Starlight Illusory Realm, a sea of flowers like a tide, a timeless dream.
Qin Yu and Yao Zhiyan walked slowly along the star-studded path through the forest, its reflection shimmering in the water. The flowers beneath their feet shimmered with a pale golden-blue light, as if they were walking on a dreamlike scroll woven with light. There was no danger or fluctuation of energy in their surroundings, yet a mysterious and indescribable force constantly lingered within them.
It was as if the heavens and earth were silently observing their every step in some way.
Suddenly--
The flower grove ahead was slightly open and closed.
A figure slowly appeared as the meteor streaked through the branches.
She stood beneath the waterfall of flowers, her silhouette ethereal. A long, dark purple robe trailed on the ground, embroidered with the reflection of Star Abyss and the faint imprint of the Heavenly Palace. Her lotus-like steps shone brightly, leaving behind ripples of destiny as thin as sand in the void.
The woman was draped in a magnificent veil adorned with divine patterns, obscuring her features. She seemed to exist somewhere between "narratives of an era and musings from a dream."
Qin Yu stopped immediately, his gaze sharpening, the Fate Brush and divine sword hidden in his sleeve already concealed in his palm.
Yao Zhiyan unconsciously held her breath, watching the figure approach in the light.
"You... are not people who should have been born in this world."
The woman's voice was calm, yet carried a prophetic quality, "But you have come... This is her will drawing you closer."
Qin Yu's brow twitched.
"She?"
The mysterious woman nodded slightly, her tone subtly changing, and a deeper meaning deepened in her eyes:
"You are currently in [Starlight Illusory Realm - Star Abyss Forecourt]."
"This is the 'Steps to the Star Abyss' left behind by that great one, and it is also the 'Soul Consciousness Guiding Court' that she condensed with a single thought."
"We are the followers of this place."
We are all... waiting for her to look down upon us again.
She gently extended her finger and pointed it into the air, and a star-shaped mark spread out in the sky.
Within the mark, a blurry divine figure emerged: she stood atop the eternal starry sky, draped in star feathers, with phoenix patterns reflected in her heart, and held in her hand a feather flame capable of tearing apart the trajectory of fate, while behind her lay a world beyond description.
Yao Zhiyan exclaimed instinctively, "Who is this...?"
Qin Yu's gaze was visibly shaken.
At that moment—he remembered a name.
The one Azure Ring once mentioned, the one who protected Yan Yue, the one remembered by "Emptiness and the Threshold Origin".
She is the ruler of the Void Realm. But he denied it.
Huayan's location is currently far beyond his reach, how could she possibly be here?
She is the "narrativeless will" that exists outside the Fate Book and above existence.
Seeing the shocked expressions on Qin Yu and Yao Zhiyan, the woman slowly uttered that heart-wrenching vow:
"The being we worship has not given us a name, nor bestowed upon us a divine position."
"But we are willing to serve her as our Lord, even for a moment's devotion, a single moment's overlook."
"In this Star Abyss Forecourt, there is only one way to approach her 'Soul Brand Light'."
She paused, her eyes gleaming with a morbidly devout light:
"Gain her 'approval' and become her soul slave."
--Soul slave.
Those who are not bound by the contract are not servants, but rather "controlling beings" to whom the essence of the soul belongs.
They are not worshippers, but those who are obsessed with their original source.
The woman stepped forward, her robes fluttering, and slowly opened her arms, bowing slightly as if in prayer to some unseen, great will:
"Do you... also want to see her?"
"Do you also want to be written into her story?"
"If you wish to belong—then follow me into the Star Abyss."
Flower petals fall, starlight shines like mist.
The mysterious woman stood quietly amidst the blooming flowers and starry path, her veil flowing, her radiance undiminished, her words still devout:
"If you wish to belong—then follow me into the Star Abyss."
However, her body showed no signs of Spiritual Qi fluctuations from beginning to end, and there was no indication of her Fate Soul circulating.
