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

Day 25.

Chen Hao's divine soul began to extend beyond Earth. The Moon. Mars orbit. Asteroid belt debris.

There was nothing there.

Day 30.

At the summit of Kunlun Mountain.

Chen Hao's physical body remained seated in the same spot for a month without moving an inch.

His soul was detached from the laws of Heaven. Like a wrung-out towel, it slowly fell back into his body from the depths of the heavens.

The moment his soul returned to its place, Chen Hao's body swayed slightly.

He opened his eyes.

The lightning in the sky stopped.

The month-long thunderclap abruptly ceased. Blue Star returned to its deathly grayness, with only the edge of the black tide silently advancing.

Chen Hao looked down at his palm.

Can't find it.

Fu Zhaojie was not in any corner he could reach.

Chen Hao stood in front of the archway.

He had been standing here for three days. The Kunlun Mountains behind him remained silent, and the archway in front of him was dim and lifeless.

In three days, he opened the spatial passage eleven times.

Eleven different ways. Eleven different combinations of rules.

The first attempt was a direct, forceful assault. The power of all eleven laws of the Great Dao was poured into the archway, attempting to overwhelm the interference of cause and effect with absolute force.

The passage took shape. It lasted for 1.7 seconds. Then the causal thread trembled slightly, and the passage shattered in the middle.

The second time, he changed his path. He didn't take a straight line, but a curve, making the spatial passage bypass the location of the causal threads.

The thread moved. It wasn't fixed at any one point. It appeared wherever the channel was.

The third time, he used the power of time to try to solidify the channel in the fractions of a second before the causal threads reacted.

It's useless. The law of cause and effect doesn't operate on the dimension of time. It transcends temporal order. The moment the "cause" is rewritten, the "effect" is already locked in. There is no such thing as "too late to react."

From the fourth to the tenth time, he exhausted every known combination of the Great Dao.

All attempts failed.

For the eleventh time, he changed his approach.

Instead of fighting against the threads of causality, accept their existence. Establish protective structures within the channel to control the spatial fragmentation caused by causal interference within a tolerable range...

The passage is open.

This time, it did not completely collapse.

But the scene inside the passage made Chen Hao's pupils contract for a moment.

Void fragments.

The passage was filled with countless fragments of void. Each fragment was a cross-section of a spatial rift, its edges sharp enough to cut through any matter, including the power of laws themselves.

This is a byproduct of causal intervention. The passage didn't completely collapse, but its interior was churned into a pot of shattered glass.

Chen Hao stretched out his hand, the power of the laws enveloping his entire arm, and probed into the passage.

The fragments grazed his protective aura. There was a slight tremor, but it couldn't harm him.

With eleven major roads protecting him simultaneously, he could withstand it.

He can pass.

but...

Chen Hao withdrew his arm and stood still.

Chen Siyao. Chaotic Battle Body

The Chaos Battle Body is already considered a powerful being in the cultivation world. But in this passage filled with fragments of void, a single crack is enough. Just one.

The cutting power of the void rift transcends the concept of realm. It doesn't cut through flesh, nor does it cut through spiritual energy shields.

It is space itself. Anything within that space will be shredded together.

Unless one possesses a spatial law at the level of the Great Dao to protect them.

Chen Siyao did not.

Chen Hao could put his sister into the Guixu Pearl, but the Guixu Pearl itself is also a spatial magic artifact.

When the void fragments cut through space, the internal space of the Returning Void Pearl will also be affected.

Chen Hao poured the power of the laws into the passage again, attempting to clear away the void fragments.

The fragments scattered. New fragments were born.

Because the law of cause and effect still applies.

"The passage is filled with void fragments"—this is a fixed consequence. Cleaning it up is futile. As long as the passage exists, fragments will continue to be generated.

What's even more troublesome is...

Chen Hao noticed that when his power of law entered the channel, the vibration frequency of the causal thread intensified.

The number of fragments is increasing.

The density is increasing.

He stepped back. The number of fragments decreased.

He entered again. The number of fragments increased dramatically once more.

The pattern is clear: the entry of the Great Dao Law will activate the intensity of causal intervention. The stronger the law, the more intense the intervention.

If he tries to force his way through with Chen Siyao, the passage will reach the point of collapse when they are halfway there.

At that point, it won't be a problem of fragments anymore.

The entire passage was blown open.

Chen Hao exited the passage and waved to close the archway.

The light from the six recesses dimmed.

He stood at the edge of the platform, facing north. The dark boundary in the sky had advanced again. It was much closer than it had been a month ago.

A speed visible to the naked eye.

Chen Hao lowered his head and looked at his hands.

Eleven Great Daos. The strongest Dao Masters on Earth since ancient times. The one who once slew the Blind Ancient, a Celestial King. The one who single-handedly relocated an entire cultivation civilization.

These hands can't save a single person now.

He sat on the edge of the platform, his legs dangling over the edge of the cliff. The wind blew up from below, filling his sleeves.

It's been ten thousand years.

He has lived for ten thousand years. He has experienced countless life-and-death situations. Never before has he felt more powerless than he does now.

Blue Star is getting darker.

The Dark Tide has advanced to the inner edge of Saturn's orbit. Sunlight is reduced by 30% as it passes through the edge of the Dark Tide. The amount of sunlight on Earth has dropped to 67 percent of its normal value.

The plants are withering. Not all, but the area of ​​the rainforest has shrunk by twelve percent in the past three months.

Temperatures dropped by four degrees, and the latitude at which sea levels begin to freeze shifted 800 kilometers from the poles toward the equator.

The announcements from the People's Federation are getting shorter and shorter. The latest one only has three lines:

"The Black Tide is expected to reach its orbit within eleven months. The countdown to the destruction of Earth is three years and nine months. All citizens are requested to cooperate with the resource allocation system."

Chen Hao had been sitting atop Kunlun Mountain for a long time.

He went through all the deductions in his mind a hundred times.

Searching for Fu Zhaojie, but unable to find him. The technological wormhole, too late. Forcing their way through the passage, but their sister couldn't get through. Confronting the Dao of Cause and Effect... not strong enough.

Every road is a dead end.

Ten thousand years ago, he sent the entire cultivation civilization to another world.

Ten thousand years later, he won't even be able to take his own sister with him.

The bracelet vibrated.

Chen Siyao's video call.

Chen Hao glanced at the caller ID, paused for two seconds, and then pressed the answer button.

The image popped up. Chen Siyao's face appeared in the projection, with the floor-to-ceiling windows of Baotiancheng's living room as the background.

"Brother, I need to talk to you about something." She spoke quickly, clearly having prepared her answer beforehand. "It's about the other world... um."

She stopped and looked at the scene behind Chen Hao in the picture.

"Brother, are you in the Kunlun Mountains?"

"Um."

"How long have you been there? Have you come back for dinner?"

"Is something the matter, Yao Yao?"

Chen Siyao pursed her lips, swallowing back the words that were about to come out.