In the gloom of the Desolate Annihilation Secret Realm, several Annihilation Dawn Realm · Supreme elders of the Spirit Clan and the Star Abyss Clan stood suspended in mid-air, their gazes sharp as knives, sweeping over the space distorted by the power of destruction. The Fate-Cause Annihilation Wind still permeated the air, like invisible blades cutting through everything in their path, even time seemed to stand still here.
An elder of the Spirit Clan, his expression solemn, gazed through the cracks in the void and murmured, "It seems... a true transcendent divine beast has arrived in this Desolate Annihilation Secret Realm." His voice carried a suppressed awe, not praise for an enemy, but an instinctive acknowledgment of something insurmountable.
Another elder of the Star Abyss Clan sighed, his gaze sweeping heavily over the spot where his disciples had long since vanished into nothingness. "Alas, they can only blame their bad luck... In this secret realm where opportunity and calamity intertwine, encountering it is tantamount to encountering a sentence of annihilation."
The wind whistled like a somber elegy, brushing past the robes of the two clan elders. The elders exchanged glances, knowing that there was no turning back, and slowly turned away.
"Let's go, let's go support the other surviving disciples." The Spirit Clan elder raised his hand and waved it, the space splitting open as if cleaved by a blade, their figures instantly disappearing into the annihilation flow, leaving only the battlefield to continue to slowly disintegrate in silence.
Deep within the Desolate Annihilation Secret Realm, the world suddenly changed. Qin Yu and his group of five stepped into a domain shrouded in a mixture of gray and abyssal colors. The sky resembled a scorched scroll, crisscrossed with large, dark cracks, from which flashes of cold, silver lightning, as if each ray of light were a blade Cause Splitting.
The earth beneath their feet had long since lost its life, turning a skeletal gray-white, its surface riddled with irregular cracks and fissures. Within each crack, tiny, eerie blue flames slowly flickered, like the breath of the dead, or the whispers of some slumbering soul. Occasionally, a wisp of eerie fire would drift out, transforming into a translucent, bone-winged bird, flapping its wings and disappearing into the cracks in the sky.
All around stood bizarrely shaped bone pillars, hundreds of feet tall, their surfaces covered in unfamiliar runes and talismans. Each line seemed to bear an ancient curse and a cruel judgment, causing any approaching soul to instinctively feel oppressed and chilled. Further away, a colossal skeleton resembling a withered dragon lay suspended in mid-air, broken chains hanging from its surface. The remaining light on the chains had long since dimmed, yet they still exuded an aura of "untouchable" intimidation.
The air was extremely stuffy; each breath felt like inhaling invisible dust, carrying a heavy aura of death. Occasionally, a silent rain of ash would fall, carving tiny cracks into the ground as it landed, proclaiming that every grain of dust here contained destructive power.
In this area where deathly silence and oppression intertwine, even the flow of time seems to slow down, as if anyone who steps into this place will be silently dragged into an endless slumber.
In that instant, Qin Yu's divine sense pierced through the dense aura of death and captured a strange sea of fog not far ahead.
It was no ordinary mist, but rather composed of countless tiny array particles. Each wisp of mist was constantly twisting and recombinating, as if an invisible hand was weaving some indescribable rule. The mist's color presented layers of interwoven dark blue and dark purple. As it slowly surged, it would occasionally reveal faintly visible array bone chains. Those bone chains seemed to be able to penetrate the line of sight and strike the soul directly, causing one's heart to tighten suddenly.
Around the mist, dozens of grayish-white array fragments floated, resembling broken pieces of withered bones, yet they rotated continuously. Each rotation caused the array patterns deep within the sea of mist to pulsate, emitting an extremely low-frequency hum. This hum was not merely a sound, but a vibration that directly shook into the sea of consciousness, carrying the power to destroy will and sever the soul.
Even more terrifying, at the center of that sea of mist, something enormous seemed to be breathing slowly. With each breath, the sea of mist would rise and fall like the tide, and as the mist waves rolled up, a pair of huge shadows would appear and disappear in the depths, seemingly watching all those who were spying on them. Occasionally, bursts of light overflowing from the mist would transform into translucent bone claws or skull faces, probing the direction of the void beyond the mist, before instantly disintegrating into dust.
