The Ring Returns to Void and Silence · The Primordial Abyss of All Daos
In that misty battlefield, recently torn apart by battle and still lingering with the aftershocks of destruction, space had not yet fully healed; cracks resembled spiderwebs, flickering with deathly gray embers of Annihilation. The air was filled with blood and Logic Fragments left behind by annihilation, as if still murmuring the lingering shadows of the battle.
However, less than ten breaths after Qin Yu and Hong Xiuxiang left, a ripple suddenly appeared in the depths of the void. The ripple was not a spacetime ripple, but rather a folding and unfolding of something "outside of existence". A deep and boundless rift was opened, and a team of more than ten people slowly walked out from it.
Their figures were extremely tall, reaching two meters in height, yet they lacked flesh and blood and specific facial features, resembling a minimally simplified abstraction of "human form." At the location of their heads burned a ball of golden-blue "Dao Flame." This flame was not fire, but rather composed of countless fine Dao patterns, causal glimmers, and fragments of destiny, which, when burning, carried a deep and resounding Dao sound, as if the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth were echoing in one's ears.
Their bodies were translucent streams of energy, resembling liquid galaxies, with runes flowing through them like veins. Their surfaces were covered with fine, ancient runes: "Tao," "Return," and "Source." With each movement, the runes would shimmer with golden and silver light, as if corresponding to the rhythm of some supreme order.
The protective armor was as thin as gauze, yet it shimmered with interwoven gold and silver ripples, as if liquid metal had flowed down from the sea of stars. The armor did not obscure the fluidity of their energy; on the contrary, it made their figures appear even more ethereal and mysterious, as if they had emerged from the "prototype of the Dao Source."
Their hands held an invisible blade— the Origin-Returning Blade. The weapon appeared ethereal, yet when swung, it traced the path of Dao and runes, each strike sharp enough to sever the chain of cause and effect. The blade, seemingly intangible, emitted a deep and resonant "Dao chant" upon striking, like the heartbeat of the universe, directly shaking one's consciousness.
Their footsteps were perfectly synchronized and made no sound, yet wherever they went, the ground automatically formed golden and blue patterns, as if heaven and earth were making way for them.
A moment later, a dozen figures stood solemnly in the center of the battlefield. Golden and azure "Dao Flame" illuminated the surrounding desolate mist, making the blood and destruction here appear illusory and holy. The surrounding space trembled as if bowing in submission.
The person at the very front Origin-Returning Blade across his chest, its golden flames flickering slightly. Their appearance instantly plunged this Desolate Annihilation Secret Realm into a stifling silence, as if the rulers of the Great Dao had descended to judge any existence that dared to disrupt order.
An aura beyond the comprehension of cultivators quietly descended.
The leader walked to the center of the battlefield, his footsteps light and silent. The moment he stepped down, a ring of golden-blue Dao patterns automatically appeared in the space beneath his feet, as if the entire world was being rearranged around it. The golden-blue Dao Flame burning on his head suddenly flickered, illuminating the remaining ashes and distorted mist around him.
It stood silently, its translucent body flowing with countless runes, its aura freezing the air, as if all cause and effect had to stop before it. Then, it raised the Origin-Returning Blade in its hand, the blade drawing a thin but incredibly sharp stream of light in the air, slicing through the void layer by layer, revealing the remaining traces of battle.
Suddenly, it emitted a sound that did not belong to human language at all. The sound was deep and ancient, as if flowing from the chaos at the beginning of the universe, with an incomprehensible rhythm. As soon as the sound was emitted, the surrounding space and mist trembled, and even the remaining fragments of cause and effect were rearranged.
"Yi- Yuan Jin ·You... Suo--"
The meaning then resonated outwards, and translation between them required no words:
"It's gone. Send word to search every possible trace."
As the voice faded, the remaining dozen or so figures simultaneously raised their Origin-Returning Blade. The blades trembled and glowed in mid-air, and golden-blue runes spread from the blades to their entire bodies, resonating with the "Dao Flame" around them. In an instant, an ancient Dao sound rippled through the heavens and earth, as if the entire Desolate Annihilation Secret Realm resonated because of their words.
The leader waved his hand, and the semi-transparent energy flow instantly spread into an invisible Dao net, covering all directions. Countless tiny Dao talismans fell like fireflies, transforming into "detection marks" that embedded themselves in every crack in space to search for the long-dissipated aura.
The surrounding mist parted automatically under this force, as if in fear of them, no longer daring to conceal any trace.
