In just four breaths, it would reach this place.
Huddled here, their profound senses lost, the two had so little warning of the arrival of the one who would take their lives.
Pei Ye quietly withdrew his gaze and looked at the woman before him.
At that moment, she looked back at him with the same serenity.
Their situation had never improved because his mindscape had brightened, nor had the desperate peril of their lives hanging by a thread ever left them.
Now it had merely arrived on schedule.
But that bright mindscape had indeed let him glimpse a faint sliver of a chance at life.
He knew he had only one chance.
Fortunately, he still had one chance.
Behind them, the roar of erupting Profound Qi thundered like a mountain through the curtain of rain. That power could easily grind this tiny hiding place to dust.
"One," Ming Qitian said softly.
[Heart-Slaying]
The sun was about to rise, and dawn's light was faint.
"We meet again."
But this was no longer that Bright Hall. It was beside the pool north of the peak. He sat leaning beneath a tall rock, [Mountain Feather] laid across his knees, in exactly the posture he had just held beneath the tree.
The young girl sat atop that tall rock. When Pei Ye tilted his head, he saw two gently swinging calves, hidden beneath her skirt, with only her white boots showing.
Ming Yun was scattering fish food into the pool.
His constricted heart and lungs slowly relaxed. Pei Ye watched the sky, quietly holding the sword hilt in his hand.
"After sunrise, I'll climb the peak again."
"Mm." Feeling his wholly healthy body, Pei Ye gave a soft sigh. "Sorry, I failed to stop that strike last night. You weren't hurt, were you?"