He did not use the "Heavenly Cause Judgment Sequence - Six Severances Seal," which excels at causal sealing, nor did he store the ancient box into the "Annihilation Devil Pupil - Final Spirit Core." Dao Abyss was in a critical period of gestation, and any powerful spatial force, causal technique, or refining secret realm could potentially disturb the origin and create variables.
The safest and most authentic way is this: deep within the Fate Soul, a Dao seed that has been dormant for countless ages slowly awakens. This Void Origin Dao Seed. It has no overwhelming Dao radiance soaring into the sky, no vast pressure spreading in all directions, only a wisp of pure and pristine true meaning of nothingness slowly emanating from the root of the Fate Soul.
Qin Yu did not allow the Daoist aura to directly envelop the ancient box. Instead, he used the Dao Seed as a guide to find the thinnest and most hidden primordial rift between the real world and the primordial nothingness.
The void remained unbroken, dimensions remained unopened, and strange phenomena did not arise. Only the tangible presence of the ancient box gradually faded and dissolved. Qin Yu gently pushed it with his fingertips. In the End Return to the Ruins Ancient Box remained completely still, its spatial coordinates unchanged.
But in the next instant, the ancient box had vanished from sight. It was not hidden, nor did it escape into a spatial interlayer, nor did it move through the void; it had simply withdrawn from the boundaries of the real world.
Reality cannot contain its form, nothingness cannot define its existence; time cannot etch its sequence, space cannot lock its location, and cause and effect cannot trace its trajectory.
A hint of relief flashed in Qin Yu's eyes as he continued to carefully guide the ancient box with the Void Origin Dao Seed, completely erasing the last trace of the ancient box remaining in reality. In the end, this ancient box, which bore witness to the Dao Abyss of eternity, settled steadily in the space between reality and nothingness.
No one can be found, no trace can be found, no connection can be traced. The ancient box's breath has never ceased, the Dao Abyss's gestation has never stopped, the Three Shadows' protection has never stopped, and the invisible boundary's isolation has never failed. All the fundamental operations proceed in an orderly manner in the Ultimate tranquility where no one can disturb them.
Qin Yu sat still, attempting to recall the ancient box. He didn't need to find coordinates, tear through the void, or deduce cause and effect. He only used his own existence as the sole anchor point. With a slight movement of his Fate Soul, the Void Dao Seed trembled slightly.
A faint ripple of primordial energy suddenly spread across the Space Silence space before him, and the End Return to the Ruins Ancient Box slowly emerged from the crevice. It did not cross any distance, nor did it pass through any passage; it simply re-established its primordial bond with Qin Yu.
At this moment, Qin Yu was absolutely certain that in this world, he was the only one who could be summoned, controlled, and protected.
The ancient box's current existence is no longer bound by the constraints of time, space, and causality. Its sole anchor is Qin Yu's own existence. As long as he exists, the box exists; as long as he dies, the box disappears. Even if someone else were to stand in the airspace where the ancient box once resided, they would exhaust all means and find no trace of it.
Qin Yu raised his hand again, activating the Void Dao Seed. The ancient box faded away a second time, completely disappearing into the gap between reality and illusion, lying dormant in the abyss. The underground space returned to its ancient desolation. Qin Yu sat cross-legged, calmly sorting out all the gains and insights he had made from breaking the seal, opening the box, and understanding the Dao Abyss.
The ancient box has been opened, but the Dao Abyss is not yet fully formed. No one knows when it will be perfected, when it will be finalized, or when it can be entered into the Dao. There is no fixed year or month, no predetermined deadline, and no hint from the Heavenly Dao.
However, the ancient box left behind three ironclad signs, crystal clear and without the slightest error. First, the three shadows disappear on their own.
The three shadows guarding the entrance to the box—End, Return to One, and Nothingness—will not dissipate one by one. When the Dao Abyss is fully formed and its origin is perfected, the three shadows will merge into Return to One, transforming into the supreme "Shadow of Wuji."
Wuji appears, the meaning of the three prohibitions and their differentiation completely comes to an end. Dao Abyss can maintain the three original states of end, return, and emptiness on its own, without the need for external objects to guard it.
Secondly, the inscriptions will fade away. The three warning inscriptions floating above the box opening—"The abyss is not yet complete, those who enter will perish," "The abyss is not yet unified, those who enter will scatter," and "The abyss has no source, those who enter will vanish"—as well as the prohibition order left by the original will of the ancient box, will all naturally fade away as the Dao Abyss matures.
It is not erased or destroyed, but rather the warning meaning is completely extinguished. When the box opening Return to One blank state, without any writing or indication, it signifies the end of external warnings, and Dao Abyss will be qualified for initial acceptance.
