"This batch of mortals... is way too filthy."
Ling Ye's mutter, filled with undisguised disdain, fell like cold raindrops onto Su Wanqing, who had fallen into enlightenment and was surrounded by a gentle, lustrous glow. By now, however, her consciousness had already sunk into the vast, boundless torrent of Chaos Dao Rhyme, leaving her deaf to the outside world.
The withered pinch of tea leaves in her palm looked even more shriveled after leaking a trace of its origin and guiding her into enlightenment, as if a gust of wind might reduce it to ash. Meanwhile, her expensive silk loungewear had been stained by the filth expelled from her body, carrying a faint gray-black hue and emitting an indescribably sour, rancid stench.
Ling Ye shifted his gaze away from Su Wanqing, seemingly uninterested in this filthy scene of "rebirth." His eyes appeared to pierce through the walls of the luxurious living room and its expensive flooring, landing precisely beneath an inconspicuous corner of a load-bearing pillar in the villa's main structure.
Deep underground.
A thread of extremely faint energy, carrying an ancient Primordial Aura, came through the thick layers of rock and reinforced concrete like the slow, heavy heartbeat of a sleeping giant. The fluctuation carried a strange rhythm, as if some incomplete Formation Pattern had, after the passage of endless years, been inadvertently... awakened in one corner by a higher-level aura of origin?
The fluctuation was incredibly subtle, like a grain of sand rolling across the deep sea. Neither mortals nor ordinary cultivators could possibly detect it. Yet it was like an invisible thread, faintly tugging at the aura of something inside Ling Ye's cloth bundle, producing a barely perceptible, distant resonance that crossed endless spacetime.
Ling Ye's brow lifted almost imperceptibly. Deep within those placid eyes, an illusion of stars shifting flashed and vanished.
"Oh?" He uttered the exceedingly faint syllable with a hint of surprise. It was as soft as a sigh, yet even the faint ripples of Dao Rhyme filling the living room because of Su Wanqing's enlightenment froze for an instant.
Barefoot, he rose silently from the sofa, carrying the worn cloth bundle as he walked toward the direction from which the fluctuation came—the enormous load-bearing pillar on the eastern side of the living room, decorated with simple reliefs.
His footsteps were soundless, landing on the carpet as lightly as feathers. He stopped before the pillar and extended his empty left hand, pressing his palm casually against the cold, smooth marble surface.
There was no light and no energy leakage. His palm seemed merely to brush across it.
Yet the instant his palm touched the pillar—
"Hum..."
A deep hum, almost impossible for physical hearing to detect yet ringing directly on the level of the soul, suddenly rose from that load-bearing pillar, from the depths of the earth where it was rooted! It was like an ancient horn sounding a single incomplete note, carrying a desolation and sorrow that had crossed endless years!
Amid the humming, an even clearer and richer Primordial Aura erupted from underground like a sealed memory awakened from slumber! Ancient and primeval, it carried the sharpness of spatial rifts and the profound mystery of stellar positioning! Though still incomplete, it was enough for Ling Ye to instantly confirm its true nature!
"Heh..." The corner of Ling Ye's mouth lifted slightly—a rare occurrence—forming an almost imperceptible curve that seemed to say, "Just as I thought." "The remnants of a teleportation array... or... an anchor point of the 'Guixu'?" he murmured, his voice audible only to himself, though a trace of understanding had appeared in his eyes.
The Sign-in System's final words before falling silent—"return to the Origin Universe"—had merely anchored the coordinates not only to this planet, but also to the Spatial Beacon buried beneath the old site of this ancestral home! This so-called precursor fluctuation of the "Spiritual Energy Revival" was likely inseparable from the faint revival of the Formation Pattern remnants buried by time.
Troublesome.
Ling Ye instantly gave the villa a second label—one far more troublesome than the prying eyes of those "little bugs" outside. An abandoned spatial anchor was like an old bonfire in a dark forest, extinguished for years before suddenly producing a spark. Who knew what it might attract?
He withdrew his hand from the pillar. The Primordial Aura and humming that had been briefly stirred vanished rapidly like a receding tide, sinking back into silence deep underground. The living room returned to calm, leaving only Su Wanqing's faint breathing during enlightenment and... the increasingly intense sour, rancid odor emanating from her.
Ling Ye's gaze landed on Su Wanqing once more. Seeing the increasingly obvious layer of filth beneath the lustrous glow surrounding her, he wrinkled his nose in distaste. This smell... was even more pungent than the corpses of some rotten Star Beasts in the Chaos Sea.
He needed to deal with this "hygiene problem." His eyes swept around the luxurious living room in search of something resembling a "cleaning tool." In the end, his gaze landed on a... brand-new, snow-white cotton dishcloth hanging beside the sink in the open kitchen.
