The flames blazed like a galaxy pouring down, as if a scorching curtain had been torn open in the night sky.
In the stillness of the night, a familiar yet urgent female voice boomed like thunder within my consciousness.
"Qin Yu, wake up quickly."
Azure Ring's voice pierced through the chaotic dreamscape, striking the Soul Sea like a divine law.
Qin Yu suddenly opened his eyes, his pupils shrinking to pinpoints. The next moment, he almost instinctively stood up, scanned his surroundings, and his aura had already quietly locked onto his soul domain.
What came into view was a bizarre and enormous sacrificial scene—
The three of them found themselves in the center of a massive circular magic array, which resembled an ancient inscription, carving nine concentric circles on the ground, each shimmering with a radiant pattern like a galaxy.
Qin Yu, Chi Ning, and Xiaotong Tong lay Anran in the very center, while hundreds of figures clad in long robes stood densely around them.
Those were not "people" in the true sense of the word.
They were tall and wore ceremonial cloaks covered in runes, but beneath the cloaks were no facial features, only a strange structure flowing with metallic and void blue hues, resembling a "pseudo-form" of some higher logical entity.
They stood motionless in a circle, like watchmen or officiants of a trial.
The sacrificial fire, towering over ten feet high, was already lit in the very center. Its flames shot straight into the sky, illuminating the entire dense forest. As it burned, it continuously emitted starlight-like rays of light, as if connecting to a dimension above destiny.
Under the firelight, Qin Yu saw that each "ritualist" was standing on a constantly floating inscription, the light of which gathered at the center of the array and continuously intertwined into the circular pedestal beneath their feet.
A chill emanated from the depths of the Fate Soul, like ice water slowly seeping into the depths of consciousness.
"We... aren't dreaming," Qin Yu whispered.
Chi Ning had also woken up at this moment, her delicate brows furrowed, her cold gaze sweeping over the surrounding structural beings, her spiritual energy ready to be unleashed at any moment.
The Xiaotong appeared panicked, even cowering behind Chi Ning, stammering, "W-where is this place... what are they doing... who are they...?"
The flames were reflected in his eyes, but there was no reflection of the firelight in his eyes.
Azure Ring whispered in Qin Yu's mind, "They are not observing you, but calibrating your 'existence format'... as if preparing for some kind of 'format pruning.' The fate trajectories of the three of you have been captured by the array base. If it is not interrupted, then..."
She didn't finish speaking, but that silence was more oppressive than any words.
Qin Yu looked up at the sky, and from within the blazing pillar of fire appeared... a blurry, ancient face, its eyes slowly opening, as if attempting to "strip" Qin Yu and the other two of them of their existence from the logic of heaven and earth.
In that instant, he realized this was not a dream.
This is a real-life sacrifice.
--The real "Format Erasure Formula" has begun to operate.
The firelight fell like a silent star, illuminating Qin Yu's cold and sharp face. He slowly drew the extremely silent blade from his back— the Source-Extinguishing Divine Sword.
Before the sword was even moved, its Sword Qi had already cleaved the void.
A surge of energy, like the resonance of a star core, instantly coursed through Azure Ring's sea of consciousness. Qin Yu turned around and uttered a low, rebuking voice, as if Fate Soul:
"You two stay still, I'll have Azure Ring protect you."
The moment he finished speaking, the world changed drastically!
Suddenly, the azure divine wheel deep within Qin Yu's sea of consciousness trembled violently. A barrier of annihilation light, manifested from the Azure Ring, surged forth from the void like waves under the moon, instantly engulfing Chi Ning and the Xiaotong.
It was a network of light condensed from trillions of soul particles, each inch of light synchronously calibrating space, time, causality, and destiny, constructing an absolutely defensive Annihilation Realm light capsule!
Before Chi Ning could react, the Xiaotong cried out in alarm. The light shield swirled around them, forming a deep blue vortex with starlight cracks slowly flowing along its edges, blocking all logical intrusion—
Qin Yu, having already raised his divine sword, stepped into the center of the fire sacrifice.
Flames soared into the sky, the sacrificial array spun, and hundreds of logical constructs stared at him like judges of souls. But he was like a divinely inspired arbiter, his right hand suddenly flipping, and a bright blue halo rose from his sea of consciousness!
Boom--!
Azure Ring's Super Awakening Skill: Realm-Overturning Primordial Cosmos - Begin!
In an instant, the world fell silent, as if it had fallen into the "primordial state before birth."
