The moment Ye Xiu stepped out of the room, the invisible pressure vanished.
The Jiang family bodyguard collapsed to one knee as if his bones had been hollowed out. His face turned ashen, sweat pouring down his temples as he struggled to breathe, each gasp ragged and uneven.
Jiang Rui turned sharply. "What happened?"
The man clenched his chest, forcing the words out between breaths.
"When… when I showed hostility toward that young man… I couldn't move. I couldn't speak."
His hands trembled uncontrollably.
"It felt as though an invisible force had wrapped around my soul," he continued hoarsely. "If I had resisted even a little… my soul would have shattered into countless fragments."
Silence filled the room.
Jiang Rui's expression changed.
"You're certain?" she asked slowly.
"Yes." The bodyguard lowered his head. "I am at the peak of the Master realm… yet in front of him, I was no different from an ant."
Jiang Rui's pupils contracted.
She knew his strength better than anyone. He was not merely a guard, but a seasoned expert who had survived countless life-and-death battles. For someone like him to be suppressed without a single movement, without even visible intent—
There was only one explanation.
That young man's strength was far beyond anyone.
Far beyond the Grandmaster realm.
Her gaze drifted toward the door Ye Xiu had exited through, her grip tightening slowly.
It is a monster hiding in plain sight. She thought.
After leaving the auction house, Ye Xiu did not return home.
Instead, he made a brief stop at a secluded medicinal market, purchasing a stalk of Yin Grass, lush green and cold to the touch. It was one of the core ingredients required to refine a Yin Body Awakening Pill.
Under normal circumstances, the pill required dozens of rare materials, precise formations, and a pill furnace of the highest grade.
But Ye Xiu did not need such things.
With his mastery over the energy of heaven and earth, the rules themselves were negotiable.
He soon arrived at a deserted stretch of land far from the city. The night air was still, the surroundings silent.
Raising his hand, Ye Xiu injected a thread of frost-type energy into the Yin Grass.
The moment the energy touched it, the world responded.
Spiritual energy from every direction began to stir, then surge. Invisible currents twisted through the air as if drawn by an unseen vortex, pouring relentlessly toward Ye Xiu's palm.
The Yin Grass dissolved into pure essence.
A dull boom echoed across the land.
Light burst outward, illuminating the surroundings as condensed spiritual energy folded in on itself. When the radiance faded, a dense white mist hovered in midair, swirling slowly.
Moments later, the mist receded.
Suspended before Ye Xiu was a pill resembling a flawless white pearl. Its surface was smooth and luminous, etched with faint golden markings that pulsed like living veins.
A pill of Supreme grade.
As if offended by its existence, the heavens reacted.
Dark clouds gathered overhead, churning violently. Thunder rumbled, shaking the sky as bolts of lightning threatened to descend.
Ye Xiu merely glanced upward.
He waved his hand casually.
The clouds froze mid-formation, then dispersed as if erased. The thunder disappeared without striking, leaving the sky clear and silent once more.
With the pill secured, Ye Xiu vanished from the spot, his figure dissolving into nothingness.
After sometime few peoples in attire of some organization came to the same places Ye Xiu were, inspecting the places for sometime one of them contact to their superior saying "we found traces of high-level pill and strong spiritual energy".
The scene shifted.
A quiet hospital room, dimly lit.
On the bed lay a young girl, her complexion pale, her breathing shallow. Machines hummed softly beside her, monitoring a fragile heartbeat.
Suddenly, her eyes snapped open.
She gasped sharply, air flooding her lungs as though she had just surfaced from deep water. Her chest rose and fell rapidly, fear lingering in her wide eyes.
It felt like she had awakened from a terrible, endless nightmare.
But for the first time in a long while—
She was awake.
The girl tried to sit up, but the moment she moved, weakness flooded her limbs. Her body trembled, refusing to obey. Breathing shallowly, she closed her eyes and instinctively called out in her mind.
System.
A golden screen materialized before her eyes, translucent and softly glowing.
[Ding!]
[Congratulations, Host. We successfully returned before the day everything began.]
Her pupils trembled.
Before she could process the meaning of those words, hurried footsteps echoed outside the room. A nurse who had noticed the sudden change rushed out, calling for the doctor.
The room filled with movement and voices, but the girl's thoughts drifted elsewhere.
So… I really came back.
Elsewhere.
Ye Xiu arrived home just as the night wind grew sharper.
At the entrance, a thin figure stood motionless.
Wu Shuang.
She was wrapped in light clothing, her arms drawn tightly around herself. Her shoulders shook as cold seeped into her bones, yet she remained where she was, eyes fixed on the door as if afraid it might never open.
Ye Xiu's expression changed instantly.
He hurried forward, draping his coat over her shoulders without hesitation.
"What happened?" he asked, his voice low but urgent. "Why are you standing outside in this condition?"
Wu Shuang looked up at him.
Her eyes searched his face, anxious, almost disbelieving.
"Are you… okay?" she asked quietly. "Where were you?"
Ye Xiu frowned slightly. "I went to the auction house," he replied casually. "Sold a few antiques. Why are you worrying so much?"
She stiffened.
For a brief moment, her fingers tightened around his coat.
"No… nothing," she said, forcing a small smile.
But inside, her thoughts were in chaos.
Wu Shuang's heart began to pound.
Today… this was the day.
In her previous life, this was the night Ye Xiu disappeared forever.
At first, she hadn't remembered.
Not until—
Her breath caught.
A memory surfaced clearly, painfully.
A phone call.
From the hospital.
"Ha, Ye Xuan has awakened from her coma".
This time… things were already different.