Gu Changyuan Finds His Bearings

At the exact moment Jun Anshi disappeared, Gu Changyuan sensed it.

His brows furrowed sharply. With a flash of his figure, he vanished from the treetop.

In the next instant, he appeared at the exact location where Jun Anshi was last seen.

This place was still some distance away from the other disciples in Jun Anshi's group. It was surrounded by a dense ancient forest, the ground covered with a thick layer of fallen leaves.

Gu Changyuan closed his eyes, and everything around him became different the moment he did so.

The sound of the wind, the rustling of leaves, the distant cries of birds and beasts—all sounds vanished at this moment.

Replacing them was a much deeper perception: the flow of time.

Gu Changyuan slowly opened his eyes.

In his eyes, the surrounding space and time began to reverse.

Within the backward-flowing time, he saw a phantom image.

The phantom of Jun Anshi.

She was running from a distance, her steps light and brisk, her gaze locked onto something ahead.

About ten zhang in front of her, an entirely emerald-green rabbit was scurrying away.

The moment she intruded into this area, Jun Anshi's figure instantly vanished from the spot, leaving no trace behind.

Gu Changyuan then slowed the flow of time to its absolute limit, so slow that every single frame was clearly visible.

The instant Jun Anshi stepped into this clearing, the space underwent a subtle change.

It was not a tear, nor a distortion, but a much more exquisite folding.

The space in front of her had been folded into an extremely narrow passage, the other end connecting to some unknown coordinate.

Completely focused on her pursuit, Jun Anshi did not notice this change at all. The moment she stepped in, her entire person was swallowed up as if by a giant maw, instantly vanishing from the spot.

That rabbit, after Jun Anshi disappeared, also stopped in its tracks.

It stood in the clearing, its ruby-like eyes looking toward Gu Changyuan's direction.

In this scene of reversed time, it actually looked at the exact spot where Gu Changyuan was standing.

There was no panic or hostility in those eyes, only an indescribable, profound meaning.

Then, the rabbit disappeared as well.

It wasn't teleported, nor did it use spatial movement. Instead, it simply dissipated like morning mist, as if it were merely a key deliberately placed here.

Gu Changyuan withdrew his technique, and everything around him returned to its normal flow.

His face was as gloomy as still water.

That rabbit did not appear here by accident.

Its mission was to lure Jun Anshi to a specific position in this clearing, thereby triggering the space-time folding restriction and teleporting her to an unknown location.

This was a trap, right from the very beginning.

Gu Changyuan did not waste time being angry.

He tapped his right foot lightly on the ground, and dozens of array formations spread out from beneath his feet, rippling in all directions like waves on water.

The array lines were golden, densely packed and overlapping, weaving together in the air to form an incredibly complex three-dimensional magical array.

As long as a trace was left behind, there was nothing he could not track down.

The array activated, and the golden light spun, intertwined, and restructured in the air.

Gu Changyuan's divine sense probed into the folded space through the array, parsing the structure, coordinates, and the underlying rules of that teleportation passage bit by bit.

He was not searching for where Jun Anshi had been teleported; he was deducing.

By using the traces of the space-time fold, he was reverse-engineering the destination coordinates of the teleportation passage.

Any cultivator below the Immortal Emperor realm would find this impossible to achieve.

But for Gu Changyuan, it was only a matter of time.

He closed his eyes, his divine sense diving deeper and deeper into the foundational layers of the folded space with the array's augmentation.

He could feel a faint anchor point deep within the overlapping folds of space and time—that was the endpoint where Jun Anshi had been sent.

Found it.

Gu Changyuan opened his eyes. The surrounding array dissipated on command, and the golden motes of light drifted into the air like fireflies.

There was no anger or anxiety in his eyes, only a coldness that was calm to the extreme.

You had better not have done anything to my disciple.

Otherwise, even if you are nothing but a corpse, I will dig you up and scatter your ashes.

Gu Changyuan's figure flashed, and he vanished from the spot.

At the exact moment Gu Changyuan left, the disciples from Jun Anshi's group rushed over, drawn by the spiritual energy fluctuations and the aura of the array.

But just as they arrived, Gu Changyuan had already departed. The space-time fluctuations here had returned to normal, leaving absolutely no trace.

They were left staring at each other in dismay, anxious but helpless.

......

Jun Anshi looked around, her eyes filled with curiosity and a lingering trace of bewilderment.

Just a moment ago, while chasing that rabbit, she suddenly felt a flash of white light before her eyes.

The light was intense but not blinding, enveloping the entire world within it.

In the next instant, when her vision cleared, she was already standing inside this space.

Beneath her feet was a clear water surface, acting like an unimaginably massive mirror that reflected the entire space.

Stepping on it did not cause her to sink, and the sensation transmitted to the soles of her feet was soft.

With every step she took, the water surface rippled with tiny rings that spread outward.

There was no sky overhead.

Or rather, the ceiling was simply the reflection of this water surface.

In the center of the space stood a colossal parasol tree.

Its canopy was enormous, its branches and leaves lush. Every single leaf was an emerald green—a pure, profound green.

The entire space was so quiet it bordered on the sacred.

There was no sound of wind, no sound of water, no noise from any living creature.

Jun Anshi took a deep breath, sensing the massive and remarkably pure power of time contained within this space.

Just by staying in this space, she could feel her body slowly undergoing some sort of transformation, as if it were absorbing the pure spiritual energy and the power of the Great Dao present here.