Fellow Countryman

Beside the black-haired young man sat a beautiful girl with dark, flowing hair, a gentle smile on her face as she chatted with another girl whose short hair framed an exquisite face.

Far overhead, battle sounds rang out — thunderous booms, shockwaves that splintered space and time. Yet every last ripple of those clashes dissolved before it could reach the grassland below.

Anger carried down from the sky.

"You little vixen! Stand your ground and fight! Give that back!"

"Hehehe, Little Jingjing, catch me first~"

Not far from the young man, a blue-haired girl was tending a massive rabbit roasting over an open flame. It had turned a gorgeous golden-brown, filling the air with an intoxicating aroma.

Beside the fire, a silver-haired girl stared at the roasting meat with unblinking intensity, a thin thread of drool at the corner of her mouth.

"Senior, the food's ready," the blue-haired girl called over, looking toward the young man. "You can eat now."

His eyes lit up at once. He pushed himself upright.

"Excellent! Coming right—"

He stopped mid-motion. His brows lifted. He turned his gaze toward the distant expanse where a Universe Bubble drifted, and a peculiar look crossed his face.

*Hm. Which little genius came up with this one? Actually taking a Universe Bubble on a joyride. Even bolder than me.*

"Lu Ze, what's wrong?" Both the black-haired girl and the short-haired girl looked over. The former tilted her head, puzzled.

Lu Ze grinned. "Nothing much. I just felt someone moving around with a Universe Bubble — no idea why. Might be touring, like us."

"Touring." The short-haired girl fixed him with a flat look. "With a Universe Bubble."

She rolled her eyes.

"Do you assume everyone is as ridiculous as you are?"

"Ridiculous? Me?" Lu Ze looked genuinely affronted. "The most upstanding individual in this entire Chaos Sea is standing right here."

No sooner had he said it than he noticed the silver-haired girl had already picked up a piece of rabbit and started eating.

He vanished from where he sat. "Yingying! Wait for me!"

He reappeared beside her and immediately began fighting her for the meat.

Shortly after, two figures descended from the sky — tall women with striking builds. One carried herself with sharp, unshakeable confidence, her hair a cascade of jet-black silk. The other had a drowsy, feline elegance about her, pink hair framing a face caught in a perpetual half-smile.

The two made eye contact. The black-haired woman let out a cold snort. The pink-haired one responded with a slow, deliberate wink.

"Little Jingjing, didn't I already give it back? Why are you still glaring at me?"

Nangong Jing bit down on her irritation. "Touch my things one more time," she said evenly, "and I won't be so polite about it."

"Mm, mm, understood~" Qiuyue Hesha turned to the young man, looping her arm casually through his. "Aze, you just said you sensed someone moving with a Universe Bubble? Who was it?"

Nangong Jing's curiosity surfaced as well. "That's actually kind of interesting. Anyone who can pull something like that off can't be a pushover."

Lu Ze was pressing one hand down on Yingying's head, wearing a smug grin as he pried a rabbit leg from her grip while she watched with a look of pure despair. He popped a bite into his mouth, then said:

"Want to go take a look? Sure — we'll head over after we eat."

"Let's go!"

Nangong Jing brightened.

That was simply how they lived — when something interesting came up, they went to see it.

"You shameless thief! You stole my food again!"

Yingying puffed out her cheeks and glared at Lu Ze with burning indignation.

The blue-haired girl smiled beside her. "Yingying, I'll roast you another piece. Senior, please — just let Yingying eat in peace."

"Alice, you're the best!"

Yingying cheered at once.

Lu Ze clicked his tongue and shot a sideways glance at her.

"Back when I was still weak, this creature stole my food constantly. This is called the wheel of fortune turning."

"You're ancient and still acting like a child."

The short-haired girl gave him a withering look, then handed Yingying a piece of meat herself.

"Lingling's the best!"

Yingying said sweetly.

Lu Ze's expression twitched. He turned his gaze toward the composed, long-haired girl beside him, who was holding a piece of rabbit with a placid smile.

"Lu Li..."

Lu Li smiled. "Want some?"

Lu Ze nodded eagerly.

"No."

She handed it to Yingying instead.

Yingying opened her jaws impossibly wide — a gape far too large for her face — and swallowed a chunk of rabbit meat the size of a human head in a single, clean bite.

