Chen Yan's expression froze momentarily, then he took a step back and put on a stern face:
"Don't mess around!"
Cheng Ziying lightly leaped backward and laughed:
"When are we leaving?"
"Now... or tomorrow."
"If we leave now, we definitely won't make it back by tomorrow, but I still have duties at the training grounds."
Cheng Ziying hesitated for a moment, then added:
"How about the day after tomorrow?"
The day after tomorrow was when the Outer Court Cataclysm would descend.
"Let's leave early the day after tomorrow, Senior Brother! Please, please! Tomorrow's duties at the training grounds are really important, I genuinely can't get away!"
Cheng Ziying pleaded with Chen Yan in a somewhat joking manner.
If they left early in the morning the day after tomorrow, they could still make it in time.
Chen Yan remembered the approximate time when the Outer Court Cataclysm occurred.
"Then we'll meet at the outer mountains outside the sect early the day after tomorrow, Senior Brother!"
The girl's figure was playful and lively as she waved goodbye toward Chen Yan.
"......"
Watching Junior Sister Cheng's retreating back, Chen Yan sighed deeply.
In this cycle of reincarnation, the relationship between Chen Yan and Cheng Ziying hadn't grown distant.
And Cheng Ziying seemed to be gradually developing certain feelings for Chen Yan.
The reason why the thin barrier between them remained unbroken, maintaining an ordinary senior-junior relationship, was because Chen Yan had been deliberately keeping distance between them.
Chen Yan didn't consider himself an emotionally dense person.
But...
Enough, enough.
The most important thing now was to take Cheng Ziying away from the sect early the day after tomorrow to avoid the Outer Court Cataclysm.
As for other matters, they weren't worth considering right now.
......
Kongshan Sect, Outer Mountains.
Strictly speaking, the outer mountains territory didn't actually belong to Kongshan Sect.
Because this area was merely the sect's mountain gate.
From the foot of the mountain to the summit, there were exactly ten thousand and one steps - the only path for ordinary youths seeking immortality from Kongshan Sect during the sect's gate-opening ceremony every three years.
It was also the only path for Kongshan Sect cultivators below the Qi Sea Realm who wanted to descend the mountain.
Because only those with cultivation reaching the Qi Sea Realm or higher could manipulate qi to soar through the skies.
Chen Yan stood at the mountain summit, with a nearly ten-meter-tall giant rock standing to his left.
Carved on the giant rock were the elegantly flowing characters "Kongshan Sect." According to the sect's elders, these three characters were inscribed by the first peak master of Yibai Peak.
Two days ago, he had arranged to meet Cheng Ziying here, then proceed to Taiyun City five hundred li away from Kongshan Sect's mountain gate to deliver a letter to the city's stationed envoy.
Taiyun City was the closest city to Kongshan Sect's mountain gate and served as the sect's bridgehead in the mortal world.
Nominally, Taiyun City was the western capital of Qingque Kingdom, but its actual control rested completely in Kongshan Sect's hands.
In Taiyun City, the city lord's words carried less than one-tenth the weight of Kongshan Sect's stationed envoy.
Chen Yan stood alone before Kongshan Sect's mountain gate, surrounded by profound silence.
Today, Chen Yan had been waiting here since early morning.
He looked back toward the mountain's interior but saw no signs or traces of anyone.
The appointed time had already arrived, and Cheng Ziying wasn't someone who would break appointments - she was always very punctual.
But she simply hadn't appeared.
A strange palpitation and panic surged in Chen Yan's heart.
"It shouldn't be..."
He turned and ran toward the sect's outer court direction.
Chen Yan would never forget the catastrophe that would occur in the sect's outer court today.
This catastrophe, from beginning to end, lasted only seven breaths.
During those seven breaths, over ten thousand outer court disciples would die or be injured.
In that cycle of reincarnation, Chen Yan had narrowly escaped death, while Cheng Ziying had perished within it.
