Ghost Flowers Speak Not · The Dark Abyss Devours Thoughts

The crimson light faded, but the fragments of the seal continued to burn in the void. The woman in red did not stop, coldly surveying the remaining four disciples of the Eternal Night Observatory Pavilion.

"You—lead the way."

Her tone was icy and brooked no argument; the crimson lotus glow in her eyes seemed capable of instantly burning away one's very soul.

The four men looked terrified and dared not utter a word of objection. They hurriedly cupped their hands and replied in trembling voices, "We will obey your orders, Senior..."

The woman didn't look at them again, but turned her head and focused her gaze on Qin Yu and Wang Yuan. Her eyes seemed to be able to penetrate every logical barrier in people's hearts.

"You two, stand behind me and cover our retreat."

Her tone suddenly turned cold. "Remember—if I sense even the slightest evil thought in either of you, even just a fleeting one, I will delete you both on the spot."

As she uttered the word "delete," a faint, soul-scorching cry of a crimson lotus echoed through the heavens and earth. Qin Yu's eyes flickered slightly, but his expression remained calm.

"I will keep your instructions in mind," he replied calmly, his words devoid of fear.

Although Wang Yuan's face was pale, he immediately clasped his hands and said, "Understood."

So the group stepped into the shattered stone gate ruins and onto the abyss staircase blasted open by the light of the red lotus.

The stairs, like a path leading to the Netherworld, spiraled downwards with no end in sight.

They had only descended for a few dozen breaths when the landscape suddenly changed.

As if tearing away a thin membrane of illusion, everyone paused in their tracks, the scene before them horrifying—

The deep, Netherworld Deep Valley has finally been revealed to the world.

The entire deep valley was like a world hanging on the edge of death. The sky was no longer the sky, but layers of swirling, purplish-black, Netherworld clouds, slowly rotating like a dome formed by the condensed souls of millions of the dead.

Within the valley, the cracked earth resembled a torn cosmic plate, littered with broken bones, faintly emitting a purple glow, as if the obsessions of countless dead had not yet dissipated.

In the center of the valley, clusters of Dark Spirit Ghost Flower bloomed quietly, like silent stars twinkling in the night.

However—anyone who even glances at that flower...

It would be like falling into an abyss!

Within that faint purple light lay a terrifying gravitational pull that devoured the soul, making one feel as if dragged into an endless vortex of void, causing consciousness to waver and the Fate Soul to tremble.

Auditory suppression--

There was no wind in the valley, yet there were "sounds".

It wasn't an ordinary sound, but --

A murmur that defies description, sometimes emanating from beneath one's feet, sometimes seemingly echoing from the depths of one's mind. The sound is like the lost cries of countless wandering souls—weeping, cursing, yearning, the lingering echoes of a painful cycle of reincarnation.

They whisper, they entwine, making one momentarily doubt the "reality" of their own existence.

Touch · Ultimate Pressure

The air seemed to solidify into ink, and with each step, the ground beneath one's feet seemed to respond.

It was like touching an ancient, slumbering creature.

Every stone, every speck of dust, even every breath conveys a signal that "you've been targeted."

It's as if this world is consciously scrutinizing the intruder.

Scent: Intoxicating yet deadly

The smell of decay mingled with a subtle floral fragrance.

The fragrance was unlike any scent that any plant in the real world could emit; instead, it was a strange aroma that caused emotional turmoil and mental fragmentation, as if simultaneously soothing, seducing, and destroying you.

Wang Yuan unconsciously clenched his teeth, cold sweat appearing on his forehead.

He whispered to Qin Yu, "It's this Ghost Flower... I've finally seen it, but it... seems to be able to devour consciousness, disturb senses, and erode memories... I understand now, no wonder the core of the entire Gloomy Abyss Cemetery is here..."

Conceptual disturbances and cognitive confusion

This most terrifying layer is not in the outside world, but in the depths of consciousness.

Qin Yu frowned slightly.

He keenly sensed that the spatial coordinates had begun to distort, and not only that, his sense of time was also gradually blurring.

As he tried to recall the moment he stepped into the valley—

His memory was fragmented three times, as if that period of time had never existed.

Even more horrifying, when he looked at Wang Yuan beside him again, he couldn't sense the other's "existence" for a moment.

His vision blurred, as if Wang Yuan was not a person, but a fictional entity pieced together from his memories.

"It's the influence of the 'Dark Spirit Ghost Flower'."

He immediately mobilized the power of the Fate Cause Master Seal and the Azure Ring, using the "Destiny Seal - Abyss-Turning Star Platform" to fix his own existence and suppress conceptual disturbances.

