Covering the Sky: Simultaneous transmigration, but both clones are women.

Ye Chen reached out to check his father's breathing and pulse. After confirming that he was just asleep, he breathed a sigh of relief, as if a huge burden had been lifted from his shoulders.

He looked up towards the direction of the courtyard wall.

The gray-robed man was embedded in the collapsed pile of bricks and stones, most of his body buried in broken bricks and dust, with only half of his pale face and a drooping hand showing.

The fingers of that hand were slightly curled, and there were faint traces of blood at the fingertips, which looked particularly glaring in the sunlight.

The surroundings were eerily quiet.

The roar of that step still echoed deep in my ears, but now all that remained was the rustling of the wind through the flowerbeds and the occasional car horn in the distance.

Ye Chen stood up, his calves still trembling slightly.

That power of heaven and earth was too immense; for his mortal body to bear it was like asking a child to wield a thousand-pound hammer.

Although he managed to swing the ball, the recoil nearly shattered his bones.

"Little Chen!"

I heard hurried footsteps and gasps of surprise behind me.

Liu Yun, wearing an apron and clutching a spatula, ran out of the villa, her face filled with panic. "What was that sound? An earthquake? What did I hear—"

Her voice stopped abruptly.

The spatula slipped from his hand and crashed onto the stone steps of the porch with a loud thud.

The scene before her eyes made her mind go blank for a moment.

The courtyard wall collapsed.

Broken blue bricks littered the ground, and dust still lingered in the air, like a gray fog.

Her husband lay motionless on the grass beside the flowerbed, his eyes closed.

Her son stood beside the ruins, his clothes covered in dust, his face pale, and his forehead covered in sweat.

"Old Ye!"

Liu Yun screamed and rushed to Ye's father's side, crouching down and shaking his shoulders. "Old Ye! What's wrong? Don't scare me!"

Ye Chen quickly followed, squatted down beside his mother, and reached out to hold her hand.

"Mom, Mom! Don't panic, Dad's alright!"

His voice was as calm as possible, with a reassuring certainty, "I was just a little frightened and fainted, I'll be fine in a bit."

"Scared? What scared you?"

Liu Yun looked up, her eyes already red, her gaze darting back and forth between the collapsed courtyard wall and her son. "How did this wall collapse? What happened?"

Ye Chen's mind raced.

"The wall... had been in disrepair for years and suddenly collapsed!"

He said without changing his expression, but with a hint of lingering fear in his voice, "Dad happened to be walking over here, got startled, slipped, and fainted."

"Did it fall into disrepair?"

Liu Yun stared wide-eyed at the blue brick courtyard wall in disbelief. "This wall was only built three years ago, how could it be—"

"mom!"

Ye Chen interrupted her and gave Xu Qiong a wink.

Xu Qiong paused for a moment, then quickly realized what was happening and stepped forward to support Liu Yun's arm.

"Auntie, don't ask any more questions. It's more important to help Uncle inside to rest."

Her voice was gentle yet firm as she spoke, pulling Liu Yun up from the ground. "You see, Uncle looks so uncomfortable lying here. Let's get him inside, okay?"

Liu Yun opened her mouth, looked at Xu Qiong, then at her son, and finally nodded.

The two of them worked together to help Ye's father up.

Ye's father was tall and, although not heavy, the weight of an unconscious person pressing down on the person helping him was considerable.

Xu Qiong gritted her teeth, veins bulging on her forehead, but she endured it without uttering a sound.

Ye Chen wanted to help, but as soon as he took a step, his legs went weak and he almost knelt on the ground.

That kick had almost exhausted all his strength, and now he was having trouble even standing.

"Xiao Chen, you..."

Xu Qiong turned to look at him, a hint of worry flashing in her eyes.

"I'm fine, my legs are just a little weak."

Ye Chen steadied himself by holding onto the edge of the flowerbed, forcing a smile. "Sister Xu Qiong, could you help my mom and dad inside first? I'll be right there after a bit."

Xu Qiong glanced at him, her lips moved, but she didn't say anything more. She helped Liu Yun and Ye's father slowly walk into the villa.

The glass doors to the porch were closed, cutting off the view between the inside and outside.

Ye Chen took a deep breath, slowly stood up while holding onto the edge of the flower bed, and his gaze returned to the pile of collapsed bricks and stones.

The dust gradually settled.

Half of the gray-robed man's face was exposed, ashen white as paper, his eyes tightly closed, and the faint smile that had been on his lips had vanished, replaced by a frozen look of astonishment.

Ye Chen dragged his heavy steps over, squatted down, and reached out to check the gray-robed man's breath.

He is not breathing.

He then felt the artery on the side of his neck.

It stopped beating.

died?

Ye Chen's hand froze in mid-air, his pupils trembling slightly.

He kicked... and killed a cultivator?

Although he had guessed that the Nine Steps to Heaven was quite powerful, the feeling of actually seeing a living person kicked to death by himself was still somewhat indescribable.

Ye Chen remained silent for a moment, his gaze sweeping over the gray-robed man's corpse.

This person's origins are unknown. He suddenly appeared at my doorstep and even knew about the Nine Dragons Pulling the Coffin.

If it were just an ordinary rogue cultivator, it wouldn't be a big deal, but if not, dying here would likely cause trouble in the future.

I need to search for it.

He reached out and rummaged through the gray-robed man's clothes.

First, I touched something hard. When I took it out, I found it was a token about the size of my palm.

It is entirely blackish-gold in color, heavy, and cool to the touch. On the front is an ancient seal character engraved with the character "原" (Yuan).

Ye Chen turned the token over; it was smooth as a mirror, without any patterns or words.

Perhaps it's the name of a small sect, or maybe it's a code name for a powerful organization?

He put the token in his pocket and continued searching.

The gray-robed man also had a thin booklet hidden in his inner pocket.

Although it's called a booklet, it's more like a notebook. The cover is made of some kind of unknown animal hide, dark yellow in color, with severely worn edges, clearly indicating that it's quite old.

There was no title on the cover. Ye Chen casually flipped to the first page and saw lines of tiny, hurried characters, as if someone had written them in a rush.

"Di Yuan Jing".

The three characters were written at the top of the title page, below which was a densely packed manual of a cultivation method.

Ye Chen glanced at it briefly and roughly judged that this was a cultivation technique, only containing a part of the Wheel Sea chapter.

Furthermore, this part is written in a vague and unclear manner, with many key steps left unsaid, as if the author himself did not fully understand it and wrote it down based on guesswork.

"It doesn't seem to be of much use!"

Ye Chen muttered something to himself and casually stuffed the booklet into his pocket.

He searched the gray-robed man again, and only after confirming that there was nothing else of value did he stand up.

Looking at the stiffening corpse on the ground, Ye Chen remained silent for a moment.

Not to mention the difficulty of explaining if his parents see this, the trouble would be immense if the forces behind him followed the clues and came looking for him.

It needs to be disposed of.

He looked around and saw a small grove of trees behind the yard, a place he used to play in as a child. The soil there was soft, so digging a hole wouldn't be difficult.

Ye Chen bent down, grabbed the gray-robed man's ankle, and dragged him towards the back of the courtyard.

The body left a shallow trail on the ground, raising dust which was then blown away by the wind.

The gray-robed man's head bumped and knocked among the rubble and dirt, making a dull "thump-thump" sound, like a broken drum being pounded on haphazardly.

Ye Chen dragged the corpse through the path beside the flowerbed, around to the back of the villa, and into the grove of trees.