Nangong Xingyun did not take a seat, but stood there waiting. None of the dozen or so elders of the Hua Lineage dared to speak without permission. Only the occasional glances exchanged between them revealed the unease they felt in their hearts.
Not long after, hurried footsteps came from outside the hall. Hua Nongrui returned, accompanied by two Hua Lineage elders who were healing the wounded. Between them stood Hua Jingmeng. Hua Jingmeng at this moment was completely different from her appearance at the martial arts tournament.
He wasn't unconscious, but his overall condition was extremely poor.
He wore a loose, gray-white robe, and his once tall and straight figure was noticeably thinner. His face was almost bloodless, his lips were pale and cracked, and his eye sockets were slightly sunken.
The most obvious change was in his eyes. The arrogance, ruthlessness, and nonchalance that once resided within them had all faded, leaving his pupils hollow and weary, only occasionally turning slightly in response to the sounds around him.
He walked very slowly.
Neither of the two elders on his left nor right actually helped him up; they merely supported his arms with their palms to share the burden of his body. With each step forward, Hua Jingmeng's brow would twitch slightly, clearly indicating that the injury deep within his Fate Soul was still causing him pain.
When he looked up and saw Nangong Xingyun, a flicker of emotion finally appeared in his empty eyes. "Nangong... Lord..." His voice was terribly hoarse. Nangong Xingyun did not answer.
He only glanced at Hua Jingmeng for two breaths, and the next moment, he flipped his right hand, and a pill appeared in his palm.
The pill was only the size of a longan, with no dazzling glow or amazing fragrance on its surface. The entire pill was a deep bluish-white color, with several extremely fine life lines moving within it. The moment it appeared, the previously chaotic Fate Soul energy around Hua Jingmeng calmed down on its own.
With a flick of his finger, Nangong Xingyun sent the pill directly into Hua Jingmeng's mouth. Hua Jingmeng didn't even have time to ask. The pill melted instantly upon entering her mouth. Buzz!!! A deep, resonant primordial energy emanated from the depths of his chest.
Hua Jingmeng abruptly closed his eyes, his pale cheeks twitching slightly. A bluish-white radiance spread down from his neck, penetrating his chest, limbs, and the depths of his Fate Soul. The cracks in his Fate Soul that had never truly closed finally stopped worsening at this moment. His shoulders, which had been tense for days, slowly relaxed, and his breathing became more even for the first time.
Nangong Xingyun then raised his hand and waved it, and a pale silver ring rose from beneath Hua Jingmeng's feet.
The ring had no intricate patterns, only several extremely ancient spatial light traces circling each other. After the ring rose above Hua Jingmeng's head, it quickly closed, transforming into a semi-transparent light domain that completely enveloped him. Hua Jingmeng's body then slowly rose half a foot off the ground, his feet no longer bearing weight, and his entire body quietly floated in the center of the silver light domain.
After doing all this, Nangong Xingyun took out a storage bag and tossed it to Hua Nongrui immediately caught it with both hands. "Consider this your reward." Hua Nongrui was slightly taken aback.
Before she could even ask what was in the storage bag, Nangong Xingyun had already turned around. He stepped into the spatial barrier behind him, and the silver light domain that enveloped Hua Jingmeng moved accordingly.
Before entering the barrier, Hua Jingmeng slowly opened his eyes. He didn't speak, only glancing at Hua Nongrui and the others in the hall one last time. His pale face revealed little emotion. Then, the silver light carried him into the depths of the barrier.
Nangong Xingyun followed closely behind, and the spatial barrier began to close. Crack! The two sides of the rift slowly closed. The dark light domain narrowed into a line, and after the last trace of Void Evolution completely disappeared, the center of the Stillness Blossom Ancestral Hall was restored to its original state, without even a trace of spatial rift left.
Inside the main hall, no one spoke, and the dozen or so elders remained standing in place.
Some stared at the spot where Nangong Xingyun had disappeared for a long time without looking away; some still had intense shock in their eyes; and some couldn't help but start to reassess Hua Jingmeng's future status and position in the entire Hua Lineage.
