"Senior."
Just then, the middle-aged woman also flew over.
After landing, she didn't bow respectfully to the elder the way Chu Huai had. Instead, she said casually, "The people from Hero City haven't gone back. They must be afraid that if Chu Feng fails, they'll be implicated too, so they've hidden themselves somewhere else."
"Somewhere else where?" Chu Huai asked.
"Uh..." The woman didn't know how to answer, and a trace of embarrassment surfaced on her face.
"How come it's always like this? Don't you know what your responsibility is here? How can you not even handle something this simple?" Chu Huai said, somewhat displeased.
"Oh, come on — so many people have been recalled back to the clan, and all the missions in the Hundred Refinements Ordinary Realm have been cancelled. Setting aside the fact that we don't have enough hands, there's simply no point in us continuing to keep watch anyway."
"They're not members of the Chu Heavenly Clan. What they do, whether they live or die — what does that have to do with us?" The woman pouted, looking rather aggrieved.
Despite her middle-aged appearance, she still had the temperament of a child.
"But this was a mission entrusted to us by the senior, and we must see it through properly," Chu Huai said.
"Alright, alright, Chu Huai — don't blame Chu Yue. She's right. All of our Chu Heavenly Clan members have left, and the missions here have all been cancelled. There's really nothing left for us to monitor."
"In fact, before long, we'll all be leaving this Hundred Refinements Ordinary Realm and returning to the Grand Upper Realm," the elder said.
"Senior, are you serious?" Upon hearing this, the woman called Chu Yue was overjoyed.
"Of course I'm serious," the elder said.
"But Senior, didn't you say there was still the Soul Infant Sect mission in the Hundred Refinements Ordinary Realm?" Unlike Chu Yue, who was beside herself with joy, Chu Huai seemed somewhat reluctant to leave.
"Among our clan, those few prodigies do have the strength to destroy the Soul Infant Sect, but they've all already passed the age limit for completing this mission."
"And apart from them, no one else in our clan at present... is capable of completing it."
"Unless, in the future, another heaven-defying junior emerges in our clan and is willing to come to this place — the Hundred Refinements Ordinary Realm — to take on this mission."
"Otherwise, I'm afraid no one from our Chu Heavenly Clan would be willing to come here anymore, and there would be no reason for us to remain."
"Besides, even if some junior did come to challenge this mission down the road, we could simply follow them down quietly at that time," the elder said.
Upon hearing this, the woman called Chu Yue was elated beyond measure, jumping up and down with joy.
But the man's mood inexplicably sank.
"You two can finally revert to your original appearances. No more hiding."
As the elder spoke, he waved his great sleeve, and a wave of barrier power cascaded down like starlight, settling upon the two of them.
In the next moment, their appearances transformed. Chu Huai became a young man, and Chu Yue did the same.
However, compared to Chu Huai's rather ordinary features, Chu Yue turned out to be a rather attractive woman.
"We're finally leaving this wretched place. I can finally show my real face."
"Youth looks so much better."
Chu Yue took out a mirror and gazed at her current pretty reflection, quite satisfied.
Because this was her own face — her true appearance, the one she was proud of.
"We were originally middle-aged," Chu Huai said with a look of indifference.
"Silly children. The world of martial practitioners can't be compared to ordinary people."
"Within a hundred years, you're still juniors. Within a thousand years, you're still considered young. Only after a thousand years do you enter middle age, and only after that are you truly elderly. These are the boundaries the ancestors laid down."
"Neither of you has even reached a hundred years of age. You're both still genuine juniors — how can you call yourselves middle-aged?"
"Middle age is still a long, long way off for you," the elder said with a smile.