The apocalyptic cold current was like the Milky Way cascading down from the Ninth Heaven, carrying the ultimate killing intent of an enraged mother. In an instant, it drowned out Ling Ye's senses. Time seemed to freeze, his thoughts solidified, and death's icy tendrils had already coiled around his soul.
Was he going to die?
Just because of a broken dudou and an unreliable Forget Worry Grass?
After signing in for billions of years and surviving countless tribulations, was he really going to fall because of something this absurd?!
Unwilling! He was absolutely unwilling to accept this!
Under the overwhelming pressure of life and death, Ling Ye's nerves, honed by the primordial ages until they were nearly numb, unexpectedly burst forth with unprecedented quick wit!
He couldn't admit it! Absolutely not admit that he had lost the child and found a counterfeit!
He had to muddy the waters! He had to redirect the disaster elsewhere! He had to... find a target that could draw even more fire!
In the blink of an eye, Ling Ye's gaze swept over Su Wanqing, who had just awoken on the floor and was trembling in fear with a bewildered expression. Then it swept over the real baby crying its heart out in the neighboring room, and finally fixed on the dudou in his arms, which radiated dazzling light, trembled nonstop, and brimmed with overwhelming jealousy!
An absurd thought, yet possibly his only path to survival, flashed through the darkness like lightning and illuminated his despairing mind!
Got it!
Just before the destructive cold current was about to turn him and the entire hotel into ice chips—
Ling Ye abruptly raised his head and summoned every ounce of primordial power. Facing the descending cold current, he let out a roar filled not with pleading, but with immense "grievance" and "fury"!
"Madam, please hear me out! It isn't my fault! It's... it's the children's father!!!"
That earth-shattering shout of "the children's father" was like pressing a pause button on space and time.
The surging apocalyptic cold current, powerful enough to freeze the stars and rivers, suddenly... halted a fraction of an instant before touching the tip of Ling Ye's nose!
The boiling killing intent on the other side of the rift also seemed to be strangled by the throat and abruptly choked to a stop!
It was as though even the enraged madam had been completely dumbfounded by this utterly unexpected accusation.
The children's father?
What did this have to do with the children's father?!
Ling Ye seized this precious, possibly only chance to breathe. His words came as fast as a collapsing galaxy, his voice and expression full of drama, and his acting instantly broke through the heavens as he accused him with the grief of someone deeply wounded by a "heartless man":
"It was that bastard! Madam! During all these years you were in seclusion, he... he couldn't stand the loneliness! He had... someone else outside!!" (He pointed at the real baby crying in the neighboring room, then at the dumbfounded Su Wanqing on the floor, and began improvising wildly.)
"Look! That's the bastard child he made outside! (Pointing at the real baby.) And this one! This woman! She seduced the children's father! She even tried to kill our Little Ye! She wants her bastard child to take his place and seize all the family property! Her treachery deserves death, Madam!"
"To protect Little Ye, I had no choice but to hide with him, conceal our identities, and even keep Little Ye from revealing the slightest trace of his aura, fearing that those two vile adulterers would find us and poison him! That was why Little Ye's aura was so weak and his bloodline remained undetectable! (Forcibly explaining why the child in the dudou was 'similar yet different.')"
"I endured humiliation for billions of years! Was it easy for me?! Today, I finally managed to shake them off for a while and wanted to let the child catch his breath, but... but they still came after us! They even frightened Little Ye! (Pointing at the crying from next door.) Madam! You must stand up for us, mother and son!!!"
Ling Ye spoke with tears streaming down his face (forced out), beating his chest and stamping his feet as he vividly portrayed a "tragic mother" who had been "betrayed by her husband," "persecuted by a mistress," and "endured humiliation to protect her child"!
He even secretly activated the Chaos Origin Qi, forcing two lines of golden "blood tears" from the corners of his eyes to enhance his credibility!
The entire room fell deathly silent.
Only the baby's loud cries from next door and Su Wanqing's bewildered gasps served as background noise.
The terrifying killing intent on the other side of the rift... vanished.
In its place was a kind of... extremely strange... silence.
