Dark clouds hung heavy, and the light of day Eternal Silence.
Qin Yu and Yao Zhiyan stood side by side, slowly stepping into this desolate, deathly world. The sky was like scorched gray paper, motionless, riddled with cracks, as if the logic of the entire world might collapse at any moment. The ground was no longer made of real soil and stone, but instead filled with flowing gray-white death mist, which condensed into semi-real, semi-illusory ley lines. Shattered spirit runes and arrays crisscrossed the ground, like distorted fragments of fate, still bearing the lingering curses of the former spirit builders.
A colossal, deathly gray metal fortress abruptly rose between heaven and earth, towering a thousand feet high. The entire barrier was forged from the bones of a molten temple, with incantations of Mieyin constantly flowing across its outer walls. Each incantation was like a weeping gaze, proclaiming the approach of death to any who came.
Just as they were about to approach the core of the fortress, suddenly—
Clang—clang—clang!!
The dense, war-drum-like sound of metallic footsteps came from the depths of the gray fog ahead, shaking heaven and earth and trembling the very soul!
The next instant, the gray mist exploded!
Three hundred Ashen Breath Guards stood in neat formation, stepping out from the cracks in the ruins. Each of them was clad in tattered Soul Machine Battle Armor, half-human, half-soul, half-machine, standing four zhang tall. Their bodies were bound by Cause Splitting chains and remnants of Spirit Evolution Flame, their heads seemingly being dragged tightly by invisible chains. As they walked, gray breath flowed continuously in all directions, like a thick fog that would engulf the logic of the entire world.
Immediately following, a figure slowly emerged from the deepest part of the gray fog.
The Lord of the Ash Blade, Lament, has finally arrived.
He stood where ruins and broken runes met, a shattered gray armor covering his entire body. Every inch of the armor was inscribed with the decaying laws of the death sequence, as if it were constructed from the annihilation of hundreds of millions of souls. His long hair, like tattered strands of soul, floated without wind. His eyes were sunken, pitch black and pupilless, as if even the concept of "gaze" had been erased. In his right hand, he dragged a broken giant blade— the Ash-Annihilating Rending Blade, its blade embedded with rifting lines. With each slight movement, the void twisted and crumbled like torn paper.
He remained silent, yet a faint Gray Spirit voice pierced through heaven and earth, reaching straight into his consciousness:
"In the past I guarded the Star Gate, today I return to ashes and uphold the law. All who step into this place— Return to Dust."
The voice was as cold and piercing as a world eulogy. Qin Yu narrowed his eyes, slowly took a step forward, and the Annihilation Origin Light in his sleeve flickered, Annihilation Soul Diagram to tremble.
Yao Zhiyan followed closely behind, her expression solemn, her fighting spirit rising.
Ahead, the Ashen Breath Guards took three steps forward in unison. In an instant, the gray crystals on the ground shone brightly, the magic array resonated, and the boundary barrier roared. The first phase of the encirclement and suppression battle, the Ashen Breath Strangulation Array, officially began!
Three hundred Ashen Breath Guards, each bound in shackles, their eyes burning with deathly gray flames. In life, they seemed to be powerful figures from various races, but now they have become puppet bodies of undead spirits. Each body possesses combat power close to that of the Annihilation Lord Realm, and they stand in neat formation behind the Lament, like judges awaiting orders.
Yao Zhiyan's expression was solemn, and a barely perceptible spark of light had already ignited in her phoenix eyes.
"This battle... will likely be far more difficult to break through than the last one," she said softly.
Qin Yu simply drew out the Source-Extinguishing Divine Sword slowly. The sword's blade was like an abyss of starry sky, and light wheel imprints slowly condensed on it.
"Now that we're here," his voice was low and cold, "This 'ashes' should be extinguished completely."
As Tonglan slowly raised her eyes, which were burning with the flames of the Ash Abyss, a hollow, deep sound, like the Ash Breath Divine Bell, suddenly resounded deep within the battlefield!
The gray mist crashed down, and the three hundred Ashen Breath Guards launched an attack simultaneously!
Their feet did not tread on solid ground, but rather on a soul-searching track woven from gray locks. Each step they took caused tremors in the gray realm, constructing a sealed ring domain called the "Ash Realm Fate-Locking Wheel of Fate"!
Layers of gray locks intertwined in the void, like an inescapable death prison!
Three hundred Ashen Breath Guards transformed into three "Consciousness-Severing Tide Ring," launching a powerful attack on Qin Yu and Yao Zhiyan in a spiral pattern!
--Qin Yu's First Realm Breaking Technique
His eyes shone like Star Abyss, and his right hand swung out the Source-Extinguishing Divine Sword—
[Source-Extinguishing Divine Sword - Sever the Realm, Leaving No Name]
The sword's edge pierced the air like lightning splitting stars!
A slash struck the core of the Gray Lock, the "Main Judgment Chain Link," and in an instant, the world went dark, and layers of gray energy structure shattered!