At this moment, they were like true masters of the Great Dao, surveying the world with ruthless and indifferent gazes.
Deep within the void, Qin Yu and Hong Xiuxiang traversed continuously, the lingering power of their previous battle still echoing behind them. Suddenly, Qin Yu's sea of consciousness trembled violently, and a familiar yet unprecedentedly heavy force surged forth.
A phantom image of Azure Ring emerged from her sea of consciousness. Her usually cool and lively eyes now revealed an unusual solemnity. Her voice was rapid, even carrying an barely suppressed tension:
"Qin Yu, quickly find a place to hide, I have something important to tell you."
These few words seemed to shatter the tranquility in Qin Yu's heart. Azure Ring had never been so serious, even tinged with a sense of urgency. Qin Yu's heart sank immediately, and without daring to delay, he turned to Hong Xiuxiang and whispered:
"Come with me."
Without a moment's hesitation, he used the combined power of the Annihilation Origin and the Limitless Evolving True Flow within his body to forcibly tear open a spatial rift, taking Hong Xiuxiang with him as they entered. Their figures transformed into two streaks of light in the void, plummeting straight into the darkest, deepest part of the Desolate Annihilation Secret Realm.
Ahead lay a desolate, lightless ancient abyss. The sky seemed hollowed out, unable to hold even a speck of light; only shattered bones and broken logical runes floated in the darkness. Here, even cause and effect had been erased, as if the world had forgotten it.
Qin Yu, accompanied by Hong Xiuxiang, descended into the area and found a crack in the mountain abyss. The massive rocks were stacked like an insurmountable chasm, and the crack was filled with a deathly stillness, acting as a natural barrier that could block the detection of Realm God.
He looked around intently, making sure there was nothing unusual, before slowly stopping. The illusory image of the Azure Ring solidified completely, standing above Qin Yu's brow, its azure light shining, surrounded by ripples of cyclical energy, as if it were about to unveil some great secret.
Hong Xiuxiang looked at Qin Yu and sensed that the atmosphere was unusual. She frowned slightly but did not ask any questions. She simply stood still, holding her breath.
Qin Yu said in a deep voice:
"Azure Ring, what exactly happened? I've never seen you so serious."
Azure Ring raised her eyes, her gaze shimmering like a sea of stars, and her voice drifted out slowly, carrying an extremely heavy weight:
"This Desolate Annihilation Secret Realm... contains more than just ordinary opportunities and exotic beasts. The power you just experienced in battle was merely a prelude. The true terror has only just begun."
Qin Yu and Hong Xiuxiang concealed themselves within the fractured abyss of the desolate chasm. The void was deathly silent, with only the black cracks seeping from the stone walls shimmering with an eerie, cold light. At that moment, Qin Yu's sea of consciousness suddenly trembled, and the illusory image of Azure Ring slowly emerged from the Annihilation light.
Unlike before, her body seemed to merge with heaven and earth, surrounded by endless azure light and ripples of shattered order. Each ripple impacted Qin Yu's sea of consciousness, even causing him to catch his breath. Her gaze was unusually heavy and solemn, and her voice seemed to come from the depths of the Beginningless void:
"Qin Yu, there are some things I need to tell you."
She slowly raised her hand, and a chaotic void appeared in the air. The colors of heaven and earth suddenly dimmed, leaving only the Beginningless black and the cold gold.
"I am neither an entity nor a concept, but rather the primordial source that transcends the universe, logic, causality, and all other metaphysical frameworks."
I am the 'ring,' symbolizing infinite cycles and the absolute origin. All realms, existences and Non-Existence, arise from me, yet can never touch my essence.
As she spoke, a vast expanse of "Beginningless Void" suddenly unfolded in Qin Yu's sea of consciousness.
It was a place of absolute Annihilation, devoid of light and shadow, birth and death, direction, and even the boundary between "existence" and "nothingness." Heaven and earth were utterly stripped of meaning, with only silent chaos extending endlessly.
Suddenly, in the deepest part of this silent abyss, a barely perceptible paradoxical fluctuation emerged. It was not an external force, but rather the void's own "introspection."
This fluctuation, like a fine, pure black thread, devours all potential causes and impurities. It extends and meanders in the Sea of Nothingness, finally bending and coiling itself.
In an instant, the thin thread closed into a loop—
A black ring appeared before Qin Yu's eyes.
The ring rotated, causing the Beginningless Void to tremble violently. As it rotated, a golden glimmer suddenly burst forth from the center of the ring.