At that moment, Qin Yu's brows furrowed sharply.
He suddenly sensed something was wrong.
His senses were not obscured—in fact, upon arriving at the woman's location, he "could not detect any fluctuations in her spiritual consciousness."
It's not just silence, it's—"Does Not Exist".
She had no emotions, no warmth of soul, Does Not Exist even the most basic vibrations of consciousness.
It was as if what stood before me was not a living being, but a rewritten fragment of consciousness.
Qin Yu slowly raised his eyes and spoke in a deep voice:
"Are you... alive?"
The woman did not answer.
Her expression remained unchanged beneath the veil, and she mechanically repeated the same sentence:
"If you wish to belong... then follow me into the Star Abyss."
This time, not even her eyes showed any emotion.
Yao Zhiyan took a step back in shock and whispered, "Senior brother... is she already dead?"
"There's absolutely no trace of soul energy on her..."
"I feel like... like an empty shell... being controlled by some force."
Qin Yu's gaze deepened, his divine soul quietly circulated, and the Book of Fate Law within his sea of consciousness began to turn its pages, the golden pages gleaming brightly—
The woman's true nature was finally revealed.
[Analysis Result]:
Entity composition: non-living matter
Soul structure: Deceased
Willpower Mode: Single-line cyclical memory retention
Definition: Dead Consciousness Projection - Star Abyss Pre-Faith Entity
--She was a person who "had already died".
By some force, their appearance, behavior, and speech were forcibly preserved based on their remaining faith, making them a projection of faith in the "Star Abyss Forecourt" within the illusion.
She has no thoughts.
She has no will.
All that remained for her was her obsession and prayers for that "her".
It seemed that at the moment of her death, the only thing she was unwilling to leave behind was the desire to become her soul slave.
This wish was "acknowledged" by the essence of the Starlight Illusory Realm, and thus it was preserved, becoming part of the "guides to believers" here.
Qin Yu's eyes were icy cold as he murmured in a deep voice:
"... We were not led by her."
"But rather—she was summoned by 'her death wish'."
This is not guidance.
This is a phantom of a faith trial laid out by a higher-dimensional will.
--Not for salvation, not for acceptance.
Rather, it was for the purpose of examining:
Would you willingly offer up your "self" to follow that main soul?
Yao Zhiyan's face was pale. She quietly hid behind Qin Yu and whispered:
"She has no soul..."
"But what she said seemed to be trying to... awaken something primal within me..."
Qin Yu replied coldly, "That's 'soul imprinting,' a kind of inducing construct. She's not trying to persuade us, but slowly eroding our core logic, making us 'voluntarily' become... a part of her."
The words had barely left his mouth--
The woman suddenly raised her hand slowly, her empty eyes fixed on Qin Yu and Yao Zhiyan as she uttered the same words she had repeated a thousand times:
"If you wish to belong—then come with me..."
But this time, there was a distorted frequency in her voice.
It was as if they weren't being called.
Rather, they were trying to forcefully implant these words into their minds.
Azure Ring of light suddenly appeared, whispering coldly:
"She... is the last lingering attachment of the soul slave's original form."
"She is dead, but this thought was 'accepted' by the being she believed in and infused into the Starlight Illusory Realm."
This is a warning, but also an invitation.
Qin Yu's gaze sharpened, and he whispered:
"... We will not go with you."
The woman's expression remained unchanged.
But the moment those words were spoken—
Her body suddenly disintegrated into countless fragments of starlight!
The fragments did not scatter; instead, they transformed into a stream of light and slid deeper into the illusion.
Qin Yu's eyes were sharp and piercing.
That direction—is precisely the direction where the Star Abyss Heavenly Palace is located.
"Her last glimmer of consciousness before death... was guiding her."
He turned to look at Yao Zhiyan behind him and smiled faintly:
Are you ready?
