A Silence Spread Through the Depths of Deep Root

Deep Root Lower Layers the seventh fault line, the world seems to have been torn apart by some invisible "memory gap," revealing a desolate wasteland of gray and black stretching silently ahead.

The moment Qin Yu and Extinguished Light stepped into this area—

The air is no longer air. The light is no longer light. Instead, there is silence.

It wasn't quiet, but rather a strange silence that seemed to have been perceived before it was even perceived.

The silence seemed to emanate from the deepest recesses of the universe, ancient, Beginningless, and endless, like a forgotten fragment of a myth.

The silence here is not "the absence of sound," but rather --

All sounds, before reaching the ears,

The story had already been told.

With each step Qin Yu took forward, he felt an extremely strange sensation:

He heard footsteps.

But that wasn't the sound of footsteps now, but rather "an echo that had already occurred before the footsteps were about to happen."

It was as if the future and the past overlapped.

This leads to the loss of the concept of "now".

Even more strangely, a faint impulse rose from the depths of his consciousness—

It makes one want to "record" and "describe" the silence before them.

However, the impulse was suppressed in the next instant.

Because Qin Yu realized: if someone tried to record this silence...

They had already finished writing the entire piece before they even put pen to paper.

It has already been described.

Try to listen; it has already been listened to.

But there is neither a beginning nor an end.

The silence continues.

But no one remembers anymore—that it ever began.

Extinguished Light stopped in her tracks, her long, black hair fluttering gently in the still air.

The silver lines outside her pupils flowed slowly, as if tracing a severed path of fate.

"Something's not right here." Her voice was low and calm, yet tinged with an extremely rare caution. "This isn't magic, it's not a domain, it's not an array... it's some kind of 'space abandoned by the Fate Abyss '."

Qin Yu looked around, his gaze deep. "You also sensed this... aura of 'never beginning'?"

Extinguished Light nodded gently, her voice like the fading light brushing the edge of death. "The silence here... is not silence. It's an empty space after 'beginning' and 'end' have been removed."

"It's like—a piece of space has been carved out of time."

Qin Yu spoke slowly. Extinguished Light glanced at him sideways. "Yes. And this space... doesn't want to be 'remembered'."

Qin Yu frowned slightly. "Elder Ling and the others are right in front of this thing?"

Extinguished Light gazed deeper into the distance, her pupils shimmering with annihilation light. "If we follow that disciple's account... then it should be so."

The void suddenly trembled. It wasn't an explosion, nor a tearing apart, but rather like a forgotten piece of history suddenly "skipping a note," instantly filling in a missing piece.

Extinguished Light frowned slightly. "Qin Yu, this space seems to have been... erased by someone."

Qin Yu raised his hand, Fate Abyss Mark appeared in his palm, its faint light illuminating the path ahead. "Let's go."

Extinguished Light stepped sideways to stand beside him. "Aren't you afraid that Deep Root is testing you?"

Qin Yu smiled calmly, his steps firm. "Afraid? If Deep Root wants to test us... it will take action itself, not resort to such methods."

Extinguished Light: "Hmm."

Qin Yu: "If Ling Liangyan is really in there, we don't have time to deduce things slowly."

A calm hint of approval flashed in Extinguished Light's eyes. "Yes, let's go inside and find them first."

The two stepped side by side into that silent realm forgotten by time. Ahead, in the shadows, some extremely ancient "mechanical aura" was slowly awakening.

The desolate, silent wasteland finally awoke the moment Qin Yu and Extinguished Light stepped deeper into it.

It was as if the heavens and earth were being pulled taut by an invisible long thread, and the next second, the entire space suddenly plummeted.

No sound, no light, no warning. Then--

--boom!!!!

It was as if the bones of the entire world had been pulled out at once, and a black and gold array pattern spanning thousands of feet exploded from the depths of the earth!

The light is not light, the gold is not gold; what flows within the array patterns is a "fractured soul vein" that resembles Fate Soul but is far more ancient.

Severed Soul Chain Formation - First Sequence - Activated.

Nine abyssal fissures split open in the earth, and dark gold life patterns, like chains, shot out from the abyss. Each one was as thick as a dragon vein a thousand feet long, yet they coiled, twisted, and roared in mid-air.

The chain patterns are not inanimate objects. They resemble the bones of ancient behemoths from which their souls have been ripped out.

They carried indescribable resentment, loneliness, pain, and longing, frantically weaving together into a vast array in the sky.

The moment the array appeared, all the colors in the world were drained—only black, gold, and white remained to reconstruct the heavens and earth.

The array patterns coiled and reconstructed, finally forming a gigantic, fallen ring that seemed to hang upside down beneath the sky.

