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

Only the sound of the wind could be heard atop the Kunlun Mountains.

Chen Hao waited for one minute. Three minutes. Ten minutes.

no respond.

There was no fluctuation. There was no feedback at the level of any laws.

Fu Zhaojie, or rather, the being who grasped the Dao of Cause and Effect, chose to remain silent.

Chen Hao withdrew his power of law, stood atop the mountain, and faced the gray sky.

No response.

Chen Hao stood there, his ten fingers clenched into fists, his nails digging into his palms.

A person who has mastered the principles of cause and effect. He has lived from the primitive era to the present.

Hidden beyond the perception of all those who govern. Never revealed itself, never discovered.

Why did he interfere with the spatial passage?

Chen Hao reviewed the known information again.

First, Fu Zhaojie does not possess the aura of the Gold Devouring Clan. Chen Hao has confirmed this. His Dao Origin belongs to this realm.

They belong to the same universe and the same system of laws.

He is not an outsider.

Secondly... the Gold-Eating Beast devoured not only metal and planets. It even devoured the very essence of the Great Dao.

This means that if the Black Tide reaches Blue Star, both Chen Hao and Fu Zhaojie will be swallowed up.

No one is immune.

What was his purpose in interfering with the passage? To drag everyone down with him? He himself couldn't escape it either.

Was it a suicidal act? Or did he have other means of escape?

No. A being that has survived from the wilderness to the present day cannot be that simple.

Chen Hao repeatedly analyzed the situation but could not find a reasonable motive.

He stood on the mountaintop platform, lost in thought for a long time. The wind blew in from all directions, carrying an increasingly chilly air. The darkness at the edge of the sky had advanced further. It was visible to the naked eye.

time does not wait.

Chen Hao turned to look at the archway. The six recesses still glowed faintly, but the passage had collapsed. The interference of the Path of Cause and Effect was still there; the thread still lay across the center of the passage.

He needs to solve this problem.

But how do we solve this?

Forcing it open? The principle of cause and effect overrides the principle of space. Forcibly opening a passage will only cause it to collapse continuously.

No matter how much power of the law is inputted, it will be useless because the "cause" has been changed.

Go find Fu Zhaojie? He didn't even give a response. Moreover, with the power of the Dao of Cause and Effect, it's almost impossible to find someone who doesn't want to be found.

He can erase himself from everyone's memory and records.

That leaves only...

Chen Hao stood before the archway, his fingers gently tapping on the law-like patterns on the door frame. The patterns shimmered slightly under his touch.

There's only one way left.

Break the cycle of cause and effect.

It's not about fighting against cause and effect. It's about fundamentally bypassing it.

What is the core of cause and effect? ​​Because A, therefore B. Change A, and B changes. Fu Zhaojie changed the cause of "channel stability" to the cause of "channel collapse".

What if Chen Hao didn't take the "cause" path?

What if he doesn't open the "channel"?

The principle of cause and effect intervenes in the "channel". If Chen Hao sends people to another world in a different way, without going through the channel, the intervention of the principle of cause and effect will be ineffective.

But how can we cross the sea of ​​stars without going through the passage?

Chen Hao's mind raced.

Spatial folding? ...It's essentially still a passageway. It will be subject to intervention.

Spatial displacement? Directly swapping Earth to another dimension? The power of the laws isn't enough. It's several orders of magnitude too weak.

That...

Chen Hao suddenly thought of something.

Chen Siyao's project.

Artificial wormholes.

It's not a passage opened by the laws of the Dao. It's a passage created purely by distorting space using technological means.

The principle of cause and effect intervenes in "spatial channels at the level of the Great Dao." If wormholes are at the physical level, they don't pass through any laws of the Great Dao...

Can the law of cause and effect govern this?

Chen Hao's breathing quickened slightly.

He turned around, and his figure disappeared on the mountaintop.

The next moment, he appeared in Bao Tiancheng's living room.

The living room was still empty, but this time he turned on his bracelet and sent a message to his sister, informing her that he had emerged from quarantine.

Soon, the sound of the door opening came from outside, and Chen Siyao ran from the door to Chen Hao!

"elder brother?!"

Chen Siyao's voice trembled uncontrollably.

"You've emerged from seclusion?! When did that happen...?"

"Just now," Chen Hao interrupted her, "Yaoyao, what's the current status of your wormhole project?"

Chen Siyao was silent for a second.

"12.3 percent. Spatial distortion rate. The channel lasted for less than 0.3 seconds."

"What if I give you the complete spatial folding model?"

Another second of silence. This time it was even longer.

"Brother, what did you say?"

"Let me ask you, if I were to transform the laws of the spatial principles into a mathematical model that can be reproduced by physical devices and give it to your team, could you use your existing equipment to create a wormhole that doesn't rely on any of the fundamental laws of the universe?"

Chen Siyao's voice was somewhat excited, and she thought for a while.

"Brother, you mean... to replicate your spatial techniques using technology?"

"right."

A long silence followed. Then Chen Siyao spoke, her voice tense:

"Theoretically... it's possible. But I need to verify it. Brother, is there a problem with the interdimensional portal?"

Chen Hao didn't tell his sister the truth. "No, opening the spatial passage also takes time. Yao Yao, you should verify how long it will take to replicate it."

When Chen Siyao received the model of the laws of operation, her fingers were trembling.

It's not a data panel. It's the complete spatial Dao operation trajectory that Chen Hao recorded with his divine sense in a jade slip.

The vibration frequency of every thread of law, the energy topology of every node, and the mathematical expression of every spatial fold are all contained within it.

"Brother, this thing..." Chen Siyao held the jade slip and looked up at him.

"Hand it over to Zhou Mingyuan's team," Chen Hao said. "Let them try to reproduce it using physical equipment."

"I see."

Chen Siyao left. Her steps were so fast it was like she was running.

Chen Hao sat alone in the living room. The light outside the window had dimmed a little more. He could feel the boundary of the Black Tide contracting inward. It was contracting every second.

Yang Wanqing brought out a cup of tea from the kitchen and placed it beside him.

"Master, you don't look well."

"fine."

Yang Wanqing didn't ask any more questions. She sat down opposite her and quietly drank her own glass.

Chen Hao picked up the teacup but didn't drink it. He was thinking about Fu Zhaojie.

An being that has survived from the barbaric era to the present. A master of the principles of cause and effect.

It can alter memories, erase traces of existence, and nail the "fruit" of a great law to "collapse".

Why would someone like that do this?

Can't figure it out.

But Chen Hao didn't have much time to think about it.

He put down his teacup and waited.

I waited all day.

The next afternoon, the bracelet vibrated. It was a video call from Chen Siyao.

He answered the call.

In the video, Chen Siyao is standing in a laboratory, with a whole wall of holographic data projection behind her.

Zhou Mingyuan and several other researchers squeezed at the edge of the frame, each with a complex expression, half excited and half frustrated.

"Brother," Chen Siyao said, her voice very low.

"Um."

"The operational model of the laws you provided is indeed useful."