducing some extremely complex structure on their own. In the central area, an even larger main array floats up.
A blue beam of light shot straight up from the center of the array, piercing through the entire hall. Within the beam, countless symbols could be vaguely seen constantly being generated and annihilated. Several smaller arrays around it were connected to the center with energy beams of different colors, forming a stable yet potentially collapsing resonant structure. The entire space was completely occupied by this super array, and anyone who stepped into it would be incorporated into the array's operating system.
Qin Yu outside the formation, his gaze slowly sweeping from the outermost golden array ring to the central blue main array. He didn't step inside, his aura suppressed to an extremely low level. Within his sea of consciousness, the fluctuations of his Fate Soul made brief contact with the array structure time and again. He raised his hand and drew an extremely thin trajectory of destiny in the air. As soon as the trajectory reached the edge of the array patterns, that area immediately changed.
The previously smoothly functioning runes suddenly shifted and rearranged, instantly generating a new array. He immediately stopped, his gaze narrowing slightly as he shifted to another angle to observe again. His steps moved slowly around the array, sometimes stopping, sometimes turning to the side, sometimes looking up to observe the flow of symbols within the pillar of light above.
He would sometimes look down at the connecting nodes between the array rings on the ground, as if he were disassembling the entire array into his own understanding bit by bit. Every attempt was extremely restrained. He did not try to trigger it or break the deadlock. He was just constantly recording, deducing, and verifying. Gradually, a structural diagram that changed in sync with the array in front of him was forming in his Fate Soul.
Deep within the ancient castle's secret passages, the situation had completely spiraled out of control. Before the first wave of cultivators could even gain their footing, the entire passageway underwent a violent restructuring. The once straight path instantly split into dozens of staggered paths, each containing different levels of power.
Someone stepped into the chaotic realm, and the ground beneath their feet instantly transformed into a surging, grayish-white fluid, engulfing their legs. They tried to break free, but just as their inner power erupted, the entire chaotic structure abruptly contracted, crushing them along with their soul.
Someone rushed into the Hongmeng region, where a huge array of symbols appeared in the space. As the symbols spun at high speed, they released tearing power, and his protective divine power was cut into countless fragments in an instant, and his body directly disintegrated and dissipated.
In the deeper areas, the mechanisms of the Great Dao were activated one after another, and the array patterns embedded in the stone walls lit up. Golden lines intertwined into a net within the passage, and those who touched them were instantly dismantled into their most basic structural units, swallowed up by the array before even hitting the ground.
The space on the other side suddenly flipped, the direction of gravity completely reversed, and dozens of cultivators simultaneously lost their balance. The next moment, a crack appeared above, and a gigantic alien creature formed from primordial energy plummeted down.
Its body constantly changed, neither flesh nor energy. Each swing caused space to collapse. Several people joined forces to fight it, but their supernatural powers were crushed by the power of origin as soon as they were unleashed, and their bodies dissipated directly.
The temporal dimension also collapsed. In some areas, the flow velocity surged, and cultivators aged and decayed instantly after taking just one step. In other areas, everything froze completely, with movement halted in mid-air, unable to move forward or backward.
In the next instant, space compressed, crushing those frozen figures without leaving even a trace. In the distance, a Gate of Finality slowly opened, and from behind it surged a power of absolute Annihilation. Dozens of cultivators were swept into it, their existence instantly shattered and vanished, leaving not even a trace behind.
The entire secret passage had now transformed into an extremely chaotic superimposed field. Chaos, primordial chaos, true meaning, the Great Dao, origin, mechanisms, and the power of the end were all operating simultaneously. Space was constantly being reorganized and torn apart. The battles between cultivators and the killing intent of the environment itself were completely intertwined. Someone had just slain their opponent when suddenly a Source Severance cracked open beneath their feet, swallowing them whole.
Some tried to retreat, but their escape route was blocked by the sudden formation of an absolute structure behind them. In a short period of time, the number of cultivators pouring in decreased sharply, and the severity of the situation continued to rise. Those who were still able to advance had all stepped into a deeper, more dangerous area.