Hua Yuening slowly rose from the ground, her robes fluttering gently in the windless chamber. Her breathing remained erratic, and the lingering cracks deep within her Fate Soul ached faintly, yet she made no attempt to conceal them. She gazed at the silent figure before her, her eyes filled with Ultimate —shock, anger, and resentment—all of which, in an instant, settled into a near-calm clarity.
She spoke softly, her voice low and dry, "You must have already taken the Origin-Returning Annihilation Pill. Now your cultivation has reached the Eternal Silence Realm... I have nothing more to say."
She made no further attempts to explain or delay. After uttering those words, she appeared unusually decisive. Her fingers tightened slightly, and although her sword intent had not yet fully recovered, it was already quietly circulating within her body, as if preparing for the final battle.
Chi Ninghua did not respond; she simply looked at Hua Yuening, her gaze utterly still.
There was no overt display of murderous intent, no emotional fluctuations, not even a pause in judgment; it was as if she were facing not an enemy, but a cause and effect that had already ended.
The next instant, she raised her hand, without gathering any strength or preparing any move, and the light in the entire secret room quietly faded away at that moment.
It's not that it's extinguished, but that the concept of "light" is removed.
Chi Ninghua's pupils suddenly lost all color, turning into an Ultimate deep and obscure darkness. This kind of darkness was no ordinary ink color; it was the Ultimate end where all the fixed nature of things was dissolved, and even the concept of color could not continue.
Her existence solidified into an eternal anchor point, gently settling within this enclosed space.
A Formless, formless realm silently spread out from beneath her feet. No ripples surged, no energy trembled; only a slow, irreversible, overwhelming force gently unfolded. The entire world, in this silent permeation, slowly entered the prelude to its final chapter.
"Eternal Silence - Burial in the Void." The voice fell softly without echo or propagation; at that moment, everything in the secret chamber froze.
The air stopped moving, dust hung suspended in mid-air, and the textures on the stone wall remained half-eroded by time, as if time itself had been forcibly stopped before it could even finish passing.
Hua Yuening's pupils suddenly contracted. She was about to draw her sword when her fingers stopped on the hilt. It wasn't that she was being suppressed; it was that the action of "drawing the sword" was not allowed to continue.
The sword intent within her body, which had not yet fully awakened and flowed, suddenly came to a standstill deep within her meridians. It was as if a rushing river had completely frozen and stagnated at its source, its original flowing attributes being stripped away layer by layer. Her mind and thoughts abruptly broke, and her cognitive chains were severed one by one.
The very foundation upon which this act of thinking is laid has completely crumbled, and all mental activity has lost its anchor. Any thoughts of judgment, resistance, or struggle that arise in the mind abruptly cease at their nascent stage. Like a chess piece suspended in mid-air, it has just been raised before being permanently fixed in place, with no chance of being moved again.
Chi Ninghua was the only one who could move in this dark domain. She took a step forward, and although the space did not respond, her foot had already landed.
She walked toward Hua Yuening, as if walking in a region completely detached from law and reason, where all the structures that originally supported the operation of the world had lost their meaning at this moment.
The dark domain slowly tightened, like a perfect cocoon, enveloping Hua Yuening within it.
Her figure was frozen in the moment before she took a single step, a corner of her robe slightly lifted, her eyes still holding the last trace of struggle and unwillingness, yet unable to evolve further. Her existence was locked on an absolute scale, with no past to revisit, no future to unfold, and even the word "now" gradually losing its definition.
Time has ceased to flow, cause and effect have ceased to continue, she is still "there," but no longer belongs to any sequence.
After a brief moment, Chi Ninghua gently closed her fingers, and the black domain trembled slightly but did not explode.
There was no destruction, only an extremely slow disintegration that began to occur.
Hua Yuening's outline began to weather from the edges, like a stone statue eroded by endless years, peeling away bit by bit. The peeled-off parts did not fall, but lost their right to "exist" the moment they left the body, turning into the most primitive points of Annihilation light, and quietly dissipating.
Her body wasn't broken, but it was gradually diminishing; her consciousness wasn't collapsing, but it was gradually disappearing.
Finally, when the dark domain completely shrank to a single point, Hua Yuening was no longer within it.
There was no corpse, no lingering soul, no cause and effect; even the trace of "she once stood here" was erased.
