In the Realm of Primordial Echoes, the primordial sounds of heaven and earth seemed never to have dissipated. When Qin Yu and Hong Xiuxiang stepped into a certain area deep within, they were shaken to their core by a roar that seemed to come from the silence of antiquity. The surroundings were not mountains and rivers, but floating fragments of broken realms and an endless ocean of illusory light. Every floating stone was engraved with ancient runes, and when it flickered, it would crack open the void, releasing spatial rifts that were sharp to the Ultimate.
The first wave of crisis arrived almost the instant they stepped in. A black-gold spatial rift suddenly descended from above, slicing down like a sharp blade, tearing everything apart. Qin Yu's eyes narrowed, his life seal appeared, and he raised his hand to unleash [Silent Origin - Eternally Sever the Heavenly Balance], freezing the rift in mid-air, as if forcibly pressing a pause on the heavens and earth. However, the aftershocks of the rift transformed into hundreds of tiny light blades, surging wildly towards Hong Xiuxiang. Hong Xiuxiang let out a soft shout, and her Innate Martial Soul [Spirit Brocade Book Realm] unfolded, with ten thousand scrolls of spiritual pages flying simultaneously. With a wave of her sleeve, she transformed the book realm into a mirror screen, writing the shattered spatial light blades one by one into the illusory pages, turning them into ethereal words that vanished in an instant. The two stood back to back, the surrounding spacetime seemingly roaring as if shattered, but ultimately they were forcibly suppressed by the two.
However, the crisis did not end there. As they entered, several shadowy figures slowly emerged from the distant floating island in the void. They were all ancient beings, clad in flowing armor. Their figures were semi-transparent, seemingly not entirely belonging to reality, yet they wielded "Source-patterned spears," the echoing light surrounding the spears resonating in sync with the entire realm. Hong Xiuxiang whispered intently, "These are... Ancient Guardians!" Their eyes were merciless, as if anyone who set foot in this realm would be considered an enemy.
Just as the two were preparing to face their enemy, the "echoes" between heaven and earth suddenly became low and eerie, as if invisible ancient music came from the void, directly vibrating into their sea of consciousness. Qin Yu seemed to see the blood and fire he carried on his back, the heavy weight of countless causes and effects pressing down on him; while Hong Xiuxiang suddenly turned pale, her jade hands trembled slightly, and her soul in the Book Realm was unstable. A trace of pain flashed in her eyes - it was the lonely shadow of being abandoned in childhood, the tearful look of her master when he saved her from the ruins, and also the mission she shouldered: for the future of the Dawn Cloud First Hall, she could not allow herself to fall.
Qin Yu glanced sideways, secretly alarmed. This echo could tear a person's heart apart, amplifying the most hidden wounds and fears to the Ultimate. But Hong Xiuxiang smiled at this moment, forcibly stabilizing her Soul Sea, and whispered, "Even if the echo tears my soul apart, I will not retreat." Her spiritual sea expanded again, and the echo gave rise to even sharper characters.
Qin Yu secretly made up his mind—this realm was no ordinary place of opportunity, but a supreme trial that could peel away their souls and destinies. They had to join forces, not only for the opportunity, but also to survive.
On the radiant wasteland of the Realm of Primordial Echoes, the heavens and earth suddenly trembled, the echoes from the floating dense forest transformed into rolling thunder, and a curtain of light descended from the sky. With that profound echo, countless illusory flowers blooming on the earth withered instantly, the void shattered, and a magnificent figure slowly stepped out.
--Ancient Guardian.
He stood over three zhang tall, his entire body covered in armor that seemed to be forged from countless rainbow-colored glass. The helmet's surface was cold and ruthless, completely obscuring his face, with only a pair of deep, empty eyes gleaming coldly through the gaps in the armor. His armor was not an inanimate object, but rather a crystal of light that seemed to be constantly flowing, refracting billions of rays of color. Each ray of refraction reflected the chaotic scene at the beginning of heaven and earth. Ancient runes were engraved on his breastplate, like the pulse of the heart of the universe, appearing and disappearing intermittently.
