44: Inexhaustible wealth

The void feeling of having ten years of lifespan drained away again was more intense than any previous time.

Venerable Yuehua's icy blue eyes, devoid of any Impurities, were like two ice mirrors, leaving him nowhere to hide and shattering his ridiculous "retirement" mindset.

He was not a human, at least not in the eyes of that Venerable.

He was an interface, a disposable, consumable special tool.

In the darkness, the sound of his heartbeat was infinitely magnified, thud... thud... each sound dully reminding him that the remaining hourglass of his life had suddenly shortened by another segment.

After an unknown amount of time, a very slight sound of permission unlocking came from the manor entrance, followed by Lin Wei's footsteps, which she tried to soften but were still hurried.

She did not turn on the hall lights and pushed open the bedroom door in the dark. When she saw Chen Jun in the darkness, his eyes open, looking like a discarded doll that had lost its Life Qi, her breath hitched.

Despite the dim light, she could see clearly the striking new frost at his temples, the deep, knife-like lines at the corners of his eyes, and the exhaustion and age that permeated the entire room, almost condensing into substance.

"Brother Jun!"

Lin Wei's voice went hoarse instantly. With a sob, she threw herself onto the bedside, her cold, trembling hands stroking his cheeks, tears falling hot onto his cold skin.

"How... how... could they... how could they... do this... again..."

She was incoherent, heartache and anger intertwined, blocking her throat.

Chen Jun blinked extremely slowly, trying to squeeze out a comforting smile, but it only tugged at his cracked lips.

"It's... fine..."

His voice was as hoarse as sandpaper rubbing together.

"I'm just tired... I'll be fine after a sleep."

Lin Wei stopped asking and just held him tightly, as if trying to dispel the cold around him with her own thin body heat.

Her tears flowed silently into his collar, scorching hot, yet he felt no warmth at all.

That night, Chen Jun fell into a deep sleep under extreme physical and mental exhaustion.

Lin Wei, however, kept her eyes open. Borrowing the eternal faint light from outside the window, she traced over and over again the furrowed brow and new white hair of her husband in his sleep, not sleeping all night.

Deep in her eyes, an indescribable sense of powerlessness, wrapped in a huge wave, intertwined and churned.

Over the next few days, Chen Jun remained in a low-energy recovery state.

Drowsy, loss of appetite, slow reactions.

Lin Wei served him meticulously, cooking the gentlest and most nourishing soups in various ways, blowing them cool spoon by spoon to feed him.

The daughters keenly sensed their father's abnormality and became exceptionally well-behaved.

Chen Xi would sit quietly by the bed, using the superficial mental soothing techniques she had learned to relieve her father's headaches; Chen Yao and Chen Lu would rack their brains to tell interesting stories from the academy, clumsily trying to make him laugh; even little Star Language, when held to the bedside, would babble and reach out her little hands to touch the corners of his wrinkled eyes.

The warmth of home, like a faint light, seeped into his frozen perception bit by bit, slowly pulling him back from that inhuman feeling of being a tool into the identities of "father" and "husband."

The concern of the neighbors also quietly changed in flavor.

Old Man Zhang no longer threw those fruits with overbearing medicinal power, but one day knocked on the door and stuffed a small jar of pitch-black dried flowers that exuded a calming aura into Lin Wei's hand.

"For calming the spirit, brew it for him to drink. Don't ask where it came from, just drink it."

He turned and left after speaking.

That "retired veteran" old lady, while practicing martial arts outside the courtyard in the early morning, deliberately performed an ancient body-nourishing method for guiding Qi and blood to Source Return, strengthening the foundation and cultivating vitality, extremely slowly. Her strength was contained without being released, and her Concept enveloped Chen Jun's entire mansion.

The "Artist" and the "Postdoc" sent an inconspicuous sachet containing a mixture of several strange herbs, with a crisp scent that was said to stabilize chaotic energy fields.

These silent cares allowed Chen Jun to feel a touch of real human warmth in his life at the Pillar of Leaders.

More than ten days later, the superficial weakness of Chen Jun gradually faded under the nourishment of top-tier resources, but the traces of aging carved by the loss of lifespan remained stubbornly on his face, making him look like he was in his sixties or seventies.

