The ancient return was exposed by his sister's live stream.

He stood on the platform, staring at the empty door frame.

That's not right.

He controls the Six Paths alone, more perfectly than the combined efforts of the six ancient beings, without any errors in coordination.

There is no phase difference that fluctuates according to any rules. Logically, the channel should be more stable than it was 10,000 years ago.

Why is it unstable?

What is causing the interference?

Chen Hao raised his hand.

A transparent mirror materialized and took shape within the archway. The mirror did not reflect the physical world, but rather the true scene at the level of laws, the trajectory of the Great Dao within the passage.

He saw it.

The power of the Five Elements and the laws of space flowed smoothly within the passage, weaving a path across the starry sea according to a predetermined trajectory.

Everything is perfect. It's even more precise and stable than the tunnel that six people worked together to open back then.

But in the middle of the passage, there was a silk thread inserted horizontally inside.

Extremely fine. Almost transparent. It would be completely invisible unless magnified a thousand times using spatial mirroring technology.

That thread belonged neither to the Five Elements nor to space. It hung quietly in the center of the passage, doing nothing, but whenever the power of the passage's laws flowed near it, it would gently nudge it.

With just this one wave, the resonant frequency of the entire channel deviated.

Then it collapsed.

This is a main road.

Chen Hao stared at the dark red threads for a few seconds.

He didn't recognize him.

It is not the Five Elements. It is not Yin and Yang. It is not time and space. It is not life and death. It is not any of the Great Daos he knew.

He increased the penetrating power of the Mirroring Technique, attempting to trace the origins along those threads.

The image in the mirror shook violently for a moment, and then it became clear.

The true nature of those dark red threads was revealed.

cause and effect.

Each thread is a concrete manifestation of a cause-and-effect relationship.

Those are the threads of the law of cause and effect.

Someone used the principle of cause and effect to tamper with the passage to another world.

It wasn't violent destruction, but a minor alteration at the causal level. They bound Chen Hao's spatial passage to a certain "effect," which was the "collapse of the passage."

Some people use the principle of cause and effect to turn "unstable channels" into an inevitable result.

Therefore, no matter how much power of laws Chen Hao inputs, and no matter how perfect the passage itself is, the result will still be collapse. This is because the "cause" has been altered.

The outcome cannot be changed.

Chen Hao deactivated the mirror image technique and stood still.

The principle of cause and effect.

Throughout the entire planet Earth and the entire solar system, from the primitive era to the present day, he had never heard of anyone mastering this Great Dao.

As they are both the origin of the Great Dao of this world, as long as someone merges with any of the Great Daos, the other Dao Masters can sense it.

This is an ironclad rule. It has been passed down from the barbaric era and has never been broken.

However, he had never sensed anyone having merged with the principles of cause and effect.

unless...

This Great Dao was already mastered in the primordial era. Before Chen Hao was born. Before the birth of any known Dao Master.

He pushed the magnification of the spatial mirroring technique to its limit. The image in the mirror rapidly magnified, tracing back to its source along the thread of cause and effect.

At the end of the thread was a human figure.

Vague and translucent, standing at the center of the torrent of the laws of cause and effect.

Chen Hao increased the output of the law, and the picture became clearer.

A young man. Thin. Narrow shoulders. He stood there with an indescribable shyness.

The moment the mirror became completely clear, Chen Hao's breath hitched, and his pupils contracted sharply.

Fu Zhaojie.

Chen Hao stood still.

The name exploded in his mind, triggering a series of almost forgotten images.

He looked to be in his early twenties, with an average appearance and a slender build; he looked like any other college student you'd see anywhere. He was shy, quiet, and had a very low profile.

Yao Yao's classmate.

The first time we met was at Mount Shu, Fu Zhaojie's hometown. It was Fu Zhaojie who led them to a massive vein of Flame Spirit Stones.

Deep within the cave, Chen Hao divined the hexagram of "the rebirth of heaven and earth." Shortly thereafter, the entire planet of Earth mysteriously revived.

That vein also contains an inexhaustible supply of Flame Spirit Marrow.

The second time they met was in the Realm of Return to Nothingness. Chen Hao obtained the Return to Nothingness Pearl in the Realm of Return to Nothingness. Fu Zhaojie was also inside.

He said he got in using the spatial abilities of the Tengu beast.

However, the Tengu's abilities cannot break through spatial barriers.

Chen Hao knew he was lying right then and there. He remembered thinking that after dealing with Tian Wu, he would thoroughly investigate this person.

and then?

Then, he forgot.

After returning to Earth from the Void Realm, the thought vanished from my mind. It was as clean as if it had never existed. Not forgotten, but precisely removed from my memory.

The principle of cause and effect.

The cause of "Chen Hao investigating Fu Zhaojie" has been erased. Therefore, this effect will never occur.

Until today. Until Chen Hao saw him with his own eyes in the mirror image technique. Visual information is harder to alter than memory.

What you see is what you see; the law of cause and effect cannot change what is "happening."

Chen Hao removed the mirror image spell.

He activated the projector on his wristband, accessing the highest-level database of the Human Rights Investigation Bureau. Access verification passed. His privileged query rights remained intact.

Search: Fu Zhaojie.

Result: None.

There is no identification information. There are no student records. No one is registered. Not even a single photo can be found.

Chen Hao then searched Pengda's alumni system. He found the complete student roster for Chen Siyao's graduating class.

There is no such name as Fu Zhaojie.

He turned off the projector.

Not surprising. For someone capable of manipulating cause and effect, erasing their existence from official records is far too easy.

Chen Hao stood at the edge of the platform, gazing at the gray sky. The wind whipped past his clothes, carrying a chill that didn't belong to winter.

He was thinking about something.

The principle of cause and effect overwhelmed his principle of space.

What does this mean?

There is no inherent superiority or inferiority among the great principles. Water overcomes fire, fire overcomes metal, and the five elements interact in a cycle of mutual generation and restraint.

But that's under the same level of understanding. If the Dao of Cause and Effect can suppress the Dao of Space, there's only one possibility.

His opponent's foundation in Tao was far deeper than his.

The principle of cause and effect was already integrated into the primordial era. How many tens of thousands of years has passed since then?

Chen Hao closed his eyes and mobilized the full power of the laws of the eleven Great Daos. His Dao foundation hummed. The torrent of laws within his body gathered at his throat.

He opened his eyes.

"Who are you."

It is not a question. It is the voice of the Great Way.

The sound waves surged from his mouth, but they were not ordinary sounds. They were transmissions carried by the power of laws, resonating with the eleven Great Daos.

This sound transcended the physical realm and spread directly across the dimension of laws.

The entire blue planet was trembling. It wasn't an earthquake; it was the very fabric of the universe itself shaking.

A layer of dust rose from the lunar surface. A mining platform in Mercury's orbit sounded a structural alarm. Plasma surged on the surface of the sun.

Inside the space station floating in Saturn's rings, the duty officer looked out the window. The ice fragments in the rings were all resonating, making a soft, crackling sound.

The sound was heard by all the remaining celestial bodies in the solar system.

Ordinary people can't feel anything.

But those who have mastered the Great Way will surely hear it.

Why did you do that?

The second tone. Stronger than the first tone.

The sound spread to every corner of the solar system. It pierced through planets, through the void, and through the edge of the Black Tide.

Then, silence.