The ancient return was exposed by his sister's live stream.

The live stream chat was flooded with the same message—

"I froze when I heard that voice."

"I was listening with headphones on, and I was stunned for three seconds."

"What is this?? A psychological attack??"

"It's not an attack, it just sounds like its normal vocalizations, but humans can't handle it."

"What else exists in this world besides a 200-meter-long flying whale?"

"This is a million times more terrifying than those man-eating trees and rats. What if this thing is aggressive..."

Chen Siyao stared at the direction where the Heavenly Whale disappeared for a long while before turning her gaze away.

She noticed that her brother's expression remained normal throughout, and he even yawned once.

Fine.

keep going.

The light in the woods began to dim—not because the tree canopy was blocking it, but because the sky was changing. The sun was much lower in the sky.

This world also has the alternation of day and night.

Not far after they walked, Chen Siyao discovered something strange.

She was talking to Yang Wanqing.

The lips were moving. Air was coming out of the throat. But... no sound came out.

She can't hear herself.

She couldn't hear footsteps, the wind, or any other sound.

The world suddenly went silent.

Yang Wanqing noticed it too. She opened her mouth and looked at Chen Siyao, gesturing with her hands. Her mouth opened and closed, but nothing came out.

Then Chen Siyao saw the reason.

Clumps of black things were hanging from the branches of the trees overhead.

bat.

They weren't big, only about the size of a palm. But their numbers were frightening... densely packed, dozens hanging upside down from every branch. Their wings were folded up, covering their bodies, and from a distance they looked like clusters of floating black shadows.

They are "eating".

Eat the sound.

Chen Siyao looked at the group of bats, opened her mouth... but couldn't make a sound.

Or rather, she did make a sound, but the sound waves were absorbed by something less than a centimeter from her lips.

The entire area has been transformed into a vacuum-free, silent zone.

She pulled Yang Wanqing along quickly. It took them about two minutes to cross the area where bats congregated... but it felt like two hours.

The moment we left that area, all the sounds returned.

The sound of wind, footsteps, insects chirping, my own breathing—everything rushed into my ears.

Yang Wanqing was panting heavily.

"Did those bats eat all the sound?"

"Probably. All the sound waves were absorbed by them when we passed through that area."

The live stream wasn't affected... The image crystal transmits data using psionic waves, not sound waves.

The visuals that viewers see include sound... it's ambient sound recorded by the crystal itself. But within the bat-infested area, the crystal records only utter silence.

"A bat that feeds on sound..." Chen Siyao shook her head.

Throughout the entire afternoon, her worldview shattered and reformed repeatedly.

It was getting darker and darker.

Chen Hao stopped when the last ray of light disappeared from the horizon.

That's all for today.

He raised his hand and took something out of his Qiankun bag: a model of a three-story pavilion, about the size of a palm, made entirely of wood, with such exquisite carvings that the lattice patterns of the doors and windows were clearly visible.

He placed the model on the ground.

Light burst forth.

The palm-sized model expanded into a real object within three seconds... a three-story exquisite pavilion suddenly appeared in the forest clearing. With upturned eaves and carved beams, warm yellow lights shone from the windows of each floor.

Yang Wanqing was already used to it.

Chen Hao was the first to enter through the door on the first floor of the attic. Xiao Yue followed him in.

Five Fuzhu huskies huddled around the pavilion, heads bowed, munching on blue grass. The seven-colored horns glowed softly in the twilight, like a few floor lamps.

Chen Siyao was the last to enter. She glanced back at the live stream... there were still over 400 million viewers.

"That's all for today's live stream, everyone."

She waved at the photo crystal.

"To be continued tomorrow."

The comments section was filled with people pleading for him to stay...

"Don't turn it off! Don't turn it off! Don't turn it off!"

"I haven't seen enough!"

"Yaoyao, what if you point the camera outside while you're sleeping? What if there are nocturnal creatures?"

"Today's content is enough to keep me digesting for a week."

"I've seen so much on my first day in this other world, what else is there to come tomorrow?"

Goodnight, Yao Yao! See you tomorrow!

Chen Siyao smiled and turned off the live stream.

The photographic crystal slowly descended from the sky and landed on her palm, warm to the touch.

The attic floor was divided into a living room and a kitchen. Chen Hao was slumped in a grand chair, with Xiao Yue curled up on his lap. His eyes were closed, making it impossible to tell whether he was asleep or deep in thought.

The second floor consists of bedrooms. Chen Siyao and Yang Wanqing each occupy one.

Yang Wanqing rummaged through his Qiankun bag for a change of clothes, muttering, "First day in this other world—chased by vines, bitten by flowers, surrounded by swarms of insects, saw a rat horde devouring a cow, ripped off a nine-tailed fox's tail, and was knocked into an idiot by a whale in the sky..."

"What do you think?" Chen Siyao asked her, leaning against the door frame.

Yang Wanqing thought for a moment.

"Apart from the part about the man-eating tree and the swarm of insects, the rest..."

She paused for a moment, then a smile spread across her face.

"That was so exciting!"

Chen Siyao smiled too.

"Want to continue tomorrow?"

"nonsense."

Chen Siyao returned to her room. She opened the window; the night had completely fallen outside.

The night sky in this world is different from that on Earth.

The stars were ridiculously numerous... densely covering the entire sky, with not a single spot completely dark. Between the stars, two pale purple bands of light stretched across the north and south, like two eternal rivers.

There were scattered points of light moving through the woods... I didn't know what kind of creatures they were, appearing in the darkness.

Occasionally, a long, drawn-out cry would drift from afar, its long trailing sound fading into the night wind.

Chen Siyao leaned on the windowsill and watched for a while.

She remembered what she had seen during the day: the Fuzhu, the rat swarm, the multi-tailed giant fox, the air jellyfish, the giant whale in the sky, the sound-eating bats…

How long have these creatures lived here? To what extent has civilization developed in this world? Are there any intelligent races?

If so... do they know that the spatial passage has been opened?

Her gaze fell upon the dark depths of the forest in the distance.

Something there emitted a flash of light.

Very faint.

It went out in a flash.

Chen Siyao stared in that direction for three seconds. The light didn't come on again.

Maybe it's something like fireflies.

She closed the window, drew the curtains, and prepared to go to the hall to pour herself a glass of water.

The last image that came to mind was that little golden animal in the forest during the day, after glancing in the direction of Fuzhu.

A creature smaller than a cat, yet it made even ancient mythical beasts retreat.

What exactly is that thing?

Chen Siyao turned off the lights, but she wasn't sleepy at all.

She turned over, staring at the sliver of starlight filtering through the edge of the curtains. Two pale purple streaks of light stretched across the night sky, casting faint patterns on the ceiling of the entire room.

I could hear Xiaoyue gnawing on a bone downstairs, crunching and munching intermittently.