The roar of the Undead Annihilation Abyss Dragon shook the void like waves, and throughout the entire Nether Prison Bone Cage, the roars of the Soul Flame Dragon rose and fell, as if a thousand troops were charging at the same time.
The void beneath Qin Yu's feet shattered inch by inch from the impact. His gaze was cold and sharp, Azure Ring on his brow slowly rotated.
"Senior brother, the core of this beast's soul flame is the key. Without destroying it, all attacks will be a waste," Qin Yu transmitted in a deep voice.
The Soul Brush of the Only Book Realm in Wang Yuan's hand shimmered with a cold golden light, and as the brush tip trembled, countless pages of books appeared in the surrounding void.
"I'll stop its movements for you; you take action directly." Wang Yuan's tone was firm, without the slightest hesitation.
The top-ranked core disciple at the Severed Observation Realm · Supreme gritted his teeth and said, "You two be careful! This beast's bone prison has two layers of overlapping space. If we can't break it in one blow, we'll be trapped inside by its Karmic Backlash and die!"
The second disciple continued to slash with his Soul Rend Halberd, coldly interjecting, "Then let's not hold back—we'd rather risk half our lives than let it devour us!"
A third, illusory figure flickered through the cracks in the bone prison. He panted heavily and said, "I can penetrate its brow for three breaths, but I need you to suppress its soul flame defense!"
Upon hearing this, Qin Yu pointed his finger into the air, and the Source-Extinguishing Divine Sword appeared, with silent black-gold ripples emerging from its blade.
"Then finish it within three breaths."
The Undead Annihilation Abyss Dragon seemed to understand their plan. Its soul flame core suddenly erupted with a dazzling eerie green light, and its bone wings spread wide. Within the entire Nether Prison Bone Cage, the chains of cause and effect poured down like a torrential rain, transforming into countless bolts of lightning cracked with the flow of time, bombarding from all directions.
Wang Yuan shouted loudly--
"Sole Book, the Realm Words Book Seal Script!"
Golden characters intertwined in the air like chains, forming a giant array that blocked the dozens of soul-flame dragons that rushed towards them.
Qin Yu's Azure Ring suddenly transformed into a triple ring shadow, its sharpness surging.
"Azure Ring, Second Form: Realm-Severing Silent Light!"
A silent blade of light pierced through the void, slicing open one side of the bone prison with a gap large enough for a person to rush out. The ghostly green soul flame was cut in two, turning into annihilated light fragments that scattered.
The phantom of the third disciple flashed through the gap like lightning, heading straight for the brow of the Undead Annihilation Abyss Dragon.
"Now!"
Qin Yu gripped the Source-Extinguishing Divine Sword tightly, its blade poised to strike, while the array patterns on the pages of the Wang Yuan transformed into a giant golden lock, binding the dragon's head tightly.
In the air, killing intent, soul flames, and annihilation power intertwined to create an apocalyptic spectacle of light and shadow.
At that moment, time seemed to stretch to its Ultimate.
The Undead Annihilation Abyss Dragon was bound in the center of the void by a golden book lock. Eerie green soul flames surged violently around it, attempting to burn away the lock made of the Sole Book. Its bone wings vibrated like a giant starry sky, and each struggle caused layers of space to collapse. The shattered void surrounded it like a thousand mirrors, reflecting countless dragon shadows filled with deathly intent.
The phantom of the third disciple darted through the collapsing spatial rifts, moving with the speed of a lightning bolt that cleaved the river of cause and effect, and in the blink of an eye, it had already stepped onto the brow of the Undead Annihilation Abyss Dragon.
"Senior Brother Qin —now!" he roared, his voice still clear and piercing amidst the roaring soul flames.
Qin Yu's eyes narrowed, and he suddenly raised the Source-Extinguishing Divine Sword high. The black and gold ripples on the sword's blade seemed to be torn apart by an invisible hand, transforming into an annihilation vortex that devoured light and darkness.
"The Ten Severing Forms of the Source-Extinguishing Divine Sword - Source Silence Severs All, Trace and Sever, Leaving No Wheel!"
The moment the sword fell, all the colors in the void vanished, leaving only an absolute blackness before the sword's edge. The blackness spread like an abyss, piercing directly through the brow of the Undead Annihilation Abyss Dragon, forcefully splitting the core of that ghostly green soul flame in two.
The moment the soul flame shattered, the Undead Annihilation Abyss Dragon let out a roar that seemed to transcend time and space, the sound waves directly collapsing the outer space of the bone prison. The chains of cause and effect within its body exploded like broken steel cables, each broken chain turning into fragments of annihilating light, which were instantly absorbed by the edge of the Azure Ring and transformed into Annihilation.
