The sandstorm had not yet subsided, and the lingering effects of the Book Desert Epoch Serpent's soul had just Annihilation, the aftershocks of which still echoed in the void within the cave. Qin Yu sheathed his sword, his brows slightly furrowed, and turned to look at Hong Xiuxiang beside him:
"So what do we do next? Those three may have escaped, but they might not have gone far. Can you still pinpoint their exact location using the crystal core?"
Hong Xiuxiang gazed quietly at the pale golden tracking crystal core in her hand.
Above the crystal core, the three logical trajectories that were once clearly shining have long since been extinguished, with only a faint wisp of energy remaining floating at the bottom layer, as if the three of them had already left the logical scope of this place and entered a new coordinate realm.
She pondered for a moment, then brushed her fingertips across the crystal core, attempting to reawaken the hidden "logic tracing chain," but only received a feedback fluctuation of "spatial node breakage."
"... The teleportation trajectory has been interrupted; it is presumed that it has jumped to a new hidden realm."
Her gaze was solemn, and she finally spoke slowly:
"The only way now is to head to their original destination— Gloomshadow Source Village —hopefully their teleportation array's exit is located there."
As she spoke, she raised her hand and brushed it across the crystal core. The afterimages of the three people were reflected again in the crystal core. They were three rapidly converging spiritual energy and coordinate lines that eventually merged into a blurry spatial intersection, which was located deep in the wilderness 27,000 miles north of the Radiant Heaven Imperial Capital.
The Hong Xiuxiang's eyes were slightly cold.
"I previously left a 'Recognition Breath Ornate Marker' in Gloomshadow Source Village. If they do arrive, they will surely leave a trace of resonance."
Qin Yu nodded, the power of Annihilation Origin swirling around him. The Source-Extinguishing Divine Sword had already been sheathed, but the Ring Master Soul Diagram still hovered outside his body, and the Pupil of Silent Origin coldly gazed into the void.
"Let's go, let's vanish into the void and head straight there."
In an instant, a cyan-gold logic array appeared beneath their feet. Hong Xiuxiang replaced the teleportation structure with [Realm Words Book Seal Script], connecting Qin Yu's coordinate logic to her own book page barrier.
The void trembled, Recognition Annihilation reversed.
Two figures, like ink-black light piercing through the starry river, silently disappeared from the cave entrance.
Only the dilapidated hills stand Ji Ran, the Soul Realm long since shattered, deathly still as ever.
Deep within the void, two figures, like ripples of light piercing through the annihilation of night, instantly arrived from beyond a thousand distant realms.
Hong Xiuxiang and Qin Yu landed almost simultaneously on a desolate wasteland.
The place before us is none other than "Gloomshadow Source Village".
But unlike the legendary "hidden village in the world, undisturbed for ten thousand years," the Gloomshadow Source Village at this moment is like a broken body that has fallen into the abyss of time.
The surrounding area was shrouded in a dim, gloomy light, the daylight like a withered soul, unable to illuminate even a trace of life.
Outside the village, ruins lie scattered, ashes stain the ground, and scorch marks are everywhere; the former farmland has long since turned into scorched earth, riddled with cracks, as if eroded by multiple aftershocks of time and space.
A lone tree stands at the entrance of the village, charred and withered, its branches resembling cracked bones.
The village gate leans against the wall, half of it broken off. The four characters "Gloomshadow Source Village" on the gate plaque are blurred and distorted, as if they have been burned by soul power. Only the two characters "Yingyuan" are faintly discernible.
Qin Yu's gaze narrowed slightly as he stepped forward, his sense of Annihilation Origin surging within his realm of consciousness.
"This place... doesn't seem to have only recently fallen into disrepair; it's been destroyed long ago."
Hong Xiuxiang followed beside him, took out a book of crimson light, turned to a page, and whispered the terminology.
The remaining traces of soul consciousness from this place appeared on the spirit page, but they were extremely chaotic, as if they had already been heavily obscured and rewritten.
"Strange, the 'mystical clues' I sent out to set up should have revealed traces of the enemy's logic in the village, but here the timeline and causal chain have been completely disrupted and reconstructed..."
"You mean, the logic lines here have been deliberately cleaned?"
Hong Xiuxiang nodded, her expression more solemn than ever before. "Someone doesn't want us to know they've been here."
A cold glint flashed in Qin Yu's eyes as he summoned the Fate Cause Master Seal, which trembled slightly.
"Then let me check whether they've wiped it clean or not."
As soon as he finished speaking, the Fate Cause Master Seal emitted a faint blue-gold glow, and [Star Tracing·Return Mirror] quietly activated.
A star-shaped mirror slowly emerged, illuminating the ruins of the dilapidated temple in the very center of Gloomshadow Source Village.
Inside the dilapidated temple, a faint, lingering shadow was slowly dissipating...
Qin Yu stared coldly, a hint of murderous intent flashing in his eyes.
"They... did come."
A powerful and distorted "anti-logic factor" surged forth from the depths of the village like a surging torrent, tearing apart the already fragmented spatial dimensions.
