Cause and Effect

As the sun set, the evening clouds burned like fire across the sky. A flock of geese flew south, adding a touch of vibrant beauty to the twilight scene. On the walls of the Precious Medicine Workshop, a roaring laughter echoed, deafening like thunder from the Nine Heavens, scattering the formation of the geese in the sky.

After his unrestrained laughter, Mu Wutian chuckled sinisterly, "Old Dog, I heard your master has gone missing. Could it be that he has too many enemies and was silenced without anyone noticing?"

Old Dog?

The hunchbacked elder narrowed his eyes. Although a cold glint flashed in their depths, he remained silent. He was well aware of Mu Wutian's background. With his cultivation and strength, he was no match for Mu Wutian. Even the two elders beside Mu Wutian exuded a great sense of threat.

Life, death. Humiliation.

The hunchbacked elder didn't care!

But he cared about Ye Tong, who was at a critical juncture!

"Coward..."

Mu Wutian snorted a gust of cold air from his nostrils and said grimly, "Back then, the Poison Demon flooded my Jade Island and scattered Intestine-Piercing Medicine, destroying my hundred acres of medicinal fields. Today, I will burn down his lair and ruin his livelihood. Do you have any objections?"

The hunchbacked elder's face changed drastically, and a resolute aura erupted from his body.

Let the house be destroyed!

But!

Even if he had to die, he would protect the young master.

Images of the young master's past kindness flashed through the hunchbacked elder's mind.

Poison Demon Huo Lanqiu was sinister and violent. Whenever he was in a bad mood, he would beat or scold the elder. But whenever the young master was around, he would protect the elder, even if it meant taking the beatings and scolding himself, enduring Huo Lanqiu's more brutal poison experiments.

The hunchbacked elder had no family. Even after following Huo Lanqiu for decades, he felt no closeness.

However!

The young master was different.

His appearance, his concern, and the torment he had endured for the elder's sake had warmed his heart, making him believe that he had found his only family in this life.

Mu Wutian revealed a look of disdain. With a flip of his hand, he held a exquisitely crafted blue and white porcelain bottle. As he opened the stopper, streams of liquid, as fine as silver needles, shot out towards various parts of the courtyard. At the same time, Mu Wutian flicked his fingers, and a cloud of phosphorescent powder flew out.

"Boom..."

The liquid and powder collided, and the suddenly erupting flames, like a surging tide of fire, spread rapidly, instantly igniting the buildings where the liquid had landed.

The people in the courtyard were immediately trapped in a sea of fire.

Zhang Zhongying was in a bad mood, a very bad mood. After being humiliated by Ye Tong and intimidated by the hunchbacked elder today, these newcomers who appeared out of nowhere treated her like an ant and trapped her in the fire.

Zhang Zhongying was filled with shame and anger.

Although she felt that Mu Wutian was not a good person, she couldn't suppress the stifled rage in her heart and angrily berated, "Old man, arson is a heinous crime. Aren't you afraid of the legal sanctions of Cold Mountain City?"

Old man?

Mu Wutian's eye twitched. As he swung his arm, a loud slapping sound rang out. This palm sent Zhang Zhongying flying seven or eight meters away, where she crashed heavily at the foot of the courtyard wall. A bright red palm print appeared on Zhang Zhongying's well-maintained cheek, and blood trickled from the corner of her mouth.

"Foolish child, threatening me with the law? Hmph... that thing is nothing but dog shit in my eyes."

Zhang Pinsou's expression was grim, but he didn't act rashly. He looked at the Stunning Girl and found that she silently shook her head at him.

Mu Wutian sneered, turned to the hunchbacked elder, and said in a deep voice, "I don't care if Huo Laomo is alive or dead, nor do I care if he is playing any tricks. In short, I'm venting my anger, hahahaha..."

Amidst a burst of wild laughter, Mu Wutian and the other two elders suddenly departed.

The hunchbacked elder narrowed his eyes, secretly breathing a sigh of relief.

In the world, for every cause, there is an effect.

