Deep within the Crystal Mountain Range, crystalline light shines like a sea.
Countless towering, transparent crystal peaks stand in a dense forest, their interiors constantly refracting billions of layers of distorted light, making the entire world seem to be immersed in a dream from which one can never awaken.
At that very moment, the three figures, moving in different directions, stopped abruptly almost simultaneously.
Chi Ninghua was originally stepping across a broken crystal bridge suspended in mid-air. The crystal bridge beneath her feet constantly reflected countless different versions of herself: some standing with swords, some covered in blood, some already fallen, and some looking down upon the heavens after reaching a higher realm.
But just as she was about to continue forward, the Soul Sound Talisman belonging to "Elder Ju Linruo" deep within her sea of consciousness suddenly vibrated.
The next instant, a very faint cracking sound rang out, Chi Ninghua, her pupils shrinking slightly.
Because the Soul Sound Talisman in her sea of consciousness... directly turned into countless gray-white fragments, and then completely dissipated.
There was no trace left behind, no lingering Fate Soul fluctuations, Does Not Exist even a last shred of distress message, as if that elder... had been directly erased from the world.
Chi Ninghua's face turned pale instantly. At the same time, on the other side of the Crystal Mountain Range...
Inside a mirror-like crystal forest suspended in the air, a True Annihilation Realm · Supreme elder of the Ju Lineage sat cross-legged in mid-air, with countless Fate Soul runes constantly spreading around him to resist the erosion of the surrounding mirror images.
Suddenly, the Soul Jade at his waist exploded violently, turning into powder.
The elder suddenly opened his eyes, a look of shock and anger instantly appearing in them. "Linruo?!" He shattered the crystal surface beneath his feet with a single step, and hundreds of mirror images around him collapsed at the same time.
Meanwhile, deep within a crystal valley shrouded in gray-white mist, the last elder of the Ju Lineage was exploring the mountain's veins with his Fate Soul when the Soul Sound Talisman in his sea of consciousness suddenly began to burn.
The flames were extremely cold, devoid of heat, yet they gradually burned the soul talisman to ashes, causing the elder's face to darken completely.
"His Fate Soul has been completely erased..." "Not even a remnant soul remained..." His voice turned cold for the first time.
The next instant... Boom!!! The True Annihilation Realm · Supreme suddenly erupted, and the crystals thousands of feet around it shattered simultaneously, with mirror light collapsing across the sky.
The elder clenched his fists tightly. "Damn it..." "Who?!" "Who on earth could erase Elder Linruo's Fate Soul so completely?!"
At that moment, another elder from the Mirror Crystal Forest stepped forward, his eyes blazing with killing intent.
"Elder Linruo..." "No matter who it is—" "I will make him pay for his crimes in blood!" The moment his voice fell, the phantom of his Fate Soul suddenly unfolded behind him.
The entire crystal forest began to tremble violently, and at this moment, Chi Ninghua on the broken bridge had completely stopped, her chest rising and falling slightly.
The Divine Sword of Silent Void resonated softly deep within her sea of consciousness, and for the first time, genuine unease surfaced in her eyes. "No..." "This shouldn't be..."
She spoke slowly and softly, "Elder Linruo is True Annihilation Realm · Supreme..." "Even if he encountered the Chaos Source Beast Dihuang, he certainly wouldn't be unable to escape."
"Could it be..." She suddenly remembered the Dao Source Demonic Spirit that had appeared in the ancient castle before, her pupils suddenly contracted, and the next moment...
She raised her hand, and two beams of soul light instantly flew out from her sleeves. The soul light transformed into Fate Soul messages and sped towards the direction where the other two elders were.
Chi Ninghua's expression turned completely serious. "No..." "We must regroup immediately."
"Something is hunting us in this Crystal Mountain Range." Meanwhile, far away in another crystal valley, a petite figure sat atop a giant crystal, swinging her small legs.
In the mirror in its arms, the image of Chi Ninghua slowly appeared, and the little elf squinted its eyes.
chuckled softly, "Finally starting to notice? Then... "That's where the real fun begins. I'm going to start now..."
The Ju Lineage elder had just withdrawn his Fate Soul probe and was preparing to head towards the direction where Chi Ninghua had transmitted her voice.
The crystal floor beneath his feet refracted layers of mirror-like light, while the surrounding mountains appeared and disappeared in the gray-white mist, the air eerily quiet.
