The baby's satisfied gulps rang especially clearly through the silent room. The little fellow's tiny hands instinctively clutched the bottle, tears still hanging from his round, dark eyes, yet he stared unblinkingly at the stiff-faced, awkward "temporary dad" before him, drinking happily with loud gulps.
Ling Ye maintained his posture as he held out the bottle, his arms rigid as two stone pillars and every muscle in his body taut. He felt as though he wasn't feeding a baby but performing a precise ritual concerning the survival of the Primordial Era. One careless move, and the universe might collapse. The warm bottle and the soft sensation of sucking made his scalp prickle. He wanted nothing more than to fling it away immediately.
The kindhearted father watched Ling Ye's expression, as though he were facing a formidable enemy, and couldn't help shaking his head with a smile. His face showed the understanding of a man thinking, All new fathers are like this. He even took out his phone, seemingly wanting to record this "heartwarming" moment.
"Yes, yes, just like that. Hold it steady, don't let him choke... Hey, relax your expression a little. Smile. This is the happiest moment of being a dad..."
When Ling Ye heard the words "the happiest moment of being a dad," the corner of his mouth twitched uncontrollably. He nearly crushed the bottle on the spot! Happiness?! All he felt was torment! Every second was torture!
The red bib in his arms seemed to sense his agitation and the delicious aroma coming from the bottle. It began to squirm restlessly again, sending over an even clearer and stronger thought: Hungry! Eat! Dad! I want some too!
Being attacked from both inside and out left Ling Ye flustered. Instinctively, he wanted to pull the bottle out of the real baby's mouth and stuff it into the red bib to plug its "mouth"!
But his remaining rationality firmly suppressed that suicidal impulse. If he really stuck the bottle onto the red bib, that madam would probably cross realms and twist his head off the very next second!
Just as he was locked in an agonizing battle with himself—
Perhaps Ling Ye's emotions had affected his movements. Perhaps his stiff posture had put the bottle at the wrong angle—
"Cough, cough! Pfft—!"
The baby suddenly began coughing violently, his little face turning bright red. The milk he had just swallowed, mixed with saliva, shot out and splashed all over Ling Ye's face and body with uncanny precision!
The warm liquid, carrying the smell of milk, dripped down his chin.
Ling Ye: "..."
Time seemed to freeze at that moment.
The father's laughter abruptly stopped, and the hand holding his phone froze in midair.
Su Wanqing covered her mouth in horror.
Even the red bib squirming in Ling Ye's arms seemed to have been startled into momentary silence by the sudden "attack."
Ling Ye slowly—extremely slowly—raised his other hand and wiped the milk stains from his face. His expression shifted rapidly from initial bewilderment to utter shock, then to raging fury, and finally... condensed into a terrifying killing intent capable of freezing hell itself!
He... had... been... spat... on?!
By a mortal baby?!
With milk?!
What a disgrace!!!
An unprecedented disgrace in the countless years of the Primordial Era!!!
"Uh... cough, cough, it's fine, it's fine. Babies choking on milk is normal. Just pat his back..." The father was the first to recover. He hurried forward to smooth things over, trying to take the child and bottle from Ling Ye.
However, before his hand could even touch them—
"Get lost!!!"
Ling Ye suddenly let out a low growl, suppressed to the absolute limit, like that of an injured beast!
An invisible yet terrifying shockwave erupted from him with a boom!
The kindhearted father felt an irresistible force slam into him. With a cry, he flew backward as though struck by a speeding train and crashed heavily into the wall across the hallway. He passed out without even a groan!
The room door slammed shut with a bang and automatically locked itself!
Su Wanqing screamed at the sudden turn of events and staggered backward, clutching the real baby in her arms as he was frightened again and began pouting on the verge of tears.
Ling Ye stood where he was, his chest heaving violently. Milk streaked his face, his eyes were bloodshot, and his entire body radiated a tangible, destructive pressure! He glared at the "culprit" in Su Wanqing's arms as though he would tear it limb from limb the next second!
"M-Mighty one... please calm down... The child... the child didn't do it on purpose..." Su Wanqing's voice trembled as she desperately protected the baby.
"Waaah—!!!!" The baby erupted into another earth-shaking wail, even louder and more aggrieved than before!
This time, however, the red bib in Ling Ye's arms didn't "get jealous" or protest. Instead... it sent out an extremely faint fluctuation resembling... shared sorrow and fear? Had even it been frightened by Ling Ye's terrifying killing intent?
The baby's cries, the red bib's fear, and Su Wanqing's terror intertwined like a cold tide, slightly dousing Ling Ye's out-of-control fury.
He abruptly shut his eyes and took several deep breaths—though all he inhaled was the smell of milk—forcefully suppressing the urge to destroy everything.
I can't kill...
It'll only cause more trouble...
That madam...
The assignment...
