On the Sea of Tastelessness, Qin Yu completely loosened his grip on the sword.
The "Silent Origin Stainless Sword" rested quietly in his palm, its blade pointing towards the vast sea. The flesh and blood pierced through his chest by the power of Return to Emanation had lost their layers of traces of existence. No blood flowed from the wound, and there were no Wuhen or scars. However, at the junction of the flesh and the Dao foundation, a section of the "originally complete" primordial chain was missing.
Deep within his sea of consciousness, the rift that pierced his Fate Soul continued to slowly spread towards the Nine-Wheel True Evolution Dharma Wheel. With each inch the rift extended, the ties between Qin Yu and a certain past life faded a little. On the distant Wall of Taste, the trajectory of his future evolution extinguished one by one, and the previously flourishing and intertwined branches of the path ahead all turned into gray and empty voids, a vast expanse of nothingness.
With a gulp, the Evolution-Devouring Beast swallowed repeatedly. The Evolution Name floating behind Qin Yu faded with another stroke. He stood silently, not moving an inch. Glug. The second swallowing sound subsided, and the Evolution Name lost another stroke.
He still neither fought back, nor used magic, nor established any doctrine.
The colossal maw that pierced through the head and chest slowly opened and closed, rising and falling. The thousands of mouths around the beast were already restless. The fine lines of mouths stacked on its arms, torso, and legs, as well as the boundless maws gnawing at the Sea of Taste under its feet, all opened and closed repeatedly, eagerly searching for new things to devour and new ways to eat.
Qin Yu's gaze was calm as he took it all in, without missing a beat. The first swallow left his chest heaving, yet the emptiness remained. The second swallow brought only a bottomless void, showing no sign of filling. The third, fourth, fifth...
It continued to digest everything it had previously devoured from Qin Yu's Dao Root— the Silent Origin Sword, the Root of Judgment, the Meaning of Interpretation, the Dao Path to Zero, the Point of Existence Zero Point, and even the "Return to Origin and Sever Retracing" that had been condensed and not yet unsheathed for a moment, cutting off the enemy's hostility.
Swallowing something means merging with it, transforming it, and becoming it. Swallowing sword intent causes sword marks to appear on the ancient dragon bones. Swallowing cause causes causes condense causal fractures between broken Evolution Name. Swallowing interpretation causes the chaotic skeletal structure of the chest cavity to become clear layer by layer, and order arises spontaneously.
As it devours the path to zero, the mottled remains on its surface crumble into a sky full of stardust. The Existence Zero Point, and the flowing flesh and blood fall into a brief, No Definition silence. It has no self, no ego, and no inherent nature.
It exists solely by devouring things, takes shape solely by devouring things, and is sustained solely by devouring things. The faint light in Qin Yu's eyes grew increasingly clear, and he finally saw through the beast's unchanging first fundamental nature.
The Evolution-Devouring Beast has no inherent self; its existence is forever dependent on external things. Only by swallowing something can it achieve that thing, possess its nature, and master its way. The only prerequisite for the act of swallowing is that there must be something to swallow, a path to eat, and a thought to hold onto in the world.
Force can be food, reversal can be food, evolution can be food; establishing the Way through emptiness is food for emptiness; proving the Way through emptiness is food for emptiness.
Even if something is "Wudao," if people adopt it as a way to break the deadlock and achieve victory, then it already has a purpose, an attachment, and a direction, creating boundaries and traces that can be devoured. What Qin Yu is doing at this moment is Ultimate dangerous.
He no longer constructs any Daoist ideas, no longer establishes any legal principles, and no longer clings to any enlightenment. He actively cuts off the thought of "I want to attain enlightenment" and Annihilation the obsession of "I want to seek emptiness".
The moment a thought arises, there is enlightenment, desire, and establishment; one will attain enlightenment, take form, and become sustenance. He relinquishes all of this, clinging to nothing, seeking nothing, and establishing nothing.
Without looking at himself or the Great Dao, he quietly observed the Evolution-Devouring Beast itself, and with a gulp, it swallowed again, devouring a piece of Qin Yu's past Dao trace.
The feeling of fullness vanished, the age-old hunger remained, gulp. He swallowed another possible future, the emptiness of the void undiminished. Glug! Even the wisp of pure Dao root in Qin Yu's heart, the "letting go of attachments," was mercilessly swallowed up.