He held a long halberd in one hand, its entire body formed from crystalline light, its blade sharp and its edges adorned with countless tiny symbols, as if the entire destiny of the Source of Epochless were etched upon it. Each slight tremor was enough to trigger an ominous sign of the sky collapsing. He slowly raised his other hand, and his rainbow-colored cloak billowed in the wind, creating waterfalls of light like galaxies that cascaded down from behind him, illuminating the entire land as if it were a dream.
The surrounding void distorted with his appearance, and the rules of heaven and earth trembled with his footsteps. He appeared still, yet he brought an indescribable sense of oppression, like a judge from ancient times, coldly watching Qin Yu and Hong Xiuxiang who had intruded into this place.
Qin Yu subconsciously held his breath, secretly alarmed—this being did not belong to "enemy" or "friend," but was purely "judgment." Hong Xiuxiang pursed her lips, the spiritual light in her Spirit Brocade Book Realm vibrating, but at this moment, a solemn light appeared in her eyes.
The grass beneath the guardian's feet began to burn, but not with flames; instead, it ignited specks of light. Every blade of grass instantly turned into dust, merging into his rainbow armor, as if all things in the world were part of his power.
The next moment, the guardian slowly raised the halberd in his hand, and the entire Realm of Primordial Echoes roared, as if time and space were frozen at the instant the halberd blade was about to fall.
The halberd's light suddenly fell, and the world instantly turned into a silent day. It was not light, but rather the direct extraction of the laws of the entire Realm of Primordial Echoes, transforming them into a blade of Annihilation formed by the convergence of billions of rainbow lights. The trajectory of the halberd swept across the void, leaving behind a complete temporal rift, like a split abyss, dividing the radiant wasteland beneath its feet in two.
Qin Yu's pupils contracted sharply, and his heart trembled. Just as the halberd light was about to engulf him, he suddenly activated the Annihilation Origin Power within his body, and the Source-Extinguishing Divine Sword was drawn from its sheath. The sword's edge resonated with the Azure Ring in an instant, and the azure-gold annihilation light erupted like billions of soul wheels superimposed, directly meeting the supreme halberd light. The moment the sword and halberd collided, it was as if two universes were colliding head-on. Light swept across, sound waves disappeared, and the entire space turned into a vacuum, with only the roar of the collapsing rules spreading silently.
Hong Xiuxiang did not retreat. Her gaze was firm, and the Spirit Brocade Book Realm suddenly unfolded. Countless spiritual books and scrolls appeared in the void, with the characters "seal," "forbidden," "severed," and "covered" engraved on Sole Book pages. She raised her hand and pointed, and the pages burned, turning into starlight and condensing into a magnificent book mirror. The book mirror blocked Qin Yu's side, forcefully sharing the impact of the overflowing halberd light.
In an instant, the world changed color.
The entire Radiant Wasteland was shattered by that single strike, rainbow light and annihilation intertwined, unleashing a brilliance more intense than the sun. The vast void seemed to collapse, transforming into a vortex of Annihilation, sucking in all the light and dust. The void beneath Qin Yu's feet crumbled inch by inch, the Source-Extinguishing Divine Sword in his hand was forced to tremble continuously, the annihilation light of the Azure Ring encircled his entire body, making his figure stand like an immovable beacon of Annihilation.
Hong Xiuxiang gritted her teeth, blood spilling from the corner of her lips. The pages of the Spirit Brocade Book Realm were torn apart inch by inch by the halberd's light, but at the same time as they were torn apart, they turned into light dust and reformed, desperately holding back the power that seemed to come from the "Ultimate Judgment".
Boom boom boom!!!
Finally, the shockwave from the clash of sword and halberd exploded, instantly engulfing the entire Realm of Primordial Echoes in white light, like a destructive storm of light and flame that swept across every corner in sight. Even the distant, suspended star fragments collapsed completely under the impact, turning into countless showers of light that drifted down.
