Luo Qingchen shook his slightly heavy head and propped himself up on the ground to stand. The Chaotic Power circulated inside him for a cycle, dispelling most of the discomfort, but the forced exertion of power and the consumption from traversing the turbulent stream still left him feeling a sense of exhaustion.
Lin Wan’er also stood up, supporting herself against a nearby tree trunk, and checked on Bai Ling’er. The little girl was still unconscious, but her face was rosy, and her breathing was steady and long. The leaf between her eyebrows was no longer glowing, but it seemed to contain a bit more vitality than before. It seemed this crossing was actually beneficial for her.
"This is..." Luo Qingchen looked around, his voice carrying a trace of incredulous hoarseness.
They found themselves in a dense, primordial forest. Towering ancient trees blotted out the sky, thick vines intertwined around them, and the ground was covered with thick, fallen leaves that emitted the damp scent of earth and decayed vegetation. The air was filled with a rich and familiar nature’s spiritual energy, though mixed, it brimmed with vitality, starkly different from the deathly stillness of the Returning Ruins or the purity of alien stars.
Sunlight filtered through the overlapping branches and leaves, casting dappled light spots in the forest. Several colorful birds, startled, flapped their wings and flew up from the nearby shrubs, emitting clear cries. In the distance, the sound of a bubbling stream could faintly be heard.
Everything seemed so...normal.
So normal it was as if they were in a different world.
Lin Wan’er stretched out her hand, catching a falling, familiar-shaped broad leaf, feeling the wood element spiritual ability it contained, her eyes instantly reddened. She covered her mouth, her shoulders trembling slightly, and tears silently fell.
Su Xiaowan was also stunned. She looked at the familiar trees around, smelled the familiar air, then looked down at the darkened turtle shell in her arms. Her mouth puckered, and she cried out, "Wah... It’s the three-leaf pine! It’s the Seven-Star Grass! And this earthy smell... We... we’re really back?!"
Luo Qingchen slowly closed his eyes, his Divine Sense spreading out like a tide.
Within a radius of dozens of miles, mountains undulated, forests waved, and streams meandered. He felt the familiar pulse of spiritual energy, sensed the faint presence of spirit monsters in the mountains, detected the occasional glimmer of cultivators passing through the sky... though faint, it was undeniably the aura of their world!
He suddenly opened his eyes, the taut strings of his heart relaxing all at once, and an indescribable fatigue and relief surged in. He tilted his head back, looking up at the sky through the gaps in the leaves; the sunlight was a bit dazzling.
After a long while, he uttered three words, his voice carrying unprecedented relief:
"We... are home."
"Home..."
These three words seemed to carry some kind of magic, momentarily making the three who had just survived a life-and-death ordeal forget their exhaustion and pain, immersed in a state of indescribable excitement and daze.
Su Xiaowan’s crying gradually stopped, turning into soft sobs. She wiped her tears while curiously surveying her surroundings, as if engraving this reclaimed land into her eyes: "Ooh... The trees here grow taller than the ones behind my house... The spiritual energy seems denser here... Where are we?"
Lin Wan’er also wiped her tears away, and a genuine smile appeared on her face, as bright and moving as the sunlight after rain. She walked to an ancient tree, gently stroked the rough bark, feeling the gentle life force flowing within, and softly said, "The spiritual energy here is abundant, and the essence of vegetation is ample; it should be a place where spiritual energy converges, far from human habitation."
Luo Qingchen nodded. His Divine Sense had more or less mapped the surroundings. They seemed to have landed in the depths of a vast primordial mountain range, rarely frequented by humans, though some spirit monsters resided here, their strength was not formidable enough to pose a threat.
"Let’s find a place to rest first," Luo Qingchen spoke, regaining a calm tone. "We’ve all exhausted ourselves and need recovery. Ling’er also needs a stable environment."
After the joy of escaping death, reality set in with its challenges. Luo Qingchen introspected himself; though the Chaos Origin was condensed, he had consumed significantly, especially when he forcibly infused the turtle shell and stabilized the passage, leaving his Dantian rather empty. Lin Wan’er’s face was somewhat pale as well, having carried Bai Ling’er while traveling and battling, her spiritual power was similarly depleted. Su Xiaowan was primarily mentally exhausted, holding that dull turtle shell, her little face full of worry.
"Turtle shell, turtle shell, how are you? Would you like to drink some spiritual energy?" Su Xiaowan sat cross-legged, mimicking the adults’ cultivation posture, trying hard to channel her meager spiritual power into the turtle shell.
However, the turtle shell remained unresponsive, still as blackened and dull as ever, with even the tiny crack unchanged.
"Wah... It’s ignoring me..." Su Xiaowan pouted, on the verge of tears again.
"Don’t worry," Luo Qingchen came over, squatted down, and carefully examined the turtle shell. "It’s probably exhausted of energy, entering a self-protective sleep state. A treasure of this level should have strong self-repair capabilities; it just needs time, or perhaps... a certain type of energy replenishment." His fingertips surrounded by a wisp of gray chaotic flow, he attempted to touch the turtle shell, but it remained unresponsive, appearing uninterested in his Chaotic Power.
"A certain type of energy?" Su Xiaowan tilted her head, "What kind of energy is that? Would heavenly materials and earthly treasures do? My dad hid some good stuff for me..."
Luo Qingchen shook his head, "Not sure. It might be Earth Element Origin, or Star Force, or even something more special. Let’s let it recover itself first." He patted Su Xiaowan’s head, "The priority is to restore our own state, then determine our current location, and find a way back to the Sect as soon as possible."

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