The black mountain range stretched out beneath the silent void, as if the very skeleton of heaven and earth had been hollowed out, leaving only boundless fault lines and pitch blackness. In the center of the collapsed mountain range, a huge crack had split open, the entrance as if torn apart by some indescribable force, its edges shimmering with countless fragments of light, like the mournful wreckage of a shattered starry sky. Those fragments of light were not light, but the remnants left after the chains of cause and effect had been forcibly severed, drifting in the wind, emitting a low, weeping hum that resonated deep into the marrow.
The air in front of the rift seemed to have been scorched, twisting layer by layer, and countless fragments of fate emerged from the distortion—like countless shattered stars hanging upside down in mid-air. Each fragment shimmered with the trajectory of the fate of countless past beings, but shattered in the next instant, turning into ashes.
Above the entrance floated an invisible barrier, rippling like water, with a faint sword shadow appearing on its surface. The sword shadow almost overlapped with the outline of the Source-Extinguishing Divine Sword, and the sword blade murmured, "This body no longer exists." These four short words seemed to pierce the depths of the soul, chilling everyone to the bone, and even the shadows trembled.
The moment Qin Yu, Yunyi, and Hong Xiuxiang approached the entrance, a ring of gray-white ripples erupted from the barrier, enveloping the three of them. In an instant, countless fragments of the past flashed through their minds—childhood, battles, vows, pain, even those long-buried joys and sorrows—all were pulled out, as if Time Flow Reversal, forcibly dragging them back to the beginning of their lives. Their bodies trembled slightly, as if an invisible hand was scrutinizing and scanning, attempting to strip their existence from reality.
The cave entrance was like a colossal, black beast, its gaping maw ready to devour the stars, waiting for them to step inside and forever lose their way home.
The moment they stepped into the Annihilated Cause Grotto, the world suddenly turned upside down. The ground beneath their feet transformed into an endless black mirror sea, cold and smooth, as if infinitely magnifying, stretching, and distorting everyone's shadow. The mirror wasn't just a reflection; the pasts of Qin Yu, Yunyi, and Hong Xiuxiang appeared continuously in the black mirror—the cries of childhood, the vows made in bloodshed, the wails of death—all reflected in this silent abyss. And those memories, the instant they surfaced, were swiftly swallowed by the floating fragments of light around them, turning into dust and vanishing without a trace, as if their past was being forcibly erased.
A series of low, cracking sounds filled the air, like countless chains of cause and effect breaking one by one before her eyes. Ripples spread outwards in circles, shaking her to the very marrow of her bones. The Annihilation Abyss Star Mark between Yunyi's brows suddenly flickered, and her soul pressure spread out. She whispered, "The laws here... are mimicking 'Cause and Effect Deconstruction'."
Just then, the pitch-black mirror shattered, and ten figures slowly crawled out. Their bodies were formed from tattered pages and black ink stains, their heads were indistinct and faceless, and their eyes burned with purplish-black flames. Each body carried the terrifying aura of the advanced level of the Only Book Realm, dragging a broken pen, scroll, or chain of words in its hand. Their figures were elusive, as if they could disappear into the mirror at any moment.
"... Disordered Book Spirit..." Hong Xiuxiang's eyes trembled. It was a variant of the Sole Book- level—an existence that should have recorded cause and effect and destiny, but was completely distorted under the erosion of the Annihilated Cause Grotto, turning into a dark creature.
Ten dark beings simultaneously raised the scrolls in their hands, and jet-black characters cascaded down like a waterfall, transforming into chains that swept madly towards the three. Each chain was not merely an attack, but an attempt to directly alter the cause and effect of Qin Yu and the others: past battles were rewritten as defeats; past vows were twisted into betrayals; and past life trajectories were erased into blanks.
Qin Yu's heart sank suddenly, and the Azure Ring in his sea of consciousness trembled slightly. He raised the Source-Extinguishing Divine Sword, its blade flashing with azure light, and said coldly, "Only Book Realm."
Yunyi took a step forward, and the dragon soul's light and shadow emerged from behind her. Her deep blue dragon eyes suddenly opened, and a dragon's roar shook the heavens and earth, causing the ripples on the mirror surface to shatter. Hong Xiuxiang held the Brocade Ink Soul Brush, her eyes resolute. She gently flicked the brush tip, and a huge golden scroll appeared in the void. The seal script burned with intense light and collided fiercely with the dark book chain.
Boom--!
