"This seal… is it a formation?" Su Yang suddenly asked them.
"We're not sure, actually." Xie Wang responded. "It looks like a formation, but when we got the top formation experts in the Eastern Continent to look at it, they were unable to find the formation, saying it's a natural phenomenon."
Hearing such words, Su Yang shook his head and said, "Just because you cannot see it doesn't mean it's not there. Are they really the top formation experts? I would strip away their titles if I were you."
"…"
The people there were speechless. Though, they were unable to deny his words, as they have witnessed for themselves how he can create powerful formations with the snap of his fingers while it may take others tens of years to create.
"Then I have another question— why are you limiting the number of people who can enter that place to 4? Is there a specific reason?" Su Yang then asked.
"Yes, because the Celestial Pond will drastically lose its effectiveness if there are more than 4 people cultivating there at once. Nothing will happen if there are only four people cultivating there, but as soon as we add an extra person in there, everyone's' progress will slow down by around 50%." Xie Wang explained to him.
Su Yang slightly narrowed his eyes after hearing Xie Wang's words, seemingly in deep thoughts.
A moment of silence later, he nodded, "I see what's going on here. Thank you for confirming my speculations."
"Eh? What do you mean by that? Do you know something about the Celestial Pond?" Lord Xie asked him.
"A thing or two, but I'll have to see it before I can be 100% certain."
Lord Xie and Xie Wang looked at each other with wide eyes. The Celestial Pond was found by the Ancestor of the Xie Family over a thousand years ago, yet they know pretty much nothing about it besides the fact that it can improve one's cultivation speed if they cultivated inside it.
"Can you tell us about it? Even if you aren't confident, we want to hear it." Xie Wang asked him a moment later.
However, Su Yang shook his head and said, "I can tell you, but you'll have to wait."
"…"
After a few seconds of silence, Su Yang suddenly said, "Actually, I can tell you a little bit about the Celestial Pond right now."
They all looked at him with flickering eyes filled with anticipation.
"The Celestial Pond is not its actual name… or at least that's not what I would call it, and saying that it can only be used once every 100 years is also wrong."
Lord Xie immediately stood up from shock after hearing his words, and he exclaimed, "Are you saying that we don't have to wait 100 years to use the Celestial Pond?!"
However, Su Yang did not respond to his question and merely looked at him with a mysterious smile on his face.
"Damn it, Su Yang! How can you tell us something like that and not tell us everything you know?! You're clearly just teasing us with that information!" