Qin Yu took a step forward, lifting his foot and then placing it down.
There was no soil, no foundation, no support beneath his feet. The moment his foot touched the ground, a clear mirror appeared out of thin air, supporting his figure. The mirror was only a few inches in size, just enough to hold one step. The reflection in the mirror was exactly the same as Qin Yu's clothes, expression, eyebrows, and aura at that moment, without any difference.
The next instant—crack!—the mirror shattered. Countless tiny shards of glass, neither falling nor scattering, stretched out and extended forward. Each fragment carried a new "seeing," a new possibility.
The path ahead was born from this. Qin Yu took his second step, still with one foot and one mirror, one mirror and one shattering. He moved forward step by step, and the mirror path extended and unfolded layer by layer, carving out a unique path ahead in the endless sea of mirrors.
But the moment he stopped, all the forward-extending lenses simultaneously stopped and ceased to extend, followed by a continuous series of clicking sounds.
The mirror path stretching ahead begins to crumble and trace back from the distance, dissolving inch by inch, returning to silence layer by layer, until it finally returns to the vast and boundless primordial mirror sea, Wuhen no trace.
Qin Yu stood still, his gaze becoming increasingly calm and clear. This world, even the path ahead, was not something that existed innately or remained constant.
When he looks ahead and his mind moves forward, the path ahead takes shape; when he stops thinking and ceases to observe, the path loses its foundation and meaning, naturally Return to Emanation to nothingness.
Each step taken creates a mirror reflection that shatters and transforms into entirely new shapes and colors, providing endless visual possibilities and a foundation for future evolution.
He was never standing on the physical earth, but rather on layers upon layers of continuous "seeing" itself.
Qin Yu slowly raised his eyes and gazed into the distance. He didn't know when, but the original single Primordial Giant Eye in the sky was no longer there. In the void in all directions, countless eyes were now suspended, varying in size, shape, and state.
The largest are like stars hanging in the sky, spanning the vast expanse of space throughout eternity. Within the iris, one can see the entire galaxy revolving, dying, rising, and falling. The smallest are like mustard seeds, densely packed and suspended close at hand. If one does not concentrate and observe closely, they are easily mistaken for a sky full of stardust or ethereal light.
Among the countless eyes, some stared directly at Qin Yu, their pupils Silent Void and still, displaying only the purest observation, devoid of joy, sorrow, emotion, or thought; some gazed into distant lands, looking elsewhere; some were half-open, half-closed, seemingly floating and shifting between different possibilities of existence; and many more eyes had long since dried up and turned gray, their pupils stiff and stagnant, like stubborn rocks, yet they remained fixed on the direction of their gaze in the last moment of life, unchanging through the ages.
Qin Yu's gaze fell upon one of the giant star eyes, and in an instant, a complete universe unfolded deep within the pupil.
In the beginning of time, darkness receded, stars were born one after another, and galaxies spread across the heavens; living beings were born, civilizations flourished, and territories expanded; then war raged, chaos descended, prosperity collapsed, and a great calamity came to an end.
Finally, the entire universe collapsed rapidly along a distant trace of light, all the starlight was extinguished, the great Dao of the heavens returned to silence, and a universe completed its full cycle from creation to Annihilation.
With just one glance, Qin Yu was able to comprehend the entire history of the universe, from its beginning to its end.
He looked away, and that universe immediately withdrew from his perception and cognition. It was neither destroyed nor annihilated, but merely temporarily silenced from the scope of "Qin Yu is observing," awaiting restart.
He glanced again, then looked into each eye, and deep within each eye lay a completely different world, a unique time and space, and a possibility of evolution that had never been replicated before. Some were still in the primordial chaos, their world unstable; some had already reached the end of the Dharma and were heading towards their demise; some were inhabited by strange creatures unseen in the heavens and by a world structure beyond comprehension.
Each of the countless floating eyes is a slice of the original "observation" extracted from a part of the universe. Billions of slices are stacked, intertwined, and coexist to construct this vast and ever-evolving Eye Faculty Emanation Domain.
Qin Yu gazed into the distance, overlooking the churning Sea of Form. This time, he penetrated the surface hues and glimpsed the even grander and more fundamental structure of the Emanation Domain deep within the domain.
Beneath the Sea of Form, the Sea of Sound surges. Countless vast sounds, before even reaching the ear, are already flowing, rising and falling, being born and dying in the depths of the origin.
Beneath the Sea of Sound, the Sea of Qi rises and falls. The endless qi of heaven and earth, the primordial qi, have already evolved and alternated on their own before even touching the root of the nose.
Beneath the Sea of Qi lies the Sea of Taste. All the original flavors and the five flavors of heaven and earth, before even reaching the back of the tongue, have already formed their own system and are constantly evolving.
Beneath the Sea of Taste, the Sea of Touch overlaps. Countless bodily sensations—hot and cold, light and heavy, painful and itchy, soft and hard—layer upon layer, merging and blending together in the primordial dimension.
