The Paired Eyes—during the Left Three Thousand small assembly, Jian Chou had obtained the Time Eye.

Fu Chaosheng had possessed the Universe Eye at the time, and later, learning that the Time Eye was in Jian Chou’s hands, he had specifically made a trip to Kunwu to cook soup with her by the river and borrowed the Time Eye.

Later in the Extreme Region, he had wanted to return it, but Jian Chou had still let him keep it.

Because not just anyone could use the Cosmic Paired Eyes.

Jian Chou’s cultivation wasn’t very high at that time—it could be said she had absolutely no ability to use this item, not to mention that how much one could see was also tied to cultivation level.

This thing really had no great use for her; on the contrary, Fu Chaosheng actually needed it very much.

So Jian Chou had not asked Fu Chaosheng to return it.

But today, she wanted to borrow it to take a look—to see what exactly had happened that day, to see who the murderer was, and also to see…

Those innocent disciples of Yashan who had died unjustly.

Once Jian Chou spoke of borrowing the Cosmic Paired Eyes, Fu Chaosheng guessed what she wanted to do, only saying: “The Time Eye was originally for your use, and the Universe Eye is also with me. It’s just that using this item with my friend’s current cultivation is still somewhat strenuous. There might be some improper consequences…”

Nothing more than being unable to suppress the item and suffering some minor injuries.

Jian Chou shook her head, indicating she didn’t mind, only saying: “I have a dear friend here who is a great demon roaming between heaven and earth. Even if something happens, how bad could it be? Please lend me the Universe Eye and Time Eye to take a look.”

It seemed she truly wanted to see the situation at that time.

Actually, when he discovered those cultivators came from Yashan, Fu Chaosheng had already investigated with the Universe Eye and Time Eye. He could certainly tell Jian Chou the specific situation, but he hadn’t.

The current Jian Chou clearly wanted to see for herself, to witness it with her own eyes.

He actually didn’t care much about people’s life and death.

After all, they weren’t his species, so no matter how tragic, he wouldn’t feel much. Unless someday Jian Chou had trouble, then he might empathize.

But at this moment, all he could do was silently take out the Universe Eye and Time Eye.

Still pearls, two pearls.

Lying in his palm, they looked very dim, as if covered with a thick layer of dust, unable to shine through with any luster.

But actually, one could traverse time, the other could span space.

“Please concentrate, my friend.”

Before activation, Fu Chaosheng gave a reminder.

So Jian Chou nodded, her entire mind sinking down, her spiritual platform empty, all consciousness focused on the two fish eyes before her.

Without seeing Fu Chaosheng make any movements, the fish eyes in his palm trembled lightly.

Soon, two masses of ethereal soft light emanated from the two fish eyes, gradually spinning faster and faster from slow to fast, as if forming two whirlpools.

The whirlpools grew larger and larger, and after a moment they overlapped together, becoming one mass.

The scene at this time had an indescribable magnificence and dreamlike quality.

Fu Chaosheng’s palm was spread open between the two of them like this, and lying in his palm were no longer two fish eyes, but an entire bizarre universe!

The spinning whirlpool had a deep black center, dark and endless, but its edges chased after the radiance of countless stars, brilliant beyond measure.

Perhaps because it was Fu Chaosheng before her, someone with no profit relationship with her and no conflicts at all, she could be completely at ease.

Almost without Jian Chou deliberately controlling it, her mind was naturally attracted and drawn into the whirlpool.

Her pair of clear eyes became vacant for a moment, and the dark yet brilliant starlight rapidly gathered and continued to change in her eyes.

Like a vast world rushing toward her face from that whirlpool!

This room hung with paintings, the furnishings in the room, even Fu Chaosheng right in front of her…

Everything disappeared at this moment!

Before Jian Chou’s eyes was only that boundless world, space with no visible borders or limits, time with no visible beginning or end…

For a moment, she almost became intoxicated, forgetting why she had opened the Cosmic Paired Eyes in the first place.

However, she had only this one thought.

The scene before her eyes suddenly began to change.

Endless starlight spun and twisted rapidly, sweeping past her field of vision, while one bright star rapidly enlarged in her view, enlarging…

The outlines of seas and continents gradually became clear.

Jian Chou soon saw the isolated island, saw the vast Western Sea, saw the expansive Nineteenth Zhou continent…

So a name naturally surfaced in her heart—she knew this was the name of the star they inhabited.

