Abnormal.
Chen Yan felt that this suddenly vanishing snoring sound was very abnormal.
He couldn't help but start forming a new speculation in his heart.
Was there a possibility that his death in the previous cycle of reincarnation wasn't because someone was specifically targeting him.
But was targeting everyone?
That's right. The current Chen Yan was no longer the once widely-watched Chief Disciple of Kongyuan Mountain, but was merely a fifteen-year-old youth about to join some third-rate minor sect.
If one really insisted that someone was targeting him specifically, that would be a bit too self-important.
Unless there was someone whose understanding of causality even surpassed that of Supreme Pivot Elder Li, someone who could glimpse his existence within destiny and causality.
But that was impossible.
In other words...
Chen Yan sat up from the bed. The sound of fabric rubbing between the quilt and his clothes was particularly grating in the deep night.
Then he walked towards the door and pulled it open.
What greeted his eyes was just the pitch-black corridor of the inn.
Then, with great caution, Chen Yan stepped out beyond the doorway, doing his utmost to minimize the sound of his shoe soles contacting the floor.
A faint scent of extinguished candles still lingered in the corridor.
Logically speaking, the candle lamps in the inn's corridor should have remained lit all night long.
Suddenly, the sound of a sharp weapon slicing through flesh and severing sinew and bone reached Chen Yan's ears.
Chen Yan knew what had happened.
He walked towards the direction of the sound. It was a room at the western end of the corridor on the inn's second floor.
Then, he pushed the door open.
The curtains inside the room fluttered. A cool breeze rushed into the room from the open window, blowing directly towards Chen Yan.
Chen Yan just stood expressionlessly at the doorway, coldly observing the scene inside the room.
Everything inside the room was very tidy. The inn's attendant had cleaned it diligently.
Only on the tea table were placed four human heads.
Chen Yan recognized the owners of these heads. They were precisely those four cultivators from the Biqiu Sect.
Belonging to Elder Wang, Xing Ziang, Gongsun Sheng, and Zhu Qian respectively.
On the floor beneath the tea table, several other heads were also discarded. Chen Yan recognized a few of them;
they were all youths who had passed the first selection of the Biqiu Sect's disciple acceptance ceremony this time.
Right at that moment, the sound of footsteps suddenly came from behind Chen Yan.
The footsteps were heavy, as if deliberately stomped out, precisely to ensure he heard them.
"How about it, my masterpiece?"
A voice that sounded somewhat proud rang out.
Chen Yan turned around. Standing before him was a man dressed in black clothes, holding a blade in one hand and a human head in the other. He looked to be around thirty-something years old.
This man had a very fair and clean appearance. His eyes were slender and slightly upturned at the corners, making him look rather like a fox.
Chen Yan glanced at the blade in the man's hand, which was not stained with a single drop of blood, and at the head in his other hand. Then he put on a panicked expression:
"H-help! Save me!"
He immediately began to flee down the corridor.
Immediately after, Chen Yan only felt a sharp sound coming from behind him, and then his perspective began to spin rapidly.
In the last instant before his consciousness faded, he heard the sound of something falling and a heavy object hitting the ground.
[Reincarnation Ended.]
[This Reincarnation Rating: D (Life is like a play, all acting)]
[Accumulated Cultivation: Peak Qi Sea Realm]
[Reincarnation Reward: None]
[Reincarnation settlement complete. Host will return to the previous reincarnation save point, inherit the accumulated cultivation from this cycle, and restart life.]
...
"You are from the Xing family."
When Chen Yan regained consciousness again, Xing Ziang was saying this to him.
"Yes, the Xing Mansion has shown me kindness."
Chen Yan replied.
"This time I returned in a hurry, and I'm leaving in a hurry too. It's a pity I didn't even get to go home to take a look..."
...
Chen Yan once again went through the entire process of the conversation with Xing Ziang.
Then he began to ponder.
The panic he displayed just before he was killed was entirely an act.
Chen Yan hoped to portray, as much as possible, the reaction a fifteen-year-old mortal youth should have in such a situation.
He had to act in a way that matched his current persona, to make the other party lose interest in him and give him a quick death.
As for the result, it was completely in line with Chen Yan's expectations.
The other party directly ended him with a single slash.
All in all, it was a rather clean and efficient cycle of reincarnation.
What Chen Yan needed to do next was to organize the various pieces of intelligence he had obtained during the previous cycle.
Just as he had speculated, the murderer who killed him was not targeting him.
The targets were the Biqiu Sect cultivators, and those seekers of immortality and the Dao who were heading to the Biqiu Sect to participate in the second round of selection.
As for the motive for the killings, Chen Yan believed it was to provoke the Biqiu Sect.
Because placing the heads of the Biqiu Sect cultivators and the youths who passed the assessment selection together in the same room, and calling it a "masterpiece"—this act of performance art in itself was a provocation against the Biqiu Sect.
...Damn it, why am I so unlucky?
Chen Yan couldn't help but complain inwardly. Before he decided to temporarily join the Biqiu Sect, the Biqiu Sect was the number one major immortal cultivation sect within Jin'an Country, throwing its weight around and bullying others with impunity, with no one daring to provoke them.
And now, while he was still on the way to the Biqiu Sect, not even officially a Biqiu Sect disciple yet, someone immediately started provoking the Biqiu Sect in this performance art manner. How could things possibly be any better in the future?
Chen Yan recalled a concept that Supreme Pivot Elder Li had once mentioned to him within his Dao Domain.
Karmic Backlash.
Fate is strong causality, while fortune is weak causality.
The essence of his repeated cycles of reincarnation was the continuous process of altering the original fate.
Therefore, as the variable changing fate, Chen Yan naturally had to bear the corresponding karmic backlash.
Very likely, this was the true reason for his misfortune.
After venting his grievances, what Chen Yan needed to consider next was how to break the deadlock he was currently trapped in.
Running away was impossible. He had no way to convince anyone to leave this inn;
on the contrary, he would be seen as a fool.
Even if he could leave this inn, the enemy definitely wouldn't let the Biqiu Sect cultivators and these youths who passed the assessment selection go.
Furthermore, the enemy's combat strength was certainly far superior to their own side's. Otherwise, he wouldn't have seen Elder Wang's head on the tea table in that room, and he hadn't even heard any sounds of fighting.
The reality Chen Yan needed to face was that he couldn't win in a fight, and he couldn't outrun them either.
Since that was the case, then he could only rely on wit.
After pondering for a moment, Chen Yan slightly narrowed his eyes.
He already had a method in his heart to deal with the current deadlock.