Inferior Water Source and Peeping Outside the Door

"Slurp……"

The clear, satisfied sound of tea drinking echoed in the luxurious living room, where silence could be heard if a pin dropped, making it seem exceptionally out of place.

Su Wanqing was curled up on the sofa, hugging her knees tightly, her fingernails almost digging into the genuine leather. She stared with wide eyes, peering through the gaps in her scattered hair at the man standing by the coffee table, dressed in a strange hemp robe and barefoot.

Ling Ye held the cheap enamel mug printed with a grinning yellow duck, taking another slurp of the scalding tea. There was no particular expression of enjoyment on his face; instead, he frowned almost imperceptibly. He clicked his tongue, as if savoring something, then, very casually, with a hint of disdain, he muttered in a low voice:

"Tsk, the water's too bad. Too many impurities, and the spiritual energy… pitifully thin." His tone was flat, as if he were commenting on a bowl of undercooked noodle soup from a roadside stall.

Su Wanqing: "……"

She felt like she was suffocating! That terrifying tea soup, which had caused heavenly phenomena and made withered wood meet spring… and he actually found the water bad?! He found her house's direct-drinking water, which was purified through seven layers and cost more than bottled mineral water, to have impurities and thin spiritual energy?! What in the world was he talking about!!

Her worldview had been completely ground into dust by that sentence, leaving her without the strength to rebuild it. She could only stare blankly at Ling Ye, like a broken doll.

Ling Ye didn't seem to care about his audience's reaction. He put down the enamel mug and his gaze fell back on the ancient purple clay teapot. He extended two fingers, casually picked up the lid, looked inside at the remaining amber tea soup, and then glanced at the cartoon duck enamel mug beside it. The cheap enamel reflected a comical light under the crystal chandelier in the living room.

"Forget it," he said, as if giving up on something, and replaced the lid, his movement as casual as putting on a plastic lunchbox lid. "I'll make do with this." His tone carried a sense of helplessness, like someone whose retirement fund wasn't enough and had to settle.

Just then, his fingers holding the purple clay teapot moved, ever so slightly, unconsciously. It was as if the pot had a water stain and needed wiping.

A movement so subtle it was almost negligible.

However—

"Buzz—!"

The living room space emitted another extremely faint, yet deeper hum! This time, it wasn't a surge of vitality, but an invisible, heavy pressure that seemed to originate from the very source of the universe. It rippled outward like waves from Ling Ye, briefly sweeping across the entire living room, penetrating the walls, and covering the entire villa!

This pressure was formless and intangible; ordinary people couldn't detect it at all. But for certain beings, it was like a spotlight suddenly flashing on in the darkness!

In the corner of the living room, the potted pothos, which had just been growing wildly with vibrant life, instantly froze! All its leaves seemed to be encased in ice, and even the water droplets about to fall from the tips of the leaves were suspended in mid-air! Outside the enormous floor-to-ceiling windows, all the plants in the courtyard that had been swaying and stretching frantically under the life force of the spiritual tea also froze instantly! Their swaying posture was forcibly locked in the downpour, as if time had been paused at that moment! Even the deafening sound of the rain seemed to be muffled by a layer, becoming distant and blurry!

Su Wanqing felt an indescribable chill shoot from the base of her spine to the top of her head, making her shudder uncontrollably! It wasn't physical cold, but a soul-level, instinctive awe and suffocation in the face of some supreme existence! She hugged herself tightly, looking at Ling Ye with shock and uncertainty, only to find him still holding the enamel mug, his expression unchanged, as if the terrifying anomaly of that moment was just her hallucination.

And outside the villa, at the edge of the rain-drenched courtyard, nestled in the shadows of the cold, damp bushes.

Four figures in black combat suits that almost blended into the night, their faces smeared with heavy camouflage paint, lay hidden like four cold stone statues. They were the vanguards dispatched by the "Dragon Tooth" team, the infiltration unit codenamed "Owl."

Their leader, codenamed "Hawkeye," was holding his breath, his gaze locked onto the large floor-to-ceiling window of the villa's living room through the eyepiece of his high-magnification thermal imaging/psionic composite detector. The advanced equipment penetrated the curtains, outlining two clear human heat signatures on the screen—one curled up on the sofa (Su Wanqing), the other standing by the coffee table (Ling Ye).

