"What's his cultivation realm?" asked Yang Qing.
For the Wan noble head to almost cripple a first-stage palace realm cultivator, by Yang Qing's estimates, he either had to be a middle to late-stage palace realm expert, or he was at the early stages but possessed an absurdly powerful foundation—one that was levels stronger than that of the first-stage palace realm mber of the Red Gales Fist.
But Yang Qing increasingly felt that he was likely to be in the middle to late stage of the palace realm. What guided his reasoning was Bai Chen's cultivation base.
From his interaction with the Bluefin Spine-tailed Swift Agency's founder, he had gotten a feel for his strength when he fought the blood-winged vulture that attacked the ship during their trip. The abilities Bai Chen displayed were consistent with those of an early-stage palace realm expert, and based on the quality of the dao essence in his aura, he was likely at the fourth stage.
In Yang Qing's estimation, Bai Chen had decent foundations, and it wouldn't be far-fetched for him to go toe-to-toe with soone at the preliminary phases of the middle stages of the palace realm—such as soone at the fifth stage—provided they didn't have stronger foundations than his.
Following that logic, if Liu Ying's assessnt of the Red Gale Fist leader's strength was accurate, it ant the leader's cultivation was likely similar to Bai Chen's or slightly higher—possibly at the fifth stage but with weaker foundations. This would explain how Bai Chen could fight him to a draw.
Regardless of the specifics, Liu Ying's testimony made one thing clear: the leader of the Red Gale Fists was no pushover. Yet, for soone of his strength to bow his head and allow one of his subordinates to labor in a mine without protest spoke volus about Wan Cheng's overwhelming power.
There was also the off chance that what the rcenary escort leader feared wasn't Wan Cheng himself but rather the trump cards he had at his disposal. After all, it was his territory, and it wouldn't be far-fetched for him to possess a ho-ground advantage—be it through a powerful array, artifact, or the sheer manpower at his command.
For soone to be able to hold their own in a tumultuous place like the Azure Sapphire Kingdom, with chaos all over, other than personal strength, they had to have a few other ans at their disposal to ensure their safety and that which they held dear, and it was likely to be undoubtedly so for soone touted to value his territory even above that of his family mbers.
He was bound to have countless asures put in place; maybe that was how he discovered a sapphire stone had been taken.
Liu Ying paused slightly before answering Yang Qing's question. From her deanor, it was clear that Wan Cheng unnerved her. Still, after a brief hesitation, she responded.
"Our boss couldn't tell. Wan Cheng likely has so artifact, treasure, or other ans to hide his cultivation realm—even from other palace realm cultivators like our boss. However, in the early days, when we were just starting out on our dealings with Wan Cheng, the boss did warn us more than once to be careful of our conduct around him."
Liu Ying paused briefly to take a sip of her wine. She took one large sip before slowly placing the cup back on the table. Her gaze remained fixed on the little wine left in her cup as she continued.
"Boss Bai Chen isn't one to nag," she said slowly, fiddling with her wine cup, rotating it clockwise and counterclockwise, creating faint ripples on the surface of the wine.
"Yet this ti... he nagged," Liu Ying said, raising her head and shifting her attention back to Yang Qing.
"It wasn't excessive or anything, just three or four tis," she explained, "but the fact that he said it more than once made his actions suspect. So I got curious and asked him why."
Usually, when Bai Chen gave instructions, she followed them faithfully—no questions asked; she'd just do it. But this ti, she felt compelled to ask. For her, Bai Chen had always been the anchor of their agency, the one constant they could rely on. No matter what they faced out there, they found comfort in knowing their powerful boss would be there to shelter them.
But his repeated warnings to be cautious with Wan Cheng shook that anchor. It threatened the image of the safe harbor she had built around him.
So of course she had to ask. She needed to know why.
Otherwise, the thought would always gnaw at her, dancing around the question: Why did the boss say that?
It was a question whose answer she both feared and desperately needed to know.
Taking a deep sigh, her eyes flashed with a glimr of glum.
"It's funny," she began, her voice tinged with bitterness. "Back then, when he answered my question, I made a conscious decision to block out his response. I erased it from my mind and never thought of it again. I was... successful at it," she added with a bitter smile that matched the despondence in her eyes.
"But now... now that he's disappeared, along with Brother Jiang Hao, all I can think about is the answer he gave that day. It's been replaying over and over in my mind..."
Had Yang Qing not heard Duan Ting say that Wan Cheng was unlikely to have been involved in the matter, Liu Ying's statent might have easily planted the seeds of suspicion. The only thing that would have held him back from a full blown suspicion was Liu Ying's deanor as she spoke.
She didn't wear the face of soone making an accusation. Instead, it was the face of soone forced to co to terms with an uncomfortable truth—a look Yang Qing knew all too well.
It was the look of soone whose bubble had burst, who finally saw things for what they truly were. A look that ca when burying your head in the sand was no longer enough to avoid the truths you didn't want to see or acknowledge.
Liu Ying appeared to be at that point. There was no sand left around her—just a hard rock and the harsh, unyielding environnt of reality.
Liu Ying softly cleared her throat, took a deep breath, and wore a small smile. "He said..." she began, pausing briefly. The air grew heavy, so much so that even Ming Wa, who had previously seed indifferent to the conversation, subtly perked her ears in curiosity.
"He said that if we did sothing... sothing that displeased the noble and forced him to act, he wouldn't abandon us to suffer the consequences alone, like what the Red Gales Fist's leader did to his subordinate. He would definitely intervene for us, even if it ant acting forcefully or putting himself at risk. But…"
She hesitated, her solemn gaze drifting to the window of the restaurant as her voice grew softer. "…he admitted he had no confidence that his efforts would amount to much, even if he staked his life."
