activa-t Chapter 462 Reincarnation of an Ancient Powerhouse?
Chapter 462 Reincarnation of an Ancient Powerhouse?
In the study of the city lord's mansion.
The candlelight was dim, casting a hazy, indistinct shadow on the landscape painting on the wall.
The painting depicts the entirety of Tianyuan City with meticulous brushwork; even the two ink-black Qilin statues at the city gate are rendered with remarkable realism.
Zhang Yiyuan leaned back in his chair, holding a cup of tea that had long since gone cold, staring blankly at his reflection in the cup.
The tea reflected an old face, with deep wrinkles and heavy eye bags.
Two thousand three hundred years are etched on this face, indelible and indelible.
He sat opposite Wu Huan, the master and apprentice in silence.
Only the wisps of smoke from the incense burner in the corner rose gently and slowly dispersed in the air.
After a long silence, Wu Huan spoke up: "Master, what do you think Lin Chen's cultivation level is?"
Zhang Yiyuan put down the teacup, the bottom of which touched the table with a soft sound.
He raised his eyelids to look at his apprentice, the candlelight flickering twice in his eyes.
"I can't see through it."
Wu Huan was stunned for a moment. Even his master said he couldn't see through him, so could Lin Chen be...?
"I have lived for two thousand three hundred years and consider myself to have seen countless people. Whether they are earth immortals or celestial immortals, as long as they stand in front of me, there is no one I cannot see through."
Zhang Yiyuan paused, his tone becoming more serious.
"But I can't see through this Lin Chen. He stands there like a well."
Not the kind of well that's bottomless, but the kind that looks shallow, but when you reach out and touch it, you can never reach the bottom.
Wu Huan opened his mouth, as if to say something, but then swallowed it back, and gently rubbed his fingers on his knees twice.
This is a little habit he has when he's nervous, and he hasn't changed it for hundreds of years.
Zhang Yiyuan was silent for a moment, then said, "I have two guesses."
Wu Huan pricked up his ears.
"First, he cultivated a technique to conceal his aura, which he kept extremely well hidden."
Such techniques do exist, but only those at the True Lord level or higher could deceive me.
Wu Huan's expression changed slightly.
"Second," Zhang Yiyuan said, looking at Wu Huan and enunciating each word clearly.
"He is the reincarnation of an ancient powerhouse, or the representative of a powerhouse from another realm."
Otherwise, there's no way to explain why an eighteen-year-old would stand here, and why I, an old man, can't see through him.
Wu Huan's face turned pale, not from fright, but from the kind of paleness that comes from "I think I know something I shouldn't know."
"Then wouldn't that be... True Lord?" Wu Huan uttered these words with difficulty, his voice trembling slightly.
Zhang Yiyuan didn't answer. He picked up the teapot and poured another cup, the steam from the new tea blurring his face.
Zhang Yiyuan remained silent for a long time, so long that the steam from the cup of tea dissipated.
"Whether he is a true ruler or a false one, one thing is certain," Zhang Yiyuan said solemnly, setting down the teapot.
"We can't afford to offend Lin Chen."
Wu Huan nodded, echoing his master's words: "A great calamity is approaching. It's always better to have one more friend than one more enemy."
Zhang Yiyuan sighed softly, but Wu Huan could sense the weight in his voice.
"Master, Tianyuan City, we don't take sides," Wu Huan said with a serious expression.
"Yes." Zhang Yiyuan looked at the teacup in his hand and nodded.
"We don't take sides, but we don't turn away guests either. We welcome everyone who comes and we don't see anyone off when they leave."
For tens of thousands of years, Tianyuan City has survived to this day not because of its strength, but because we have never meddled in other people's affairs.
"This is the foundation upon which Tianyuan City was founded."
Wu Huan picked up his cup of tea, which had long since gone cold, and drank it all in one gulp.
Tea is bitter, but the feelings in one's heart are more complex than tea.
The candlelight flickered twice, and then the study fell silent again.
The master and disciple sat facing each other, neither speaking, each lost in their own thoughts.
……
Thousands of miles away.
A white shadow streaked across the sky at breakneck speed.
It moved faster than sound, yet made no noise.
The white shadow left a long trail in the night sky, and the moonlight shone on it, making it glow silvery-white, as if someone had drawn a stroke in the sky.
Yan Ruyu wore a white dress, her white hair as white as snow, fluttering backward in the wind.
The skirt was made of special silkworm silk by the Hehuan Sect. It was as light and thin as smoke, and it clung to the body, outlining a perfect curve.
A silver ribbon was tied around her waist in a bow, with the ends of the ribbon hanging down and swaying gently in the wind.
Her hair wasn't tied up; it was just loose, hanging down from the top of her head to her waist.
Each one was pure white, shining brightly, like silk threads formed from moonlight.
Her face—it was pale in any way you could describe it.
Her face was like a peach blossom, not the rosy pink of a young girl, but the juicy smoothness of a ripe peach.
Her skin was so white it was almost translucent, and you could see the fine bluish veins under her temples.
Her lips were rosy and naturally had a color that made men want to take a bite, without needing any rouge.
Her features are exquisite, but the word "exquisite" is too weak to do justice to her face.
But her eyes betrayed her age.
Her eyes held a sense of vicissitude, a profound understanding, a sense of emptiness, and a tranquility born from having seen and lost so much.
That calmness wasn't feigned; it was ingrained in his very bones.
Her lips were slightly pursed, with a faint smile that was neither cold nor warm; you just couldn't figure out what she was thinking.
This woman, every part of her body seemed to say one thing—"I am the most beautiful woman in Zhongzhou."
It's not something they claim to say; it's what's generally accepted.
It was recognized two thousand years ago, and it still is two thousand years later.
Yan Ruyu looked up at the sky; the crack was still there.
A dark red light emanated from within, creating an oppressive and somber atmosphere.
Like a half-closed eye looking down at the earth, dozing off, but ready to open at any moment.
Yan Ruyu watched for a while, then looked away.
The information about Lin Chen kept swirling in his mind.
She read through all the information she could get about Lin Chen, some of it more than once.
Eighteen years old—almost nineteen, but the intelligence report still says eighteen.
A native of the Eastern Region, the Zhenbei King of the Dayan Dynasty, a king of equal rank, the Empress's husband, with a cultivation level at least at the peak of the Heavenly Immortal realm.
Yan Ruyu recalled her seclusion half a month ago.
She sat cross-legged in the secret chamber, her consciousness sinking into the天地 (heaven and earth), trying to glimpse a trace of heavenly secrets.
The secrets of heaven are vague, as if veiled or separated by water.
She couldn't see the man's face, his cultivation level, or his background.
But she knew he was a young man, a young man from the East, who radiated light, a very bright light.
It was so bright that she dared not look directly at it, so bright that it made her feel uneasy.
She met the light in the void for a moment.
In just a moment, her consciousness was repelled.
Yan Ruyu snapped out of her thoughts and pursed her lips.
The white shadow flashed across the night sky, like a shooting star streaking across the horizon, disappearing in the blink of an eye.
Only a silvery-white trail remained, slowly dissipating in the sky.
She absolutely had to go to Tianyuan City.
Besides curiosity, there was also the desire to understand what that light was.
The crack in the sky widened a little more.
A dark red light seeped out, as if it were smiling.