"W-Watering flowers?!"
Su Wanqing's voice warped from sheer shock and absurdity, becoming so shrill it nearly pierced her own eardrums. She stared at the small half-basin of golden "essence" remaining in the corner's Chaos Green Lotus Basin, radiating supreme Dao aura and a faint foot odor (a psychological effect?), and felt as if she had been struck by lightning!
With this... foot-soaked... foot-washing water?! Water the Ancient Orchid, which had just been revived by Chaos Spirit Tea, was priceless, and could be called a living fossil of the plant world?!
This was no longer merely wasting a precious resource! This was blasphemy against life! The destruction of beauty! The ultimate challenge to Su Wanqing's aesthetic bottom line!
She could almost see the terrifying sight of that sacred, lustrous-white Ancient Orchid withering and turning black the instant it touched this "essence," giving off an indescribable stench!
"N-No! Absolutely not!" Su Wanqing practically shrieked her objection. For the first time, she felt such intense resistance to Ling Ye's orders. "That's the Ancient Orchid! It's a miracle! You can't... You can't water it with this! It'll die!"
Ling Ye had just found a comfortable, sprawled-out position on the sofa. Hearing this, he turned his head slightly. His calm, unruffled gaze swept over Su Wanqing's flushed, agitated face before he glanced indifferently at the Ancient Orchid glittering in the sunlight outside the window.
"Die?" Ling Ye repeated the word, his tone filled with genuine confusion, as if he had heard an ant worrying that an elephant might be killed by raindrops. "This bit of 'waste' is just enough to... build its foundation properly."
He paused, seemingly too lazy to explain further, and casually pointed his chin toward the basin. "Hurry up. The smell's a little strong."
T-The smell's strong?!
Was he talking about the noodle soup's smell? Or the smell of your feet, old sir?!
Su Wanqing felt as if she were about to suffer a heart attack!
She looked at Ling Ye's impatient expression, which seemed to say, "Hurry up and dump the trash," then at the tempting golden liquid in the basin (if one ignored its purpose), and fell into the fiercest struggle she had ever experienced!
On one side, reason, aesthetics, and her love for plants screamed wildly: Don't water it! This is murder!
On the other was her awe of Ling Ye's unfathomable methods, along with a faint yet stubborn... intuition.
Perhaps... the expert was right? Could this "essence" really be useful?
In the end, awe and that bizarre intuition overwhelmed reason.
Gritting her teeth, Su Wanqing approached the Chaos Green Lotus Basin with the tragic resolve of someone fertilizing the Ancient Orchid—even if the fertilizer were poison.
She held her breath and tried not to think about what the liquid had been used for only minutes ago, then carefully lifted the heavy basin by its rim.
The basin felt icy-cold in her hands. Its material was neither metal nor jade, and its texture was strange. The chaotic radiance flowing across its surface seemed to stir slightly at her touch.
The small half-basin of golden "essence" rippled inside, starlight circulating as rich Dao aura filled the air. Without the psychological shadow, it would absolutely have been the most alluring nectar in the world.
Holding the basin like Pandora's box, she walked heavily toward the enormous floor-to-ceiling window.
Ling Ye could not even be bothered to stand. He merely waved his hand casually, and the thick bulletproof glass window slid silently to one side.
Fresh air carrying the fragrance of soil and plants poured inside.
Su Wanqing stepped into the courtyard and came before the Ancient Orchid, which was blooming with lustrous white flowers and giving off a faint, delicate fragrance.
Up close, the extraordinary nature of the revived Ancient Orchid was even more apparent. Its branches and leaves were lush and glistening, its petals crystalline and translucent, and its vitality astonishingly vigorous.
She hesitated again. Was she really going to water it?
"Pour it." Ling Ye's lazy yet unquestionable urging came from the sofa.
Su Wanqing closed her eyes, steeled her heart, and tilted her wrist—
"Whoosh..."
The golden "essence," containing chaotic starlight, the essence of primordial soil, and a trace of the Chaos Green Lotus's Dao aura, poured like a tiny waterfall precisely around the Ancient Orchid's roots.
The instant the liquid seeped into the soil, the terrifying scene Su Wanqing had imagined—withered vegetation and polluted earth—did not occur.
Instead!
"Buzz—!"
An extremely faint yet joyous hum of life suddenly rose from deep within the Ancient Orchid's root system!
At that moment, all the orchid's branches, leaves, and flowers seemed to have been infused with a true soul, suddenly swaying violently!
It was not swaying from the wind, but trembling with joy from the very source of life!
The lustrous-white flowers shone brilliantly, like tiny moons!
More complex and profound natural patterns surfaced on the emerald leaves at a visible speed, as if engraved by the Great Dao!
The Ancient Orchid's vitality was no longer merely vigorous. It became... incomparably weighty and condensed, as if it had rooted in the boundless earth and formed a deeper connection with the planet beneath its roots!
