It looked as if Wang Chen had experienced a complete lifetime in the blink of an eye—his eyes showed the wear of time.
Zi Han, however, wasn't shocked because of this strange state, but rather something else.
"This aura..." Just a moment ago when she had opened her eyes, she detected a very familiar aura emanating from Wang Chen's figure—the aura of the movement technique that she had just transferred to Wang Chen.
"One Thought to Cross the World!"
There was no doubt about it.
But how was this possible? It was a rare technique involving three daos working together. It was common knowledge the more daos were involved in a technique, the harder it was to comprehend. Just as Zi Han was trying to make sense of the situation, a thought occurred to her: maybe fellow Daoist Wang was already familiar with the technique.
If that was the case, everything could be explained—then it wasn't shocking.
However, as soon as that thought occurred to her, she quickly shook her head to deny it. If it was any other technique, she could have even believed it for a moment, but this was something she had found in a secret realm of her master, the former Demon Queen.
...
Wang Chen didn't know what was going on in Zi Han's thoughts. He was still tired from spending one complete year trying to understand the technique.
"What a profound technique..." Wang Chen secretly praised. Just a moment ago when he had closed his eyes, he had secretly gone to the first floor of the Tower of Infinite Enlightenment and spent one year trying to comprehend "One Thought to Cross the World," but even after that he only managed to understand only one percent of it.
He couldn't help but sigh as he looked at the rune floating in his spiritual space. If you were to look at the rune closely, its topmost corner seemed to have slightly dimmed, as if someone had absorbed the knowledge contained in it.
That's right—once Wang Chen fully comprehended the technique, the rune would vanish.
"Just my talent..." Wang Chen couldn't stop himself from sighing again. At first he wanted to completely comprehend the technique in an instant just like the main character, but he had overestimated himself. Even with Ye Xiang, he was barely able to understand something.
If Zi Han were to know his thoughts, it would be interesting to see how she would react. Forget about one year—it would be surprising if one was even able to gain a basic understanding of this technique in a decade. He would be considered a genius.
In a breath of time, Wang Chen managed to get his bearing and praised without any reservation:
"What a profound technique! Just one thought to travel anywhere in the world—the senior who created this must be a Heaven Shaking expert..."
While Wang Chen was busy praising, however, this casual remark seemed to have drained all color from Zi Han's face.
"How does he know it?" Zi Han thought with an incredulous look in her eyes. "Don't tell me he is one of those old monsters from that place. Only those people still know anything about the Heaven Shaking realm."
It was common knowledge in the cultivation world that there were eight realms of mortal cultivation.
First, when one started absorbing ambient qi from the surroundings, and finally the last known realm of cultivation—Grand Ascension—after which it was not possible to cultivate in the mortal world.
However, in reality there existed one more realm: the Heaven Shaking realm. But reaching it was so impossibly difficult that there had been no such cultivator in the last one hundred thousand years. According to the records, this world's fate had declined—it was unable to give birth to such experts.
As to how Zi Han knew about it, her late master was the last expert in such a realm.
Wang Chen didn't know what was going inside Zi Han's mind, but he was very keen to get her out of his palace as fast as possible. The more he entertained her, the more were his chances of getting exposed.
With that thought in mind, he cupped his hands. "Fellow Daoist Zi Han, now that I have completed your request, I would like to take my leave and return to seclusion... But don't worry, my disciple will take care of you."
How could Zi Han not understand what Wang Chen was trying to say? She immediately got up and bowed. "There's no need for that—I also have other matters to attend to..."
Immediately after hearing those words, Wang Chen internally smiled, but on the outside he merely showed an understanding expression.
After exchanging a few pleasantries, Zi Han didn't linger around for long and left. However, before she left, she said something which caused Wang Chen's expression to change.
"If fellow Daoist don't mind, us master and disciple would like to come visit in the future. The atmosphere of your dojo seemed to help us understand the dao better..."
Although Wang Chen might be stupid, he could understand she was just using this as an excuse to keep an eye on the mysterious Grand Ascension cultivator.
"Hmph! You old hag, want to monitor me? Dream on..."
Wang Chen cursed internally, but outwardly his face remained the same. He even warmly said, "Of course! The doors of my humble dojo are open for you anytime. Fellow Daoist can visit this humble palace anytime."
Xi Yi also got up and followed behind her master. Wang Chen also followed them to the gate leading outside.
As soon as they took one step, under Wang Chen's eyes, the pair of master and disciple immediately disappeared as if the two didn't exist at all.
"Truly an expert that he can't offend." Just as Wang Chen was marveling, he noticed a figure hiding behind a lamp post a few meters away from the dojo.
At first, Wang Chen thought it was just another Bloodfang Gang lackey.