Hua Jingmeng lowered his right hand, his five fingers slowly unfolding, a slight numbness spreading between his palm bones, down his arm to his shoulder and neck. In the previous ten or so rounds of close combat, he had intended to use the unpredictable advantage of the infinite flow of the Dao to constantly test and squeeze the Limit Qin Yu's Dao foundation and the upper limit of his Fate Soul, forcing him to reveal his weaknesses.
But the results were completely the opposite.
Qin Yu remained calm and composed throughout, his Dao heart steadfast, showing no signs of disorder or fatigue. What made him even more uneasy was that Qin Yu's adaptation speed had exceeded his expectations.
In the initial exchange, Qin Yu had to wait for his transformations to settle before he could respond calmly; after a few moves, he could already strike in sync with his transformations; in the end, Qin Yu was even able to predict the trajectory of his transformations in advance, seize the initiative in the next transformation, and block his offensive path.
He relied on his ever-changing nature, but in the end, Qin Yu gradually figured out, understood, and controlled his own rhythm of change and fundamental trajectory.
The sharpness in Hua Jingmeng's eyes gradually subsided, replaced by a growing seriousness.
On the other side, Qin Yu lightly flicked his palm, his expression remaining calm and composed. Behind him, the Silent Beginning Ring Master Soul Diagram slowly rotated, with Nine-Wheel Dharma Wheel stacked one on top of the other. Within the Boundless Realm Source Wheel, dozens of clear and complete trajectories of the flow of the Great Void were already engraved, collecting, analyzing, and tracing the origins of all of Hua Jingmeng's ever-changing laws.
In a brief exchange, he had already grasped the whole picture. Hua Jingmeng's Grand Void Dao Transformation Art was far more profound and restrained than that used in the battle against Ju Gongchen. It deliberately concealed its strengths and deliberately left room for change. Every change contained a hidden trace of deception to lure the enemy into misjudging. Once the opponent stuck to the rules and thought they had the upper hand, they would be met with a completely opposite and deadly offensive in an instant.
"Interesting."
Qin Yu spoke softly, his tone calm, yet it felt like a sharp blade piercing the heart.
Upon hearing this, Hua Jingmeng's face turned completely cold, her eyes filled with a deep, malevolent gloom.
The next instant, their eyes narrowed sharply, and they simultaneously stepped off the ground and broke through the air.
Collapse!!!
The stone platform of the arena collapsed under the sudden burst of two powerful forces, cracks stretching for miles. Two figures rushed out simultaneously, their paths crossing in the sky.
Whoosh!!! Bang!!! Clang!!!
Without any divine weapons, their sharp edges clashed and collided, producing resounding clangs like divine weapons clashing and the Great Dao colliding. The two figures fought from the ground to the sky, and then crashed back down onto the arena from a height of a hundred feet. Their figures moved incessantly, and their offense and defense changed in an instant.
The Hua Jingmeng, transform into countless fleeting shadows, encircling from all directions with a mix of illusion and reality; Qin Yu's Nine-Wheel Dharma Wheel turn ceaselessly, each gesture—raising a hand, turning, stepping—precisely hitting the mark, sealing off every flaw. The Great Void emptiness is ever-changing, while the true Dao heart penetrates to the very source. The former uses change to break the law, the latter uses stillness to trace back to the root.
Another round of Ultimate clashes ensued, with both players simultaneously using their strength to divide the field.
Qin Yu landed on the stone platform, his clothes fluttering, and with a light touch of one foot, he was as steady as a mountain, his body neither swaying nor shaking.
Hua Jingmeng stood more than ten feet away, taking three steps in succession. The first step cracked the stone platform, the second step opened up a ravine, and only the third step managed to suppress the surging primordial energy within her body and stabilize the turbulent foundation of her Fate Soul.
He looked up and gazed at the calm figure opposite him, all his previous contempt, arrogance, and disdain vanishing completely.
He finally realized that he had underestimated Qin Yu.
What is most terrifying about Qin Yu is not his heaven-defying supernatural powers that can see through all laws and dismantle the Dao principles, but his seemingly ordinary yet Ultimate profound Dao foundation. With his cultivation at the Eternal Silence Realm Initial Stage, he withstood Qin Yu's ever-changing close-quarters attacks. After more than ten rounds of direct confrontation with his Fate Soul, Qin Yu never truly shook his Dao body in the slightest or disturbed his Dao heart in the slightest.
Hua Jingmeng clenched her fists tightly, her knuckles turning white, her eyes filled with a dark and gloomy light. Her fighting spirit was fully awakened, and there was no longer the slightest hint of arrogance.
