Gu Yuena's fingertips trembled slightly. Her silver hair slid down her shoulders, concealing that fleeting moment of unbridled longing.
"I want it," she admitted frankly.
"But I understand even better how precious a divine artifact capable of anchoring an entire clan's fortune is! So..."
"Oh, then take it!"
Before she could finish, Tian Chen held out the little chaos bell in his palm, his tone as casual as if he were offering her a skewer of candied hawthorn.
The Eastern Emperor Bell seemed to stir. Countless chaos runes emerged across its surface like a galaxy flowing backward, then abruptly contracted into a dim gray halo that hovered quietly before Gu Yuena.
Gu Yuena's fingertips froze in midair, her pupils narrowing to slits.
"Do you... know what you're doing?"
"Of course." Tian Chen shrugged. "You want it, so I'm giving it to you. But let me warn you! I've offered you the bell. Whether you dare take it is your own business."
His words piqued Gu Yuena's curiosity again. But a divine artifact offered for free? Why turn it down?
She slowly extended her fair hands toward the Eastern Emperor Bell.
Just as her fingertips were about to touch its surface-
"Humm-" A deep, ancient sound, as though it had traveled across the primordial ages, reverberated from within the bell and exploded directly in her sea of consciousness:
"I was the first sound when chaos opened; before the Heavenly Dao was born, I already rang.
In ages past, even Pangu, axe in hand, needed me to stabilize earth, fire, water, and wind;
When Houtu shaped reincarnation, she too sought me to suppress the six paths of the netherworld.
"You are merely a false dragon from a broken plane, yet you dare touch my precious form? Delusional fool!"
As those words fell,