Ineffective Daddy and Ineffective Common Sense

In the room, silence descended once more, leaving only Ling Xiaoye's increasingly loud cries from being thrown and Ling Ye's heavy, bellows-like gasps.

Su Wanqing remained huddled in the corner, her mind completely frozen. Relying on instinct, she crawled over, trembling, picked up the wailing Ling Xiaoye, and mechanically patted him to comfort him. Her gaze, however, couldn't stray from the cracked, ominously radiating beast tooth pendant on Ling Ye's neck.

The big shot... seems to have gotten into even bigger trouble again... And this time, it's something even Madam seems wary of?

Ling Ye slumped on the ground, his fingers unconsciously rubbing the cold, cracked beast tooth. The desolate aura emanating from his fingertips made his soul tremble.

Master?

Came back to find?

Block trouble?

These words swirled madly in his mind, forming all sorts of chilling possibilities. He felt as if he had unknowingly stepped into the center of a vortex deeper and more terrifying than the Primordial Ruin.

What the hell is this pendant?!

Just as his mind was in turmoil, unable to control himself--

The old cloth bundle in his arms... once again... most inconveniently... vibrated slightly!

Not the pebbles in the basin!

But... the cloth bundle itself?!

As if... reminding him of something?

Ling Ye snapped back to reality, looking at the cloth bundle warily.

He saw that a sliver of an opening had appeared at the mouth of the cloth bundle, seemingly on its own.

This time, what slowly floated out... wasn't a magic treasure, nor was it a pill...

But a piece of paper... even more crumpled, with edges even scorched black, as if burned by fire...?

The paper swayed, like an autumn leaf, and drifted onto the floor in front of Ling Ye.

Ling Ye's pupils contracted, and he instinctively reached out to pick up the paper.

The handwriting on the paper was even more illegible and chaotic, as if written in extreme haste, even terror. The ink varied in depth and was stained with a few spots of what appeared to be... dark red smudges?

[Final Warning! Highest Priority!]

[ Guidelines for Handling "Found" Items (A Lesson Learned Through Blood and Tears)]

[1. Absolutely do not be curious! Do not research! Do not try to claim ownership! (Strikethrough) Especially do not let them touch each other! (Heavily scribbled out afterwards)]

[2. If you have already picked up more than one... Run! Immediately! Now! Run as far as you can! It's best to leave the current universe plane! (Characters distorted)]

[3. If you can't run away... Try to find a "safe cabinet"? Or... dig a hole and bury it? Remember to mark it! Lest you dig it up yourself again out of a moment of weakness! (Characters trembling)]

[4. If none of the above can be done... Then... pretend you know nothing! Treat them as ordinary garbage! Yes! Just garbage! Absolutely do not show any special attention! Especially do not let "them" notice that you care about these things! (Characters at this point almost pierce through the paper, filled with fear)]

[5. Finally... and most importantly... If... if the "owner" really comes looking for them... (Ink smudges extensively here, as if the writer's hand was shaking violently)]

[... Just say... the "dog" took it! Yes! Blame it all on the dog! Whether it believes it or not! There's no proof anyway! (Followed by a series of chaotic, meaningless lines, as if the writer had collapsed)]

[-- A unlucky soul who was almost destroyed physically and spiritually by a "found" item. Last words.]

Ling Ye: "..."

After reading the entire slip of paper, Ling Ye felt his blood run cold.

This... this was clearly a senior's tearful complaint and dying words!!!

"Found" items... so terrifying?!

Requiring escape from the current universe plane?!

And pretending they were garbage?! Blaming it on a dog?!

This beast tooth pendant... and the pebble in the cloth bundle... could they both be sources of disaster of this magnitude?!

Ling Ye suddenly remembered the "sister" and "going home" mentioned when the pebble resonated with the distant fragment... and Madam's mention of "Master"...

A more terrifying conjecture surfaced in his mind: these "found" items... they couldn't possibly... all belong to the same "owner"? Or... were they... waste products from the same "failed experiment"?

And now... these waste products... could they sense each other, attract each other?! And might they even be... attracting that terrifying "owner"?!

Ling Ye felt a chill rush from the soles of his feet straight to the crown of his head! He finally understood what Madam meant by "can block trouble" and "Master will come back looking"! This wasn't a blessing at all! It was a death warrant! He was being used as a decoy to attract firepower and a temporary custodian!

And that "owner"... was likely an existence countless times more terrifying than Madam!

Must get rid of them! Must get rid of these things immediately!

Ling Ye abruptly stood up, his eyes filled with resolve and fear! He grabbed the old cloth bundle, intending to pour out everything inside, then find some hidden corner where no one could find it and bury it! Or perhaps throw it into the spacetime turbulence!

