The elders in the Hua Lineage area, who had just been mocking, froze almost simultaneously. Some leaned forward involuntarily, staring intently at the now empty sky. On the Chi Lineage side, Chi Junxuan and his companions' eyes lit up. Chi Boqian, still seated in the main seat, slowly revealed a smile.
Nalan Yanqing and Xuanyuan Canglan, standing high above, had increasingly profound gazes, clearly understanding what Qin Yu had just done—he had not sought a path to victory among the myriad lives, but had directly severed the root of "the simultaneous existence of myriad lives."
However, Hua Jingmeng did not back down because of the shattering of the Simultaneous Contemplation of Myriad Fates.
Instead, he lowered his head and remained silent for two breaths. When he raised his face again, the venom in his eyes was even more intense. He knew very well that Qin Yu had already grasped the root of the fusion between the Eternal Tribulation Fate-Determining Wheel and the Grand Void Dao Transformation Art. Forcibly restarting the Simultaneous Contemplation of Myriad Fates would only provide the Silent Beginning Ring Master Soul Diagram with another opportunity to trace back to the source. Since that was the case, he would no longer compete with Qin Yu for "how much of the future he could see".
He wanted to deter Qin Yu from attacking again. Hua Jingmeng slowly raised his right hand, palm facing up, while his left hand pressed against the location of his Fate Soul in front of his chest. As his hands separated, the Great Void and surging residual energy around him quickly calmed down.
A wisp of black essence rose from his left palm, and a wisp of pure white essence fell from his right palm. The two completely different Daoist energies converged above his head, but instead of devouring each other, they slowly separated to the sides along an extremely delicate causal line.
Buzz!!! A gigantic phantom of an ancient scale rose up from behind him.
The scale was formed from alternating black and white ancient jade, with a central beam spanning hundreds of feet across the sky. Its surface was devoid of intricate carvings, only bearing deep lines of cause and effect. Two ancient pans hung from either side, each with a pale green lamp suspended beneath them. The lamps flickered gently without wind, and with each sway, a faint line of cause and effect appeared in the surrounding void. As the lamps burned ever brighter, all the causal connections between Hua Jingmeng and Qin Yu were illuminated.
The Blameless Karma Scale.
When Hua Jingmeng raised her head and looked at Qin Yu, the gloom that had arisen from the collapse of the Simultaneous Contemplation of Myriad Fates had been replaced by an even more eerie calm. He even smiled again, but that smile was more unsettling to those who saw it than ever before.
"Qin Yu, you like Zhan Yuan, right?" He raised his hand and gently touched the left side of the scale. Ding! A crisp sound echoed throughout the final arena.
The left pan of the scale sank slightly, and the right pan followed with the exact same amplitude. Two ancient, eerie green lamps lit up simultaneously, and a thin line of cause and effect, extending from Hua Jingmeng 'Fate Soul towards Qin Yu, appeared. Hua Jingmeng looked at the line, a cold, mocking glint in her eyes. "Then come on then."
"You sever a wisp of my origin, I will take an equal wisp of origin from your Fate Soul; you break a strand of my karma, I will make your karma lack a strand in return; if you wish to destroy my foundation—"
Hua Jingmeng slowly closed her five fingers, and the black and white ancient scales above her head vibrated gently at the same time. "These scales will ask you, for me, whether your Dao foundation is willing to shatter along with me."
An extremely oppressive silence fell over the arena. The Blameless Karma Scale did not actively attack Qin Yu, nor did it release any surging source energy. It simply hovered above Hua Jingmeng's head, maintaining an almost demanding balance on both sides. The lingering aura left by the Star Structure Returning Ring had not completely dissipated, and a trace of its source energy inadvertently touched Hua Jingmeng's body, causing the left side of the scale to sink slightly.
Ding!!! At the same instant, a star-shaped pattern at Qin Yu's feet also dimmed to the exact same degree as that lingering aura, neither more nor less.
Qin Yu's eyes finally flickered slightly, while Hua Jingmeng's sinister smile deepened. After the shattering of the Simultaneous Contemplation of Myriad Fates, he had embarked on a completely different path. You can see through me, you can sever my origin, you can even directly destroy my Fate Soul's Dao, but as long as that blow truly lands on me—the Scales of Cause and Effect—you will suffer the consequences along with me.
Above Hua Jingmeng's head hung the Blameless Karma Scale, its beams, made of interwoven black and white ancient jade, pressing down on the entire arena. Two ancient, eerie green lamps swayed without wind, and fine, hair-like traces of causal karma descended from the edge of the scale, quietly spreading in all directions through the void.
