The ten hunters were already in retreat under the combined attack of Yan Yue and Qin Yu, their consciousness in disarray and their souls trembling. But just then, a sudden swirling mist appeared—
The leader of the ten roared, "There are only four of you, how can you possibly withstand our Ultimate formation— Soul Rend Realm Severing: Ten Consciousnesses Shattering Rings!"
In an instant, all ten people simultaneously unleashed their Soul Seal, their bodies disintegrating into ten layers of soul mist, transforming into ten crimson-black broken rings suspended in the battle sky. Within each ring, the "Ultimate collapse structure" of a life consciousness was gathered.
The ten rings surged and merged into one, forming a "Soul Rend Realm-Breaking Array"! The entire area suddenly fell into a time-freeze-like gray-white, as if the sky had been painted with destructive sandstone patterns. Spiritual Qi collapsed, consciousness surged backward, and even the whispers in the Silent Abyss were silenced by this technique!
Just as the formation was about to erupt and engulf Qin Yu and the others, Wang Long suddenly stepped forward, clenched his fists, and let out a roar.
"Life Pressure - Realm Splitting Wheel!"
Boom! Five black-gold wheel seals emerged from behind him, like five annihilation spinning tops, spinning wildly in an instant! Each wheel was connected to the life pressure main chain of the laws of heaven and earth, instantly forming a "pressure lock belt"!
Wang Long flashed into the enemy ranks and smashed the Five-Layered Wheels into the core of the Soul Rend Realm-Breaking Array, forcibly disrupting the Ten Consciousnesses Severing Chains structure!
"Under Pressure, Reverse the Shattered Soul!"
He deliberately endured the enemy's pressure, a mouthful of blood spilling from the corner of his lips, but the pressure wheel behind him suddenly surged, stirring up a black seal that surged backward!
In an instant, the Tenfold Soul-Severing Rings began to collapse and reverse. That was the "Reverse Cause and Effect" power in Wang Long's Fate Soul bloodline. Once successfully triggered, the enemy's attack would backfire on his soul!
Immediately following, purple flames surged from Lin Yun's sleeves, shooting straight to the top of the sky, his voice cold and stern:
"Your tactics are only effective against the weak!"
"--And I, with my soul as my pen, will write your final breath!"
Boom--
"Sealing the Prison of Consciousness - Collapse of the Realm of Consciousness!"
His Fate-Cause runes instantly transformed into billions of purple soul chains, covering the sky like a net, and crashed into the remaining Soul Rend rings in mid-air.
Under the seal of the purple flames, the soul rings and consciousness chains of the ten people suddenly lost control. Several screams rang out at the same time as the consciousness bodies of the ten people burned, reconstructed, and annihilated violently in the sky—the soul mist was sealed by the purple flames and completely frozen before it collapsed!
The ten Soul-Severing Rings in the sky shattered one by one like broken mirrors, as if ten bolts of lightning were snapped in reverse. The Consciousness Realm crackled and exploded, stirring up thousands of golden lightning bolts. The sky reflected the struggling posture of the ten people just before their soul cores exploded—then, they were completely bound by Qin Yu's main seal logic and turned into dust of fragmented thoughts.
At this moment, Wang Long and Lin Yun stood behind the abandoned soul, their bodies trembling slightly, yet they stood firm, their eyes still filled with undiminished killing intent.
Qin Yu stood high in the sky, holding the Source-Extinguishing Divine Sword, while Yan Yue unfolded her Radiant Starfrost Robe and gently swept across the sky. The Dawn Wheel rotated behind her like the first rays of the sun. One on the left and one on the right, they were like two destinies descending to earth.
The entire misty space fell silent, save for the sound of the Life-Pressure Wheel slowly coming to a stop and the lingering echo of purple flames burning the sky.
In this battle, all ten enemy soldiers were wiped out.
At the moment when the ten Fate Soul were ultimately annihilated in the realm of Recognition Annihilation, the ten figures, who should have been completely reduced to ashes, emitted a faint light in the void at the instant of their Annihilation —it was an extremely strange spiritual imprint, neither writing nor array, and two ancient and desolate seal characters emerged from the remnants of their annihilated souls:
"Truth"
Those two characters seemed to be woven from the black and gold patterns of the origin of the Epoch Origin. They were only revealed for a few breaths before they gently shattered in the wind, like dust drifting into the void, turning into a silent echo.
