181: Chapter 181 The Sea of ​​Cause and Effect

The moment he passed through the stone gate, Ling Hao felt an indescribable, chilly aura rush towards him.

It was not a coldness of temperature, but a "chill" on the level of Karma, as if ten thousand invisible eyes were watching his past, present, and future, attempting to see through, perceive, and exhaust his entire life.

Before him lay a grey-white ocean.

The seawater was not water, but formed from countless translucent threads. The threads were as thin as hair, dense and boundless, stretching all the way to the horizon.

They flowed, intertwined, and entangled slowly, emitting a faint rustling sound like countless people whispering. The surface of the sea reflected the past, present, and future of every intruder.

Every single thread was a strand of Karma.

Countless strands of Karma gathered to form the sea; this was the Sea of Causality.

Ling Hao hovered three zhang above the sea surface, not daring to touch those threads lightly. He knew that once entangled by a thread of Karma, he would be dragged into endless Reincarnation, sinking and becoming lost within countless strands of Karma until his Divine Soul collapsed.

"This is the fifth layer." He muttered to himself, his gaze sweeping across the surroundings.

Above the sea, countless fragmented scenes floated. There were Cultivators fighting, Mortals working, babies being born, and elders passing away. These were the memory fragments of those who had sunk into the Sea of Causality, washed by the power of Karma for tens of millions of years, already shattered and broken, yet still stubbornly playing in a loop.

Ling Hao sensed the auras of Manager Nangong He and the others.

A moment later, his brows furrowed slightly.

The auras were very weak and scattered, as if forcibly dispersed by the Sea of Causality. Some were a hundred miles ahead, some were dozens of miles to the rear left, and there was even one aura deep beneath the sea.

"The bottom of the sea? One can go there too?"

Ling Hao did not act rashly, but instead observed the movement patterns of the sea surface first.

The flow of the Sea of Causality was not chaotic. Although the threads appeared disorderly, they were actually operating according to a certain profound rhythm, like a massive Formation.

Every so often, ripples would appear on the sea surface, spreading outward from a central point, disrupting and rearranging the order of all the threads.

"This is to prevent anyone from memorizing the path." Ling Hao suddenly realized, "The Sea of Causality has no fixed passage; after every tide, all routes reset. The only way to pass is to master the Laws of Karma, or..."

He raised his hand, and a Chaos-colored clock appeared in his palm.

"To forcibly carve out a path using the Space-Time Rules."

Ling Hao took a deep breath and injected Primordial Chaos Force into the clock. The phantom of the clock rotated slowly, emitting a soft nine-colored radiance. The radiance enveloped him within a ten-zhang radius, gently pushing away the surrounding threads of Karma.

The moment those threads were pushed away, they emitted a faint hissing sound, as if protesting. A few threads attempted to entangle him, but the instant they touched the nine-colored radiance, they recoiled as if electrocuted.

"It works."

Ling Hao hesitated no longer; he selected the direction of the nearest aura and flew forward.

The sky above the Sea of Causality was not peaceful.

Having flown no more than ten miles, Ling Hao encountered the first wave of a "Karma Storm."

The storm arrived without warning. The previously calm sea suddenly surged, and countless threads of Karma shot into the sky, weaving together in the air to form a massive vortex.

The vortex spun faster and faster, emitting a piercing screech. That screech acted directly upon the Divine Soul, as if countless people were roaring, weeping, and cursing beside his ears.

Ling Hao stopped his movement, the clock phantom rotating to its limit, attempting to stabilize the surrounding fluctuations of Karma using the Space-Time Rules. But a Karma Storm was not a turbulence of time and space; it did not follow the Space-Time Rules, but only the logic of Karma itself.

"Forcing my way through won't work." Ling Hao quickly made a judgment, "I must find the Karma node of the storm."

He closed his eyes and perceived the essence of the storm with his Divine Sense.

The Formation of a Karma Storm is often because a certain "Cause" has accumulated too much, too strong obsession, eventually erupting into a "Result." As long as one finds that "Cause" and severs its connection with the surrounding Karma, the storm will naturally dissipate.

Ling Hao's Divine Sense wove through the storm, like searching for the end of a thread within countless tangled balls of yarn.

One breath, two breaths, three breaths...

Found it.

At the center of the storm, a fist-sized black crystal floated, and within the crystal, a humanoid phantom could be faintly seen. That was the remnant Divine Soul of an ancient Cultivator; not knowing how many years it had slept here, its obsession had not faded, and its resentment had not dispersed. Every time the Karma tide occurred, it would be awakened, triggering the storm.

Ling Hao opened his eyes, his figure transforming into a streak of light, shooting straight towards the center of the storm!

The surrounding threads of Karma entangled him frantically, attempting to drag him down. But the nine-colored radiance cut through all obstacles like a sharp blade; the moment the threads touched the radiance, they snapped, shattered, and turned into nothingness.

Three breaths later, Ling Hao rushed before the black crystal.

He raised his hand and pressed his palm against the surface of the crystal.

"Return to nothingness."

Chaos Power poured into the crystal, causing the black crystal to tremble violently, and the humanoid phantom inside let out a silent roar. That roar contained ten thousand years of loneliness and unwillingness, but it was quickly annihilated by the Chaos Power, as if it had never existed.

The crystal shattered, and the storm stopped abruptly.

The sea surface returned to calm, as if nothing had ever happened.

Ling Hao continued forward.

During the subsequent journey, he encountered two more Karma Storms and a "Karma Swamp." The Karma Swamp was a special area on the sea surface where the threads of Karma were exceptionally dense, muddy like a swamp; once trapped, one would be entangled by countless threads of Karma, making it difficult to break free.

Ling Hao forcibly carved out a passage using the Space-Time Rules, passing through the swamp without incident.

Half an hour later, he finally found the owner of the first aura.

It was Manager Nangong He.

This Wanbao Pavilion Manager was currently hovering above the sea, his body entangled by dozens of threads of Karma. One end of the threads was connected to his body, while the other end extended beneath the sea surface, leading to an unknown destination.

His eyes were tightly shut, his face pale, and cold sweat beaded on his forehead; he was clearly undergoing some kind of Karma trial.

Ling Hao did not rashly cut those threads.

Once a thread of Karma entangles a person, it is closely linked to the host's fate. Forcibly cutting it would not only harm the host's Divine Soul but could also trigger a greater Karma backlash. The only method of rescue is to delve deep into the host's Karma, find the root of the entanglement, and resolve it from within.

Ling Hao sat cross-legged, hovering opposite Manager Nangong He, and probed into his Sea of Consciousness with his Divine Sense.

Within the Sea of Consciousness, Manager Nangong He was experiencing a "Karma Illusion."

In the illusion, he was not the Manager of Wanbao Pavilion, but an ordinary Mortal youth. He was born into a poor farming family, his parents died early, and he made a living by herding cattle for a landlord. One day, he accidentally saved a severely injured Cultivator, and the Cultivator, grateful for his life-saving grace, brought him onto the path of cultivation.

From then on, the trajectory of his life changed.

Cultivation, trials, business, rising up—all the way to this day.