The moment he thought of the "assignment" and the three-day deadline, Ling Ye was overcome by profound powerlessness and irritation.
He opened his eyes again. The blood-red had faded somewhat, but they remained cold and frightening. With extreme disgust, he used another piece torn from the bedsheet to scrub the milk from his face, his gaze scraping over Su Wanqing and the baby like a knife.
"You!" He pointed at Su Wanqing, his voice hoarse and icy. "Feed him! Don't let him make another sound! Otherwise... you know the consequences!"
As though granted amnesty, Su Wanqing hurriedly nodded. In a fluster, she picked up the bottle from the floor and carefully continued feeding the baby. This time, she had learned her lesson and tried to keep her movements gentle and natural.
The baby seemed to sense that something was wrong with the atmosphere. He drank his milk between hiccups, not daring to cry loudly again.
Ling Ye paced irritably back and forth across the room like a trapped beast. The smell of milk clung to his nose like a persistent curse, reminding him of his recent humiliation. The urine stains on his chest and milk stains on his face made him deeply uncomfortable, as though countless ants were crawling over him.
He had never been so humiliated! Nor had he ever longed so desperately for his strength to return, so that he could completely obliterate all of this!
Just as he paced into the corner of the room, approaching the Chaos Green Lotus Basin that was still trembling faintly and radiating intense heat—
Another change occurred!
Perhaps his violent emotional fluctuations had stirred his power. Perhaps the stone inside the basin had grown restless. Or perhaps... he was simply unbelievably unlucky—
The Chaos Green Lotus Basin suddenly gave a faint "crack," as crisp as porcelain splitting!
On the basin's wall, there actually appeared... a fine, hair-thin... crack?!
Although the basin's own chaotic aura instantly repaired and sealed it, at the very instant the crack appeared—
A "coordinate origin" fluctuation purer, more overbearing, and more impossible to conceal than before erupted from the crack like a high-pressure water jet. It instantly broke through the Chaos Green Lotus Basin's isolation, pierced through the hotel room wall, and wildly spread into the endless void!
"Not good!!!"
Ling Ye's expression changed drastically. He was already too late to stop it!
The fluctuation was far too powerful and far too clear! It was much easier to track than any previous one!
Almost at the same time!
Rumble, rumble, rumble—!!!
The sky above the hotel once again darkened without warning! It was even deeper and more oppressive than before!
A far more terrifying and greedy collective entity, carrying countless chaotic roars and frenzied wills, tore through space from all directions and descended like a swarm of sharks that had smelled blood!
"The Origin Core!!!"
"It's mine!!"
"Get lost!!"
"Heh heh heh..."
Countless chaotic and powerful thoughts collided and intertwined, filled with the most primitive greed and murderous intent! Clearly, this time, the Primordial Greedy Wolf was not the only one drawn here! Other terrifying beings from different dimensions and different eras had sensed the Origin Core's fluctuation as well!
The entire city's light seemed to be swallowed up, plunging into a strange gloom! Countless electronic devices emitted shrill static, while the people in the streets looked up in terror. They saw no clouds, only a writhing darkness that made their hearts tremble!
"Damn it!" Ling Ye's scalp prickled. He hadn't expected trouble to arrive so quickly—and with such force!
His first thought was to grab the Chaos Green Lotus Basin and run again!
But just as he reached out—
"Waaah—!!!!!"
Behind him, the real baby, who had only just quieted down, seemed to have been terrified by the frightening, invisible pressure outside and the countless chaotic, evil wills. He once again let out a heart-rending howl filled with absolute terror! The sound was so shrill it nearly pierced the eardrums!
This time, the red bib in Ling Ye's arms seemed to have been frightened by the sudden, even more terrifying malice on a multiversal level. It was no longer expressing grievance or jealousy. Instead, it erupted with a pure, instinctive... immense fear and a desperate plea for protection!
"Waaah—!!!" (Real baby: There are monsters outside! So scary!)
"Waaah—!!!" (Red bib's thought: Dad! So many bad people! I'm scared! Help!)
The twin cries of terror exploded through Ling Ye's mind like two sonic bombs!
Worse still—
Because of its extreme fear, the red bib had actually... unconsciously and passively... released its unique fluctuation, carrying the scent of milk and its bloodline aura, along with everything else!
Although it was faint, to that group of terrifying beings with their keen senses, it was practically a beacon in the darkness!
Sure enough—
The countless chaotic wills in the sky suddenly froze!
Then they erupted into even more frenzied and greedy roars!
"There's more?!!"
"The aura of an innate sacred spirit?!!"
"Hahaha! Buy one, get one free! They're all mine!!"
"Tear them apart! Seize the Origin Core and the sacred spirit!"
Countless terrifying attack wills instantly locked onto the tiny budget hotel room like a torrential downpour! Destructive energies of different attributes from every direction began to gather!
Ling Ye instantly fell into an unprecedented crisis!
