Qin Yu slowly walked along the road that stretched out from the end of the Eye Faculty Emanation Domain. The last Mirror Sea behind him slowly receded, and countless eyes that had once hung in the void closed. The "Seeing Stillness Return to Evolution to Derivation" left behind after the Sight-Derivation Beast Return to Emanation had completely sunk into the depths of his Fate Soul.
As he reached the Threshold between the two Emanation Domain, that colorless Formless ancient "glance" suddenly trembled slightly. There was no leakage of immense power, no manifestation of primordial phenomena, only a very faint ripple that quietly swept across the deepest part of Qin Yu's pupils.
With one step, his body pierced through the last boundary of the rules of the Eye Faculty Emanation Domain, and the world suddenly vanished. Qin Yu paused slightly.
To be precise, it was not the destruction of the world, but the complete removal of all "color" from the world. The eyes remained clear and open, and perception was normal, but all objects in the world that depended on color, light and shadow were reduced to zero.
There is no black, no white, no gray, no distinction of light or shadow. The world is filled with only thin, delicate outlines, as if the last trace of existence remains after all the glittering colors of time have faded.
The palm was almost transparent and empty; between the five fingers, there was no fleshy color, no texture, no hue whatsoever, only a thin, hazy edge that barely outlined the "hand".
He turned his head and looked back. The Sea of Form vanished, the mirror sea dissolved, and all the billions of eyes returned to silence. Even the Eye Faculty Emanation Domain, which carried infinite visual possibilities and evolved over countless ages, had receded into a faint outline in the distance.
The road ahead was vast and uncertain, with only a pure, colorless void remaining. Qin Yu took a step forward, his feet landing steadily and silently. He took another step, and still Ji Ran was no sound.
He slightly furrowed his brows, raised his hand and casually waved it in front of him. His wide sleeves swept through the air without making a sound; his two fingers gently touched, and the faint sound that should have been audible was completely absent.
He did not stop; a wisp of primal energy suddenly erupted from between his fingers. The void in front of him instantly caved in and folded, and hundreds of feet of space were rolled and pushed outward by the immense primal power.
Still silent, a deep and solemn look appeared in Qin Yu's eyes. He had already activated his power and the evolution had already occurred, but the sound that should have been born along with the vibration was completely cut off and could not be established. He no longer rashly activated external forces, calmed his mind and focused his spirit, and sank his consciousness into the depths of his sea of consciousness.
The "Silent Beginning · Ring Master Soul Diagram" unfolds leisurely, with the Nine-Wheel True Evolution Dharma Wheel quietly swirling and peacefully existing within the origin of the Fate Soul.
The Falun circulates in an orderly fashion, Fate Soul vibrate incessantly. However, all the echoes that should arise from the vibrations of all living beings, origins, and principles of law are completely extinguished and left empty here. Even the deepest voices of the Fate Soul are utterly extracted from this world.
Qin Yu finally understood that the blank space at the entrance to the Ear Faculty Emanation Domain was not silence in the ordinary sense. The silence still represented the existence of the source of sound, but it had not been triggered or manifested.
This place was far more utterly silent and Ultimate than the previous one. From the moment he stepped into this Emanation Domain, the Wanyan Great Dao had severed all possibilities for the derivation of "sound and form." He spoke, but there was no sound; objects collided, but there was no sound; the source erupted, but there was no sound; his Fate Soul trembled, but there was still no sound.
Qin Yu stood in the colorless void, his gaze slowly sweeping across the eight directions. If the second test was merely to deprive him of the power of hearing and turn him into a state of deafness, it would be too simple and easy to overcome.
The true dead end has already loomed before us: when "sound" itself cannot naturally exist within the principles of Wanyan —in what way and in what form can so-called hearing be sustained?
The instant this thought arose, Qin Yu's expression changed drastically. The sound arrived; it did not enter the eardrums, nor travel through the seven orifices, and had no direction, distance, or origin. Buzz—his entire body, his entire being, trembled slightly in sync.
The bones listened, the blood listened, the skin listened, the Fate Soul listened, the thoughts in the sea of consciousness listened, all things listened, and the whole resonated. The next instant. Boom!!! Ultimate roar suddenly shattered the entire area. The previously completely empty and silent void was instantly pierced and filled by billions of complex sound images.
"Wanyan to Return to One, and all phenomena are reborn..."
Ancient chanting wafted slowly from the depths of the endless void. No one could be seen chanting, nor could the origin be heard, yet it could be clearly perceived as the lingering echo of the Dao from the glorious era of the Wanyan Ancient Clan, a time of eternal prosperity and boundless glory.
Sound layers shift and change, all things turn.
The next moment, the mournful cries of countless creatures suddenly overwhelmed the ancient chanting. Ancient cities collapsed and shattered, races were wiped out and withered, and Ultimate catastrophe that swept across all the heavens and myriad realms descended with a roar. Thousands of howls, roars, cries, and farewells piled up and squeezed into one instant, tragic and devastating, permeating the heavens and earth.
Then, all the noise in the world subsided and slowly faded away, leaving only a faint breath in the world—just that one breath, nothing more. But the moment that breath appeared, all the myriad sounds of the world retreated and fell silent.
This was the last breath of Daoist essence left in the world before the Great Ancestor ascended to the Silent Form Realm. In an instant, this breath also completely dissipated and returned to nothingness. In its place was a mysterious form that could not be defined by the secular world, without vibration, tone, or rise and fall.
Formless and intangible, yet completely "heard" by Qin Yu. It was the silent sound that accompanied the birth of the first gaze of all heavens. The "observation" of the eye's origin and the "hearing" of the ear's origin converged and merged at this moment, the faintest and most fundamental of all time.
Before Qin Yu could fully comprehend and analyze it, a deeper sound exploded from the very source of his body. Thump. His heart pounded steadily, a soft sound landing deep within his Fate Soul. The next instant... Thump!!!
This throbbing sound was amplified infinitely and stretched to its Ultimate. Each contraction and expansion of the heartbeat was like an ancient star colliding with the heavens and shaking the eternal void. It was heavy and solid, resonating from the very source. Whoosh! The blood in the body surged and circulated. The faint sound of blood flow, which was usually hidden in the muscles and never noticed by consciousness, now transformed into thousands of rivers surging and oceans churning, roaring and surging within the body.
The subtle friction of bones bending and stretching, the faint rhythm of muscles relaxing and contracting, and the subtle fluctuations of the Fate Soul rising and falling—all these are visualized and auralized, clearly resonating throughout the body. The more Ultimate and eerie sounds originate from the core of consciousness.
Words yet to be uttered, thoughts yet to take shape, all possess a sound. The very thought of "I want to distinguish these sounds" that arises carries its own unique, primordial sound, clearly audible.
Immediately following, an Ultimate eerie echo was born in succession. The first layer was the myriad sounds of heaven and earth; the second layer was the myriad sounds heard by oneself; the third layer was the self-awareness that one had already heard; and the fourth layer was the renewed awareness of "the self having already been aware of hearing." Layer upon layer, in a continuous cycle, endlessly recursively.
Qin Yu immediately composed himself and stopped his investigation. But just as he was calming down, a wisp of his attention happened to fall on the Ancient Clan chant that had existed for millennia in the distance.
With just a single thought of discernment or exploration, the sound and image immediately split, multiply, and multiply endlessly.
One path splits into two, two paths give rise to four, four paths evolve into eight, and eight paths transform into sixteen. In the blink of an eye, Myriad Daos Share One Origin but different rhythms surged from all directions of the void, layer upon layer.
Their voices and moods vary, reflecting a myriad of emotions. Some are aged and profound, others youthful and clear, some calm and serene, others hurried and anxious. Some originate from the past years that have already been frozen in time, while others come from future branches that never took root and were ultimately lost.
Qin Yu's brows furrowed deeply. The more determined he was to analyze the original sound, the more rapidly and chaotically the sound fragments split.
Thousands of paths, millions of paths, hundreds of millions of paths... endless.
The soundscape began to reflect endlessly, overlapping and repeating. Pre-Nonbeing of him, no obstacles behind him, yet each sound seemed to fall into a silent, mirror-like realm. One echo gave rise to a second, and the second gave rise to a third. Each round of reflection produced entirely new subtle differences, without end.
In just a few breaths, a deafening roar erupted! The entire Ear Faculty Emanation Domain was completely transformed into a boundless and all-encompassing Sea of Sound. Qin Yu's figure was completely submerged and enveloped by countless layers of complex sound waves.
Ancient Clan chants, eternal lamentations, the laughter of living beings, the lingering breath of the founding ancestor, the beating of hearts, the rushing of blood, the trembling of Fate Soul, unfinished words, forgotten phrases, fragmented thoughts... all kinds of sounds and phenomena proliferate wildly and endlessly here.
Qin Yu raised his hands to cover his ears, but to no avail. The sounds here did not enter his eardrums or enter his body through the seven orifices. He forcibly blocked his external hearing, but it was still useless. Even if he completely suppressed his external perception and isolated himself from the connection between heaven and earth, the vast Sea of Sound still continued to exist and vibrate endlessly.
Having reached this Emanation Domain, "hearing" is no longer merely a sensory action of the ears; the bones hear, the blood hears, the Fate Soul hears, and the mind hears. Existence itself is hearing. Qin Yu slowly released his hands, all the restlessness in his eyes fading away, returning to calm and indifference.
The Eye Faculty Emanation Domain taught him the most fundamental truth of the Great Dao: to exist is to observe. And now, the Ear Faculty Emanation Domain, in an even more Ultimate and domineering way, is imprinting another profound understanding of the Great Dao: to exist is to hear. Therefore, he cannot completely "not listen," just as nothing in the world can exist without being completely stripped of its own essential existence...