Only in his eyes did a faint glimmer finally gather again.

That afternoon, the attendant Lan Qing arrived as scheduled with an impeccable, programmed smile on her face.

"Mr. Chen, Venerable Yuehua has ordered you to go to her 'Secret Treasury Hall' to choose items for extending your lifespan. This is a spatial ring, already authorized. For items in the hall, you only need to lock onto them with your thought to store them inside. Time limit: one day."

She handed over a silver ring with an antique style and a faint shimmering glow.

Chen Jun silently took the ring. Lin Wei grabbed his arm in worry.

"I will go with you."

"No need."

Chen Jun shook his head and forced a smile with a bit of self-mockery.

"It's just going to collect 'payment,' can't waste it. Take care of the house."

Venerable Yuehua's Secret Treasury Hall was a separately cut-out space, as vast as a miniature sea of stars.

Countless light orbs floated within, each wrapping a strange object with astonishing aura, with myriad rays of light and Divine Qi gleaming, making the entire space look blurred and dreamy.

The phantom of Venerable Yuehua condensed at the entrance, her voice as cold and waveless as ever:

"Choose for yourself. Once the time is up, leave immediately."

The phantom dissipated after speaking, stingy with even another glance.

Chen Jun stood in this magnificent treasure light, but only felt bewildered.

The energy fluctuations emitted by those light orbs made him, a Mortal, feel palpitations and suffocation in the vast majority of cases.

He tried to communicate with the System with his mind, touching the light orbs one by one.

System?

Can this be absorbed?

Can this be absorbed?

His thoughts were like a stone sinking into the sea; the System had no reaction.

Time ticked away, minute by minute.

Despair and a kind of broken-pot-broken-fall resentment gradually surged into his heart.

The System only appeared at that specific moment, coldly deducting his lifespan, indifferent to these treasures before his eyes that could "extend life."

He knew.

A month later, when the embryo fluctuations of the Sun Body shook the Federation, he would completely lose his last bit of autonomy.

Yun Xi's gentleness and the neighbors' kindness would not be able to stop him from being placed on the altar of the Federation's highest interests.

By then, his few decades of life, like a remnant candle, would burn out rapidly in one "Absolute Guarantee" after another.

The date of death...

Seemed to be within sight.

Since that was the case...

A flash of almost crazy paranoia flickered in Chen Jun's eyes.

He raised his hand wearing the ring, no longer distinguishing, no longer perceiving, like a desperate thug breaking into a treasure vault, and began to frantically issue commands to all the light orbs within his sight, regardless of strength, regardless of attributes:

"Collect! Collect! Collect!..."

The ring flashed with light, and one light orb after another disappeared, greedily swallowed into that small space.

He didn't care if these things were useful to him, and he didn't care if it would burst the ring.

He just wanted to grab as much as possible, take away as much as possible!

Even if he couldn't use ninety-nine percent of them!

Even if he died tomorrow!

He wanted to leave enough wealth for Lin Wei and the children to squander for several lifetimes!

This was the only, most futile, and most tragic resistance he could make!

He looked like he was insane, moving in the vast Secret Treasury Hall, his arms waving mechanically. Wherever he passed, it was like a wind sweeping away the clouds, and large areas were cleared out.

Those treasures that would make Stellar-level Experts tempted were now being crazily swept up by him like worthless stones.

In this state of madness, one day passed quietly.

Chen Jun was sent back to the entrance of his residence.

He stumbled, leaning against the wall to stand firm, his chest heaving violently, and the crazy crimson still lingering in his eyes.

The ring on his hand seemed to have become extremely heavy, stuffed with the essence accumulated by Venerable Yuehua over ninety thousand years.

Lin Wei immediately rushed out to support him:

"Brother Jun! How are you? What did you get? Can it extend your life?"

Chen Jun panted, looking at his wife's anxious face, the madness in his eyes gradually fading, leaving only endless exhaustion.

He tugged at the corner of his mouth, his voice hoarse:

"Nothing much... just... earned back the dowry, tuition fees, and your pension for our children..."

He raised the heavy ring, his face looking like he was crying and laughing.

"Enough for our family... to spend extravagantly... for tens of thousands of years..."