"Primordial Summoning Token? This thing... is used like this?!"
Ling Ye's astonished, disbelieving murmur struck Su Wanqing's chaotic mind like a thunderclap.
Primordial Summoning Token?!
Wasn't that the legendary... But she had no time to think it through!
At the top of the purple-gold pillar of light that shot out of the token, a terrifying "gaze" from an unknowable dimension had already descended! An indescribable pressure, like billions of divine mountains crashing down, instantly filled the entire villa!
Su Wanqing couldn't even scream. She felt as though her soul was about to be crushed into dust by that force! Her body stiffened like iron, and she couldn't even move her eyes. Only boundless terror and a sense of insignificance completely swallowed her! The token in her hand grew scorching hot, as if it were about to melt, yet she couldn't even loosen her fingers!
Just when she thought she would be annihilated in body and soul the next second—
Ling Ye, sitting on the sofa, suddenly clicked his tongue. The helpless amusement on his face swiftly turned into extreme impatience!
"What the hell?!" He seemed to have been thoroughly infuriated by the sudden "commotion" that had woken him while he was snacking. Facing the pillar of light and the descending pressure, he shouted irritably, "Why are you yelling so loudly?! Go back to sleep!"
There was no earth-shaking clash of energy, nor any profound exchange of laws.
There was only his scolding, thick with morning grumpiness and disdain.
Yet the instant his voice fell—
That terrifying pressure, powerful enough to extinguish the galaxies, suddenly froze as if an invisible hand had clamped around its throat! The Law Runes representing the "summoning response" that flowed within the purple-gold pillar of light seemed to receive a supreme command. They instantly grew chaotic, collapsed, and dissipated!
The shadow of some even more terrifying existence that was about to take shape at the top of the pillar let out an extremely brief, silent shriek filled with astonishment and confusion. Then, like a projection forcibly switched off, it instantly vanished, contracted, and disappeared without a trace!
The soaring purple-gold pillar of light abruptly dimmed and dissipated like a lamp tube that had lost power, as if it had never appeared.
The suffocating pressure inside the villa receded like a tide, leaving behind only deathly silence and the faint, strange scent of laws lingering in the air, as though an electrical circuit had burned out.
Su Wanqing collapsed to the floor with a thud and gasped for breath. Her entire body was drenched in cold sweat, as if she had just been dragged from the water. The Primordial Summoning Token in her hand had turned completely dull, its warmth rapidly fading as it returned to its former austere appearance. Only, its surface seemed to have gained an exceedingly faint sluggishness, as if it had been "yelled stupid."
She looked up and stared at Ling Ye in utter terror.
Ling Ye was still sitting on the sofa, his face as foul as a stone hauled out of a latrine. He seemed extremely displeased at having his "meal" forcibly interrupted and then having to deal with such an "accidental call."
He glared viciously at the token in Su Wanqing's hand, then at the empty air, as if warning some existence not to respond at random again. Then, with extreme impatience, he extended a hand and grabbed at the token in Su Wanqing's hand from across the air!
"Whoosh!"
The Primordial Summoning Token shot out of Su Wanqing's powerless hand as if drawn by a magnet, flying back into Ling Ye's grasp.
Without even looking at it, as though handling a piece of troublesome trash, Ling Ye casually stuffed the token into the deepest part of that tattered cloth bag! He even patted the bag disdainfully, as if afraid that this thing that "made random calls" would crawl back out and cause trouble again.
Only after doing all that did he let out a long breath of Turbid Qi, brimming with resentment. Then he picked up the half-eaten lump of "second-generation old dough" and bit down fiercely, as if venting his anger!
"Crack!" The sound was especially loud.
Su Wanqing sprawled on the floor. Looking at the powerful figure's resentful expression of "You people woke me from my sleep," she recalled the terrifying, world-destroying scene and pressure from moments ago, as well as the absurd spectacle of the powerful figure sending it away with a single shout...
She felt that her brain had completely given up thinking. Common sense? What was that? Could it be eaten?
Just then, perhaps because the "summoning" earlier had caused too much commotion, or perhaps because of Ling Ye's emotional fluctuations, the opening of his tattered cloth bag had not been fully tied shut after he put the token back. A narrow gap had opened slightly.
An exceedingly faint yet exceptionally pure and concentrated... medicinal fragrance... quietly drifted out through the gap like an elf breaking free of its restraints!
That medicinal fragrance was not the scent of mundane plants and herbs. Rather, it was an origin aura that seemed to have condensed the essences of countless immortal flowers and divine medicines, containing the vitality of creation! Just a trace of that nearly imperceptible fragrance entering her lungs made Su Wanqing feel the strength and mental energy she had expended recovering considerably in an instant. Even her hunger was temporarily suppressed!
Ling Ye's nose suddenly twitched! His chewing motion stopped instantly, and his eyes lit up like a starving wolf that had spotted a piece of meat!
"Huh?" He let out a delighted exclamation, instantly casting his earlier displeasure into the farthest reaches of the heavens. He tossed aside the half-eaten "old dough" and excitedly reached his hand into the cloth bag again, rummaging around.
"Found it! I thought I'd finished it!" he muttered, a smile spreading across his face as if he had found a treasure.
Then, under Su Wanqing's curious yet fearful gaze, he pulled something... out of the cloth bag... a... thing?
The thing was the size of a longan, perfectly round, and suffused with a hazy, chaotic color. Yet its surface bore nine exceptionally clear, naturally formed cloud-patterned pill apertures! Wisps of seven-colored radiance slowly flowed out of the pill apertures, condensing into tiny illusory dragon and phoenix figures that circled and danced around it, radiating a mighty medicinal power and vitality of creation that made one's soul tremble!
Nine apertures?! Seven-colored radiance?! Dragons and phoenixes embracing it?!