The cause planted by his master in the past had now borne the fruit of humiliation.

If your skills are inferior, you can only endure.

The hunchbacked elder cast a cold glance at Zhang Zhongying, who was struggling to get up from the corner, and sighed inwardly, "Ignorant." He then turned and rushed towards the side courtyard. The fire was growing larger, and it was too late to extinguish it. What he needed to do was ensure Ye Tong's safety in the side courtyard.

"Father..."

Zhang Zhongying's eyes were filled with venom. However, as soon as she spoke, she was stopped by Zhang Pinsou's stern gaze.

The Stunning Girl sighed lightly and shook her head at Zhang Zhongying. Her pleasant voice rang out, "Yin Yang Old Freak Mu Wutian, a powerhouse at the top of the food chain in the Sky Net Empire. It's rumored that he has already broken through to the Innate Realm. His actions are neither good nor evil. He resides on Jade Island in the South Sea. If he wished, he could annihilate the Zhang clan in half an hour; if he wished, he could destroy the entire Cold Mountain City in a day."

"What?!" Zhang Zhongying's face changed drastically upon hearing this. Her body trembled violently, and it felt as if thunder roared in her heart. Deep regret surged through her like a tide, filling her heart.

She knew the Stunning Girl's background and character, so she didn't doubt her words at all. Such a terrifying existence, and she had dared to speak disrespectfully to him. It was probably her great fortune that he hadn't killed her.

The raging flames burned fiercer and fiercer.

Inside the side courtyard house, Ye Tong, who was sitting cross-legged in a stone tub, endured excruciating pain. His consciousness followed the circulation route of the Marrow Cleansing Poison Scripture, controlling the wisp of true qi in his meridians to flow slowly.

At this moment, within his body, whether it was muscles or meridians, bones or internal organs, all were covered in a gray-black substance. This substance contained potent poison. And this poison was eroding his body and destroying his physiological functions every moment.

Every pore on Ye Tong's body was fully open. The highly toxic viscous Hundred Poisons Liquid, from his open pores, entered his body, strand by strand, like a woven net, spreading layer by layer, covering him.

The intense pain gradually began to lessen.

The toxins in the Hundred Poisons Liquid seemed to have a cleansing effect. As time passed, the gray-black substance became lighter and less abundant. Ye Tong's physiological functions also began to slowly self-repair.

The heat was intense.

It surged in from all directions, making the room feel like a steamer. A few sparks gradually grew into a prairie fire. Even dumping buckets of ice-cold well water only managed to slow the flames. The purple coffin hanging from the roof beam fell as the rope burned, landing squarely on Ye Tong's head in the stone basin.

A trickle of blood.

It slid down Ye Tong's face, dripping into the medicinal liquid. Within a few breaths, the blood merged with the purple coffin at the bottom of the basin, causing it to suddenly erupt with brilliant black and white light. The black and white intertwined, like two ferocious beasts fighting savagely in their most primal state.

"Pfft..."

Ye Tong's head was struck by the falling purple coffin. He immediately felt his soul waver. In his sea of consciousness, the ball of light he had suppressed for ten years seemed to have received a summons, expanding at an extreme speed.

"Crack..."

It sounded like an eggshell breaking, but it boomed like thunder in Ye Tong's mind.

As the light erupted, flowing images and various strange texts converged into a river, then a sea, ultimately pouring into his sea of consciousness, intertwining and merging with his memories...

Time passed.

The Precious Medicine Workshop burned to ruins in the widespread fire, the air thick with the pungent smell of charring in the heat. A hunched old man, disheveled, stared at the young boy sitting cross-legged in the stone basin inside the partially burned room where the flames had been extinguished.

After a long while.

The hunched old man slowly turned his head, his gaze falling on the stunning girl. A look of gratitude flashed in his cloudy eyes as he nodded and said, "Thank you for your help. May I know your name, young lady?"

"Mu Qianlan."

Although the stunning girl looked a bit disheveled, her face smudged with black from the smoke and fire, she smiled warmly as if it were spring. Her eyes, like stars, gazed at Ye Tong in the side room, and she asked, "Is his body... unwell?"

