Yang Qing and the others quickly entered the stone passage and went into the cavern, then left it just as swiftly, returning to the courtyard.
As he watched the stone gate behind them slowly close again, Yang Qing began to breathe a sigh of relief.
But before he could finish that breath, he turned to Bu Er and the others. "We've probably uncovered the greatest secret in here. There's no reason to stay any longer."
As he spoke, he looked up at the sky again and discovered that the moon had already slanted westward. In the time it had taken them to go in and come out, another four hours had passed without their noticing.
The realization secretly alarmed Yang Qing.
He kept feeling that time seemed to pass especially quickly in this little courtyard.
The speed at which it slipped away exceeded anything he had imagined.
"Leave this place. Remember, don't take a single thing from here."
After a moment's thought, Yang Qing added, "Not even a flower or a blade of grass."
Since Yang Qing had said as much, the others naturally had no objections. With Bu Er and Jiang Zhizhou leading the way, they swiftly left the Yin-Yang Tower.
Just after their group left the courtyard, thick clouds once again obscured the westward-slanting moon above their heads.
The sky abruptly began to darken again.
When they looked back a few breaths later, the little courtyard behind them had begun to blur.
Lin Zhong reached out to push the courtyard gate, only to discover that things had returned to how they had been at first: they could not touch it at all.
The courtyard before them had once again become a place they could see but could not enter.
"That was close."
As they watched all this unfold,