The Weight of a Mantou

"Thud."

A shriveled, yellow, unremarkable half-bun rolled onto the soft, expensive wool carpet at the corner of the load-bearing pillar on the east side of the living room, like discarded garbage.

Su Wanqing, holding a purple clay teapot that had just been filled with hot water and was still humming faintly, froze in place, her mind a complete blank.

He... he threw... a bun?

Or half of one?! It looked like a day-old bun left out for ten days to half a month?!

And it landed right below the pillar that had just exuded a Primordial Aura that made her soul tremble, a pillar rumored to have fragments of an apocalyptic weapon buried beneath it?!

This... what kind of divine operation was this now?! A new form of performance art?!

An immense sense of absurdity and the fatigue of a worldview repeatedly kneaded into numbness washed over Su Wanqing like a cold tide. She looked at the shriveled half-bun in the corner, then at Ling Ye on the sofa with a calm expression of "job done," feeling her intelligence insulted like never before.

Using a bun... to suppress a spatial rift? Or... to offer tribute to the big shot underground?!

This was ten thousand times more ridiculous than using tea leaves to pay rent!

However, the instant Su Wanqing's thoughts stalled from the shock of this absurd operation--

An indescribable, even deeper and heavier "stillness," like an invisible iron curtain, descended with a roar!

This time, it wasn't the "stillness" that suppressed space and time when Ling Ye slept, but a kind of... "anchoring" as if all things were returning to silence and all laws were empty!

Centered on the shriveled half-bun in the corner, an ineffable, terrifying power with an absolute will of "constancy," like a divine needle sunk into the deep sea, instantly pierced the floor, ignored the thick rock layers, and precisely "smashed" onto the restless fragment of the Primordial Anchor deep underground, which was emitting spatial tearing sensations!

"Buzz...!"

A muffled, terrifying tremor, as if from the planet's core, perceptible only to the soul, erupted from deep underground! The sound was no longer the previous roar or hum, but a mournful cry of being choked, instantly suffocated!

The Primordial Aura underground, just activated by the purple clay teapot and surging like a waking behemoth, was crushed by this "constant" force, like being suppressed by a divine mountain weighing billions of tons, and instantly solidified! All spatial ripples, all law fluctuations, all leaked energy waves were as if paused, firmly, absolutely... "nailed" in place!

The Primordial pressure that made Su Wanqing's soul tremble was roughly erased by an invisible giant hand, disappearing without a trace! The slight tremor beneath her feet instantly subsided! The warped and suffocating feeling of being spied upon by a primordial giant in the entire villa space rapidly dissipated like a receding tide! The light outside the window returned to its normal brightness!

Everything returned to peace.

A deathly silence.

As if the thrilling underground roar and spatial tremors from just now were merely an illusion.

Only the shriveled bun in the corner lay quietly on the carpet, still unremarkable, even seeming a bit... shabby.

Su Wanqing, holding the purple clay teapot, stood frozen as if under a spell. Her eyes, now extremely sensitive due to her epiphany, clearly "saw," or rather "perceived," everything that had just happened!

She "saw" a "constant" force of chaotic color, so heavy it seemed capable of crushing all heavens and worlds, erupt from the half-bun! Like an invisible divine mountain, it instantly pierced the earth's crust!

She "saw" the fragment deep underground, emitting a terrifying aura, being unreasonably and firmly "nailed" in place by this power, all struggles and tremors instantly suppressed and smoothed out!

She "saw" the Primordial Aura that made her soul wail instantly disappear, like a snuffed candle flame!

This... this was no day-old bun?!

This was clearly... a supreme divine artifact capable of suppressing space and anchoring the earth's veins?! And he just broke half of it off?!

Su Wanqing felt her heart stop beating, her blood seemed to freeze. Her gaze towards the shriveled half-bun in the corner was filled with extreme reverence and... an indescribable sense of absurdity! This huge contrast almost made her have a mental breakdown!

Ling Ye, however, acted as if he had done something trivial. He patted some nonexistent dust off his hands (the bun was so clean not even a speck of flour fell), and settled back into a comfortable position on the sofa. He looked up at Su Wanqing, who was still holding the teapot like a petrified statue, and frowned slightly, with a hint of impatience at being disturbed:

"Tea," he said concisely, "it's getting cold."

"Ah?! Oh! Oh, okay!" Su Wanqing snapped back to reality, fumbling to place the purple clay teapot on the coffee table. Her movements were extremely stiff due to extreme shock and reverence, terrified that she might accidentally drop this primordial treasure that resonated with the fragment underground.

She carefully picked up the ordinary white mug (the one she licked last night), preparing to pour tea. Her gaze, however, involuntarily, as if drawn by a magnet, glanced again at the shriveled half-bun in the corner.

That thing... was just left there?!

Su Wanqing felt her heart bleeding! That was a supreme divine artifact capable of suppressing spatial rifts! And it was just... left on the carpet?! What if... what if the robot vacuum sucked it up as trash?! Or... or what if she accidentally stepped on it?!

A strong urge to rush over and pick up the half-bun to enshrine it frantically assaulted her reason!

Ling Ye seemed to sense her wandering gaze and internal struggle. He picked up the tea Su Wanqing had poured, took a sip, his gaze casually swept over the half-bun in the corner, and his tone was as casual as if discussing the weather:

"Oh, that," he nudged towards the corner with his chin, "use it to prop up a table leg, or... gnaw on it if you're hungry." He paused, adding casually, as if leaving it to her discretion, "Don't throw it away, it's... troublesome."

Prop up a table leg?! Gnaw on it?!

Su Wanqing's hand holding the teapot trembled violently, and the scalding tea almost splashed out! She felt her worldview being brutally crushed again by these casually spoken words!

