Hu Yanbo gathered his thoughts, no longer dwelling on the Egg's origins, and instead tried to penetrate the ceaselessly circulating secret patterns on its surface.
These secret patterns far surpassed any structure of secret patterns he had encountered before. Even the outermost, simplest layer was so intricate that it shook his mind.
And when he truly began analyzing these shallowest secret patterns-hum!
A familiar yet unfamiliar sensation abruptly swept through his soul.
It was familiar because it closely resembled what he had felt after taking the Karmic Affinity Treasure Medicine and becoming a darling of the Karma Great Dao: a sense of attunement born of deep resonance with a supreme Great Dao.
It was unfamiliar because the nature of this origin was entirely different.
If the Karma Great Dao had given him a sense of orderly connections and inevitability between all things, then the rhythm flowing from the Egg's secret patterns now conveyed an indescribable reversal.
Hu Yanbo sensed several karmic threads naturally emerging within the tiny region where his will touched the secret patterns.
Yet the way they grew defied everything he understood about karma.
They did not extend from the starting point of a "cause" toward the endpoint of an "effect." It was precisely the opposite-the "effect" solidified first, then traced backward, weaving the "cause" that would produce it!
It was not "because something was done, something was obtained," but "something was obtained, so something needed to be done"!
"This is-"
Hu Yanbo's mind reeled.
"Tracing karma backward-"
"The effect comes first, and the cause follows!"
Was this not that almost absurd notion that had flashed through his mind while he was comprehending the Karma Origin-whether there existed a Fruit-Cause Dao completely opposite to karma?
He had even tried to draw an advance on this path through the