Severed Soul Chain Formation - First Sequence: Silent Soul Encirclement of the City.

The ring slowly rotated, and with each rotation, countless fragments of light appeared in the void, like time being shattered.

Extinguished Light slightly raised her head, her black-hole-like pupils meeting the light surrounding the city. She said softly, "... This is an array forged using the 'soul bones' of at least nine experts at the Silent Mystery Realm."

Qin Yu's gaze darkened. "Deep Root Lower Layers... that's ruthless." Just as the ring city reached the third level—

"Buzz------"

Deep within the city, a shadow was slowly drawn out by the light.

It is neither human nor beast nor soul nor vessel. It is a guardian endowed with the "right to exist and perform duties" by the Deep Root Lower Layers.

Neither born nor destroyed, the Abyss Guardian.

Its body is a distorted human shape, but it has no facial features or face.

The entire body is composed of countless black silver fragments, each fragment like an "old memory" of someone's soul, overlapping, tainting, and tearing each other apart.

In the center of its chest cavity hangs a "Hollow Soul Lamp".

The lamp contains neither light nor fire, yet it can illuminate the depths of one's heart.

It moved without making a sound, only a faint echo of space being "deleted"—

Step by step, as if placing oneself in that position at any given moment.

His cultivation level is close to the mid-stage of the Void Emanation Realm, but this kind of existence--

Unbound by life and death, unrestricted by the path of the soul, and unaffected by narrative.

Extinguished Light's voice was deep. "This is a law enforcement force forged by the Deep Root Lower Layers... capable of suppressing intruders."

The Abyss Guardian slowly raised his hand. There was no fluctuation of spiritual energy, no fluctuation of Fate Soul.

But Qin Yu's heart tightened slightly. Extinguished Light also frowned. "It's... 'absorbing your definition'."

The next second—the entire Severed Soul Chain Formation suddenly stopped rotating.

All the chains emitted eerie "click-click-click" twisting sounds, as if the entire formation was trying to confirm some kind of identity tag.

The Fate Abyss Mark between Qin Yu's brows suddenly lit up! The Soul Lamp within the Abyss Guardian Abyss's empty chest cavity—

Suddenly, it shone brightly! An incomparably cold will emanated from the Soul Lamp and pierced the heavens and earth: The Successor of the Fate Abyss has appeared.

Soul-Severing Mechanism, Second Sequence, Target Locked. Boom!!!!

The entire fault line was gripped by tremors!

The chains began to converge frantically, pointing directly at Qin Yu.

Extinguished Light instantly raised his hand, and Yan Hui sliced through the darkness like a knife. "Qin Yu, be careful!"

Qin Yu's eyes darkened as he looked at the countless chains binding him, and he said in a low voice, "So that's how it is..."

"Deep Root Lower Layers —the successor is confirmed." The chains exploded. The formation pressed down completely. Heaven and earth roared, a deathly silence threatening to devour all things.

The Severed Soul Chain Formation paused slightly high in the sky, as if completing some ancient confirmation. The next instant—the entire ring city suddenly sank.

The second sequence erupted suddenly.

All the dark gold chains swirling in the sky suddenly split apart, and countless "soul chain branches," as thin as hair yet thicker than Fate Soul, detached from the chains and fell like raindrops in a storm, all stabbing towards the Fate Abyss Mark on Qin Yu's chest. They carried no spiritual energy fluctuations, yet were more terrifying than any killing technique; they were hooks directly aimed at the "right to exist."

Qin Yu's eyes narrowed, and the void beneath his feet instantly collapsed.

The first branch of the Soul Chain pierced through the protective Annihilation Dawn, passing through the air without any obstruction, and went straight for his Fate Abyss Mark.

Buzz--

The Fate Abyss Mark suddenly lit up, and a vast galaxy of Fate Authority spread out on his chest. In that instant, he seemed to see his past, present, and future being rapidly flipped through in the form of countless fragments, while the Severed Soul Chain Formation tried to find a node within it that could be "hooked" to drag his entire existence out of the Abyss of Fate Abyss.

"Trying to take my Fate Authority?" Qin Yu chuckled softly.

He suddenly raised his hand, his ten fingers slightly spread, Fate Abyss Spirit Key resonated deep within his sea of consciousness. Extremely fine lines of Fate Authority flowed from his fingertips, as if tightening the invisible strings of a musical instrument one by one.

"Heavenly Cause Judgment Sequence - Six Severances Seal - Fate Cause Sealing Mirror".

He gently squeezed his hand.