Just as he was about to tear through space to leave, a childish voice suddenly rang out from behind.
"Hey--" "Are you looking for me?" The elder's pupils shrank, and he turned around instantly. The next moment, he saw...
Not far away in mid-air, a petite figure floated gently, her long, silvery-white hair cascading down.
Her small body was enveloped in a soft, mirror-like light. She was holding a small mirror in her arms, barefoot, and tilting her head to look at him with a sweet smile on her face.
But that smile sent a chill down the spine of this True Annihilation Realm · Supreme Elder, because the moment she smiled...
The reflections in all the surrounding crystals... also laughed simultaneously. Boom!!! The elder didn't hesitate at all.
His True Annihilation Realm · Supreme cultivation erupted instantly, a torrent of gray-white Fate Soul surged into the sky, and he clenched his right hand. A beam of crimson-gold divine light suddenly tore through the heavens and earth, and an ancient spear instantly appeared in his palm.
The spear was wrapped in densely packed Fate Soul patterns, and even the tip of the spear burned with pale golden flames of karma. It was clearly his natal divine weapon.
"No matter who you are, you're mine!!!" "Die!!!" Boom!!! The moment the gun was raised.
The surrounding space was pierced directly by the force of the spear, and thousands of feet of crystal shattered simultaneously, just as he was about to truly unleash his divine power.
The surrounding environment suddenly changed without warning, without any fluctuation, and without even any sense of spatial transformation.
The elder suddenly realized that the wind had disappeared, the air had disappeared, and the distant Crystal Mountain Range had vanished, replaced by...
It was an extremely peaceful gray-white world, with no boundary between heaven and earth, and countless dilapidated buildings floating in the distance.
Some resemble palaces, some resemble tombs, and some resemble places where he himself once lived.
What's even stranger is that those buildings... are all constantly changing; one moment they're still in reality.
In the next instant, it turned into a phantom, and reality and illusion began to overlap. The elder suddenly looked down and found that his body was in two states at the same time.
Part of it was real, while the other part was blurry and transparent like a mirror reflection; his expression finally changed.
"An illusion?" "No..." "That's not right." Because he realized he couldn't be sure if he had actually said those words aloud.
At the same time, the first layer of annihilation had begun. Boom!!! Countless attacks suddenly appeared all around.
There were spears, sword shadows, Fate Soul- binding chains, and his own supernatural powers; the attacks came simultaneously from all directions.
The problem is, he couldn't tell which ones were real. He shattered the blade light coming from his left with one shot, but the next moment...
Suddenly, a bloody hole exploded in his right shoulder. He turned around abruptly, only to find that there was no enemy at all, just the tip of his own spear... piercing through his shoulder.
"What?!" For the first time, a chill ran through the elder's heart, and the second wave began to descend, causing time around him to suddenly become disordered.
He saw his chest pierced, saw himself kneeling, saw his Fate Soul collapsing, but in the next instant, all those images vanished.
He couldn't even be sure whether the death he had just witnessed was in the future, in the past, or happening now; his nerves began to tighten.
With each attack, he couldn't be sure if it was real or fake.
With each defensive maneuver completed, he couldn't be sure if he had actually blocked anything.
His Fate Soul began to be consumed rapidly, and the third layer had already quietly invaded. He suddenly discovered that his memories... were becoming chaotic.
The images of his childhood cultivation at the Ju Lineage kept overlapping with the gray and white world he was in now, and he saw himself kneeling in front of the ancestral hall when he was young.
But in the next instant, the ancestral hall suddenly turned into a black graveyard, and even the faces of the parents began to gradually blur.
He suddenly froze. "Those memories..." "Are they really mine?" "Or..." "They were instilled into me by the formation?"
Cold sweat finally broke out on his forehead, and what was most terrifying was that the moment this thought crossed his mind, everything around him began to respond at the same time.
Countless voices echoed softly between heaven and earth, "Do you really exist?" "Are you sure you're not an illusion?" "How can you prove it..." "Are you real now?"
The elder's gaze finally began to waver, and at that very moment, in the distance, the little elf was sitting on a floating crystal, happily swinging its little feet.
The mirror in her arms reflected the elder's increasingly confused gaze, and she chuckled softly. "The fourth level..." "It's about to begin."