Yuanshi.

Then her view became lower and lower, and the range she could see became narrower and narrower.

From the entire Yuanshi star, to the Nineteenth Zhou, to the northern region, to the snowy region, then to mountains and rivers, and finally appearing before Jian Chou’s eyes was that riverbank mottled with sword marks and bloodstains.

There were no corpses of Yashan disciples; the bodies of Kunwu disciples and elders had all been collected by Xie Buchen. Even the sword marks and bloodstains on the entire riverbank were much fainter than when they had visited that day.

Jian Chou immediately knew this was the riverbank at this very moment.

But what she wanted to examine was the situation on the day of the incident.

Her mind moved again, and the scene before her eyes changed once more.

But unlike the previous large-scale scene transformations, this change was extremely subtle. It was still this riverbank, but occasionally human shadows would flash by, or small deer drinking water by the river…

Time was rapidly rewinding.

In this process, Jian Chou even saw herself and Xie Buchen, as well as the new Tantric monk Huai Jie who had died at her hands that day.

After a while, the scene gradually slowed down.

She finally saw it—

On the riverbank in the early morning, the sun had just risen from the east.

The surrounding forest still had thin mist that hadn’t dispersed, slowly rolling in the not-yet-cold air with the autumn breeze. The river water was shallow, flowing from the other end of the canyon.

Light footsteps sounded, echoing in the canyon.

A group of people walked over from upstream of the river.

Fourteen people in total, all looking young. Their faces carried varying degrees of fatigue, but their lips almost all bore smiles, even showing a sense of relaxation.

Walking at the front was a man in sky-blue robes.

He held a long sword in his hand, his steps steady, walking down from the canyon following the river neither hurriedly nor slowly. His feet stepped on the small stones by the riverbank, making subtle sounds.

His face had bright eyes and starlike brows, his neither thin nor thick lips curved up in just the right arc, looking extremely comfortable.

“Uncle Yu, our business in the snowy region is about to end. Will you continue traveling afterward?”

A young and energetic voice sounded behind him.

Yu Zhifei turned his head and saw a face with features still carrying some youthfulness.

“Me?”

He smiled, seeming about to answer, but when the words were about to come out, he paused for some reason. In his clear, warm eyes, a bit of warm light appeared, and his voice also became much softer.

“I won’t go traveling anymore. I’ll go back to Yashan with you all.”

“Wow!”

The disciples who heard this couldn’t help but exclaim, extremely happy.

“Master Uncle Fudao probably doesn’t know yet, right? If he knew, he’d definitely be overjoyed! Should we quickly send a message to the sect?”

“Alright, stop making noise.”

Yu Zhifei showed some helpless expression, just reaching the riverside.

“Don’t tell him now, or else, before I return, he’ll be asking if I brought him anything to eat. Let’s give him a ‘surprise’ instead.”

A small deer walked out from the forest ahead, seemingly wanting to drink water by the river. But seeing him, it stopped hesitantly with some fear. In its moist eyes, there seemed to be some fear.

So he stopped his steps, standing in the distance, no longer walking forward.

The little deer waited for a while, seeing he wasn’t coming closer, seemed to relax, took light steps to the riverbank, and lowered its head to drink water.

The younger generation disciples also all stopped, waiting for the deer to finish drinking before continuing.

But hearing Yu Zhifei’s words, they probably all remembered Master Uncle Fudao’s style and couldn’t help covering their mouths and laughing.

“Uncle is returning just at the right time. When they sent the message yesterday, they said Senior Uncle is also back at the mountain gate. When Uncle returns, he can see him!”

“Yes, yes, when Uncle was traveling, Senior Uncle hadn’t even joined the sect yet!”

“Uncle Bai Yin is back too. This is really good—everyone’s back.”

“Mm-hmm, Master Uncle Fudao hasn’t been running around randomly lately either. This is really great!”

…

They chattered away, their voices lowered but each more excited than the last.

Yu Zhifei watched them and just sighed, shaking his head.

Calculating by his years of cultivation, these in front of him were still all children, with some natural qualities not yet worn away, so he didn’t stop them and let them talk.

But probably also because of their words, he still thought of that “senior sister” he hadn’t met yet.

So when their excited discussion quieted down a little, he asked with some curiosity: “I really haven’t met your Senior Uncle Jian Chou yet. What’s she like?”