It was as if the madam was digesting this information-packed, melodramatic accusation.
Several seconds passed.
Only then did the cold voice sound again, its tone becoming extremely... strange, tinged with disbelief and... a blazing gossip-fueled curiosity that had been drawn off course?
"...Hongjun... has someone else... outside?"
"And... even had a... bastard child?"
"And wanted... to kill my Little Ye?"
Hongjun?!
The children's father was the Dao Ancestor, Hongjun?!
Ling Ye nearly spat up a mouthful of blood! He had tossed out a random scapegoat, so how had it landed on the ceiling of the primordial world?! This misunderstanding was far too huge!
But the play had already begun, and he absolutely couldn't stop! He could only brace himself and continue his grief-stricken act. "Not the Dao Ancestor! It's... it's someone else! (He hurriedly blurred the details.) In any case, Madam! The children's father is a scoundrel! You must stand up for us!"
Another stretch of silence.
Then the voice sounded again, still cold, but somehow carrying a sense of "so that's how it is" and "redirected fury":
"No wonder..."
"No wonder Little Ye's aura is so strange... He must have been frightened and abused!"
"No wonder you were hiding everything... You were afraid the truth would get out!"
"That... bastard... Where is he?!"
The final sentence was filled with gritted-teeth fury, as though she was about to hunt down that "scumbag" and settle the score!
Ling Ye's heart soared. It worked! He had successfully redirected the fire!
He hurriedly struck while the iron was hot and added more fuel to the flames. "He... he sensed that you might awaken and was so frightened that he hid! But I guess... he must still be thinking about this bastard child and the mistress! (Pointing toward the room next door again.) Madam! Why don't we clean house first? If we capture this mother and child, that heartless man will have no choice but to show himself!"
Redirect the disaster! Better for a fellow cultivator to die than for this poor Daoist to die! Sorry, baby next door, and your mother! And Su Wanqing too! We'll worry about that after surviving this emergency!
Just as Ling Ye thought his plan had worked and was preparing to guide the madam's fury toward annihilating the neighboring room—
Another unexpected change occurred!
The dudou in his arms, having heard the word "father" and sensed Ling Ye's "hostility" toward the child next door, unexpectedly... began trembling violently again!
An even larger and more complicated emotional consciousness erupted!
Within it was curiosity and longing toward the title "father," confusion and displeasure at Ling Ye "attacking" another child, and even a trace of... a bizarre impulse to approach the crying from next door?
It was as though the cries of another baby held some innate attraction for it?
"Buzz..." The dudou radiated chaotic light.
Ling Ye: "???"
Why was this damn dudou going off script again?! Whose side was it on?!
The madam on the other side of the rift seemed to notice the dudou's abnormal fluctuations as well. The fury that had been about to pounce on the neighboring room faltered slightly, carrying a hint of confusion. "Little Ye... him?"
Ling Ye's scalp went numb. He hurriedly suppressed the dudou's fluctuations while frantically patching up his lie. "Little Ye is angry! He hates him! He hates how heartless his father is, and hates that bastard child for stealing the fatherly love that should have belonged to him! Madam! Hurry and act, before it's too late!"
However, it was already too late.
The madam's attention seemed to have been completely drawn in by the dudou's complicated, chaotic fluctuations and the real child's loud cries from next door.
She did not attack immediately. Instead... she sank into another, even stranger... silence.
It was as though she was carefully "tasting" and comparing something.
Several minutes later.
The cold voice sounded again, its tone becoming even stranger, with even a trace of... barely perceptible disappointment and disdain:
"The crying... is certainly loud..."
"His breath... is strong too..."
"He's... a little plumper than Little Ye..."
Ling Ye: "???" Why did that tone sound so wrong? Shouldn't she have been furious and disgusted? Where had this faint envy and disdain come from?!
Before he could figure it out, the voice suddenly changed direction, carrying an unquestionable command:
"You..."
"Go over..."
"Bring that... bastard child..."
"Here..."
"I... want to see him."
Ling Ye: "!!!!!!"
Bring him over?!
Bring the real baby over for this fiend to "take a look" at?!
