"Brothers! Grab everything!"
"Leave that woman to me! I want her alive!"
"Oh my god! So many Primeval Stones! We're rich! Hahahahaha!"
Frenzied roars, greedy cackles, the grating noise of shattering objects... Each heavy footstep on the floor above sent fine dust sifting down from the ceiling.
Bai Zhan Rou leaned against the cold, rough stone wall, her face ashen. She used all her strength to suppress her erratic, rapid breathing, her fingernails digging deep into her palms, leaving crescent-shaped blood marks.
Her beautiful eyes, through the narrow crack in the door, stared intently at the swaying, distorted figures and the flickering destructive flames outside. Her Beta Aptitude circulated within her, but it could only bring a negligible warmth. Her First-Stage cultivation, coupled with the absence of any attack-oriented Gu on her, made her feel like a lamb awaiting slaughter. At the first sign of chaos, the moment the shouts of battle reached the courtyard gate, her remaining rationality led her to make the most decisive choice: she grabbed Tu Dai and hid in this secret refuge beneath the bedroom floor.
"Don't... don't be afraid..."
She desperately tried to control the tremor in her voice, attempting to comfort the young boy cowering in the corner's shadow.
"The clan... still has guards... They... they will take care of these villains..." These words, rather than comforting Tu Dai, were more about convincing her own heart, which felt like it was about to leap from her chest.
Tu Dai silently twitched the corner of his mouth in the darkness, a hint of cold mockery flashing in his heart.
Afraid?
That emotion had long been stripped from him. His gaze towards Bai Zhan Rou even held a hint of almost cruel pity.
Naive.
The bandits being able to so brazenly breach Bone China Mountain's defenses and openly burn, kill, and plunder could only mean one thing—those so-called guards were either dead or severely wounded, or had long since scattered. At this moment, they were fish on a chopping block, merely waiting for the blade to fall.
Death?
Hmph, that's even less worth fearing.
As Lin Meiyuan Yun Luo, who once stood proudly at the pinnacle of magic in Lingzhou, death for him was not an end, and he had even considered it a possible "return path"—when he first arrived in Gu World, utterly despondent, he had not failed to consider trying to see if death could send his shattered Soul back to his homeland. However, in the end, the calm of a strong person and the weighing of various paths for "going home" prevailed.
He chose to cling to life, not to gamble it away senselessly.
"No... they will definitely find this place!" Bai Zhan Rou's voice suddenly rose, carrying a desperate resolve. She abruptly stood up. In the darkness, her silhouette trembled slightly with tension, but her tone was firm: "Brother, you stay here! Don't make a sound! Sister... Sister will go find reinforcements!"
Before her words finished, a cold hand suddenly gripped her wrist! The force wasn't great, but it was unusually firm.
Bai Zhan Rou turned back in surprise. By the faint firelight filtering through the door crack, she saw Tu Dai's face. The young boy slowly shook his head, his heterochromatic pupils gleaming in the dimness with a kind of all-knowing, ethereal light she had never seen before. The indifference remained, but beneath that indifference seemed to be a... detachment... far beyond his years? Bai Zhan Rou's heart trembled violently. At this moment, she felt that this younger brother, whom she had watched grow up, had become utterly unfamiliar.
"Meaningless sacrifice won't change the outcome." Tu Dai's voice was low and calm, without a ripple, as if stating a fact unrelated to him. "If you go out, it will only be one more corpse."
He released her hand, no longer looking at Bai Zhan Rou, and instead fumbled in the cold, damp corner of the basement, picking up an inconspicuous stone and casually tucking it into his embrace. This action carried a sense of powerlessness that was almost self-mocking.
Too weak... This body confined by a Delta Aptitude, this Soul rejected by the Law of this world... He couldn't even protect himself, let alone others.
As for Bai Zhan Rou? This woman who gave him the only warmth in a cold world. Tu Dai felt no great attachment in his heart; her importance was far less than the distant road home. He simply felt it was a pity. A pity that someone who genuinely cared for him was heading towards inevitable destruction. During this time, he had not failed to try to struggle. He tried hard to understand the rules of this world, wanting to improve this crippled body. However, the Delta Aptitude was like the strongest shackles, firmly locking his Primeval Sea, making it impossible to move an inch. Coupled with a deep-seated unfamiliarity and detachment towards the Dao of Gu, and that indescribable concern from a strong person from another world (he had never refined any Gu as his Natal Gu), he was like a giant trapped in a quagmire, possessing immense power (once), but only able to watch as the muddy water rose over his mouth and nose.
"We can't delay any longer!" The roars and footsteps outside were like a death knell, getting closer and closer, clearly pointing towards this room! The last trace of hesitation in Bai Zhan Rou's eyes was replaced by determination. She took a deep, final look at the blurry figure of her younger brother in the corner's shadow, as if to engrave his image into her Soul. Then, she abruptly turned, like a moth rushing towards a flame, resolutely pushed open the basement's secret door, and rushed out!
"Bang!"
The heavy secret door was firmly locked from the outside! It cut off the last faint ray of light, and also cut off Tu Dai's sight.
Immediately after, intense fighting sounds came from above, Bai Zhan Rou's shouts of anger and indignation, and the bandits' even more excited obscenities!
Tu Dai leaned against the cold stone wall, slowly closed his eyes, and silently sighed.
The dust settled.
His heart was coldly clear. At this moment, he couldn't solve any problems. Rushing out? It would only hasten the inevitable outcome, completely meaningless.
"Escape... in the chaos?"
A thought flashed through his mind, then was immediately extinguished.
Escape? Where could he escape to? This crippled body, in this Gu World where the strong prey on the weak and danger lurks at every step, without the protection of the Bai family's village (even if it was a cold protection), would only die faster and more silently.
A deep sigh, filled with endless exhaustion and powerlessness, echoed in the dead silent basement. Tu Dai subconsciously caressed the cold, rough stone in his embrace, feeling its hard texture against his fingertips.
Ethereal blue light?
He hadn't noticed it before. Looking down now, in the absolute darkness, the surface of that stone was indeed flowing with an extremely faint, yet unusually pure, ethereal blue glow, like a lonely phosphorescence in the deep sea.
Gazing at that point of ethereal blue, a longing from the deepest part of his Soul, suppressed for too long, unexpectedly broke through all the cold shells of reason, transforming into a low whisper that was almost a moan:
"I... really... want to go home..."
The moment his words fell—
Buzz—!!!
The stone in his embrace suddenly erupted with an unimaginably dazzling, blinding ethereal blue light! The light did not spread outwards, but instead, as if alive, frantically collapsed and condensed inwards! A massive, irresistible, space-distorting terrifying suction force suddenly gripped Tu Dai's entire being!
He only felt his vision completely engulfed by a destructive blue, his body seemingly torn and crushed by an invisible giant hand! His Soul let out a silent scream in the spatial turbulence!
The next second, all feelings of compression, falling, and light suddenly vanished.
Tu Dai staggered a step, forcefully steadied himself, and abruptly opened his eyes.
"What the f*ck?!"
Even with his state of mind, having lived two lives and once been a God of Law, he couldn't help but blurt out the most direct exclamation of shock.
The cold stone walls, the damp musty smell, the clamor outside... all had vanished without a trace.
In their place was a completely unfamiliar space: the four walls were made of a single, strange rock that glowed with a warm jade color, forming a small stone chamber.
In the stone chamber, a faint, veil-like purple mist permeated, slowly flowing, imbued with a mysterious and ancient aura. Here, it was as silent as frozen time.
"I... Transmigrated again??"