The world turned upside down in an instant.
Qin Yu's eyes sharpened, and the Fate Cause Master Seal surged at his fingertips. [Inheritance Structure·Logical Domain] unfolded instantly, reconstructing the local space with its own rules, allowing him and Hong Xiuxiang to escape the center of the attack in an instant.
Almost simultaneously, a scornful applause rang out from the ruins of the dilapidated temple.
"Clap clap... clap clap... clap clap--"
Three figures slowly emerged from the black mist, their feet tumbling through the air, their souls churning like the wails of the dying.
The person at the front had silver hair that obscured his eyes and wore a black robe with gold patterns. His eyes held a hint of mockery. "Hong Xiuxiang, you really are persistent... The three of us only moved slightly, and you immediately caught up."
"How many years have you been with us? From the time you entered the Dawn Cloud First Hall until now? Or was it back when the Soul-Devouring Demon Sect first dealt with your Lineage?"
Hong Xiuxiang Xiang remained expressionless. With a flick of her long sleeves, the Spirit Ornate Book Mirror unfolded once more, revealing countless crimson spirit seals floating in the sky.
"The three of you colluded with the Soul-Devouring Demon Sect, secretly offering up mortal souls in exchange for soul-sealing techniques. Over the years, you have sent hundreds of thousands of mortals into the Soul Pool under the guise of 'spiritual transformation'."
Her voice was firm, her gaze sharp as a blade. "If you don't die, my conscience will not be at peace. This is against all reason."
As soon as he finished speaking, the middle-aged man in black standing to one side of the three men let out a cold snort, his aura surging.
"Hmph... Heaven's justice? Then you should ask anyone in this middle layer of the Annihilation Origin who cares about those mortal ants!!"
"Qin Yu, is it?" The third person's gaze fell on Qin Yu, his eyes flashing with intense hostility. "You're the inner disciple who destroyed the Soul-Devouring Demon Sect? You have some nerve."
"However, neither of you will leave here today."
Boom--!
The three souls pressed down on them like a curtain, and the Gloomshadow Source Village behind them gradually distorted and transformed under the influence of their auras, forming a hidden barrier that sealed off all escape routes.
Qin Yu raised his eyes, his coldness penetrating to the bone. The Supreme cultivation of the Annihilation Source Realm was circulating within his body, and the Fate Cause Master Seal and the Source-Extinguishing Divine Sword were both faintly trembling. The rules of his divine soul had already gathered at his fingertips.
He said slowly, "The three of you have Entering Stillness."
Meanwhile, Hong Xiuxiang had already unleashed [Realm Words Book Seal Script], replacing the entire battlefield's "situational logic" with [the Abyss of Remorse] --
If the enemy has committed "soul-slaughtering" acts, the emotional fluctuations will be amplified infinitely, and the probability of the self-logic collapsing will increase by 60%.
The three swayed slightly, already feeling a bit uncomfortable.
"Let's begin," Hong Xiuxiang whispered.
Qin Yu's gaze was icy as he slowly raised his sword, its aura as deep as an abyss, its starlight silent, pouring into the Source-Extinguishing Divine Sword.
At the moment of the clash of energies, a strange, extremely distorted stream of Spiritual Sense suddenly descended from the top of the sky, like a snake, like smoke, like a foul wind, seeping into every inch of the world.
Immediately afterwards, an aged yet mocking voice, tinged with an eerie laugh, slowly descended:
"Not bad... Your menacing appearances are quite lively."
A figure appeared from high in the sky.
He moved with an ethereal grace, draped in a dark purple robe, his face etched with wrinkles yet beaming with a smile. A black and gold double-horned seal hung on his forehead, and his aura was so powerful that it shattered the nine layers of clouds.
"Such a grand affair, how come I wasn't included?"
The voice was chilling, laced with a lewd and twisted longing, as if all beauty was nothing more than an "offering" in his eyes.
At this moment, Qin Yu, Hong Xiuxiang, and the three Soul Devourers all raised their eyes and stared at that person.
Hong Xiuxiang's eyes narrowed sharply, and she said in a low voice:
"He is... a member of the Depraved Lust Flow Sect."
The three people below also changed their expressions slightly, and one of them shouted sternly:
"Qian Jie? What are you doing here, you old beast?! Weren't you supposed to be in seclusion in that eerie realm of [Annihilation Abyss Confinement]?!"
The old man— Qian Jie —slowly descended, his figure like a fleeting, illusory shadow, each step accompanied by a sharp shriek from the soul.
"I was out for a stroll when I overheard a noise over here, so I came to investigate... Hehe, I never expected this—"
His gaze lingered greedily on Hong Xiuxiang, and he licked his parched lips. "There's such a beautiful woman... This kind of [pure soul] is perfect for the sixth soul seat in my Depraved Lust Art."
"Tsk tsk... Only Book Realm · Supreme, and Spirit Script Book Domain Physique at that. If I were to capture you, my [Lust Soul Realm-Rending Diagram] could be forged into the ninth level of Book Soul!"
