Chen Chang'an naturally wouldn't be deceived by this small bell's ordinary appearance.
An object capable of affecting someone at his cultivation level, even for just a single breath, was terrifying enough.
He narrowed his eyes slightly. Immortal essence flowed from his fingertip, and a brilliant golden light coiled around the small bronze bell like a swimming dragon.
"Crack—"
With a crisp shattering sound, the bronze shell peeled away inch by inch. In an instant, an ancient, primordial aura swept forth, and the entire room trembled slightly.
The bell's body appeared in a chaotic color—neither quite green nor quite yellow. Its surface flowed with countless profound Dao patterns, sometimes transforming into revolving stars, sometimes condensing into mountains and rivers.
At the bell's mouth, chaotic qi currents faintly spiraled, each rotation seeming to enact the mysteries of creation itself.
Around the bell's body, nine illusory chaotic chains flickered in and out of existence, each one containing the power to suppress heaven and earth.
Most astonishing of all was the bell's knob—it took the form of two intertwined dragons, their mouths holding a pearl in which chaos seemed to churn.
Chen Chang'an felt his divine consciousness nearly drawn into the bottomless abyss of those dragon mouths just from looking at it a moment too long.
There were many bell-type treasures in the cultivation world, but few that could affect him.
Thanks to Ji Hongli helping him catch up on common knowledge of the cultivation world, he quickly recognized this treasure before him—
"Chaos Bell..."
Chen Chang'an's pupils contracted as he spoke the name of this legendary Innate Spirit Treasure.
Legend said this bell was naturally condensed from three thousand Great Dao laws when chaos first opened. One chime could stabilize earth, water, fire, and wind; two chimes could suppress time, space, and karma; three chimes could even reenact chaos itself.
Now, as his true essence circulated, those seemingly chaotic Dao patterns on the bell's body suddenly began to reorganize themselves, gradually manifesting four ancient Innate Dao characters:
"Heaven, Earth, Profound, Yellow"
...
Family, I've made it. After all these years of transmigration, I picked up an Innate Spirit Treasure at my doorstep—not!
Chen Chang'an's hands holding the Chaos Bell suddenly froze, the joy on his face instantly solidifying. Having experienced so much, he was no longer the naive fool he once was. He immediately realized with hindsight—he had been targeted!
No! More precisely—the Spirit Realm had been targeted!
That bell chime definitely wasn't to notify him someone was sending a gift. It was to blind him from a thousand years of observation of the Spirit Realm! In those thousand years, who knew what layouts the other party had made in the Spirit Realm!
Or to put it another way—the other party used this thing to exchange for the Spirit Realm escaping his control for a thousand years.
The Spirit Realm was, after all, a newly born world. Without him present, it was all too easy for someone to make moves.
Even he would have difficulty finding traces in a short time.
He had been careless, never expecting the Spirit Realm would escape his control. If only he had placed a spy in the Spirit Realm beforehand...
...
Thinking of this, Chen Chang'an felt a sense of disgust at having his home broken into—like going on vacation and returning to find your house ransacked with a "I was here" note left behind.
What's more, this Innate Spirit Treasure was a hot potato. With an owner, how could it be so easily refined? Whether it could become his was still up for debate, but he had definitely taken a loss.
"Hmph, quite the grand gesture." Chen Chang'an sneered, his fingertip lightly stroking the Dao patterns on the Chaos Bell's surface. The touch was ice-cold, yet it ignited fury in his heart.
He temporarily set aside the Chaos Bell and was about to sink his divine consciousness back into the Spirit Realm to investigate when he suddenly started!
No! Doing this now would definitely be within the other party's expectations. Although he didn't know how he was exposed, now that he was exposed, at the very least he couldn't let himself be led by the nose!
Chen Chang'an took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down. He stared at the Chaos Bell on the table, his gaze gradually sharpening.
This supreme treasure now appeared to him more like a carefully designed lure, a probe cast by the other party.
...
His finger unconsciously tapped the desk as the Chaos Bell gleamed with a dim luster.
He suddenly thought—so this was the kind of environment his old man had fought through all those years? Calculations at every step, traps everywhere?
Memories flooded back like a tide as he carefully reviewed every detail from this period.
The Candle Dragon Secret Realm exploration replayed in his mind: the heaven-and-earth phenomenon when Ji Hongli transformed into a dragon, the change in the Peony Fairy's fate...
"So that's it." Chen Chang'an's eyes sharpened, and the teacup in his hand shattered.
He must have been exposed during the Candle Dragon Secret Realm.
That seemingly fruitful exploration had actually allowed the other party to seize a flaw.
Now that he thought about it, whether the complete laws the Candle Dragon bestowed upon the Spirit Realm was profitable or not remained to be seen.
Chen Chang'an seemed to see the other party's hidden hands spreading through the Spirit Realm.
The urgent matter was to know—what exactly had the other party done in the Spirit Realm during these thousand years? How many hidden pieces had been planted? How many schemes had already quietly been set in motion?
Just then, a paper crane fluttered in through the window and landed lightly in Chen Chang'an's palm.
He casually unfolded it, and Ji Hongli's voice immediately rang through the room:
"By the way, husband, Bai Li is still in the Spirit Realm. Remember to let her out."
Bai Li!?
Chen Chang'an's expression instantly froze, the paper crane nearly falling from his hand.
"Damn it!" He slapped his forehead.
"I actually forgot about that girl!"
...
It's over, it's over...
Cold sweat had already beaded on Chen Chang'an's forehead. After he returned, Ji Hongli went into secluded cultivation, and he had hurriedly opened the Spirit Realm. He really seemed to have forgotten that little girl Bai Li in the Spirit Realm.
And Bai Li's sealed memories hadn't been restored yet. Spending a thousand years in the Spirit Realm like this... surely she hadn't already...?
...
But Chen Chang'an thought again—
Actually, maybe it wasn't such a bad thing!
If Bai Li was still alive—
Then wasn't that a ready-made spy?
...
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