At the Sea of Touch, the Sea of Dharmas has existed since time immemorial. Countless great principles and laws of heaven and earth are constantly being born, overthrown, and reconstructed, without any fixed number or constancy.
The six seas —the Sea of Form, the Sea of Sound, the Sea of Taste Sea of Qi, the sea of taste, the Sea of Dharmas Sea of Touch, and the Sea of Awareness that encompasses all dharma.
The Eye Faculty Emanation Domain where everyone is currently located is merely the first and most superficial barrier, the easiest to perceive, on the surface of the entire Vast Sea of Awareness Awakening.
Having grasped this fundamental truth, Qin Yu's expression became completely solemn. The Six Faculties Trial were not six separate and unrelated independent challenges.
All six senses share the same origin, stemming from the primordial Sea of Awareness of the Great Ancestor. The eye is the beginning of entering the Tao and the key to opening the door, followed by the ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind, which delve deeper and progress step by step.
The Eye Faculty Trial is already so profound, so dangerous, and so deep; the remaining five root trials will only be closer to the origin, directly confront the Great Dao, and be a hundred times more difficult.
Qin Yu stepped forward, breathing slowly. With each inhale and exhale, the entire world before him suddenly changed color. The once clear, silvery-white Mirror Sea was now completely tinged with a very faint, bluish-green light.
With each breath, a deeper and richer azure color emerged from the youthful immaturity, layer upon layer with each breath, changing with each exhale.
Within crimson, countless layers of crimson hues can be subdivided; within azure, countless layers of blue light can be dissected; within light, the faintest glimmer of light is hidden; within darkness, layers of shadowy appearances are contained.
With each breath, the world's forms are subdivided and evolved into a new layer, endlessly and without end.
Qin Yu stared intently at a faint crimson light. In an instant, that crimson light rapidly expanded, split, and multiplied. One became ten, ten became a hundred, a hundred became countless. Layers of crimson continued to iterate and subdivide, with warmth concealing coolness, coolness containing coldness, and coldness giving rise to strangeness, giving rise to countless subtle differences in hue that could not be named or classified.
In an instant, the entire field of vision was almost completely filled and enveloped by thousands of crimson colors. Qin Yu immediately looked away and withdrew his observation. Only then did the rampant crimson color stop spreading.
He fully understood the immense danger of the Eye Faculty Trial. In this world, the most deadly constraint was never the towering killing trap or the ancient ferocious beasts, but rather a single obsession or a single stubbornness.
As long as one is fixated on a single aspect, fixated on a single color, seeking to grasp the whole picture, and striving for clarity, the Emanation Domain will expand infinitely, nest infinitely, and subdivide infinitely along with this fixation. The more one tries to see clearly, the more complex the phenomena become; the more one tries to exhaust them, the more evolutions occur.
The forms and appearances of this world Endless, no bottom, and no limit. Once attachment takes root, one will be trapped in them and sink into eternal damnation.
Qin Yu closed his eyes again. This time, closing his eyes was not a test or an escape, but a direct confrontation with the origin and a breakthrough to the truth. He completely blocked all external observation with his naked eyes and cut off all thoughts of actively looking at things.
Yet the Mirror Sea remains flat, the Sea of Form still surges, and the countless eyes still float and rotate. The observational slices of the myriad universes are still clearly reflected in the original consciousness, without the slightest diminishment.
Qin Yu quietly comprehended the truth, remaining motionless for a long time. After several breaths, he completely understood the Ultimate rule of the Eye Faculty Emanation Domain, seeing without relying on the physical eye, without relying on the mind's eye, and without depending on perception.
Seeing is never an act, but a way of being. In this realm, existence is observation, and continuation is seeing. No one can separate existence itself from being in existence. Nor can anyone, in this Emanation Domain, completely sever seeing or Annihilation observation.
Qin Yu slowly opened his eyes, his gaze clear and his mind serene. The endless mirror sea stretched out in all directions, with billions of eyes floating in the sky, and the deep Sea of Awareness surging in the six seas.
He finally touched upon the core issue of the first level of the Eye Faculty Trial. At this stage of cultivation, it was no longer about how to see more, see further, or observe more comprehensively. Nor was it about how to close one's Annihilation, extinguish sight, and clear away all phenomena.
The true gateway to the Great Way lies in this one question: When seeing has become existence itself, when observation has become the foundation of existence, how can one avoid being swept away by all phenomena, bound by what is seen, and led astray by appearances?
The moment this Ultimate question fully and completely emerged in his heart, the entire Eye Faculty Emanation Domain suddenly fell silent and came to a complete stillness. The ever-churning Sea of Form suddenly stopped surging and froze; the endlessly flowing mirror sea suddenly ceased its waves and became Ji Ran and patternless; and the billions of eyes that floated and swirled in the sky simultaneously froze, no longer opening or closing, no longer observing.
Everything stood still, all was silent. Qin Yu slowly raised his head and looked at this desolate ancient Emanation Domain. In the next instant, the original voice that transcended eternity and originated from the Taizu Silent Form Realm finally appeared quietly and echoed throughout this world.