Behind them, the woman in red seemed completely unaffected, her aura as divine as if she were a god.

She spoke softly and coldly, as if she had everything under control:

"This is the outer ring of the Ghost Flower Realm —your courage isn't too small. Now, continue forward."

Her voice seemed to carry a certain will to annihilate.

The four disciples of the Eternal Night Observatory Pavilion tried their best to remain calm, but judging from the subtle ripples of soul power emerging behind them, their soul consciousness was already in turmoil.

Only Qin Yu's eyes flashed with light, and the Azure Ring slowly rotated deep within his sea of consciousness, already beginning to lock onto the source core of the Dark Spirit Ghost Flower.

He whispered his innermost thoughts:

"If it truly is the source of the Flower of Destiny... then what lies behind it is likely far more than what is visible on the surface."

And this journey into the Abyss of Dark Flowers has only just begun.

The dark abyss stretched ever deeper, the path beneath their feet becoming increasingly winding and treacherous. The woman in red stood atop a pile of shattered bones, her voice icy. "Keep going."

The four disciples of the Eternal Night Observatory Pavilion dared not utter a word, exchanged glances, gritted their teeth, and took a step forward.

But in that very instant—

"Aaaaaah!!!"

The disciple at the front was walking a little faster, and as soon as his foot landed, the void suddenly rippled, and a strange ripple spread from the ground, distorting the surrounding air, and even the space itself seemed to be gently stretched.

It was a path bathed in shimmering, dreamlike light, as if adorned with mist by some divine force. On either side of the path, countless tiny specks of light floated slowly, like fireflies in the night sky.

He paused for a moment, stunned.

"S-Senior? Is this the exit?" he asked hesitantly.

No one responded.

The next instant, his pupils contracted violently—

He saw himself.

Not just one, but hundreds or thousands of "selves," slowly emerging from the floating, ghostly light, their movements exactly mirroring his.

Raise your hand, turn around, surprise, trembling...

However, these "shadows" wore eerie smiles on their faces.

"Who are you... I am me..." he murmured, his voice beginning to tremble.

At that moment, he was already deeply immersed in the realm of [Phantom Shadow Maze].

Looking down from above, the disciple seemed to be dragged into a corridor of consciousness, surrounded by an endless expanse of "himself" swirling around him.

Each "him" steals a memory from his mind.

A battle, a vow, a fight, a period of training...

He felt his body becoming lighter and his soul becoming emptier.

"Who I am..."

A phantom whispers.

Countless versions of himself spoke simultaneously, "You are not you... we are..."

And whenever he tried to gather his soul power to shatter these illusions...

Boom!

The backlash directly blasted into his sea of consciousness, and a purple-black arc of lightning instantly sent him flying backward. His entire body twisted and tumbled in the air, as if his bones had been pulled out, before finally crashing heavily to the ground.

"Ahhh! Don't come in! I don't want to forget who I am--"

He was convulsing, black blood was spilling from his mouth, and his eyes were filled with madness and confusion, as if he had completely lost control!

"... Phantom Shadow Maze." Qin Yu's gaze turned cold as he instantly saw through its true nature.

The woman in red beside him merely smiled faintly, her tone devoid of any pity. "This is precisely the first step set up by the Dark Spirit Ghost Flower."

"Those who harbor delusions will inevitably be seduced by the path of illusory light."

She raised her hand and gently pointed, and the red light converged into a single point, which then blasted into the disciple's body.

"Bang--!!!"

Blood exploded!

The disciple's physical body, soul, shadow, and memories were all completely annihilated in an instant, without even a complete struggle.

The path and the phantom images scattered like smoke under the spreading red light.

A deathly silence descended upon the entire venue once more.

The other three disciples were pale and trembling, and for a moment they dared not move an inch.

They finally realized--

This task of "guiding" is not a trial, much less a test, but a living sacrifice.

The woman in red fixed her gaze on them and said coldly, "Continue. If you don't move, I'll make you all pay with your lives."

The three of them quickly lowered their heads and forced themselves to move forward, not daring to look left or right again.

At this moment, the woman in red slowly turned her head to look at the two people behind her:

"Have you two understood?"

Qin Yu calmly replied, "This trial is about 'intention,' not 'eyes.' The Phantom Shadow Maze and illusions are constructed by the Dark Spirit Ghost Flower through the logical link between vision and consciousness. The only way to break through this barrier is through self-awareness and faith."

He remained calm and composed, but secretly placed his finger on the Fate Cause Master Seal, ready to intervene at any time in the subsequent invasion of the illusionary logic.

She nodded slightly, without saying a word, but a deep sense of inquiry appeared in her eyes.

