Shen Rou gave a small, almost imperceptible nod, a quiet acceptance of his forgiveness.

Then, with a movement that seemed both natural and deeply significant, she stepped to his side. She didn’t say anything, didn’t make a grand gesture. She simply moved, finding her place, and remained there, a silent statement of solidarity and renewed commitment.

Wang Hao, meanwhile, had already spun on his heel, his earlier anxieties momentarily forgotten in a surge of pure, unadulterated exuberance. He moved toward the large center table in the room, his mind already racing with celebratory plans.

"We need to celebrate, immediately! I’ll call everyone right now. Tonight, no one sleeps! We’ll make this a proper return banquet, a feast that’ll be talked about for weeks, and—"

His words tumbled out in a joyous torrent, imagining a grand, boisterous gathering to mark this impossible homecoming.

"Sit down," Lin Yi’s voice cut through Wang Hao’s excited ramblings, calm and firm.

Wang Hao stopped dead in his tracks, his boisterous energy draining out of him instantly. The change was abrupt, almost comical, as if a switch had been flipped.

Lin Yi’s tone hadn’t been loud, but it possessed a newfound weight, a subtle, quiet authority that resonated through the room, compelling immediate obedience without the need for force. It was the presence of a person who had walked through fire and emerged with a deeper understanding of command.

"I have things to tell you," Lin Yi continued, his gaze holding Wang Hao’s. "Sit."

Wang Hao, for all his usual bravado, obeyed without a moment’s hesitation, pulling out a chair and settling into it. Shen Rou, ever observant and already anticipating the need for a thorough debriefing, took the chair directly beside him. Lin Yi then moved with unhurried grace, taking the seat across from them, his gaze encompassing both his friends. The comfortable, familiar dynamic of their friendship was subtly altered, infused with a new, profound seriousness.

Wang Hao, now subdued but with an intense eagerness, leaned forward, his elbows resting on the table.

"All of it," he said, his voice hushed with anticipation. "Every single detail. From the very beginning. Don’t skip anything, Lin Yi. We need to understand."

The gravity in his tone was evident, betraying his earlier lightheartedness. The preceding month of worry had carved a demand for truth into his very being.

Lin Yi simply nodded, acknowledging the unspoken plea.

Then, he began. He spoke without rushing, without attempting to condense the monumental experiences into simple summaries. He told his story with precision, recounting events in the exact order they had transpired, each detail unfolding naturally, allowing the sheer weight of his journey to settle upon his listeners.

He began with the precise moment he had entered the swirling, boundless chaos of the Allheaven Expanse, describing the sudden transition and the sense of an entirely new reality.

He then detailed the intricate celestial jade system, explaining its fundamental role in this alien environment and the profound mechanics of its collection. He spoke of his first encounter with the Qilin, a creature of unimaginable power, and the subsequent, rapid evolution it underwent through the assimilation of countless jades, recounting what that extraordinary evolution ultimately produced within him.

He described the treacherous volcanic basin, a land of fire and ash, and his fierce battles with the Furious Flame Lions that roamed its fiery landscapes. He spoke of the crucial moment he had reached level 200, a milestone that had unlocked the mind-bending ten-thousand-times amplification, transforming his capabilities. Of course, he didn’t tell them about his abilities to amplify rewards, because such information, as he saw it, added nothing to his speedy narration of everything.

He immediately recounted the female hunter he had encountered in a hidden cave, her enigmatic presence and the Seven Star Immortal Conversion Halo he had acquired. He explained what he had done with it, the desperate measures he had taken. He then delved into the shadowy operations of the Nine Yin Demon Guild, the formidable Sun Tian, and the terrifying encounter with the Void Eroding Soul King. Each point was delivered with the precision of someone recalling events with perfect clarity, painting a vivid, albeit disturbing, picture.

As Lin Yi’s narrative inexorably led to the matter of Cang Yutian, the air in the room grew heavy. Wang Hao’s previously animated face gradually stilled, his expression shifting from eager curiosity to one of grim concentration. His eyes, fixed on Lin Yi, betrayed a growing sense of dread.

Lin Yi continued, his voice steady, describing the brutal, earth-shattering battle with Cang Yutian. He detailed the intricate moves of the Buddha Step, the furious exchange of blows that had rocked the very foundations of their surroundings, the painful, deep cuts he had sustained.

He then recounted the terrifying moment when the Greater Qilin, in a flash of protective instinct, had stepped in front of him, intercepting a fatal attack. He described the sudden, uncontrolled tear that had ripped open in the fabric of space, an unforeseen consequence of the battle’s intensity, and his desperate, split-second decision to hide within the sanctuary of his storage token.

He spoke of the suffocating, pitch-black interior of the token, the oppressive restriction that had lasted an agonizing minutes, a period of utter helplessness. Finally, he described the moment of release, and the immediate plunge into a second, equally ferocious fight. The narrative was punctuated by moments of vivid detail, painting a harrowing picture of survival against overwhelming odds.

Midway through Lin Yi’s story, Shen Rou had, almost unconsciously, produced a pen from her pocket and had been meticulously taking notes. Her hand moved with a fluid rhythm, transcribing key details, making connections, her logical mind attempting to categorize the incomprehensible. But at this specific point, as Lin Yi described the most jarring detail, the pen in her hand stopped moving entirely, poised above the page, a silent testament to the shock of the revelation.

Wang Hao, eyes wide with a mixture of disbelief and horror, stared at Lin Yi.

"You knelt?" he asked, the words barely a whisper, as if merely speaking them might shatter some fundamental law of the universe. The idea of Lin Yi, the indomitable Lin Yi, bowing before anyone was an anathema to everything he understood.

"Yes," Lin Yi confirmed, his voice flat, devoid of emotion, simply stating a fact.