Every inch of the Source-Extinguishing Divine Sword's sharpness caused the void to collapse when it was unleashed. Wherever the sword's trajectory went, it was as if the world's structure was being forcibly torn apart. The Gray Dimension Logic Lock shattered like glass twisted in reverse, exploding into countless "logic particles" across multiple dimensions.
After the main chain of the gray lock shattered, the souls of over a hundred Ashen Breath Guards collapsed in resonance, the scene resembling the souls burning out in the eye of a storm!
- Yao Zhiyan's Phoenix Star Skill Counterattack
At the same time, she had already awakened her innate phoenix eyes!
[Phoenix Zenith Star Shroud, Eternal Orbit Begins]
The void reverses, and starlight blazes!
As she raised her hand, the purple-gold phoenix pattern between her brows suddenly ignited, and thousands of starlight feathers were released from her palm, forming a star-track blockade chain that forcibly locked all the second wave of Ashen Breath Guards attacking from the right into the constant orbit of cause and effect!
The star feathers spun like the wheel of time, weaving in the air to form an order totem of "fate's trajectory frozen." Those locked in were immediately plunged into a dual state of time invalidation and frozen existence logic, as if trapped in the coldest, most desolate core of the universe, before vanishing into nothingness in the star feathers' radiant light of "cause and effect explosion"!
Before the third wave of Ashen Breath Guards could fully approach, they were already reduced to ashes by the causal storms stirred up by the first two rounds of Star Soul Explosions!
- Central Government's First Action on the Tragedy
However, just as Qin Yu and Yao Zhiyan were severely injuring the Ashen Breath Guards, Tong Lan suddenly raised his twin blades in the distance, chanting a spell:
"Reverse Lock, Severed Boundary Chain Judgment, Ghostly Ashes Initiation of Trial..."
The next moment, the entire battlefield trembled!
Seven "crack locks" appeared in the entire Ashen Breath Realm Barrier space, like rings of judgment locking the entire space!
Qin Yu's expression changed drastically. "He... is about to activate the core of his domain!"
The gray light collapsed, and the cracks in the soul-searching artifact spread from the void to the surface, like a gray river network flowing backwards from the trajectory of fate!
As Tonglan's deep, death-like chanting fell, the seven rift locks transformed into seven layers of judgment rings, descending from the sky and instantly sealing the entire realm within the [Judgment Lock Ash Prison]!
The sky turned a dull gray, and even the starlight seemed to have been completely cut off.
In the entire world, only a giant eye burning with ashes and soul flames remained, hanging overhead, gazing at Qin Yu and Yao Zhiyan.
Cognitive Shackles: All enemy skills must be recognized and approved by the "Ash Prison Judgment Ring," otherwise they will be prematurely annihilated by "predictive denial."
Action Lock: All spatial jumps, time acceleration, and causal linking abilities are disabled.
Damage Retrospection: Damage value is traced back to the starting point of the skill logic; only skills that form a "complete closed loop" can hit.
At this moment, Tonglan finally drew her sword!
-Tearful Waves· Ashen Breath Judgment-Severing Blade
The twin blades forged from gray flames trembled in mid-air, unleashing a surge of gray light that formed an array resembling "Soul Judgment Inscriptions" that hurtled straight at Qin Yu!
Tonglan roared, "Within my domain, all logic must be judged by me!"
--Qin Yu's Deconstructive Response
His gaze sharpened, his aura changed abruptly, he took a step forward, and uttered in a deep voice:
"Fate Cause Master Seal - -- Destiny Seal - World Enforcement Core"
In an instant--
The Book of Fate Law emerged from the sea of consciousness, and the Source Pen suddenly began to write upon it!
In the void, a massive "Boundary Core Seal Disc" slowly rotated out, within which emerged billions of world laws, conceptual chains, and dimensional logics, all of which were reconstructed by the brushstrokes!
The whole world seemed to freeze for a moment, as if a painting had been rewritten.
The moment the Life Seal - World Enforcement Source Core descended, all enemy settings were forcibly analyzed. The "Judgment Lock Ash Prison" domain, originally dominated by Tong Lan, was stripped away inch by inch within the radiant seal core, and all world authority returned to Qin Yu!
The Ash Prison Judgment Ring has completely collapsed!
The Soul Flame Eye hanging high in the sky trembled violently as if it had been scorched by the soul, and finally exploded with a bang!
Tong Lan's face twisted in horror as he growled, "You... you actually managed to rewrite my domain settings?! Who are you?!"
-Yao Zhiyan · Star Trail Dual Movement
She didn't respond, but simply waved her sleeve and activated Star Feather again.
Phoenix Zenith Star Shroud, Phoenix Falls upon the Star Palace
The purple-gold star flames, carrying the power of the Ninefold Phoenix Flame Destiny Track, constructed a Star-Destroying Palace and fell from the sky!
Amidst the swirling phoenix feathers, a purple-gold phoenix figure pierced through the gray mist, instantly swallowing Tonglan into the depths of the exploding star core!
Boom--!!
The gray mist shattered, the Soul Lock disintegrated, and the last remaining Ashen Breath Guards were annihilated along with the Terrifying Domain!
--A mournful tide, Annihilation!