A hexagonal mark formed by the Fate Authority exploded in the palm of his hand, like an inverted mirror of Fate-Cause. All the piercing soul chains plunged into that "Fate Cause Sealing Mirror," instantly becoming entangled by their own reflections.

In the mirror, each branch of the soul chain saw its own "definition":

They are tools created to deprive Fate Authority to life.

Qin Yu casually clenched his fingers, and the definition within the Fate Cause Sealing Mirror suddenly reversed.

"Then let's first eliminate your 'necessity of existence'." Click click click click

A dull yet dense cracking sound echoed in the mirror. Countless branches of the soul chain seemed to be severed from the very foundation of the universe, exploding into dark golden fragments that scattered like raindrops in the air. The ring-city formation trembled slightly, as if a portion of the magma had been forcibly removed from the interior of a volcano, causing its operation to become unbalanced for a moment.

"Nothing special," Qin Yu uttered.

However, the next moment, the deeper chain array began to roar. The giant chain no longer split, but directly transformed into nine soul chain trunks as thick as the Milky Way, hanging down from the ring city, like pillars of judgment, locking Qin Yu from nine directions at the same time, attempting to directly pull his Fate Authority out of the Fate Abyss.

Extinguished Light glanced at it from the side, his lips slightly pursed. "Hmm, they're starting to act unreasonably."

She raised her hand.

It was a delicate yet chillingly white hand, with fingertips outlining circles of black and gold shimmering light, as if scribbled randomly in the void, yet each stroke caused the narrative logic of heaven and earth to pause for a moment.

Her eyelashes drooped, and her voice was as quiet as if she were stating a pre-written ending, "The Annihilation Light Judging Lord, the Sever and Establish Realm Causes."

The moment the words left his mouth—the world turned dark.

It wasn't that the light was blocked, but rather that all the narratives "ongoing" were abruptly cut off, leaving only the Extinguished Light and the Neither-Born-nor-Extinguished Abyss Guardian in a state of "being able to act," while everything else was suspended half a breath away.

The Hollow Soul Lamp on the chest of the Abyss Guardian suddenly bloomed with rings of silver-white patterns. Its figure, like a silhouette pulled out of the black curtain, suddenly expanded several times. Countless black and silver fragments surged and reconstructed, as if the memories of countless dead were vying for form on its body.

It raised its hand, its empty palm aimed at the Extinguished Light.

There was no light, no magic, only—elimination.

The space in front of her was erased piece by piece, forming an eerie blank fan. If someone were to observe from a distance, they would see that "that small piece of reality that Extinguished Light" had been cut out.

The silver line outside the pupil of the Extinguished Light contracted, and the black hole gently rotated.

"You're erasing fragments of my existence," she said casually. "How cute."

She lightly touched the air with her fingertips, her nails scraping along an invisible line.

At that moment, an indescribable "soft sound" seemed to echo throughout the entire dark world.

That wasn't a sound, but rather the world acknowledging a fact—

At this moment, only the Annihilation faction is allowed to continue the narrative.

The "small piece of reality" that the Abyss Guardian had just deleted suddenly flowed back, as if someone had pulled it from a garbage dump and stuffed it back into the pages of a book; and at the same instant, its own right arm completely disappeared from the shoulder down, Does Not Exist even a break, as if that arm had never been created.

The Abyss Guardian swayed, and the flame in the Soul Lamp flickered violently.

The second finger of the Extinguished Light is pressed down.

"You are the guardian entrusted with the duty by the Deep Root, and your 'power'—is determined by me."

A tidal wave of annihilation swept out from behind her, enveloping the entire area in a dark domain devoid of light. Within this domain, all time stood still, space ceased to have distance, and the chain of cause and effect was put on pause, leaving only the Abyss Guardian's soul lamp struggling and flickering desperately.

The black and silver fragments on its body frantically fell off, coalesced and shattered, as if tens of thousands of corpses were simultaneously trying to support the shell with the fact that it "had existed," while the Annihilation Light was tearing away these facts piece by piece.

The Abyss Guardian raised his left hand, forcefully tearing a gray-white rift through the darkness, and unleashed another "deletion" attack on the Extinguished Light.

This time, the focus is on her name, her definition, and her connection with Qin Yu.

Extinguished Light smiled faintly, but his eyes held only indifference.

My definition isn't written on this lower level.

With a twist of the silver thread, the gray-white crack instantly reversed, as if extinguished by an unseen hand.

The Abyss Guardian's soul lamp suddenly went half-black. "Annihilation Fate Radiance Induction - Star Judgment of End and Beginning."

She uttered the move softly, without using her full strength, only letting a black star symbolizing "the moment the Abyss Guardian was first defined" slowly light up deep within the Soul Lamp, and then—shattered.

