That tiny baby's dudou, red with a golden "fortune" character, was like a red-hot brand, scorching Ling Ye's fingertips until they trembled. He stared fixedly at the crooked yet naturally Dao-infused character "Ye." Fragments of memories sealed away for who knew how many billions of years surged into his nearly stagnant mind like a flood breaking through a dam, violently crashing down the levees of time.
["Take it!"]
[A crisp yet unquestionably authoritative female voice exploded beside his ear, as though it had crossed endless spacetime.]
[Before his eyes lay swirling primordial chaos and smoke, shattered galaxies, and the bloodstained, fluttering hem of a palace dress.]
[The woman's face was blurred amid light, shadow, blood, and fire. Only her eyes, brilliant as stars yet filled with determination and reluctance, remained clear enough to stab at the soul.]
[She roughly shoved the dudou, still carrying the scent of milk and body heat, into his arms. Her words came fast and urgently, laden with the weight of entrusting him with everything:]
["Keep it safe for me! Wait until I come back for him! If you lose it... or I find out you let him wear a dudou made by another woman..."]
[The woman's voice suddenly turned cold, carrying killing intent powerful enough to freeze the Primordial Chaos:]
["I'll castrate you and throw you into the Eye of Guixu, where you'll never be reincarnated!"]
[...]
[What happened next?]
[What happened after that?!]
[The great war? Right, that earth-shaking war that swept across the entire Primordial Chaos... She went... She seemed to... never come back...]
[And afterward... billions of years of dull sign-ins... the system retired... returning to the modern world...]
[He... he had actually forgotten about this... completely?!]
[He had stuffed this dudou... along with all the random things he had obtained from signing in... at the very bottom of the cloth bag... for billions of years?!]
"Gulp."
Ling Ye swallowed with difficulty, his throat dry and painfully raw. Cold sweat slid from his temples like streams, instantly soaking through his back.
It was over.
This time, it was really over.
He hadn't merely forgotten to keep it safe. He had completely forgotten the entire promise—and even the existence of this dudou!
With that woman's temper and methods... if she found out...
Ling Ye could already see the tragic scene of himself being hunted until there was nowhere to flee in the heavens or on earth, before finally being caught, castrated, and thrown into the Eye of Guixu! He even instinctively clamped his legs together, a chill shooting from his coccyx straight to the crown of his head!
It was ten thousand times more terrifying than being targeted by the Primordial Greedy Wolf, or having the Small Stone in his hand exposed!
"I have to... I have to hide it! I absolutely, absolutely can't let her know that I'm still alive, much less that I forgot about this!" As though he had seized a lifeline, Ling Ye fumbled frantically to stuff the dudou back into the deepest part of the cloth bag, then lock it away with ten thousand Chaos seals!
However, just as he tried to put the dudou back—
The tiny dudou seemed to possess a spirit of its own. It actually... began to heat up slightly! The embroidered character "Ye" suddenly lit up with an almost imperceptible golden glow. A faint yet incredibly tenacious fluctuation of longing and calling, seemingly originating from the source of their bloodline, pierced through the cloth bag's isolation like an invisible thread and drifted toward a distant dimension beyond his perception!
"!!!"
Ling Ye was scared out of his wits and nearly threw the dudou away!
This thing... could actually send out a "location signal" on its own?! Though it was extremely faint, far less domineering than the Small Stone, with that woman's abilities, as long as she was still somewhere in this multiverse—even if only a wisp of her remnant soul remained—she could very well sense it!
"Don't! Don't send a signal! Little ancestor! I was wrong! I really was wrong!" Ling Ye was practically crying. He frantically wrapped and suppressed that fluctuation with Chaos Origin Qi, as if he were holding a supernova that could explode at any moment. His entire being was on the verge of collapse.
Just as he was exerting all his strength to suppress the dudou's fluctuation—
"Mm..."
A faint moan came from the carpet.
Su Wanqing, whom Ling Ye had casually thrown onto the floor, trembled her eyelashes a few times before slowly opening her eyes.
Her consciousness gradually returned. The chaos in the back alley, the hotel lights, and the world-destroying soul roar and terrifying pressure from before she fainted... Fragments of memory flooded into her mind, instantly jolting her awake. She abruptly sat up!
"Ah! We..." She had just begun to exclaim when her gaze collided with Ling Ye, who was leaning against the door with a face pale as a ghost and cold sweat pouring down him, frantically wrestling with... a baby's dudou?
Su Wanqing: "???"
Her brain crashed again.
What... was the big shot doing?!
That bright red thing... was a dudou, right?! There seemed to be a character embroidered on it, too?
Why was he staring at a dudou with an expression of terror as though he had seen a ghost? And why was he even... muttering apologies and begging for mercy?!
The absurd sight before her temporarily dispelled her fear of what had happened earlier. She stared blankly with her mouth open, her worldview undergoing its N+1st reconstruction.
Ling Ye's entire mind was focused on suppressing the dudou, so he hadn't noticed that Su Wanqing had awakened. At long last, he forced that faint bloodline fluctuation back into the dudou. Exhausted, he let out another ragged breath, and golden threads of blood seeped from the corner of his mouth once more.
