True Annihilation's First Level: Forgetting the Breakthrough

The night in the Crystal Mountain Range remained chaotic and oppressive. Between the collapsed mountain ranges, a gray-white aura of destruction surged continuously. The once powerful fluctuations of Fate Soul that traversed the heavens and earth had long since turned into a deathly silence.

Chi Ninghua did not stop. She traversed the mountains like a madwoman, searching with her divine sense again and again. Her once clear and calm eyes were now red from crying, her long hair was disheveled, and even her sleeves were covered with bloodstains and dust left from her previous journey.

She simply refused to accept the fact that Qin Yu had perished. Boom! A silver-white sword light suddenly flashed across the sky above the lake, Chi Ninghua abruptly stopped.

Because in the middle of that huge lake below, she sensed a familiar aura of the Wuji Realm, and in the next instant, she plunged down without hesitation.

The ground suddenly exploded, and the Southern Sea Annihilation Turtle, which was originally basking in the sun in the middle of the lake, was so frightened by the sudden appearance of the figure that its entire shell trembled violently.

"My God!!" The Southern Sea Annihilation Turtle shrank its neck sharply, its eyes almost popping out of their sockets. "You scared me to death! Little girl, what are you doing?!"

As soon as it looked up, it saw Chi Ninghua standing by the lake, staring intently at it. Her once exquisitely beautiful and aloof face now bore obvious signs of crying; her eyes were red-rimmed, and there were even traces of undried tears at the corners of her eyes. Her chest rose and fell slightly, clearly indicating that she had been searching for a long time.

Southern Sea Annihilation Turtle originally wanted to get angry, but seeing her appearance, he swallowed back the words that were on the tip of his tongue.

Chi Ninghua quickly calmed herself down. She first used her divine sense to examine the Southern Sea Annihilation Turtle for a moment, and after confirming that the other party had no ill intentions, she immediately clasped her hands together and bowed slightly.

"Senior," her voice was still slightly hoarse, "May I ask... have you seen this person before?" She raised her hand and waved it gently, and a ray of spiritual light quickly condensed in mid-air.

Qin Yu's image slowly appeared, and the Southern Sea Annihilation Turtle's previously lazy eyes lit up the moment it saw Qin Yu's phantom.

"Eh?" It glared with its turtle eyes. "Brother Qin?!" Upon hearing this, Chi Ninghua froze instantly. The next moment, she took a step forward, her excitement almost uncontrollable.

"Senior!" Her voice trembled. "You've seen him?! Where is he now?! Is he injured?!" Southern Sea Annihilation Turtle first carefully examined Chi Ninghua for a moment, then suddenly smiled meaningfully.

"You're Brother Qin's friend?" Chi Ninghua gently bit her lip, her eyes filled with complex emotions, but she still nodded. "Yes."

The Southern Sea Annihilation Turtle burst into laughter. "Don't worry, little girl, Brother Qin is not in danger."

It slowly shook its head, the ancient patterns on its shell gleaming with a faint, eerie light. "That kid's got a really tough life, even I admire him. He's probably breaking through somewhere hidden right now."

Chi Ninghua was suddenly jolted. "Breakthrough?!" The Southern Sea Annihilation Turtle nodded, its claws gently patting the lake surface. "Yes, Brother Qin and I are destined to meet. I have bestowed upon him an opportunity and a supreme treasure."

As it said this, its tone clearly carried a hint of admiration, "That kid's talent is truly terrifying. I reckon he's already starting to break through to the True Annihilation Realm."

Upon hearing the words "True Annihilation Realm," Chi Ninghua's eyes immediately filled with profound shock. The breakthrough from the True Annihilation Mystic Void to Supreme Annihilation Realm was a truly significant leap in the entire Eternal Nonexistence Limitless Domain.

Once successful, Qin Yu would truly enter the ranks of top experts. Thinking of this, her heart, which had been hanging in suspense all along, finally slowly calmed down, and even her eyes reddened slightly again.

She lowered her head gently and exhaled a long breath. He's still alive... He's really still alive...

Seeing her finally relax, the Southern Sea Annihilation Turtle couldn't help but shake its head with a smile. "Go."

It stretched out its tortoise claw and pointed in the direction of the outer lake, "He most likely left towards the outer lake, but I don't know exactly where."

