The Broken Pendant and the Fading Memory

"This… thing…"

"You…"

"Where…"

"Did… you… get… it… from?"

The voice, no longer cold and indifferent, now seemed to condense billions of years of wind, snow, and deathly silence. Each word was like an ice pick, brutally striking Ling Ye's soul, carrying a barely suppressed, all-destructive rage and… a trace of unbelievable trembling!

Ling Ye's heart instantly stopped! His blood felt frozen!

She recognized this pendant?!

Wasn't this thing a sign-in reward from some insignificant world?! How could it elicit such a strong reaction from her?! Judging by this reaction, the pendant's origin was probably more dangerous than that broken pebble!

A sense of immense crisis, like being doused with ice water, instantly sobered him up!

Don't tell the truth! Absolutely cannot say it was from sign-in! Otherwise, it's impossible to explain! Must shift the blame again! Must find a target to divert her attention!

In a flash, Ling Ye's gaze suddenly fell upon the tattered cloth bundle in the corner of the room!

That's it!

Ling Ye's face instantly filled with expressions of "grief," "anger," and "unbearable memories." His acting skills reached a new peak as he pointed at the cloth bundle with a voice laced with humiliation and hatred, roaring hoarsely:

"Madam, please see clearly! This… this item was left by that scumbag, that heartless wretch!!!" (Shifting the blame again to the non-existent "child's father")

"When he abandoned us mother and son and left back then, he left this, saying… saying it was a memento for Little Ye! In reality… in reality, it was to humiliate me!" (Starting to improvise, weaving a melodramatic tale)

"I originally wanted to destroy it! But thinking that… thinking that it was after all left by Little Ye's biological father… I… I have endured the humiliation and worn it until now… reminding myself daily, not to forget this grievance and hatred!" (He almost believed himself, even forcing out two drops of golden "grief-stricken" tears from the corner of his eyes)

As he spoke, he secretly and frantically urged the Chaos Origin Qi, stimulating the Chaos Green Lotus basin inside the cloth bundle, causing it to emit a more obvious, faint fluctuation belonging to that stone (although suppressed, a trace could still be guided). He was trying to link the "child's father" with the "source of trouble," making Madam believe that both the pendant and the stone were messes left by the "heartless wretch"!

As expected, Madam's attention was instantly drawn to the abnormal and unpleasant stone fluctuation within the cloth bundle!

Her gaze suddenly shifted to the cloth bundle, and icy killing intent boiled once more, as if she could see the stone "sleeping" inside through the cloth!

"It's… his… thing?" Her voice became even more chilling, filled with the rage of desecration, "He actually dares… to leave such a filthy thing… by Little Ye's side?!!"

It worked! Ling Ye rejoiced inwardly and quickly added fuel to the fire: "Exactly! Not only that! I suspect… I suspect he left this item with malicious intent! To monitor Little Ye with it, or even… even harm him! I had no choice but to seal it in this bag, guarding it day and night, not daring to slack off in the slightest!"

He portrayed himself as a great mother (?) who endured humiliation and protected her child.

Madam's aura fluctuated violently due to her rage, and the temperature in the room dropped again, frost beginning to form on the walls. She seemed to have completely believed Ling Ye's words, transferring her anger towards the "heartless wretch" to the pendant and the stone in the cloth bundle!

"Good… good… very good!" She said the word "good" three times, each carrying a soul-freezing chill, "It seems… this consort… back then… was still… too… lenient… with him!"

Ling Ye lowered his head, not daring to respond, secretly praying for this ordeal to pass quickly.

However, just as he thought he had managed to fool her again—

Madam's furious gaze, as it swept over the beast-tooth pendant, seemed to… have caught sight of an extremely subtle… detail that she had overlooked in her intense emotions just now?

Her movements suddenly stopped.

Her furious aura seemed to hit a pause button.

She slowly, very slowly… refocused her gaze back on the pendant.

This time, she looked more carefully, more… intently.

As if trying to engrave every single pattern into her eyes.

The room fell into a deathly silence, leaving only Ling Ye's frantic heartbeat.

After a long while.

Madam suddenly let out an extremely faint whisper, filled with endless confusion and… a trace of reminiscence:

"No…"

"This wear…"

"This aura…"

"It's like… even older…"

"So old that…"

"He… hadn't… been born… yet…"

Ling Ye's heart sank to the bottom! It's over! There was a problem with the details! The age of this pendant doesn't match?!

