"Madness is the root cause of denying the logic of the world..."
Qin Yu in that completely collapsed, illogically chaotic spatial prison, the ground beneath his feet stripped of its "right to exist," each step landing on an "unwritten page of the world," as if he had fallen into the corner of an unfinished scroll of eternal night.
However, the Source-Extinguishing Divine Sword had already appeared in the sky, and as its blade trembled slightly, eleven hidden boundary-severing runes slowly emerged.
The leader—[Sever the Void in a Single Thought]—slowly lit up before the black and red soul flames and the mad logic.
"Madness arises from confused thoughts; sever those thoughts and destroy their structure."
Qin Yu spoke softly, his Spiritual Sense rippling like water around him. With the power of the Fate Soul Source Brush, he expanded his sea of consciousness to its Limit and activated the Divine Sword - One Severance.
[Sever the Void in a Single Thought]--
Instant start!
--boom!!!
With a tremor at the tip of the sword, an indescribable sword beam burst forth!
That was neither light nor energy, but a "model of the annihilation of thought," like a black line burning in the silence, flying out from Qin Yu's hand and precisely piercing through the brow of the madman Mo Da!
--His consciousness center collapsed directly!
--The hierarchical chain of ideas has broken!
--The logic of action has lost its "pre-concept"!
Boom!!!
Mo Da's body suddenly froze!
The endless soul flames and domain were spreading wildly, but they stopped at this moment!
"Wha... what happened...?"
Mo Da roared, his tone no longer that of an ordinary person, but a strange "structural noise," like the howl of thousands of fractured Fate Soul collapsing at the same time.
Qin Yu gave him no respite.
--The Source-Extinguishing Divine Sword trembles once more!
[Sever the Cause, Preventing Birth] -- Unlocked!
The release of this second move directly severed the "causal core chain" between Mo Da's massive soul flame link and the skill activation mechanism, that is, it "deleted" the cause of his skill activation from his ability's logical structure!
"Buzz buzz--!"
The entire torrent of soul flames stagnated and stopped in the void, and then... it disintegrated on its own, turning into wisps of black dust that drifted down from the void without a sound.
"This... is impossible!!"
Mo Da roared hysterically, desperately mobilizing all the "domain-forming causal cores" in an attempt to summon the Annihilation Abyss Soul Tide once more!
However, Qin Yu's divine sword was not limited to this.
The third technique – [Sever the Epoch Without a Trace].
The sword's edge was as sharp as a monument, slashing horizontally!
At that moment, the entire "Annihilation Abyss Soul-Refining Realm" suddenly came to a standstill!
It was as if someone had turned over a blank page of a book that had never been written on, completely tearing away Mo Da's "record of existence".
The next second--
BOOM!!!
The [Annihilation Abyss Soul-Refining Realm] collapsed from its center, and all structural components shattered!
Soul Island collapses!
Countless mutated souls hanging there instantly turned into streams of fragmented light, resembling "data gibberish"!
Everything... I no longer remember the logic behind the existence of "Madman Mo Da"!
"Who I am...?!"
Mo Da roared, his self-defined existence in his sea of consciousness was shattering wildly, and the entire "chain of self-logic" was collapsing into countless antonyms under the influence of "Sever the Epoch Without a Trace"!
"No!!! I'm not...!! I am..."
The fourth move!
[Sever Fate, Cut Off Return!]
--Qin Yu slashed down with his sword, and with the force of a falling sky and a splitting earth, completely sealed off the Fate Soul trajectory of "Mo Da"!
Sever all possible cycles of birth and death, reincarnation paths, reconstructions of Fate-Cause, and rewriting of logic... Sever them all!
"You, upon death, will not be reincarnated."
Boom--!!!
At that moment, Mo Da's Fate Soul was completely extinguished in his sea of consciousness.
Even if the body is still fighting, its "place of belonging" no longer exists.
He became a corpse that the world refused to accept.
But Qin Yu did not stop.
Because he understands...
Madness doesn't end in injury, but rather in the "denial" of cognition.
Fifth move – [Sever the Soul in Nine Silences].
The sword tip was raised, hidden in the deepest part of the sea of consciousness. Nine beams of soul light emerged like nine petals of a black lotus, slashing layer by layer into the still dying soul of "Mo Da".
Each strike represents one of the nine levels of the Soul Consciousness Realm.
