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

His cultivation speed was abnormally fast; what took others thousands of years, he completed in two hundred years.

It's not talent.

It is the source that is feeding him.

The power of the fundamental law continuously flowed into his foundation through that connecting line.

Every breakthrough was propelled by the source. Every moment of enlightenment was the source delivering the answer to him.

He believed himself to be the most talented cultivator since the beginning of time on Earth.

No, he was just the one who was chosen.

Chen Hao's consciousness withdrew from the origin of space.

He wasn't angry. Nor did he feel cheated.

Instead, I felt a strange sense of relief, a feeling that said, "So that's how it is." It turns out everything has an answer.

From time travel to ancient times, to cultivation speed, to mysterious resurgence, to the arrival of the Black Tide, there's a single, unified answer to everything.

He is not a pawn.

He was the last rope this dying baby clung to.

Chen Hao looked again at the giant baby curled up in the void.

Its breathing became shallower. Its heartbeat slowed. The black, corrosive patches continued to expand.

The mysterious resurgence is its struggle. It is releasing the last remaining energy of its laws, attempting to create more cultivators.

Because when a cultivator touches upon a law, they are essentially helping it activate those dormant origins.

The stronger a cultivator is, the more active their origin is, and the more power they have to resist erosion.

The extinction of spiritual energy during the ancient era of cultivation was not due to any change in the laws of nature.

It was because it was severely injured in its battle with that external enemy that it withdrew most of its released law energy to protect itself. Therefore, its spiritual energy was gone. The era of cultivation had come to an end.

Until a few decades ago, it was on the verge of collapse. The injury had deteriorated to a critical point.

It had to release its law-based energy once more, mysteriously reviving. It had to choose one person: Chen Hao.

Fu Zhaojie had no choice but to be guided by the embodiment of the law of cause and effect.

It is trying to save itself.

An infant who had never even opened his eyes used every means at his disposal to save himself.

Chen Hao's consciousness remained still in the void for a long time.

Then the baby moved.

It was an extremely subtle movement. Its eyelids twitched.

My eyelids twitched again.

The third time.

Then—slowly, as if with great effort, it opened its eyes.

Two eyes.

It was enormous. Its pupils were dark red, swirling with the light of the very essence of laws. But that gaze...

Pure.

It was so clean, without a single impurity. Just like a one- or two-year-old baby staring at you.

There was no oppressive aura, no profound wisdom, no transcendence befitting the origin of all things; it was simply watching with pure, curious, and bewildered wonder.

It saw Chen Hao.

That faint, almost extinguished divine consciousness floated before its eyes.

The baby's lips twitched.

It started with a slight curve and gradually widened. Two shallow dimples appeared on her round face, like the dimples that appear when a baby smiles.

"Hehehe."

A cry.

Laughter and sob emanated from that riddled, scarred body, which seemed on the verge of death.

It was crisp, short, and had that indistinct, baby-like ending sound.

It's laughing.

My first reaction upon seeing Chen Hao was to smile.

It's not the scrutiny of the Lord of Laws, not the overlook of the Creator, not the indifference of finally meeting you after using you as a tool for ten thousand years.

It's simply that it's happy to see something familiar.

Like a child seeing their favorite toy. Like a baby seeing the person who holds them every day.

"whee."

It laughed again. This laugh was weaker than the last; its life force was almost gone, and even a laugh was consuming its last bit of strength.

Then it raised its hand.

The right hand, a chubby little hand. The fingers are short, not fully grown yet. The fingertips are rounded, and there are wrinkles unique to babies between the fingers.

The hand reached out towards Chen Hao.

Slowly, as slowly as floating on water. Every inch of movement requires a tremendous effort.

Because the arm was also covered with black corrosive patches, and in some places the skin had cracked, revealing the dark red liquid flowing underneath.

But it still reached out.

He reached out his hand to Chen Hao.

That pose...

Just like when a child reaches out to an adult to ask for something, they open their palms, their five short fingers spread apart, as if trying to grab something.

No, it's not about asking for it.

They wanted to hold him back.

I want to touch it.

Chen Hao's divine sense remained suspended in place. He stared at the hand.

It was too small; although its body contained the sun, the blue planet, and the moon, it was indeed a giant baby.

Chen Hao did not dodge.

His consciousness drifted towards that hand, intentionally.

The divine sense touched the fingertips.

If one's consciousness could still perceive touch, the sensation would be warmth. Scalding warmth. Like having one's fingers grasped by a small hand that had just been warmed by a heater.

Then the fusion began.

It wasn't intense. There was no explosive light, no earth-shattering phenomenon.

It flows like water.

The essence of the laws surged from the fingertips of that small hand, flowing into Chen Hao's consciousness through the point of contact. One. Two. Ten. One hundred.

Space. Time. Five Elements. Yin and Yang. Life and death. Reincarnation. Destiny. Cause and effect.

Each source entering his consciousness required no adaptation period, no contemplation, no breakthrough of bottlenecks; it was like water flowing back to its original course. Incredibly smooth.

Because these laws originally originated from here; they were the source of the great Dao within Chen Hao.

Now I'm just going home.

Three hundred. Five hundred. One thousand.

Chen Hao's divine sense was expanding, starting from the size of a speck of dust. The integration of each fundamental law was strengthening him, enriching him, and reshaping him.

The divine consciousness was no longer a transparent wisp of smoke. It began to take shape. It gained thickness. It gained outline.

The Realm of Immortal Kings.

The threshold he had never touched before was directly pushed open under the infusion of the source of the law.

It's not a breakthrough, it's filling up. A lake that had been emptied of all its water has been refilled.

Five hundred. One thousand.

Immortal Emperor Realm.

More primordial energy surged in, and as Chen Hao's consciousness rapidly expanded, it also received something—memories, not his own. They belonged to that infant.

Fragmented. Chaotic. No language, no logical narrative. Only images and feelings.

I woke up in the dark. I don't know when I woke up. I don't know who I am.

There was nothing around. Cold. Very cold. It began to absorb the sparse energy from its surroundings. The absorption was slow.

It was so slow that it took an unknown amount of time, perhaps hundreds of millions of years, before the first heartbeat finally formed.

The first "dong".

Then growth begins, the body takes shape little by little, and the laws within the body are spontaneously born, differentiated, and matured.

It wasn't learned, it grew naturally. As natural as a tree growing branches and leaves.