The embers of the seventh floor had not yet been completely extinguished, and the golden afterglow flowed on the tower walls like burning pages of Fate Book. Suddenly, the spire of the entire eighth floor of the ancient tower lit up abruptly, and a beam of light pierced through the dome, causing all the patterns of destiny in the world to become unbalanced in an instant. The spacetime outside the tower also trembled violently, and billions of spiritual breaths held their breath in that instant.
That is the symbol of the "passers" ascending to the eighth level—the light of the Annihilation Abyss Returns to Silence.
The Liu Yuan, seated Abyss Flowers in the center of the seventh floor, suddenly opened his eyes. His gaze was like a cold star falling into the sea, fixed intently on the blazing white point of light above his head, almost too bright to look at directly. The point of light was extremely far away, yet it seemed to be mocking all his failures. The tower walls trembled, and he stood up, his soul pressure slowly unfolding around him, like a sea of stars pouring down, a gale whipping up the shattered flow of life runes.
"The eighth level... Annihilation Abyss Returns to Silence..."
He murmured softly, the dark line between his brows shimmering faintly, his gaze growing increasingly deep. It wasn't astonishment, but a mixture of shock and wariness.
Who exactly is that person?
His thoughts raced. He was at the Severed Observation Realm · Supreme and had already attempted to ascend the eighth level three times, each time suffering a backlash from the power of "Reversed Fate" that shattered his soul. Even the most ancient Abyss Flowers of the Void Obliteration Domain had not been able to completely pass through that level. Yet now, the eighth level of the tower had been illuminated.
He slowly raised his head, golden light casting crisscrossing shadows on his face.
"Only Book Realm · Intermediate Stage..."
He murmured, his voice low and low, almost turning into a trembling sound of clenched teeth.
"Impossible... He Only Book Realm · Intermediate Stage, yet he was able to break through the seventh level of the Fate Backlash... That's not a matter of power, but a reversal of logic—an overstepping of the bounds of 'existence itself'."
His hand trembled slightly, and the spiritual energy in his palm transformed into a wisp of pale blue smoke, spiraling upwards and being swallowed by the eighth layer of light. Qin Yu's figure was vaguely reflected in that light, flashing by in an instant, yet it Liu Yuan's heart like a brand.
"This person... must be watched."
Liu Yuan slowly uttered these words, his tone revealing an unusual solemnity.
He then sat down again, but his aura was no longer as calm as before. The energy in the void fluctuated with his breathing, and the winds of destiny and the aura of the Annihilation Abyss swirled around him. It was a hunter's intuition, and also a strong person's perception of threat.
He pondered silently in his heart:
"If he can truly Annihilation Abyss Returns to Silence... then this person, perhaps... what is the origin of that pen, that book, that soul ring?"
The seventh level returned to silence, save for the flickering light. Liu Yuan's figure remained frozen within the Tower of Fate, his gaze still piercing through the seven layers of light barriers, pointing directly at the slowly opening eighth level.
The moment the eighth level opened, the entire Ancient Logic God-Cultivation Tower seemed to fall into a silent breath. All light, sound, energy, and even thought froze in an instant. The starlight outside faded, the concept of heaven and earth dissolved, and only a wisp of "annihilation white light" fell from the top of the tower, as if sealing the entire universe into a silent coffin.
Qin Yu's figure was swallowed by that light, and everything around him vanished in an instant. In its place was a Stainless white world—no sky, no earth, no direction.
Yet within that pale white space, countless fragmented patterns of light floated, like words abandoned by time, or thoughts never written in any language.
Those light patterns surrounded Qin Yu, seemingly both distant as cosmic dust and close as a breath. They swayed gently, and each flicker was accompanied by a fluctuation of "existence being denied," causing Qin Yu's mind to tremble.
An unprecedented silence was spreading.
It was so quiet that even the word "quiet" seemed superfluous.