All spatial structures, temporal logic, causal chains, and Daoist principles surrounding Qin Yu were severed in an instant!
"Buzz--!!!"
Centered on Qin Yu, the entire Flame Sacrifice Ring shattered into pieces of pitch-black crystals, which rose into the air and then exploded, transforming into billions of receding causal streams.
The sky abruptly changed from azure to desolate white, the stars reversed their course, and the cultivation trajectories of all living beings seemed to be swallowed up into a dimension that had never existed before.
At this moment, the life paths of those structures were extinguished one by one, and their foundations of existence lost all support. Like broken shells, they collapsed, dissipated, and crumbled into dust in reality.
In their logical understanding, the Azure Ring Manifestation Realm is Silent Realm Primordial Cosmos that has never been written into, never known, and never been possible to reach!
Before their consciousness was completely shattered, Qin Yu opened his left palm again, and the Azure Ring Reincarnation suddenly spun!
Azure Ring: Spirit Filth Annihilates Heaven!
"Annihilate all Dao roots and the true form of the artifact spirit."
"The Spirit Filth Origin Breath has manifested."
Boom!!!
The aura of azure spiritual filth erupted instantly from the four realms of the earth, the air, the sea of consciousness, and the illusory realm, like a poisonous flame that Realm Devouring, causing corruption upon contact!
The "spirit components" held by those structures instantly turned into mud, the inscriptions peeled off, the soul patterns collapsed, and the Dao roots within their bodies were eroded and corroded from the source by a kind of "divine soul mold".
They let out silent screams, yet even the right to "waile" was taken away from them.
Because "Spirit Filth Annihilates Heaven" is an unanalyzable Origin Destroyer, it directly rewrote the rules binding them to the universe, making even "living" no longer legal!
The flames were extinguished, the array crumbled inch by inch, and the "ancient face" that had been gazing from the sky began to twist and crack, eventually being completely annihilated under the dual pressure of the "Unborn World" and the "Origin Light of Annihilation"!
"Click--!!"
With a deafening roar like the collapse of the divine realm, the entire sacrificial domain exploded into countless "fragments of time" in mid-air, scattering away and erasing the causal remnants of the ancient ritual.
Qin Yu in the center of the arena, his robes fluttering, the Source-Extinguishing Divine Sword still burning with lingering annihilation flames.
With a single sword strike, he annihilated an entire realm.
In the silence, only the Azure Ring light still enveloped Chi Ning and the Xiaotong, and their eyes were filled with shock.
This battle left no trace of the enemy's name, nor any record of its cause or effect.
--Only Qin Yu's name remains, deeply etched into the boundary logic of the invisible world within the Mist Soul Severed Realm.
Before the Annihilation Realm winds had completely subsided, Qin Yu stomped his foot, and a flash of azure light pierced through the entire broken-world sky like an arc of light tearing reality apart. Without looking back at the sacrificial ring that had been Annihilation into void particles, he simply used one hand to pull Chi Ning and the Xiaotong, who were enveloped in the annihilation light of the Azure Ring, and carried them away, transforming into a beam of light like a star-splitting lightning mark as they flew into the distance.
The heavens and earth were reflected in each other, and the broken clouds and mist flew by like a curtain being drawn. The three of them escaped through hundreds of layers of mist and were far away from their original location in just a few breaths.
Until Soul-Annihilating Cliff, where a silent, slowly expanding rocky basin appeared. At the intersection of heaven and earth, there were faint breaths of Spiritual Qi and swirling, energyless flow. Only then did Qin Yu strike down from the void with a palm, and the three of them stepped down from the azure light.
With his footsteps settled, Qin Yu flicked his long sleeves, and the layers of annihilation light in his sea of consciousness rolled back, causing the Azure Ring of light that enveloped the two of them to recede like a tide, turning into specks of shimmering light that disappeared into the depths of his sea of consciousness.
The moment Chi Ning's toes touched the ground, she couldn't hide her surprise and doubt, her brows furrowing tightly. "What exactly happened to us...? I only remember feeling sleepy after eating the venison, and when I woke up, I found myself trapped in... a sacrifice?"
She gently touched her forehead, her eyes still showing lingering fear.
The Xiaotong beside him was deathly pale, clinging to Chi Ning's back, trembling almost uncontrollably. His small hands gripped Chi Ning's sleeve tightly as he murmured, "What... what just happened? It was so terrifying! I felt like I was being torn away... like... like I never existed..."
