51: Chapter 51 My son is ignorant, why must you take it so seriously?

"Touch of Gold," Dragon liver, Solar True Fire...

These words left Ji Lingxuan and Elder Xuan in utter shock.

Their minds went completely blank at that moment, deaf to the surrounding commotion.

In their eyes, only the little boy remained—wearing a small jacket, his mouth glistening with grease, sticking out his tongue to lick the residue of a spicy gluten snack from his fingers.

Along with the shocking, boastful words he had just uttered.

"Father used his 'Touch of Gold' to make it casually... it's not tasty..."

"I still prefer eating Dragon liver... roasted with Solar True Fire..."

Ji Lingxuan could barely breathe.

As a princess of the Immortal Imperial Dynasty, the Heaven And Earth Treasures she had seen and the Spirit Pills she had consumed since childhood exceeded the combined treasuries of ordinary Sects.

Yet, compared to the "daily snacks" this little brat spoke of, the things she had eaten in the past were practically roadside wild vegetable dumplings.

Dragon liver!

What was that?

It was the heart-flesh of the legendary Dragon Clan, containing the purest life Origin and Dragon Clan Law.

Let alone eating it, ever since the Dragon Clan went into hiding after the ancient war, even a single Dragon scale had been hard to find in the entire Eastern Wasteland for one hundred thousand years!

And roasted with Solar True Fire?

Is this a cooking method a Mortal could even imagine?

Solar True Fire is such a tyrannical power; it is a power that can easily incinerate a Saint and forces even a Great Emperor to be wary.

Your family uses it as a barbecue grill?

Is your family's kitchen built inside the core of a sun?

Absurd, ridiculous, and inconceivable!

Ji Lingxuan felt deeply powerless.

She felt that her talent, which she had been so proud of, and her noble status as a princess of the Immortal Imperial Dynasty, had become a huge joke at this moment.

And Elder Xuan beside her was in an even worse state.

As a Peak Venerable with one foot in the Saint Realm, his Dao Heart was stable, and he had long been able to remain unflappable.

But now, his Dao Heart was shaken, on the verge of collapse.

He had pursued the ultimate Martial Dao his entire life, living diligently and frugally, using every bit of resources where it mattered most.

Occasionally, when obtaining a ten-thousand-year precious herb, he would set up an altar, fast, and bathe for three days before carefully refining it, fearing the waste of even a trace of medicinal power.

And the result?

The result was that in this godforsaken backwater, a three-year-old toddler was complaining that "spicy gluten" made from a pile of supreme divine herbs—whose names he couldn't even fully list—was too dry in texture...

Where is the logic in this?

Elder Xuan was trembling all over, filled with shock and fear, but even more so with the immense grievance that comes when an old Cultivator's belief system collapses.

Why!

Everyone is cultivating, so why can your child be so outrageous?!

An extreme sense of unreality gave rise to an incredibly dangerous thought.

He had to verify it.

He absolutely had to verify it!

Was all of this truly real, or had they unknowingly fallen into some terrifying illusion?

Once this thought arose, it could no longer be suppressed.

Elder Xuan took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the palpitations deep within his Divine Soul.

His gaze darkened, and he made up his mind.

A wisp of Divine Thought, ten thousand times thinner than a hair and nearly integrated with the Void Realm, was silently released.

This was his trump card technique, "Great Void Thread Thought"—formless, imageless, soundless, and traceless. Even if a Saint were face-to-face, they would find it hard to detect if not specifically on guard.

His target was not the boy who had spoken such shocking words; that was too dangerous.

His target was an object hanging around the boy's neck.

It was a small sword pendant carved from ordinary peach wood. The carving was rough, the lines crooked—it clearly looked like something a father who wasn't very good at woodwork had casually carved for his child to play with.

This pendant was too ordinary, so ordinary that it felt completely out of place with everything dreamlike around it.

If all this was an illusion, then this most inconspicuous item was very likely the core of the illusion's formation!

That wisp of "Great Void Thread Thought," like a cautious tentacle, avoided Li Changsheng's body and lightly, gently touched the plain-looking wooden sword pendant.

The moment of contact.

The process had no sound or light; not even a trace of energy fluctuation appeared.

In Elder Xuan's Divine Soul perception, it felt as if something on that ordinary wooden sword pendant had lazily "opened" its eyes.

It was a Sword Intent.

An indescribable Sword Intent.

It was not sharp, not tyrannical, not grand.

It simply existed there, as if it had existed since the dawn of time, one of the fundamental rules constituting the Universe.

The rule represented by this Sword Intent had only one word—Slash!

It could sever all things in the world, whether tangible or intangible.

Elder Xuan's wisp of "Great Void Thread Thought," along with the strand of his life-bound Divine Soul entrusted to it, had no power to resist in the face of this awakening Sword Intent.

There was no resistance, no struggle, not even the process of being "severed."

It just... vanished into thin air.

As if it had never existed.

As if Elder Xuan had never released this Divine Thought in the first place.

The traces of its existence were completely erased, as if it had never appeared!

"Pfft—!"

A tearing pain came from his Divine Soul!

Elder Xuan shuddered, his face turning deathly pale.

He let out an irrepressible groan and staggered back two steps.

A wisp of bright red blood flowed slowly down from his nostrils.

This was not the most terrifying part.

The most terrifying part was that he felt his Divine Soul... was missing a piece.

It was not torn, not severely damaged, but completely missing a part, leaving a permanent defect!

"Elder Xuan!"

Ji Lingxuan was shocked and hurriedly grabbed the swaying Elder Xuan.

She didn't understand what had happened; she only saw that after Elder Xuan stared at the child for a while, he suddenly ended up in this state of severe Divine Soul damage.

"Go... Your Highness... hurry and go..."

Elder Xuan grabbed Ji Lingxuan's arm, his fingernails digging into her flesh, his voice hoarse, his eyes filled only with fear.

That was not an illusion!

Everything was real!

That little brat wasn't bragging.