Thirdly, the box's breathing ceases on its own, which is the most direct and fundamental sign. The ancient box's long and slow breathing at this moment is the core process of refining nothingness, nurturing chaos, and stabilizing the Dao Abyss.
When the day comes that breathing completely ceases, and the box neither expands nor contracts, remaining eternally silent, that will be the time when Dao Abyss completes the final refinement and takes full shape. Only when all three signs are present can one enter the game.
The three shadows dissolve, the inscriptions disappear, and the box's breath ceases—all three are indispensable. If any one of them is not perfected, forcibly stepping in will lead to utter destruction. Qin Yu calmed his mind, deducing the endless dangers of forcibly entering the abyss, and discerning the annihilation outcomes for those with different cultivation levels and mental states.
Those whose cultivation is insufficient will lose their physical body, Fate Soul, and foundation of the Great Dao upon entering the game. The origin of the Dao Abyss has not yet solidified, and is like a flowing ocean of origin, which will completely wash away and liquefy all solidified foundations, principles, and forms. It is not that flesh and blood will dissolve, but that the Great Dao will collapse, and ultimately become a remnant of the Dao without owner, Nameless, or self, becoming the nourishment for the Dao Abyss to take shape.
Those whose Fate Soul have cracks will face even greater danger upon entering this arena. Within the Dao Abyss, myriad paths are chaotic and intertwined in disorder, and cracks in the Fate Soul will become gaps through which countless complex Daos pour in. With thousands of paths and myriad methods pouring in and all kinds of perceptions clashing, the true self will be torn apart, the personality will be shattered, and one will be completely reduced to a remnant of the past floating in the Dao Abyss.
Those whose hearts are not pure will trigger the second Return to One Restriction Retribution upon entering the game. With all selves emerging, obsessions surging, good and evil intertwined, and the past and future intertwined, those who cannot hold fast to their one true self will ultimately be torn apart and dissolved by their myriad selves, returning to chaos.
The most dangerous are those who have no anchor point of existence. The Dao Abyss hangs Between Being and Nonbeing and non-existence, between reality and illusion, without spatial coordinates, Timelessness sequence, or causal constraints. Once such a person steps into it, all Return Path are completely severed. No one knows that they once Dao Abyss or approached the origin. Even the fact of their existence will be completely erased and returned to the eternal void.
Qin Yu slowly opened his eyes, his gaze completely calmed, leaving only Ultimate concentration and clarity. He now clearly knew that he was still separated from exploring the Dao Abyss and taking control of this ancient origin by an insurmountable chasm. The Ultimate threshold set by the ancient box was unique throughout the ages.
The Dao Nonexistence Realm, the Dao is not the Dao, nothingness is nothingness; it transcends all worldly cultivation levels, transcends all definitions of the Dao and all thoughts, Beginningless Endless, Nameless Formless. Only the ultimate Dao is nothingness, returning to the ineffable source.
He has now reached the Eternal Silence Realm · Supreme, making him one of the best in the world and at the peak of all paths. However, above Eternal Silence lies the Wuji; Above Limitless lies the Dao Without End. Compared to the ineffable Dao Endless, his current cultivation is still far away and still shallow.
The underground space fell completely silent, and Qin Yu no longer focused his attention on the "End Return to the Ruins Ancient Box." The ancient box had been sealed in the gap between reality and nothingness. The Dao Abyss had no definite timeline or fixed years of gestation, and waiting here in vain would ultimately be meaningless.
A long-buried matter resurfaced clearly. Entrusted by Wanyan, Qin Yu's gaze narrowed slightly, and he slowly raised his right hand. The essence of his Fate Soul gently pulled and vibrated, and an ancient and exquisite scroll slowly appeared in the void before him.
This is the priceless treasure that Wanyan entrusted to him on his deathbed—the "Wanyan Ancient Map".
The ancient scroll unfolds gracefully, devoid of flowing gilded patterns or the warm luster of jade, and is not something that could be forged from silk, bamboo, or wood in the mortal world. The entire scroll transcends all mortal materials, condensing the pure essence of time, suspended in the void, undisturbed by the surrounding order, and unmoved by the laws of heaven and earth.
There was no overwhelming pressure emanating from it, yet it carried a vast and ancient aura that spanned countless ages and accumulated endless vicissitudes. It was so ancient and profound that it could not be measured by the passage of time. Qin Yu raised his eyes and gazed at the scroll.
Countless tiny silver patterns drift and flow slowly across the surface of the image, without fixed trajectory or constant form, ever-changing and endlessly dynamic.
One moment, the silver patterns crisscrossed and intertwined, transforming into a vast and boundless sea of stars, where countless unfamiliar starfields rose and fell in light and shadow, and the ancient galaxy's trajectory traversed all the heavens and myriad realms, desolate and timeless; the next moment, the sea of stars vanished completely, and the silver patterns reformed and converged.