Qin Yu also looked solemn. After lowering his eyes and pondering for a moment, he closed his eyes and sank into his sea of consciousness, his thoughts falling into the azure divine wheel's light domain.
"Xiaoqing," he asked in a deep voice, "Do you know what happened just now?"
A voice from the Azure Ring gently resounded from within the sea of consciousness, as cold and ruthless as a law. "The moment you fell asleep after devouring that divine deer, I sensed a super-illogical factor rewriting the coordinates of your existence."
Her voice trailed off. "That wasn't ordinary spatial teleportation, nor was it time-based activation. It was some kind of **'forced delivery-like reverse logic writing.' From the moment you fell asleep, you were thrown into a pre-set reality rift."
Qin Yu was taken aback. "You couldn't stop it?"
"I didn't even have time to activate the protective command." Azure Ring's voice was colder than ever before. "That power... even beyond my sea of consciousness, all I could see was you being jumped across the entire reality in the next moment, without any spatial trajectory, without any timeline—it was a 'pre-written fixed-target' that surpassed all light and time in speed."
"In other words," Qin Yu concluded in a deep voice, "Someone, or some structure, pre-wrote the causal relationship 'you will definitely appear at the sacrificial site at some point' in the unknown logic of our future, and then used some kind of completed factual result to drag us in?"
"Exactly," Azure Ring replied. "It wasn't just a simple trap; it was a preordained, predetermined, and irresistible event."
Upon hearing this, the Xiaotong's eyes widened suddenly. "Then wouldn't we be... dragged away in that way again at any time?"
"No." Qin Yu looked down at him, his eyes as resolute as the edge of a sword that Origin Destroyer. "As long as I am here, I will never again let you be controlled by any 'preordained fate'."
He turned his head, gazing at the slowly rotating clouds and the light trail marking the boundary in the distance, his voice like an iron command:
"From this moment on, I will find the person or thing 'written into our destiny,' and then—eradicate it completely."
The lingering warmth of the sacrificial fire still echoed in the air, and now, standing in this brief moment of safety, they finally realized that this game of the Mist Soul Severed Realm was far from over.
The wind swept across the boundary, and the world fell silent for a moment.
Qin Yu stood at the boundary between the scorched earth and the rocky forest, gazing at the lingering traces of blue flames in the distance, his brow furrowed with a deep, unwavering resolve. He slowly turned around, his gaze falling on Chi Ning and the Xiaotong, his voice low yet carrying an undeniable, cold authority:
"From now on, we must remain vigilant at all times."
He slowly uttered each word carefully.
"Even when resting with eyes closed, one must have Azure Ring set up a soul-consciousness alert; even a momentary lapse in concentration could result in being instantly dragged away by some kind of super-logical structure."
His gaze was as deep as an abyss, as if piercing through the unknown void, commanding. "Next time... if we are thrown into that kind of pre-programming again, I'm afraid we won't just have almost lost our lives, but... be completely gone."
As soon as she finished speaking, Chi Ning's shoulders trembled violently, a bone-chilling cold shooting straight to the top of her head. She instinctively hugged her arms and whispered, "So this is a level of logic-based killing... no wonder..."
She suddenly remembered the gold and red danger level warning on the mission panel, and the shock in her eyes was replaced by a deep vigilance.
Mission Rating: Five Stars - Heterogeneous Danger
She now finally understood that the word "heterogeneous" was not an ordinary threat, but a force that came from outside the logic of existence, which was unidentifiable, unpredictable, and inexplicable.
The Xiaotong finally understood. He stared blankly at Qin Yu and Chi Ning, his face full of trepidation. "You mean... this Mist Soul Severed Realm is... a world that actively devours logic and memories?"
"It's not that it will," Qin Yu said calmly, "It's already been doing it."
He looked up into the distance, where the mist swirled, still as tranquil, dreamlike, and serene as ever. But beneath that illusion lay a twisted Fate-Cause that devoured all reality.
"This boundary... it was never dead," he whispered, "But alive."
Chi Ning and Xiaotong remained silent upon hearing this, their inner fear beyond words.
Only the faint, lingering glow of the Azure Ring, silently swirling in the air, served as a reminder to them—
From this moment on, they had stepped into the true heart of the Mist Soul Severed Realm—
A battlefield beyond cognitive comprehension, a realm where the enemy not only attacks your body but also directly rewrites your way of being.