Escape

[Reincarnation Ended.]

[This Reincarnation Evaluation: D+ (You began trying to change something, but what, in the end, could you really change?)]

[Accumulated Cultivation: Qi Condensation Realm Late-stage]

[Reincarnation Reward: Accumulated Cultivation Coefficient × 1.1]

[Reincarnation Settlement complete. The Host will return to the Previous Reincarnation Record Point, inherit this reincarnation's Accumulated Cultivation, and Restart Life.]

"Senior Brother Chen."

Looking at the young girl calling his name before him, Chen Yan's expression was stiff, with a faintly vacant look in his eyes.

"What's wrong? Your expression... is so serious it's a little scary."

Cheng Ziying, only fourteen years old, still had childishness written across her pretty face as she took two steps back.

"It's nothing. I just had a dream."

Chen Yan shook his head.

"But you—aren't you going to listen to Instructor Lu's lecture at the Scripture Hall?"

"Ah!"

As though she had suddenly remembered, Cheng Ziying's eyes flew wide open.

"Oh no, I have to hurry over! Senior Brother, you should hurry too, or we won't make it!"

With that, Cheng Ziying started running toward the Scripture Hall.

Another new reincarnation.

He had returned to the year he was fifteen.

In the end, Chen Yan still had not been able to save Cheng Ziying from that calamity.

In truth, Chen Yan knew very little about the calamity.

The entire disaster had lasted only seven breaths before the projection of the black snake in the sky was annihilated by a Great Expert from the inner sect, who had been alerted.

The cause of the calamity and all its details had likewise been sealed away as secrets by the inner sect.

As for the elegant woman in white whom Chen Yan had seen in the final moments before his death...

Chen Yan did not know who she was, but he knew she had to be from the inner sect.

Because according to the rules of the Empty Mountain Sect, Outer Court Disciples could wear only the sect's standard pale-white daoist robes.

Chen Yan stood there in a daze.

Only when he had truly faced that Outer Court Calamity did he realize just how small he was.

With his talent, cultivation was useless.

In this world, every person's talent was completely fixed from the moment they were born.

With Chen Yan's talent, the Martial Spring Realm was the absolute highest he could reach.

But not to mention the Martial Spring Realm—even the Qi Sea Realm could do nothing when faced with a calamity on the level of the Outer Court Calamity.

And right now, Chen Yan had not even touched the threshold of the Martial Spring Realm.

...Reincarnation Reward.

Right, the Reincarnation Reward!

Perhaps the Reincarnation Reward could break through the limits imposed by Chen Yan's own talent.

For a D+ Reincarnation Evaluation, the reward was an Accumulated Cultivation coefficient adjustment of ×1.1.

He could feel the true qi within his Meridians grow much deeper.

How could he obtain a higher Reincarnation Evaluation?

One more time. Even if he could not save Cheng Ziying, he had to earn a higher Reincarnation Evaluation.

Chen Yan made up his mind.

"Will you come to Taiyun City with me?"

Five years later, Chen Yan once again extended the invitation to Cheng Ziying.

Cheng Ziying leaned against Chen Yan's shoulder, lifting her head to gaze at the bright moon hanging in the sky.

Chen Yan's original intention had been regret for an old friend.

That was why he had wanted to try changing the fate of this Junior Sister he had grown up with.

But after witnessing the young girl's miserable death with his own eyes, something subtle had changed within him.

It had not begun with love, but with pity.

Chen Yan accepted Cheng Ziying's feelings.

Because this young girl, whose life was as fleeting as a shooting star, was simply too pitiful.

But whether it was pity or affection...

Chen Yan did not deny that, over the course of their time together, he had indeed begun to develop feelings for Cheng Ziying that were completely different from before.

"What are you going to Taiyun City for?"

Cheng Ziying asked.

"A sect mission. I'm delivering a letter to the foreign liaison stationed in Taiyun City."

Chen Yan answered.

"For something this trivial, they're specially sending someone all that way?"

