Resolute

[Reincarnation Ended]

Not just this time.

[Reincarnation Ended]

There would be a next time, and another after that.

No matter how hard he tried, no matter what means he employed—running, hiding, exhausting every possible option—the final outcome was always the same.

That was, Cheng Ziying would die at the age of nineteen.

[Reincarnation Ended]

And it was not just that. The reincarnation evaluations were the same as well.

Every one of his deaths had been utterly worthless, bringing him no improvement whatsoever.

If he relied on cultivation alone, Chen Yan would never be able to advance any further in his cultivation.

The reason was brutally realistic: his talent was what it was.

Chen Yan had already reached the limit of what his talent for immortal cultivation could achieve.

Only by raising his reincarnation evaluation could he possibly grow stronger.

[Reincarnation Ended.]

[This Reincarnation Evaluation: D (Meaningless sacrifice, time and time again)]

[Accumulated Cultivation: Qi Condensation Realm Peak]

[Reincarnation Reward: None]

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

"Senior Brother Chen."

"..."

"Senior Brother Chen?"

When he opened his eyes again, Chen Yan, leaning against a large tree, looked at the young girl before him with even greater resolve.

"Senior Brother Chen, Instructor Lu Li's lecture at the Scripture Hall..."

"Ziying."

"...Senior Brother Chen?"

Cheng Ziying looked somewhat confused at being suddenly interrupted by Chen Yan.

"Could you stay farther away from me?"

Chen Yan spoke in an even tone.

"Ah, okay..."

Cheng Ziying took two steps back.

"That's not what I mean."

Chen Yan shook his head.

"I mean, from now on, could you stay away from me?"

"Ah?"

Cheng Ziying's eyes widened in shock, like a child at a loss for what to do.

"What did I do, Senior Brother Chen...?"

"Stay away from me."

Her lips parted again, as though she wanted to say something, but no words came out.

The young girl lowered her eyes, leaving her expression unreadable.

"Then, I'll head to the Scripture Hall first. Senior Brother Chen, you should hurry too. If you're any later, there won't be any seats left in the Scripture Hall..."

Cheng Ziying's voice grew softer and softer before she turned and ran off.

Only this time, her retreating figure seemed lonelier than ever before.

But Chen Yan had no choice. This was the only thing he could do.

Because after so many attempts, Chen Yan had come to clearly understand one fact.

Cheng Ziying was destined to die at nineteen.

At first, Chen Yan had merely wanted to see whether he could change Cheng Ziying's fate.

But little by little, he himself had sunk ever deeper.

He had tried countless methods, including acting according to the way he had in his first life, even leaving the sect a month early.

But Cheng Ziying's final ending was always death.

As though it were fate.

As for how exactly to improve his reincarnation evaluation, Chen Yan had yet to figure it out.

He had tried recreating that reincarnation which received a D+ evaluation, but the final reincarnation evaluation had only been D.

[Where in the world is there such a good thing as pies falling from the sky?]

That was the reincarnation evaluation from that attempt.

He could not continue struggling in the mire of these five years.

That was Chen Yan's rational judgment.

He decided to stay away from Cheng Ziying for the time being.

Chen Yan worried that if Cheng Ziying remained by his side, then five years from now, he still would not be able to resist trying to save her.

Even if he did, it would all be futile.

He had to find a way to make use of the Reincarnation Reward and become stronger.

Perhaps then, he could find a way to change Cheng Ziying's fate.

Chen Yan had a dream.

He dreamed that he stood on a stage shrouded in complete darkness, the audience seats utterly empty.

The spotlight directly before him suddenly flared to life, and standing at its center was Cheng Ziying at nineteen.

"Senior Brother Chen..."

Graceful and slender, the young girl standing before him called out in Chen Yan's direction with the dull, hollow expression of a puppet.

"..."

Instinctively, Chen Yan took a step toward Cheng Ziying.

The instant he stepped forward, Cheng Ziying's eyes beneath the spotlight rapidly filled with blood, her head began to swell and turn red, and then her entire body abruptly exploded into a cloud of blood.

"Senior Brother Chen?"

Cheng Ziying's light voice came again from behind Chen Yan.

Chen Yan turned around and saw Cheng Ziying, pale-faced, a trace of blood spilling from the corner of her lips as her pupils slowly dilated and unfocused.

"Senior Brother!"

When he turned his head again, Chen Yan saw Cheng Ziying running toward him, a dark red line of blood emerging across her neck.

As she ran, her head began to slide toward the ground.

"Senior Brother Chen!"

"Senior Brother!"

"Senior Brother?"

"Senior... Brother."

Cheng Ziying, bearing different Death Omens from different reincarnations, appeared one after another beneath the spotlight before Chen Yan.

Chen Yan's expression gradually turned panicked, and his breathing grew ragged.

"Haah!"

At last, Chen Yan jolted upright from his bed, gasping for breath.

Even after realizing that everything which had just happened was only a dream, Chen Yan did not feel relieved in the slightest.

Because every single thing that had happened in the dream had truly happened in reality.

Chen Yan looked beyond the window of his quarters. A cold white full moon hung above the mountain peaks.

There would be no sleeping tonight.

So Chen Yan got out of bed, put on the robes of an Outer Court Disciple, and walked out through the Room Door.

He wanted to clear his head. That dream had left his heart in a tangled mess.

It was the hour of the tiger. By the units of Chen Yan's previous life, it should have been somewhere between three and five in the morning.

Chen Yan headed toward a mountain peak near the outer court. He knew there was a pavilion atop it—the highest point of the Empty Mountain Sect's outer court, where one could take in the entire outer court at a glance.

Standing in the pavilion, Chen Yan looked down at the outer court below. Its streets were empty of people, and the desolate sight inevitably brought a measure of bleakness to his heart.

Two years had passed.

By now, he and Cheng Ziying had long since become strangers, and Chen Yan had no interest whatsoever in befriending any other fellow disciples.

Thus, for these past two years, no matter what he did, Chen Yan had always been alone.

Just then, Chen Yan suddenly heard light footsteps behind him.

"Why are you here at such a late hour?"

A cool voice rang out, like mint by a stream in the stillness of a summer night.

Chen Yan turned around.

Dressed in white, with raven-black hair.

Cold and otherworldly, tranquil and untouched by the dust of the world.

Chen Yan's pupils contracted sharply.

Because he had seen her before, several cycles ago.

She was the girl who, on the day the calamity struck, had followed the Inner Sect Elder and appeared before the Training Ground at the very end.

There was a clear trace of wariness toward Chen Yan in her words.

"Couldn't sleep tonight, so I came out for some air."

Chen Yan answered:

"But this Inner Sect Senior Sister, why are you wandering around the outer courtyard so late at night?"

"Are you familiar with the outer courtyard?"

The cold White-robed Girl did not answer Chen Yan. Instead, she merely tossed him another question.

"Fairly."

Chen Yan replied.

Over more than twenty cycles, Chen Yan had lived in the outer courtyard for several hundred years.

It could even be said that no disciple or Elder in the outer courtyard knew its layout better than he did.

"Take me to the Detention Center of the Law Enforcement Hall."

said the White-robed Girl.

As its name implied, the Detention Center was where the sect imprisoned disciples who had committed grave offenses, as well as external enemies.

Chen Yan raised an eyebrow slightly.

He knew where the Detention Center was, and nothing more.

An Inner Sect Disciple wanting to visit the Detention Center used to imprison criminals so late at night...

No matter how he thought about it, something was fishy.