Hong Xiuxiang's expression was icy cold.
"The Depraved Lust Flow Sect... As the name suggests, the entire sect practices a heretical art that uses the method of seizing women's souls, emotions, and spirits; it is extremely cruel."
"Those photographed may suffer from dementia at best, and at worst, their souls and consciousness may be permanently destroyed, their bodies and spirits utterly perished."
She looked at Qin Yu, her gaze sharpening. "This Qian Jie Soul once devoured the souls of hundreds of thousands of mortal women single-handedly in the Soul-Suppressing Outer-Realm Soul-Suppressing Ancient Battlefield thirty thousand years ago, earning him a place among the top ten of the Ninefold Sin Soul Rankings. Later, he escaped into the Ghost Realm due to a backlash from his secret technique, but unexpectedly, he didn't die."
Qin Yu slowly drew the Source-Extinguishing Divine Sword, its blade rising silently, and an aura of Annihilation quietly unfolded.
His expression was indifferent, but his gaze was cold, as if nothing in the world was worth mentioning.
"No matter how many come, I will kill them all."
Qian Jie chuckled strangely, "Good, good... young man, you have quite the courage."
"In that case, I'll start with your handsome face, extracting nine cycles of your Fate Soul, and then I'll detach you, my female companion, into my Lustful Soul Diagram to create a [Dual-Soul Sacrificial Array]--"
Before he finished speaking, the void beneath Qin Yu's feet shattered, and the [Fate Cause Master Seal] floated behind him like a divine mirror reflecting cause and effect.
Enough with the nonsense.
You don't deserve to exist.
One of the three Soul Devouring Traitors, dressed in a crimson-black soul-patterned battle robe, suddenly raised his hand, coldly glancing at the old man in mid- Hong Xiuxiang who was greedily staring at Hongxiuxiang, and gave a cold laugh:
"Old monster of the Qian Jie, I know you have a fondness for beautiful women, but we have no intention of fighting over them. How about we join forces? The three of us will handle that inner disciple, and as for that woman—you can have her soul extracted and refined as you please, what do you say?"
Upon hearing this, the old monster Qian Jie burst into a series of strange laughs, his eyes revealing a morbid joy.
"Okay! It's a deal."
He stretched out his five fingers and picked out a wisp of gray-purple evil energy. Nine soul marks cracked in the void of his palm. Those soul marks twisted and wept, emitting a low, mournful female cry, as if countless souls had cried out endlessly within them.
"My Innate Martial Soul— [The Lust Soul Realm-Rending Diagram]!"
In an instant, the world went dark!
Centered on the Qian Jie, the void was torn apart like cloth, revealing a sinister black and gold image behind it.
It was a scroll composed of countless remnants of women's souls and their tormented faces, called "The Realm Splitting." The soul map was twisted and floating, with a single evil pupil in the center cracked open, writhing with ominous power, like a gazer into the abyss, captivating the soul.
The evil diagram surged, and nine "soul-locking lines" shot out from its body, locking onto Hong Xiuxiang's direction, attempting to capture her soul first to secure the battle formation!
At the same time, the three Soul Eaters simultaneously unleashed their soul power. Two of them released the Gray Mist Soul Flag and the Blood Eye Soul Tablet, respectively, locking down the surrounding space and sealing off Qin Yu's movement path. The third one chanted incantations and summoned a "Blood-Gulping Soul Pot," which emitted a ghostly light and directly attacked Qin Yu's sea of consciousness!
At this moment, Qin Yu, standing in the center of the battlefield, remained expressionless.
With a light flick of the Source-Extinguishing Divine Sword, the aura of Soul Annihilation and Death swept across the Soul Pot's energy like a tidal wave. One sword severed the incantation, and one thought destroyed the Soul Ring.
Hong Xiuxiang's cold gaze swept over the flying Nine Soul Chains, and the spiritual pages in her palm surged, suddenly unfolding the Sea of Books to seal it off.
"The Realm Words Book Seal Script —Constructing the battlefield into a spiritual realm, slaying impure souls!"
Countless pages of ethereal beauty transformed into silvery-white divine script, cleaving the void and precisely severing the chains of lustful souls!
Qin Yu's divine sense stirred, and the Source-Extinguishing Divine Sword in his hand resonated three times before its blade transformed into a horizontal slash:
[Sever Fate, Cut Off Return!]
The Sword Qi breaks through cause and effect, seizing the future, bypassing the enemy's outer defenses, and striking directly at the starting point of the enemy's soul's destiny trajectory!
Before the other two Soul Eaters could react, their energy was shattered by the Sword Qi energy, and their two soul skills went out of control, backfiring on them.
At the same time, Hong Xiuxiang unleashed [Book Emotions Enter the Mirror], reflecting the enemy's "fear" in her pupils. In an instant, she echoed it as the enemy's technique, Reverse Devouring Illusion, causing one of them to collapse in the face of battle, their soul consciousness trembling.
The battlefield spun around them, filled with a sea of killing intent!