Before the atmosphere in the main hall had completely subsided, a figure slowly stepped in through the side door. His steps were unhurried, his robes swaying lightly like flowing clouds, his features gentle, and his aura so calm it was almost without sharp edges. He exuded an aura that made people unconsciously lower their guard.
He stood at the edge of the crowd, smiling slightly, as if he were just an ordinary cultivator who had accidentally stepped into this place. However, deep within his calm gaze, there was a layer of darkness that even heaven and earth could not touch, flowing silently. The Dao Source Demonic Spirit had already transformed into human form and descended here, but none of the more than one hundred cultivators present noticed it.
Almost simultaneously, an aura slowly approached from outside the palace gate. The aura was initially very faint, but in the next instant, it became as calm and still as the deep sea, pressing down on the entire space. Chi Ninghua stepped into the hall. With her clothes fluttering lightly, the fluctuations of the Eternal Silence Realm were not released ostentatiously, but they caused everyone's minds to tremble slightly, as if they dared not even let their own thoughts fluctuate easily.
Ju Wanning turned around almost instantly, her eyes lighting up, and an undisguised surprise appeared on her face. She quickly stepped forward, her voice clear and filled with genuine joy, "Senior Sister Ninghua, wow, Senior Sister, you've already entered the Eternal Silence Realm! That's amazing!"
These words were like a pebble thrown into a lake, instantly creating ripples throughout the hall. The oppressive atmosphere among the crowd was broken in an instant, and whispers surged like an undercurrent, "Eternal Silence Realm..." "She actually broke through..." "This generation of the Chi Lineage is likely to surpass the elders of other Lineage..." Those cultivators who were originally sitting in meditation opened their eyes, their gazes filled with awe and shock as they turned to Chi Ninghua, and even the air seemed to become subtly heavy.
Chi Ninghua smiled gently, her breath softening. She reached out and held Ju Wanning's shoulder, her gaze warm and approving. "Wanning, it's been a long time. You're doing well too, already at the True Annihilation Realm · Supreme." Her voice wasn't loud, but it naturally reached everyone's ears. There was no pressure, yet everyone involuntarily composed themselves.
The two stood on one side of the main hall, the atmosphere as gentle as spring water, a stark contrast to the tense atmosphere of competition around them. However, at this moment, two completely different auras descended simultaneously.
A chilling aura swept in from outside the palace gates. As the elders of the Shangguan Lineage entered the hall, his gaze swept over them as if scrutinizing prey, lingering for a moment on Chi Ninghua before slowly moving away.
Another aura, carrying a gloomy and sharp edge, arrived with the elder of the Hua Lineage. His arrival seemed to bring an invisible killing intent, and the atmosphere in the hall, which had just eased slightly, tightened again, with a subtle tension brewing in the shadows.
Just as everyone was lost in thought and undercurrents were swirling, the long-silent space in the center of the hall suddenly trembled slightly.
The tremor was extremely slight, yet it was as if some deep structure was being awakened. Immediately afterward, a perfectly regular crack slowly opened in the center of the ground. There was no darkness or light in the crack, only an undefined "emptiness". The next instant, a mysterious Rubik's Cube slowly rose from that "emptiness".
The Rubik's Cube, hovering in the void, was no more than a foot in size, yet the moment it appeared, it shifted the spatial structure of the entire hall. It was composed of countless transparent facades, each displaying a different scene: some resembled a slowly flowing galaxy, others resembled fragments of history being repeatedly reenacted, and still others resembled a future yet to come being constantly generated and dissipated.
The Rubik's Cube doesn't exist stably in any one position. It seems to appear in all positions at the same time, yet it's not in any position at all. Each face is slowly rotating, and with each rotation, the rules within the hall are rearranged, as if the entire space is "rewriting itself" with its changes.
Immediately afterwards, countless runes emerged from the surface of the Rubik's Cube.
Those runes transcend the constraints of a single tradition, their laws contradicting each other and their origins clashing, yet they coexist and coexist in the same domain.
Each rune facet carries a completely different primordial dimension: thoughts flow and evolve between the patterns, supernatural powers take shape and are constructed within the framework, cause and effect intertwine and weave a web in the intersection, the soul rises and falls in the mist, spiritual energy bursts and explodes between nodes, and dimensional barriers fold and overlap in the crevices;
Narratives of the world take shape within their underlying structure; observations of heaven and earth collapse into silence in contemplation; the ages replay themselves in the flow of time; existence originates from the beginning, giving birth to new life. Names and forms vanish Wuhen trace amidst the rhythm of the Dao; chaos and primordial form cycle endlessly; true meaning and the Great Dao layer upon layer.
All living things resonate with the origin of the world; ultimate destiny and absolute origin clash and devour each other, while the id and the true self stand silently in confrontation at the dimensional boundary.
Laws and order, fundamental essence, Primordial beginning, Ultimate destination, the ultimate principle of Return to One and the true meaning of nothingness—all the supreme origins manifest simultaneously at this moment, only to be reborn and annihilated in an instant.
