It was late at night.
His mother, Du Qionghua, and the mother and daughter staying over, Liu Xin and Yu Qingmeng, had all fallen asleep. The only sound in the entire house was their steady breathing.
As usual, Chen Yan sat cross-legged in his crib, ready to begin his unwavering daily routine of "grinding skills."
But tonight, an inexplicable sense of unease crept silently into his heart, like a cold tide.
It was as if something terribly sinister was lurking in the darkness outside the house, watching in silence.
Ever since both the [Meditation Method] and [Divine Sense Differentiation] had reached the proficient level, he had spent a great deal of time experimenting. He could now barely manage to send a wisp of divine sense outside his body for a short while.
But doing so consumed an enormous amount of mental energy, so he had never tried it lightly.
Tonight, however, the foreboding feeling that wouldn't go away made him decide to make an exception.
He urged his mind into action!
In an instant, Chen Yan felt his consciousness lighten with a "whoosh," as if it had broken free of his body's heavy restraints.
The world before him opened up, changing completely.
He was no longer observing through a baby's eyes. Instead, like an invisible ghost floating in midair, he had gained a god's-eye view with no blind spots.
It was as if he had suddenly switched on a third-person perspective!
He could clearly "see" his mother, Du Qionghua, lying asleep in the master bedroom next door, her chest rising and falling steadily.
He could also precisely "hear" the even, delicate heartbeats of Aunt Liu Xin and Yu Qingmeng in the guest room downstairs.
Their life force shone in his new field of perception like warm candlelight, flickering softly.
He tried to control the wisp of divine sense and move it.
With the slightest shift of his will, it easily passed through the wall and returned to his nursery.
Then, for the first time, Chen Yan "saw" the full form of the divine sense he had sent out.
He froze.
It wasn't shaped like a baby at all!
It was the phantom image of a tall, broad-shouldered, narrow-waisted young man, with a face that was vaguely handsome!
Judging by his age... he looked to be in his early twenties?
Suddenly, it hit him—
Wasn't this what he'd looked like in his previous life, when he'd died suddenly at the computer at the age of twenty-two?
So that was it... The tiny body of this baby had always held the soul of an adult!
Even his formless, intangible divine sense had taken the truest shape of his soul!
As Chen Yan reeled from this unexpected discovery, the cold, viscous presence outside the house suddenly grew stronger.
It was as if the whole house had been encased in a block of ice!
It was getting closer!
From his divine sense's perspective, he clearly detected a blurry, twisted shadow silently seeping in through the courtyard wall on the first floor, like water leaking through a crack.
It drifted around the living room downstairs for a while, then... began floating slowly upward along the outer wall!
The shadow finally stopped outside the master bedroom and nursery, as if making some kind of choice.
After hesitating briefly, it chose the nursery and passed straight through the wooden door!
Damn, it really is after me?!
Chen Yan's heart tightened, and he immediately pulled his divine sense back into his body.
He absolutely couldn't call for help!
His mother and that little troublemaker were practically untrained in martial arts.
As for Aunt Liu Xin, with her amateur fourth-dan skill, she probably wouldn't last even a second against a bizarre spirit like this.
Calling for help now would be sending them to their deaths!
Chen Yan abruptly opened his eyes and stared hard at the intruder drifting through the door, illuminated by the pale moonlight filtering in from outside.
Its outline gradually became clear in the darkness.
It looked strikingly similar to the Spirit Race baby he had seen in the news last time!
Except this one definitely wasn't a baby.
It had a thin, twisted, vaguely human shape, like that of a teenager in his mid-teens...
An even colder, more unsettling aura radiated from its entire body.
The Spirit Race creature silently floated to the crib, lowering its featureless face as if "observing" and identifying the prey lying there.
Chen Yan's muscles tensed instantly. Driven by the Qi Nurturing Foundation Art, his blood and energy surged quietly, ready to erupt into Godly Movement and smash through the window to escape at any moment.
But the Spirit Race creature merely hovered there in silence, without moving.
One second, two seconds...
They remained locked in a standoff for a full half minute.
Just as Chen Yan was starting to wonder whether the damn thing had frozen—
Something changed!
A piercing, bone-chilling burst of mental pain suddenly stabbed into his mind without warning!
It felt as if an invisible, venom-coated ice needle were trying to pry open his skull and tear apart his consciousness!
Mental attack!
But this "Mental Poison Thorn," powerful enough to instantly destroy the mind of any ordinary baby in the eyes of the Spirit Race, struck Chen Yan's barrier of consciousness, which had been tempered by the proficient-level Meditation Method until it was as vast and resilient as an ocean...
And failed to stir even the slightest ripple.
It couldn't penetrate any farther.
Did that... kind of tickle?
A flash of inspiration struck Chen Yan. Deep within his consciousness, the vast phantom of the young man instantly took shape.
With a hint of annoyance at being disturbed, it precisely extended two fingers formed of pure divine sense.
And gave a gentle pinch.
The invisible "mental poison needle" shattered instantly, dissolving into nothingness.
The next moment, something happened that left even Chen Yan himself staring in disbelief—
The young man's phantom, as if it possessed a will of its own, took a single step out of the sea of consciousness between his brows and boldly appeared in the real world before the crib!
Facing the Spirit Race creature, which stood several inches taller than him, it opened its mouth without expression.
As it opened, its mouth seemed to turn into a miniature black hole.
It sucked in sharply!
"Whoosh—"
A terrifying, invisible force of suction burst forth!
The Spirit Race creature didn't even have time to struggle or twist. Like a wisp of smoke, it was swallowed whole!
Without even chewing!
Chen Yan: "???"
His eyes went wide.
That was one enormous Spirit Race creature...
And you swallowed it in one bite???
The handsome, expressionless phantom of the young man looked as if it had sampled some insignificant little snack. It even unconsciously patted its slightly bulging belly, then...
Let out a silent burp of satisfaction.
The place where the Spirit Race creature had been hovering was now completely empty.
Not even a trace of its icy aura remained, as if that horrifying scene had never happened.
Chen Yan furrowed his tiny brows, his heart filling with questions.
Something's not right... Wang Xiaoming swore on the news that these things have physical bodies, just extremely frail ones...
But the one just now looked more like a purely spiritual entity.
He silently activated [Shadow Concealment], drawing in his presence until it was almost completely undetectable.
Then he nimbly rolled out of the crib and landed lightly on the soft carpet without making a sound.
An indescribable sense of wrongness lingered in his heart.
"Something feels off..." he murmured. "But I can't put my finger on what."
He decided to make sure his family was safe first.
His tiny figure slipped out of the room like the darkest of shadows, silently making its way to the master bedroom.
Through the faint light filtering in through the crack in the door, he could see that his mother, Du Qionghua, was still fast asleep, breathing steadily and completely unaware of the danger that had just been inches away.
Next, he carefully crept downstairs and listened at the guest room door.
He could hear Aunt Liu Xin and Yu Qingmeng breathing evenly inside. Everything seemed calm and normal.
It seemed the Spirit Race creature really hadn't made a sound or disturbed anything in the physical world, and no one had woken up.
Only then did Chen Yan's taut nerves relax a little. He let out a quiet sigh of relief.
But just as he was about to finish exhaling—
A faint rustling came from the bed in the guest room.
Then Yu Qingmeng, still bleary-eyed, rubbed her eyes and sat up a little. Without thinking, she looked toward the door.
The little girl didn't seem fully awake yet. Half asleep and half dreaming,
she mumbled softly, her voice sweet and vague, by instinct:
"Big Brother Xiao Yan?"
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