The "Cause of Calamity" he had pulled out through the Heavenly Summit Mirror's illusion was no forged karma at all!
It was the karma of the Ultimate Sage of Imperial Void, Bai Chen!
Chen Yan's thoughts suddenly flew back countless ages ago, to the era when Chenping Continent was still called Tianji Continent and the twelve Immortal Sects thrived.
That era of collapsing laws of heaven and earth, rampant fallen Immortals, and maddened cultivators.
At the foot of Qingxuan Mountain, dressed in the daoist robes of Kongyuan Mountain, he had single-handedly stood against all the maddened cultivators of the world.
After he had nearly slaughtered every cultivator above the Myriad Transformations Realm in the world, after he had launched his final fearless charge against Azure Sky True Person, who had already become a fallen Immortal—at the brink of death, with all his meridians shattered—he had met a Sage from an age even before the Tianji Continent era.
The Ultimate Sage of Imperial Void, Bai Chen.
Death Not Permitted.
These three light, casual words represented the will of the Ultimate Sage of Imperial Void.
This was true Sage authority.
Back then, the reason Bai Chen had not let him die was also quite simple.
Because he was curious about the "forged" karma Chen Yan carried, and also because six thousand years of karmic backlash was troublesome even for a Sage.
Then this Sage of Imperial Void had performed a deduction on the karma Chen Yan bore.
After the deduction, a look of shock had appeared on his face.
The Ultimate Sage of Imperial Void, who spanned both the Imperial Void and Tianji eras—how vast was his life?
Yet even so, when he glimpsed the karma Chen Yan carried, he still could not maintain his composure.
Chen Yan had mistakenly believed at the time that the reason the Sage of Imperial Void showed such shock was because the karma he bore was too terrifying.
But that was not the case.
The true reason the Ultimate Sage of Imperial Void was so horrified was that the karma Chen Yan carried was the Ultimate Sage of Imperial Void's own karma.
...
Chen Yan sat dumbfounded under the ancient towering tree.
"If this is the karma of the Ultimate Sage of Imperial Void, then that means..." Chen Yan murmured to himself.
"That's right. All of this is the Sage of Imperial Void's scheme... Perhaps you and I, and every living being in this domain, are all pieces on the Sage of Imperial Void's chessboard," Mr. You said.
So countless ages ago, the Sage of Imperial Void had spared him and sent him back to the present era through the Heavenly Summit Mirror.
"Does that mean the existence who destroyed Heavenly Summit Mountain is the Sage of Imperial Void?" Chen Yan asked.
"No, I believe the truth is that the Sage of Imperial Void used 'that existence's' hand to destroy Heavenly Summit Mountain," Mr. You said. "Because 'that existence' observed the Sage of Imperial Void's karma, it attacked Heavenly Summit Mountain, just as it will attack me after I become a Sage."
That existence maintained some kind of order, and this order did not permit any Sage to be born on Chenping Continent.
When he thought about it carefully, that was indeed the case. Nearly sixty thousand years ago, when Heavenly Summit Mountain was destroyed, it was almost identical to what had happened today.
If this were true, everything seemed to make sense.
If all of this was the scheme of the Ultimate Sage of Imperial Void...
"Is the Ultimate Sage of Imperial Void currently hiding in the shadows?" Chen Yan asked.
"He's dead," Mr. You said. "You can think of the karma you currently bear as part of the Sage of Imperial Void's corpse... As for where the rest of his corpse lies, only he himself knows."
Fragments like shards of porcelain continued to fall from Mr. You's body. At this moment, a third of Fusheng the Ultimate Sage's body had already turned into pitch-black spatial rifts.
This represented the annihilation of his existence.
Though the Ultimate Sage of Imperial Void had died, his scheme continued into this era.
Just as Mr. You had said, every living being on Chenping Continent was a piece on the Sage of Imperial Void's chessboard.
Including Chen Yan, who came from outside Chenping Continent.
"Since the karma still exists, it means the Ultimate Sage of Imperial Void might still have a chance to be resurrected," Mr. You said.
"So the only purpose of my return to this era is..." Chen Yan asked.
"To leave the Sage of Imperial Void's sixty-thousand-year karma in this era."
This was the answer Mr. You had deduced.
The severing of the path to immortality on Chenping Continent was the "calamity" triggered by the Ultimate Sage of Imperial Void's sixty-thousand-year karma.
That was the true essence of the "Cause of Calamity."
Leaving the Cause of Calamity in this era was the only purpose of Chen Yan's return to this time.
"Shaking off sixty thousand years of karma is no simple matter," Mr. You said. "After all, the karmic backlash from discarding karma is inescapable."
"What happens if you bear the karmic backlash?" Chen Yan asked.
"Only you will know," Mr. You answered.
Chen Yan fell silent, trying to digest the information he had received from Mr. You.
"I understand," he finally nodded.
"Mm," Mr. You said, and half of his form had already turned into pitch-black void representing nothingness.
The speed of his annihilation seemed to be accelerating.
"If we meet again, it will likely be eight thousand years from now," said this Uncarved Simplicity Realm Sage, who was about to completely dissipate, as he gazed into the distance at Fusheng City on the island.
"When that time comes, will Master still remember me?" Chen Yan asked.
Upon hearing this, Mr. You simply smiled. Half of his face was already covered by pitch-black rifts, making it hard to tell what expression he wore at that moment.
"The me of that time will no longer be the me of now," Mr. You said.
"I suppose that's true," Chen Yan said softly.
"Come to think of it, the earliest version of me you should have met was the one from eight thousand years later," Mr. You chuckled.
"Yes," Chen Yan answered.
"What was the me from eight thousand years later like?"
"No different from the Master of now."
"What do you mean?"
"That pretentious air of profundity, the attitude of having everything under control, and that willful, carefree demeanor—all equally infuriating... Yet also the most reassuring person in this world."
Chen Yan spoke these words, but received no response from beside him.
He turned to look at where Mr. You had been.
Mr. You's figure had completely vanished.
Only pitch-black rifts remained, slowly healing under the influence of the laws of heaven and earth.
The sea breeze rustled through the leaves, producing a whispering sound.
And the sounds of the wind, the waves, and the leaves rubbing against each other only seemed to make the world even more silent.
Chen Yan sat quietly under the ancient towering tree. After an unknown amount of time, he finally stood up.
First, he raised his hand to pat the dust off his plain white daoist robe, then slowly walked down the slope.
"See you in eight thousand years."
The figure of the young man in the plain white daoist robe vanished without a trace, leaving only these words lingering in the rustling of the leaves.