Ju Wanning's gaze lingered for a moment among the twelve faces, finally settling on the eleventh face—chaos—which had not yet been touched by most people.
She slowly concealed her aura, and the perfected True Annihilation Realm energy within her body returned to Ji Ran, suppressing all the scattered fluctuations around her into the depths of her origin. Without looking back or uttering a word, she lightly stepped forward, walking directly towards that hazy, still-formed realm.
That side is not stable.
The Face of Chaos has no clear boundaries, no fixed outline; it is like a mass of existence yet to be recognized by the universe, slowly churning in the void, with layers of gray, dark gold, colorless, and even imperceptible textures overlapping and intertwining within it.
Every flow is generating, and negating itself the instant it is generated. Space is constantly collapsing and expanding within it. The concept of time exists at times and is sometimes erased. Even the basic understanding of "direction" cannot be established.
The moment Ju Wanning stepped into this realm, her figure suddenly became shrouded in a hazy, otherworldly aura. It wasn't that her form crumbled or split; rather, she returned to a primordial state, untouched by the constraints of time and physical form.
All the myriad textures, spiritual veins, and traces of cause and effect have transformed into scattered primordial wisps, hovering in the void, maintaining an authentic form that has not been solidified or unified.
Her existence was pulled into the most fundamental logic of creation in chaos. Her physical body, Fate Soul, and consciousness were simultaneously dismantled into countless "possibilities." These possibilities frantically generated new structures around her, only to collapse completely in the next instant, as if the entire universe was attempting to complete an evolution from nothing to something within her body.
Before her footsteps had even landed, the "ground" beneath her feet had vanished, replaced by a sinking void. She tried to gather her energy to stabilize herself, but found that the act of "gathering" itself was being negated by chaos, and her power collapsed before it could even take shape.
Her consciousness was instantly stretched to its Limit. There were no enemies, no attacks, only "rules yet to be born," a kind of oppression more terrifying than any supernatural power—because there was nothing to oppose it.
Outside the main hall, all the cultivators' eyes were focused on her at this moment; no one spoke, and no one took a step forward.
They knew that this wasn't something to be tried, but something to be "endured." In just a few breaths, Ju Wanning's breathing began to become erratic.
Her Fate Soul was constantly being dismantled and reassembled in the chaos. Even though she had stabilized herself to the Ultimate, she still could not withstand the impact from the origin layer. For the first time, her eyes showed violent fluctuations, and the laws within her body began to show signs of breaking.
The next instant, an invisible force suddenly erupted, and she was directly "sprung" out.
Her figure flew backward from the Face of Chaos, tracing a very faint path in the air before crashing back into the main hall. She staggered back several steps before regaining her balance, a trickle of blood slowly oozing from the corner of her lips. Although her aura had not collapsed, she was clearly shaken.
She didn't look at that side again, because she understood that it wasn't the source she could bear at that moment. A very low gasp quietly spread through the crowd.
Even someone like Ju Wanning couldn't stay there for even a moment; the Face of Chaos now completely deserted, and no one dared to set foot there easily anymore.
At that very moment, another realm suddenly changed, Face of Skills, Chi Ninghua's figure still stood.
Her eyes slowly opened, and in that instant, the entire Skill Domain trembled violently.
All the surging torrents of magical techniques paused for a moment upon touching her body. Instead of colliding and tearing each other in a disorderly manner, they slowly returned to order and rearranged themselves, following the hidden trajectory she had led.
Runes, like a galaxy of stars, swirled and danced around her, adorned with delicate light, no longer chaotic. The generation process and operational logic of each divine power automatically unfolded before her, then condensed and returned to their simplest form according to the fundamental laws.
There was no superfluous redundancy or complexity; it was as if the core essence of all supernatural powers in the world was actively approaching her, quietly returning to her, and submitting to her dominion, returning to the purest and most authentic form.
She didn't make a move, but all the spells responded to her.
An Ultimate complex offensive technique shrank into a single, fundamental trajectory as her gaze swept over it; a defensive structure was dismantled and reassembled with each breath, becoming even purer; countless divine abilities intertwined around her, yet there was no longer a single conflict.
Her aura underwent a qualitative change at this moment—not just an improvement, but a "transparency"—and the entire Face of Skills suddenly contracted inward.
As if acknowledging her understanding, an extremely subtle fluctuation emanated from the core of the Rubik's Cube.
The Silent Void Sword trembled slightly, the vibration extremely subtle yet crystal clear. An indefinable "sensation" flashed between the sword and Chi Ninghua.
There was no light, no sound, only a fleeting moment, as if the sword had "glanced at her," and then everything returned to silence.
The Silent Void Sword returned to stillness, offering no further response or choice. Chi Ninghua slowly emerged from the Face of Skills.
Her footsteps landed back in the main hall, and the surrounding cultivators involuntarily took a half step back, for they vaguely sensed something.
She was completely different from before she entered, while the sword remained suspended there, waiting silently.