Ling Ye pattered over and reached out to take down the dishcloth. The fabric was soft and absorbent, carrying the faint lemon fragrance of detergent. He weighed it in his hand and seemed fairly satisfied.
Then, while Su Wanqing remained immersed in enlightenment and completely unaware of the outside world, Ling Ye naturally walked over to her.
He pinched one corner of the snow-white dishcloth between two fingers and then... with extreme casualness, as if wiping an ordinary piece of furniture covered in dust, wiped it across Su Wanqing's foul-smelling, filth-covered arm!
The motion was gentle, even a little perfunctory.
Yet the instant the ordinary cotton dishcloth touched the filth on Su Wanqing's skin—
A sudden mutation occurred!
Countless fine, intricate ancient runes, too complex for the naked eye to make out and flowing with chaotic starlight, suddenly lit up across the snow-white fabric! A gentle yet mighty purifying power, like an invisible tide, instantly rippled out from the dishcloth!
"Fizz..."
A barely audible sound, like melting ice and snow, rang out.
The sticky, foul-smelling gray-black filth on Su Wanqing's arm instantly vaporized and vanished the moment it touched the fabric, as if it had encountered snow beneath a blazing sun! No—not vaporized! It had been directly broken down and purified by the chaotic starlight, reduced to the most primal, purest essence of Heaven and Earth! Not the slightest trace of odor remained, revealing the delicate, smooth skin beneath, like that of a newborn, faintly glowing with a jade-like luster!
Ling Ye did not stop. His wrist rotated with utter casualness. The dishcloth in his hand seemed to have been imbued with divinity, becoming the most efficient cleaning artifact imaginable. Wherever it passed, the filth vanished! Her arms, shoulders, neck, cheeks... Every impurity expelled from Su Wanqing's body disappeared beneath the seemingly ordinary dishcloth like pencil marks erased by a rubber.
After only a few breaths, Su Wanqing had been completely renewed! Her skin was lustrous as jade, radiating a healthy, pure glow, while her silk loungewear had returned to its pristine state, as if it had just undergone the finest dry cleaning! The faint Dao Rhyme glow lingering around her appeared even purer and brighter once the filth was gone, like a pearl wiped free of dust!
After completing this astonishing "cleaning" task, the chaotic runes flowing across the dishcloth instantly faded away. It became an utterly ordinary dishcloth once more, even slightly damp from absorbing a small amount of moisture.
Ling Ye looked at the spotless Su Wanqing, then at the dishcloth in his hand, and casually tossed it back to its original position beside the kitchen sink, as if he had merely used the most ordinary tool.
"Mm." He nodded in satisfaction. "Much easier on the eyes now."
Just then, Su Wanqing's long breath hitched slightly. In her vacant eyes, the reflections of stars being born and extinguished and all things evolving slowly receded like a tide. Her focus gathered again, and her consciousness returned to reality from the vast sea of enlightenment.
She blinked. The first thing she felt was unprecedented lightness and clarity! It was as if she had removed the heavy shackles she had carried for years. Her body brimmed with inexhaustible strength, and her thoughts were sharp and clear, as if polished by the purest crystal! Even her five senses had been enhanced to an unbelievable degree! She could clearly "hear" the faint sound of raindrops striking the leaves outside the window, and she could "smell" the lingering trace of Chaos Tea in the air and... the scent of lemon detergent?
Then she lowered her head and saw her hands and arms, smooth as jade and seemingly glowing faintly! Her loungewear was spotless and as good as new!
What had happened?!
Her last memory was of the fury she had felt after being humiliated by that pinch of "trash tea leaves," along with the instant she clenched her fists! Then... then her consciousness had fallen into a sea of chaos and light, where she had seen countless profound trajectories she could not understand... How had she awakened to find herself... reborn?
Overwhelming shock and confusion filled her heart! She abruptly raised her head and looked at Ling Ye, who stood not far away.
Ling Ye was looking at her as well, his expression calm.
Su Wanqing opened and closed her mouth, countless questions surging into her throat: What were those tea leaves? What had happened just now? Why was her body...?
However, before she could ask, Ling Ye's indifferent voice rang out, directly interrupting all her turbulent thoughts:
"You're awake?" His gaze swept over her completely renewed state, as if inspecting an object that had just been cleaned. "Perfect. Go boil some water." He pointed at the electric kettle, his tone carrying an unquestionable command. "Then make some more tea."
All of Su Wanqing's questions caught in her throat. Looking at Ling Ye's utterly matter-of-fact expression, feeling the power coursing through her body and the clarity of her thoughts, then recalling that she might just have experienced the legendary "Marrow Cleansing"... this president of Su Corporation, driven by immense shock and sheer habit, nodded unconsciously like a robot with its switch pressed and walked toward the electric kettle in a daze.
"Oh... okay..."
Before you continue