A purer, more distant fragrance slowly spread, carrying the power to stabilize and nourish.
Not only had it not been "poisoned to death," it was like it had swallowed a potent tonic and completed some kind of fundamental sublimation!
Its foundation had been thoroughly solidified, and even its form of life seemed to have risen to another level!
Su Wanqing's eyes flew open. Looking at the even more wondrous and extraordinary Ancient Orchid before her, she was utterly dumbfounded!
This... foot-washing water... really was a great tonic?!
Watering flowers with it actually had miraculous effects?!
Her worldview had once again been refreshed to a new low.
At the exact moment the golden "essence" seeped into the soil and the Ancient Orchid transformed—
"Buzz... rumble..."
A vibration deeper and more obscure than before, seemingly coming from the deepest part of the planetary core, traveled upward with extreme weakness.
The ground beneath the load-bearing pillar on the eastern side of the villa's living room seemed to... ripple ever so slightly.
It was as if something underground had been stimulated again by the "essence" containing the aura of the Chaos Green Lotus and primordial soil, releasing a silent roar!
Leaning against the sofa, Ling Ye opened his eyes to a narrow slit and glanced at the pillar.
The corner of his mouth seemed to curl into an almost imperceptible arc before he closed his eyes again, as if nothing had happened.
Su Wanqing noticed nothing of the minute changes underground. She remained immersed in the shock of the Ancient Orchid's transformation.
She looked at the empty Chaos Green Lotus Basin in her hands, then at the Ancient Orchid brimming with life, and her emotions became incredibly complicated.
Holding the basin, she walked back to the living room as if sleepwalking and gently placed it back in the corner.
A few golden droplets still clung to the basin's walls, radiating an alluring Dao aura.
Ling Ye remained sprawled on the sofa, seemingly unconcerned with everything that had happened outside.
He gave a small yawn, swept his bored gaze around the living room, and finally... landed on the rolling pin leaning casually in the corner of the island counter—the Fragment of Buzhou Mountain.
The short stick, entirely jet-black and incredibly heavy, rested there quietly, like an ordinary kitchen utensil that had been forgotten.
Ling Ye looked at it and faintly furrowed his brows, seemingly feeling that its position was somewhat... irritating.
Or perhaps... it did not suit the aesthetics of his sprawled-out, idle state?
He extended two fingers toward the short stick and casually... flicked the air.
There was no contact.
There was no energy fluctuation.
Yet the Fragment of Buzhou Mountain, so heavy that it could make the island counter sink slightly, moved as smoothly and silently as a pencil pushed by an invisible finger.
It changed from standing upright to... lying flat in the corner of the island counter.
It even rolled inward a little, vanishing completely into the shadows and becoming far less conspicuous.
"Mmm." Ling Ye nodded in satisfaction. "Much easier on the eyes."
Su Wanqing: "..." She was already numb.
He had moved a mountain... just because he thought it looked better?!
Yet at the instant the Fragment of Buzhou Mountain was flicked through the air and changed position—
Three kilometers away from Yunqi Mountain, inside the command vehicle, the curves representing the villa's internal gravitational field and spatial stability coefficient on the monitoring screen suddenly underwent an extremely brief yet violently abnormal distortion and fluctuation!
It was as if an invisible black hole had briefly rolled over in place!
The technician stared at the bizarre data that had instantly maxed out before returning to normal.
He opened his mouth, but ultimately said nothing. He merely archived the anomaly in silence.
He had already given up trying to understand it.
Deeper underground, in an even darker layer, a pair of enormous eyes formed from pure shadow suddenly contracted!
The image of the villa reflected in them twisted violently!
At the instant that "short stick" had been moved, it had clearly sensed the spatial structure of the area above—and even the distribution of gravitational force along the earth veins—ripple with an extremely faint yet terrifying fluctuation!
It was as if the entire space had been distorted and defined by the weight of that "stick"!
What exactly was that thing?!
How could it disturb the laws of space so effortlessly?!
Deep within the shadowy eyes, greed and fear became violently intertwined.
It "stared" fixedly upward, its longing almost taking tangible form.
It had to obtain it!
It had to obtain that basin! And that stick!
As long as it obtained them... as long as...
The enormous shadow writhed and gathered silently in the darkness.
An even colder and more sinister force began cautiously seeping along the complicated cracks in the earth veins toward the foundation of the villa above, as slyly as the most cunning viper.
Its movements were as gentle as possible, as if afraid of alarming something.
Its target... was the Primordial Anchor Fragment beneath the load-bearing pillar.
The Fragment of Buzhou Mountain and the aura of the Chaos Green Lotus Basin had stimulated it in succession, and it was now in a strangely active state.
It would... obtain that first!
As a key!
Before you continue