Tang Dynasty Demon Suppression Division

Li Yuan took a step forward, and a flash of light appeared before his eyes, causing the scenery to suddenly change.

A gloomy sky, barren land, and a withered old locust tree standing alone in the wilderness. The air was deathly still; there was no wind, no sound, and even the passage of time seemed to stand still.

A boy sat under the withered tree.

He looked about fifteen or sixteen years old, dressed in coarse linen clothes with several patches, clearly from a poor family. At that moment, the boy was curled up beside a tree root, hugging his knees with his hands, burying his face in his knees, his shoulders shaking slightly, crying.

Wu Yu followed Li Yuan into the rift. Seeing the boy, she paused for a moment and instinctively reached out to ask, "Hey, who are you...?"

"Don't go over there!"

Lei Lie followed closely behind and stopped Wu Yu, staring warily at the boy. "Be careful, it might be a trap."

Li Yuan stood still, observed quietly for a moment, closed his eyes, and extended his spiritual sense. After a while, he opened his eyes with a solemn expression.

"Something's wrong with this space," he whispered. "I can't sense the stars."

Since merging with the power of the stars, no matter where he is, even in a closed underground cave, he can vaguely sense the existence of the stars in the sky.

It was a mysterious connection, as if the stars had become a part of his body, but in this dark space, that connection was completely severed.

"It's not just the space that's been altered," Li Yuan said slowly, "the time here is wrong too."

"Wrong timing?" Wu Yu scratched her head, looking at him with confusion. "What do you mean?"

Li Yuan didn't answer. He walked up to the boy, squatted down, and asked gently, "Hello, my name is Li Yuan. Why are you sitting here crying all by yourself?"

The boy slowly raised his head, revealing a delicate yet pale face. His eyes were red and swollen, and his face was streaked with tears, making him look extremely sad.

He glanced at Li Yuan, then at Wu Yu and Lei Lie behind him, and said timidly, "I...I'm waiting for my brother."

Where did your brother go?

"He went up the mountain to mine." The boy raised his hand and pointed to the towering mountain peak in the distance. "Snowy Peak. He said there is a kind of glowing stone on the mountain. If he digs it up and sells it, he can cure his mother's illness."

"How long was he gone?"

The boy thought for a moment, then shook his head: "I don't know...maybe a month, maybe half a year?"

He clutched his head in frustration. "My mother is dying, and he hasn't come back. I had no choice but to come looking for him, but we can't go up the mountain. I can only wait for him here."

"What kind of ore did your brother go to dig? Was it a kind of glowing blue stone?" Li Yuan continued to ask.

The boy nodded: "Yes, my brother said those stones are very valuable, one stone can sell for a lot of silver. He's gone to dig them before, and he always came back safely, but this time... he was gone for a very, very long time."

Li Yuan was silent for a moment, then asked, "What's your name?"

"My name is Amu."

"Amu, do you remember the last time your brother went out?"

The boy tilted his head and thought for a long time, finally shaking his head blankly: "I don't remember, it seems like it was a long, long time ago."

It seems that the child is unaware that he is already dead; waiting for his brother has become his only obsession, sustaining him to remain in this fragment of space.

"Did something happen after that?"

Li Yuan finally asked the question, staring intently at his face, wanting to see if he would react.

Amu was stunned for a moment, then his expression slowly changed: "How terrifying! The sky suddenly went dark, many people were running, I heard roars... They're all dead..."

He froze at this point, slowly looking down at his hands, which began to turn transparent.

"I...I'm dead too..."

As he came to his senses, the deathly aura emanating from him began to dissipate. "So, my brother is dead, I'm dead, we're all dead..."

He muttered to himself, his figure began to distort, clearly his soul was unstable. Li Yuan sighed and hurriedly took action, using the purifying power of the Myriad Realms Palace to dispel the resentment in Amu's body.

In the dim space, Amu's figure began to become illusory.

Li Yuan withdrew his hand, a trace of warm purifying power still remaining in his palm. Amu smiled with relief and reached out his hand to him.

"Thank you." Amu's figure grew fainter and fainter, and his voice became ethereal. "I can finally go find my brother."

He paused, as if remembering something important, and looked at Li Yuan seriously: "By the way, you must be careful. There are many, many people like me in this mountain. They are in pain and angry, and they will attack anyone who enters the mountain."

"You must be careful..."

As soon as he finished speaking, Amu's figure completely vanished, turning into countless tiny specks of light that merged into the gray sky.

Li Yuan stood up, remained silent for a moment, and nodded slightly in the direction where Amu had disappeared.

"Let's go."

He turned around and said, "We must find Senior Sister Leng as soon as possible. The space here is becoming increasingly unstable. If this continues, it will collapse sooner or later."

"But how can we find the right way?" Lei Lie frowned. "The space here is completely chaotic, and we can't even tell which way is which."

"I'll give it a try."

Li Yuan closed his eyes again, immersing his mind in the depths of his consciousness, and began to communicate with the Myriad Realms Palace.

When he opened his eyes again, a flash of starlight passed through the depths of his pupils.

"I can sense the flow of time," Li Yuan said slowly. "Although the space here is distorted, the flow of time is still traceable. As long as we find the direction in which the flow of time is smoothest, that is the path to the real space."

Lei Lie looked at him with some surprise: "You can sense the flow of time?"

The talent of time is the most mysterious top-tier talent in the world. Li Yuan's level nine talent has never been defined, but it turns out it is related to time.

"Okay, I'll explain later." Li Yuan pointed northeast. "It's over there. Follow me."

He took the lead and set off, and Wu Yu followed without hesitation, showing complete trust in Li Yuan.

Although Lei Lie still had doubts, he had no other choice but to trust Li Yuan and waved for the other disciples to follow.

Li Yuan walked and stopped frequently, pausing every so often to try and sense the surroundings, but the space was too chaotic, forcing him to constantly adjust his direction.

Sometimes he would even walk backwards from a different angle, seemingly going around in circles. But Lei Lie noticed that the surrounding scenery was beginning to change; the gloomy colors were fading, and warmth was returning to the air.

"Look over there!" Wu Yu suddenly exclaimed in surprise.

As everyone looked up, they saw that in the distance, Snow Cloud Mountain was no longer a distant mirage, and the forest at its foot was clearly visible.

This time, they are really getting closer.

"Hurry up." Li Yuan quickened his pace. "While the space is stable, let's rush through in one go."

No one dared to delay, and they all used their movement techniques to follow behind Li Yuan, rushing towards the direction of Xuexiao Mountain.