Chi Ninghua immediately clasped her hands respectfully. "Thank you for informing me, senior!" As soon as she finished speaking, she transformed into a streak of silver-white sword light and soared into the sky once again.

This time, however, the despair in her eyes had completely vanished, replaced by a rekindled light.

The Southern Sea Annihilation Turtle gazed in the direction she left, unable to help but click its tongue in admiration. "Brother Qin, your fortune..." "Truly remarkable." Meanwhile, on the other side...

Inside the cave hidden deep in the mountains, Qin Yu was already sitting cross-legged at the deepest part of the cave. The entire cave was like an ancient secret realm forgotten by heaven and earth. The dark blue lake water flowed slowly, and countless crystal stalactites hung from the cave ceiling. Strands of pale golden light kept falling from the depths of the rock walls, like fragments of a galaxy.

The air was filled with an ancient aura that was close to the "Primordial Origin," and Qin Yu was sitting quietly on a black rock in the center of the lake.

The Primordial Profound Nothingness True Annihilation Tribulation Disc was floating in front of him. The entire calamity disc slowly rotated, and the pure black abyss on the disc's surface was constantly collapsing inward.

Qin Yu only stared for a moment, but he felt as if his consciousness was being slowly pulled into it. Inside his sea of consciousness, Xiao Yue's expression was more solemn than ever before.

"Little Qinzi..." she whispered, "This thing is really dangerous." "The True Annihilation Realm isn't a breakthrough in power, but rather the complete Annihilation of 'cognition'."

"If you fail, you might lose your way completely." Qin Yu slowly closed his eyes, his reflection shimmering in the lake, his breathing gradually becoming steady.

"Yes, I understand." The next moment, Qin Yu raised his hand and directly injected a wisp of his Fate Soul essence into the True Annihilation Tribulation Disc.

Boom! The entire cave suddenly trembled violently! The once calm lake was suddenly engulfed in towering waves. Countless stalactites above the cave collapsed and crumbled.

At this moment, the True Annihilation Tribulation Disc fully shone with a ghostly light. The outermost silver-white light patterns on the disc collapsed rapidly, and then the "tremor of nothingness" in the middle layer suddenly exploded. The next instant—the entire cave space slowly became transparent. The space itself did not shatter, but its own definition was being peeled away layer by layer.

The lake water stopped flowing, the air stopped vibrating, and even the light began to blur. Behind Qin Yu, an enormous black ring slowly emerged.

Within the circle, countless ancient phenomena manifested wildly: galaxies extinguished, universes collapsed, the river of time flowed backward, and billions of worlds were constantly born and destroyed. At the very center of all these phenomena, a blurry gray-white figure sat quietly in the deepest part of "nothingness." The figure had no face, no outline, and not even a sense of "presence," yet it simply sat there.

An extremely terrifying sense of "Annihilation" began to appear throughout the entire world, as if the end of all things had arrived. Rumble--!! The entire cave began to shake violently.

Countless Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi from the surrounding area converged on the cave, and a huge vortex gradually appeared in the sky. The laws of the Great Dao within a radius of hundreds of thousands of miles began to slowly become blurred.

Deep within the cave, the concept of "the flow of time" had long since vanished; only a deathly silence slowly crumbled inward, spreading silently in the darkness. Qin Yu sat cross-legged in the center of that ancient stone platform, surrounded by a magic array woven from the True Self, the Original Self, the Primordial, the Return to One, and the Void Origin, which continuously swirled around him. Streaks of profound black light patterns spun slowly, like the earliest cracks in the universe.

The entire cave trembled gently with his breath, while the Primordial Profound Nothingness True Annihilation Tribulation Disc floated silently before him. It emitted no light, no pressure, and possessed no aura befitting a "treasure." It simply existed quietly, yet seemed to Does Not Exist entirely outside of this world.

The deep black surface of the plate continued to collapse inward, as if even "nothingness" itself was being swallowed up by it. The moment Qin Yu's divine sense touched the surface of the plate, his entire consciousness suddenly plunged into an endless black abyss.

There was no heaven and earth, no starry river, no time, not even "self," only an extremely long and extremely empty loneliness that continued to spread in that endless darkness.

