The third layer of the "Stop Escape" concept, the "Domain of No Obstruction," was fully unfurled, leaving no boundaries to be found in this world. The surrounding pitch-black night sky continued to collapse and crumble, with one Annihilation barrier after another slowly closing in from the ends of the universe.
This immense pressure wasn't built up through brute force or cultivation, but rather stemmed from an ancient, primal fear. The entire world seemed to be conveying a cold, hard truth to all living beings within: once you step into this place, you will be eternally imprisoned, with no chance of escape.
Xiao Yue stood quietly in place, her long blue hair gently falling over her shoulders. Her clear eyes gazed at the approaching darkness ahead. Just then, the darkness suddenly split open, and a blurry figure slowly emerged. It was Xiao Yue, or rather, her future self, only that figure was much older than she was now.
Her once bright and lively eyes had become empty, and her once vibrant aura had been replaced by death. She walked step by step, making no sound. Her face was expressionless until she reached Xiao Yue, at which point she slowly raised her head and gazed at Xiao Yue with her empty eyes.
After a long while, a bitter smile appeared on her lips. "Don't wait anymore." Her voice was hoarse, as if she hadn't spoken in a long time. "You can't get out." Xiao Yue looked at her quietly, without saying a word, but the figure slowly turned around.
Pointing into the distance, a boom—the void trembled suddenly, and a vast scroll of the future slowly unfolded. In the scroll, Xiao Yue stood alone in the center of a cage. One year, ten years, a hundred years, a thousand years, ten thousand years, the surrounding world remained unchanged, with no exit, no hope, and no living beings.
Even sound Does Not Exist. She searched for a way out time and again, crashing into the cage repeatedly, using her supernatural powers time and again, but ultimately, she could not escape. Time slowly passed, her eyes growing dimmer and more silent until finally, she sat quietly in the center of the cage, like a forgotten statue, forever remaining there. "This is the future."
"I tried to escape," Xiao Yue said slowly, looking down at her hands, her fingertips trembling slightly. "I tried to escape," she said, "I tried to break free," she said, "I tried to find hope." "But what was the result?" She looked up, a deep weariness appearing in her eyes for the first time. "Nothing," she said. "No Qin Yu," she said, "no outside world," "no future." "Only a prison I can never leave." "So give up." "At least it will lessen the pain."
As the last sentence fell, the entire world suddenly began to tremble violently. Rumble—the Annihilation barriers in all directions simultaneously contracted inward. The originally boundless space began to compress wildly, tens of thousands of miles, thousands of miles, hundreds of miles. In just a few breaths, the entire cage was compressed to a mere hundred feet in size.
The dark barrier was already close at hand, and in just a few moments it would completely crush everything. But at that moment, a faint blue divine light suddenly shone from the depths of the endless darkness. Immediately afterward, a second, a third, a fourth, and countless blue light patterns appeared simultaneously. They intertwined and entangled with each other, eventually forming an enormous ancient magic array.
At the very center of the magic array, an outline slowly solidified and emerged. It was neither a living being of flesh and blood, nor Spiritual Sense of an object, but the embodiment of the fundamental laws of this trial world. It had no appearance, no distinction between male and female, and its entire body was composed of countless ancient blue patterns, each pattern containing some indescribable will of Annihilation.
The instant it appeared, the third layer of the Tower of No Birth and No Destruction, its Thought-Locking Law, finally revealed its true form. It slowly raised its hand, and the entire cage began to shrink rapidly. An ancient voice echoed through heaven and earth, "All beings fear despair," "All beings dread Annihilation," "All beings desire to escape," "If the thought of leaving still lingers in their hearts," then they will never be able to leave.
Boom! The world shrank again, the hundred-zhang space became fifty zhang, and the fifty zhang became thirty zhang. At this moment, Xiao Yue suddenly noticed something. She slowly raised her head and looked around. For the first time, a strange fluctuation appeared in her eyes because she suddenly realized that the constantly shrinking cages and the constantly collapsing void were...
The origins of all these desperate situations are actually from the same source as the power contained within the Blue Ring; they are neither bound by cause and effect nor are Annihilation or extinction.
Rather, it is the more distant and boundless primordial void.