Cheng Ziying sighed.

"I really don't know what those Elders are thinking. It's not as if they can't use a transmission talisman."

"They're probably worried that the message sent through a transmission talisman might be intercepted by someone with ulterior motives."

Chen Yan said.

"But isn't sending someone with a letter the same? Any random Martial Spring Realm cultivator could easily snatch the letter away."

"Someone might dare eavesdrop on the information in a transmission talisman, but in this land, who would dare rob an Empty Mountain Sect messenger?"

Unless they were sick of living.

Empty Mountain Sect was one of the Five Great Sects of Chenping Continent. In every corner of Chenping Continent, it wielded influence with effortless weight.

Taiyun City—even the entire Qingque Kingdom—lay wholly within Empty Mountain Sect's sphere of influence.

Yet even within Empty Mountain Sect's territory, not every cultivation sect was willing to bow beneath another.

That was precisely why Empty Mountain Sect disciples' transmission talismans were so often intercepted.

Thus, communications between the sect and its foreign liaisons were conducted by letter, escorted by Outer Court Disciples at or above the Qi Condensation Realm.

"When are we leaving?"

Cheng Ziying continued.

"Tomorrow."

Chen Yan said.

The Outer Court Calamity would descend the day after tomorrow.

So he had decided to leave the sect a day early.

The sect had a rule: disciples under the age of twenty could not remain outside the sect for more than two days without permission, or they would be punished.

Leaving a day early would leave him more than enough time.

"If you want me to go with you, Senior Brother, I have one condition."

Cheng Ziying said.

"What condition?"

"Give me a bouquet of white daisies."

"Then it's a deal?"

"It's a deal!"

Chen Yan watched Cheng Ziying's retreating figure as she returned to her quarters.

What kind of ending would this life bring?

Early the next morning, Chen Yan arrived outside Cheng Ziying's quarters and knocked on the door.

"Senior Brother?"

Cheng Ziying, who opened the door, froze for a moment.

Her hair was slightly tousled. Though she looked a little worn from having just awakened, Cheng Ziying's natural beauty remained impossible to conceal.

"It's time to leave for Taiyun City."

"So early?"

"Mm. It's better to set out early. After delivering the letter, I also want to wander around Taiyun City a little."

That was the excuse Chen Yan had come up with.

He merely wanted to make absolutely certain nothing could go wrong.

"Wait for me a moment."

After doing a little grooming, Cheng Ziying followed Chen Yan toward the outer mountain.

She looked delighted, as though she truly regarded this sect mission as a date with her Senior Brother.

But Chen Yan's nerves were stretched taut.

As long as I take Ziying out of the Outer Court, we can escape this calamity...

He repeated it to himself over and over in his heart.

Only when Chen Yan saw the enormous boulder at the mountain gate, carved with the three words "Empty Mountain Sect," did he finally relax a little.

Chen Yan led Cheng Ziying down the mountain. Looking southwest from the summit of the outer mountain, they could see the towering city five hundred li away—Taiyun City.

The mountains were lush and green, everything around them brimming with life. The path down the mountain was clearly marked, and quite a few Empty Mountain Sect disciples passed through it every day on their way up and down.

After all, only those whose cultivation had reached the Qi Sea Realm could ride the wind with qi and fly.

At the foot of the outer mountain stood a carriage and horse station established by the Empty Mountain Sect's External Affairs Hall. Disciples could rent Spirit Horses there for transportation.

Spirit Horses were not immortal beasts. They were merely ordinary horses that, from childhood onward, had been fed spiritual rice and medicinal herbs by Outer Court Disciples responsible for tending livestock in the Empty Mountain Sect.

After years upon years of being washed by spiritual qi and nourished with medicinal herbs, Spirit Horses possessed strength, speed, and endurance far beyond those of ordinary horses.

The straight-line distance from the Empty Mountain Sect to Taiyun City was five hundred li, while the actual journey spanned more than eight hundred. Riding Spirit Horses, they could arrive in roughly two and a half hours.