Just as the spiritual tea had erupted with life force for the second time, causing the plants to grow wildly, the detector's readings had begun to fluctuate wildly! Life energy radiation index, spatial micro-perturbation coefficient, unknown psionic particle concentration… All the data pointed to one conclusion: the man standing in the living room was the "Planetary-level" energy source captured by the "Sky Eye" satellite! He was like a walking, gentle solar furnace, emitting terrifying energy that could alter the environment!

"Target confirmed… energy field stable… threat assessment…" Hawkeye whispered into his throat microphone, his voice extremely low, preparing to transmit the initial observation information back to the command vehicle.

However, the moment Ling Ye's finger moved unconsciously and that invisible, heavy pressure rippled outward—

"Beep! Beep beep beep—!!!"

The screen of Hawkeye's detector suddenly erupted with a blinding red light! A piercing alarm, almost tearing his eardrums, blared in his built-in communicator! All the values on the screen, which had been fluctuating wildly, instantly surged to a despairing height in less than 0.1 seconds, and then—

Bang! Sizzle—!

The detector screen instantly turned to static! An indescribably terrifying backlash force surged back along the detection beam! Hawkeye felt his right hand, holding the instrument, struck by high-voltage current, his entire arm instantly numb and in excruciating pain! Even more terrifying was an unimaginably heavy mental pressure, as if the entire sky had collapsed, ignoring physical distance, like an invisible giant hammer, smashing into the depths of his consciousness!

"Urgh—!"

A suppressed groan of extreme pain was squeezed from his throat! Hawkeye's vision went black, and his body uncontrollably lurched backward, slamming heavily against the cold, wet tree trunk behind him! He gritted his teeth fiercely, managing not to let out a scream, but a thin trickle of bright red blood seeped from his nostrils and the corners of his mouth!

"Hawkeye!"

"Team Leader!"

Panicked cries from the other three team members instantly came through the comm channel! Although they hadn't operated the instrument directly, they had felt the residual waves of that invisible pressure, as if their hearts were being squeezed by a cold, large hand, their breathing stopped, their minds went blank, and they instantly lost control of their bodies, frozen in place! Like prey being stared at by an ancient beast!

Terrifying! Absolutely terrifying!

This was no gentle energy source at all! Beneath this calm exterior lay a primordial beast capable of instantly crushing their souls!

"Retreat… retreat…" Hawkeye forced back the soul-tearing pain and dizziness, using the last of his strength to issue a hoarse, distorted command into his throat microphone, "Target… extremely dangerous… unobservable… uncontactable… immediate… withdrawal…"

Every word was like a clot of blood squeezed from his throat. He had no doubt that if the other party had been slightly more "serious" than just an unconscious, extremely slight energy fluctuation just now, the four of them, along with their equipment, would have already turned into organic fertilizer for these bushes!

Inside the villa's living room.

Ling Ye put down the enamel mug, seemingly having quenched some of his thirst. He seemed to sense something, tilted his head slightly, and casually swept his gaze over the dense darkness of the bushes outside the enormous floor-to-ceiling window, which seemed particularly heavy in the pouring rain.

His eyes were calm and expressionless, as if he were looking at air.

Outside the window, in the shadows of the bushes.

Hawkeye, who had just barely regained a sliver of mobility, was struggling to push himself up. The moment Ling Ye's gaze swept over—

A premonition of death, a hundred times more intense than the instrument's backlash and bone-chillingly cold, pierced his soul like an ice pick! The blood in his entire body instantly froze! He looked up sharply, and through the rain and glass, met those eyes that seemed ordinary under the warm light of the living room, yet reflected an abyss of endless starry sky!

"Pfft—!"

A mouthful of scalding blood, no longer suppressible, spurted violently from Hawkeye's mouth! His vision went completely dark, his consciousness instantly sinking into boundless darkness, his body collapsing limply into the cold mud, unconscious.

"Hawkeye!" The other three team members' hearts were torn apart. Fear overwhelmed discipline, and they no longer cared about stealth. They scrambled over, dragging their unconscious leader, and like stray dogs, fled in utter panic in the direction they came from, disappearing instantly into the darkness of the downpour.

Inside the living room.

Ling Ye withdrew his gaze, as if he had just shooed away an annoying mosquito. He looked at the cartoon duck enamel mug on the coffee table, then at Su Wanqing, who was curled up on the sofa, her face ashen white as a ghost, her eyes vacant and dazed.

"Hey," he said, his voice carrying a hint of the laziness that comes after drinking water, "Got any… dry clothes? This robe is uncomfortable to sleep in."