However, just as he was about to act--

The beast tooth pendant on his neck, as if sensing his intention to "abandon" it, the ancient, desolate aura within its cracks became active again, and... transmitted a trace of extremely weak fluctuation, like a fledgling's attachment and reluctance to leave its nest...?

At the same time, the Chaos Green Lotus basin in the cloth bundle vibrated slightly, the pebbles within transmitting a stable "sleep" fluctuation, and the bellyband even emitted an anxious "don't abandon us" intention, even attempting to entwine Ling Ye's wrist with its red light...

Ling Ye's movements instantly froze.

He looked at the heavy cloth bundle in his hand, felt the faint attachment from the pendant on his neck, and then recalled the warning on the paper: "cannot let them notice that you care"...

He suddenly realized a terrifying fact--

These things... seem to have... latched onto him?!

Especially the bellyband. After the "breastfeeding" and "comforting stone" incidents, it seems to have truly accepted him as its "daddy"?

If he forcibly abandons them now... will they immediately detonate, or immediately summon the "owner"?!

Ling Ye found himself in an unprecedented dilemma!

Keep them? That's slow suicide, with the constant risk of the "owner" showing up or these things malfunctioning!

Discard them? He might die even faster! Besides, that Madam explicitly told him to "keep" the pendant!

What to do?! What on earth should he do?!

Just as Ling Ye was fretting like an ant on a hot pan, caught between a rock and a hard place--

"Knock, knock, knock!"

The room's door was, once again... being knocked on!

This time, the knocking wasn't the stern sound of the police, nor the coldness of the Madam, but rather... a somewhat urgent and familiar... rudeness?

At the same time, outside the door, the unscrupulous landlord's hushed voice, laced with fawning and anxiety, rang out:

"Boss! Big shot! Open up! It's urgent! Terribly urgent!"

Ling Ye was currently too agitated to deal with any mortal. He directly cast a soundproof barrier, wanting to shut the person outside up.

However, the landlord seemed extremely persistent, even starting to kick the door, his voice cracking with tears:

"Big shot! Save me! Please, save me! If you don't open the door, I'm dead! It's about your son!!!"

Son?

Ling Xiaoye?

Ling Ye frowned, instantly dispelling the soundproof barrier, and yanked the door open!

Outside, the unscrupulous landlord's face was deathly pale, covered in sweat. He was holding a phone playing a video, and on the screen--

Was a screenshot of Ling Ye's "rugged breastfeeding" profile from earlier?! Although a bit blurry, his distinctive ancient robe, pale complexion, the obvious milk powder stains on his chest, and the squirming infant... the features were too obvious!

"B-Boss..." the landlord stammered, shoving the phone screen in front of Ling Ye, his face a mask of misery. "J-Just now... a big bro wearing sunglasses found me... gave me a lot of money... asked if I had any tenants... then showed me this... asked if you and the child lived here... I didn't think they were good people... so I didn't tell them the truth... but they don't seem to believe me... and they're still waiting downstairs... saying... saying they're from... some... 'Interstellar Baby' program... they want to find your son to film a commercial?! I... I'm afraid they think I'm a child trafficker! Please, think of a way!"

Interstellar Baby? Program? Filming a commercial?!

Ling Ye looked at his own foolish image on the phone screen, and then heard this utterly ridiculous claim. A surge of anger shot up to his head!

Who was this new group of demons and monsters?! Wasn't things chaotic enough already?!

Just as he was about to lash out and send the landlord packing--

His gaze was suddenly drawn to the background of the screenshot on the phone, outside the window in the sky, an extremely blurry, seemingly accidentally captured... little black dot...

That black dot... seemed to be... a... black artificial satellite... suspended in low Earth orbit?!

And on the side of the satellite... there seemed to be an extremely faint... symbol composed of three twisted arcs?!

Ling Ye's pupils contracted sharply!

This symbol... he had seen it before!!!

Just moments ago! On the helmet of that "Shadow" assassin! And in the corner of the warning image he left when he hacked into Su Corporation's network!!!

This wasn't some Interstellar Baby program!

It was people from the "Shadow" organization who had come looking for him!!! They had actually located his position through such a ridiculous method?!

Ling Ye instantly broke out in a cold sweat!

However, at the same time as this immense sense of crisis washed over him--

The beast-tooth pendant on his neck, as if sensing Ling Ye's intense emotional fluctuations and the (albeit faint) cold, evil aura emanating from the "Shadow" members outside...

The cracks on its surface... once again... quietly... spread a sliver...

A clearer, ancient, desolate aura diffused out...

And this time...

This aura seemed to carry a trace of extremely faint... as if "offended"...

Displeasure?

And...

A sense of...

Transcending all things...

Indifferent...

[----]?