At the other end of the arena, Qin Yu stood still as before, the Silent Beginning Ring Master Soul Diagram slowly rotating, deep and immovable as a mountain.
After two rounds of probing, the truth was clear, and her confidence was evident. Hua Jingmeng now had a plan. Qin Yu was strong, but in her current state, she was still fully capable of killing him.
More than ten feet away, Hua Jingmeng stood motionless, her body Ji Ran drooping.
His five fingers slowly extended, and the lingering numbness deep in his palm bones spread slowly along his meridians. The primal shock that had surged from the close combat just now gradually subsided and calmed down at the bottom of his Fate Soul. The slight disdain and contempt that had previously covered his face had completely faded away. His brows were furrowed, and his narrow eyes were dark and deep, covered with a layer of bone-chilling coldness.
His original plan was clear: to use the myriad transformations of the Great Void to entangle and endlessly change to confuse the enemy, forcing Qin Yu to expose the flaws in his Dao foundation and the weaknesses in his Fate Soul during a prolonged battle. However, after a series of exchanges, the situation turned completely the opposite.
Qin Yu's Eternal Silence Initial Stage Dao Foundation was thick and stable. After dozens of rounds of hard-fought battles, it did not loosen or become disordered in the slightest. Even more terrifying was that the Silent Beginning Ring Master Soul Diagram behind him had quietly penetrated the gaps in the flow of the Great Void, collecting and analyzing those fleeting and extremely subtle connecting trajectories one by one.
The longer the entanglement continues, the deeper Qin Yu's understanding of his Great Dao will become, which will be increasingly disadvantageous to Qin Yu.
With a settled mind, Hua Jingmeng's shoulders relaxed, and the last trace of probing in his eyes completely vanished. He raised a finger and lightly touched his brow, and the previously ethereal and scattered Great Void light and shadow around him suddenly converged. Hundreds of illusory and real afterimages, flowing traces, and wandering Fate Soul fluctuations all returned to their source, and in just a few breaths, they all merged into his physical body.
Buzz--
A deep and resonant primal resonance emanated from the depths of her Fate Soul. A silver-gray vertical line slowly emerged between Hua Jingmeng's brows. Before the line cracked, the essence of her Fate Soul had already manifested within it.
A vast and boundless Grand Void Fate Wheel slowly rose from the void behind it. The surface of the wheel had no constant patterns. With each inch of rotation, the old Dao traces disappeared on their own, and new Dao traces arose out of thin air. One moment there were still causal lines, the next moment they turned into Annihilation gray patterns, and in an instant they scattered into countless Void Evolution light spots that could not be found.
This cycle is impermanent, changing with every breath and shifting with every thought.
The powerful beings of the Eternal Silence Realm watching the battle peered intently, their divine senses extremely refined, yet they could only see layers upon layers of illusory, overlapping shadows. Upon prolonged observation, their own Fate Soul perceptions were even slightly distorted and disordered by this ever-changing Great Dao, making it impossible to discern its true nature.
Hua Jingmeng raised her eyes and looked at Qin Yu opposite her on the arena. A cold, bone-chilling smile curved her lips, devoid of any warmth. All the pseudo-origins and false Dao traces that had been hidden deep within the Grand Void Dao Transformation Art were now fully revealed.
He did not merely pile up superficial illusions, but rather extracted the finest and most subtle opportunities for change from his own true Great Void origin. Each of these threads possessed a complete causal framework, the lingering essence of Fate Soul, and the fundamental principles of the Dao, making it difficult to distinguish between truth and falsehood, as reality and illusion share the same origin.
In an instant, hundreds of independent primordial veins diverged before Qin Yu's eyes. One traced back to Annihilation, one vanished into nothingness, one buried deep within karmic entanglements, and another followed the ancient bloodline of the Hua Lineage, extending towards the desolate and boundless ends of time.
Each vein can withstand repeated tracing and investigation by top cultivators. They intertwine, overlap, bite, and backfire with each other, deeply concealing the one true origin of the Great Void Fate Soul within countless false origins.
Hua Jingmeng had long understood the deadly threat of the Silent Beginning Ring Master Soul Diagram —tracing back to the source and understanding the foundation of all laws. Therefore, he simply incorporated the "traceable source" into his own Dao of Transformation, creating a Dao formation with layers of nested structures.
Every time Qin Yu deciphered a layer of illusion, a new false source would immediately fill the gap; every time he followed a lineage to delve deeper into the source, countless false sources would surround and kill him, dragging his Fate Soul perception into a labyrinth of contradictory and chaotic Dao principles, trapping him in endless illusion, unable to escape.
