Standing on solid ground and feeling the relatively stable laws of space, Li Wuyang and Xuan both breathed a sigh of relief, but their hearts were unbearably heavy.
Li Wuyang immediately looked around and anxiously called out his companions' names. "Huaihuai! Little Fire! Yingying! Jinbao!"
Only the echoes in the empty valley answered him, along with the rustling of leaves in the wind.
Huaihuai, Little Fire, Yingying, and Jinbao—none of them had made it through. They had all been swept away by the spatial-temporal turbulence and scattered across unknown times and spaces.
A tremendous sense of loss and self-blame surged through Li Wuyang. He collapsed onto the ground and slammed his fist viciously against it, his eyes reddening. "It's all my fault! If I hadn't pointed in the wrong direction... if I'd been stronger..."
Xuan stood beside him, his face pale as paper and his aura weak, yet his gaze remained calm. He watched Li Wuyang sink into pain and guilt, fell silent for a moment, then said, "Being separated in spatial-temporal turbulence is not a dead end."
Li Wuyang abruptly looked up, a spark of hope igniting in his eyes. "Xuan, you mean..."
Xuan slowly said, "Though spatial-temporal turbulence is dangerous, it is not a place of pure destruction. It connects the past and future, the heavens and myriad worlds. Your companions were more likely swept away to some specific point in time or a small world, rather than being completely annihilated."
He pointed at himself and Li Wuyang. "The fact that we came out proves it. Each of them is extraordinary in their own way, and they may not fall so easily. Huaihuai has cloud qi protecting him, Little Fire possesses a powerful bloodline, Yingying is a natural spirit, and Jinbao's fortune is bizarre... Their chances of survival are greater than you think."
As Li Wuyang listened to Xuan's analysis, the despair in his heart was gradually replaced by a trace of hope. That was right. His companions were no ordinary beings. They had to still be alive!
"But... the Primordial Wilderness is so vast, and the heavens and myriad worlds are endless. How am I supposed to find them?" Li Wuyang felt powerless again. This was like searching for a needle in the sea.
Xuan gazed into the distance, a profound glimmer flashing through his mismatched eyes. "Karma. The karmic connection between you and them has not been completely severed by the barrier of time and space. As long as you are alive and they are alive, this karma will guide the path to reunion. When you become strong enough, you may even be able to sense their locations."
He paused and looked at Li Wuyang, his tone carrying an unusual gravity. "Our most urgent task is to recover our strength and survive. Only by staying alive and becoming stronger will we have a chance to find them and reunite."
Xuan's words were like a basin of cold water, jolting Li Wuyang awake from his grief. He took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down. Yes, guilt and sorrow could solve nothing. What mattered most now was surviving and growing stronger!
He rose to his feet, wiped the moisture from the corners of his eyes, and his gaze became firm once more. "Xuan, you're right! I need to become stronger! Strong enough to cross the heavens and bring them back!"
At that moment, Li Wuyang seemed to mature considerably. Before, he had mostly muddled through the Primordial Wilderness on luck and "riding his father's coattails." Though he had faced adventures, he had always carried a hint of playfulness and wishful thinking. But now, the loss of his companions made him truly realize the importance of strength and the responsibility resting on his shoulders.
He looked at Xuan and saw that he was in terrible condition. His aura was listless, and it was clear that breaking free of the spatial-temporal turbulence had cost him dearly. "Xuan, how are you? Treating your injuries comes first!"
Xuan nodded without forcing himself. He found a concealed cave, set up a simple concealment barrier, then sat cross-legged and began meditating. He focused on regulating his breathing, trying to stabilize his injuries and refine a trace of the Devour Origin Core's power to recover.
Li Wuyang stood guard while carefully examining this unfamiliar world.
The spiritual energy here was astonishingly dense, even surpassing that at the foot of Buzhou Mountain. The vegetation was unusually lush, and the mountains and rivers were beautiful, yet everything gave him an unreal feeling. It was as though... all of it had been meticulously constructed, lacking the savage, primal, vibrant vitality and limitless possibilities of the Primordial Wilderness.
Moreover, when he tried circulating the Huang Ting Jing to absorb spiritual energy, he found that although the spiritual energy here was dense, it carried a strange "inertia." It was difficult to refine, nowhere near as lively and nimble as the spiritual energy of the Primordial Wilderness.
"What kind of damned place is this?" Li Wuyang wondered. He took out the bronze compass and found that its needle had lost all sense of direction, spinning around erratically.
Several days later, Xuan's injuries had temporarily stabilized, but he was still far from returning to his peak. He opened his eyes, sensed the world around him, and frowned slightly. "This place... has incomplete laws and an imperfect Heavenly Dao. It seems like... an artificially created 'testing ground' or 'prison.'"
"A testing ground? A prison?" Li Wuyang grew even more curious.
Just then, the sound of something tearing through the air came from the distant sky! Several streaks of sword light cut across the heavens, flying toward them! Standing atop those sword lights were several cultivators wearing uniform Daoist robes, their cultivation ranging from Spirit Refinement and Void Return (Earth Immortal) to Void Refining and Dao Integration (Heavenly Immortal).
Those cultivators also spotted Li Wuyang and Xuan at the cave entrance and immediately descended. The leader was a middle-aged Daoist at the Heavenly Immortal realm. His gaze swept over the weakened Xuan and the "lowly cultivated" Li Wuyang, and a flicker of contempt passed through his eyes as he arrogantly demanded:
"Who are you? Why have you trespassed into our 'Spiritual Stream Realm'? State your names!"
The Spiritual Stream Realm? Li Wuyang and Xuan exchanged a glance. Sure enough, they were no longer in the main world of the Primordial Wilderness!
(End of Chapter Forty)
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