"He's alright."

The hunched old man neither confirmed nor denied.

Mu Qianlan saw that the hunched old man was unwilling to discuss the matter further and didn't want to force him. She glanced towards the courtyard gate, seeing Zhang Pinchao and Zhang Zhongying standing outside, not helping to extinguish the fire. Suppressing a hint of disappointment in her heart, she changed the subject: "Elder, could you enlighten me? Why did the Yin Yang Old Freak Mu Wutian suddenly appear? He only set a fire and then left directly?"

The hunched old man asked, "You want to ask why he didn't kill us directly, but only set a fire and left, right? Heh heh... He's afraid!"

"Afraid of what?"

"Afraid of my master..."

Time.

It felt like the snap of a finger, yet also like countless eons had flowed by.

This... was Ye Tong's most unreal sensation.

The images in his mind finally settled on a day from his memories. It was deep within a mountain range stretching for thousands of miles, with towering mountains and great rivers, the roar of tigers and the cries of apes, and dragons coiled. Cracks a hundred feet wide in the azure sky slowly closed.

His eyelashes fluttered.

He slowly opened his eyes. A mixed expression of joy and sorrow appeared on his pale, delicate face, looking exceptionally strange. A language different from this world drifted from his slightly parted lips:

"I am..."

"Ye Tian..."

"Ma Yi Divine Physiognomy..."

"Shattering the Void..."

"Since that's the case, I'll be Ye Tong for now!"

The memory fusion was led by Ye Tian, but somehow, Ye Tong's youthful disposition was preserved.

This was a new world, a cultivation world a million times more exciting than Earth. Therefore, he needed to use Ye Tong's identity for a new beginning, to step into this world.

After a long while.

He gently raised his arms, holding the purple coffin that had fallen into the medicinal liquid. As his fingers gently caressed it, the black and white flowing light surrounding it drilled into his palm, then, as if having a clear destination, easily entered his sea of consciousness. Finally, the black and white lights merged into one, forming a scroll.

The scroll was divided into four pages and two colors. The top two pages were white, and the bottom two were black.

"Book of Life and Death!"

He had successfully passed his tribulation, but during the process of traversing the void, it caused spatial vibrations, making the spatial layers chaotic. His body was destroyed in the turbulent spatial currents, leaving only a wisp of divine sense to arrive here. He hadn't expected the Book of Life and Death to be preserved.

Ye Tong dropped the purple coffin and slowly stood up from the stone basin. As a well-preserved velvet robe covered the crisscrossing scars on his body, he tied the sash and said calmly, "If you've seen enough, wait outside."

Outside.

Mu Qianlan's pretty face flushed. Realizing she had just seen a young boy's naked body, she turned away with embarrassment. No one but herself knew how fast her heart had been beating in that moment. However, after a few more breaths, her heart settled down again, feeling heavy:

"The injuries on his body..."

"How could they be so terrifying?"

"What exactly has he been through? How much pain and torment has he endured?"

Ye Tong, now dressed, walked into the courtyard and looked at the hunched old man with a concerned expression, asking indifferently, "Who is it this time?"

The hunched old man replied respectfully, "The Yin Yang Old Freak Mu Wutian."

Ye Tong curled his lips and snorted, "Coward."

The hunched old man chuckled upon hearing this, "Mu Wutian also insulted this old servant like this before."

Ye Tong said dismissively, "Although the old fellow has done countless evil deeds, he has also planted seeds of fear in the hearts of his enemies. They only dare to shout here and destroy things out of anger, but they never dare to harm our lives. These cowards are destined to be bullied."

The hunched old man said with a wry smile, "Young master, the Precious Medicine Workshop has been destroyed. What shall we do?"

Ye Tong turned to look north, towards the vast mountain range, which held countless natural treasures and also countless grave dangers. After a while, he said calmly, "So what if it's destroyed! It's time for us to go out and explore. Before we leave, I'll go see that little girl first..."