The explosion of that star was invisible to the outside world; all that could be seen was the Abyss Guardian's body disintegrating from the chest down, with layers of black silver fragments peeling off and scattering like countless dark dust raindrops, falling into the Sea of Annihilation and disappearing without a trace.

The duty officer, neither born nor dying, was forcibly deprived of the moment of "being initially defined," and thus its entire logic of existence began to collapse silently.

On the other side, the main nine soul chains had completely locked Qin Yu in place.

The chains do not bind his physical body, but rather connect his "cross-section of destiny," looping around his past, his battles, his choices, his steps, and every awakening he experiences. If these nine chains close, he will no longer belong to the Fate Abyss, but to the mechanism itself, becoming the new "Guardian of the Abyss."

Qin Yu took a deep breath. "Don't rush to take my Fate Authority..."

He raised his left hand, flicked his fingertips, and a Silent Ring pattern slid from his palm, projecting the shadows of the nine main strands of the soul chains into the void.

The Severed Soul Chain Formation resembles an inverted prison of souls in the Deep Root Lower Layers, dark void. Nine soul chains pierce through the void, each dragging the wails of countless dead souls. The runes on the chains are like decaying stars, flickering on and off, as if devouring someone's Fate Authority.

Qin Yu stood in the center of the desolate ruins, his feet surrounded by shattered fragments of rules. He raised his left hand, his palm slightly rotating, as if searching for an invisible center.

He flicked his fingertip lightly.

In that instant, a faint dark mark appeared beneath the skin of his palm—no light, no color, not even the concept of "pattern," but all light and consciousness hesitated for a moment at that spot, as if unsure how to describe it.

Qin Yu uttered four words in a low voice, as if awakening something that had long been dormant in the deepest part of his Fate Soul.

"Boundless Return to the Abyss, Annihilation Other Shore."

The dark mark that "shouldn't have been there" suddenly opened from the palm of his hand—

It wasn't an aperture, but an absolutely silent Silent Ring, slowly spreading from Qin Yu's palm, like a "blank ring" forcibly pressed back into the world from outside the narrative.

The Silent Ring trembled slightly.

The nine Soul Master Chains suddenly tightened, and countless soul patterns on the chains flowed back, as if the entire chain array had been forcibly dragged back from the "end" to the "beginning," their origin... forced to be exposed on the inner wall of the Silent Ring.

Deep within the void, the "true images" of soul chains were pulled from the shadows by an invisible force and appeared within the Silent Ring.

The scene was as if someone had pulled out the "definition of existence" of the nine soul chains and pressed it onto an invisible mirror—the shadow of each soul chain twisted, convulsed, and struggled within the Silent Ring, runes flew wildly, and soul fires burned backward, yet not even a single spark could Leaving Stillness Ring.

"False Soul Chain Heart, Reflection."

A glint of malice flashed in Qin Yu's eyes.

The Silent Ring suddenly contracted slightly, and the true images of those soul chains were erased by an invisible brush, stroke by stroke, from their names, their structures, and their causal foundations, bit by bit.

The nine Soul Master Chains were still vibrating wildly, but the next moment, the links began to collapse from the middle—not broken, but disappearing little by little from the concept of "chain".

First the runes disappeared, then the soul fire vanished into the void, and finally even the metallic texture, the weight of existence, and the very act of being seen were all erased from the world.

Boom--

The Severed Soul Chain Formation let out a final low growl, like a "self-destruct mechanism," as the nine soul chains collapsed inwards. But before they could crash to the ground, it was as if the pause button had been pressed, and then the "delete" button had been pressed.

They didn't even have time to fall.

Only a faint Silent Ring remained in the entire array, slowly rotating inside and outside Qin Yu's palm before gradually disappearing back under his skin, as if it had never existed.

At this moment, the Deep Root Lower Layers area lost the evidence that "the Severed Soul Chain Formation once existed".

Even the mechanism itself became a "false, False Soul Chain Heart" that was sent to the other side by the Silent Ring.

On the other side, Extinguished Light and the "Neither-Born-nor-Extinguished Abyss Guardian" had already fought their way into the depths.

The Abyss Guardian's outline resembled a "humanoid concept" casually sketched with gray and white lines. Fragments of time were constantly peeling off its body, its form sometimes elongating and sometimes breaking. Every claw strike carried a dimensional storm of Void Emanation Realm · Middle Stage, tearing starlight into geometric fragments.

Extinguished Light stood at the edge of the torn rift, her long black hair fluttering without wind, and the hem of Final Radiance Woven Robe swaying slowly in the void. The double black holes in her eyes contracted slightly for a moment.