Look at what?! Compare which child was fatter?! And then what?! Crush him to death?!
Ling Ye was scared out of his wits and was just about to find an excuse to refuse—
"Go!" The cold command carried unquestionable will, lashing at his soul like a whip.
Ling Ye's whole body shuddered. He knew there was no room for negotiation.
His face turned ashen, and like a walking corpse, he shuffled step by step toward the neighboring room.
Every step felt like he was walking on the tips of knives.
He pushed open the door to the neighboring room and looked at the real baby, whose little face was red from crying as his arms and legs flailed. Then he glanced at the young mother sprawled beside the bed, still unconscious (under the dual effects of Forget Worry Grass and the terrifying killing intent). His heart filled with overwhelming guilt.
What a sin...
Trembling, he extended his hand and, with extreme slowness, as though touching a bomb, picked up the soft, warm baby who was crying so hard that his entire body was burning hot.
The baby felt heavy in his arms. The cries shook his eardrums numb, and warm tears rubbed all over him.
Holding this hot potato, Ling Ye shuffled back to his room step by step. He felt as though he wasn't carrying a child, but his own death sentence.
He stood stiffly in the center of the room and turned the baby toward the direction of the invisible rift.
The will behind the rift slowly "swept" over the child.
Silence.
A suffocating silence.
After a long while.
The cold voice sounded again, the disappointment and disdain in its tone even more obvious:
"Talent... mediocre."
"Spiritual light... dim."
"Bloodline... mortal."
"Crying... noisy too."
"Other than being fat... he's useless."
Ling Ye: "..." Was she reviewing a dish?!
"Indeed... a bastard child." The voice delivered its final verdict with the superiority of someone thinking, "As expected, he's inferior to my son." Yet the killing intent seemed to have mostly dissipated, replaced by pure disdain.
"Forget it." The voice seemed to have lost interest. "Throw him back. He's an eyesore."
Ling Ye felt as though he had been granted amnesty, and he nearly wept with joy! He hurriedly moved to return the baby.
However, the instant he turned around—
The voice suddenly rang out again, carrying a barely perceptible trace of... awkwardness and... command:
"Wait."
Ling Ye's body went rigid.
"You..."
"Since you have been Little Ye's... 'mother'... all these years..."
"You have rendered... some service."
"So I will reward you..."
"For the time being... be his 'father' for a few days."
Ling Ye: "??????"
Father?!
Whose father?!
The one inside the dudou? Or the one in his arms?
Before he could recover from this earth-shattering blow, the voice continued, carrying the tone of someone bestowing charity:
"Learn... properly."
"How to... feed him."
"How to... change diapers."
"How to... put him to sleep."
"So that... you won't fail to care for my Little Ye... in the future."
Ling Ye's brain completely crashed.
Feed him?!
Change diapers?!
Put him to sleep?!
Him?! The Primordial Great Expert?! After signing in for billions of years?! He had to go back and be a dad?!
That was more painful than being killed!
"Ma... Madam... I... I can't do this..." Ling Ye tried to struggle.
"Hm?!" The cold killing intent instantly locked onto him again!
Ling Ye immediately caved. "I can! I can! I'll definitely learn! I guarantee I'll take good care of... of our son and make him fair and plump!"
"Hmph." The voice seemed satisfied, and the killing intent receded.
"Three days..."
"I... will come again."
"If Little Ye... feels the slightest discomfort..."
"If you... fail to learn properly..."
"You know... the consequences."
As her voice faded, the spatial rift slowly closed. That terrifying will receded like a tide and vanished completely.
Inside the room, only Ling Ye remained, holding a real baby who continued wailing nonstop, facing the dudou in his arms, which was still trembling faintly as though somewhat curious about this new title of "father," and Su Wanqing, who had been completely stupefied on the floor.
And... the final... icy "homework"... left behind by the madam—
Learn... how to feed him, change his diapers, and put him to sleep...
Ling Ye lowered his head and looked at the real baby, who was crying his heart out, his little face scrunched into a ball as he conveniently shot out a stream of warm liquid...
His vision went black.
He felt that his primordial life... was completely... screwed.
Before you continue