That aura—it didn't belong to any known realm, yet it carried the pressure of Annihilation Dawn Realm · Middle Stage, mixed with a sense of emptiness deeper than death, making one doubt whether they truly existed there. Even the surrounding air seemed to have been stripped of its temperature and texture by an array, so cold that even the soul felt frozen.
Deep within the mist, amidst the interplay of deep blue and dark purple waves, a fleeting figure can occasionally be seen.
At first glance, the figures seemed to be struggling, brandishing their weapons and trying to cut through the fog in front of them, but in the next instant, their movements became slow and stiff, as if they had sunk into an invisible quagmire. The array particles in the fog transformed into fine threads of light, wrapping around their limbs and sea of consciousness, like chains extending from the depths of nothingness, binding them firmly in place.
A cultivator at the Annihilation Source Realm · High Stage, with bloodshot eyes and golden flames burning all over his body, tried to break free. But as soon as he took half a step, the mist beneath his feet suddenly collapsed, turning into a giant maw made of interwoven bone chains, which swallowed him whole. Before he could even scream, he turned into ashes and disappeared.
Further away, several powerful cultivators at the Logic Realm Realm formed a defensive array to protect each other, but their faces were pale and their breathing rapid. Array particles continuously seeped into their protective light barrier, like water droplets merging into ink, gradually eroding the barrier into a dark gray. In the center of the light barrier, a woman's eyes had lost focus, and she murmured to herself, seemingly responding to some kind of call from the mist—the next moment, her body transformed into misty light and was completely sucked into the depths of the array.
Closer to the center, several core disciples from some unknown temple could be seen floating stiffly in mid-air, their eyes wide open, their pupils reflecting endless array symbols. They seemed to be "frozen" in a certain moment; though their life force remained, they had completely lost their perception of the outside world, and could only let the mist slowly assimilate them into part of the array.
The breathing of the misty sea remained heavy and slow. With each surge, more array-patterned bone chains emerged from its depths, searching for new prey like predatory tentacles. The oppressive feeling was as if the entire space was controlled by this array, and any life that stepped into it would be silently erased.
Qin Yu and his group of five exchanged glances and slowly approached the array of mist. As soon as they stepped within a hundred feet, the surrounding mist seemed to be stirred by an invisible force, suddenly churning up.
From the depths of the mist came a low, almost inaudible vibration—not a sound, but a pulse that struck the very soul, as if some ancient being was awakening, slowly opening its eyes to scrutinize the newcomer.
Suddenly, the ground beneath their feet seemed to have lost its support, and the mist transformed into a void abyss. Within it, array particles swirled into a gigantic flower of runes and bones, its petals interwoven with countless bone chains and runes. The patterns on each petal spun wildly, reflecting countless figures who had been trapped there, their faces contorted, reaching out for help, yet forever unable to touch reality.
A grayish-white bone chain shot out from the bottom of the mist, aiming directly at Wang Yuan's chest. Its speed was so fast that even time seemed to be stretched out by it. Wang Yuan snorted coldly, raised his hand, and used his Innate Martial Soul [Only Book Realm - Realm Words Book Seal Script] to condense a burning golden page, fiercely sealing it against the bone chain. The moment the page collided with the bone chain, space suddenly collapsed, creating a deep abyss rift. The mist stirred up by the shockwave transformed into countless sharp causal light blades, swirling back towards the five people.
Qin Yu's consciousness jolted, and with a flick of his right hand, the Eighth Form of the Fate Cause Master Seal [Final Order - Fate-Severing Question] was unleashed with a roar. Invisible ripples of fate spread from beneath his feet, cutting off the incoming light blades one by one, turning them into shattered light fragments that fell into the void.
However, the formation was clearly enraged, and the mist from all directions instantly condensed into a massive wall of fog, completely surrounding the five people. Above the fog wall, countless eyes appeared—these were the souls of former powerful beings, imprisoned by the formation and transformed into "formation eyes." Their pupils gleamed with a chilling misty light, and they all turned towards Qin Yu and the others, emitting a deep resonance like judges.
The air suddenly turned icy cold, and even breathing felt like it was frozen.
Hong Xiuxiang frowned slightly and said in a low voice, "This formation... seems to be woven from the souls of living people. Once you're dragged inside, even the possibility of your existence will be taken away."