“Ah, Senior Uncle Jian Chou is amazing!”

“Yes, yes, when she just established her foundation, she defeated those people from Jianzhu Sect who came to provoke us. Her leg techniques are too strong!”

“She even climbed onto the Solitary Platform!”

“Even Master Hengxu’s fourth disciple—that someone, I heard he’s as smart as that Xie fellow—was defeated by Senior Uncle. Now Senior Uncle is first on the Fourth Heaven Tablet, a late Nascent Soul expert!”

“I’ve seen her before. She looks so beautiful when she smiles…”

…

This one question seemed to open their chatterbox.

You said one sentence, I said another, and in the blink of an eye, they had recounted all the things Jian Chou had said, done, and achieved.

Yu Zhifei listened quietly beside them, the curve of his lips never dropping, his gaze growing more gentle, only murmuring: “Good is good enough.”

“Anyway, Uncle will be able to see her when he returns.”

“Yes, yes, really very good!”

“If we return in these two days, we can still catch the small assembly!”

“This year it’s being held at Kunwu. I’ve never been to Kunwu—I really want to see it…”

…

As they talked, the topic quickly shifted to other matters.

Before long, the little deer had finished drinking water.

It raised its head from the riverside and followed the path it had come, returning to the dense forest by the river and gradually disappearing from sight.

Yu Zhifei saw this and raised his hand to wave, calling everyone to set off again together.

From here, going south and flying on swords for two hours, they could leave the snowy region. Another two hours, and they could reach Mingri Xinghai, then return to Yashan through the teleportation array.

Everyone’s spirits were lifted.

But unexpectedly, just as they were about to resume their journey, from the sky behind the canyon, more than twenty streams of magical artifact light came speeding.

Behind these twenty-plus streams of light, there were densely packed nearly a hundred “pursuers”!

Deep red monk robes, cold faces, bodies wreathed in heavy black energy—these were new Tantric monks!

Before the Yashan people below could react, a large shadow spread out from these monks, from behind them, covering half the sky, then suddenly pounced downward!

“Bang bang bang…”

Immediately, only a series of loud crashes could be heard. Of the twenty-plus streams of light originally speeding through the void, most were knocked down, crashing into the canyon upstream of the river!

Only one elder who looked somewhat older could barely maintain support.

Although he also fell to the ground and even spat out blood, staining his Daoist robe, he quickly got up. Then he immediately saw Yu Zhifei and the others on the other side of the river.

So he was stunned for a moment, seeming to recognize their identities.

However, the terrifying black shadow overhead didn’t give him more time to think. While sweeping everyone down, it pressed down frantically like a sky full of black clouds!

The elder’s expression immediately became terrified and desperate, but moments later, it became a kind of resolute determination!

In that critical instant, he actually threw a thunder message toward Yu Zhifei over there, while striking at the black fog with all his strength, shouting hoarsely: “Take the message and leave quickly!!!”

Unfortunately, it was already too late…

In the final scene, Jian Chou could only see the black fog writhing like living things filling the sky, blurring the expression on his face.

This man in sky-blue robes raised high that sword “I Am Sword”!

Sky-blue light immediately blazed from the riverside, spreading out. Just like this, for Yashan, for Kunwu, for all fellow disciples, and for all fellow cultivators—

He held up a barrier constructed of sword light!

Before this incredibly treacherous black fog, such a figure was so small! Like a leaf, a grain of sand, yet he stood firm like a rock, never moving an inch.

Until that violent and vicious existence slowly pressed in, burying and devouring everything…

“Puff…”

As her mind shook and her blood energy churned, Jian Chou finally couldn’t hold back and choked out a mouthful of fresh blood. Bright blood drops fell on the front of her robes and on her tightly clenched fingers, shocking to see!

But she seemed to feel no pain at all.

Before her eyes, in her heart, there was only that final scene on the riverbank, only those faint words that seemed to contain a smile—

“I won’t go traveling anymore. I’ll go back to Yashan with you all.”

“I really haven’t met your Senior Uncle Jian Chou yet. What’s she like?”

“Good is good enough…”

“If we return in these two days, we can still catch the small assembly!”

…

They were all such good, good people.

Just four hours of journey, but ultimately they were unable to return to that place they had been thinking of with all their hearts—Yashan.