Still hungry, eternally lacking, Qin Yu's gaze slowly darkened. It turned out that even "letting go" was something to be swallowed. As long as "I have let go" became a self-affirming and self-confirming obsession, there would be traces to follow, flavors to discern, and ways to devour it.
So what if even the pursuit of "I am seeking emptiness" is completely let go? As soon as the thought arises, Qin Yu neither grasps at it, nor retains it, nor keeps it, nor comprehends it, letting it arise and perish on its own. In an instant, emptiness and clarity arise, without attachment or thought.
The Evolution-Devouring Beast showed no reaction, Unborn a hint of wanting to devour him. Qin Yu's eyes suddenly lit up. In that instant, there was nothing to devour. This was because he had not established his Dao, had not defined his path, and had not left any trace. There was no way for the beast to find him in the world, so he had no way to bite.
The truly insatiable, inedible, and unacceptable vacuum finally revealed a barely perceptible glimpse between the two opposing forces— Nameless, formless, meaningless, and boundless.
It does not belong to me, nor to the Tao, nor to Heaven and Earth. Once it is defined by the mind as "my emptiness," it immediately falls into form and becomes food to be devoured.
But Qin Yu no longer had time to carefully comprehend it. The Evolution-Devouring Beast sensed that he was no longer establishing new paths or providing any new roots to devour, and the mountain of corpses suddenly trembled violently. Rumble--!!!
The colossal maw opened to its Limit, and the bottomless void in the chest cavity contracted and trembled violently. All of Qin Yu's Dao roots, which had been swallowed and assimilated into his body, were drawn down and sank to the deepest part of his origin.
The "Return to Emanation" realm suddenly accelerated! Gulp!!! Qin Yu's entire body trembled violently, his blood surging. Within his sea of consciousness, the cracks in his Fate Soul instantly lengthened several times and deepened several layers! Crack--!
Between the Nine-Wheel True Evolution Dharma Wheel, a Fate Soul connection that had stood firm for millennia suddenly shattered. "Uh..."
A low, muffled groan escaped his throat, and Qin Yu's face turned deathly pale. His right knee sank slightly as his foot stomped into the Sea of Tastelessness, creating endless, spiderweb-like cracks. He gritted his teeth and forced himself to straighten, blood gushing from the corner of his mouth once more.
A catastrophe befell them, and all three lifetimes were in danger. The traces of their past Dao were extinguished in large numbers. One piece, ten pieces, a hundred pieces—countless traces of existence accumulated over the years were devoured and completely erased by the giant beast along the roots of their Dao.
The future trajectory was even more tragic. The countless, boundless possibilities ahead were swept away by an invisible giant maw, leaving behind fragments, desolation, and dissolution. The Evolution Name that floated behind was already incomplete; the character "Qin" was missing a stroke, and the character "Yu" was faintly visible, almost disappearing.
If things continue like this, he will lose even the chance to think of a way Return to Emanation, completely obliterated. The Evolution-Devouring Beast is forcing him, forcing him to fear annihilation, to fear nothingness, to fear complete disappearance.
Force him to re-establish his path, take action again, and seek legal principles to save himself. As long as he dares to establish a new law, a new thought, and a new path, he will once again become food for the giant beast.
Qin Yu's chest heaved violently, his Fate Soul wracked with excruciating pain that nearly overwhelmed his consciousness, yet his gaze remained fixed on the bottomless void within the giant beast's chest cavity, his mind growing ever clearer. He swallowed, the more he swallowed, the hungrier he became; he was hungry, the hungrier he was, the more he swallowed.
An endless cycle, without end, the Ultimate flaw is never in the beast's mouth, but in the beast itself. It has no inherent nature, no true form; all forms, all power, all existence originate from what it has swallowed.
If it were to complete a truly meaningful attempt—to swallow something but not get it—its closed loop of existence, which involves "swallowing something and creating something," would break for the first time and become completely ineffective.
But simply being unable to devour it is not enough. Throughout the ages, it has encountered countless things that it could not immediately devour, yet it has never collapsed. What Qin Yu wants to create is a deeper, more fundamental, and irreconcilable contradiction of the Great Dao.