As the light gradually faded, the wasteland beneath Qin Yu's feet had transformed into a deep abyss, stretching for millions of feet, with the void churning at its bottom. Qin Yu knelt on one knee, his Origin -Source-Extinguishing Divine Sword plunging into the earth. The Hong Xiuxiang Azure Ring slightly, barely managing to keep him from collapsing. Hong Xiuxiang's face was pale, and her figure swayed, but she still stood beside Qin Yu, the fragments of the Book Realm floating beside her like a protective array.
The ancient guardian... remained standing, his armor gleaming even brighter. He slightly raised his halberd, as if that earth-shattering blow was merely the beginning.
Suddenly, the ancient guardian's rainbow-colored halberd slowly descended from the void, like a long river of rainbows solidifying into a metallic form, with inch-by-inch rainbow radiance emanating from its blade. The crystal-clear armor reflected countless colors in the dawn-like light, seemingly capable of igniting the entire space of Primordial Echoes with every movement.
He stood majestically between heaven and earth, his towering figure obscuring the distance between the sky and the earth, radiating an oppressive aura that made people dare not look directly at him. However, in the instant that Qin Yu and Hong Xiuxiang held their breath in tension, this ancient being suddenly withdrew his killing intent, and a light that seemed to pierce through time flashed deep within his eyes.
Accompanied by the invisible tolling of bells, as if the heartbeat of heaven and earth, his ancient voice, transcending endless time and space, slowly resounded:
"You may enter -- the Realm-Cause Dense Forest."
As soon as the words fell, the entire Realm of Echoes trembled violently. The previously shattered area in front of them collapsed on its own, transforming into a road woven from radiant vines and starry branches. At the end of the road stretched an incomparably deep dense forest, where runes of cause and effect and the flow of destiny shimmered among the trees, as if they were the original codes left behind by heaven and earth.
Qin Yu and Hong Xiuxiang exchanged a glance, both of them startled. Realm-Cause Dense Forest?
As the glorious halberd fell, the echoes of the heavens and earth still reverberating, Qin Yu and Hong Xiuxiang witnessed firsthand what "magnificent and spectacular" truly meant.
The primordial earth beneath their feet began to tremble, and countless runes erupted from the earth's core, transforming into a cascading waterfall of light that outlined a vast and boundless road. Every inch of the road's stone slabs was pieced together from fragments of cause and effect, shimmering with a radiant glow of gold, silver, blue, and purple, as if stepping onto them meant stepping into the intersection of time and destiny.
The dense forest ahead slowly unfolds, no longer just trees in the mortal sense, but a forest of cause and effect that connects heaven and earth. The branches of each ancient tree are formed from light and stars, and the leaves are like billions of mirrors, reflecting countless parallel worlds. The sound of the wind is not the wind, but a deep chant of the Dao; the flowing water is not water, but a long river of time, swirling and meandering through the forest, reflecting the shadows of the future and the past.
Above the sky, the clouds were cleaved open, revealing a deep, cosmic night sky. The stars were not still, but pulsed with the breath of the dense forest, as if the entire galaxy belonged to the heart of this "Realm-Cause Dense Forest". Occasionally, huge vines of light would hang down from the sky, connecting with the towering ancient trees in the forest, like the blood vessels of heaven and earth, fixing this world in an eternal rhythm.
Further away, one can see floating stone tablets of light, appearing and disappearing above the forest. The tablets are not inscribed with words, but with fragments of fate unfolding: some fight with tears and blood, some reach the summit, and some sink into Annihilation. Each tablet seems to be a reminder to the intruder—this forest will test everything about you with your "Fate-Cause".
Qin Yu and Hong Xiuxiang simultaneously felt an indescribable pressure. It was not just a simple force, but an extremely magnificent will of heaven and earth, which made their hearts tremble.
Hong Xiuxiang took a deep breath, her eyes filled with shock and determination. "This place... truly is the original source of cause and effect in the universe."
Qin Yu's gaze was deep, and his chest was pounding like thunder. His intuition told him that the Realm-Cause Dense Forest not only concealed the secrets of the Primordial Echoes, but also buried a power that could change the entire Source of Epochless · Middle Layer.