Douluo Continent: The Ruler of Time, Reigning Supreme

Chapter 140 The Punishment of Causality

"Cough cough... Yin Chen..."

At this moment, Zhang Lexuan, enduring the excruciating pain, staggered over. She clutched her bleeding chest, her face as pale as paper, but her eyes were overflowing with shock and curiosity.

"You...how did you do it?"

She witnessed the whole process. Yin Chen simply teleported close to Bing Di and threw a punch, but before he could hit her, Bing Di blocked it.

But the scarlet lightning that appeared out of nowhere at the end was completely beyond her comprehension.

How could a Soul Master possibly achieve this level?

Upon hearing Zhang Lexuan's question, Hyotei, who had been waiting for death with her eyes closed, couldn't help but open them again, looking at Yin Chen with intense confusion and a final curiosity.

Yes, even if she dies, she wants to die knowing why.

What exactly was that crimson lightning? How did he manage to turn the tide of battle in an instant?
Yin Chen looked at the two women before him, one a proud daughter of humanity, the other an ice and snow emperor of the far north, both of whom were now filled with questions because of him.

He gently brushed the ice shards off his hands, calmly meeting Hyotei's emerald eyes, which were filled with resentment and confusion, and slowly began to speak:

"I'll tell you since you're about to die."

"My fourth soul skill, 'Now and Then,' has the effect of causing the result before the effect occurs."

He held up one finger and pointed at Hyotei:

"You being hit by my fist is a 'result' that has already happened and been anchored by me, a 'future' that is destined, and you."

His fingers moved toward the hand that Hyotei was using to block.

"Blocking my fist means you've changed this predetermined future."

"Changing the future that has already happened?"

Zhang Lexuan subconsciously murmured the same thing over and over again, feeling as if her worldview was being overturned.

"Yes."

Yin Chen nodded.

"But changing the established future comes at a price, and that scarlet lightning did not originate from my power."

He raised his finger and pointed to the sky, as if pointing to some unknown entity.

"That is the power of the universe itself, one of the underlying rules that sustains the operation of all things—the manifestation of causality."

"The rules of the universe... the law of causality..."

Hyotei chewed on those words in a low voice, his emerald eyes filled with disbelief.

She has lived for hundreds of thousands of years and has touched the edge of the laws, but she never imagined that one day she would directly "enrage" the fundamental laws of the universe in this way.

"The future is inherently uncertain, with countless possibilities coexisting."

Yin Chen continued to explain, like a patient mentor.

“But the future that is observed and anchored by others is different. It is a trajectory that I have ‘fixed’ from countless possibilities with my own will. Changing this trajectory is to violate cause and effect, and will naturally be rejected and punished by the underlying rules of the universe, which is what you see as the punishment of the law of cause and effect.”

He paused, looking at the charred marks still remaining on Hyotei's body:
"Of course, the severity of the punishment depends on the 'weight' of the altered future. You only altered a trivial future like 'being hit by my fist,' so the resulting causal punishment is not severe, merely severely injuring you to the point of near death. But if you had altered a major future like 'being killed by me'..."

Yin Chen didn't continue, but the unspoken meaning in his words sent a chill down the spines of both Bing Di and Zhang Lexuan.

“Of course.” Yin Chen changed the subject.

"With my current strength, I can't directly anchor a future of 'killing you'—the gap between soul power and mental power is too great, but..."

The corners of his mouth curled up again in that smile that made Hyotei's heart flutter.

“I can leverage this power, for example, just now, by using the causal punishment brought about by your alteration of the tiny future, to indirectly achieve… the goal of accelerating your death.”

silence.

A deathly silence spread through the wind and snow.

Hyotei and Zhang Lexuan were completely stunned, their brains seemingly frozen, needing time to process this information that was completely beyond their comprehension.

What kind of supernatural soul technique is this?!
Several seconds passed before Hyotei snapped back to her senses. The overwhelming sense of absurdity and frustration made her feel like she was going to vomit blood. She forced herself to raise her finger and point at Yin Chen, her voice trembling with agitation:
"You...you mean, if you want to hit me, I have to stand still and let you hit me? Otherwise, it's changing the future, and I'll be...struck by lightning?!"

"From a rules-based perspective, that's correct."

Yin Chen nodded firmly, his tone matter-of-fact.

"If I had landed that punch, nothing would have happened. At most, you would have just gotten a punch to the face and it would have hurt a little."

He even kindly added a comment.

"I'm not very strong."

"..."

Zhang Lexuan's lips twitched uncontrollably as she watched Yin Chen calmly narrating "universal truths," and considering the shameless effect of this soul skill, she felt dizzy.

This is hardly a soul skill.

This is practically a bug.

It's a form of rule-based coercion, forcing the other party to act according to a pre-written script, or else they'll be punished.

"What the hell!"

Hyotei finally couldn't help but swear. She had lived for so many years, experienced countless battles, and witnessed all kinds of strange abilities, but she had never encountered such a domineering, unreasonable, and... shameless ability before.

She looked Yin Chen up and down as if he were a monster, her tone filled with disbelief and suspicion:
"You...you kid, are you really human?! You human soul masters...you've already started researching this kind of thing?!"

She couldn't imagine what kind of martial spirit and opportunity could enable a Soul Master-level youth to master such terrifying abilities that touched upon the fundamental rules of the universe.

This was completely beyond her understanding of "soul skills".

Yin Chen didn't answer her question directly, but calmly looked back at her and asked in return:
"Now, do you understand how you lost?"

Hyotei opened his mouth, but in the end, all he could manage was a weak, cold snort.

She understood, but she preferred not to understand. This kind of defeat was so frustrating; it was the biggest stain on her hundreds of thousands of years of life.

However, amidst her extreme frustration and anger, a subtle thought, one that she herself was unaware of, began to quietly stir within her—this human boy possesses such incredible abilities…could he be…a variable that could break this hopeless deadlock?
The moment the thought crossed my mind, I couldn't suppress it anymore.

The biting wind swirled with ice shards, making a mournful sound, like a lament for this desolate place.

Hyotei collapsed weakly onto the snow, the 100,000-year-old snow lotus in his arms emitting a faint, soft light.

(End of this chapter)