Wang Yuan, seizing the opportunity, once again wielded his pen.
"The Sole Book Ultimate Style: Soul-Forgetting Brocade Words Record!"
Countless golden pages surged forth, completely engulfing the remnants of the Undead Annihilation Abyss Dragon's soul within the sea of books. Each turn of the pages was a judgment that erased its very existence.
Less than three breaths later --
As the eerie green flames died down, the massive body of the Undead Annihilation Abyss Dragon began to disintegrate from head to tail into invisible annihilation dust, which then scattered like starlight across the ruins of the Bone Prison.
Qin Yu took a deep breath, lowered his sword, and his arm trembled slightly from the excessive concentration of energy.
Wang Yuan slowly put down his pen, cold sweat beading on his forehead, but a smile played on his lips.
"It's over."
Wang Yuan's gaze suddenly sharpened, his finger pointing into the depths of the battlefield's aftershocks, his voice low and urgent. "Senior Brother Qin, look quickly, there's a dark path behind there!"
Following his pointing finger, the group saw that at the end of the dragon's nest, amidst the ruins, gray-white bones were piled up to form a narrow crack. Within the crack, eerie mist surged, as if some secret buried at the bottom of the abyss was slowly awakening. It was not an ordinary crack in the mountain, but rather as if space itself had been forcibly cleaved open, its depths unfathomable, exuding a deathly stillness that made one's heart clench.
One of the disciples at the Severed Observation Realm stepped forward, narrowing his eyes, his tone carrying a hint of certainty. "Hmm... I understand. This path was probably forcibly cleared by the Undead Annihilation Abyss Dragon that we just Annihilation. Judging from its aura, it most likely leads to a deeper area of the secret realm."
The aura carried a strong sense of decay and coldness, as if freezing time itself, causing even the void to tremble slightly, seemingly unwilling to accept any living being.
Qin Yu slightly raised his eyes, a dark light flashing in them. The Azure Ring gently turned deep between his brows, sensing irregular fluctuations emanating from the passage. He said in a deep voice, "Let's go, let's see... what's hidden here."
Without further ado, the five stood side by side, the ash-covered bone fragments beneath their feet making a crisp, low cracking sound with each step. With each step into the darkness, the light around them was swallowed up a little, until the battlefield glow behind them completely disappeared, as if they had stepped into another world isolated from the outside.
The walls of the passage looked as if they had been gnawed by an unknown creature, leaving behind messy scratch marks and deep cracks that revealed bone. Faint wisps of dark green light seeped from the cracks, seemingly the leakage of some ancient power. Under that light, the shadows of the five people were stretched extremely long, twisted and deformed, and sometimes even inconsistent with their body movements, as if a second "self" was walking in the void.
The air grew heavy, each breath carrying a metallic chill, and a faint whisper drifted from the end of the passage—a sound that was both a call and a banishment, unsettling the mind.
The five of them stepped inside, the path behind them gradually sealed off by darkness. Only that shadowy path seemed to be guiding them toward some irreversible end...
The deeper they went into the passage, the heavier their steps became. The light here was completely independent of the outside world; the walls themselves seemed to slowly emanate a layer of eerie green light. The light seemed to have a life of its own, pulsating slightly in their pupils with a low frequency, making it impossible to tell whether they were seeing the light or the light was seeing them.
Embedded in the rock walls on both sides are unidentified black bone fragments, long and twisted, their surfaces covered with unrecognizable ancient patterns. Sometimes they are still as lifeless objects, and sometimes they tremble almost imperceptibly, as if responding to the rhythm of footsteps. Occasionally, a faint friction sound comes from between the bone fragments, as if something is slowly wriggling in the crevices.
The ground was paved with broken gray-white stone slabs, each slab engraved with broken runes. Inside the runes remained a dark red liquid that had long since solidified, emitting a faint smell of decay and rust. Whenever someone stepped on it, the runes would ripple with an eerie light, like startled eyes peeking at the visitor through slits.
The rock wall overhead was not completely sealed, but rather cracked with narrow fissures. Black droplets slowly fell from these fissures, turning into a thin black mist upon touching the ground. This mist quickly spread around the group's ankles, like invisible chains, trying to slow their progress.
The air grew increasingly cold, as if the temperature would drop a fraction with every step forward. Exhaled breath turned into wisps of grayish-white mist in mid-air, pulled deeper into the passage by an unseen force, as if even breathing was being lured toward the unknown.