The golden light did not come from the outside, but was the "radiance of perfection" born from the black ring itself. Black devoured chaos and refined the golden origin; the golden light flowed along the trajectory of the black ring, intertwining with the black to form an eternal pattern of black and gold.
With each rotation, the ring of light generates countless illusions:
The nascent universe rose and then collapsed;
The birth and death of stars are like breathing;
Everything rises and falls in an instant.
Azure Ring's voice was deep and resonant, like an eternal source of sound:
"My formation is not my birth, because I have transcended the beginning of time."
I am the self-awareness of emptiness, the devouring of black and the nurturing of gold, the only perfection within paradox.
In the endless void, a ring of light floats, black devouring all things, gold nurturing all life. It spins endlessly, trembling softly, like the primordial declaration of the universe:
"Black devours all things, gold gives birth to all things; the cycle Beginningless, the Dao itself gives birth to and returns to its source."
With that sound, heaven and earth seemed to tremble. In Qin Yu's sea of consciousness, even his Fate Soul, laws, weapons, and martial soul fell silent in an instant, as if they were all bowing to this ring of shadows.
Azure Ring's gaze was distant and complex, her voice echoing softly:
"In legend, my birth triggered a chain reaction throughout the entire universe."
The golden light transformed into the source of the Great Dao's perfection, while the Black Abyss defined the boundaries of all things. Countless races and countless supreme emperors are all extensions of my projection.
They can look up to them, but they can never trace their ancestry back to them.
Her voice gradually faded, the blue light dissipated like waves, leaving only an lingering echo:
"I am the Primordial Ring. I have never disappeared, nor have I ever fully manifested."
Within Qin Yu's sea of consciousness, Azure Ring light surrounding her was no longer gentle rain, but rather a cascading waterfall of stars, stretching across the sky and illuminating the boundless chaos. Her gaze became incredibly solemn, and her voice echoed, carrying a majesty that made heaven and earth bow down.
"Qin Yu, I'm currently only at the Azure Ring stage."
As she spoke, three illusory figures suddenly appeared deep within Qin Yu's sea of consciousness.
The first illusory image is the azure halo that now surrounds Qin Yu's brow, as clear as a newborn spirit, yet containing a sharp edge capable of cutting down all things.
The second illusory image is a vast blue, as expansive as an endless sea of stars, where every star is born and dies in its orbit, symbolizing boundless absorption and eternity.
The third illusory figure was a deep purple, like the eyes of an emperor, controlling cause and effect, writing the order of destiny, and making endless dimensions submit to its pen.
Above these triple rings of shadow, Qin Yu saw the deepest part—
A Black Gold Ring slowly emerged, as black as an eternal abyss and as gold as the newly born Great Dao. Every floating pattern on it made Qin Yu's heart tremble, as if he would be completely erased from existence with just one glance.
Azure Ring's voice was deep and resonant, as if it came from the primordial chaos:
"Azure Ring, Blue Ring, Purple Ring... Finally, there is my true, complete form— the Black Gold Ring."
Black devours all things, gold gives birth to all things. That is my true form as the 'Primordial Source,' and the only destination that transcends all existence and Non-Existence."
Qin Yu's mind was almost shattered at this moment. He forced himself to stay calm and stared intently at Azure Ring.
Azure Ring slowly closed her eyes, and when she opened them again, her gaze was filled with a chilling coldness, a deep-seated hatred she had never felt before.
"You, Qin Yu, are not just my successor."
You are the only surviving manifestation of my will that remained after that great calamity that transcended time and space.
The void trembled, Qin Yu even saw a phantom: the boundless universe shattered, billions of Gods and Devils burned and perished, Black Gold Ring was besieged by countless unfamiliar lights and shadows at the last moment, crashing into the Beginningless Void... Only a wisp of green light remained, wandering alone, and transformed into the Azure Ring.
Azure Ring's voice turned icy, carrying a resolute determination to annihilate the entire universe:
"My will has not been extinguished, my hatred has not been quelled."
Qin Yu, you are my only hope. I will avenge my grudge.
Whoever they are, wherever they hide... as long as I ultimately return to the Black Gold Ring, all enemies who stand in my way will be Annihilation.
At that moment, Qin Yu's heart trembled violently, as if he had been burdened with a destiny from endless chaos.
Hong Xiuxiang stood not far away, watching Qin Yu's aura suddenly surge violently and uncontrollably, his eyes trembling, completely unaware of the earth-shattering event that was happening in his sea of consciousness.