Chapter Ninety-Three: Sneaking Glances at Each Other

With his spiritual power fixed on Liu Pan, Liu Pan’s own spiritual power was likewise locked onto Xiao Hanyi. The greatest difference between them was simple enough: one was aware, the other was not.

Liu Pan truly felt fortunate. Had he not awakened spiritual power upon breaking through to the Martial Apprentice stage, and awakened such formidable spiritual power at that, he feared he would not have survived long at all, even in the world he himself had written.

Yet even with such powerful spiritual force, Liu Pan still found the situation vexing. He could sense when others used spiritual power or divine-sense scans, but he could not, or rather did not have the means to, block those scans out. This left him at a disadvantage far more often than not; all he could do was seek opportunity within passivity and use that to achieve his aims.

In the end, everything still came down to strength. If one possessed truly overwhelming power, what disadvantage would there be? One could soar wherever the sky was high, and leap wherever the sea was vast. There would be nowhere in this world he could not go.

Strength? A strange glint flickered through Liu Pan’s eyes.

After seeing Xiao Hanyi, an impulse to be reckless suddenly rose in Liu Pan’s heart. He wanted to reveal his formidable spiritual power directly and draw the attention of the strong. If fortune favored him, he could obtain more cultivation resources and thus ascend to the peak more quickly.

However, in the end he suppressed that impulse, and the reason was still Xiao Hanyi.

To Liu Pan, Xiao Hanyi truly was a genius among geniuses. Such an exceptional person was bound to draw the attention of many powerful figures, and if all went well, rising to the summit would be only natural. And yet... in the story he had written, there had been no trace of Xiao Hanyi at all.

Moreover, judging by the present circumstances, whether Xiao Hanyi’s disappearance meant an untimely end or concealed some deeper secret was still impossible to know.

Thus, Liu Pan ultimately chose to keep a low profile. In his view, before making any grand display, he at least needed to determine what had become of Xiao Hanyi.

Because of the various problems within his body, Liu Pan could not be entirely certain what his aptitude truly was. But judging from his cultivation speed, he felt that his talent would not be much weaker than Xiao Hanyi’s.

Setting aside the tangled thoughts in his mind, Liu Pan considered for a moment, then took out the jade slip containing the Sevenfold Ice Essence Seal from his storage pouch and pressed it directly to his forehead.

As for Xiao Hanyi’s spiritual scan, Liu Pan was not concerned in the least. Xiao Hanyi did not know what the jade slip contained anyway, and Liu Pan could not let the chance to improve his strength slip away merely because of Xiao Hanyi’s lock on him.

Very soon, the jade slip turned to dust and vanished. Liu Pan, however, felt a trace of disappointment. He had not expected the Sevenfold Ice Essence Seal to bear even the slightest connection to the Sevenfold Water Essence Seal.

Originally, because both techniques belonged to the Sevenfold Essence Seal lineage, Liu Pan had assumed that even if their underlying theories differed, some relationship ought to exist between them.

But in truth, after studying the cultivation method of the Sevenfold Ice Essence Seal, Liu Pan found absolutely no similarity between the two techniques’ theories.

Perhaps the only thing they had in common was their effect in use: both were techniques of stacked, explosive power.

“So it really was wishful thinking,” Liu Pan sighed inwardly. He understood that his fantasy of forming fourteen essence seals had been shattered.

Though somewhat disappointed, he did not dwell on it for long. With his eyes closed, after settling his mind and focusing his spirit, he began circulating the ice-element energy within his body to condense the Ice Essence Seals.

Roughly an hour later, seven white-glimmering hand seals of ice-element energy appeared within Liu Pan’s dantian, and he opened his eyes with some curiosity.

Inside his dantian, fourteen seals of elemental energy floated and sank. What puzzled Liu Pan, however, was that the seven water-element seals occupied clearly more space than the seven ice-element seals. Moreover, the cultivation of the Sevenfold Ice Essence Seal was evidently easier than that of the Sevenfold Water Essence Seal, giving him the impression that the two martial techniques were not even of the same grade.

Frowning slightly, Liu Pan did not immediately try the Ice Essence Seal’s power. Xiao Hanyi’s spiritual power was still locked onto him. If he used it now, Xiao Hanyi would likely devote even more attention to him.

After a sweep with his spiritual power, Liu Pan rose and left the side hall.

By now it was nearly noon. Zhang Pingkang had just set the midday meal on a stone table at the edge of the plaza when he saw Liu Pan come out.

“Senior Brother Liu, I’ve brought lunch up. Come eat while it’s hot.”

Zhang Pingkang called out to Liu Pan, then his gaze suddenly fell behind him. With a trace of nervousness, he said, “Senior Brother Xiao, I brought you a portion as well. You see...”

Liu Pan froze slightly at the words. Before he could even turn around, Xiao Hanyi’s voice came from behind him.

“Mhm. Thank you.”

“Senior Brother Xiao.” Liu Pan turned and cupped his fists.

“Since you and I are both Elder Zhao’s medicine boys now, there’s no need for such formalities. Be more casual.” Xiao Hanyi’s expression remained largely unreadable, though his tone was quite easygoing. “Let’s eat first. We can talk as well.”

As he spoke, Xiao Hanyi had already passed Liu Pan and walked ahead to the stone table. Liu Pan did not think much of it and followed behind him, taking a seat by the table.

As for Yu Yao and Zhang Pingkang, since they had brought lunch for Liu Pan, they had also carried their own meals up to Azure Cloud Peak.

However, this time the two of them did not, as before, sit at the same table with Liu Pan. Perhaps it was because they had heard that Xiao Hanyi wanted to speak with Liu Pan, or perhaps for some other concern.

Liu Pan said nothing about their behavior. It was indeed not very suitable for them to remain here.

After all, Xiao Hanyi’s way of thinking was not the same as his. Liu Pan came from Earth in the twenty-first century, where equality among all people had taken root deep in his heart. But Xiao Hanyi was a native of the Nine Provinces Continent, where the notion that the strong ruled was instilled from childhood.

The lunch was as sumptuous as ever, yet the atmosphere was somewhat heavy.

Xiao Hanyi remained expressionless. Though he had earlier said they could talk, he showed no intention of speaking at all while eating.

Deep in Liu Pan’s eyes there was a faint, unreadable light. Xiao Hanyi said nothing, yet the spiritual lock and scan at such close range made him feel uneasy all over.

And with spiritual power, the stronger it was and the closer it came, the more absurd its effects became. As it was now, something even more unpleasant happened: Xiao Hanyi had begun using spiritual power to probe the restrictions on his storage pouch.

Damn it all. This was truly outrageous.

At that moment, Liu Pan very much wanted to leap up and give Xiao Hanyi a savage beating. Unfortunately, he was no match for him, and he could not reveal that he possessed spiritual power.

Thus, Liu Pan’s eyes flashed. His formidable spiritual power instantly locked onto Xiao Hanyi. After scanning his body from the inside out, top to bottom, he began probing toward Xiao Hanyi’s storage pouch as well.

The hell with that. He dares to peek into my storage pouch—do you think I can’t peek into his?