Wang Yuan clenched his fists tightly, muttering to himself, "If Senior Brother Qin hadn't spoken first, I would have almost been distracted too..."

The column moved forward again.

At this moment, everyone knew in their hearts that the next trap would only be deeper.

This path through the abyss has only just begun to enter the true realm of devouring consciousness.

The group continued on their way.

The abyss grew colder and colder, and even the space itself began to shrink and become oppressive, as if one were gradually walking into a cage formed from the will of death.

When they were less than a hundred paces from the ancient altar ahead—

"Boom--"

It wasn't an explosion, but a sudden, hollow tremor, as if some structure between heaven and earth had been ripped away.

Qin Yu's brow twitched slightly, and Azure Ring automatically deployed a sliver of sensory barrier.

Then--

All sound vanished.

It wasn't silence, nor stillness, but a complete "silent realm," dragging them all into an absolute zone of silence where there was no echo, no heartbeat, and no fluctuation of thought!

Footsteps? -- No.

Rubbing of robes? -- None.

Even the act of swallowing saliva seemed to be "edited out," with no feedback whatsoever.

What's most devastating is not even being able to hear your own thoughts.

It was as if the "conscious self" was sealed in an endless prison by the Netherworld mist.

"This... is..." Wang Yuan's expression changed drastically, but when he opened his mouth, not a single syllable could be uttered. He looked around in terror, trying to get a reaction from Qin Yu or the woman in red—

No matter how much he shouted, waved, or exerted himself, the world remained unresponsive.

At this moment, they had stepped into the second Abyss Trap:

[Soundless Trap]

The entire scene unfolds with an ultra-wide-angle lens, where space stands still and time is frozen. Each intruder seems to be floating in an endless Sea of Form, their physical body still moving, but their consciousness is severed and plunged into a silent abyss.

Deep within the mind of a disciple of the Eternal Night Observatory Pavilion, his consciousness began to vibrate, and a voice quietly emerged in his mind:

"Come home... I'm your mother, why haven't you come back yet?"

The disciple's pupils contracted sharply, and he gritted his teeth to forcefully suppress his rage.

But the sound grew clearer and clearer:

"If you don't come back, your mother will die in front of you..."

This voice was not a hallucination, but a phantom of the person he found "most difficult to part with" in his subconscious, precisely piercing his "soft spot" in his mind, word by word.

The next moment, he finally lost control and rushed to the side, trying to tear open the void to find the source of the sound.

But he had barely opened his mouth—

BOOM!!!

An invisible reverse shock exploded from within him!

A mouthful of blood gushed from the corner of his mouth. His internal organs were instantly struck hard, and he collapsed to the ground, no longer making a sound.

He tried to "make a sound," but that sound was swallowed and transformed by the "Netherworld Qi," creating a reverberating vibration within himself.

"Ugh... I can't... speak..."

The other disciple heard his deceased brother's whispers, a strange nursery rhyme, and his own last words before death...

Within a few short breaths, the three men turned deathly pale, sweat poured down their faces, and knelt with their hands covering their heads, as if their souls were about to leave their bodies.

The woman in red had a cold expression, but she didn't make a move. Instead, she glanced at Qin Yu indifferently.

"If you can't even withstand this, do you deserve to enter the true 'Dark Spirit Core'?"

But she froze the next moment.

Because of Qin Yu, we move forward steadily.

He closed his eyes, sensing the guidance of the Azure Ring, his will sinking into the deep logical core of the Fate Cause Master Seal—

"Sound is a feedback of logic, but Non-Self existence."

"I do not depend on language, echoes, or environment."

"I am... I am."

Azure Ring slowly uttered four words into his mind:

[Silent Consciousness, Without Law].

In an instant, Qin Yu, like a traveler among the stars, vanished into the Entering Stillness void, his steps unwavering, as if he were not defined by "hearing" from the very beginning.

Wang Yuan was also gritting his teeth and persevering, but looking at Qin Yu's firm and unwavering back, he slowly closed his eyes, held his breath, and followed closely behind.

Within the black mist, two figures moved steadily forward in the "Soundless Dead Domain," like lone stars traversing the Fate Realm.

The other three, however, felt as if they were trapped in hell, struggling frantically on the verge of their souls collapsing.

The woman in red glanced at them coldly and muttered to herself:

"Interesting... He doesn't seem to belong to the 'vocal system' here."

"Or rather, his existence... never needed 'external definition'."

The Soundless Trap has been cracked.

But everyone knows—

The closer one gets to the "true source of the Dark Spirit Ghost Flower," the more one is stripped away even of "the very essence of perception."

Qin Yu, on the other hand, was like a sword blade revealed, his sharpness impossible to conceal.