The darkness dissipated, the secret room returned to normal, the air began to flow again, the dust settled, and the light reappeared, as if nothing had ever happened.
Only Chi Ninghua stood there quietly. She slowly withdrew her hand, her eyes devoid of any emotion, as if what she had just erased was merely a trace that should never have continued in the first place.
Chi Ninghua stood silently in the once-silent secret chamber, the last ripple in her eyes disappearing along with Hua Yuening's vanishing into the depths of her mind. Unwilling to linger here any longer, she gently flicked her sleeve, her figure transforming into a faint, almost Wuhen shadow, instantly disappearing into the deep passage.
As she moved forward, her aura receded and subsided, the immense power of the Eternal Silence Realm completely sealed away, no longer leaking out in the slightest. She deliberately concealed her presence, quietly gathering all traces of her existence. The grudges and entanglements behind her had already settled, there was no need to linger and look back, nor to feel any attachment.
Within the ancient castle, only the supreme opportunities and unpredictable dangers hidden deep within were worth her continued exploration. Her figure darted swiftly through the winding secret passages, each step smoothing out the surrounding void, concealing all traces of her presence, making them impossible to trace.
Finally, the figure gradually faded into the distance, completely dissolving and disappearing into another unknown region deep within the ancient castle.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the ancient castle, a magnificent and spacious hall slowly emerged from the darkness. Its ceiling was immeasurably high, seemingly piercing the void. Ancient and fragmented Daoist patterns were carved into the surrounding stone walls, each line carrying an imposing aura untouched by time. The floor was constructed from single, dark golden stone slabs pieced together.
A faint yet extremely pure primordial aura flowed within it. The entire hall was without lights, yet a cold light emanating from the depths of space flowed slowly, making everything here seem both real and distant, as if this place did not entirely belong to this current dimension of time and space.
Over a hundred cultivators had already gathered inside the hall.
Some sat cross-legged, eyes closed, meditating; others whispered amongst themselves, their gazes warily scanning their surroundings. Some stood at the edge of the hall, staring at the not-yet-fully-revealed area in the center, their expressions a complex mix of greed and apprehension.
The auras of the Mystic Void Realm to the Ultimate True Annihilation Realm · Advanced Stage intertwined and overlapped here. Every fluctuation was deliberately suppressed, yet it still formed an invisible heavy pressure, making the entire space seem as if it might collapse at any moment.
In this tense space, a figure quietly stepped in— Qin Yu.
His steps were steady, without any deliberate attempt to conceal them, yet they didn't attract much attention. This was because he had already changed his appearance; his face was ordinary, his aura restrained, and he looked like a cultivator at the True Annihilation Realm · Intermediate Stage, inconspicuous compared to the powerful figures around him. However, beneath that ordinary appearance, the depths of his Fate Soul were as still as an abyss, all his aura suppressed to the Ultimate, leaving no flaws. The moment he entered the hall, his gaze swept across the entire space, taking in the aura fluctuations of every cultivator, while he silently walked deeper into the hall.
Just as his gaze swept across the crowd, a figure came into his perception: Ju Wanning.
She stood quietly to one side of the main hall, her aura Steady as a Mountain. There was no deliberate exertion of pressure emanating from her, yet she subtly resonated with the entire space. Her cultivation had reached the True Annihilation Realm · Supreme.
She seemed to maintain an extremely precise balance with the most subtle Daoist rhythm in the world. Her eyes were slightly lowered, as if she was pondering or sensing some deeper fluctuation. An invisible gap naturally formed between her and the surrounding cultivators. No one took the initiative to approach, but no one dared to ignore her presence.
Qin Yu's gaze lingered on her for a moment before shifting away. Although he and Ju Wanning had known each other before, he absolutely could not reveal himself rashly at this moment.
He knew very well that most of the cultivators here were connected to Hua Jingmeng's lineage. Once their identities were exposed, it would inevitably lead to unnecessary trouble. This hall in front of him clearly hid a higher level of opportunity. Rather than causing trouble here, it would be better to lie low and observe the situation.
He slowly stopped and stood in the crowd, his aura completely blending into the surroundings. No one noticed that this seemingly ordinary cultivator was quietly observing the structure and flow of energy in the entire hall in an almost calm manner, as if waiting for a crucial moment to arrive.
Inside the main hall, the silence was deepening, and something yet to be revealed was slowly awakening.