[Divine Consciousness External Consciousness], [Qi Consciousness Echo], [Primal Desire Reflection Consciousness], [Time Stagnation Consciousness], [Soul Core Reflection], [Skill Casting Consciousness], [True Thought Resolve Consciousness], [Reincarnation Reflection Consciousness], [Source Consciousness Tracing Back].
After the nine cuts.
Mo Da's figure exploded into nothingness and silence.
Even corpses have been deprived of the right to be preserved by the world.
Silence fell over the room.
Apart from the lingering light of the divine sword in Qin Yu's hand, with its black wisps swirling as if still unbroken, there was still a trace of light emanating from it.
The blue-green mist trembled slightly, as if—it was afraid.
The mad beast— Mo Da, the Lord of Soul Annihilation Prison—was utterly destroyed.
Qin Yu, without touching the Azure Ring, used only himself and the Source-Extinguishing Divine Sword to erase the Mad Demon Source Body from the story.
He gently sheathed his sword and looked up at the sky.
The mist churned, as if retreating an inch in fear.
As the earth-shattering roar faded into complete silence, the afterimage of Mo Da, the Lord of Soul Annihilation Prison, slowly dissipated in the world, as if it had been erased from the "conceptual layer" by eternity. At this moment, Qin Yu still stood amidst the scorched earth of Annihilation Blood, holding the Source-Extinguishing Divine Sword, the remaining Soul-Severing Radiance on the blade trembling slightly.
And at that moment--
"Hmm..."
Qin Yu's pupils contracted slightly as he saw that the area beneath his feet, which had been completely enveloped by the blue-green mist, was beginning to slowly recede.
The blue-green mist, like a suppressed tide, was so dense that it almost distorted space, but it melted away quietly, like ice and snow meeting fire!
The ground, which had been blurred and jagged, became clear, and the forest landscape, which had seemed like a dream, reappeared; the ridges, vines, and ancient trees that had been covered in mist also reappeared, as if they had been pulled back to reality from a dream.
Qin Yu spread his divine sense and discovered that not only the area beneath his feet, but also the mist within a radius of dozens of miles around him, was dissipating in a chain reaction as "Mo Da" Annihilation.
This is no coincidence.
His expression hardened, his gaze deepened, and his eyes reflected the faint ripples of cause and effect behind the mist. "Indeed... this mist is not without source."
"But instead..."
Qin Yu murmured softly, "The existential pollution released by these 'mutated madmen'."
In other words... every single berserk beast is the core of a 'mysterious mist source core'.
"Only by eliminating them one by one can the fog over the entire Soul Cavern Dense Forest be truly cleared."
Thinking of this, he couldn't help but grip the divine sword in his hand tighter.
Just as he was pondering this, the ground beneath his feet trembled slightly.
"Whoosh--"
As the fog receded, a glimmer of starlight emerged from the ground. It was a fragment of an ancient stele that had long been obscured by the thick fog, inscribed with incomplete Fate Soul characters and Epoch Origin seals, faintly revealing the aura of a primordial seal.
Qin Yu stared intently, his heart jolting. "It's... part of an early sealing formation?"
"Then I guessed correctly, the entire Soul Cavern Dense Forest is a massive sealing system, and the mad beasts are the core that corrupts this formation."
He slowly raised his head and looked towards the deeper dense forest ahead, where the fog was still as thick as an abyss, with countless ripples constantly surging, as if suppressing something even more terrifying.
"If 'Mo Da' is just one of the outer guards, then the central area—"
"Perhaps it is..."
"That, which was once sealed away--"
Qin Yu's mind trembled slightly, and he dared not think too deeply about it. Even Venerable Lord Tong Ning and Hall Master Yan Xu had not mentioned the true name of the sealed object.
"I must continue investigating."
"Only by completely eradicating these mad demonic entities can there be a glimmer of hope to avert the calamity that began with Source of Epochless."
Without saying a word, he slung the Source-Extinguishing Divine Sword back over his shoulder and took a step forward.
A blue-green mist gently dispersed beneath his feet.
A gentle breeze stirs between heaven and earth, and the last glimmer of stars twinkles, seemingly proclaiming—
... In the Soul Cavern Dense Forest, on the western side of the Annihilation Domain, lies a scorched battlefield where the mist has cleared.
The air still carried a faint smell of burning souls, and on the mottled and broken ground, traces of the previous battle that tore the earth apart remained, with cracks spreading out in layers, like broken remnants of fate. The once nightmarish blue-green mist had now completely dissipated within a radius of dozens of miles, like the receding tide of a calamity.