Just as he was about to forcefully explain—

Madam suddenly looked up, her icy eyes piercing through the illusion, fixing on Ling Ye with an extremely sharp, all-seeing scrutiny! No longer the previous rage, but a profound, piercing scrutiny!

"Who… exactly… are you?" Her voice was cold and calm, but more terrifying than any roar, "This 'Primordial Fang'… is absolutely not… of this era…"

"And it's impossible… for it to be… his…"

"It… belongs to… an older… era…"

"An era… that even this consort… has only… heard legends of…"

Primordial Fang?!

An older era?!

Ling Ye's mind went buzz! He had no idea the pendant had such an outrageous origin! The Sign-in System's initial description was just "Unknown beast tooth, hard material"!

"Speak!" An icy pressure descended like a colossal mountain, crushing Ling Ye's throat. "Where... did you... obtain this item?!"

Ling Ye was almost suffocated, his mind racing but coming up blank! Any lie would seem feeble and pale before the terrifying perception of the other party!

Just as he was about to break--

The beast-tooth pendant on his neck, which was being stared at intently, seemed unable to withstand the clash of wills and the energy pressure from the two beings (an enraged Madam and a Primordial Great Expert)...

It actually...

"Crack..."

Emitted an extremely faint, ice-shattering... light sound!

A crack, as fine as a hair... quietly appeared on the surface of the dark beast tooth!

Immediately after--

An extremely weak, yet indescribably ancient and desolate... aura... like a sigh that had slept for hundreds of millions of years... from that crack... quietly... seeped out...

This aura was not energy, nor divine sense, but more like a... time-frozen... incomplete... imprint?

Along with the emergence of this ancient aura--

Deep within Ling Ye's sea of consciousness, the Sign-in System's core, which had been dormant for hundreds of millions of years, its energy depleted and in permanent slumber, a forgotten, redundant information fragment about "sign-in item origin description"... as if unexpectedly activated by this same-source ancient aura... very vaguely... flickered...

A fragmented, distorted, chaotic, glitch-like stream of information forcibly squeezed into Ling Ye's almost stagnant thoughts:

[Hiss... Detecting abnormal information stream impact... Attempting to parse...]

[Hiss... Information source: [Primordial Fang] (incomplete)...]

[Associated sign-in location: [Primordial · Unknown Forbidden Land · Rift between spacetime turbulence]...]

[Associated sign-in time: [Error! Data corrupted! Timestamp missing!]...]

[Item description: [Hiss... Unidentifiable... Suspected... waste from a failed experiment site?... Hiss... Weak energy reaction... Worthless...]...]

[Remarks: [Hiss... Acquisition process... Subject to unknown interference... Data severely damaged... Only recorded: ... Found...]...]

[Hiss... Information fragment lost... System overload... Entering... permanent silence...]

This chaotic information flashed like lightning, disappearing instantly, as if it had never existed.

But it left a few keywords in Ling Ye's mind:

[Found]...

[Failed experiment site]...

[Waste]...

[Worthless]...

And at the same time.

When that Madam felt the desolate, ancient, incomplete aura seeping from the crack in the beast tooth...

Her icy figure... actually... violently... trembled!!!

As if she had seen something incredibly unbelievable, something that overturned her very cognition!

She stared intently at the cracked pendant, all her previous anger, killing intent, and scrutiny vanishing without a trace!

In their place... was a...

Profound shock...

Disbelief...

And...

A hint of...

Deep...

Bewilderment...

And...

Fear?!

Yes!

It was fear!

A sense of insignificance and... fear, as if a lower life form had glimpsed the ultimate mysteries of the universe!

Her lips trembled slightly, emitting unconscious, broken syllables:

"This aura... is... 'Origin'?"

"No... wrong... older than 'Origin'..."

"More like..."

"[----]"

That last word she uttered seemed to contain an indescribable, terrifying dread, directly distorting the surrounding rules of space and time, making it impossible for Ling Ye's senses to capture or comprehend! Even just attempting to "listen" caused Ling Ye's soul to feel as if it were being torn apart!

But Ling Ye clearly saw that when Madam spoke that incomprehensible word, a trace of... extremely rare... fear flashed in her eternally frozen eyes?!

She seemed... extremely afraid of the origin of the "failed experimental site" and "waste product" that this pendant represented?!

Although Ling Ye had no idea what was happening, his survival instinct allowed him to instantly seize this golden opportunity!