A desolate and broken ancient land emerges from the map, with broken mountains and collapsed peaks, dried-up rivers and deserted streams, a scene of eternal decay unfolding before it all. Only a blurry and indistinct ancient road pierces through the desolate land, extending into the unknown depths.
In another instant, the broken ancient continent also quietly faded away. All the silver patterns converged layer by layer, condensing into a wisp of ethereal ancient path, shuttling through layers of unknown spacetime gaps, sometimes appearing and sometimes disappearing, sometimes real and sometimes unrecognizable. Even its origin and its end could not be fully seen at the same moment.
Without fixed form, without fixed state, without fixed trajectory, this is the mystery of the Wanyan Ancient Map. The trajectories of the heavens flow endlessly, and the scenes of the ages change without ceasing. Only the one who holds the chart can capture, amidst the myriad changes, that unique ancient path of origin and the only way forward that belongs to oneself.
Qin Yu did not rush to set off. Instead, he calmed his mind and focused his consciousness, immersing himself in the layers of the ancient chart. He carefully deduced and analyzed the ever-changing silver patterns.
Wanyan Yan's words were still vivid in my mind: that secret ancestral land does not exist in a fixed airspace, nor is it bound by ordinary coordinates. It cannot be reached by worldly methods of orientation or spatial teleportation. Only by relying on the original trajectory manifested by the Wanyan Ancient Map can one approach step by step and find the true place.
As you quietly observe the photograph, the silver patterns that have been flowing across the scroll suddenly stop abruptly, freezing in place, and the vast starry sky unfolds once more.
In a corner of the starry sea, in an Ultimate remote star field, almost forgotten by the heavens, a faint glow slowly appeared. It was not dazzling or eye-catching, but merely more solid and clearer than the surrounding dim star trails.
Then, a slender and long ancient path extended from this remote star field, traversing several ever-changing star sea nodes, turning into a dilapidated and ancient abandoned star field, and finally disappearing into a deep trajectory that was almost integrated with the void of the scroll, extremely hidden and difficult to find.
A glint flashed in Qin Yu's eyes. He had found it. This was the only path forward, the direction of his ancestral land, that the ancient map had marked for him through countless changes throughout the ages.
He meticulously etched the entire undulating, ever-changing, and winding ancient road into the depths of his Fate Soul, leaving nothing out. He did not extract fragments of the route or solidify any part of it, because the core mystery of this ancient map lies in its eternal change and unpredictability. The ancestral path is hidden in the midst of change, and once solidified, it will become completely ineffective.
Having memorized the route and grasped its secrets, Qin Yu slowly closed his five fingers. The Wanyan Ancient Map did not retract or fold; instead, it shrank slightly on its own, transforming into a wisp of elegant silver light that quietly floated beside him. Whenever the path ahead changed, the ancient map could unfold and manifest at any time, providing real-time guidance.
With everything settled, Qin Yu slowly rose, his tall figure standing in the vast and desolate underground space. The surrounding tens of thousands of miles of space were still covered by the layers of sealing restrictions he had previously laid out, intertwined and seamlessly integrated, completely isolating the inner and outer worlds and locking away all traces and auras of the entire area.
Now that the ancient box has disappeared into the gap between reality and illusion, there is no longer any need for it to be hidden or preserved here. The layers of restrictions are no longer useful. Qin Yu lightly flicked his sleeve. Buzz—the outermost first layer of restrictions faded and dissipated first, the spiritual energy dissipated and the patterns disappeared. The second and third layers of restrictions followed closely behind, fading away one by one and dissipating in turn.
Countless layers of seals, without explosions or devastation, simply lost their source of support, dissipating into the void and dissolving into the laws of heaven and earth.
In an instant, the seal across ten thousand miles was lifted, and the previously completely isolated star sea's desolate energy surged back and re-entered the underground airspace. In the distance, the broken star continent stretched out in undulations, and the unique ancient desolation, bleakness, and murderous aura of the Skeleton Star Sea once again enveloped the surrounding world.
Qin Yu stood still, his gaze sweeping over the silent and hidden underground space one last time. The End Return to the Ruins Ancient Box had finally disappeared into the present space-time, and there was no longer any attachment or lingering here. With a light tap of his fingertip in the void, the Wanyan Ancient Map floating beside him unfolded a corner once more, and the deep ancient road leading to the ancestral land of the secret realm clearly appeared and quietly unfolded.
Qin Yu's gaze fell upon the first star-marked node. His mind made up, and without further ado, his figure vanished into the underground airspace in the next instant. There was no sound of air being torn apart, no spatial tremor, and no trace left behind.