Inside the main hall, the radiance of the ten magic arrays simultaneously showed signs of disorder. The originally orderly primordial structure began to vibrate violently, and figures were successively blasted out from different realms. Some staggered and fell to their knees, their foreheads covered in cold sweat, their chests heaving violently.
As if they had just struggled back from the abyss; some people's breath broke the moment they landed, and spiderweb-like cracks appeared on the phantom of their Fate Soul. They froze on the spot, with lingering fear in their eyes.
Some people slowly regained their footing, exhaled a long breath, and looked at the side they had just left with complicated expressions. A self-deprecating bitter smile appeared on their lips, as if they understood something, or as if they had grasped nothing at all. Finally, they turned and left.
Before the soul, a cultivator was pale, as if all his energy had been drained away, his fingers still trembling slightly. He slowly raised his head, but could not utter a complete sentence, as if the structure of language had not yet been pieced back together in his mind;
One who emerged from the Face of Karma stood there blankly for a long time, then suddenly laughed, then fell silent. The laughter was hollow, as if mocking everything he had once firmly believed in. The one who retreated from the Face of Dimensions had torn robes and a disordered aura.
Occasionally, distorted afterimages appeared in the surrounding space, as if his existence had not yet fully returned to this layer of reality.
Some people shook their heads slightly, sighed, and turned to leave the area of the magic circle. In their sighs, there was no resentment, but rather a sense of relief—as if they had seen the boundary of their own Limit.
The atmosphere in the entire hall became even more solemn at this moment, and no one regarded these interfaces as mere opportunities.
They are the origin, and the origin cannot be touched recklessly. Amidst this oppressive atmosphere, Qin Yu slowly raised his gaze.
His gaze pierced through the still-unresolved aftershocks of the ten sides ahead, past the undefined structure of the Face of Chaos that was still slowly churning, and finally settled on the deepest part—the twelfth side.
Hongmeng. That side is not dazzling. There is not even obvious light. There is an extremely subtle "outline".
The chaos had not completely dissipated, yet the first trace of order was faintly emerging within it. The trace was extremely faint, as if some undefined "rule" had just begun to be born. Space had no fixed form within it, but it had begun to have direction. Time did not flow, but it seemed to have the tendency to "flow soon".
Like the moment before the universe was born, when nothing existed yet, the question of how it would exist was already decided.
It was a singularity that simultaneously possessed chaos and completeness. Qin Yu's steps moved forward gently, without pausing.
This action caught everyone's attention, and the entire hall instantly rippled. "What... is that person doing?" "Wait—he's looking at... the Hongmeng Face?"
"What a joke!" All eyes instantly focused on them, a mixture of surprise, shock, mockery, and even a hint of awe all at the same time.
"Mystic Void Realm?" "A mere Profound Hongmeng Origin cultivator... dares to touch the Primordial Mystic Void Realm Origin?" "This is courting death!"
Someone sneered, their tone clearly disdainful, "Even in the Chaos Face, no one dares to linger, yet he thinks he can just jump straight over there?"
Some people looked grave, their gazes fixed on Qin Yu, "Anyone who dares to take this step is either insane, or..."
He didn't finish his sentence, nor did he continue, because he was unwilling to easily admit that possibility.
Someone else whispered, "If he can truly gain a foothold among them... then it's beyond what realms can measure." Taunts and silence intertwined, and the air in the hall seemed to freeze.
At that very moment, Chi Ninghua's gaze suddenly sharpened; she recognized that aura.
Even though Qin Yu had changed his appearance, his Ultimate restrained yet subtly emanating aura still couldn't escape her perception.
Her divine sense instantly transmitted a voice – "Fellow Daoist Qin???" Qin Yu did not stop walking, but only slightly turned his head. In that instant, his eyes briefly met hers.
Chi Ninghua's voice became urgent, "Stop! That's the Hongmeng Origin... Your current cultivation level simply can't withstand it!" Her tone was filled with an extremely rare tension.
That wasn't dissuasion, it was judgment. Qin Yu's lips curled slightly, a faint smile. "It's alright," his calm voice entered her mind. "I know what I'm doing."
Chi Ninghua was slightly taken aback. She wanted to say something more, but stopped at that moment because she saw that Qin Yu was already standing in Plane of Hongmeng.
That side began to respond, without an explosion of light or a descending pressure. Only, that still-forming outline slowly "unfolded."
At this moment, space seemed to have its outer shell peeled away, revealing the most basic "undefined structure." Countless subtle, imperceptible lines of order emerged in the void and then quickly disappeared, as if the world was constantly trying to write its first rule for itself.
A faint "initial fluctuation" spreads within it; the fluctuation has no direction, yet it influences all possibilities of direction.
The entire hall fell into Ultimate silence at that moment, all eyes fixed on Qin Yu, who looked away from everyone else.
With one step, his figure disappeared into the Plane of Hongmeng. In the next instant, he was completely swallowed up by that "existence that has not yet existed".