Chen Yan and Cheng Ziying rented two Spirit Horses at the station, then immediately set out toward Taiyun City.

Scattered villages and small towns also lay between the Empty Mountain Sect and Taiyun City, but those villages had received neither protection nor favor simply because they stood near the foot of the Empty Mountain Sect's mountain.

"Senior Brother!"

A cry of alarm came from behind Chen Yan.

Before Chen Yan could fully react, he heard the shrill neigh of the Spirit Horse beneath him. Then he was hurled through the air.

As a Qi Condensation Realm Peak cultivator, Chen Yan had true qi protecting his body and suffered no real injury. He merely rolled several times across the ground, looking somewhat disheveled.

Chen Yan turned to look behind him. The Spirit Horse he had been riding lay on the ground, its four legs completely severed from its torso as blood gushed from the wounds.

He tried to rise from the ground, only to be struck in the side by an overwhelmingly tyrannical force.

That kick effortlessly pierced through Chen Yan's protective true qi, as easily as poking through a sheet of window paper.

Chen Yan raised his head and discovered that, at some point, the culprit behind all this had already appeared before him.

It was a man dressed in coarse brown cloth, with a layer of bluish stubble above his lips and an enormous jet-black sword, thick and heavy as a tombstone, resting on his shoulder.

The man looked down at Chen Yan lying on the ground with contempt, as though he were looking at an ant, then spat out the blade of grass clenched between his teeth.

"Empty Mountain Sect?"

he asked.

"Senior Brother!"

Cheng Ziying leaped down from her horse in the distance and ran toward Chen Yan.

The man merely lifted his eyes, then swung the massive sword on his shoulder through the air with nearly imperceptible speed.

Chen Yan's breath caught.

He raised his head and looked toward Cheng Ziying.

Cheng Ziying remained frozen in the posture of running toward him, while a dark red line slowly appeared across her neck.

Then her head rolled to the ground along that dark red line.

The greatsword had no edge, yet it was astonishingly sharp.

"..."

Chen Yan's lips moved several times, but he said nothing.

"Empty Mountain Sect?"

the man asked again.

Chen Yan nodded.

"What are you going down the mountain for? Delivering a letter, or something else?"

the man continued.

"Delivering a letter."

Chen Yan answered calmly.

"Hand it over."

The man in coarse brown cloth extended a hand toward Chen Yan. Though he was dressed no differently from the impoverished commoners seen everywhere, the strength he had displayed told Chen Yan that he was a powerful cultivator beyond all resistance.

Martial Spring Realm... perhaps even the Qi Sea Realm.

Even so, Chen Yan felt no fear.

Reincarnation evaluation.

In this reincarnation, could I obtain a higher reincarnation evaluation?

He raised his head and met the man's eyes directly.

"Kill me."

The man in coarse brown cloth raised his brows, surprise flickering in his eyes.

"What?"

"The letter is on me. Kill me, then take it yourself."

Chen Yan's tone was calm.

"You brat, you really are strange."

The man took the massive sword from his shoulder and snorted.

Chen Yan remained expressionless, the man's reflection mirrored in his pupils.

"Sooner or later, I'll kill you," Chen Yan said.

"Is that so?"

The man shrugged, then raised the massive sword high in his hand.

The shriek of the massive sword tearing through the air rang beside Chen Yan's ears. The next instant, he felt a chill at his neck, followed by endless weightlessness and dizziness.

In the final moment of his life, what Chen Yan heard was something like a watermelon smashing against the ground.

[Reincarnation Ended.]

[This Reincarnation Evaluation: D (from head to toe, only his mouth was hard)]

[Accumulated Cultivation: Qi Condensation Realm Peak]

[Reincarnation Reward: None]

[Reincarnation Settlement complete. Host will return to the Previous Reincarnation Record Point, inherit the accumulated cultivation from this reincarnation, and Restart Life.]

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