The Rubik's Cube seemed not to be an object, but rather a materialized "cosmic structure." In the hall, all the cultivators slowed their breathing at the same moment, and no one spoke.
Even their thoughts were subconsciously restrained, because they all vaguely realized that this was not the beginning of an opportunity, but the entrance to a deeper one.
The atmosphere in the main hall remained slowly stagnant under the oppressive force of the multidimensional Rubik's Cube. All the cultivators' gazes were fixed on the cube, even their breathing unconsciously softened. In this near-stagnant silence, a very faint "dislocation" suddenly emanated from the cube's core.
The sound didn't belong to the category of sound; it was more like some structure being gently plucked in a higher dimension. The next instant, a facet in the center of the Rubik's Cube slowly caved inward, and then the entire core began to unfold inward, with layers of transparent interfaces staggering each other, as if the universe itself was peeling away its own shell.
In the deepest part of that stripped-away state, a "silence" appears, devoid of light, breath, and any perceptible attribute.
But at that very moment, everyone's gaze was locked onto it. A sword, silently suspended there, "Heavens... heavens..."
Suddenly, someone in the crowd lost their voice, the words trembling almost suffocatingly low as they were spoken, "That's... that's... the divine artifact, the Silent Void Sword..."
This sentence was like igniting a flame that had been suppressed to the Ultimate, and the entire hall instantly exploded. "Holy crap... it really is..." "Impossible... that kind of legendary thing..." "The Silent Void Sword... how could it be here..." The discussions were like a tide, but they were suppressed to a very low level under the invisible cover of the sword intent, and every word was filled with undisguised shock.
An elderly cultivator slowly stepped forward. His eyes held no greed, only a solemn reverence akin to pilgrimage. His voice was low and deliberate.
Echoing clearly in this space. "'Silence' is the essence, the stillness of Return to the Ruins; 'nothingness' is the form, the mother of all phenomena... Silent Void is not simply nothingness... It is the true destination after all existence and non-existence have been annihilated... The endpoint where even the concept of 'nothingness' cannot stand..."
As he spoke, the sword remained suspended within the core of the Rubik's Cube. It seemed to have no form, yet everyone could see that it had a form.
Qin Yu's gaze fell on the sword, and for a fleeting moment, his vision went "out of focus," because the very existence of that sword refused to be defined.
The outline of the sword, three feet seven inches long, appeared in his eyes, but then disintegrated on its own in the next moment. The sword's body seemed to be formed from "negative light," which was not darkness, but the blank space before darkness was born. Any light would avoid it before it even touched it.
Even the act of "seeing" cannot be established. The extremely thin gray line on the spine of the sword flows gently; it is a "Passing Mark," a mark that once existed but can no longer be traced back. It does not belong to the present, nor to the past; it is merely "the past."
At the edge of the sword, there is no sharpness, because sharpness implies contrast, and it rejects all contrast.
The gaze slowly moved downwards, and a strange structure, almost Wuhen, lingered around the sword hilt. Without any physical texture or illusory image, a Ming Kong was sculpted into the shape of a hilt.
If one insists on delving into its profound mysteries, a mysterious sense of dislocation will arise in one's mind. The sword originally had no physical form, and its place in the world was predetermined to remain, leaving only an ancient and boundless void.
Qin Yu's Fate Soul trembled slightly at this moment. Unbound and suppressed by external forces, a rare and primal resonance arose from the depths of his heart. In the deepest, most profound layers of Return to the Abyss's essence, a mysterious connection had already formed with this sword, resonating from afar.
Just as everyone was completely stunned by this amazing artifact, the Rubik's Cube moved—not just one side, but the entire structure changed simultaneously.
The first facade rotates outward, the second folds inward, and the third overlaps and shifts in space. The entire cube seems to be disassembled into countless dimensional fragments and then reassembled at a higher level. The boundaries between each facade begin to disappear, replaced by a bizarre structure that is "continuous but not connected".
Then all the facades lit up at the same time; it wasn't light, but the manifestation of "meaning".
Thoughts surge within one dimension, like countless consciousnesses born and annihilated; skills are constantly being built within the other.
Every construction collapses in an instant;
Cause and effect intertwine into a web on one side, only to be completely smoothed out in the next instant; soul, spiritual source, dimension, narrative, observation, history, the root of existence... countless concepts rotate, overlap, conflict, and devour each other on different sides.
The Rubik's Cube is no longer a three-dimensional object; it is like a microcosm of a whole "cosmic structure," with each face representing a fundamental level, and each rotation rearranging the relationships between these levels.
Space began to become unstable. The floor of the main hall was slightly displaced, the height of the sky was constantly changing, and the aura of the surrounding cultivators was being stretched, compressed, and reconstructed invisibly, as if all existence was being dragged into the calculation of a Rubik's Cube.
The Silent Void Sword remained suspended at the very center, unaffected by any changes, yet it controlled the ultimate outcome of all transformations. The Rubik's Cube was fully unfolded, and no one in the hall dared to make a move.