The entire Abyss of Cause and Effect Deconstruction trembled violently, and the shattered Mirror Sea transformed into countless sharp black fragments that flew about, as if the remnants of causality were roaring. Ten dark beings roared in unison, their voices seeming to tear apart souls, carrying endless curses.
Ten dark beings roared simultaneously, their tattered scrolls and chains igniting with black soul flames. The air froze, as if countless rewritten causes and effects were rushing towards Qin Yu and his companions. The mirror shattered, its black fragments transforming into sharp blades of light, whistling down with the rhythm of Causal Severance.
Qin Yu's eyes instantly turned cold and sharp. He held the Source-Extinguishing Divine Sword in his hand, its blade shimmering with azure light and dream patterns, the power of the Azure Ring in his sea of consciousness responding in unison. The sword cleaved down, instantly shattering the causal chain and the dark flames in front of him.
"Silent Origin - Boundless Ashes!" He unleashed a furious slash, the sword light transforming into a gray-white flame, directly cleaving the three dark beings into phantoms, forcibly suppressing them onto the mirror surface, their souls cracking.
"Dragon's Roar - Rending Domain Dragon Soul!"
Yunyi's delicate body rose into the air, and the shadow of the Black Abyss Dragon behind her instantly pierced the sky. Accompanied by the furious glare of her azure dragon eyes, a dragon roar that shook all things roared out, and the shockwave seemed to transform into countless dragon-shaped sonic blades, surrounding the two dark beings from all directions. Their bodies were instantly shattered by the sound waves, their book-like figures crumbled into countless pieces of ink ash, and their souls wailed and dissipated in the void.
"Book Extinction - Ink Wave!"
Hong Xiuxiang's eyes were resolute. With a flick of her Brocade Ink Soul Brush, countless pages ignited with bluish-purple flames, swirling wildly around her like a million pages of ink waves that engulfed the three dark beings. Wherever the pages passed, the chains of cause and effect snapped, and the beings screamed in agony. Their reason for existence was forcibly erased, as if they had never existed.
Boom!
The entire Black Mirror Land suddenly collapsed, the whispers of the Abyss of Cause and Effect reverberated into a deafening roar, and ripples of light exploded outwards. Seven of the ten dark beings were instantly suppressed, but the remaining three suddenly surged in power, the scrolls in their hands burned away, replaced by pure flames of cause and effect. They roared to the sky, "Your existence should not continue!"
In an instant, three enormous ink flame seals appeared in the void, attempting to completely burn away the past and future of Qin Yu, Yunyi, and Hong Xiuxiang.
A blue light flashed between Qin Yu's brows, and the sound of the Azure Ring resounded deep within his sea of consciousness.
"Silent Origin Wheel Prison!"
A ring of shadows suddenly appeared, and ten layers of soul wheels crushed the void. The three dark beings were instantly dragged into the Wheel of Reincarnation, their souls scorched by the flames of ten lifetimes of reincarnation. They struggled wildly in the Silent Wheel, their souls collapsing layer by layer, letting out heart-wrenching howls, and were finally Annihilation in the blue light and sword light.
The Space Silence.
Countless mirror fragments turned to ashes and fell, the Abyss of Cause and Effect was completely quelled, and the remaining starlight fragments turned into Karmic Crystal, which quietly floated in the void and fell in front of the three people as if as a reward.
The ten dark beings were completely Annihilation, and the Abyss of Cause and Effect returned to deathly silence. The shattered mirror collapsed piece by piece, turning into black light fragments that were swallowed by the void. Qin Yu, Yunyi, Hong Xiuxiang did not linger. Their eyes met for a moment, and their hearts communicated silently.
With each step they took, the lingering Karma Ripple transformed into an invisible force, gently lifting the three of them up. The space in front of them trembled like a water curtain, with light fragments and broken pieces of destiny floating and sinking, eventually opening a deep vortex in the void.
It was the entrance to a long river of flowing light flowing backwards—the "River of Time Flow Reversal." The roar of the water was like the simultaneous ticking of thousands of clocks, as if the entire world was reversing. The starlight within the vortex kept receding, and even the fragments of light returned to nothingness in silence, creating an extremely oppressive and abnormal silence.
Qin Yu stared intently at the river flowing against the current, a strange tremor rising in his heart. He knew that the Abyss of Abyss of Cause and Effect was only the beginning of the Annihilated Cause Grotto, and the real terror was just beginning.
Hong Xiuxiang pursed her lips slightly, gripping the Brocade Ink Soul Brush tightly. Though her expression was tense, she still stayed by Qin Yu's side. Yunyi slightly raised her chin, a cold light flashing deep in her dragon eyes, and said softly, "Little Qinzi, things are going to be even more troublesome than before."
