Invalid memory and invalid promise

The tiny baby's bib, red with a golden "Fu" character, felt like a scorching brand, making Ling Ye's fingertips tremble. He stared intently at the crooked yet naturally profound "Ye" character, and memory fragments, sealed for who knows how many billions of years, surged like a bursting dam, obliterating the embankment of time and flooding his nearly stagnant mind.

["Take it!"]

[A clear yet undeniably authoritative female voice seemed to pierce through endless time and space, exploding in his ear.]

[Before him lay diffuse chaotic smoke, shattered star rivers, and a blood-stained, fluttering palace dress.]

[The woman's face was blurred by light and shadow, fire and blood, only her eyes, as brilliant as stars yet filled with resolve and reluctance, were so clear they pierced his soul.]

[She roughly shoved the bib, still carrying the scent of milk and body warmth, into his arms, her voice rapid and urgent, carrying the heavy weight of entrusting everything:]

["Keep it safe for me! Wait for me to come back for him! If you lose it... or if I find out you let him wear a bib made by another woman..."]

[The woman's voice suddenly turned icy, carrying a killing intent potent enough to freeze the Primordial Era:]

["I'll castrate you, then throw you into the Eye of Guixu, never to be reborn!"]

[...]

[And then?]

[Then what happened?!]

[A great battle? Right, that earth-shattering war that swept across the entire Primordial Era... She went... She seemed to... never come back...]

[Later... billions of years of tedious check-ins... the system retired... returning to the present...]

[He... he actually forgot all about it?!]

[This bib... along with all the miscellaneous junk from the check-ins... shoved to the very bottom of the cloth bag... for billions of years?!]

"Gulp."

Ling Ye swallowed with difficulty, his throat dry and aching. Cold sweat streamed down his temples like a brook, instantly soaking his back.

It's over.

This time, it's really over.

He hadn't forgotten to keep it safe; he had completely forgotten the entire promise and the very existence of this bib!

With that woman's temper and methods... if she found out...

Ling Ye could already picture himself being hunted endlessly, with nowhere to run and nowhere to hide, only to be dragged out, castrated, and thrown into the Eye of Guixu! He instinctively clenched his legs, a chill shooting from his tailbone straight to the crown of his head!

It was ten thousand times more terrifying than being targeted by the Primordial Greedy Wolf, or exposing the scorching hot stone in his hand!

"Must... must hide it! She absolutely cannot know I'm still alive and that I forgot about this!" Ling Ye grabbed onto a lifeline, frantically trying to shove the bib back into the deepest part of the cloth bag, then seal it with ten thousand Chaos Seals!

However, the moment he tried to put the bib back--

The tiny bib, as if possessing its own sentience, actually... warmed slightly! The "Ye" character embroidered on it suddenly lit up with an almost imperceptible golden glow, and a weak yet incredibly tenacious wave of longing and calling, as if from the Origin of his bloodline, like invisible threads, pierced through the cloth bag's barrier, drifting gracefully towards a distant dimension beyond his perception!

"!!!"

Ling Ye was so terrified he almost threw the bib away!

This thing... could actually send out a "distress signal" automatically?! Although extremely weak, nowhere near as overbearing as that stone, but... but with that woman's divine abilities, as long as she was still within this multiverse, even if only a wisp of her soul remained, she could very likely sense it!

"No! Don't send a signal! My little ancestor! I was wrong! I was really wrong!" Ling Ye was on the verge of tears, frantically wrapping and suppressing the wave with Chaos Origin Qi, like holding a supernova about to explode, his entire being on the verge of collapse.

Just as he was fully suppressing the bib's fluctuations--

"Mmm..."

A faint groan came from the carpet.

Su Wanqing, who had been casually thrown onto the ground by Ling Ye, her eyelashes fluttered a few times, and she slowly opened her eyes.

Her consciousness gradually returned, the chaos in the alley, the hotel lights, and the world-ending soul roar and terrifying pressure before she fainted... Memory fragments flooded her mind, startling her awake instantly, and she sat up abruptly!

"Ah! We..." She was about to exclaim, but her gaze met Ling Ye, who was leaning against the door, his face ashen like a ghost, dripping with cold sweat, and frantically wrestling with... a baby's bib?

Su Wanqing: "???"

Her brain crashed again.

Big shot... what is he doing?

That bright red thing... is it a bib?! It looks like there's a character embroidered on it?

Why is he showing that... expression of sheer terror, as if he'd seen a ghost, at a bib? He's even... muttering pleas?

The absurd scene before her even temporarily dispelled her fear from the previous terrifying experience. Her mouth agape, she stared blankly, her worldview undergoing its N+1th reconstruction.

Ling Ye's entire focus was on suppressing the bib, completely unaware that Su Wanqing had woken up. He finally managed to forcibly push the faint bloodline fluctuation back into the bib, exhausted, letting out another ragged breath, golden blood trickling from the corner of his mouth again.

