My classmates chose martial arts and fantasy, but I chose the prehistoric world.

Meng Chuan and Hou Tu searched the site of the Wanfa Hall for nearly a thousand years.

It's called the old site, but it's completely unrecognizable now.

Back then, after the Underworld Sect and the Blood Sword Sect joined forces to break through the Hall of Ten Thousand Laws, they looted the entire mountain gate, taking away what they could carry and destroying what they couldn't.

The former palaces and pavilions have long since collapsed, leaving only broken walls and ruins buried under overgrown weeds and vines. Occasionally, a few broken jade steps are exposed above the ground, vaguely revealing a glimpse of the grandeur of yesteryear.

Over the course of a thousand years, the two of them turned this ruin into an almost unrecognizable place.

Meng Chuan repeatedly deduced the cause and effect, while Hou Tu used the unique secret method of the Ice Spirit Holy Land to sense the residual spatial fluctuations in this place—the two worked together, but still came up empty-handed.

Until this day.

Meng Chuan stood silently before the ruins of Yan Qing's former training grounds.

It was a small hill that had been mostly cut away. Inside the hill was originally a stone chamber, which was Yan Qing's exclusive training place when he was in the Hall of Ten Thousand Laws.

The stone chamber has long since collapsed, and the entrance is buried under rubble. If Meng Chuan hadn't relied on his memory to identify the terrain, he would never have been able to tell that there had once been a building here.

Houtu stood beside him, her gaze sweeping over the surroundings, and suddenly let out a soft "Eh."

"What's wrong?"

"The spatial fluctuations here...something's not right."

Houtu squatted down, placed her hand on the ground, and a layer of pale blue light appeared in her palm. "It's not the residual echo of the laws, it's more like—something has been deliberately hidden."

Meng Chuan frowned, squatted down, placed his palm on the ground, and probed the ground with his divine sense.

At first, he felt nothing. But when he extended his divine sense to about a hundred feet underground, he suddenly encountered an extremely faint barrier—

The barrier was extremely well hidden. If Houtu hadn't pointed out the anomaly beforehand, he would have almost ignored it as a natural fluctuation of the earth's veins.

"There was definitely a problem."

The two exchanged a glance and attacked simultaneously.

Meng Chuan forcefully broke through the strata using the law of force, while Hou Tu stabilized the surrounding soil and rock structure using the law of space to prevent collapse.

A moment later, a narrow tunnel appeared before the two of them—

The tunnel sloped downwards, its walls covered with faded runes that emitted an extremely faint light.

"These runes..."

Houtu reached out and touched the engravings on the wall. "It's an ancient concealment formation. The setup is extremely sophisticated. If the formation's energy hadn't been almost depleted, we probably wouldn't have been able to detect it even if we were standing on it."

The two walked down the tunnel for about the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, and at the end of the tunnel appeared a small stone chamber.

The stone chamber was only about ten feet square and empty, except for a circular array about three feet in diameter carved on the ground in the very center.

The formation was extremely ancient, its lines simple yet profound.

Meng Chuan glanced over and immediately discerned traces of at least a dozen kinds of laws, with the laws of space and time being the dominant ones, while the other laws played a supporting and stabilizing role.

"Teleportation array."

Houtu said with certainty.

Meng Chuan crouched down and carefully observed every detail of the formation.

His fingertips gently brushed across the array patterns, sensing the residual fluctuations of the laws within, and his expression gradually became solemn.

"Where does this teleportation array lead?"

Houtu straightened up and looked at Meng Chuan. "Could it be that Qingqing left the headquarters of the Hall of Ten Thousand Laws through this formation?"

Meng Chuan did not answer immediately.

He closed his eyes, activated the law of cause and effect, and tried to capture a causal thread related to Yan Qing—after a moment, he opened his eyes and slowly nodded.

"There are traces of her. They're faint, but they're definitely there. She must have actually come into contact with this formation."

Houtu pondered and said, "In other words, when the Myriad Laws Hall was destroyed, she may not have escaped through the mountain gate in the chaos, but rather left through this teleportation array."

"Very likely."

Meng Chuan stood up. "This explains why I've searched for her for so many years without finding any trace of her—she might have been transported to an unknown place! Perhaps even another world!"

The two did not rashly activate the formation.

Meng Chuan spent three days making a copy of every detail of the entire formation, and then spent a whole month studying and deducing it repeatedly with Hou Tu.

They tried various methods to activate parts of the array in an attempt to deduce the target location of the teleportation, but each attempt ended in failure.

The complexity of this teleportation array far exceeded their expectations.

"no."

A month later, Meng Chuan shook his head, a hint of weariness on his face. "The laws involved in this formation are too high. I can't deduce its destination."

Houtu was silent for a moment, then asked, "What should we do?"

Meng Chuan did not hesitate for long.

"I'll go in and take a look."

Houtu's gaze sharpened slightly: "Are you sure?"

"uncertain."

Meng Chuan frankly stated, "But this is our only clue at the moment. Yan Qing most likely left through this formation, and if I don't go in, I'll never know where she went."

He paused, then looked at Houtu: "I'll go alone. I don't know where this formation leads, or whether it brings fortune or misfortune. You go back to the Lonely Goose Holy Land and wait for me. If I find Yan Qing, I'll bring her back to meet you."

Houtu remained silent.

She just looked at Meng Chuan quietly, her gaze calm, yet it made Meng Chuan feel inexplicably guilty.

After a long while, she slowly spoke, her voice not loud, but every word was clear and distinct:

"Didn't you tell me before that you weren't leaving?"

Meng Chuan was speechless.

"Now you're leaving alone again?"

Houtu's tone remained calm, but there was something in her clear eyes that couldn't be ignored. "When you say 'not leaving,' is this what you mean by not leaving?"

Meng Chuan opened his mouth, wanting to explain something, but found that any explanation would seem pale and powerless in this situation.

He did say that.

On the hillside, under the setting sun, amidst a sky full of stars—he said, "This time, I won't leave again."

What he's doing now is clearly slapping himself in the face.

"...That's not what I meant," Meng Chuan said somewhat awkwardly. "I just felt that we didn't know what the other side was like, and what if there was danger—"

"Then do you think I won't worry about you if I go back alone?" Houtu interrupted him.

Meng Chuan was speechless again.

Houtu didn't say anything more, but walked to his side and stood shoulder to shoulder with him, her gaze fixed on the ancient teleportation array.

"Let's go," she said calmly. "Together."

Meng Chuan looked at her, remained silent for a moment, then let out a soft breath, a bitter smile unconsciously appearing on his lips.

Okay. Together.

He didn't say anything more about asking her to stay.

Because he knew she wouldn't listen.

Just like back in the primordial world, when she wanted to stand up for him, she wouldn't listen to anyone's advice.

The two stood side by side in the center of the teleportation array. Meng Chuan reached out his hand, and Hou Tu hesitated for a moment before reaching out her hand as well, grasping his.

Her fingertips were slightly cool, but her palms were warm.

Meng Chuan took a deep breath and channeled the power of the laws within his body into the teleportation array beneath his feet.