Gao Wu: I became the minor villain that the protagonist was about to destroy.

As soon as Ye Ming stepped out of the teleportation screen at the exit of the secret realm, his phone in his pocket began vibrating wildly. The frequency and intensity of the vibrations seemed to be the phone itself protesting—finally, you have a signal!

He took out his phone, turned on the screen, and then remained silent for a moment.

Unread messages: 247.

Missed calls: 63.

Ye Ming stared at the two alarming numbers on the screen, his eyelids twitched, then he slowly exhaled a breath of stale air and muttered to himself, "...I knew it."

He first glanced at the message list—Long Zhenting had sent more than thirty messages, from the initial "Xiao Ming, I have something to discuss with you" to the later "Where did you run off to?" and finally "Call back immediately when you see this message";

Li Wuyou sent more than a dozen messages, the content of which was concise and consistent, basically "Have you come out yet?" "Not out yet?" "Reply when you see this"; Su Mingyue sent more than twenty messages, ranging from daily greetings to slightly worried inquiries, and then to the last few messages that were clearly filled with anxiety;

Leng Ruoxue, Guo Haihuang, Ji Wubai, and others also received several messages; there were also a few from unknown numbers, with the note "Special Task Force Liaison Office".

Ye Ming called Long Zhenting back first.

The call was answered almost instantly, and Long Zhenting's booming voice came through, carrying a clear sense of relief: "You finally decided to come out? I thought you were planning to spend the New Year in that secret realm!"

Ye Ming smiled and said, "There was a slight accident that delayed me for a while. Grandpa, why did you call me so urgently? Is something wrong?"

"This is a major matter." Long Zhenting's tone became more serious. "The report you submitted regarding the Zerg sealing has been reviewed and approved by the highest levels. Grandmaster Xuanyuan Wuji personally instructed the establishment of a special task force to deal with matters ten years from now, with me as the team leader."

"And you—" Long Zhenting paused, "have been appointed as a special operations officer in the task force, directly responsible to me, with independent operational authority and corresponding resource allocation rights. The appointment document has been issued, and we are just waiting for your signature to confirm it."

Ye Ming was silent for a moment, then slowly said, "Special operations officer... that sounds pretty formal, but I was only gone for a month, how come there are so many new things?"

"Nonsense, this is a national-level appointment." Long Zhenting's tone carried a hint of pride. "Your master fought for it for you at the meeting, and Xuan Yuan Wuji personally approved it. With this status, your actions within the country will be much more convenient. At least Tianmu will have to think twice before making any moves against you."

Upon hearing this, Ye Ming was speechless when he realized that it was his cheap master who had arranged this task for him. "This old man, he does nothing all day but gives me something to do. Alright, I understand. I'm going back to the capital now."

"Okay, we'll talk about it when we get back." Long Zhenting paused, then added, "By the way, any news about your Dragon Phoenix Wood?"

Ye Ming's lips curled up slightly: "Of course, we found a section."

There was a two-second silence on the other end of the phone, followed by a hearty laugh from Long Zhenting: "Good! Good! I knew you had a way! Come back and tell me the whole story!"

After hanging up the phone, Ye Ming stood there for a moment, scrolling through other messages. He replied to Su Mingyue with a short message, "Safe, out of the secret realm, will contact you again after returning to the capital," and to Li Wuyou with a message, "You can still cause trouble for me even when I'm not here, you're something else," before putting his phone back in his pocket.

Sui leaned on his left shoulder, and seeing that he had finally finished processing the messages, asked, "Shall we head straight back to the capital now?"

"Mm." Ye Ming nodded and walked towards the exit of the secret realm. "Let's go back and settle things first, then plan the next step. We've got the Dragon Phoenix Wood; next up are the Earth Vein Heart and the Star Core."

The young phoenix perched on his right shoulder, tilting its head to listen to their conversation. Although it didn't speak, its bright black eyes sparkled with curiosity, clearly showing its fascination with the outside world.

Then Ye Ming hailed a car and headed straight for the teleportation station.

About three hours later, Ye Ming appeared in front of the gate of the Long family manor.

As soon as he entered, he saw Long Zhenting sitting in the armchair in the main hall, as if he had been waiting for a long time. When he saw Ye Ming walk in, Long Zhenting put down his teacup, first looked him up and down to make sure he was unharmed, and then his gaze fell on the crimson-gold phoenix chick on his right shoulder, and his eyebrows twitched slightly.

"...What is this? Why does this bird seem so annoying?"

Sui said somewhat sarcastically, "How could we not owe it? This is a little phoenix, a mortal enemy!!"

Before Ye Ming could speak, the fledgling phoenix began to complain, "Why has it suddenly become so unpleasant? Has the dragon race really fallen to such a state?"

Sui immediately retorted, "It's better than your Phoenix Clan being beaten and forced to relocate as a whole."

"You dead flea, are you trying to practice again?!"

"Oh ho!! Do you think your grandpa Sui is afraid of you?"

"%/&! →....."

Seeing the two fighting again, Ye Ming lost interest in stopping them. "Young Phoenix, brought out from that secret realm."

Long Zhenting's gaze faltered for a moment, lingering on the fledgling phoenix for a couple more seconds. He looked at Ye Ming with a rather complicated tone and said, "...You went into the secret realm and brought back a fledgling phoenix? That brat is really lucky."

"There's another piece of Dragon Phoenix Wood," Ye Ming added, then took out the dark golden Dragon Phoenix Wood from his storage space, held it in his palm, and showed it to Long Zhenting.

Long Zhenting's gaze fell on the piece of dragon-phoenix wood, sensing the unique and profound aura emanating from it. He remained silent for a while, then slowly nodded, his voice carrying a hint of genuine admiration: "Good...good indeed!"

Ye Ming smiled, put the Dragon Phoenix Wood back into his storage space, and then sat down in the chair opposite Long Zhenting: "Just lucky. But the next two items won't be so easy to find."

Long Zhenting nodded, his expression turning serious again: "I've also had people keeping an eye on the matter of the Earth Vein Heart and the Star Core. But these things can't be rushed. You should rest for a couple of days, complete the appointment procedures for the special task force, and then we can discuss this further."

Ye Ming nodded, offering no objection.

The procedures were simpler than those for the Night Meditation Statue—identity registration, psionic imprint collection, access activation, and confidentiality agreement signing were all completed in less than an hour.

The staff handed him a completely black metal badge with an ancient-style character "特" engraved on the front and a unique serial number on the back: X-001.

Long Zhenting glanced at the badge, his tone carrying a deeper meaning: "X Sequence, the highest level of authority among special operations personnel. Currently, you're the only one in this sequence within the entire task force."

Ye Ming toyed with the badge, sensing the tiny psionic imprint embedded within—the core of his identity verification and a signal transmitter used for location tracking and distress calls in emergencies. He put the badge away and looked up at Long Zhenting: "What's next?"

"Next—" Long Zhenting paused, "the selection of members for the special task force has begun in full swing. Preliminary selections are underway in the four military regions and major psionic academies, and the first batch of members is expected to be selected and assembled within half a month. At that time, as a special operations officer, you will inevitably have to come face to face with them."