Forcing it to actively devour that vacuum that can never be defined, that can never become sustenance—the final challenge lies before us. How can we achieve this?
He cannot actively create emptiness, nor can he actively define emptiness, nor can he take emptiness as the Way, nor can he use emptiness as a tool. But whenever his mind touches emptiness, he establishes the Way and can devour it. Therefore, there is no need to move emptiness, only to move beasts.
Qin Yu's eyes suddenly changed, becoming clear and sharp, revealing his full power. He finally activated his divine ability again, but without any intention of attacking or confronting the enemy.
The first divine power was quietly unleashed. "Heavenly Cause Judgment Sequence - Six Severances Seal!" His five fingers formed a seal, and the principles of law surged within him. He abandoned the first move of the Trace the Source and Seal the Mirror and directly activated the fifth move - "Abyssal Rotation Profiling - Forced"!
Buzz--!!! The Sea of Tastelessness was calm and still, without any radiant light or strange phenomena, and without the roar of the heavens.
Qin Yu did not tamper with the Dao Devouring, nor did he replace the beastly nature, nor did he create a new causal trajectory. He merely grasped a fundamental destiny belonging to the Evolution-Devouring Beast itself, an ancient and unchanging truth—devouring and then hungering, hungering and then searching, searching and then devouring, in an endless cycle.
Following this innate trajectory, it slightly shifted its direction of devouring, not changing its devouring nature, but merely changing its orientation. The next moment, the Evolution-Devouring Beast's gigantic maw suddenly turned. For the first time in countless ages, it abandoned Qin Yu's endless Dao Source, its gigantic maw aimed at the bottomless, eternally unsatisfied void deep within its own chest.
Qin Yu's eyes were cold and stern. The breakthrough was not over yet. This one turn was not enough. As long as he could still define this void as a "void that can be swallowed", he could once again reduce it to the Dao, turn it into food, and incorporate it into the Dao Devouring.
The second divine power followed immediately. His left hand suddenly flipped, changing the hand seals. "Heavenly Cause Judgment Sequence - Six Severances Seal" Sixth Form - "Star Structure Returning Ring - Source Cause Severance"! Boom!!!
This seal does not sever the physical body, destroy the Dao body, or break the Devouring Technique; it only severs the origin and cuts off the initial cause.
Qin Yu did not name that void, nor did he define the vacuum. He merely severed the primordial connection between the Evolution-Devouring Beast's "seeking food" and "defining food," a connection that was incomplete and fleeting.
The giant maw was already facing the void, the intent to devour was already there, the momentum to devour was already there, but it was too late to define this void as something to be devoured, a path to be eaten. The source was completely severed. That moment was extremely brief, almost nonexistent, but it was the only gap that broke the deadlock in the entire game.
The Evolution-Devouring Beast began to swallow, yet it knew not what it was consuming; Nameless, meaningless, formless, and boundless. There was only the act of swallowing, but no thing being swallowed. For the first time in all time, the Dao Devouring to earth, and all food remained.
The Evolution-Devouring Beast suddenly stiffened and froze on the spot. Qin Yu's offensive had not stopped, and the third divine power was unleashed in the process. "Book of Fate Law - Realm Severing Origin Brush!" The ancient pages unfurled in mid-air, and the Realm-Severing Divine Brush swayed in the air.
Qin Yu's brushstrokes were extremely steady. From beginning to end, he did not place a single stroke on that empty space, nor did he offer any interpretation of the vacuum. The direction of his brush was directly aimed at the Evolution-Devouring Beast itself! Only reading, only manifestation, only illumination.
The most fundamental question of the behemoth's existence clearly emerges on the pages of the book, leaving no room for concealment. "What it swallows, it becomes." Qin Yu observes without changing, watches without touching, and knows without disturbing.
He merely revealed the inherent Dao nature of the behemoth, making this ancient rule hang high above heaven and earth, inescapable. Thus, the Ultimate contradiction was fully formed. The Evolution-Devouring Beast's devouring momentum was unstoppable. Following its own Dao, it should have made its devouring complete. However, what it devoured never became a thing, never established a Dao, never left a trace. There was nothing to be made, Wudao to rely on, and no trace to follow.