Just now, Qin Yu used the Star Construction Returning Ring · Source Cause Severance and shattered, leaving behind the primordial remnant of the Simultaneous Contemplation of Myriad Fates. This remnant force had not completely dissipated. Whenever a wisp of residual force brushed over Hua Jingmeng's body, the left side of the scale would gently sink, and the other end would drop down with the exact same amplitude.
Ding!!! A series of crisp ringing sounds echoed, and the remaining force that should have fallen on Hua Jingmeng actually returned along the causal Dao traces formed between the two, pressing down on Qin Yu once again.
Standing beneath the ancient scale, Hua Jingmeng's cold gaze gradually deepened. He didn't rush to attack, but instead placed his hands behind his back, a chilling smile playing on his lips. He had already seen through the most troublesome weakness of the Blameless Karma Scale: the stronger Qin Yu was, the more severe the damage he would suffer, and the more terrifying the "equal weight result" weighed by the causal scale would become.
If Qin Yu were to unleash his trump card and severely injure her, then at the same instant that Hua Jingmeng 'Fate Soul was damaged, Qin Yu himself would also suffer an equal level of damage.
Outside the arena, many highly skilled experts had already seen through the mystery. Several elders of the Chi Lineage slowly frowned, and Chi Boqian's expression also became solemn. On the other hand, many people in the Hua Lineage camp smiled again. An elder stroked his long beard and looked at Qin Yu, who had not yet made an attack, with his contempt growing deeper.
In their eyes, this supernatural power rooted in the balance of cause and effect is difficult to break—ordinary methods of breaking the balance are themselves interference imposed on Hua Jingmeng; to break the balance, one must first touch it; once touched, one will be weighed by cause and effect; once weighed, the corresponding karmic consequences will inevitably backfire on oneself.
Qin Yu remained unmoved, simply gazing silently at the ancient black and white scales.
The Silent Beginning · Ring Master Soul Diagram slowly rotated behind him, and the radiance within the Nine-Wheel True Evolution Dharma Wheel gradually faded. Layer upon layer of entangled causal trajectories were dissected in his eyes. He did not gaze at Hua Jingmeng, nor did he attempt to analyze the two scales themselves. Instead, he followed the changes that occurred with each "weighing," tracing back to the very root of the Great Dao.
The first time, Yu Li touched Hua Jingmeng, the scales sank, and cause and effect surged back;
The second time, the primordial ripples brushed past the Great Void light curtain, the ancient scale weighed again, and the corresponding Dao patterns at Qin Yu's feet dimmed;
The third time, a wisp of starlight swept by, but it did not truly harm Hua Jingmeng in the slightest. The ancient scale remained Ji Ran and unresponsive.
A faint realization flashed in Qin Yu's eyes. The Blameless Karma Scale is not an unconditional, absolute balance. It needs a foundation. "Result."
First, a tangible karmic consequence must fall upon Hua Jingmeng before the ancient scales can measure the weight of that consequence and, following the karmic ties, extract an equivalent price from the caster.
Without a result, the scale has no weights; without weights, there is no balance between the two ends. Delving deeper, this supernatural power can forcibly complete an equivalent substitution because it defaults to an ironclad rule: Qin Yu is the "cause," and Hua Jingmeng bears the "effect." Then, the ancient scale uses this completed effect as a benchmark to trace back to the source and retaliate against the cause.
If that's the case... Qin Yu doesn't need to attack the Ancient Scale at all, or even touch it in the slightest. He only needs to make this cause and effect lose its validity from its very source.
The Silent Beginning Ring Master Soul Diagram behind Qin Yu slowly froze, his right hand fingers loosened, and the Silent Origin Stainless Sword faintly melted away, returning to the depths of his Fate Soul. Seeing this, Hua Jingmeng's eyebrows rose slightly, her mocking smile becoming even more pronounced, "What, you don't dare to make a move?"
Qin Yu looked up at him. "Your scales are indeed extraordinary." Hua Jingmeng's eyes narrowed slightly, but Qin Yu's tone remained calm and composed. "Unfortunately, it must first find the cause before it can weigh the effect."
As soon as he finished speaking, Qin Yu slowly raised his left hand, without a sword blade, without any killing intent, and without any power, and swept it towards Hua Jingmeng.
But just as he brought his index and middle fingers together, the Nine-Wheel True Evolution Dharma Wheel behind him suddenly unfolded to both sides, and the vast Fate Soul origin rose from the deepest part of the Silent Beginning Ring Master Soul Diagram. At the same time, the thousands of causal traces crisscrossing above the entire arena trembled slightly.
A deep, resonant primordial roar echoed throughout heaven and earth, causing the smile on Hua Jingmeng's face to freeze instantly.