The Ashen Breath Realm Barrier collapsed! A circular engraving was revealed on the ground—it was the activation array diagram for the second Eternal Causality Crystals!
Qin Yu stepped forward, staring intently at the mysterious engraving, and murmured, "The second one... is finally broken."
Above the endless Ash Abyss, a page of the Soul Book slowly turned, its back burning with ghostly blue flames, each flame resembling the cries and twisted destinies of countless imprisoned beings.
At the summit of this swirling Soul Book, a colossal being, whose entirety could not be fully perceived, slowly revealed itself. Formless and intangible, it left a terrifying silhouette in the void—
That's the [Dawn Soul Book Prison - Fate-Annihilating Heaven-Sealer] floating and spinning in mid-air!
With each page turned, a world is destroyed; with each completed chapter of the book, the chain of cause and effect is closed.
At this moment, the pages of the Dawn Soul Book Prison suddenly stopped.
"... The second Realm Lock has been opened."
His pale, pupil-less soul eyes slowly opened, gazing at the destroyed "Ashen Breath Realm Barrier" in the distance, and the entire page began to tremble vaguely and furiously.
His voice, like the final murmur before the myriad worlds were sealed away, slowly faded away:
"I knew they were coming... but I never expected them to break through the formations one after another."
A vertical "Soul Prison Rift" then burst open in the void, like a forbidden phrase torn from the pages of the Book of Destiny.
He raised his invisible finger, like a fictional pen, and touched the crack.
Without uttering a single word, endless black flames and soul chains intertwined and coalesced into a terrifying silhouette.
--
The next instant, amidst the rumbling of the void, a being seemingly constructed from the curses of billions of dead souls slowly emerged from the depths of the "prison scars"!
His appearance resembles a fragment of a soul page; he is an "out-of-control adjudicator" abandoned by the Book Prison but not extinguished.
His aura did not belong to any soul system, nor to any kind of living logic; rather, it was a twisted existence "written but never completed."
[Soul-Rent Living Being: The Discarded Chapter Ash Wielder]
--
He wore a cloak resembling the Soul Rend prisons, and every inch of his body was engraved with the four fragmented characters "Annihilation," "Crack," "Fate," and "Obsession," while a rotating black burning character, "Ember," was sealed at the core of his soul core.
Upon his birth, he roared to the sky, his soul-stirring voice transforming into a thousand blades that tore through the void of the Star Abyss Forecourt!
The unseen face of the Dawn Soul Book Prison once again uttered the command:
"Go... guard the [Severed Guidance Deep Wheel] to the death—my third Fate Soul is locked; they cannot open it."
Upon hearing this, the Discarded Chapter Ash Wielder remained silent, merely raising a finger to Realm Splitting a soul-shattering wind, before departing across the void.
His figure swept across the vast Star Abyss, stirring up countless wronged souls and ashes of starlight that had not yet returned to peace, and violently pressed down on the last "third branch power point" - the Severed Guidance Deep Wheel!
Qin Yu and Yao Zhiyan were heading in that direction.
Under the dim, star-like sky, Qin Yu and Yao Zhiyan walked side by side, passing through the aftershocks of the shattered barrier. Every inch of the void beneath their feet seeped out faint gray soul smoke, as if branded with the creases of remnant soul memories.
Suddenly, Qin Yu stopped abruptly.
The next instant, a faint light shone from between his brows.
--[Sea of Consciousness· Under the Tree of the Void · Azure Ring Appears]
Suddenly, the azure crystal floating beside the Tree of the Void burst forth with a ring of light like a torrent of annihilating light, illuminating the entire sea of consciousness into a realm of silent radiance.
And finally, Azure Ring's voice slowly rang out:
"Qin Yu —Ahead, a force so powerful it's almost impossible to pinpoint is taking shape."
Azure Ring's voice was steady, but a barely perceptible tension and wariness were hidden deep within her tone.
"It... is unlike any enemy I've encountered before. It's not a writer, nor Fate-Trajectory Adjudicator, but something... a discarded chapter, yet still burning."
"I can't even accurately deduce its skill logic chain; I can only sense that the causal concentration it carries is almost saturated, like some kind of 'failed to be refined' remnant of Fate Soul... but it survived."
Qin Yu's expression darkened slightly, and his right hand involuntarily landed on the hilt of the [Source-Extinguishing Divine Sword].
"An existence that even you can't catch... It seems this third point is truly one of the deadly traps of the Dawn Soul Book Prison."
Azure Ring continued:
"This object also contains the core mechanism for activating the [Eternal Causality Crystals - Third Order Point]. If it is not destroyed first, the subsequent mechanisms cannot be activated at all."
"But you must be careful... If I'm not mistaken, it's not just a simple combat entity, but more like a banished, remnant soul of execution from some kind of 'Fate-Annihilating Book Page'."
Qin Yu let out a soft breath and looked ahead at the path he was about to step into.
In the distance, a dark blue soul flame, suppressed to its Ultimate, suddenly ignited in the sky, as if the throat of heaven and earth had been forcibly pierced. It was an unnamed energy rising up.
Azure Ring finally said slowly:
"It's here."