"Annihilation Light Judging Lord, Sever and Establish Realm Causes."

She spoke softly, as if announcing an irrefutable verdict.

The next moment--

The colors of the entire battlefield were stolen, and the two Ultimate of black and gold flowed in opposite directions around her, like two rivers of light chasing each other, cutting the space into pieces of suspended shattered mirrors.

All time, cause and effect, actions, and narratives were simultaneously paused within this shimmering black realm.

The Abyss Guardian's movements froze in mid-air. Its raised arm seemed to be sealed by invisible chains, and the supports behind it, made of "Unborn wills," cracked and crumbled, as if someone had kicked away the scaffolding that supported its existence.

Immediately afterwards, countless black and gold light threads burst forth from the tip of Extinguished Light's finger, like elongated cracks in the Final Radiance, weaving together into an invisible blade of judgment, slashing straight down from above.

There was no sound, no explosion.

The Abyss Guardian first collapsed in shape, then its entire body, like ashes meeting the high temperature of a fireless flame, quietly rolled up and curled up. Finally, even the state of "ash" lost its definition and completely dissipated in the annihilation.

Under the Annihilation Light Judging Lord, even the title "Abyss Guardian the Abyss" is no longer recognized in this region.

After the Severed Soul Chain Formation collapsed, the world went blank for a brief moment.

Qin Yu stood still in the center of the ruins, his left hand hanging down, the mark of the Silent Ring on his palm completely gone. He slowly raised his right hand, pinching two fingers together, as if picking up an invisible wisp of dust from the void.

His gaze passed over the vanished remnants of the mechanism and landed on the "eerie silence" that had always existed in this area.

That is the true origin of the Soul-Severing Mechanism.

It is the starting point of the narrative that "all of this has happened".

"Now that the False Soul Chain Heart has been cleared," Qin Yu said softly, "Let's return this part of it to 'Before the Unnamed' as well."

His heart sank, and he pressed down lightly with his fingertips, almost a completely undefined movement—

"The Unnamed Initial Silence." -- Time stood still.

It wasn't slowness; it was as if the right to "continue moving forward" was abruptly removed. Even the phrase "time stopped" didn't have time to take on any meaning in the world.

The space transformed into a completely white sheet of paper. The location of the Severed Soul Chain Formation, the trajectory of the Abyss Guardian, and the subtle traces left by Qin Yu and Extinguished Light in their battle were erased stroke by stroke from the main scroll of the universe by an invisible eraser.

High in the sky, it seemed as if an invisible celestial book was slowly turning its pages. The lines of narrative that were originally recorded on the pages, such as "Severed Soul Chain Formation activated," "Abyss Guardian the Abyss appears," and "Inheritor of the Fate Abyss is locked," all faded away in an imperceptible moment, the ink flowed backward, and it turned into a blank page again.

The ten chaotic lotus flowers flashed and vanished at Qin Yu's fingertips. The trajectory of the falling petals was without light or shadow, dissolving only in indescribable silence.

When everything returns to normal--

This is just an ordinary, Deep Root ruin.

It was as if the "Severed Soul Chain Formation" had never existed, the "Neither-Born-nor-Extinguished Abyss Guardian" had never existed, and no attempt had ever been made to seize Qin Yu's Fate Authority.

This space... in Source of Epochless's narration, was entirely deleted from "this chapter" by [Unnamed Initial Silence].

Extinguished Light withdrew her gaze, and the light patterns on Final Radiance Woven Robe gradually dimmed. She quietly glanced at Qin Yu, and for the first time, a truly serious expression surfaced in the depths of her black-hole-like pupils.

"That finger you just pointed," she said softly, "Was more than just a way to defend against traps."

Qin Yu didn't say much. He clenched his right hand at his side, the warmth still lingering on his fingertips. The feeling of "the world making room for him" from the Unnamed Initial Silence still remained between his knuckles.

"The organization has mistakenly chosen the wrong successor; it should be removed from the narrative in the first place," he said calmly. "Since Fate Abyss has chosen me, I will naturally eliminate any unnecessary noise from the trials it has left behind."

Extinguished Light remained silent for a moment, and the annihilation light of Zhong Hui spread out in circles in her eyes, then slowly receded.

"Go further ahead," she said, "And this Deep Root Lower Layers will probably start to really 'look at you'."

Qin Yu looked up at the deeper, dark crack revealed after the mechanism collapsed, a slight smile playing on his lips, "Let's see what else it can produce."

Two figures, one after the other, stepped into the dark abyss that had just been "rewritten" from the narrative.

--The Severed Soul Chain Formation has become a page of discarded manuscript that never existed.