Senior sister, stop working and go home for dinner.

Chapter 364 only needs to be read once.

Fortunately, Qi Lan didn't dwell on the issue. Instead, she remarked with emotion, "The things that have happened recently have all been too sudden."

Qi Lan's sigh drifted away in the night wind, without receiving an immediate response.

Chen Anran continued to gaze down at the land shrouded in night, a land about to be uprooted and ushered into another era.

"Suddenly?" After a long pause, he whispered, "Perhaps. For me, every step feels like I'm being pushed along by something, with no choice."

Qi Lan snorted, leaned back against the corridor pillar, and put her hands back in her hoodie pockets: "It's like nobody has a choice. The spiritual energy is gone, the path of cultivation is cut off, staying here is just waiting to die. Going back three thousand years to take a gamble, at least we can catch our breath."

Chen Anran smiled and went to Qi Lan's side, imitating her by leaning against the pillar.

He gazed at the starry sky and recalled the movie he had watched with Feng Xiaolu.

That movie is about the protagonist going through countless lifetimes, searching for the female lead each time.

Back then, Feng Xiaolu even asked him if reincarnation really existed. Would someone really search for someone again and again? She also asked what their relationship would be if there really was a past life...

Chen Anran remembered that he seemed to say something like: "Even if the people in the previous life and the people in this life look very similar, they will never be the same person..."

"One time is enough."

Chen Anran suddenly murmured.

Qi Lan, standing to the side, turned to look at him, somewhat puzzled. "What do you mean, 'once is enough'?"

Chen Anran shook her head, "It's nothing."

Qi Lan narrowed her eyes, her vertical pupils sweeping over his face, but she didn't ask any further questions.

Some questions are pointless to ask. Which person on Cloud Hidden Mountain doesn't harbor something burning within them? In all her years, what she's seen most is this kind of resolute "one-shot" decision. It's either success or utter destruction; there's no middle ground.

Good.

She even somewhat admired Chen Anran's current state.

"Alright." Qi Lan stretched, her joints making a slight cracking sound. "As long as you know what's going on. Anyway, I'm on your pirate ship now. If the ship capsizes, we'll all drown. But if the ship can make it across..." She paused, a wild glint flashing in her amber eyes. "Then I'll see what 'spiritual energy' from three thousand years ago tastes like."

Chen Anran turned to look at her: "Aren't you worried? That place might not be the world you're familiar with; the rules and the enemies might be completely different."

"Worried?" Qi Lan scoffed, her sharp canines flashing in the moonlight. "When these old fogies fight, it's nothing more than you taking from me and me killing you—the law of the jungle. What's the difference? It's just that the scene is bigger and more people die." She tilted her head. "But you, Chen Anran, have you thought it through? When you get back there, your senior sister... might not recognize you, and she might not listen to you."

"I don't know," he finally answered honestly, his voice tinged with weariness but not confusion. "I haven't figured out exactly what to do. Maybe I should find her first, look at her, and confirm whether she... is still 'her'. Maybe... I should look at the root of it all and see what drove her down that path three thousand years ago."

He turned to look at Qi Lan: "If I stay here, everything is already set in stone. I don't even have the chance to say 'I don't know what to do.' If I go, at least... I'll still have the right to say 'I don't know what to do.'"

Qi Lan stared at him for a few seconds, then suddenly chuckled, a strange kind of approval in her voice: "That's honest enough. Much better than those idiots who pretend 'everything is under control' when they're clearly unsure." As she spoke, she seemed to remember something else and added, "Lingdang felt quite guilty, saying that if she hadn't come here, none of this would have happened to your Yunyin Sect."

Chen Anran fell silent, his gaze shifting from the distant starry sky to the heavy shadows cast by the pillars, as if he could see through the night the anxious bell curled up in the secret room of "Meow Fairy Abode".

"It's not her fault," Chen Anran said frankly. "Even without her, He Qingyun and Han Bailian would still have found another excuse to target the Yunyin Sect." After a slight pause, Chen Anran added, "Not to mention, it was I who asked her to come back in the first place."

Chen Anran didn't say one more thing: he still owed Lingdang three wishes...

"What He Qingyun needed was a legitimate excuse, a tool to incite righteous sentiment, and a pretext to cover up his own heinous act of killing his master. Lingdang's identity was, to him, the perfect 'ironclad proof'—the Holy Maiden of the Crimson Spirit Sect, the 'murderer' of Zhang Tianshi. What could be a better pawn to incite public outrage and allow him to occupy the moral high ground?"

As Chen Anran spoke, a hint of cold mockery crept into her voice: "Even without the bell, he'll find accusations like 'the Yunyin Sect is hiding some demonic treasure,' or 'the Yunyin Sect's techniques are associated with evil cults.' When someone wants to find fault, they'll always find a pretext. Those kinds of people covet my senior sister's 'pure Yin body,' a potential opportunity or magical treasure. As long as the Yunyin Sect has what they want, whether the bell is there or not, they can't escape this disaster. The only difference is what excuse they'll use."

The night breeze swept past the eaves bells at the corner of the palace, producing a soft, clear, and cool sound.

Qi Lan listened, her amber vertical pupils flickering slightly in the shadows, without offering any rebuttal. She had lived too long and witnessed far too much of the wickedness in people's hearts; Chen Anran's words had merely torn away that veil of pretense.

"That guy is overthinking things." Qi Lan twitched the corner of her mouth, her tone neither sarcastic nor anything else. "He thinks too highly of himself and too high about those people's bottom line."

After saying that, Qi Lan straightened up. "I'm leaving. I'm going back to get some rest. I need to be well-rested so I can watch you cause trouble." With that, she turned to disappear into the darkness.

"Qi Lan," Chen Anran called out to her.

"Um?"

"Thanks."

Qi Lan didn't stop walking, but waved her hand with her back to him. Her black tail lazily swept behind her and quickly disappeared into the shadows of the corner of the palace.

Chen Anran stood there for a while longer, until the night dew soaked his shoulders. He turned around, not returning to the main hall, but instead slowly walking towards the back mountain along the familiar path.

He walked slowly through the silent halls and corridors, past the medicinal fields, the mountain path gleaming with a bluish-white light under the moonlight. His gaze swept over every blade of grass, every brick and tile. This mountain gate, where he had lived for over twenty years and guarded for so long, would soon be transported in a completely unfamiliar time and space in a different way.

He can take the buildings and the land with him, but some things are destined to remain here. The imprint of this era, the everyday life connected to the resort down the mountain that had just begun to function but had to close hastily.

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