Hua Nongrui stood there for a full few breaths before glancing down at the storage bag in her hand and then slowly raising her head.
The pressure of the Wuji Realm that had been suppressed due to the arrival of Nangong Xingyun was released from her body again. Her brows were tightly furrowed, her expression solemn and dignified, and her gaze swept over each elder present.
"What happened today." Everyone's expression turned solemn. "The fact that Hua Jingmeng was personally taken away by Nangong Xingyun must not be revealed to anyone." Hua Nongrui's voice grew increasingly deep. "This includes other elders of the clan, direct disciples, and deacons of various branches; nothing should be disclosed to them."
Her gaze finally settled on the center of the crowd. "Anyone who leaks this—" "Erase their Fate Soul." "Kill them without mercy." The atmosphere in the hall instantly became extremely tense. More than ten elders bowed in unison. "Yes, sir!"
The sound echoed throughout the Stillness Blossom Ancestral Hall. Only then did Hua Nongrui put the storage bag into her sleeve, her stern expression softening slightly. "Alright." "Everyone, step back." The elders bowed in turn and then retreated from the hall. Hua Yin walked towards the back of the crowd, and when he passed the center of the hall, he did not stop.
As he passed by Hua Nongrui, he didn't look up. But in the instant the two passed each other, his eyes slightly twitched, his gaze falling on the sleeve where Hua Nongrui had put away her storage bag. It was only for a moment. The next instant, Hua Yin withdrew his gaze and walked out of the Stillness Blossom Ancestral Hall with a normal expression.
The dappled afterglow cast by the dome of light streamed in from outside the palace gates, following his silhouette all the way to the end of the corridor. Hua Nongrui stood alone in the palace, her hand gently pressing the storage bag left behind by Nangong Xingyun through her sleeve, her eyes filled with a deep sadness that lingered for a long time.
The heavy doors of the Stillness Blossom Ancestral Hall slowly closed, and the footsteps of the last elder faded into the distance along the long corridor outside the hall. The dome of Returning Light Heavenly City, forged from nine hundred and ninety-nine pieces of the Annihilation universe, still shimmered with the afterglow of countless ages.
A lingering light from the annihilation era pierced through the high windows, slanting across the black crystal floor of the empty hall. The restless atmosphere left by the earlier argument between the dozen or so elders inside the hall had not yet dissipated. In this vast ancestral hall, only Hua Nongrui stood alone.
She didn't rush to leave, standing silently for a long time, her clan leader's imposing presence slowly fading into her skin. Her gaze fell on the cuffs of her sleeves, and the casual words Nangong Xingyun had spoken before parting echoed repeatedly in her ears—"Consider this your reward." She knew this was a reward brought by Hua Jingmeng.
Hua Nongrui reached into her sleeve with her right hand and took out the ancient storage bag. The bag was simple and unadorned, with only one ancient primordial pattern engraved on it, a mark passed down through the Nangong Lineage. There were no extra restrictions or deliberate pressure. She gently rubbed the opening of the bag with her fingertip, and a wisp of gentle primordial energy slowly flowed in. The storage bag opened with a click.
The next moment, her movements suddenly froze.
Hua Nongrui's pupils contracted slightly, her emotions surging. Even as the head of the Hua Family Lineage, in charge of the family's ancient treasures and accustomed to rare and precious materials, she could not completely calm her mind at this moment. The storage bag contained a vast void of its own, without divine weapons, elixirs, or secret manuals, only densely packed transparent beads floating quietly, filling the entire space.
There were a total of ten thousand beads, each the size of a longan, perfectly round and flawless, crystal clear, so pure that they almost blended into the surrounding void. What was truly awe-inspiring was that deep within each bead, there was a tiny, seven-colored core of light.
The light cores shifted and changed, with a mystical array of colors—red, gold, blue, purple, pale, and black—alternating, blending, and separating. Just as she was intently observing, the bead closest to her gently rippled, its seven-colored light core instantly projecting a series of shimmering bubbles.
She glimpsed her younger, naive self, the leisurely years before she ascended to the position of clan leader, and the familiar figures of old acquaintances and friends who had long been lost to the annals of time.
