Lost Companions, Li Wuyang's Resolve, and a New Map

Landing on solid ground, feeling the relatively stable laws of space, Li Wuyang and Xuan both let out a sigh of relief, but their hearts were heavy.

Li Wuyang immediately looked around, urgently calling out his companions' names: "Huaihuai! Little Fire! Yingying! Jinbao!"

The only response was the echo in the vast valley and the rustling of leaves in the wind.

Huaihuai, Little Fire, Yingying, Jinbao, none of them made it out. They were all swept away by the temporal turbulence, scattered across unknown time and space.

A great sense of loss and self-blame surged in Li Wuyang's heart. He collapsed onto the ground, punching the earth fiercely, his eyes turning red, "It's all my fault! If I hadn't pointed in the wrong direction... If my strength wasn't enough..."

Xuan stood beside him, her face as pale as paper, her aura weak, but her eyes remained calm. She looked at Li Wuyang, who was consumed by pain and self-reproach, and after a moment of silence, she said, "Separation in temporal turbulence is not a dead end."

Li Wuyang looked up sharply, a flicker of hope igniting in his eyes: "Xuan, you mean..."

Xuan slowly said, "Although temporal turbulence is dangerous, it is not purely a place of destruction. It connects the past and future, all the myriad worlds. Your companions being swept away more likely means they were scattered to a specific point in time or a small world, rather than being completely annihilated."

She pointed to herself and Li Wuyang: "The fact that we got out is proof. Each of them has extraordinary qualities and may not perish easily. Huaihuai has cloud energy to protect its body, Little Fire has a powerful bloodline, Yingying is a nature spirit, and Jinbao has bizarre luck... Their chances of survival are greater than you think."

Listening to Xuan's analysis, Li Wuyang's despair gradually gave way to a sliver of hope. Yes, his companions were no ordinary beings; they must still be alive!

"But... the Primordial World is so vast, and the myriad worlds are endless, how can I find them?" Li Wuyang felt powerless again. It was like searching for a needle in a haystack.

Xuan's gaze drifted into the distance, a deep light flashing in her heterochromatic eyes: "Karma. The karmic connection between you and them has not been completely severed by the separation in time and space. As long as you are alive, and they are alive, this karma will guide the path to reunion. When you become powerful enough, you will even be able to sense their location."

She paused and looked at Li Wuyang, her tone carrying a rare solemnity: "The immediate priority is for you and me to recover our strength and survive. Only by living and becoming stronger is there a possibility of finding and reuniting them."

Xuan's words were like a splash of cold water, waking Li Wuyang from his grief. He took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down. Yes, self-reproach and sadness wouldn't solve anything. The most important thing now was to survive and become stronger!

He stood up, wiped the moisture from his eyes, and his gaze became firm again: "Xuan, you're right! I will become stronger! Strong enough to traverse all the worlds and find them!"

At this moment, Li Wuyang seemed to have matured considerably. Before, he had mostly muddled through the Primordial World relying on luck and "daddy's influence." Although he had adventured, there was always a sense of playfulness and luck involved. Now, the separation of his companions had made him truly realize the importance of strength and the responsibility on his shoulders.

He looked at Xuan and saw that her condition was extremely poor, her aura weak. It was clear that she had paid a great price to break through the temporal turbulence. "Xuan, how are you? Healing is the priority!"

Xuan nodded, not trying to be brave. She found a hidden cave, set up a simple concealment barrier, and then began to meditate, trying her best to stabilize her injuries and refine a trace of the Devour Origin Core's power to recover.

Li Wuyang took on the role of protector while carefully observing this unfamiliar world.

The spiritual energy here was astonishingly dense, even exceeding that at the foot of Buzhou Mountain. The vegetation was exceptionally lush, and the mountains and rivers were beautiful, but it always gave him an unreal feeling. It was as if... all of this had been meticulously constructed, lacking the wild, primitive, and infinitely potential vitality of the Primordial World.

Moreover, when he tried to circulate the Huang Ting Jing to absorb spiritual energy, he found that although the spiritual energy here was dense, it carried a strange "inertia." Refining it was twice as effective with half the effort, far from the lively and agile nature of the spiritual energy in the Primordial World.

"What kind of hellish place is this?" Li Wuyang wondered. He took out the bronze compass, only to find that its needle had lost its direction here, spinning randomly without any pattern.

A few days later, Xuan's injuries had temporarily stabilized, but she was still far from recovering her peak condition. She opened her eyes, sensed the world, and frowned slightly: "This place... the laws are incomplete, the Heavenly Dao is not whole. It's like a... artificially created 'testing ground' or 'cage'."

"'Testing ground'? 'Cage'?" Li Wuyang became even more curious.

Just then, the sound of something breaking through the air came from the sky in the distance! Several beams of sword light streaked across the sky, flying towards their location! Standing on the sword light were several cultivators wearing the same style of Taoist robes, with cultivation levels 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, a middle-aged Taoist with Heavenly Immortal cultivation, swept his gaze over the weak Xuan and the "lowly" cultivated Li Wuyang, a hint of disdain flashing in his eyes. He arrogantly spoke:

"Who are you? Why have you trespassed into my 'Spiritual Stream Realm'? State your names!"

Spiritual Stream Realm? Li Wuyang and Xuan exchanged glances. As expected, this was no longer the main world of the Primordial World!