Inside the cellar, the smell of mold mingled with the stench of damp earth, oppressive enough to suffocate anyone.
Ling Ye slumped on the cold dirt floor, holding Ling Xiaoye, who had finally cried himself to sleep. He stared at the cloth bundle—the "troublemaker"—in the corner, which emitted a faint red glow, then at the cracked and mottled pendant around his neck. The future looked utterly bleak. His life... no, his divine life, was hopeless.
Just as he was wondering whether he should dig a pit and bury himself in it--
That familiar, heart-pounding resonance once again pierced through endless spacetime and the thick layers of earth above the cellar without warning, like a bone-deep parasite, locking precisely onto him!
It was clearer than ever before! More urgent! More... desolate!
[...So cold...]
[...So dark...]
[...Big sister... it hurts...]
[...Take me... home...]
[...Coordinates... (a clearer fragment)...]
[...They... are getting closer...]
The plaintive thoughts, as if they had gathered the last of their vitality, struck Ling Ye's senses like ice spikes! The despair and pain within them were so intense that even Su Wanqing, who had no power at all, shuddered inexplicably and felt her heart clench.
"Are you kidding me?!!" Ling Ye's composure completely exploded! He leaped to his feet, veins bulging on his forehead. "You're all still at it, huh?! Do you really take me for a junk collector?! Or some nanny who specializes in babysitting you people?!"
The immense pressure and irritation nearly drove him insane. He cursed at the empty air: "What home are you talking about?! Who's your big sister?! I don't know you! Make one more racket and I swear I'll throw this lousy little brother of yours away right now! We'll all go our separate ways!!"
He snatched up the cloth bundle from the ground and made as if to smash it against the wall! He was trying to use this extreme method to warn off and cut off that damned resonance!
However, the instant he raised the cloth bundle--
A sudden change occurred!
The beast-fang pendant around Ling Ye's neck seemed to have been stimulated by his violent emotions and the little brother's mournful wails...
The cracks on its surface... suddenly... burst into an unprecedented, dazzling... gray-white radiance!!!
An aura far more vast and far more desolate than before, an ancient presence that seemed to come from the end of spacetime, erupted with a thunderous boom!
This time, it was no longer a faint leakage. Instead... it was as though a slumbering giant beast... had opened its eyes!
[------]
An [syllable] that could not be described in any language, containing supreme majesty and indifference, as if it had existed since the birth of the universe's singularity, rang directly through the deepest reaches of Ling Ye's soul!
It was not a sound, but the vibration of a rule!
As that [syllable] rang out--
The beast-fang pendant's light instantly condensed, transforming into a solid gray-white... ancient [mark], seemingly formed from countless fragments of shattered spacetime!
The [mark] ignored every obstruction, instantly piercing through the cellar and sinking into the void. Following the path from which that mournful cry had come... in a manner beyond comprehension... it brazenly... imprinted itself upon its target!
The target--the "big sister" fragment deep within that distant Cosmic Graveyard... the one crying out for help!
Deep within the distant Cosmic Graveyard.
This was a land of absolute silence. Shattered stars stood like enormous tombstones, while frozen spacetime resembled an eternal elegy.
A massive gray-white fragment of the "Origin Core," covered in terrifying cracks as if it could completely shatter at any moment, was tightly wrapped in countless pitch-black chains flickering with rune-light, sealed inside a colossal dark-matter ice core.
A faint fluctuation on the fragment's surface flickered like a candle guttering in the wind, emitting its final wail.
Suddenly--
The solid gray-white [mark] released by the beast-fang pendant ignored every spatial distance and dimensional barrier, appearing out of thin air in this silent land like a phantom!
The [mark] radiated an ancient aura of supreme authority that made all laws submit. It flickered faintly...
Then...
With extreme precision...
It imprinted itself... onto the core region... of that enormous fragment!
Bzzzt--!!!
It was like a drop of water falling into boiling oil!
The entire Cosmic Graveyard... violently... trembled... because of it!!!
The countless pitch-black chains that wrapped around and sealed the fragment, each containing terrifying power, touched the faint light radiating from the [mark]--
As if they had encountered their natural nemesis... or perhaps... an instruction... with higher authority?!
They actually...
Snapped... inch by inch!!!
They turned into... the most primordial... energy particles... and dissipated into nothingness!!!
The seal... was broken?!
The enormous "big sister" fragment seemed completely unprepared for this sudden turn of events. Its wail abruptly ceased!
The faint light originally covering the fragment's surface gradually grew brighter and steadier after the seal was broken. It even began to convey a tremendous sense of confusion... and disbelief... and [----]?
Next, the fragment seemed to "feel" the trace of an aura within the [mark] that shared its origin... yet was even more ancient and exalted...
It suddenly... began to tremble... violently!!!
It was no longer a wail, but rather... a [----] so intense that it could barely contain itself!!!
Like a child who had been lost for billions of years... finally sensing the call... of its closest kin?!
It even ignored its own severe damage and began frantically absorbing the energy of the shattered stars around it... trying to break free of its final restraints... and move toward the direction from which the [mark] had come—in other words, toward Ling Ye... beginning, with great difficulty, to...[----]!!!
Inside the cellar.
Ling Ye was still frozen in the posture of raising the cloth bundle to smash it, his entire body petrified as if he had been struck by a binding spell.
He... just now... seemed to have... subconsciously... used that pendant... to do something?!
It seemed he had... sent something... incredibly troublesome...[----] over?!
And he seemed to have... even... [----] the other party's seal?!
He could even vaguely "feel" that the distant "big sister" fragment was currently carrying an emotion so excited it seemed to break through its voice, frantically...[----] toward him?!
Ling Ye: "..."
The "little brother" pebble inside the cloth bundle seemed to have sensed the big sister's escape and approach as well. It began pulsing excitedly again, transmitting a jubilant [----] thought!
The bib also flashed with red light in excitement, as if welcoming a new member.
After its outburst, the beast-fang pendant around Ling Ye's neck slowly dimmed. A few more cracks seemed to have appeared, conveying a faint sense of exhaustion, as if to say, "Done. Just a little thing." Then it returned to its half-dead, tattered state.
Only Ling Ye...
Ling Ye stood where he was, his hand still raised in midair, his expression blank and his brain completely crashed.
A cold wind blew through some crack in the cellar. It lifted a few strands of straw, sent them spinning, and dropped them onto his rigid face.
It was over.
This time...
It seemed...
He really...
Completely...
Was screwed.
Not only had he failed to throw away the trouble, he seemed to have... personally... summoned... the biggest trouble of all?!
Su Wanqing hugged the child and looked at the powerful man's expression, which seemed to have been roasted by a lightning strike. In a timid, tearful voice, she asked, "M-Mighty one... what... what just happened again?"
Ling Ye slowly—extremely slowly—lowered the hand holding the cloth bundle.
His movements were as stiff as a rusted robot's.
He turned to Su Wanqing, his face forming a smile so full of bewilderment and despair that it looked worse than crying.
His voice drifted like a sleepwalker's murmur:
"...It's nothing..."
"...It's just..."
"...It seems..."
"...our family..."
"...is going to... have... a new... member..."
"...Possibly..."
"...a little..."
"...big..."
Su Wanqing: "???"
She looked at the mighty man's expression, as if the end of the world had arrived, then mulled over the words "new member" and "a little big"...
Silently, she hugged the sleeping Ling Xiaoye even tighter.
She had a feeling...
These days...
They really...
Might not...
Be survivable.
(To be continued?)
Before you continue