That Fair-Faced 'Sage' {Completed}

77. Resolve

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"Zhao LanFeng, what is your real cultivation level?" Shuǐ ChénLín asked.

"Ei?" The question had taken LanFen by surprise, and she sputtered out her wine.

Even Lu FengHo had paused with his cup on the way to his mouth.

"Your strength made no sense from day one..." Shuǐ ChénLín was saying. "I've seen you use White Realm techniques, and you somehow defeated Zhou ZhuFeng and Zhan YiZhen. What is your real cultivation level?"

"Ever the Shuǐ Genius!" LanFen replied, then refilled her cup, before she continued talking.

"I told you QingJun died, but I didn't tell you what happened afterwards...

"His Vermillion fell into my hands, and I somehow inherited part of his power and his memories... I can't clearly recall what happened, but when I awoke, I found myself in the Light Realm."

Both Shuǐ ChénLín and Lu FengHo had glanced at her so sharply, that she surely would have died, if their eyes were swords.

"It's in name only!" She hurriedly clarified. "The climb had been too fast for me. I was originally at the peak of the purple realm, and then I suddenly moved past the Black and White realms, into the Light Realm.

"There would alway be repercussions for that kind of climb, but hatred and anger led me to used it carelessly on the Zhao and Wang clans.

"But 'a mesh sieve will only hold water for a short while'. Needless to say, my body was far from prepared for such a lengthy jump, so after the attack, I continued to leak out energy, and suffered a serious qi deviation because of it.

"My untrained body wasn't fortified enough to handle that level of power, so to save my life, I had to temporarily seal it away.

"I release it in bits to cultivate it slowly, so I'm still able to master a few techniques from the Light realm... Because of this, I'm stronger than a normal purple realmer, which is why unsuspecting enemies, like Zhou ZhuFeng and Zhan YiZhen, will fall by my hand."

She turned to Shuǐ ChénLín, who was nodding in understanding. "Shuǐ Chén, aren't you the same? Your aura is also purple realm peak, but there's more to it, isn't there?"

There was a short silence, where Shuǐ ChénLín and Lu FengHo looked at each other, wondering whether to tell her or not...

"Ehehehe, Shuǐ Chén's case is quite unique..." Lu FengHo said. "Just assume he was born that way!"

But Shuǐ ChénLín held up a hand. "I don't want to be accused of making you spill your secret, while holding on to mine.

"I'm not at the peak of the purple realm. I should at least be at the black realm peak, by now... But for some reason, father has always hidden the true rate of my growth from everyone.

"The same way you sealed your aura, is the same way I constantly seal mine."

"Wah! So you were that much of a genius?!" LanFen was amazed.

He shook his head. "One of the reasons I happily seal it away, is because I don't feel like it's mine. It's like power I didn't work for.

"All I know is that my mother was extremely powerful, and I became like this, the instant she died. I was still an infant, so I don't know what happened, and father won't tell me.

"But by the time I was three, before I even began cultivating, my aura was already at the peak of the Orange realm.

"Father needed to act fast, so he began to seal away my aura from an early-... Zhao LanFeng! Are you even listening?!"