Lu Ze's smile froze on his face. He stared. Then he flipped his gaze upward and muttered to no one in particular:

"Go ahead. Keep spoiling her."

Meanwhile, Alice had stepped away from the grill and was crossing toward another part of the grassland.

Giant rabbits grazed across the plains — grey ones, white ones, black ones, all pulling at the grass with their heads down.

The moment Alice appeared, every rabbit went rigid. A wave of trembling rolled through the herd.

She swept her gaze across them, then settled on a white rabbit roughly two meters tall. She gave a small nod, and a quiet look of satisfaction crossed her face.

"You'll do."

She lifted it by the scruff of its neck. The rabbit did not struggle. The rest of the herd only seemed to breathe again once she turned and walked away.

With the meal finished, Nangong Jing stretched with barely-contained eagerness and looked at Lu Ze.

"Come on, come on! Aze, let's go check out that moving Universe Bubble. I want to see where it's headed."

The others looked over too, curiosity flickering in their eyes.

"Let's go."

Lu Ze smiled, and the group disappeared.

They materialized outside the Universe Bubble.

The instant he appeared, Lu Ze turned his gaze toward the interior. Depths stirred in his dark eyes — and a hint of genuine surprise rose to the surface.

*Hm.*

With his current strength, there was nothing inside he couldn't see clearly.

The one steering the Universe Bubble was a young man — decent cultivation, by most standards. But what caught Lu Ze's attention, what struck him as genuinely interesting, was something else entirely.

He could see the young man's origin.

He had transmigrated here.

*A fellow countryman?*

Well. He hadn't expected to run into one of those out here.

He'd come over out of simple boredom, treating the drifting Universe Bubble as something to glance at in passing. Now he found himself considerably more invested.

His companions were all formidably powerful — but still a step behind Lu Ze. The inner workings of a person's origin lay beyond their perception. The Universe Bubble itself, however, held no real secrets from any of them.

Alice's brow furrowed slightly. "This Universe Bubble... looks like it's been patched. Was it attacked at some point?"

Qiuyue Hesha leaned against Lu Ze's arm, that faint half-smile still in place. "There are traces on the surface — a repulsive energy signature that belongs to Aberrant Beasts. There's a human inside with respectable power. Given that they seem to be running with the whole Universe Bubble in tow, the one chasing them is probably an Aberrant Beast near Origin Rank."

A cold, precise light moved through Lin Ling's gaze. She smiled.

"Aberrant Beasts. The plague of the Chaos Sea. Since we've come across them, we might as well clean this up for him."

"Works for me."

Lu Li glanced at Lu Ze. "What do you think?"

He tilted his head, a slow smile spreading.

"Just clearing out the beasts isn't enough. They'll hit the same wall the next time something like this shows up. Better to teach a man to fish." He paused. "Let's stick around. I'll teach the kid a thing or two."

Everyone turned to look at him.

Nangong Jing reached over and pressed the back of her hand to his forehead.

"Are you running a fever? You're usually the last person to go out of your way like this."

The others nodded. That was fair. From everything they knew of him, yes, he would help — but help meant handling the threat and moving on. Staying to guide someone? That wasn't in his character.

He batted Nangong Jing's hand away.

"Stop that. I just find the kid interesting."

His expression shifted — that peculiar, unreadable look surfaced on his face. "I have a feeling," he said, with the gravity one might reserve for matters of cosmic significance, "that he and I share a profound affinity."

They all rolled their eyes in unison.

They were used to this. He had his odd moments.

"Whatever Senior says," Alice said with a warm, earnest smile, looking at him.

"We'll call it a travel activity, then," Lin Ling said lightly.

Nangong Jing sighed and stretched, her expression going slightly flat.

"This is a freshly born young universe. Only the one actually moving it has anything resembling decent power — everyone else hasn't even touched the Laws yet. Not much to play with."

"Just don't get carried away," Lu Ze said. "Last time, you nearly blew up an entire Universe Bubble. If I hadn't stepped in—"

"That was an accident! Besides, aren't you always here?"

She clapped him on the shoulder and laughed.

"All right. Let's move."

They dropped their concealment entirely, letting their auras breathe outward, and approached the Universe Bubble.