He wanted her to use a divine artifact capable of suppressing spatial rifts... to prop up a table leg?!

Or... to gnaw on it when hungry?!

Did she dare to gnaw on it?! She was afraid that one bite would cause her to explode on the spot and her soul to ascend to heaven!

"No... not throwing it away! Definitely not throwing it away!" Su Wanqing replied almost screaming, her voice slightly distorted with excitement. She immediately vowed in her heart to have a top-grade bulletproof, shockproof, temperature-controlled, humidity-controlled display case custom-made later, no! A shrine! She would enshrine that half-bun! Offer incense daily!

Ling Ye remained noncommittal to her reaction, continuing to slowly sip his tea, as if he had just thrown away some trash.

And three kilometers away from Yunqi Mountain, at the temporary command post.

Inside the command vehicle, the atmosphere could no longer be described as solemn, but rather... a dead, silent bewilderment.

On the massive monitor, the curve chart representing the villa's underground energy field had experienced a thrilling roller coaster ride just now—it first soared abnormally with the hot water injected into the purple clay teapot, instantly breaking through the high-level "Stellar Level" and approaching the threshold of "Galactic Level"! The Primordial Aura that erupted, carrying spatial tearing sensations, made everyone in the command vehicle feel soul-level suffocation even through the screen!

Just as Lei Bao's face turned ashen, and he was about to activate the highest-level emergency plan, even considering whether to evacuate half the city--

"Beep beep beep--!!!"

The jarring alarm sounded as if its throat had been choked, abruptly stopping!

On the screen, the wildly rising, crimson, and glaring energy curve, as if hitting an invisible wall of sighs, was about to reach the apex of the "Galactic Level" threshold when it was suddenly... cut in half!

Not a decline! A severing!

All energy readings, whether intensity, fluctuation frequency, spatial disturbance coefficient... all data, in less than 0.01 seconds, instantly reset to zero! Not hidden! Not quelled! It was as if an invisible giant hand had physically erased it! From the peak of its fury, it plummeted directly to... a dead, silent state with no energy reaction... "zero"!

On the screen, the curve representing energy intensity became a straight line with no fluctuations, no oscillations... like a cold, dead snake, lying across the center of the screen!

Inside the entire command vehicle, you could hear a pin drop. Everyone stared dumbfounded at the bizarre straight line, their faces filled with extreme horror and... incomprehensible bewilderment.

What happened?!

That terrifying energy source, which was about to erupt and seemed capable of tearing space apart... had disappeared?!

Just like that... gone?!

"Report... the underground energy source at the target location... signal... completely vanished!" the technician's voice was dry and hoarse, filled with a dreamlike daze, "Cannot detect! Cannot lock on! As if... it never existed!"

"The main villa and surrounding energy field... have returned to a 'gentle' state? Intensity... still exceeds the limit... but... stable?" another analyst monitoring Ling Ye's own energy field also spoke with uncertainty.

Lei Bao stared intently at the line representing dead silence on the screen, then looked at the still sky-high curve monitoring Ling Ye's energy field. His brow furrowed into a tight knot. He suddenly looked at the optical monitoring feed of the villa's interior (though severely interfered with, the outline was barely visible).

In the feed: Su Wanqing was fumbling with a teapot. And the target (Ling Ye) was holding a cup and drinking tea. Everything... seemed calm?

But where did that "constant" power that instantly erased the underground energy source come from?!

Could it be... the target made a move?!

But he was clearly just sitting there drinking tea! No movement! No signs of energy leakage!

"Investigate! Get me all the data from that 0.01-second window! Energy form! Fluctuation frequency! Residual information! Not a single bit can be missed!" Lei Bao's voice was a low growl like a wounded beast. The unknown was more unsettling than the known!

"Report!... No residue! No record of any energy form!" the technician looked up in despair, "That power that erased it... its level is too high! Our instruments... simply cannot capture its form of existence! It's like... like it was directly erased by a higher-dimensional eraser!"

Higher dimension... eraser...

Lei Bao felt a chill shoot from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head. He looked at the blurry figure holding a teacup on the screen, and for the first time, he felt a sense of powerlessness and ineffable reverence from the depths of his soul towards this target codenamed "Calamity."

This was no longer Stellar Level...

This method... was clearly... rule-level... erasure!

In the villa's living room.

Su Wanqing finally forced herself to shift her gaze from the half-piece of "divine artifact" steamed bun in the corner. She took a deep breath, trying to calm her turbulent emotions, and picked up the ordinary mug Ling Ye had left on the coffee table, intending to pour herself a cup of tea to calm her nerves. After all that had happened, she desperately needed something to soothe her soul.

However, the moment she picked up the mug--

"Thump! Thump!"

Her heart, without warning, began to pound violently like a drum! An indescribable, cold sense of dread, as if being locked onto by countless pairs of greedy and malicious eyes, coiled around her heart like a cold viper!

Her gaze, subconsciously, filled with terror, shot towards the outside of the large floor-to-ceiling window!

Outside the window, in the morning after the rain, sunlight pierced through the clouds, scattering onto the wet courtyard. The grass and trees were lush and vibrant. The Ancient Orchid, revived by the spirit tea and blooming with white flowers, shone brightly in the sun.

Everything looked peaceful and beautiful.

But Su Wanqing's spiritual sense, strengthened by Chaos Origin Qi, clearly "perceived" that in the shadows of the distant mountain forest, illuminated by the sun, there were several extremely hidden, yet cold and probing, and... nakedly greedy gazes. Like invisible probes, they pierced through space, locking firmly... onto the purple clay teapot in her hand!

What made her scalp tingle even more was that the source of one of the greedy gazes seemed to... have split off a wisp, extremely subtly... and swept towards the shriveled, dry bun lying quietly in the corner?!