Suddenly, a very low tremor came from the depths of heaven and earth, like the sound waves of metal rubbing against light—it was not a sound, but a perception that "definition is being erased".
Accompanied by the trembling sound, a crack slowly appeared in the center of the void. There was no darkness within the crack, but rather a deeper "nothingness," a pure void where even the concept of "black" could not be born.
Within the crack, a faint glimmer of light began to emerge—a light that was neither bright nor dark, neither formless nor nonexistent.
As it floats, the entire view of the eighth floor is redefined:
Above the void, countless chaotic lotus petals slowly bloomed. Each petal was composed of cosmic debris and fragments of starlight. As the light flowed, the entire space folded into three thousand layers of mirror images. The mirrors reflected the past, present, future, nothingness, dreams, destiny, Consciousness Realm... countless dimensions were reflected simultaneously, yet they overlapped with each other.
In the center of the lotus petals, an "invisible sword" floats silently.
It has no physical form, yet it can force all "gazes" to close simultaneously.
It has no weight, yet it causes the entire space to collapse because of its presence.
It has no color, yet it devours all light.
Around the sword, three thousand lotus petals flowed—the breath of Chaos's First Birth. Each petal's edge was engraved with unrecognizable runes, which were not language, but rather the echoes of existence's demise. They flickered, vanished, and were reborn, transforming into a soft light that slowly settled upon the sword's blade.
At the center of that sword blank was a colorless Formless crystal core.
It trembled slightly, and with each pulsation, the surrounding space disintegrated and reformed.
Qin Yu's mind stirred, and he felt the rules of the entire illusionary realm fluctuate accordingly.
That was no ordinary aura of a divine artifact.
It is a primordial resonance that cannot be defined by "existence".
An endless silence descended at this moment, even the ability to "think" itself was taken away.
Qin Yu's breathing, pulse, and consciousness were all compressed into a single line—he couldn't even tell if he still "existed."
An invisible voice rang in his ears, whether it was a hallucination or the sword embryo's own whisper, he couldn't tell:
"Those who seek the Way through definitions will be destroyed by those definitions."
Only with a mind devoid of desire can one wield the sword of nothingness.
Qin Yu raised his head, and the sword prototype in front of him was no longer far away, but as close as breathing.
His foot landed, but without a sound, without even a movement. With that step, space itself receded.
The three thousand lotus petals around him began to rotate, the Milky Way flowed backward, the orbit of fate reversed, and time flowed out from behind him and returned to the void.
Stainless, without thought, Boundless Realm —everything is reduced to its original state of "nothingness."
The eighth level at this moment is no longer an illusion, but rather like a "blank page" before the entire universe was written.
The sword blank hovered in front of him, still silent, yet radiating a primal pressure that was impossible to look directly at.
The lotus petals continued to scatter, and the fragments of light fell into the Endless Abyss, like shooting stars falling into the bottomless sea.
Qin Yu stared at the sword, his chest rising and falling slightly.
He knew this was not a "reward," but the "core of the trial."
That sword belongs to no one—it is simply a "reset to zero."
Surrounded by three thousand lotus petals, the sword embryo sits in the center, its light flowing like an inverted Milky Way.
All sound vanished, and the universe's breath ceased.
In that instant, the entire eighth floor seemed to be ignited by an indescribable energy. The "Stainless Silent Origin Sword Embryo" floating in the void suddenly burst forth with a dazzling purple-gold light. The light did not spread outward, but rather folded back into itself layer by layer, forming countless swirling mirror ripples. Each ripple reflected the collapse and rebirth of a world. Billions of light dusts transformed into a cosmic torrent, bursting forth from the Void White Abyss, and soaring into the sky as three thousand rays of starlight. Even the sky outside the Ancient Logic God-Cultivation Tower was illuminated into a golden-purple ocean.
That was a light that was impossible to look at directly.