True emptiness is never the same as ordinary space; it is the original state before the formation of the universe and the creation of space. It is not the dense darkness that can be seen with the naked eye, but the origin from which even darkness could not have been born.
At this moment, the Blue Ring deep within Xiao Yue's sea of consciousness suddenly trembled slightly, and a blue light pattern that had never appeared before slowly emerged. That light pattern was extremely ancient, as if it originated from before the beginning of the Annihilation Return to the Ruins and the Wheel of Karmic End in her palm also began to slowly rotate.
The causal threads that bound the rim of the wheel shattered and vanished in a flurry, while in the absolute darkness deep within the wheel's core, the outline of a brand-new rune was faintly taking shape and slowly emerging. Xiao Yue quietly gazed at this strange phenomenon, and her heart suddenly became clear.
The third trial tests not only one's ability to see through and sever the thought of escape, but also one's ability to penetrate the surface principles of law and touch the fundamental truth hidden deep within the Blue Ring when one is in an absolute dead end with no way out.
Beyond cause and effect, there is something deeper. The existence of all things, the operation of heaven and earth, and the establishment of cause and effect are all based on rules. When the rules themselves begin to collapse, cause and effect will also lose their foundation. At this moment, a brand new power is slowly awakening deep within the Blue Ring. Blue Ring, Fifth Form: The outline of the Rule Origin Collapse begins to appear for the first time.
The third layer of the "Stop Escape - Domain of No Obstruction" has shrunk to its final stage. The space that was originally a hundred feet in size is now less than ten feet. The surrounding dark barriers slowly writhe, like some kind of living ancient beast devouring the world itself bit by bit.
The third layer of the Tower of No Birth and No Destruction, imbued with the Thought-Locking Law, floated in the void. Countless ancient, dark blue runes flowed slowly, each rune seemingly representing a living being's fear of certain death. And at this very moment, the final trial finally arrived. Boom—
The whole world suddenly fell silent. There was no wind, no roar, not even the sound of the shrinking cage of Annihilation. Xiao Yue slowly raised her head. Her pupils contracted slightly because she saw everything she feared losing most. Ripples began to spread across the distant void.
Qin Yu's figure slowly appeared. He stood in the darkness, a familiar smile on his lips. However, the next moment, countless cracks suddenly crawled all over his body. His shoulders cracked, his arms cracked, his chest cracked, and even his Fate Soul aura began to dissipate rapidly.
Behind him, Su Qingyuan, Shen Qingchen, Chi Ninghua, Jin Hanyan Mu Qingwan, Qian Ruishan, and everyone he had met along the way began to disappear little by little. Their bodies turned into dust, their names became blurred, their causes and effects began to break, and they finally returned to darkness. "Xiao Yue," Qin Yu said softly, his voice calm, but that calmness made people's hearts ache.
"Look." "You can't hold onto anything." Boom—Darkness surged suddenly, the whole world began to shake violently, Qin Yu in the distance slowly dissipated, even the last trace of his breath returned to nothingness, while Xiao Yue stood quietly in place, her shoulders trembling slightly, her blue eyes reflecting the constantly collapsing scene.
This was her greatest fear. She wasn't afraid of her own demise, nor of her disappearance; her only fear was that one day she would no longer be able to stay by Qin Yu's side. But at that very moment, an even deeper voice slowly rang out—the voice of the third layer of the Thought-Locking Law, "Escape." "As long as you leave here," none of this will happen. "As long as you break free of this cage," you will be able to change the future.
As the sound faded, an exit actually appeared in the darkness in the distance—an exit radiating a blue divine light, as if taking just one step would allow one to leave this place. But at that very moment, Xiao Yue slowly closed her eyes. She didn't look at the exit, nor did she look at the collapsing illusions.
Her long eyelashes drooped gently, and she gradually calmed down. At this moment, she suddenly remembered many things: the first time she sat on Qin Yu's shoulders, the times they had adventured together, the years they had shared life and death. Finally, a faint smile slowly appeared on her lips, "Little Qinzi won't die so easily."
The voice was soft, yet exceptionally firm. "And," even if that day truly comes, "It will be our own path, not the path chosen for us by fear." Boom—the entire world trembled violently, the exit shattered instantly, all illusions vanished simultaneously, and the third layer of the Thought-Locking Law fluctuated violently for the first time.