At the Annihilation Abyss Prayer Platform, space fluctuated once more.
As the robes of the Hall Master Yan Xu billowed, a crystal core, clear and translucent, teeming with countless runes, slowly emerged from his palm.
The crystal core had no physical form, yet it seemed to transcend the boundaries of reality, floating and rotating in the void, like a "miniature universe" solidified with cause and effect, time sequence, and Fate Soul.
Within the crystal core, life trajectories flowed and intertwined like golden threads, while deep blue "time ripples" crisscrossed among them. Furthermore, countless Soul Rend imprints, conceptualizers, causal anchors, and identity pseudo-writing talismans swirled around the crystal core, as if the entire structural logic of the Source of Epochless had been compressed and sealed within it.
The Hall Master Yan Xu slowly handed over the crystal core, his gaze extremely solemn:
"Qin Yu, this is the core of the Eternal Evolution Realm Hall [God Origin Crystal Core]."
"This core was refined by me at the cost of three centuries of cultivation and the Origin Framework four realms. It can only be used once."
"Once you integrate this item into your sea of consciousness, it will construct a complete pseudo-layer of identity logic for you, allowing you to transform into the appearance and soul frequency of another cultivator from another Epoch Origin when you step into the Soul Cavern Dense Forest."
"This is a complete forgery, not an illusion, concealment, or magical disguise, but a genuine rewriting of every component, from the Fate Soul, cause and effect, time sequence, breathing rhythm, and the cycle of consciousness."
Qin Yu took the crystal core and held it in his palm. He immediately felt as if he were in a time vortex, and heard the whispers of countless identities intertwined in his ears.
At this moment, Venerable Lord Tong Ning also stepped forward, his voice carrying a faint, suppressed divine warning:
"We will publicly declare: You were not involved in the Soul Cavern matter."
"This is for two reasons: safety and to facilitate your covert investigation. The recent anomaly in Soul Cavern involves far more than just the madness of soul beasts; we suspect there might be some kind of cross-generational causal triggering mechanism behind it."
"This includes the True Word Extremity Hall, the Returning Consciousness Clan, branches within the Law God Origin Court... and even some ancient bloodline groups, all of which could potentially be involved."
Yan Xu continued:
"We dispatched you precisely because you are not of any Ancient Clan bloodline, divine lineage, or recorded legacy; you are an 'outsider.'"
"He is also the only one who can observe this matter from 'outside the main order'."
His gaze flashed like thunder, and his tone grew increasingly heavy:
"You must always remember that you do not represent any temple, Lineage, or even the Eternal Evolution Realm Hall."
"You only represent 'the existence of the Source of Epochless' itself. Go and see if the mist in the Soul Cavern Dense Forest is still part of the Epoch Origin of Nothingness, or if it has become an alien component 'outside the main order'."
These words immediately created an extremely tense atmosphere.
Qin Yu stared at the "God Origin Crystal Core" in his palm for a long time before finally nodding slowly and pressing it into his mind's eye.
In an instant, the Tree of the Void in his sea of consciousness trembled, countless soul patterns emerged, and the divine core quietly merged into the causal ring at the center of his Consciousness Realm, perfectly matching his own destiny chart and constructing a completely new "fake destiny":
--Identity changed, soul channel overturned.
From this moment on, he will no longer be recognized as "Qin Yu" by any observer from the outside world.
At this moment, Tong Ning slowly withdrew her aura and whispered:
"You have transcended the limitations of fame."
"Qin Yu, from this moment on, everything you see, investigate, and kill... belongs to the 'hidden pages' of the Book of Heavenly Fate."
The Hall Master Yan Xu Palace turned away with a flick of his sleeve, leaving behind only a thunderous voice:
"May you act for Epoch Origin; if the Soul Mist Realm Devouring, then cleave the heavens with your sword."
The Hall Master Yan Xu and Venerable Lord Tong Ning stood side by side atop the Annihilation Abyss Prayer Platform. The wind howled, the boundary flames flickered, and strands of causal threads swirled in the void as serene as an ink painting.
Qin Yu stood before the two men, his expression extremely solemn.
He bowed respectfully, his voice firm yet composed:
"Junior Qin Yu... accepts the order."
"If, on this journey to the Soul Cavern, all the souls ahead stir in unison, and if the fog disrupts the order of things, this junior will take up this destiny map and surge upwards against the tide."
