The Anglerfish's Troubles and the Eyes in the Dark

"Hmph… hmph…"

Su Wanqing's back was pressed tightly against the cold, smooth wall of the entryway. Beneath the half-peeled-off mask, her face was as pale as paper, her lips trembling violently, yet she couldn't utter a single coherent sound. Her body still trembled uncontrollably, and in her beautiful eyes, only boundless terror and confusion remained after her perception had been utterly shattered. She stared fixedly, as if mesmerized, at Ling Ye's worn cloth bag.

What… what kind of monster was inside that bag?!

Just a glimpse, just a wisp of its insignificant aura leaking out, and she felt as if she were facing the ultimate terror of the universe! Her soul was crying out! That pitch-black rod felt heavy enough to crush the myriad star rivers of eternity; that small, chaotic-colored basin seemed like the entrance to the final stillness of all things! These were definitely not things humans should come into contact with! This man… was he human, or a walking natural disaster?!

Ling Ye seemed completely oblivious to Su Wanqing's near-breakdown state behind him. The slight frown on his brow didn't relax. His gaze pierced through the dense curtain of rain and the villa's luxurious courtyard, as if transcending space, precisely targeting the depths of the city below the mountain, which lay shrouded in hazy lights within the downpour, resembling a slumbering behemoth.

That fleeting cold fluctuation just now… it carried an extremely displeasing sense of distortion. It was like the foul, fishy stench rolling in the throat of a dying beast, or like some greedy, unconscious instinct of "sniffing." Faint, yet exceptionally clear.

The instant that fluctuation appeared, deep within the cold consciousness of the Sign-in System, which had been dormant for eons and was almost completely dissipated, a redundant piece of information flickered ever so slightly, as fast as an illusion.

"…Low dimension… anomalous energy… infestation… nu… sample… missing… nu… preliminary judgment: local 'spiritual energy resurgence'… nu… precursor fluctuation… anchoring coordinates…"

The fragmented, noisy information flashed and vanished at the base of his perception, like a faulty electrical current.

Spiritual energy resurgence?

Ling Ye's brow furrowed even tighter, tinged with the impatience of having his deep slumber disturbed. Eons of tedious sign-ins had made him detest any form of "fluctuation" and "trouble." He had finally retired and returned to the Origin Universe wanting to be a slacker, only to find he couldn't even get a peaceful nap? The environmental quality of this Origin Universe was truly too poor.

He subconsciously rubbed the strap of his worn cloth bag. The aura emanating from the fragment of Buzhou Mountain and the Chaos Green Lotus scraps within the bag seemed to make that cold "sniffing" fluctuation from the city instantly flinch, like a startled insect, quickly vanishing without a trace.

Trouble.

Ling Ye mentally tagged this world he had just returned to.

Meanwhile, at the other end of the city below the mountain, deep within an unremarkable old building.

In the dim room, the piercing alarm had been forcibly silenced, but the curve representing energy fluctuations on the screen still retained traces of a terrifying peak that made one's heart palpitate, like a hideous scar tearing through the background.

Professor Chen, a middle-aged man in a white lab coat with disheveled hair, stared intently at the residual data on the screen, his bloodshot eyes fixed on it. His fingers trembled slightly with excitement. He suddenly lunged towards another instrument. The complex city grid map on the screen was rapidly refreshing. A red circle, like ink dropped into water, rapidly contracted, pinpointing a location.

"Quick! Faster! Energy source coordinates!" he roared hoarsely, fine beads of sweat beading on his forehead. His young assistant's hands became a blur on the keyboard, his face also pale with tension.

"Professor! The peak energy level… is unanalyzable! It's beyond the limit of all known detectors! The instantaneous annihilation characteristic… has a 97% similarity to the 'flash event' at Kunlun Mountain's Death Valley three months ago! But the intensity… is more than ten thousand times greater than that!" The assistant's voice trembled with disbelief.

"Ten thousand times?!" Professor Chen gasped sharply, his pupils constricting. The Kunlun Death Valley 'flash' incident three months ago had directly vaporized a well-equipped twelve-person special task force, leaving behind only a bottomless, vitrified crater. It had been classified as a top-secret SSS-level event! And just now… right before their eyes, in this super-metropolis of tens of millions, a similar fluctuation with ten thousand times the intensity had appeared?!

"Coordinates locked!" the assistant suddenly shouted, his voice rising with tension. "Margin of error… radius of one hundred meters! The target area is… the mid-mountain villa district of Yunqi Mountain, specifically located at…"

The assistant announced a precise latitude and longitude coordinate, and simultaneously, the grid map on the screen zoomed in, focusing on a sparse cluster of villa lights on Yunqi Mountain.

"Yunqi Mountain… mid-mountain villas…" Professor Chen murmured repeatedly, his bloodshot eyes sharp as a falcon's, staring intently at the coordinate point. "A Su Family property? No… that's not right! The peak energy source just now definitely wasn't within any known 'container' records! This isn't the 'source' awakening… this is an 'anomaly'! An unprecedented, terrifying 'anomaly' has descended!"

A chill shot from the base of his spine to the top of his head, but it was immediately followed by an even more fervent, almost fanatical desire to investigate. The unknown represented extreme danger, but it also represented… an opportunity that could change everything!

"Immediately! Activate the 'Hidden Dragon' protocol! Priority: Top Secret · World-Ending Level!" Professor Chen's voice was decisive, with an undeniable resoluteness. "Notify the 'Dragon Tooth' special operations team, highest level armament on standby! Block all civilian communication and surveillance networks in the target area! I want that area, down to the trajectory of a single bird's flight, under our control! Until the exact threat level is assessed, no one is to alert the target! Repeat, no one! Violators… will be dealt with on the spot!"

"Yes!" The assistant's face was grim as he immediately began executing the orders, his fingers flying across the encrypted communicator.

Professor Chen slowly turned around, looking out the window at the city pouring down with rain once more. His gaze pierced through the downpour, as if trying to break through the heavy darkness, locking onto the villa on the mountainside of Yunqi Mountain, which now appeared like a giant powder keg in his eyes. His heart pounded heavily in his chest, blood mixed with fear and excitement coursing through his veins.

"Found you…" he muttered under his breath, his voice sounding particularly cold in the dim room. "No matter what you are… don't think you can… disappear without a trace… in this city…"

And at the entryway of the mid-mountain villa on Yunqi Mountain.

Ling Ye finally withdrew his gaze from the city, the slight frown on his brow easing slightly. That annoying "insect" aura had temporarily disappeared. As if just remembering there was still someone behind him, he slowly turned around.

Su Wanqing was still slumped against the wall, her eyes vacant, her body occasionally twitching. She was clearly still unable to extricate herself from the soul-shattering impact of those two "daily necessities."

Ling Ye looked at her pale face, then glanced down at his still-dripping burlap robe and worn cloth bag, and then at the torrential rain outside, which still seemed like the Milky Way had fallen.

He sighed silently.

On the first day of his slacker retirement life, trying to find a dry place to lie down… why was it so difficult?

"Hey," Ling Ye's voice, with a hint of post-sleep laziness, broke the deathly silence in the entryway, successfully refocusing Su Wanqing's scattered, terrified gaze onto him. "Can I still come in? Or, a towel would be fine too?" His gaze swept over the seemingly soft and thick wool carpet in the luxurious foyer behind Su Wanqing, his tone carrying an air of "I'm not asking for much" matter-of-factness. "My clothes are wet, it's a bit… sticky."