Yao Zhiyan nodded gently, her gaze firm:
"Yes, Senior Brother Mo. Let's go."
As the starlight shifted, the scenery of the Starlight Illusory Realm suddenly changed.
Guided by the lingering light of consciousness, Qin Yu and Yao Zhiyan stepped into a completely different area—a silent, dark realm, where a giant village stood on the River of Annihilation Fire, silently nestled between the cracked earth and the River of Fire Patterns.
As they slowly approached, they saw massive black stone arch bridges piercing through the Annihilation Waterway, leading to a silent ancient land that resembled a ruined divine kingdom.
Yao Zhiyan held her breath. "Is... this a village?"
Qin Yu's eyes were deep as he answered in a deep voice:
"It's not a village; rather, it's an 'era that has been burned to the ground.'"
That was no ordinary village, but rather the remnants of an entire civilized world.
Countless dilapidated towers, broken ancient palaces, and starlight-sparkling shattered walls meander along both sides of the Fiery River of Annihilation Abyss. These structures were once glorious records, but have long been completely swallowed up by a flame that does not belong to time.
All around Silent Void, the sky was as black as ink, and only starlight fell from the distant void, landing on this scorched land, as if casting a final mournful rain of light for the dead civilization.
The entire village is made of black, flaming rock, which feels intensely hot underfoot. Beneath the flaming rock, the remnants of blood-red embers can still be seen flowing slowly, as if the memories of a world burned away still echo deep underground.
The black, crumbling tower is inscribed with broken inscriptions. The tower leans, some sections of it collapsed beside the River of Annihilation, like the forgotten skeletons of gods.
They passed by a row of stone house ruins burned to ashes, and on the roof ridges, fleeting afterimages of soul light appeared—the last echoes of the spirits that once lived here, drifting in the air before being swallowed up by an invisible Annihilation Wind and disappearing completely.
Yao Zhiyan gently grasped Qin Yu's sleeve, her voice trembling slightly:
"What... happened here...? Why is there not a single living spirit in the entire village?"
Qin Yu did not answer, but instead looked into the distance.
That was the deepest part of the village—the area where a seven-tiered black tower stood atop the Annihilation Abyss Flame.
It once seemed to be the "main temple" of the entire world, but now it is dilapidated and broken, the tower is tilted and twisted, and the fire-damaged stone pillars that support it are riddled with holes, like an alarm bell for the collapse of the world.
And just as they stepped into the depths of this ruined village—
The flames beneath their feet suddenly began to flicker.
Qin Yu's gaze sharpened, and he whispered:
"Someone's there."
But that wasn't a living "person".
Rather, it is the residual frequency of consciousness.
The entire Annihilation-Burned Village seems to harbor some kind of still-functioning "logic of the dead.
"... This place was burned by the flames of the Annihilation Abyss, which means that the people here once violated the taboos of the 'Origin of the Annihilation Abyss'."
Azure Ring's voice suddenly rang out in his mind, its tone unusually solemn:
"They were the original believers established by the Star Abyss's main soul."
"But they attempted to reverse fate and try to 'steal the Star Soul'... In the end, she personally incinerated the entire domain with the Annihilation Abyss Flame."
This is the price to pay.
"An entire civilization, because it wanted to become her... was annihilated by 'her' own hands."
The moment those words were spoken, Yao Zhiyan's gaze suddenly shifted in shock.
"She"--
The Star Abyss Master Soul who has never shown himself.
She was not merely a "receiver" of faith.
Rather, they are the Fate-Trajectory Adjudicator power.
Want to become her? Then you must first accept... her 'burning judgment'.
Qin Yu stood before the river of fire, gazing at the seven-tiered collapsing tower, and murmured in a deep voice:
"We've come to the right place."
"But this... will be the most difficult trial."
Yao Zhiyan nodded softly, her eyes showing surprise but not fear.
The two walked side by side along the burnt-out road of the village, slowly making their way towards the "forbidden area beneath the tower."