If he could take Cheng Ziying down the mountain before the Outer Court Cataclysm arrived.
If only...
But there were no ifs.
"Hah... hah..."
Chen Yan gasped for breath, standing on the outer court's streets.
He had desperately driven the true qi in his meridians and finally managed to return here.
The streets were filled with disciples wearing Kongshan Sect's standard outer court daoist robes, all appearing unhurried and leisurely.
Chen Yan's exhausted, disheveled appearance stood in stark contrast to them.
But now was definitely not the time to care about such things.
Among the passing outer court disciples, Chen Yan spotted a familiar figure of a youth around fourteen or fifteen years old.
It was Zhao Hong, an outer court disciple who had come up the mountain just a few years ago and lived in the direction behind and to the right of Chen Yan's residence.
"Junior Brother Zhao!"
He shouted toward that figure.
The disciple called Junior Brother Zhao by Chen Yan turned around, staring blankly at the panting Chen Yan for a moment:
"Senior Brother Chen, how are you..."
"Have you seen Ziying!"
"Senior Sister Cheng? She went to your residence looking for you not long ago, saying that the senior sister in charge at the training grounds suddenly had duties for her, and she couldn't accompany you..."
Before Zhao Hong could finish speaking, Chen Yan began sprinting toward the training grounds direction.
Cheng Ziying had reached the Qi Circulation Realm at nineteen - this breakthrough speed was definitely considered above average talent in the outer court.
Those more talented disciples would eventually leave the outer court for the inner sect.
Therefore, disciples with above average talent like Cheng Ziying were particularly valued by the outer court's elders and stewards, who focused on cultivating them as future pillars of the outer court.
Precisely because of this, the senior sister in charge at the training grounds often assigned duties to Cheng Ziying.
But not today.
Not just duties from the senior sister in charge - even if stewards, supervisors, or even outer court elders assigned duties, it wouldn't do.
Because Chen Yan remembered.
He remembered that the central area of this catastrophe was the training grounds.
Chen Yan ran through the streets, the overloaded circulation of true qi causing his muscles to ache with swelling pain.
Then, the training grounds came into view.
Suddenly, the air above the outer court instantly stagnated.
"...Cough!"
Chen Yan suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood.
In that exact moment, the true qi in Chen Yan's meridians suddenly began violently oscillating, causing quite severe damage to his meridians.
It's here.
That catastrophe whose scale even alarmed the sect's grand elders - the greatest calamity Kongshan Sect had suffered in a thousand years - had arrived.
An ear-splitting roar echoed above Kongshan Sect's outer court, and outer court disciples on the streets looked up one after another.
On the street before the training grounds, outer court disciples whose cultivation hadn't reached the Qi Circulation Realm exploded one after another, transforming into blood mist.
Struggling, Chen Yan charged into the training grounds. There stood Cheng Ziying, wearing Kongshan Sect's light white standard daoist robe, graceful and elegant before the training grounds' dao platform.
"Ziying!"
Cheng Ziying turned around somewhat woodenly, looking toward Chen Yan.
"Senior Brother Chen..."
Then, Cheng Ziying's originally fair cheeks suddenly began turning crimson, and even bloodshot lines appeared in her eyes.
The next instant, a spray of blood mist erupted from the position before the dao platform.
Chen Yan stood frozen in place.
"Cough... ugh..."
He collapsed on the ground, spitting out a pool of filthy blood mixed with organ fragments from his mouth.
A massive black snake shadow began materializing directly above the training grounds.
Suddenly, a clear-colored radiant light flashed across the sky, slicing the enormous black snake shadow in two.
A massive spiritual energy pressure swept through the entire sect's outer court.
Chen Yan barely raised his head.
In the final moments of his life, what he saw was the figure of a young woman dressed in pure white robes, with hair as dark as ink.
She stood outside the training grounds, looking up at the severed black snake shadow in the sky. The young woman's eyes were filled with indignation and...
Remorse.