As soon as the words fell, the three of them stepped into the light curtain at the same time, and their figures were instantly swept into the surging river of Time Flow Reversal.
The moment the three figures disappeared into the light curtain, the world suddenly and violently spun. The ground beneath their feet was no longer solid earth, but transformed into a transparent sea of stars, as if each step was treading on a mirror of emptiness. Beneath the mirror, countless fragments of time shattered and flowed, reflecting countless images of themselves—the innocence of childhood, their current posture, even the dying afterimage of their future, all appearing simultaneously.
The "River of Time Flow Reversal" surged upwards from the depths of the void, its roar like the ticking of millions of clocks. The river wasn't real water, but rather condensed fragments of time, each drop shimmering with a cold light, reflecting countless past and future events. It flowed upstream, returning to the beginning of time, as if devouring all of the "present."
Even more bizarrely, thin, "human skin-like" time curtains floated in the surrounding air, each covered with backward symbols and distorted clock hands. These curtains trembled slightly, whispering, "You shouldn't be here... You never existed..."
Hong Xiuxiang's body suddenly stiffened. She saw another "self" emerge from the river, but it was a future version of herself—with empty eyes and the Brocade Ink Soul Brush in her hand broken into ashes. In the illusion, she slowly raised her head, a silent smile appearing on her lips, seemingly mocking her current futility.
Yunyi felt the same way. She saw a broken-winged black dragon reflected in the river, its eyes dim, its corpse lying across the void of the Annihilation Abyss, nailed to death by countless chains, its dragon blood becoming part of the River of Time. A chill she had never felt before welled up in her heart, and a sinister glint flashed deep in the dragon's eyes.
Qin Yu was not spared either. He saw himself standing atop a vast, empty Star Abyss, his figure utterly alone. All his loved ones and companions had turned to dust, and only he remained, gazing into the void, his eyes cold and lifeless. At that moment, even Azure Ring remained silent in his mind's eye, as if his entire future had been emptied, leaving only a desolate "inevitable Annihilation."
At that very moment, the entire reverse-flowing river suddenly surged with towering waves, water droplets bursting open and transforming into dozens of "Time Puppet" that emerged from the water. They had no faces, only rotating and reversing clock faces embedded in their heads, and their limbs were pieced together from shattered fragments of time. With every move they made, they could rewind everything around them to zero.
As their footsteps landed, the light in the world began to recede, and even the air seemed to be "replaying the previous second."
Just as Qin Yu raised his hand, the sword light of the Source-Extinguishing Divine Sword condensed into a sharp arc in the void, but before it could strike, it suddenly froze. The entire sword light seemed to be reversed by an invisible hand, its brilliance instantly shrinking back into the blade and turning into nothingness, as if that sword had never existed.
"Boom--" Accompanied by a deep chime, a Temporal Sequence Puppet flashed in front of him. The clock face on its head reversed, the minute hand danced wildly, and a domain of time reversal was suddenly thrown down. The void beneath Qin Yu's feet suddenly collapsed, and his figure was split in two - one half was him at this moment, and the other half was dragged back to a few breaths ago, his hands empty, not even his sword was drawn.
Hong Xiuxiang wielded her Brocade Ink Soul Brush, causing the pages to surge into Ink Wave, only to be swallowed by the reverse flow of time the instant it was released. The entire torrent of Ink Wave rapidly reversed, transforming back into blank, unwritten pages, the ink at the tip of the brush vanishing instantly. Her pretty face paled, and she exclaimed in a low voice, "My skill... has been reset!"
Yunyi was also suppressed at the same time. She spread her dragon wings, intending to shatter the puppet's sea of consciousness with [Dark Abyss Roaring Soul]. The Black Abyss Dragon Shadow opened its mouth to roar, but its voice was as if it had been forcibly reversed. The deep roar turned into a reverse-flowing, sucking sound wave, which was drawn back into her own sea of consciousness, making her brain roar.
The ten Temporal Sequence Puppet simultaneously raised their arms, and the hands of the clock suddenly reversed direction. Cracks appeared in the void, from which countless gray arms stretched out, frantically pulling at the shadows of the three, attempting to drag their existence back to the other side of "Unborn".
The colors of the entire space were also reversing, with black and white constantly switching, as if the world was being re-recorded and replayed. Qin Yu felt a chilling fear: the rules here could even tamper with the "inevitability of time," and his attacks and their efforts could be erased at any moment!