The moment she finished speaking, a huge, shadowy humanoid figure suddenly appeared in the center of the formation. Its form was blurry, yet it exuded the pressure of the Annihilation Dawn Realm. With a grab, the particles of the entire sea of mist began to condense, forming a giant sword made of pure mist, its sharp edge pointing directly at Qin Yu's forehead.
The giant sword formed from pure mist suddenly solidified in mid-air. Countless broken runes and fragments of soul consciousness flowed along its blade. Each rune shimmered with the causal radiance of annihilation, as if it could cut existence into countless pieces and then erase them one by one.
In an instant, the giant sword cleaved down. Space itself was ripped apart into dozens of pitch-black rifts, from which surged the primal energy of the misty sea, carrying a deathly stillness that could swallow even light and time.
Qin Yu's eyes darkened, and ripples suddenly rose beneath his feet—the twelfth form of the Fate Cause Master Seal [Eternal Orbit - Severed Structure Lock] instantly unfolded. Centered on Qin Yu, twelve silver life orbits intertwined and transformed into a rotating chain star ring, directly meeting the sword strike.
The moment the mist sword slashed down, it collided head-on with the chain star ring.
"Boom--!"
A deafening roar, like a muffled thunderclap, shook the mist, causing it to churn like a tsunami. The shockwave swept across the area at a visible speed, shattering countless soul eyes on the mist walls and releasing wisps of grayish-white soul mist.
The shadowy humanoid was clearly unwilling to give up. It raised its hand and clenched its fist, transforming the giant sword into thousands of fine mist blades that poured down like rain, attempting to cut in from all angles at the same time and completely annihilate the five people.
Wang Yuan let out a low shout, flipped his hands, and the fourth move of the Only Book Realm [Realm Words Book Seal Script] unfolded once again. A vast expanse of golden pages flew out from behind him, each page engraved with sealing array patterns, falling like a golden waterfall, temporarily sealing a portion of the mist blades in the void.
In Hong Xiuxiang's hand, the Spirit Brocade Book Realm into a vast ocean, its pages rapidly turning. The third move, [Soul Book Cuts Off Breath], erupted, and chains of reversed soul power spread out like ripples, shattering the incoming mist blades one by one, turning them into harmless white light that fell to the ground.
However, the oppressive aura emanating from the shadowy humanoid figure suddenly intensified, and a deep pulsating sound came from the depths of the sea of mist. With each pulsation, the power of the formation doubled, and the oppressive feeling tangibly settled upon the five people's consciousness.
Qin Yu narrowed his eyes, and the Source-Extinguishing Divine Sword in his sea of consciousness trembled slightly, seemingly eager to cut through the mist array before him...
A faint Fate Soul flashed between Qin Yu's brows, and his divine sense, like a sharp blade piercing through time and space, sliced through layers of surging mist.
In the depths shrouded in mist, he saw several figures swaying precariously—disciples of the Eternal Extreme Sacred Hall! One of them was his senior brother, whom he had met once before in the inner hall of the temple. At this moment, his soul light was dim, and the Purple-Gold Eternal Pole Crystal Core on his chest was cracked with several fine lines. Clearly, his Fate Soul had been devoured and shattered by the mist array.
All around them, the mist condensed into chains of mist snakes, tightly coiling around their bodies and sea of consciousness. Each tightening tore off a wisp of their soul consciousness, turning it into mist fragments that were then swallowed by the formation. The suffocating feeling penetrated their very souls, and even Qin Yu, separated by the mist, felt a chill run through his sea of consciousness.
The senior's gaze pierced through the mist and briefly met Qin Yu's —it was filled with urgency and pain, yet also burning with the last glimmer of desire to survive.
The pulses of the surrounding fog sea became more rapid at this moment, as if sensing that the prey was about to be rescued. The entire formation tightened its trap like a ferocious beast, and the fog waves above their heads transformed into a huge fog saw, slowly rotating and pressing down, even squeezing the space itself to produce a brittle, low hum.
Qin Yu frowned, and the light of Fate-Cause beneath his feet suddenly spread out. He had already made up his mind—no matter what was hidden behind this formation, he would rescue the people inside.