A heavy, profound silence clung to the long corridors of the Lord's Manor. The lanterns hanging from the stone walls cast a dim, golden glow, but inside Ye Fang's mind, a tempest was raging.
The events of moments ago continued to claw at his composure.
The sudden, absolute silence of the Little System…
And then, that chilling, enigmatic voice…
For a fleeting second, it had felt as though some unfathomable entity was peering down at them from beyond the system itself.
But the moment Ye Fang stepped away from the interrogation chamber, the blue holographic screen flickered back to life before him.
The Little System smoothed down her loose pink nightdress and cleared her throat, acting as though nothing out of the ordinary had transpired. The familiar, mischievous smirk had returned to her face.
"Aya, Host! Why are you looking so stressed?" she chirped, waving her small hand dismissively. "Nothing happened. The System simply received some high-priority notifications. I had to temporarily freeze all my background processes to inspect them. That's the only reason I went quiet."
Her tone was so perfectly casual, so utterly mundane, that anyone else would have bought it without a second thought…
However, Ye Fang's eyes narrowed into slits.
He came to a halt, staring intensely at the floating screen.
"Notifications? Really?" he muttered, his voice dripping with skepticism. "If the System received something, why didn't I see it? Am I the Host here, or just a bystander from the next-door sect? No bells rang, no red warning lights flashed… what kind of notifications are you getting that are completely invisible to me?"
Little System puffed up her cheeks and turned her nose up in a huff.
"Host, why do you have to take everything so personally?" she asked, crossing her arms with a haughty sniff. "Those were internal system updates. Things far beyond the comprehension of a 'low-level' Host like you. Just understand that my software was undergoing a minor upgrade, okay?"
Ye Fang let out a heavy sigh. Perhaps he truly was overthinking things.
"Fine, I'll buy that for now..." he muttered softly. "But now, answer my question. What exactly is this 'Mythical Reaper Soul'? That old man, Elder Wang Shen, looked like he'd seen a ghost the moment he uttered the name. Is it really such a terrifying Realm?"
As the words left his mouth, he suddenly paused. A strange, fleeting hesitation flickered across his face.
'Man... why do I keep calling everyone an "old man"?' he thought to himself. 'They are vastly senior to me in age. I should show a bit more respect... I don't know what's happened to my brain since I crossed over into this world.'
Little System opened her mouth, looking as if she were about to unveil a profound, forbidden secret—
But then, her gaze locked onto Ye Fang's hand.
He was still clutching that black, jagged, and hideous stone he had purchased from the marketplace.
For several seconds, the System stared at it. Then, a look of sheer disgust washed over her face, as if she were staring at a pile of rotting garbage.
"Host..." she spoke in a low, deadpan voice. "What on earth is that?"
Ye Fang raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"
"I mean..." Little System pointed a slender finger at the rock. "You are staying in a magnificent lord's manor, you possess a Divine Pill... and yet you are walking around carrying a piece of garbage that looks like a lump of common coal?"
Ye Fang's proud expression instantly crumbled. He lifted the stone high, holding it like a prized trophy.
"Hey, Big Sis System! Don't call it garbage!" he said with absolute gravity. "You just don't understand. I chose this using my Main Character Intuition!"
Little System fell dead silent for a moment.
"...What?"
"Yes!" Ye Fang nodded with supreme confidence. "This is exactly how it goes in web novels. The most useless-looking, trashy object always turns out to be the most terrifying primordial artifact in the cosmos. This stone might look pathetic... but the moment I touched it, I felt a strange warmth radiating from it. There is definitely a deep secret hidden within!"
A beat of absolute silence hung in the air.
And then—
"Pfft—!"
Little System burst into a fit of uncontrollable laughter, her giggles echoing wildly within his consciousness.
"Hahaha!" she wheezed, clutching her stomach. "Host, you seriously read way too many novels! 'Main Character Intuition'...? The cold, hard truth is that this stone is more useless than actual coal!"
"There isn't a single trace of Spiritual Energy in this thing," she wheezed through her laughter. "No Ancient Seals, no hidden treasures. Absolutely nothing!"
Ye Fang twitched his lips in annoyance.
"What do you know..." he muttered. "Don't come crying to me later when a Divine Artifact emerges from this."
Little System shook her head with supreme sarcasm.
"Oh yes, of course, Host. And perhaps there is an Ancient Grandpa sleeping inside it too, waiting to bestow upon you a Heaven-defying cultivation technique."
"Just you wait and see!" Ye Fang suddenly grew stubborn, his pride on the line. "I'll break it open right now and prove it to you!"
The System rolled her eyes.
"By all means, Host. Go ahead. Let us witness your 'legendary' destiny."
Ye Fang gripped the stone tightly with both hands. A strange, dramatic confidence flared in his eyes.
"Today, it shall be proven..." he declared solemnly, "that the Main Character is never wrong!"
Crack...
A tiny hairline fracture appeared on the surface of the stone.
Ye Fang's eyes lit up instantly. "See?! I told you—"
But in the very next millisecond—
BOOOOM!!!
A deafening explosion ripped through the long corridor. A thick cloud of jet-black smoke erupted, expanding in all directions. Ye Fang was blasted off his feet, hurtling backward to crash onto the stone floor.
For a few seconds, the corridor returned to a stunned silence.
Then, the smoke slowly began to drift away...
And there stood Ye Fang.
His face was completely charred, soot-blackened from forehead to chin. Wisps of gray smoke drifted lazily from his messy hair, and his eyes were wide, frozen in a state of absolute, traumatized shock.
"Cough—cough!" He hacked violently, spitting out a mouthful of dark smoke. "What in the Heavens was that?!"
A brief beat of silence hung in the air.
And then—
Little System collapsed within his mind, rolling on the floor in absolute hysterics.
"Hahaha-haha!!!" Her laughter was unstoppable, echoing wildly through his consciousness. "Host...! Your 'Divine Artifact' certainly made a spectacular debut! Truly... explosive!"
Ye Fang's soot-covered face somehow managed to darken even further.
"...Shut up."