"We will live up to the trust placed in us by our lord and fulfill our mission of perpetuating the dynasty."
The Hall Master Yan Xu nodded slightly, his gaze as deep as a galaxy, and said softly:
"Go, 'Nameless One'."
"What you see will be Epoch Origin's vision."
Venerable Lord Tong Ning, slowly closed her eyes. When she opened them again, a diagram of the wheel of fate faintly appeared deep within her pupils. She whispered:
May you still recognize your true self even in the fog.
Qin Yu took a deep breath. The "God Origin Crystal Core" in his sea of consciousness had been fully integrated, the soul frequency conversion was complete, and a brand new destiny trajectory had been written into the logic of reality.
He stood up, his robes billowing, and said no more.
With a turn of his head, he gently flicked his right hand through the air, and a teleportation portal resembling etched lines of gold appeared in mid-air.
The swirling imprints and intersecting life paths revealed the outline of the Soul Cavern Dense Forest within the teleportation portal, with layers of thick fog rolling like a tide.
Qin Yu looked back and saw that on the prayer platform, the two powerful figures at the peak of the Silent Profundity were standing silently in the wind, watching him leave.
His eyes darkened, and he stepped into the doorway.
As soon as he finished speaking, he vanished into the void.
"I'll take my leave."
Space collapsed like a shattered mirror, and all Ji Ran.
The Source of Epochless thus begins, unveiling the mysteries of the Soul Cavern.
The sky was overcast, with wisps of fog. The wind blew from the corner of the city, carrying a faint smell of blood and an indistinguishable chill from the direction of the Soul Cavern Dense Forest.
The most famous teahouse in the main city, "Nine-Story Wind-Watching Tower," was still packed with people.
The building is entirely cast from necropolis stone, with nine layers of eaves that resemble overlapping waves. Amidst the flowing mist, it appears as an observation tower floating between reality and dreams.
On the fifth floor, in a corner by the window, a young man in a blue robe was quietly holding a cup and listening to the wind.
He had a handsome face, understated features, and a calm expression, yet he always gave off an air of aloofness that seemed impossible to fathom.
--He was Qin Yu, who was using the alias [Mo Chen].
His soul frequency had changed, and his aura had been concealed. Any divine sense scan that landed on him could only produce a vague judgment of "Mid-stage No Consciousness Realm".
The teacup on the table glowed with a pale green light; it was Jiecha tea, "Xingliaohua," which tasted sweet with a slight bitterness and carried a cool sensation mixed with mist.
As he quietly sipped his drink, two cultivators at the next table began to speak in hushed tones, their voices filled with suppressed fear:
"Have you heard? Something's happened in the Soul Cavern Dense Forest."
"Not only are there monster riots, but I've also heard that people bitten by those crazed monsters will mutate!"
"Mutation?" The other person's brow twitched, and he asked in surprise, "What do you mean? Poisoning?"
The speaker swallowed hard and lowered his voice:
"No... it's a soul collapse."
"Once bitten, the mind is immediately disturbed, the Fate Soul goes wild and chaotic, and then... it will actively attack all living things, even its own family."
The other person looked horrified:
"How... how do you know so much detail?"
The man leaned closer, as if he were discussing some forbidden secret:
"My cousin, who works in the Spirit Pattern Bureau, told me that those mutated cultivators... weren't poisoned at all, but rather their 'consciousness chains' were reconstructed by some kind of soul mist, turning them into 'Mist Slave.'"
"Moreover, even if they are severely injured, their Fate Soul will not dissipate; the source of mist within their bodies must be completely burned away before they will truly Annihilation."
Mo Chen —that is, Qin Yu —slightly trembled the teacup between his fingers.
[Fog source]...?
Reconstruction of the consciousness chain, alienation of the soul mist, and Mist Slave?
All of this is extremely similar to the annihilation structure, but it has an additional unknown and extremely difficult-to-intervene external logic.
The deeper meaning is quite clear: the fog is not merely a natural phenomenon.
It already possesses the advanced ability to "interfere with the soul and reconstruct the Fate-Cause".
Just then, a commotion suddenly arose downstairs.
Several cultivators dressed in the inner robes of the [Void Law Realm Hall] strode past Wind and Cloud Street, holding Soul-Suppressing Chains and Severing Consciousness Seals in their hands, their auras urgent and their expressions grim.