Liu Ying's voice dropped further as she continued, her words carrying the weight of her boss's grim confession. "Whenever he faced Wan Cheng, even though he couldn't discern the man's cultivation realm, there was always sothing deep inside him—sothing instinctual—telling him that no matter what he did, no matter what thods he used, he could never defeat him."
Her words hung in the air, heavy and sobering.
"I actively tried to ignore those words back then," she admitted, her tone bitter as her gaze dimd. "Because if I didn't... it would an admitting..."
She paused again, her hands curling slightly as if to hold back the truth she didn't want to say aloud. When she finally spoke, her voice was laced with a reluctant resignation.
"…that our boss isn't as infallible as I always believed."
A bitter smile tugged at her lips as she reached for her wine cup, taking a long sip to drown the sting of her own admission and the realities that set in recently; all with the express purpose of confirming it.
Yang Qing, sensing the weight of her words, nodded appreciatively and thanked her for her statent, his own thoughts swirling as the implications settled in.
She might not have explicitly ntioned Wan Cheng's cultivation base, only reiterating Bai Chen's words, but that was enough for Yang Qing to piece together a substantive picture of Wan Cheng's strength.
"Realm suppression law…" Yang Qing muttered inwardly. That was likely what Bai Chen had experienced—that soul-crushing sensation that seeped into your spirit when you interacted with an entity vastly more powerful than yourself. It was similar to the bloodline suppression experienced by spirit beasts, but far more potent. Unlike bloodline suppression, realm suppression worked across all species: humans, spirit beasts, awakened spiritual plants, treasures, and artifacts alike.
Realm suppression was a primal fear, an instinctive response born deep in the soul, triggered when encountering a presence of overwhelming power. However, it only manifested within a certain threshold of disparity.
For instance, a qi refinent cultivator interacting with a foundation establishnt entity would instinctively feel the oppressive weight of realm suppression law. But if that sa cultivator encountered a core formation entity, their spirit wouldn't register the suppression. It wasn't that the law ceased to exist, but rather that the cultivator's mind couldn't comprehend its weight and automatically shielded their spirit from being overwheld.
However, if the core formation entity intentionally leaked their aura, the qi refinent cultivator's unconscious shield would be stripped away, and the effects would be catastrophic. The cultivator might faint from the sheer pressure, their spirit unable to bear the fear that ca with exposure. In the worst cases, their spirit could destabilize entirely, breaking apart or even exploding.
A similar scenario would occur with a foundation establishnt cultivator exposed to the unfiltered aura of a palace realm expert. Even core formation experts wouldn't be immune. While their bodies might not explode from the exposure, they would be rendered completely petrified—just as Duan Ting, Liu Ying, and Ming Wa had been when Yang Qing intervened in their fight, leaking a bit of his aura in the process. It could have been far worse if Yang Qing had been in the middle stages of his cultivation.
Realm suppression often induced a fear that paralyzed its victims, disheartened them, or, in the worst cases, literally crushed their spirits.
This was why at the Institute, students were only exposed to an instructor's aura after reaching the core formation realm—and even then, it was only in controlled doses. Despite the precautions, they still struggled. The purpose of this training wasn't to eliminate the fear, as that was impossible due to its origin in natural law, but to strengthen their resolve to act despite it. The goal was to teach them to think and act while still gripped by fear.
For Bai Chen to experience what he did, it likely ant Wan Cheng was a late-stage palace realm expert—not at the early phases, but soone at the ninth stage at the very least.
As for why Bai Chen would feel realm suppression from soone in the sa realm as himself, the explanation was simple: from the palace realm onward, the gap between each stage was a substantial qualitative leap. The gap between a first stage palace realm expert and a sixth stage palace realm expert was no different between the gap of a late stage core formation expert and an early stage foundation establishnt cultivator.
From the palace realm forward, progress was dictated by one's understanding of the Dao. The deeper the understanding, the more potent their abilities and dao essence beca. This was why, upon reaching the domain realm, cultivators were no longer defined by their race but by their realm. Humans, spirit beasts, spiritual plants, and awakened artifacts—all beca sothing beyond just their races.
This was why, when it ca to palace realm experts, they didn't sense the realm suppression law when interacting with domain experts, similar to how a qi refinent cultivator couldn't sense it when facing a core formation expert. Despite being a realm apart, the gap between the palace realm and domain realm was so vast that their spirits struggled to sense or comprehend it.
This was also why Yang Qing automatically dismissed the idea of Wan Cheng being a domain expert. If he were, Bai Chen would never have experienced the sensations he had.
However, Yang Qing couldn't help but feel surprised at the noble's cultivation realm. A potential ninth-stage palace realm expert might not carry the sa weight as a domain expert, but they were still formidable in their own right.
Yang Qing had once tead up with Dai Chen, Zhang Qingge, and two other palace realm figures from the Order, one of them at the third stage, to confront the founder of the Ice Erald Sect, who was only at the sixth stage of the palace realm. Even then, the battle wasn't straightforward. One could only imagine the imnse difficulty of facing soone at the ninth stage.
At least one thing was certain: though Yang Qing had improved since then, now at the third stage himself, with a deeper understanding of his physique enhancing his abilities, and Dai Chen and Zhang Qingge likely having improved as well, even if they combined their strengths again, they wouldn't be able to force a draw against a ninth-stage palace realm expert. They would have to rely on external ans to achieve that.
Yang Qing's eyes flashed with a strange light as he imagined the situation at Azure Sapphire Mountain.
Would a truce truly go as they hoped, with each noble existing independently or was all that just cover?
User Comments
0 comments from readers