The next moment, Qin Yu suddenly realized that there was no path under his feet, yet he continued to move forward.

With each step he took, countless universes crumbled and reformed beneath his feet; with each step he fell, billions of timelines collapsed and rolled back behind him; his consciousness traversed the heavens in a single thought, and countless worlds transformed into streams of light that swept past his eyes, but no matter how he moved forward, the black tribulation disk remained only at the edge of his vision, like a phantom that could never be truly approached.

Qin Yu's eyes suddenly turned icy cold, and his Fate Soul erupted with a roar. The Silent Beginning Ring Master Soul Diagram slowly unfolded, with ten layers of gray-white rings floating behind him. Countless threads of cause and effect spread wildly into the depths of darkness. He coldly raised his hand, and his divine sense swept across the entire Xuanhei world like a raging sea, "Show yourself—!" Boom!!!

The entire darkness suddenly trembled, but just as he was trying his best to pinpoint the location of the calamity disk, it vanished without a trace, without any concealment or hiding, completely disappearing from Does Not Exist. All the strange phenomena just now seemed like mere illusions.

Qin Yu's pupils contracted slightly, and in the next instant, he once again unleashed his divine sense. Countless divine soul ripples spread wildly. Time continued to pass, and he pursued, locked onto, and deduced time and time again, but each time the result was exactly the same. As long as he still had the thought of "I want to obtain it" and "I want to break through to the True Annihilation Realm" in his heart, the Calamity Disc would completely disappear from his perception.

Time began to lose its meaning; perhaps a day had passed, perhaps ten thousand years had passed. Qin Yu could no longer even perceive the flow of time; his consciousness grew increasingly heavy.

He grew increasingly lonely, feeling as if he were the only one left walking through all the myriad worlds, while countless worlds had completely decayed and collapsed over time.

Suddenly, Qin Yu stopped in his tracks. He slowly lowered his head, and for the first time, a genuine silence appeared in his usually sharp eyes.

Because at that very moment, he finally understood that from the moment he entered this place, he had been "pursuing" something, and that pursuit itself was the reason why he could not step into the True Annihilation.

Why can't cultivators in the Mystic Void Realm ever break through? Because they always have the obsession of "I want to surpass." As long as there is "I" pursuing a higher realm, the binary opposition between "I" and "realm" will still exist.

But True Annihilation, even "transcendence" itself would be annihilated. Thinking of this, Qin Yu suddenly closed his eyes gently. He stopped pursuing, stopped locking on, and even stopped actively releasing his divine sense. He became completely quiet, as if he had completely merged into that boundless darkness. At that very moment, a faint hum rang out.

Suddenly, a sound came quietly from behind him. Qin Yu didn't turn around, but he suddenly "realized" something: the calamity disc had always been there and had never left.

The next instant, the entire dark world collapsed with a deafening roar! Countless cracks spread wildly, and darkness fell like shattered mirrors. The Primordial Profound Nothingness True Annihilation Tribulation Disc finally and slowly appeared before Qin Yu. The absolute darkness deep within the disc was constantly collapsing inward, as if even "nothingness" was being completely swallowed up.

The three concentric rings of light around the rim slowly swirled. The outermost layer of silvery-white light patterns gradually dimmed, as the lingering echo of "existence" was extinguishing. The middle layer of translucent light continuously shattered, as "awareness of nothingness" was being stripped away. And the deepest, absolute dark realm finally lit up for the first time with an indescribable grayish-white glimmer.

At the same time, the four ancient characters at the bottom of the plate finally truly emerged—their appearance was immediately distorted. The instant those four characters appeared, Qin Yu's sea of consciousness trembled violently, and he suddenly saw countless "selves."

There is a self that has already perished, a self that has reached the Void Emanation Realm, a self that has been swallowed by fate, and a self that stands at the end of the heavens, looking down upon all the worlds.

Countless timelines, countless causes and effects, and countless parallel existences appeared simultaneously in his sea of consciousness. The overwhelming torrent of information frantically assaulted the origin of his Fate Soul. Qin Yu trembled violently, and blood slowly spilled from the corner of his mouth, but his eyes became increasingly calm.

He finally realized that True Annihilation was not a breakthrough, but rather the complete forgetting of the breakthrough itself.