Even with her lack of common sense, Su Wanqing knew that this was no ordinary object! These were clearly phenomena that only appeared with the highest-grade immortal pills from legend!
Ling Ye's eyes shone as he looked at the pill in his palm, and he was practically drooling. Clearly, this was the "snack" he had really been looking for!
He eagerly opened his mouth, about to toss this clearly extraordinary immortal pill inside—
But just as the pill was about to enter his mouth, his movement suddenly stopped!
His brows creased slightly, and a trace of... disdain? appeared on his face, as if he had discovered some imperfection amid the beauty.
Holding the Nine-Orifice Seven-Colored Immortal Pill, he brought it before his eyes and examined it carefully. In particular, he scrutinized the radiance flowing from the nine pill apertures and the circling dragon and phoenix figures, then brought his nose closer and sniffed the mighty medicinal fragrance.
Then he smacked his lips in extreme dissatisfaction and complained in a low voice, "It's still a little underdone... The dragon and phoenix essence wasn't sealed in properly, and three parts per thousand of the radiance has escaped... Sigh, I'll make do."
His tone was so regretful that it sounded as though he had bitten into a slightly wilted strawberry.
Su Wanqing: "..."
She looked at the Nine-Orifice Immortal Pill, something that would make any cultivator fight desperately to seize it and trigger rivers of blood, then listened to the powerful figure's assessment that it was "good enough" and "a little lacking"...
She no longer even had the strength to complain.
Yet just as Ling Ye was about to put this "inferior" immortal pill into his mouth again—
Another change occurred!
Because the cloth bag's opening had not been tied shut, and because he had just rummaged through it excitedly, an inconspicuous little thing that had been pressed at the very bottom was brought out by his movements. With a soft clatter, it fell onto the carpet.
It was... only the size of a thumb, grayish-white all over, extremely irregular in shape, and even somewhat rough... a Small Stone?
It looked completely ordinary, like a cobblestone casually picked up from the roadside. If it were thrown on the ground, no one would give it a second glance.
Yet the instant the Small Stone left the cloth bag and touched the carpet of the grand villa—
"Hmm..."
An extremely low hum suddenly came from the deepest part of the ground, one that seemed capable of shaking the foundations of the entire world!
The entire villa—no, the entire Yunqi Mountain, and even the broader surrounding region—trembled ever so slightly, yet with absolute reality!
This was no longer the kind of vibration caused by an energy impact. Instead, it was something deeper, more fundamental—a tremor as if the "pulse" of the planet had suddenly been touched!
Beneath the load-bearing pillar on the eastern side of the living room, the Primordial Anchor Fragment that had been firmly suppressed by the Fragment of Buzhou Mountain and kicked into submission by Ling Ye actually... resonated ever so slightly at the instant the Small Stone appeared, as if it had received some irresistible, origin-born summons!
Although it was instantly pressed down again by the heavy aura of the Fragment of Buzhou Mountain, that momentary resonance had truly occurred!
Ling Ye's movement as he prepared to eat the pill suddenly stiffened!
He abruptly lowered his head. His gaze, like two tangible swords, instantly pinned the newly fallen, utterly inconspicuous grayish-white Small Stone to the carpet!
His pupils suddenly contracted!
All the laziness, impatience, disdain, and even desire for the immortal pill that had filled his face vanished without a trace! In their place was something exceedingly rare—a mixture of tremendous astonishment, disbelief, and a trace of shock as if he had seen a ghost?!
He had even forgotten the Nine-Orifice Seven-Colored Immortal Pill in his hand, letting it fall onto the sofa and bounce several times.
"This... this thing..." For the first time, Ling Ye's voice carried an unmistakable tremor, almost a loss of composure. He stared fixedly at the Small Stone as if he were looking at the most inconceivable sight in the universe. "How could it... still be here with me?! I thought it had long since..."
He stopped halfway through his words, as if he had realized something extremely terrifying. His expression instantly grew incomparably grave!
He no longer cared about snacks or hunger. He sprang from the sofa, stepped barefoot onto the carpet, and rushed over in a single stride. As if pouncing to save an unparalleled treasure, he picked up the grayish-white Small Stone with extreme care, even carrying a trace of fear, and clenched it tightly in his palm!
As if it were not a stone, but the switch that could set off the explosion of the entire universe!
Su Wanqing was completely dumbfounded by Ling Ye's sudden, unprecedentedly violent reaction!
She looked at the powerful figure's expression, as though he were facing a formidable enemy and even showed a hint of fear, then at the utterly ordinary Small Stone in his hand. Her mind completely crashed.
What... what level of treasure was this?! It could actually make this powerful figure, who could make a planet tremble with a single stomp and drive away a supreme will with one word, lose his composure to this extent?!
Ling Ye clenched the Small Stone tightly, his fingers even turning slightly pale from excessive force. He closed his eyes, seemingly struggling to sense and confirm something. A faint bead of cold sweat even appeared at his temple?
Several seconds later, he suddenly opened his eyes. They now held only immense gravity and a trace of... vexation?
"This is troublesome..." he muttered, his voice hoarse. "This time... there's... really big trouble..."
He raised his head. His gaze seemed to pierce through the villa's roof and look toward the depths of the infinitely distant starry sky. His expression was grim to the extreme.
"Those old bastards whose noses are sharper than dogs'... they must have sensed it already..."
Because of a Small Stone that had suddenly fallen out, the atmosphere throughout the villa instantly shifted from the earlier absurd comedy. It took a sharp turn downward, becoming oppressively heavy and... pregnant with an approaching storm!
Su Wanqing sat collapsed on the floor, looking at the powerful figure's unprecedentedly grave profile. She felt an icy chill, like a venomous snake, coil around her heart once more.
This time, the trouble... was probably... truly different...
Before you continue