Mystery

Only the shallow breathing of the two sleeping children remained in the room, intertwining with a strange sense of peace.

Yet in the eternal darkness of the sea of consciousness, Hei Lin, curled up in a corner, kept his cold, clear, sleepless eyes open.

Like a statue without warmth, he indifferently "watched" the body outside sleep and sensed Bai Lin's utterly defenseless, even somewhat foolish relaxation.

In the dead silence of midnight, a sudden change erupted without warning!

An indescribable scorching heat, like a volcano dormant for ten thousand years suddenly awakening, violently burst forth from the very core of the body!

In an instant, the blood was ignited and began to boil!

Its rushing speed abruptly increased tenfold, a hundredfold!

The heart pounded as though struck by an invisible sledgehammer, producing dull yet violent beats. Every pulse of blood sent intense tremors through the bones and muscles of the entire body!

Hei Lin's consciousness clearly "saw" the body's skin in reality instantly turn burning hot and red. He could even see the subtle undulations caused by blood racing beneath the skin!

An even more astonishing change took place on the forehead!

A point of golden light, hot to the extreme, suddenly lit up between the brows!

The light was pure and tyrannical, carrying an inviolable majesty that came from the pinnacle of life itself!

The golden light did not remain still. As though it possessed life, it instantly spread along intricate and profound paths beneath the skin!

Fine, ancient golden patterns brimming with power sprang forth like golden thorns, or like runes carved by some god. Beginning from between the brows, they covered the entire forehead in the blink of an eye, then spread toward the cheeks, neck, limbs, torso...

Like an immense, intricate network formed from pure energy, they completely enveloped the sleeping body!

Scorching heat!

Swelling pressure!

It felt as though the body would burst apart from this violent power the very next second!

A savage, terrifying pressure from the depths of the bloodline radiated silently through this small body in every direction, like a sleeping giant dragon opening its eyes!

"Hmph!"

Hei Lin let out a brief, cold grunt within the sea of consciousness.

Even he felt his soul shudder at this sudden upheaval and impact of energy.

His cold gaze pierced through the barriers of consciousness, "watching" the patterns that covered the entire body and flowed with molten-gold radiance. Feeling that violent force which seemed capable of tearing everything apart, the corner of his lips slowly curved into an intrigued smile.

"Interesting..."

Hei Lin murmured soundlessly, his voice carrying insight far beyond his age, along with a trace of cold excitement.

"It seems my 'dear' parents have hidden quite a lot..."

"Interesting indeed."

This was anything but ordinary!

This terrifying power, these ancient patterns, this pressure originating from life's very source...

Everything pointed in one direction—bloodline!

An exceedingly powerful, exceedingly ancient bloodline, perhaps one that should not even exist among mortals!

He was only six years old, and his understanding of martial souls and bloodlines was extremely limited. Yet the transformation taking place in this body far surpassed everything he understood about Blue Silver Grass, this useless martial soul!

An enormous mystery seized his mind like a whirlpool in the deep sea.

Why?

Where had this bloodline come from?

And why had it erupted within this body?

Questions coiled around his heart like icy venomous snakes.

But Hei Lin did not dwell on them. He would uncover the nature of this power eventually.

What concerned him more was the change happening now.

Just as the golden patterns covered the entire body and the power of the bloodline boiled to its peak, another change arose!

An irresistible, overwhelming force of suction suddenly surged up from the deepest floor of the sea of consciousness!

This force did not target the body. Instead, it precisely locked onto the soul cores of both him and Bai Lin!

Like an invisible giant hand, it instantly seized the two completely different fragments of soul!

The space before them twisted and shattered in an instant!

It was as though they had been thrown into a rapidly spinning kaleidoscope!

The next second, every sensation was completely reset.

Beneath his feet was no longer the soft bed, but an incomparably real dampness carrying the fresh fragrance of grass sap.

A breeze swept past, bringing the vast, slightly wild scent unique to the grasslands.

Hei Lin abruptly opened his eyes.

Before his "eyes" stretched an endless, suffocatingly vast—sea of Blue Silver Grass!

Countless tough yet supple blades of Blue Silver Grass, like the most loyal soldiers, densely carpeted every inch of land within sight, stretching all the way to the distant horizon where earth met sky.

They were not the frail weeds found in reality. Every plant here emitted a lustrous, faint glow. Their leaves were spread wide, their veins distinct, brimming with vigorous life force.

The grass rose and fell in the breeze, forming an emerald sea of rippling waves.

Yet when he looked up at the sky, an entirely different, heart-palpitating sight greeted him!

There was no sun, moon, or stars, no clouds or birds.

The entire firmament was a pure, frozen, boundless—golden expanse!

It was an indescribable gold, not warm or gentle, but carrying the heavy texture of metal. It seemed to have been cast from molten, flowing gold, covering the entire sky!

It hung there silently, radiating an eternal, ancient, boundless pressure.

The golden canopy resembled an enormous dome turned upside down above the limitless Blue Silver Grass plains, forming a scene both profoundly bizarre and profoundly magnificent.

"This place..."

Hei Lin's cold consciousness swiftly swept across this strange space.

He could clearly sense the faint life aura emitted by every blade of Blue Silver Grass beneath his feet. He could also sense the terrifying energy contained within that frozen golden sky overhead, like a slumbering stellar core.

His gaze then fell several steps away.

Bai Lin had likewise appeared upon this grassland.

But he clearly did not possess Hei Lin's clarity of mind.

He stood amid the grass with a bewildered look, curiously glancing around. He even reached out to touch a faintly glowing blade of Blue Silver Grass beside him, his little face carrying the innocent wonder and confusion unique to a child experiencing a "beautiful dream."

Heh, idiot.

Hei Lin sneered inwardly. Bai Lin had clearly taken this for an ordinary, somewhat peculiar dream.

He was immersed in this illusory "beautiful scenery," completely unaware of the hidden power and strangeness around him.

Hei Lin no longer paid attention to that self immersed in a "beautiful dream."

His cold eyes, as though tempered in ice, pierced through the endless sea of Blue Silver Grass beneath his feet and the frozen golden canopy overhead, as though seeking to see through the deepest secret of this illusion.

He sharply sensed that the golden sky was not inanimate.

Deep within that vast gold seemed to lurk some kind of...

Colossal being!

An existence whose form was impossible to describe, yet whose aura alone was enough to freeze the soul!