Within the light, an ancient sea of golden runes faintly emerged. The runes flipped like pages of a book, layering upon layer, covering the spatial walls of the tower's core, then condensing into lines of golden-glowing text. These characters were not inscribed with ink, but rather directly imprinted into the air by the "light of destiny," the logic of the universe, as if the heavens and earth themselves were reciting:
Congratulations on passing the seventh level!
The eighth trial has been added.
The Stainless Silent Origin Sword Embryo awaits.
If the challenge is overcome, the Nine Towers will rise.
Three failed attempts to sculpt the embryo.
He was also granted a special appointment.
Successfully obtained the divine sword embryo.
The ninth door is your reliance.
With each word spoken, the energy within the entire tower vibrated once. The sound waves were silent, yet they rolled like thunder in his sea of consciousness. The golden characters spun and floated, transforming into countless tiny specks of light that scattered around Qin Yu, like a golden rain of stars flowing from his fingertips.
Qin Yu's gaze was fixed on the words, and his expression instantly became extremely calm.
The corners of his lips curved slightly, but it wasn't a smile; rather, it was a knowing calm.
"The ninth floor... it's getting more and more interesting."
However, at that moment, a familiar and clear soul fluctuation came from the depths of his consciousness—a voice with a hint of mischief suddenly broke into the deathly silence.
The Azure Ring halo slowly rotated in his sea of consciousness, a faint blue light emanating from its center. Then, with a "whoosh," it appeared beside him. The ring of spiritual light, reflected by the purple-gold of the sword embryo, transformed into a soft blue water curtain, rippling gently.
"Little Qinzi-- "
Her voice carried an undisguised excitement, her tone light and urgent.
"This is a treasure! You know, this Stainless Silent Origin Sword Embryo isn't just a divine artifact; it's the Blade of Source-Extinguishing Divine Sword Annihilation Divine Sword to the 'Fate Principle Origin Point' level! As long as you get it, even without going to the ninth level, your combat power will be enough to crush those Abyss Flowers."
Azure Ring hovered gently, her tone carrying her usual agility and arrogance, as if she were secretly showing off her understanding of divine weapons.
Qin Yu looked down at the Stainless Silent Origin Sword Embryo floating in the air. The purple-gold light of the sword flowed in his pupils, reflecting the layered illusions of the abyss, the starry river, and the ethereal white. He remained silent for a long time, his fingertips lightly touching the brushstrokes of the Book of Fate Law, a cold light flashing in his eyes.
"Just take it?" he muttered to himself.
Azure Ring seemed to sense his thoughts, a flash of inspiration crossing her face. "That's right! Its seal is currently in a semi-awakened state. As long as you use the Azure Evolution Core to guide and fuse it, you can forcibly make it recognize you as its master! This saves you the risk—"
However, Qin Yu's gaze remained calm. That calmness made even the annihilated space seem to lose its meaning.
He slowly raised his head and gazed at the top of the tower, which was being illuminated by the purple-gold light.
"I want to try and see if I can get to the ninth floor."
Azure Ring's mind went blank for a moment. "Are you crazy? This is—"
Qin Yu smiled slightly, his tone calm, yet carrying an unwavering resolve:
"Anyway, you have three chances."
I only need to seize the opportunity once, that's enough.
The Azure Ring hovered beside his shoulder, its light patterns flickering as if it wanted to say something, but in the end it only sighed softly and lowered its voice.
"Hmph... Fine, Little Qinzi. Then let's see if you can light up the ninth floor of this ancient tower once more."
As she uttered her last words, an invisible ripple spread from beneath Qin Yu's feet. A stream of light, interwoven with purple-gold and annihilation-white, slowly rose, and the entire space seemed to be twisted by a silent force in that instant, with myriad halos condensing into a "Stairway to Annihilation" leading to a deeper level.
The sound of wind on the eighth floor disappeared.
In the silence, only Qin Yu's footsteps could be heard as he stepped towards the portal of light leading to the "unknown".