"Teacher’s scent?"
The other two pupils looked confused.
They hadn’t sensed anything.
Even if Zhiwei probed with her Divine Sense, she didn’t find the teacher nearby.
"Yes! Qing Jun smelled it... no matter where the teacher hides, Qing Jun can find him!"
The little girl swore confidently, clenching her fists.
No.
To be accurate, what she smelled wasn’t the teacher’s scent, but the presence of the teacher!
Amidst the unseen.
She had a premonition that the teacher was nearby!
The space in front grew clearer, like a distorted water moon mirage appearing on the barren land out of thin air.
Through the layers of vibrant halos, they could vaguely see the 2nd Layer of Celestial Abyss on the other side.
There were no corpses strewn about, but countless monsters in dark slumber, serene and strange.
Looking further up,
Three blurred shadows could be seen sneaking downward along a steep cliff path.
Leading the way was a relatively thin young Loose Cultivator;
On his back, he carried a delicate little girl;
Behind them, a cold and stern Sword Cultivator with restrained Sword Intent followed.
"It’s the teacher!"
Jin’er exclaimed with joy, although the Loose Cultivator’s face was deliberately blurred by some Law, the familiar aura engraved in their Divine Soul couldn’t possibly be mistaken!
"Stupid teacher! Who’s that ugly girl on your back?!"
Qing Jun’s big eyes widened, her joy at finding the teacher quickly turned into a possessive "anger" when she saw Chen Ye carrying another girl.
Annoying teacher!
How could he meet another girl so soon after they parted?
She let out a howl, trying to rush over with her short legs.
"Qing Jun, don’t be reckless!" Zhiwei’s face changed slightly, trying to reach out but already a step too late.
"Bang!"
There was no imagined dull crash, no collision of Spiritual Power.
Qing Jun’s tiny body went straight through that water moon mirage like passing through a substance-less morning fog.
She even passed through the bodies of the teacher and the girl, using too much force, rolling on the ground several times before stopping.
Two worlds clearly overlapped at this moment.
They could see Chen Ye cautiously exploring, see the small girl clinging to his neck, feel the concealed yet sharp Sword Intent of the Sword Cultivator.
But there was no sound or mutual touch.
Like two parallel lines seeming to intersect but always kept apart in different dimensions.
"Big brother, didn’t you feel... as if a strange wind just blew past?"
In the shadows, the girl on Chen Ye’s back seemed aware, turned to look, eyes slightly cold.
"What... what’s going on?"
The little girl clambered up with a dusty face, touching her little hands, looking at the teacher nearby yet like air, lips quivering, almost crying.
"Chirp!" (This is the shadow of time!)
A small white fox poked half its head out of the bundle, chirping.
Not right.
Very not right!
Not just the white fox, Zhiwei and others noticed the anomaly too.
"Wait, look, the teacher’s shadow keeps flickering. Each flicker is at a different time period!"
Zhiwei said softly.
Everyone held their breath and concentrated.
Just as Zhiwei described.
The three shadows were like unstable shadow puppets, fiercely flickering and dancing.
With every light and shadow’s rise and fall, the scene subtly changed.
One moment, Chen Ye carefully stepped on a protruding rock, the little girl on his back tightly closing her eyes, looking tense;
The next moment, a flash of light, Chen Ye suddenly appeared on another path several meters away, the little girl on his back opened her eyes, curiously examining the surroundings, while the Sword Cultivator’s sword also shifted.
The image even started to overlap.
Two entirely different time segments madly interweaved on that twisted space-time mirror.
"Chirp! (This happened in the past... but the past is being madly rewritten, hence the chaotic projection!)"
The little white fox was so shocked it almost couldn’t chirp anymore.
As a former Half-Step Nascent Soul, it knew too well what this meant.
History is a frozen river, projection the river’s reflection.
Even if the water occasionally ripples, the reflection largely remains the same.
But now, someone is crazily moving stones, excavating new channels!
Leading to muddy waters, fractured reflection, resulting in unexistent tributaries!
"Rewriting history?"
Zhiwei glanced at the little white fox.
"Chirp! Chirp?? (Yes! Wait, how can you understand what I’m saying!)"
The little white fox suddenly realized, felt completely numb.
What?
Could it be this girl always understood it but pretended to know nothing?
However,
Zhiwei seemed to talk to herself: "Sister, what do you think? I feel this projection took place in the past but... keeps showing contradictory scenes, I suspect the teacher crossed over to this past, causing this history to be rewritten."
"Phew..."
The little white fox quietly breathed a sigh of relief, seems it misunderstood.
Indeed.
Fox language is much harder to learn than human language, it never saw Zhiwei study its language.