"Qin Yu." Hua Jingmeng chuckled softly, her tone cold and chilling, "Aren't you most fond of tracing origins and exploring the Dao? Then take a good look."
As soon as she finished speaking, the silver-gray vertical line between her brows slowly unfolded. Within the line, there were no eyes or pupils, but an ancient illusory wheel of destiny, woven from endless, fine wheel marks, slowly appeared and began to rotate. This wheel rotated extremely slowly, and with each inch it moved, Hua Jingmeng's expression became increasingly indifferent and detached, like a Daoist who looked down upon the life trajectories of all beings.
On the arena, the gale suddenly stopped, and all the flowing energy ceased. Great Void previously surging Daoist energy gradually subsided and quieted down.
Before the fine dust swirling around Qin Yu's feet could settle, the wheel of destiny between his brows already reflected his landing trajectory; the folds of his clothes fluttered in the wind, and the wheel's shadow foreshadowed the posture of his next swing; even the single-line rotation of the Nine-Wheel True Evolution Dharma Wheel behind Qin Yu was clearly foreseen and predicted by this ancient wheel's shadow.
"The Eternal Tribulation Fate-Determining Wheel"
This supernatural power does not defy cause and effect, does not alter the future, and does not forcibly overturn the rules of heaven and earth. It only uses one's own Dao heart to transcend all order, overlook the life trajectories of all beings, and slowly gathers and settles countless scattered possibilities into one.
The moment the Wheel of Fate appeared, every subtle movement of Qin Yu on the arena—raising his hand, stepping, attacking and defending, advancing and retreating—was reflected hazily in the silver-gray wheel's shadow.
Eternal Tribulation Fate-Determining Wheel its first turn, Hua Jingmeng's gaze fell on Qin Yu's right shoulder, her voice as cold as ice. "The next moment, you will raise your right hand first."
The second panel rotated, his gaze locking onto the three-zhang (approximately 10 meters) of empty space to Qin Yu's left. "Then shift to the left to avoid his attack." The third panel slowly rotated, his lips growing even colder. "Finally, you will have to borrow the Silent Beginning Ring Master Soul Diagram to trace back to my origin."
All that he spoke of had not yet come true and were all uncertainties of the future. But as the wheel of fate slowly turned, the originally vast and boundless trajectory of fate around Qin Yu was being slowly bound by an invisible force of destiny. It was as if the many streams of the sky were being forcibly drawn into a single channel, and all the myriad possibilities ahead were annihilated, leaving only a predetermined path.
Hua Jingmeng neither attacked nor clashed, nor did she resort to violence. With just a glance and a single word, she sealed off most of Qin Yu's escape routes, offensive opportunities, and chances to launch a counterattack.
Outside the arena, all was silent. Nangong Xingyun and Nalan Yanqing simultaneously focused their gazes, their expressions solemn, having discerned the true danger of this move.
The terror of this technique lies not in direct confrontation or overwhelming force, but in subduing the enemy without a fight. The Hua Jingmeng, abandoning illusions and concealment, and instead uses pre-emptive positioning to lock down the path ahead.
If Qin Yu were to continue using the old methods to trace the origins and explore the Dao, all he would see and obtain would be a false origin that had been laid out in advance. If Qin Yu were to take the initiative to attack, Hua Jingmeng could use her ability to determine fate to withdraw in advance and avoid all deadly moves.
In the past, Qin Yu used his insight to see through all laws; today, Hua Jingmeng uses his own methods to counter his own, using his own techniques to trap him.
In the center of the arena, Qin Yu stood calmly as before, his expression remaining serene and unperturbed, showing no surprise or confusion. Behind him, the Silent Beginning Ring Master Soul Diagram continued to rotate slowly, but it had already abandoned the pursuit of countless false origins.
The first illusory Annihilation origin extended out, the Nine-Wheel Dharma Wheel moved briefly and then stopped, neither tracing back nor probing; the second layer of Void Evolution Dao traces appeared, his gaze swept over them, and he calmly ignored them; the third, fourth, and fifth pseudo-origins emerged one after another, intertwining into a vast sea of illusion, almost covering the entire arena.
Only when layers of false origins intertwined and a complete mystery took shape did Qin Yu slowly raise his right hand.
Hua Jingmeng's brow furrowed slightly, a chilling aura blooming in her eyes. "Indeed, the Book of Fate Law · Realm-Severing Source Pen!!! Hmph, let's see how you break through it..."