Yan Yue frowned slightly, and with a flick of her fingertip, all the remaining fragments of soul power were gathered into Xi Guang's palm. Then, she said in a calm yet alert voice:
"That is— the Fate Soul Lock Seal of the True Word Extremity Hall."
Before she could finish speaking, Wang Long glared at her, a raging fire rising in his soul.
"Hmph, to actually place locks on these shapeshifters, the True Word Extremity Hall is far too insidious!"
His Fate Pressure Wheel Seal had not yet dissipated; within the five wheels, a black-gold vortex still quietly rotated, seemingly tracing the remaining logic of those two words.
Qin Yu's eyes darkened as he surveyed the Space Silence surroundings and slowly spoke:
"The portrait they mentioned before they died... must have been the prelude to their trap set by the True Word Extremity Hall."
He glanced down at the wisp of shattered soul energy in his palm. Within that soul energy remained some "image-writing factors," which turned out to be a "target erasure command" manifested by the life seal.
"It seems this hunt wasn't just a trap I stumbled into; someone used my Fate Soul to set a snare, forcibly marking me as a target across the entire region."
After he finished speaking, he slowly sheathed his sword. The Source-Extinguishing Divine Sword trembled and hummed softly, as if sensing its master's anger.
Yan Yue walked to his side and whispered:
"We must be even more cautious from now on."
Wang Long and Lin Yun stood still, nodding solemnly.
Within the luminous mist high above, the lingering traces of Fate Soul had quietly vanished, as if they had never existed.
The battlefield remained silent, with only the lingering killing intent and the aftershocks of the life seal in the air silently telling the story—this encirclement and killing of Qin Yu had only just begun.
Just then, Qin Yu and his group soared through the air, and amidst the layers of clouds, a dreamlike scene quietly appeared before them. It was a wondrous space that seemed to exist independently of the Heavenly Emanation Treasure Realm, as if it had been cut out by some unknown logic and deliberately hidden in the folds and gaps of the middle spatial structure.
This space floated silently above the abyss of void. At first glance, it was only guided by a faint light. However, the moment Qin Yu and his companions stepped into it, the entire world suddenly burst forth with a purple light like a waterfall of stars.
Before them lay a vast, boundless, dreamlike, and enchanting crimson spiritual abyss flower realm.
Purple mist, like smoke, covered the entire sky and earth. Each wisp of mist contained dreamlike petals from the ancient Soul Realm, as if they could penetrate thoughts and seep into the sea of consciousness.
The ground was covered with exotic flowers in full bloom. The heart of each flower shone with spiritual light, as clear as a crystal of the soul. Star patterns danced lightly among them, and talismans automatically formed Fate Soul spell arrays between the flower stamens. Some flower vines even extended into the void, resonating with the fragments of laws floating in the sky, emitting faint spiritual sounds, like songs and sighs.
The surrounding trees were towering, their branches coiling like serpents. The crowns of each spiritual tree converged into clusters of purple mist, resembling nebulae, within which floated countless golden soul threads, connecting to a gigantic, illusory crescent moon in the sky. That crescent moon emitted a soft, ethereal purple glow, bathing the entire flower realm in a tranquility and beauty that transcended words.
"... What a beautiful place." Lin Yun sighed softly. Even though his cultivation had reached the Primordial Void Realm · Supreme, he still felt a sense of tranquility, as if his soul had been cleansed, in this world.
Wang Long frowned slightly, his gaze fixed on the crescent moon in the sky. "Something's not right... This space is too quiet, and these flowers... Each one contains extremely strong fluctuations of rules, like some kind of..." He didn't finish his sentence because he had already realized that this was not a truly peaceful place, but a closed training ground where the "rules structure had been repeatedly refined."
Yan Yue gently raised her hand, a wisp of Annihilation Dawn light appearing between her fingers. She whispered, "These flowers didn't grow; they were sculpted by 'some being' using their soul power... This entire flower realm is a vast illusionary domain composed of Fate Soul."
Qin Yu didn't stop walking. After looking around, he nodded. "I sense it... deep within this flower realm, there's some extremely strong fluctuation inducing a resonance between souls."