He looked at the temporarily "quiet" bib in his hand, like looking at a ticking time bomb. He couldn't throw it away, didn't dare to keep it, and couldn't hide it. He was utterly helpless!

And at this moment, as if to punish him for billions of years of forgetting, or perhaps by coincidence--

The small, grayish-white stone he had temporarily suppressed deep within the Chaos Green Lotus pot seemed to sense the extremely faint, same-source fluctuation that the bib had just leaked (after all, they both belonged to him), and it actually... again and again... unwilling to be left out... vibrated slightly!

A coordinate fluctuation, much weaker than before but more persistent, pierced through the Lotus Pot's barrier and escaped again!

Although it was immediately suppressed by the pot again, that momentary leak was like striking a match in the darkness!

Almost simultaneously!

BOOM!

The hotel room's window glass shattered. It wasn't shattered by force, but as if instantly melted and vaporized by extreme heat! An even more violent, impatient, and terrifying will descended like a hurricane, locking onto this room!

"Ant! You were hiding something! Hand over the Origin Core!!!"

Primordial Greedy Wolf's roar exploded in the depths of his soul once more, filled with the fury of being toyed with! A more solid, more terrifying claw of destruction tore through space, reaching down towards this budget hotel! It looked like it intended to erase the entire building and this area from existence!

"This is endless!!!"

Ling Ye completely lost it! The relentless surprises and pursuits had finally exhausted his already frayed patience!

He suddenly looked up, his eyes flashing with the madness and ferocity of being pushed to the brink! He no longer cared about the baby's bib, stuffing it into his arms casually, then grabbing the old cloth bundle from the floor!

He was in a terrible state, and with Su Wanqing as a burden, he was powerless to confront Greedy Wolf head-on. His escape technique also couldn't be used again so soon.

He had to take a huge risk!

His gaze suddenly fell on the corner of the room... that inconspicuous... Chaos Green Lotus basin! (When he disappeared from the villa earlier, he had subconsciously rolled it up in the cloth bundle.)

A bold, even insane, thought flashed through his mind!

Since he couldn't hide or escape... he would... divert the disaster!

"Greedy Wolf! You want it?! Here!!!"

Ling Ye let out a hoarse roar, using his last bit of strength to pull the Chaos Green Lotus basin out of the cloth bundle, and then... not throwing it at the claw outside the window, but... with all his might, he hurled it towards the other side of the room... the open doorway leading to the corridor...

"Take your broken rock and get lost!!!"

The Chaos Green Lotus basin turned into a streak of light, passing through the doorway, flying into the corridor, out of the hotel, and towards... the distant, bustling city center...

In mid-air, the basin's surface light flickered violently. The stone suppressed within seemed to sense the intense covetousness and summons from the outside, its fluctuations becoming even more intense, as if it were about to break free!

The effect was immediate!

The claw of destruction, about to descend outside the window, suddenly paused!

Primordial Greedy Wolf's will let out an ecstatic and greedy roar: "Origin Core!!!"

Its attention was instantly captured by the flying Chaos Green Lotus basin, which was emitting strong fluctuations from the stone! Compared to Ling Ye, the "ant," the "Origin Core" was its true target!

Without hesitation, the terrifying claw of destruction instantly changed direction, tearing through space, madly chasing after the direction the Chaos Green Lotus basin had flown! Its speed was extreme!

The pressure in the hotel room suddenly eased.

Ling Ye collapsed to the ground with a thud, spitting up blood, almost completely drained.

However, before he could even catch his breath--

The baby's bib in his arms, due to his violent movements and intense emotional fluctuations, had... stirred restlessly again!

Another faint wave of bloodline fluctuation, like a mischievous spark, splashed out...

And this time...

This wave... seemed... not to have attracted Primordial Greedy Wolf.

Instead, it seemed to have touched a more hidden, more profound... existence beyond the distant void, carrying endless sorrow and longing... an ancient pact...

Inside the room, the air seemed to freeze.

An indescribable, cold, yet not malicious... gaze... quietly descended.

It was as if a being who had slept for eons had been awakened from its deepest dream... by this faint call from its bloodline...

Ling Ye's hair stood on end! A premonition more ominous than facing Greedy Wolf seized him!

He suddenly looked up.

He saw the air in the center of the room ripple like water.

A thin, dark... spatial rift... silently... slowly tore open.

Within the rift, there was no terrifying pressure, no aura of destruction.

Only an absolute, cold... void that seemed capable of devouring all light.

And...

A pair of... slowly opening...

Eyes, seemingly condensed from the purest ice and the deepest, darkest eternal night...

Immensely large...

A woman's eyes!

Those eyes reflected Ling Ye's terrified face, and... the corner of the red-and-gold "Fu" patterned...

Baby's bib... peeking out from his arms.

Time seemed to... completely stop at this moment.