I stood at the foot of the apartment building. The afternoon sun had baked the concrete scalding hot, and for a disoriented moment I half-wondered whether that underground meeting I'd just come from was nothing but a heatstroke hallucination. Then the bronze ring on my palm suddenly flared with heat, and the old geezer's voice crashed through my skull like a thunderclap: "Rookie, what are you standing there gawking for? Can't you hear your wife calling you from upstairs?"

I jerked my head up. Sure enough, Jade Lin was standing on the third-floor balcony, waving a spatula like she was about to perform some kind of iron-wok goose roast. Great — I was definitely in for a scolding the moment I walked through the door. Then again, what did I expect, crawling out of the vegetable patch looking like a freshly unearthed terracotta warrior, face plastered with garden mud.

"Coming, coming!" I hollered back, slapping the dirt off my trouser legs.

I'd barely stepped into the stairwell when I nearly collided with Auntie Li, who was hauling a half-basket of potatoes down the stairs. Her eyes lit up the moment she saw me, and she leaned in with a conspiratorial air. "Young Ethan, your auntie dug up a little treasure in the flower bed today — have a look, what do you make of this?" She rummaged around the bottom of the basket and produced a bronze bell the size of a palm. Its surface was etched with faint cloud patterns, and when she gave it a gentle shake, it made absolutely no sound at all — yet I was hit by a wave of inexplicable calm and clarity.

"This is..." I was just reaching out to take the bell when the system chime exploded in my ears:

Ding! Low-grade spirit artifact detected — "Silent Bell": capable of suppressing the auditory perception of low-grade demon creatures.

My heart lurched. This old residential compound really was a treasure trove at every turn! Auntie Li noticed my glazed expression and assumed I simply didn't recognise what it was. She waved a dismissive hand. "Probably some kid's toy they threw out. If you like it, take it home for little Chuan to play with."

"Don't mind if I do!" I grabbed the bell and shoved it into my pocket before she could have second thoughts. If I hung this thing around little Chuan's neck, Jade Lin and I might actually get a decent night's sleep instead of being blasted awake by his Ultraman battle cries — but that was a story for later.

The moment I stepped through the front door, Jade Lin ambushed me in the entryway. She pointed at my mud-caked trousers, her brow furrowed so tight she could have crushed a mosquito in the crease. "Ethan Lu, where on earth have you been rolling around? Did you go to the market to buy groceries, or did you go down a coal mine?"

"Misunderstanding — total misunderstanding!" I quickly thrust the canvas bag into her hands. Inside were two plump crucian carp, a "friendly gift" from Old Wang. "I went and got you some fresh fish, that's all, and then I, uh... helped Old Zhang downstairs move a flower pot."

Jade Lin took the fish with a skeptical look and poked one of them in the eye. "I suppose you're not completely useless. By the way — River's homeroom teacher called today to file a complaint. Apparently River painted a mural on the school wall of Ultraman battling a Giant Super Cactus, and told his classmates you can do magic. You'd better come clean: have you been messing around with nonsense at home again?"

My heart seized. I hastily changed the subject. "Aiya, the kid's just got a vivid imagination! Oh — honey, do you want sweet-and-sour fish or braised fish tonight? I'm telling you, I picked up a new cooking technique today, guaranteed to have you and River begging for seconds!"

While Jade Lin headed to the kitchen to deal with the fish, I slipped into the bedroom, set the Silent Bell on the desk, and pulled up my system panel. The humiliating memory of being chased through the market by those Baizhen Pavilion people in broad daylight was still fresh in my mind. Fourth-tier Qi Refinement was a complete joke in their eyes. I needed to break through, and fast.

"System," I muttered at the bronze ring, "the 'Tip of the Tongue Cultivation' quest is only at twelve fish — when am I ever going to rack up a hundred? And how do I use this bell Auntie Li gave me?"

The old geezer's projection flickered lazily into view, a bag of crisps cradled in his arms. "Dimwit. If you want to get stronger, stop slacking. When you're selling grilled fish in the daytime, channel a pulse of spiritual energy into them — it boosts the medicinal potency and ticks off quest progress at the same time. Two birds, one stone. As for the Silent Bell, drip your blood on it to bind it to you — though with blood as rancid as yours, try not to marinate the spirit artifact."

"Oh, get lost." I rolled my eyes at him, then dutifully jabbed my finger with a needle and let a drop of blood fall onto the bell. A flash of golden light — and the bell instantly became warm and smooth to the touch, carrying the faint murmur of running water. I gave it a shake. Sure enough, silence. But I could feel the ambient noise around me dimming, as though the world had turned down its own volume.

"Daddy, what are you playing with?" River came charging in clutching his Ultraman toy, eyes fixed on the bell with undisguised curiosity.

"This is... this is a new toy Daddy bought you," I said, quickly fastening the bell around his neck. "Wear this and you become Silent Ultraman — you can fight monsters at night without waking Mummy up!"

River's eyes blazed with excitement. He spun in a circle on the spot. "Yeah! I'm Silent Ultraman!" Sure enough, his shout came out noticeably softer than usual, and the cloud patterns on the bell pulsed with a brief gleam.

With River sorted, I slipped out to the balcony to cultivate. Following the techniques laid out in Fundamentals of Water-Attribute Spells, I attempted to condense a water-arrow. But at the Fourth Tier of Qi Refinement, my spiritual energy surged through my meridians like a bull in a china shop — several times I nearly turned the balcony cactus into a pin cushion. That cactus was now a "Soul-Piercing Grass," mind you; a single prick would leave a person buzzing with energy for a full day. Last time Jade Lin caught a spine, she'd been out in the living room doing square-dance aerobics at midnight.

"Focus!" the system elder snapped impatiently. "Imagine you're scaling a fish — keep your hands steady!"

I drew a slow breath and visualised my spiritual energy as a sharp, precise blade. It worked — the water-arrow forming at my fingertip became noticeably more stable. I wasn't at the level of hitting whatever I aimed at, not yet, but at least I'd stopped being a danger to myself.

Ding! Water-Arrow proficiency increased to 20%. Preliminary grasp of precision targeting achieved.

I was just feeling rather pleased with myself when Old Zhang's coughing drifted up from below, accompanied by the rhythmic tap tap tap of his walking stick on the ground. I leaned over the railing for a look. Old Zhang was down at the stone table with a few other retirees playing chess. His walking stick knocked idly against one of the stone stool legs, producing a crisp, clear ring — and it hit me: those stone stools were carved from solid ink jade. I'd always assumed they were ordinary marble.

End of Chapter 21: The Silent Bell