Almost the instant Mystic Deconstruction uttered the question, "Can you make sure they don't even have a single common principle for their existence?" Wanyan sensed the danger. In the first round, it had already suffered once from Mystic Deconstruction's reverse deduction of the source from countless possibilities. Now, having finally pushed the Derivation Without a Common Source to the level where each possibility had its own root, Mystic Deconstruction did not pursue the root further, but instead focused on the deeper commonality of "why all possibilities could be established here."
The silvery-white light in Wanyan's eyes suddenly condensed, and the billions of independent roots that originally covered the entire battle platform trembled at the same time. In the next moment, even the way those roots were established began to be layered.
Some may arise naturally from existing laws, some may sprout backward from the remnants of the past, some may be reflected from a future era, and some have never undergone any traceable birth process; they are self-contained when they appear, their existence and origin established simultaneously in the same instant.
Wanyan is clearly no longer satisfied with "every path has a different root". It has begun to give each root its own different way of life, so that even if Mystic Deconstruction grasps the principle of one place, he cannot use it to connect with the other billions of possibilities.
Buzz!!! The silver-white net above the entire battle platform suddenly stopped. It wasn't broken, it wasn't scattered, but rather it eerily lost its vibration. At that moment, the countless possibilities that had previously filled the sky fell silent, and the constantly changing mountains, rivers, starry skies, time-lapse images, and causal branches all froze in mid-air.
Wanyan stood in the center of that still, silvery-white world, raised his right hand, his five fingers slightly spread, and for the first time, his gaze no longer fell on the deconstructed patterns around Mystic Deconstruction, but directly into the deepest part of Mystic Deconstruction's Fate Soul.
"Since you no longer trace my roots," Wanyan slowly spoke, "Then I will first deprive you of the 'path' to pursuing anything."
As soon as he finished speaking, he gently twitched the index and middle fingers of his right hand. There was no sword light, no Dao seal, and not even any offensive source that blasted forward. Yet, countless life marks, invisible to the naked eye, appeared behind Mystic Deconstruction in an instant.
Some of those life marks extend into the distant past, some into the unsettled future, some pass through every deconstruction trace left by Mystic Deconstruction, and many more are connected to the causal relationship between it and this world, the Shangguan Lineage, and countless beings it has observed.
They are not chaotic; on the contrary, they intertwine to form an extremely vast trajectory of Fate Soul, proving where Mystic Deconstruction has been, where he is standing, and where he may be going.
"Fate Stripping." Wanyan did not sever those life marks; it merely twitched them. The first batch of life marks simultaneously slid off Mystic Deconstruction's body.
Buzz!!! Mystic Deconstruction's entire figure suddenly faded slightly, and a low gasp of surprise rang out outside the battle platform. Mystic Deconstruction was not injured, nor was its aura weakened, but the extremely clear connection between it and the surrounding world was disappearing.
The Logic Void Crystal beneath its feet remains intact, yet it begins to question whether Mystic Deconstruction truly "stands" upon it; transparent patterns still flow behind Mystic Deconstruction, but those patterns gradually lose their sense of belonging as "born from Mystic Deconstruction".
The second batch of life marks slid off, and the traces left by Mystic Deconstruction in the past began to fade. The third batch of life marks detached again, creating a gap along with any possible future extensions. Wanyan's gaze was calm, and his fingers pulled back once more.
With a whoosh, the entire silvery-white source sea expanded outwards. The life marks that had been separated from Mystic Deconstruction's body did not disappear; instead, they transformed into long, silvery-white threads that drifted outside the battle arena. The past, the future, cause and effect, fate, and the path he had walked were all still there, but they no longer belonged to Mystic Deconstruction.
This is the truly terrifying aspect of the Fate Stripping. It doesn't cause Mystic Deconstruction's fate to collapse, but rather it gradually makes "fate" itself no longer applicable to Mystic Deconstruction. Once all traces of fate have completely fallen away, Mystic Deconstruction will lose the past as proof of its existence, and also lose the future as a direction for its continued development.
Cause and effect cannot sustain its behavior, and heaven and earth can no longer incorporate it into any continuous changes. At that time, even if it still has consciousness and origin, it will be gradually squeezed out of the current world because it cannot make a real connection with any reality.
Wanyan's eyes flickered slightly. "You're very good at analyzing trajectories." "Then I'll make sure you have no trajectory."
As the fourth life mark slid off, Mystic Deconstruction's figure faded once more, and the weaker spectators on the periphery even needed to concentrate to pinpoint its exact location. Even more strangely, Mystic Deconstruction did not stop it from beginning to end; it allowed Wanyan to continue evolving without even a hint of panic in its eyes.