A citizen on the street corner was discussing:
"Looks like they're going to meet up with the exploration team that just escaped from the Soul Cavern Dense Forest. Apparently, the rest of them have all gone mad..."
Mo Chen slowly rose, gently placed the teacup back in its place, flicked his sleeves, and quietly walked down from the Wind-Watching Tower.
The wind picked up again. The fog remained obscured.
But his gaze had already penetrated to the deepest part of the Soul Cavern Dense Forest, tens of thousands of miles away.
Fog does more than just obscure vision.
"It's devouring logic."
"Devouring... Fate Soul."
Without pausing, he walked along the street, quietly embarking on the path into the forest that belonged only to "undercover investigators."
The pale blue sky had long been replaced by a strange color, a blue-green glow like decaying ice or swamp mist, rising from the depths of the Soul Cavern Dense Forest, as if a "behemoth of destiny" that had slumbered for millennia was slowly awakening.
In the air, Qin Yu stood on the void, his aura extremely subdued, his figure almost imperceptible.
He looked down and saw that the entire Soul Cavern Dense Forest seemed to have transformed into a furnace of Fate Soul stretching for hundreds of thousands of miles:
Screams echoed through the forest, blood splattered like arrows, and countless soul beasts fought madly.
Some soul beasts have lost their original form, their eyes are blue, their joints are cracked, and a second head grows out of their flesh and blood, or strange tentacles, talisman chains, and misplaced spirit seals.
Even more terrifying is that these mutated soul beasts can forcibly devour and absorb the Fate Soul chains of their kin as "nourishment" when they tear them apart!
"... This is a resonance and replacement of the Fate Soul... but... a 'mutual devouring attack' built on flawed logic?"
Qin Yu frowned slightly, his right middle finger twitched, and a wisp of his soul quietly shot out, entering a corner of the mist.
The next instant, countless illusions interwoven with ciphertext and structure appeared in his eyes:
[Soul Contamination Marker Found]
[Fate Soul Division: Chaotic Abyss - Mist Structure]
[The Law of Chain Reconstruction: Heterogeneous Attacks]
[Target State: Consensus Breakdown, Logical Shift, Causality Reversal]
[Deduction result: The host's soul core will be affected, and its "reason for existence" will be automatically rewritten over time.]
That mist is interfering with the "soul core components" of all living beings, and even maliciously rewriting their most primordial **"logic of existence".
"It's not just madness... it's a complete rewrite."
"This level of Fate Soul contamination is no longer a chaotic anomaly in nature, but an intrusive component of higher-dimensional intelligence... It's similar to the bizarre, yet not quite bizarre."
The phantom of the "Book of Fate Law" appeared deep in his eyes, and the Realm Severing Origin Brush trembled slightly in his sea of consciousness, as if it too had sensed a strange, powerful, and unwriteable source of fear.
Just then, a Soul Xiao Chi Serpent, a thousand feet long, rolled out from the edge of the dense forest. Its scales were already shattered, and its wings were a bloody mess. It roared madly and tore the other White-Winged Soul Hou to shreds.
In that instant, the mist emanating from its body automatically rose into the air, like mist threads with "autonomy," attempting to invade the surrounding dimensions of consciousness!
Qin Yu raised his right hand, and the Book of Fate Law appeared, its brush tip pointing:
"Fate Trajectory Profiling"
A golden ray descended like a celestial seal, freezing the wisp of mist in mid-air.
He stared at its soul core structure, and a complex, broken chain-like structure appeared in his pupils:
"... The chain of destiny has been altered to 'Birth Cause: Nourished by the Mist, Target: Contaminated Components,' which is not just a logical distortion... it's a rewriting of the meaning of existence."
This means that the mist not only alters biological thinking and skills, but also rewrites the "original meaning" of their existence in the world!
"Fog is not passive; it has its own will."
"It is writing..."
"And what it describes is an existence that cannot be acknowledged by any pen or ink."
At this moment, a faint whisper came from the depths of Azure Ring's mind:
"Qin Yu... behind this fog... might be that kind of power—an unwritten narrative..."
Qin Yu's heart tightened, and his gaze returned to the depths of the forest swallowed by the mist.
The Soul Cavern Dense Forest was far more terrifying than he had imagined.
There, it wasn't just the ruins of a battle.
That is, the deities beyond writing are awakening.