He narrowed his eyes, his pupils, reflecting the Return to the Abyss and the broken ring, trembled slightly.
"Let's go... Whether this place is real or an illusion, or a trap, we must step inside."
The four stepped into the depths of the Flower Realm. Along the way, the blooming soul flowers seemed to sense their presence, turning their petals and casting faint yet strange beams of Fate Soul around them, like ancient gods watching over them, or like ancient flower spirits mourning them.
The group trod across fields of soul flowers shimmering with Ziling glow. With each step, the petals trembled, as if whispering, as if moaning. And in that eerie stillness, the mist ahead suddenly rippled—
It was a deep, ancient stone culvert, almost completely obscured by dense vines and spiritual patterns. If Qin Yu hadn't had sharp eyes and keen senses, he would have had no chance of discovering that there was a hidden path leading to the underground.
This culvert seemed to be a wound torn from the very origin of the Heavenly Emanation Treasure Realm. Its entrance was embedded beneath the earth's veins, and the surrounding spiritual flowers stopped at its edge, as if even these spiritual beings dared not approach it even slightly.
What was most chilling was the faint, mournful cry emanating from deep within the cave entrance.
The sound was neither a cry for help from an ordinary person nor a roar from a ferocious beast, but a whisper mixed with the detachment of the soul, the collapse of existence, and the disorder of destiny, like the lingering echo of a soul bound between the fragments of the Fate Realm, gradually fading away over the long years.
"Click--"
A faint cracking sound suddenly came from somewhere underground, as if some rules were being peeled away little by little.
Qin Yu frowned slightly, his eyes flashing with a deep aura, and he said in a deep voice, "Prepare for battle."
His tone was not harsh, but it was like a divine decree; everyone immediately stopped and assumed a fighting stance.
Yan Yue took a half step forward, her palms slightly open, and a dazzling silver battle dress, as radiant as starlight and frost, slowly appeared on her body. It was the "Radiant Starfrost Robe". As the power of Annihilation Dawn spread, the colors of the entire flower world were instantly obscured, leaving only the Ji Ran radiance emanating from Yan Yue's body, like a galaxy hanging upside down above the sea of flowers, exquisitely beautiful and sharp.
"I have activated my Fate Soul Domain," she whispered, Recognition Annihilation Silent Wheel appeared behind her.
Wang Long let out a deep shout, and the five layers of black and gold wheel seals behind him suddenly appeared, slowly rotating like the Realm Splitting seals of the Wheel of Fate, causing the ground beneath his feet to tremble slightly. He said in a deep voice, "Fate Pressure - Rift Wheel is in place."
Lin Yun clasped his hands together, and a fragment of his Fate Soul, glowing with silver-blue flames, appeared in his palm. It was the seed of a soul array inherited from his clan. He whispered, "If any evil spirits appear before me, I will burn their consciousness."
Qin Yu slowly stepped forward, and with a flick of his right hand, a dark, cold, and ethereal black-gold longsword, seemingly piercing through the very rules of the universe, appeared—
The Source-Extinguishing Divine Sword.
As the sword's edge first appeared, the world seemed to freeze for a moment. Pale golden cracks of rules quietly spread through the void, each one like a prelude to an inevitable annihilation.
"The target is unknown, and the rules are unstable," Qin Yu said in a low voice.
"But wherever that lament comes from—"
"If it's a trap, I'll break it."
"If it is a remnant spirit, I will save it."
As he spoke, he pointed his sword at the deep cave entrance ahead. Eight broken marks appeared on the Source-Extinguishing Divine Sword beside him, transforming into a nine-ring sword imprint. The Fate-Cause lines around his body quietly activated, as if the entire world's destiny chart was unfolding beneath his feet.
Without further hesitation, the five stepped into the dark cave entrance one by one.
With Yan Yue accompanying him, the silver-clad Xing Shuang seemed to dance lightly in the depths. Wang Long and Lin Yun guarded him on either side, while Qin Yu held the Source-Extinguishing Divine Sword, his divine sense constantly spreading forward, step by step, stepping into the depths of that mournful sound. It was a path of Fate Soul that even the Heavenly Emanation Treasure Realm itself had never recorded.
And within that cave, something that had been dormant seemed to be slowly opening its eyes.