Inside the Universe Bubble, Lu Yuan's Avatar was steering their course through the Chaos when, without warning, he stopped.

His head snapped upward. He turned toward a particular direction, his expression stiffening.

Several auras had appeared without warning — each one seeming to reach down into fathomless depths — and every single one felt vastly more powerful than the Mother of Aberration.

*What in the—?!*

A chill shot through him. His face went pale.

More monsters like the Mother of Aberration? More than one?!

How was that possible??

Then something occurred to him. He focused his senses more carefully.

These auras... they didn't carry that warped, deeply malevolent quality the Mother of Aberration radiated. They leaned toward something more ordinary — conventional Laws energy, if such a thing could even be called ordinary.

Unease knotted in his chest.

*Not Aberrant Beasts?*

*Then what?*

Powerhouses from another Universe Bubble? Or creatures native to the Chaos Sea itself?

He knew better than to assume their universe was the only one drifting out here. The King of Flesh and others had made it plain enough — the Chaos Sea held countless Universe Bubbles, and theirs was just one among them. He simply hadn't encountered another until now.

Faced with these sudden, overwhelming presences, he hesitated.

Then he made up his mind. He would slip the Universe Bubble into spatial dimensions and keep moving. Even if these auras didn't feel like Aberrant Beasts, goodwill was not guaranteed. Back in the Land of Origin, there were Gene Warriors who wouldn't hesitate to rob each other blind. Beings from an entirely different Universe Bubble were strangers of a different order altogether.

His current strength was nowhere near a match for these auras. He was not willing to gamble on their intentions.

He was already beginning to act — and then, inside the Gravity Room where his true body trained deep within the Land of Origin, a voice rang out directly in his mind.

"Fellow countryman! Don't go! Stay and chat!"

Lu Yuan went completely still.

His entire body stiffened. He looked around in sharp, wide-eyed alarm.

*Who was that?*

Someone had spoken directly inside his head.

He was inside the Land of Origin. He was Laws Rank himself — not exactly a minor figure by the standards of the Chaos Sea. Yet someone had reached into his mind and left no trace, no disturbance, no warning. He had felt nothing off about his surroundings.

That meant whoever was speaking to him operated on a level that utterly eclipsed his imagination.

Even the Mother of Aberration couldn't do something like this...

But — *fellow countryman?*

He turned the word over in his mind, at a loss.

Before he could work out what it meant, an image bloomed in his thoughts — busy streets, flowing traffic, architecture he did not recognize from Great Qi Star, yet which tugged at something buried very deep inside him.

His thoughts went blank for a moment.

After thousands of Origin Years inside the Land of Origin, memories he had sealed away in the furthest corners of his mind began, slowly, to stir.

The world he had lived in before he transmigrated?

*Could it possibly be—?!*

His eyes went wide.

After a long silence, Lu Yuan spoke carefully.

"Can you hear me? Are you... also a transmigrator?"

The voice answered without any hesitation at all.

"That's right, I am! Didn't expect to run into a fellow countryman out here — turns out going on a trip does have its perks. We're even from the same country. Not bad at all."

*A trip.*

Lu Yuan blinked.

*A trip. In the Chaos Sea.*

What kind of impossibly powerful individual was this?

Then a thought surfaced, and his tone shifted toward caution. "How do you know I transmigrated?"

"I can see your origin," came the easy reply. "Isn't that a normal sort of thing?"

*...Normal?!*

Lu Yuan couldn't quite shake the feeling that this person had a gift for treating the utterly incomprehensible as if it were a perfectly unremarkable fact of life.

Then his thoughts moved.

The Mother of Aberration. This unknown fellow countryman was clearly an entity of terrifying strength. If they were willing to help — if they could help destroy the Mother of Aberration — then everything threatening their universe would be resolved at a stroke.

He was still turning the possibility over when the voice came again.

"Come on, countryman, step outside and say hello. We're right in front of your place."

Lu Yuan took a slow breath.

With power like this — whatever he chose to do — fleeing was probably not a real option anyway. But this mysterious expert, for all their unfathomable strength, seemed to carry genuine goodwill. It was worth trying to communicate. There was a chance, perhaps, that they could actually help solve the problem of the Mother of Aberration.

His mind settled.

Lu Yuan's presence vanished from where he stood.

He stepped out into the Chaos.