Most unsettling was the sound emanating from the end of the passage. It was disjointed, a jumble of broken whispers, tearing breaths, and the occasional metallic scraping, like someone calling out or the wailing of countless souls. Each sound made one instinctively want to stop, yet an invisible force compelled them to move forward step by step.
This dimly lit path seems to Does Not Exist outside the cracks of reality—light, sound, temperature, and even the flow of time are all subtly altered here.
In the depths ahead, a faint, even darker green hue peeks out, like a heartbeat suppressed for countless years, awaiting its imminent trigger.
The five exchanged a glance, but no one spoke. Only the sound of their footsteps echoed in the passage shrouded in ancient secrets, gradually synchronizing with the deep pulse of energy within...
In another part of the Desolate Annihilation Secret Realm, the sky was pressed low by a heavy sea of purplish-black clouds, as if the celestial curtain might collapse at any moment. Fine silver dust filled the air, like time being ground into powder and flowing silently.
Six female disciples of the Dawn Cloud First Hall were slowly making their way along a gravel path shrouded in a dim light. Their steps were light, yet they dared not relax in the slightest; every flutter of their robes carried a cautious rhythm.
Leading the way was Hong Xiuxiang, dressed in a long crimson dress. Her long hair was slightly ruffled by the cold wind of the secret realm, and unease was reflected in her eyes. Suddenly, a female disciple with delicate features and a faint blue pattern between her brows spoke, her voice tinged with nervousness:
"Senior Sister Hong, I... I feel like the logic here is being disrupted... and my Innate Martial Soul — 'Wave Heart Dream Mirror Soul'... is trembling slightly."
As she spoke, a faint blue light flickered in her palm—the shadow of her martial spirit, appearing uncontrollably as if warning her of an unseen threat approaching.
Hong Xiuxiang paused, her expression grave, and slowly raised her eyes to scan her surroundings. The scenery around her seemed unchanged, but in her perception, the seemingly static spatial patterns were slightly misaligned, as if someone were tampering with the logical structure of this area from behind.
"I felt it too," she said softly, her voice steady and calm, but a hint of hidden wariness betrayed her judgment. "Everyone, don't panic—"
Before she finished speaking, the surrounding air suddenly seemed to be gently touched by some unseen hand, rippling in circles visible to the naked eye, spreading from the ground and air all the way to the sky, even causing the edges of the clouds to tremble.
The six immediately formed a semi-circular defensive formation, their skirts fluttering in the breeze of the secret realm, their expressions as if facing a formidable enemy.
Hong Xiuxiang raised her hand, signaling everyone to slow down. Her ears trembled slightly as she listened to a rhythm invisible to the naked eye—a faint echo that only appears when spatial logic is altered, like an ancient mechanism slowly activating.
Suddenly, a thin crack silently appeared in the gravel path beneath their feet. The crack was not filled with soil, but with a bottomless, pitch-black void. Countless thin strands of light could be faintly seen winding and cutting within it, like thousands of chains of cause and effect intertwining and dancing in the abyss. Each "Imprint of Light" on those chains shimmered with a cold, silvery light, as if it could sever all connection with the outside world.
"Step back!" Hong Xiuxiang suddenly shouted, and with a flick of her finger, the "Spirit Brocade Book Realm" transformed into countless crimson pages that floated in the air, quickly piecing together a flowing wall of books that isolated the distorting power emanating from the crack beneath her feet.
But almost at the same instant, the surrounding air began to thicken, as if an invisible liquid was slowly surging within it, trapping them inside. That force was not simply oppression, but rather a "definition" stripping them of their ability to move—making their bodies forget how to take a step, and their consciousness mistakenly believing that they had never existed.
"This is not a simple trap..." The vermilion mark between Hong Xiuxiang's brows glowed slightly, her gaze deep and cold. "Someone is remotely controlling the logic nodes here, deliberately luring us into this trap."
As soon as she finished speaking, a very soft laugh echoed from the depths of the clouds, like someone whispering in her ear, or like hundreds of different voices overlapping, sending a chill down the spines of the six female disciples.
One of the women, wielding a long silver whip, gritted her teeth and whispered, "Senior sister, should we force this breakthrough?"
Hong Xiuxiang did not answer immediately. Her gaze was fixed on the depths of the void, where an extremely fine spatial rift was slowly widening, as if some unknown entity was watching them through this crack.
"... No rush." She spoke slowly, turning the spiritual book in her hand to a page of "Realm Words Book Seal Script" that glowed with a faint light. In the radiance, a hidden sealing array began to form—she wanted to see clearly what the power behind it was.