He looked at the dudou in his hand, which had temporarily "quieted down," as though it were a time bomb. He couldn't throw it away, didn't dare keep it, and couldn't hide it. He was completely at a loss!
At that moment, perhaps as punishment for his forgetfulness over billions of years—or perhaps by coincidence—
The grayish-white Small Stone he had temporarily suppressed deep inside the Chaos Green Lotus Basin seemed to sense the extremely faint wave of the same origin that the dudou had just leaked—after all, both had once belonged to him. It actually... once again... and yet again... unwilling to be lonely... trembled lightly!
A coordinate fluctuation far weaker than before yet much more stubborn once again pierced through the Chaos Green Lotus Basin's isolation and escaped!
Although the basin immediately suppressed it again, that momentary leak was like striking another match in the darkness!
Almost at the same time!
Boom!!!
The hotel room's window shattered with a crash! It hadn't been broken by force; it had been instantly melted and vaporized by extreme heat! A more violent, more impatient, terrifying will descended once more like a hurricane, locking firmly onto this room!
"Insect! You really were still hiding it! Hand over the Origin Core!!!"
The Primordial Greedy Wolf's roar exploded again deep within their souls, brimming with furious rage at having been toyed with! An even more solid and terrifying claw of destruction tore through space and viciously swiped down toward the budget hotel! Judging from its momentum, it intended to erase the entire building and the surrounding area from the world!
"Are you kidding me?!"
Ling Ye completely exploded! One accident and pursuit after another had exhausted the patience that was already on the verge of collapse!
He suddenly raised his head, madness and viciousness flashing in his eyes as he was driven into a corner! He no longer cared about the baby's dudou. He casually stuffed it into his arms, then snatched up the shabby cloth bag from the floor!
His condition was terrible. With Su Wanqing weighing him down, he had no strength to confront the Greedy Wolf head-on, and he couldn't use his escape technique again so soon.
He had to take a dangerous gamble!
His gaze abruptly fell on the inconspicuous... Chaos Green Lotus Basin in the corner of the room! When he had disappeared from the villa earlier, he had subconsciously bundled it up and taken it along with the cloth bag.
An extremely bold, even downright insane idea flashed through his mind!
Since he couldn't hide and couldn't shake it off... then he would... redirect the disaster elsewhere!
"Greedy Wolf! Isn't this what you want?! Take it!!!"
Ling Ye let out a hoarse roar of fury. Using the last of his strength, he pulled the Chaos Green Lotus Basin from the cloth bag, then... instead of smashing it toward the wolf claw outside the window, he used all his strength to hurl it in the opposite direction of the room—toward the open door leading to the hallway!
"Take your lousy stone and get lost!!!"
The Chaos Green Lotus Basin transformed into a streak of light, passing through the doorway, flying down the hallway, out of the hotel, and toward... the distant city center, where traffic flowed and crowds surged!
As the basin flew through the air, the chaotic radiance on its surface flashed violently. The Small Stone suppressed within seemed to sense the intense coveting and summons from outside, and its fluctuations grew even more violent, as though it were about to break out of the basin!
The effect was immediate!
The destructive wolf claw about to descend outside the window suddenly halted!
The Primordial Greedy Wolf's will let out an extremely excited and greedy roar: "Origin Core!!!"
Its attention was instantly drawn completely to the flying Chaos Green Lotus Basin, which radiated powerful fluctuations from the Small Stone! Compared to Ling Ye, this "insect," the "Origin Core" was its true target!
Without the slightest hesitation, that terrifying destructive wolf claw instantly changed direction. It tore through space and frantically pursued the Chaos Green Lotus Basin, moving at incredible speed!
The pressure in the hotel room suddenly eased.
Ling Ye collapsed to the floor with a thud, spitting out great mouthfuls of blood, nearly drained of all strength.
However, before he could catch his breath—
The baby's dudou in his arms, stirred by his violent movements and intense emotional fluctuations, actually... became restless again!
Another wisp of faint bloodline fluctuation, like a mischievous spark, splashed out...
And this time...
This fluctuation seemed... not to have attracted the Primordial Greedy Wolf.
Instead, it seemed to have touched some even more hidden and profound existence, one carrying endless sorrow and longing... an ancient contract existing beyond the distant reaches of spacetime...
The air in the room seemed to freeze.
An indescribable, icy yet not malicious... sensation of being watched quietly descended.
It was as though an existence that had slept for countless ages had been awakened from the deepest dream by this faint, bloodline-born summons...
The hair all over Ling Ye's body instantly stood on end! An even more ominous premonition than when he faced the Greedy Wolf seized him!
He abruptly raised his head.
The air at the very center of the room began to ripple like water.
A slender, pitch-black... spatial rift... silently... slowly split open.
Within the rift, there was no terrifying pressure, no aura of destruction.
There was only absolute, icy nothingness, as though it could swallow all light.
And...
A pair of... slowly opening...
Eyes...
As though they had been formed from the purest ice and the darkest, eternal night...
Enormous beyond measure...
A woman's eyes!
Those eyes reflected Ling Ye's terrified face, as well as... the corner of the red dudou with the golden "fortune" character peeking from his arms.
Time seemed to... completely stop at that moment.
Before you continue