Mystic Deconstruction simply watched the marks of fate slipping away from his body, watched how the past lost its belonging, watched how the future became unpredictable, watched cause and effect gradually cease to acknowledge his actions, as if he were personally experiencing something he had never observed so thoroughly before.
Wanyan twitched slightly; it disliked Mystic Deconstruction's demeanor. It was too quiet, too quiet to be enduring a killing blow. Just as the fifth batch of life marks was about to fall off Mystic Deconstruction's body, Mystic Deconstruction finally raised its right hand, and all the transparent runes around its body contracted simultaneously.
Buzz!!! The colorless primordial energy suddenly compressed into a tiny white dot. The white dot hovered in front of Mystic Deconstruction's brow, neither illuminating the surroundings nor releasing any power, yet it caused a genuine sense of vigilance to flash across Wanyan's eyes for the first time.
Mystic Deconstruction looked up at it, "Wanyan." His voice was calm, "This time, you have indeed gone further than in the first round." "Billions of possibilities, each with its own root; now even how each root itself came into being no longer shares the same path. In this way, I can no longer deduce all your derivatives through a common root system."
Wanyan did not answer.
Mystic Deconstruction continued to survey its surroundings, its gaze sweeping over the countless independent origins before finally settling back on the Wanyan entity. "But are you willing to relinquish the common origin?" "Are you willing to relinquish the common means of existence?" "You're even willing to allow each possibility to possess a completely different logic of Fate Soul."
Mystic Deconstruction paused slightly, the white light between his brows growing increasingly solid. "But there's still one thing you can't let go of." Wanyan's pupils suddenly contracted.
Mystic Deconstruction slowly raised a finger, "Why can they evolve?"
As this question was posed, there was no thunder, no earth-shattering tremor, but the billions of silver-white light spots surrounding Wanyan trembled slightly at the same instant. The transparent patterns in Mystic Deconstruction's eyes suddenly unfolded. "The first path may have originated from the past." "The second path originated from the future." "The third path has no beginning." "The fourth path is rooted in Annihilation." "The fifth path is self-contained." "Their roots are different, their methods of establishment are different, even their 'how they exist' is different."
Mystic Deconstruction looked at Wanyan, "But no matter how different they are, they all possess the same thing you cannot discard." "You—allow them to evolve."
Buzz!!! The entire silvery-white world trembled violently for the first time, and the light in Wanyan's eyes clearly froze for a moment.
Mystic Deconstruction finally found the second flaw. The billions of origins can be independent of each other, and the ways in which they are established can be completely different. However, all of these possibilities must first be approved by the initial permission deep within Wanyan's own Fate Soul before they can be Wanyan into reality.
It can evolve, it can be formed, it can enter this moment. This "Eligibility for Derivation" has no specific form, nor does it belong to any independent source, but it is an essential layer that Wanyan cannot give up.
Because if even the Wanyan themselves no longer possess the qualification to be "derived," then Derivation Without a Common Source will not even have its first unfolding.
Mystic Deconstruction didn't track down the billions of roots; it went directly to the hand that granted the billions of roots the qualification to "grow." For the first time, Wanyan's expression truly turned serious.
At that very moment, the Fate Stripping had once again advanced into the depths of Mystic Deconstruction's Fate Soul, with more life marks slipping away, and Mystic Deconstruction's past was receding further away. But Mystic Deconstruction did not look back; the white light between its brows suddenly expanded. It spoke, but its voice did not truly travel through the void; the question fell directly into the depths of Wanyan's Fate Soul.
"Logic Dissolution!" "Wanyan." "If you grant every possibility 'the Eligibility for Derivation,' then does the possibility of 'not being derived' also possess the Eligibility for Derivation?"
Wanyan's expression suddenly changed. Many cultivators on the periphery hadn't even understood what he meant, but the four referees' gazes froze at the same time.
The Mystic Deconstruction didn't stop. "If not," he said, "Then your 'all possibilities' lacked one possibility from the very beginning. Your Wanyan are not Wanyan." Buzz! Billions of silver-white strings vibrated simultaneously.
The second question Mystic Deconstruction immediately, "If so." "Then 'underivative' has also been given the Eligibility for Derivation." "Since it has actually been derivable, it proves that 'underivative' can be derivable." "It is not true on its own."
Mystic Deconstruction's voice grew increasingly calm, "But if it doesn't hold true, then your acceptance that 'all possibilities can be given the Eligibility for Derivation's also shows a crack." "So—" "Can you actually make 'underivable' be derivable?"
