138: Han Li cuts off the cause and effect

The birth of the [Forgotten One] was like drawing a thin veil between Mo Yuan and the omnipresent Heavenly Dao.

Mo City and its core sequence units' "presence" in the Karma of Heaven and Earth was slowly but continuously weakened, and the feeling of being spied upon, like a thorn in one's back, was indeed greatly reduced.

However, Mo Yuan knew that this was merely a temporary measure.

"Forgetting" is not "erasing."

All his past actions—going Heaven-Defying, slaughtering all living beings, refining sequences, and even trading with the Netherworld—these massive Karmic entanglements, already deeply imprinted within the Laws of Heaven and Earth, could never be completely wiped out by a nascent Sequence 033.

That thin veil might temporarily obscure the Heavenly Dao's vision, but once there was a sufficiently strong "disturbance" (such as again using power beyond limits on a large scale), the Heavenly Dao would surely descend again, and its retaliation would be even more violent.

He needed a more fundamental, more thorough "cleansing."

And in his knowledge, only one person could achieve this—Han Li.

That mysterious and unpredictable man, who took and returned patterns, seemed to always be overlooking the chess game from a higher dimension.

The mysterious dew from his little green bottle contained unimaginable power of purification and creation.

However, asking Han Li for help again? The very thought carried immense risk and... humiliation.

Han Li's motives were always unclear; every move he made seemed like an investment, and Mo Yuan knew deeply that there was no free lunch in the world, especially Han Li's lunch, which might come at a cost far beyond imagination.

Just as Mo Yuan was silently deducing various plans and weighing the pros and cons in the command core—

A familiar, indifferent, and transcendent pressure descended again without warning.

Without spatial fluctuations, without light and shadow effects, Han Li's figure appeared on the platform as if he had always been standing there.

He was still dressed in a green robe, his face plain, his eyes calm as an ancient well; he first glanced at the double-pattern magic bottle in Mo Yuan's arms, whose aura was restrained yet appeared deeper, and then seemed to penetrate the city, perceiving the faint force field of the [Forgotten One] that was silently at work.

A hint of extremely faint, almost nonexistent surprise flashed in his eyes, then returned to calm.

"A small trick, after all, cannot deceive Heaven," he said lightly, his tone as flat as if commenting on the weather. "Karma clings to you like a gangrene. Forgetting is merely self-deception."

Mo Yuan's heart tightened; as expected, the other party saw through the Forgotten One's true nature at a glance.

His expression remained unchanged, and he said coldly, "Your Excellency, have you come to bestow another 'favor'?"

Han Li did not answer directly; his gaze fell on Mo Yuan, as if scrutinizing tangled threads of filth on an object.

"The Heavenly Dao is like a net, Karma is its thread. Your actions have made the threads thick and messy, already conspicuous." He slowly raised his hand, and in that seemingly ordinary palm, the ancient [little green bottle] reappeared.

"The dew from this bottle can refine all things, and naturally... it can also refine Karma."

Before he finished speaking, his thumb gently flicked the bottle.

A drop of emerald green dew, brimming with indescribable, immense vitality and the Dao rhyme of purification, slowly flew out from the bottle's mouth.

This dewdrop was different from the one that neutralized the heavenly lightning before; it was more restrained, its light not dazzling, but instead giving a sense of extreme purity, a transparency that could cleanse all impurities.

The dewdrop did not fly towards Mo Yuan, but to a spot above his head, and then... it quietly burst open, transforming into an extremely subtle, almost imperceptible green mist that slowly sprinkled down, enveloping Mo Yuan's entire body.

There were no earth-shattering energy impacts, no agonizing tempering processes.

Mo Yuan only felt a gentle yet irresistible force permeate his body, his Divine Soul, his connection with the magic bottle, and even the invisible, intangible yet truly existing... Karmic threads!

In the face of this power, the Karma generated by his past killings, the resentment caused by his Heaven-Defying actions, the alien aura he had tainted by refining sequences, the desolation brought by his dealings with the Netherworld... all the "impurities" and "traces" entangled in his Origin of existence were like meeting their nemesis, gently enveloped, decomposed, purified by the green mist, and finally turned into nothingness!

He seemed to hear countless fragmented, malevolent curses silently dissipating, and felt many Karmic threads that were originally tightly connected to him breaking one by one, melting... His Divine Soul became lighter, more transparent, and cleaner than ever before!

This was an essential "purification"! Not forgetting, but true "washing away"!

The process lasted for about ten breaths.

The green mist slowly dissipated.

Mo Yuan stood still, feeling as if he had been reborn.

The heavy burden that had always mysteriously entangled him disappeared, replaced by an indescribable sense of "freedom" and "cleanliness."

He even felt that his communication with Heaven and Earth became clearer and smoother, but at the same time, there was a strange "sense of detachment"—as if all his past sins had been wiped clean, and the Heavenly Dao had temporarily "forgotten" his existence.

"From now on, the Heavenly Dao will not recognize you," Han Li said, his voice still calm, as he put away the little green bottle.

However, the moment he put away the green bottle, Mo Yuan keenly noticed that on the ancient bottle's body, near the bottom, a... hair-thin yet extraordinarily glaring [crack] had quietly appeared!

The appearance of this crack instantly gave the originally flawless little green bottle a sense of imperfection, and the Dao rhyme it emitted seemed to subtly falter.

The price! This was the price paid for cleansing Mo Yuan's immense Karma!

Even for someone as powerful as Han Li, and for this mysterious little green bottle, doing such Heaven-Defying, fate-altering, and Heavenly Dao-deceiving deeds was by no means without cost!

Mo Yuan's heart sank sharply.

This "favor" was too great! So great that he didn't know how to repay it, and even didn't know what Han Li would demand from him in the future as repayment!

Han Li seemed not to have seen the crack (or simply didn't care); he looked deeply at Mo Yuan, his gaze seemingly penetrating his present to see some future possibility.

"The matter here is concluded. Take care of yourself."

As his voice fell, his figure blurred like an ink wash painting, slowly dissipating on the spot, leaving only that profound statement and the image of the green bottle's crack, deeply imprinted in Mo Yuan's mind.

Silence filled the platform.

Mo Yuan slowly raised his hands, feeling the unprecedented cleanliness and transparency within his body; his power circulated without obstruction, and even his perception of the Laws of Heaven and Earth became a touch sharper due to the reduced Karma.

His strength had increased, and the potential threat was temporarily resolved.

But there was no joy in his heart, only a deeper sense of gravity.

What Han Li had severed was not just Karma.

Perhaps, he had also planted a seed of "cost" in his heart.

How long would this cleanliness last?

And what did that green bottle crack signify?

He looked up, gazing at the endless starry sky, his eyes seemingly wanting to penetrate layers of obstruction to see the higher-dimensional game.

The chess game was far from over.

And the chips in his hand seemed to have grown heavier.