He endured the searing pain in his soul and, while her mind was reeling and her defenses were wide open, he suddenly roared out the most insignificant, yet most irrefutable word from the chaotic information in his mind, as if grabbing a lifeline:

"I... I found it!!! I found it!!!"

His voice, distorted by fear and urgency, was filled with immense "grievance" and "bewilderment":

"In a... ruin filled with broken stones and strange lights! I saw it was dark and looked sturdy... so... I picked it up and hung it on! I really don't know anything, Madam!!!"

He desperately tried to portray himself as an ignorant fool who'd stumbled upon junk by sheer luck (or misfortune), attempting to downplay the terrifying karma this pendant might entail!

"You found it...?" Madam snapped back to reality, her icy gaze refocusing on Ling Ye's face, filled with extreme scrutiny and suspicion, "Where did you find it?! Specific location?!"

"I don't remember! I really don't remember!" Ling Ye's acting skills were off the charts, clutching his head with a pained expression, "That place was very strange, the light was distorted, time was chaotic, my memory is very blurry... I only remember ruins and fragments everywhere... it seemed like... it seemed like a... huge... broken... 'laboratory'?" (He forcibly injected the concept of a "failed experimental site").

He babbled nonsense while secretly praying frantically.

Madam stared at him intently, as if trying to excavate the truth from the depths of his soul.

Ling Ye felt as if everything about him was being seen through, but he desperately clung to the last shred of clarity in his mind, forcing himself to recall the tearing pain his soul had just endured and that ancient, desolate aura, to appear more like an unlucky fellow whose memory had been impacted by a "high-level relic."

A long, suffocating silence.

The terrifying aura around Madam slowly receded, but her icy gaze remained sharp as a knife.

She glanced at the beast-tooth pendant, now covered in cracks, once more. A complex trace of apprehension flashed in her eyes, and even... a hint of... imperceptible... hesitation?

As if unwilling to delve deeper into the terrifying truth behind the pendant.

Finally, she seemed to grudgingly accept Ling Ye's explanation of "finding junk" (or perhaps she was unwilling to touch upon this forbidden topic), letting out a cold snort:

"Hmph... what... good fortune..."

"Such an... inauspicious object..."

"You dare... to wear it so casually..."

"Ignorant... of death..."

Her tone carried a hint of mockery, but the killing intent had largely dissipated.

Ling Ye was ecstatic! He got away with it again?!

However, before he could fully relax--

Madam's gaze fell back to Ling Ye's embrace... to Ling Xiaoye, who was still nuzzling his milk-powder-stained chest.

Her eyes flickered slightly.

As if... she thought of something?

Then, she looked back at Ling Ye, her tone becoming somewhat... strange? With a commanding, unquestionable tone:

"Since... this item... was 'found' by you..."

"And it has... a certain fate... with Little Ye..."

"Then... keep it..."

"Perhaps... in the future..."

"It can help him... ward off... some... 'trouble'..."

Ling Ye: "???" Keep it? Isn't this thing inauspicious?! And it's supposed to ward off trouble for Little Ye?! What kind of operation is this?!

Before he could figure it out, Madam added another sentence, her tone even more meaningful:

"Wear it... properly..."

"Don't... 'lose' it again..."

"Who knows..."

"Its 'owner'..."

"Might one day..."

"Come back... to 'find' it..."

With that, her icy figure stopped lingering, slowly receding like a tide and completely disappearing into the air.

Only her final, cold words echoed in Ling Ye's mind:

"The three-day deadline..."

"Remains unchanged..."

"This Empress... looks forward to seeing... Little Ye... better cared for..."

The pressure in the room suddenly eased.

Ling Ye collapsed to the ground with a thud. Ling Xiaoye, almost falling because he suddenly loosened his grip, started crying loudly again.

But Ling Ye no longer had time to worry about him.

His entire body was drenched in cold sweat, as if he had just been pulled out of the water. His fingers trembled as he caressed the beast-tooth pendant on his neck, which was covered in cracks and still emitted a faint, desolate aura.

He savored the Madam's final, deeply meaningful, and chilling words...

"Can block trouble?"

"Master will come back for it?"

"Picked it up..."

An extremely absurd, yet bone-chilling thought uncontrollably surfaced:

Could it be...

That the thing he picked up from the Sign-in System back then... wasn't junk...

But...

A lost...

...toy...

...of some unimaginable, ancient existence beyond comprehension?

Or...

...a dog tag?!