No booming sound appeared, but deep within Wanyan's Fate Soul, it was as if an unclosable rift had been forcibly shoved in. The first layer of deduction could not answer. The second layer of deduction was still contradictory. The third layer. The tenth layer. Countless layers.
Whenever Wanyan tries to circumvent this problem with a new possibility, Mystic Deconstruction's question returns to the fundamental question, "Why can this new possibility be derived?" Wanyan can infinitely increase the number of paths, yet he finds that all paths pass through the threshold called "the Eligibility for Derivation." And that threshold itself has been nailed into a paradox by Mystic Deconstruction.
Buzz!!! For the first time, a large portion of the silvery-white starry sea went out. It wasn't forcibly destroyed by Mystic Deconstruction, but rather some things that might have begun to question whether they possessed the potential to continue evolving.
The silver-white Dao patterns on Wanyan's forehead flickered violently, and the radiance of countless worlds arising and ceasing in his eyes became disordered for the first time. Of course, he was not an ordinary cultivator, and it was impossible for his mind to collapse because of a single question. However, the real attack of Logic Dissolution was never simple cognition. It was attacking the deepest fulcrum on which Wanyan's Derivation Without a Common Source was based.
Meanwhile, the threads of fate on Mystic Deconstruction's body continued to fall off, their outlines fading to almost transparent. Wanyan did not undone the Fate Stripping; instead, while enduring the logical paradox, it continued to push that divine power deeper into Mystic Deconstruction's body. For the first time, the two sides truly formed a direct confrontation, stripping Mystic Deconstruction of his fate attributes while destroying Wanyan's foundation for future development. Countless spectators held their breath.
However, things soon changed.
Mystic Deconstruction looked at the life marks that had already fallen away around it, and then suddenly asked Wanyan a second question. "You said that after I lose my destiny, I will be rejected by reality."
Wanyan's gaze darkened, Mystic Deconstruction slowly raised his hand, pointing to his chest, "Then—" "Why does reality reject me?"
The moment those words were spoken, Wanyan's brow twitched violently.
Mystic Deconstruction continued, "Because I have no destiny?" "If 'having no destiny' necessarily leads to 'being rejected by reality,' then a definite cause-and-effect relationship has been established between 'having no destiny' and 'being rejected by reality.'" "There is a cause." "There is an effect." "This in itself—"
Mystic Deconstruction's lips slowly curled up, "Isn't this just a new destiny?" Buzz!!! The entire battle platform shook violently, Wanyan's eyes finally changed.
This is where the Fate Stripping is truly grasped by the Logic Dissolution. The Fate Stripping wants to completely detach the Mystic Deconstruction from all past, future, and cause and effect, so that it will ultimately be excluded by reality because it cannot be incorporated into reality.
However, once "destiny is lost," it inevitably leads to "being excluded by reality," and this inevitable relationship itself has already formed a new destiny. If Wanyan denies that this relationship belongs to destiny, then the reason why the Fate Stripping can ultimately guarantee that Mystic Deconstruction will definitely be rejected by reality will lose its basis.
If we accept this, then even if Mystic Deconstruction strips away all old destinies, the supernatural power itself will create a new destiny for it at the last moment—those who lose their destiny will be rejected by reality. Thus, "completely without destiny" cannot be truly achieved.
The Mystic Deconstruction doesn't need to resist every thread of fate that's pulled away; it only needs to allow Fate Stripping its final result and reveal its own inconsistency.
Crack!!! For the first time, a crack appeared in the invisible domain around Mystic Deconstruction, where life marks had been constantly slipping away. The first detached thread of fate stopped in mid-air, and the second stopped as well. Subsequently, no more life marks continued to peel away.
Wanyan's eyes narrowed, and he forcefully activated his source, but the crack already existed. Mystic Deconstruction raised his right hand, and the white dot between his eyebrows suddenly dropped forward.
Crash!!! The deepest logical chain of Fate Stripping, that "those without destiny will inevitably be rejected by reality," collapsed with a deafening roar!
In an instant, all the life marks floating around Mystic Deconstruction trembled violently. Some returned to themselves, while others remained in the void, not detaching further. Mystic Deconstruction's figure also gradually solidified again from its near-transparent state.
Wanyan took a half step back for the first time. He was not injured, but he clearly felt that his supernatural power had been directly countered.
Mystic Deconstruction did not press its advantage; it simply stood still, the white light between its brows slowly fading, its gaze still fixed on Wanyan. The Source Dao essence surrounding both sides continued to vibrate violently.