Like bubbles rising and falling in an instant, the once magnificent Returning Light Heavenly City, at its peak, appeared majestically amidst the light and shadow. Powerful figures from the Hua Lineage stood tall in the sky, and the vast Skeleton Star Sea bowed in submission. In the next instant, all the magnificent scenes shattered with a deafening roar, receding back into that tiny seven-colored light core and falling into silence.
Hua Nongrui suddenly averted her gaze, her mind slightly shaken. She had already discerned the origin of this object. "Dreamplay Beads..." Her voice was extremely soft, falling in the empty hall, carrying a sense of ancient etherealness. As the words fell, her five fingers gripping the storage bag unconsciously tightened slightly.
The Dreamplay Beads was not originally produced in the Eternal Nonexistence Limitless Domain.
Such high-level cultivation currency is only produced in the Supreme Transformation Primordial Domain and the Supreme Stillness Domain, and its regulations are extremely strict. A complete Dreamplay Beads requires ten thousand Supreme Transformation Source Crystal to be melted and forged as a foundation, and its final solidification must rely on the origin of heaven and earth of a high-level domain to take shape. The resource foundation corresponding to these ten thousand Dreamplay Beads alone is enough to make the top forces of the Eternal Nonexistence Limitless Domain tremble.
The true value of the Dreamplay Beads lies not only in its trade and circulation, but also in its unique dream play nature, which allows the holder to travel through the heavens in dreams, transforming into an illusory body in the myriad worlds, and wandering through the thoughts of all beings while maintaining a clear mind and Fate Soul.
The seven-colored light core inside can harmonize the joys and sorrows of the Dao heart, stabilize the foundation of cultivation, and soothe the restlessness of the Fate Soul caused by battles, enlightenment, and the impact of the Source Dao. Even if the origin of the Fate Soul is damaged, it can be slowly nourished and repaired by this bead, but the amount consumed depends on the severity of the injury.
It adheres to the fundamental principles of the Supreme Transformation Source Crystal, protecting only the Dao, repairing only the body, and stabilizing only the mind, never forcibly pushing for breakthroughs in realms. It is precisely because of this purity that cultivators from the Supreme Transformation Realm to the Wandering Wisdom Realm regard it as an unparalleled treasure, with its value surpassing all others of its kind.
But Nangong Xingyun raised his hand and released a full ten thousand beads. Hua Nongrui slowly raised her palm, and a Dreamplay Beads flew out from the storage void and quietly landed in her palm. It felt warm and light to the touch, and it was hard to tell whether it was real or not. It was not like a solidified crystal, but rather like a handful of ancient dreams solidified in the present world.
A faint, dreamlike resonance emanated from the heart of the pearl, and countless tiny, indistinguishable colored dust particles drifted from its edges. These dust particles vanished from the pearl, only to instantly coalesce again in the void behind her, transforming into a lifelike, illusory silhouette before dissipating back into the pearl, leaving Wuhen.
Hua Nongrui lowered her eyes and stared at the bead in her palm for a long time without moving. At this moment, she finally realized how incredibly generous the "reward" Nangong Xingyun had mentioned was. Ten thousand Dreamplay Beads were far beyond the reach of ordinary rare treasures.
The Nangong Xingyun, taking Hua Jingmeng with him and leaving behind such a tremendous legacy, clearly revealed the Nangong Lineage's intentions—their regard for Hua Jingmeng far exceeded the Limit of what anyone in the hall had anticipated.
Hua Nongrui's gaze deepened as she composed herself, ceasing to activate the unusual phenomena of the bead. The Dream Dreamplay Beads in her palm flew back into the storage void, its myriad multicolored light cores flashing and disappearing simultaneously. The storage bag slowly closed, all the dreamlike illusions vanishing without a trace.
The Stillness Blossom Ancestral Hall returned to its deathly silence. Hua Nongrui clutched her storage bag tightly, standing still, her mind heavy and chaotic, unable to calm down for a long time. Meanwhile, Hua Yin, who had already stepped out of the Stillness Blossom Ancestral Hall, did not return to his residence.