Just then, accompanied by a spatial fluctuation, "whoosh--whoosh--whoosh--" six figures suddenly swept down from the sky and landed in this place where the mist dissipated.
The newcomers were three men and three women, all dressed in the robes of the Annihilating Thought Return Hall, their robes emblazoned with the highly recognizable "Silent Thoughts Ring" and "Annihilation Return Seal," and bearing the palace's insignia at their waists. They rode on Soul Seal Shuttles, their auras flowing freely, all true disciples of Source of Epochless. At a glance, their cultivation levels ranged from the Annihilation Source Realm · Middle Stage to the No Consciousness Realm · Initial Stage, none of them ordinary individuals.
"The fog in this area—it really has dissipated?" one of the young men in white robes exclaimed, his voice filled with shock.
"That's impossible. The mist barrier in the Soul Cavern Dense Forest has never dissipated on its own since it appeared. Even when the elders of this hall joined forces, they could only suppress it slightly..."
"Look, who's that?"
The leader's gaze sharpened, and the others followed suit.
In the very center of the desolate, scorched earth, a solitary figure stood proudly.
He was a young man dressed in a plain black and gray battle suit, his aura as deep and restrained as a bottomless abyss. He carried a long sword on his back, the scabbard still faintly burning with the gray-black flames that had not yet been extinguished. His face was as white as jade, his expression calm. One hand was behind his back, and the other hand gently stroked the hilt of his sword, as if he had just returned from the battlefield of the annihilation realm, silently gazing at the distant horizon where the mist was receding.
That sword—it was the Source-Extinguishing Divine Sword. Its blade was not yet drawn, but its aura had already shaken the entire scene.
"Who... who is he?" one of the women with sharp eyes asked in a low voice.
Another short-haired female disciple stared at the young man. "Didn't you guys feel it? The residual energy fluctuations in the air here are completely different from the Annihilation Origin Soul Pressure released by that mutated troll just now. This place... has been cleared out."
"You mean—it was him who killed that mad beast?"
The air froze instantly.
A male disciple holding a spirit-testing tablet also looked up, his voice trembling with disbelief. "The array shows that there was indeed an extremely strong disturbance of Fate Soul here just now... at the level of annihilation-level suppression."
"Only techniques that destroy the enemy at the very beginning of the conception can create this logical vacuum effect!"
"It was him... He just fought the berserk beast and completely slayed it!"
Upon hearing this, the six men tensed up instantly and looked at the young man warily.
The leader finally spoke, his tone tentative yet extremely restrained and polite. "Fellow Daoist, may I ask which temple you come from? We are disciples of the Annihilating Thought Return Hall's patrol team. I am Lin Feng. We are here on orders to assist in investigating and clearing out the anomalies in the Soul Cavern Dense Forest. I hope you will forgive our abruptness."
The man called "Lin Feng" was about thirty years old. He had a calm demeanor and his cultivation had reached the middle stage of the Annihilation Source Realm, making him one of the best among the disciples in the area. He looked at the Source-Extinguishing Divine Sword behind Qin Yu with a slightly complicated expression, and his tone clearly carried a hint of awe.
"Fellow Daoist..."
"But you— Annihilation the maddened beasts of this place?"
All eyes turned to Qin Yu.
At this moment, Qin Yu had already shed his original title as a temple guard, adopting the alias "Mo Chen," and his identity remained a secret. Without Azure Ring's permission, no one could investigate him.
His eyes narrowed slightly, and he spoke softly, his voice as clear and gentle as the moonlight.
"... I have dealt with the monstrous beasts that inhabited this place."
As for my identity... Nameless to give.
After speaking, he calmly stepped aside, displaying neither power nor arrogance, yet all six people present felt an indescribable chill after his brief remark.
It was a sense of oppression emanating from the soul, as if being scrutinized by a high-ranking deity, making it impossible to breathe.
Lin Feng's expression changed slightly, and he quickly clasped his hands and bowed slightly. "Please forgive us, senior... it was our over-argumentation."
The other five also bowed their heads in respect, not daring to offend in the slightest.
They already understood in their hearts that this young man before them was someone even the elders of the Annihilating Thought Return Hall might not underestimate!
"We'll take our leave now... so as not to disturb your business, senior."
Qin Yu nodded slightly, turned around and strode away, gradually stepping into the depths of the still-lingering misty forest.
Behind him, the disciples still watched his departing figure with lingering fear, as if witnessing a mysterious demon slayer stepping into this world from beyond the Epoch Origin.