The moment he took a step forward, Feng Wenjun felt as though he were tightly controlled by a mysterious and powerful force, his body involuntarily pressing flat against the stone wall. His eyes widened in terror. Before he could even react, the spot he had just touched suddenly underwent a bizarre spatial distortion. A bottomless black hole formed instantly, generating an endless suction force that pulled his body firmly inside.
In the blink of an eye, he felt his vision go dark, and passing through the black hole, he arrived in a magnificent and grandiose great hall. When he took in the sight before him, he was completely dumbfounded, his jaw dropping wide open and unable to close for a long while, his face filled with shock and disbelief.
Feng Wenjun walked into the hall, stunned by the magnificent sight before him, his mind completely blank. After quite a while, he finally came to his senses and began to look around carefully.
This great hall was grand and magnificent, its interior as bright as day, leaving Feng Wenjun in endless awe. His gaze finally landed on a circular high platform in the center of the hall, upon which sat a stone box, crystal-clear from top to bottom like fine jade. Feng Wenjun thought to himself that this must be top-grade jade, and carved from a single piece at that. Such a massive piece of premium jade was something he had never seen at home. If this were taken to the market, it would undoubtedly be worth a fortune!
However, placing something so precious in such a mysterious place made Feng Wenjun feel a sense of caution. His heart was beating like a drum, pounding wildly. He pondered secretly: how could it be simple for something so valuable to be left in this mysterious place? Could there be some hidden mechanism or trap? His alertness spiked instantly. Yet now that he was trapped here with nowhere to go, this jade box might just hold the clue to getting out.
Besides, he hadn't encountered any danger up to this point. He gritted his teeth and made up his mind: he would just take a gamble! The worst that could happen was that he would go all out! He took a deep breath, closed his eyes tightly, turned his head to the side, and tremblingly yet cautiously opened the jade box.
Once the jade box was opened, a palm-sized jade tablet lay inside, surrounded by a blinding golden glow. Feng Wenjun picked up the jade tablet and examined the exquisite carvings on it closely. The tablet was engraved with dragon and phoenix patterns alongside auspicious clouds, all lifelike and crafted with supreme skill. In the middle of the patterns, he found a few characters that he did not recognize; they must have been ancient scripts.
Feng Wenjun rubbed those characters with his hand, just about to study them closely, when the jade tablet suddenly trembled and puffed out a wisp of light smoke. Feng Wenjun's heart instantly leaped into his throat, and the jade tablet in his hand flew out like a hot potato. Amidst the smoke, a figure gradually became clear, and he wondered whether he had triggered some mechanism again.
A strange figure emerged from the smoke. It didn't look human at all, resembling instead a soft, fluffy cloud with a poop-like protrusion on top of its head. Two enormous eyes occupied almost its entire body. It yawned, stretched lazily, and drawled, "After all this time, I'm finally out!"
Feng Wenjun looked in terror at this bizarre creature, his instincts screaming at him to run. However, his legs felt as though they had been nailed to the floor, completely unable to move. Sweat began to bead on his forehead, and his heart was filled with dread. At that moment, the figure flew right up to Feng Wenjun, darting up, down, left, and right, examining him from every possible 360-degree angle without missing a spot. Nervously, Feng Wenjun asked, "Are—are you a human or a ghost?"
"I'm neither human nor ghost, I'm a spirit artifact! And a sentient one at that!" the figure replied playfully, before swooping onto Feng Wenjun's shoulder to sit, leaning right against his cheek. Hearing this, Feng Wenjun relaxed just a fraction.
He remembered his elders saying that long, long ago, there were powerful races capable of refining artifacts into spirits, using them to rule over and deter other races, and turning them into formidable combat forces during battles. Thinking of this, he felt that all of this sounded like ancient legends, utterly unbelievable, yet he never expected to actually encounter one.
Seeing the puzzled look on Feng Wenjun's face, the spirit artifact explained, "I've been here for tens of thousands of years, always waiting for someone destined to break the seal and let me out. Today, I am finally free! You truly are my great benefactor, and I must thank you properly!"
Feng Wenjun asked in bewilderment, "Tens of thousands of years? Just waiting for me? That's too absurd! Am I some sort of chosen one?"
"Haha, yep! That's right, it's you! Earlier, I saw that your bone structure was extraordinary, your brows and eyes radiated a righteous aura, and faintly, I could even sense a wisp of primordial chaotic vigor within your bloodline. Plus, when you touched the jade tablet just now, that very wisp of vigor rushed into the tablet and helped break my seal!" the spirit artifact said earnestly.
Feng Wenjun found all of this hard to comprehend. He asked doubtfully, "I had no idea what I was even doing, and in the blink of an eye, you popped up. By your logic, I really am the chosen one? Or the descendant of some mighty figure from a bygone era?"
The spirit artifact nodded and said, "Mm, yes! Back in my era, I was also an invincible existence! It was only after going through a massive catastrophe that my master sealed me here. The energy inside me has been completely exhausted, and my memories are a bit scrambled. Once I recover more energy, I should be able to remember more things."
Hearing of the spirit artifact's plight, Feng Wenjun looked at it, and a trace of pity welled up in his heart. After all, it hadn't harmed him, it had explained so much, and he was supposedly the chosen one anyway. Therefore, Feng Wenjun gently stroked the spirit artifact's head and said, "How about this, you can follow me from now on! I'll help you recover your memories. By the way, what's your name?"
At this, a flash of joy crossed the spirit artifact's eyes, and it shook its head. Feng Wenjun thought for a moment and smiled, "Then I'll call you Xiaoyu from now on!"
"Heehee, wonderful! I have a new name now, thank you, Master!" Xiaoyu happily flew circles in the air.
"Master, let's go!" Xiaoyu flew over to the edge of the circular platform, where a pillar of light shot straight into the sky. Feng Wenjun walked straight toward it, and with a whoosh, he vanished from the great hall.