Ahead of him, terrifying multiversal beings were closing in. Behind him was the furious matriarch's three-day deadline. In his arms were a terrified "fake son" and a real baby crying simultaneously...
He felt like a tiny boat in a storm, about to be torn to pieces the next second!
Run? Where could I run? My aura's already been completely locked on!
Fight? In my current state, dealing with one would be difficult enough, let alone a whole group!
Explain? Explain things to a bunch of lunatics with nothing left but greed? That'd be like playing music to a cow!
At that critical moment—
Ling Ye's gaze suddenly caught sight of the television in the room, still playing a boring advertisement!
The screen happened to be showing an advertisement for the latest holographic virtual game pod, claiming that it offered a "one-hundred-percent realistic experience to create a second world"...
A plan so utterly insane—and perhaps the only one capable of turning disaster into survival—flashed through his chaotic mind like a final bolt of lightning!
Got it!
I'll take a gamble!
I'll gamble on these lunatics' intelligence and sensory precision!
He suddenly thrust out his hand—not to attack or defend, but to... grab fiercely at the television screen still playing the advertisement!
"Vwoom—!"
The television screen suddenly erupted with blinding white light! The advertisement inside seemed to come alive as countless streams of data and flickering light surged out wildly!
At the same time, Ling Ye slammed his other hand onto the floor!
Vast Chaos Origin Qi, mixed with the extreme chill left behind by that madam and a thread of faint bloodline fluctuation forcibly drawn from the red bib, poured into the floor. In an instant, it outlined an incomparably complex... super illusion array covering the entire room!
The illusion array's light wildly intertwined and fused with the data streams and flickering images pouring from the television!
The next moment—
An extremely realistic virtual signal source, mixed with the Origin Core's fluctuation, the aura of an innate sacred spirit, and various chaotic energy reactions, erupted from the television screen like a massive lure. It transformed into a dazzling pillar of light and shot into the sky!
Then... it fled wildly toward the outskirts of the city, in the exact opposite direction from the hotel!
The simulated "escape" trajectory, the "panicked" energy fluctuations, and the "utterly enticing" aura were all lifelike beyond belief!
Above the sky, the countless chaotic and terrifying wills were instantly drawn away by this sudden, far more obvious "target," focusing all their attention on it!
"Trying to run?!"
"Chase it!!"
"Don't let it get away!!"
Without the slightest hesitation, the terrifying attack energy gathered above—powerful enough to destroy a city—along with those greedy wills, instantly changed direction like iron filings drawn to a magnet and chased after the virtual signal source!
Rumble, rumble, rumble—!!!
The terrifying torrent of energy swept across the city sky like a migrating herd of beasts, surging toward the outskirts. Soon, it vanished into the horizon.
Inside the hotel room, the pressure suddenly eased.
The light outside the window brightened somewhat. It was still dim, but the suffocating sensation of being locked onto had vanished.
Ling Ye dropped to one knee with a thud and gasped for breath, cold sweat pouring down his temples. His entire body was nearly limp from exhaustion. That move had almost drained the last of his strength.
Inside the room, the real baby's and the red bib's cries gradually subsided as well, seemingly soothed by the sudden disappearance of the terrifying pressure.
Su Wanqing slumped onto the floor while holding the baby, drenched in cold sweat as though she had just walked out of the gates of hell.
They had narrowly escaped death.
However, before Ling Ye could catch his breath—
Perhaps because a thread of its bloodline power had been forcibly extracted, and because it had endured extreme fear before suddenly relaxing, the red bib in his arms began emitting an extremely unstable, chaotic energy fluctuation!
Moreover... it sent out an intense, strange thought, wanting to "approach" and "comfort" the equally frightened real baby next door?
As though they were kindred spirits? Two fellow sufferers?
An extremely ominous premonition suddenly rose in Ling Ye's heart!
He had just started to forcibly suppress it—
But it was already too late!
The red bib suddenly broke free from his arms—perhaps because Ling Ye was too weak—and transformed into a streak of red light. Like a fledgling swallow returning to its nest, it zipped away... and dove straight into the swaddling clothes of the real baby next door?!
It pressed itself tightly... against the baby's chest?!
The red light flickered as its bloodline fluctuation actually began, slowly and tentatively, attempting some strange... fusion with the real baby's mortal aura?!
Ling Ye: "!!!!!!"
Su Wanqing: "??????"
Real baby: "(⊙_⊙)?" (It stopped crying and looked curiously down at the glowing red cloth on its chest.)
Ling Ye stared at the red bib pressed against the real baby's chest, as though it had found itself a new home. His vision went black, and he nearly spat out a mouthful of blood!
What kind of move was this?!
Acknowledging the enemy as its father?! No, wait—acknowledging the enemy as its son?!
Did this lousy red bib have even the slightest sense of loyalty?!
Before you continue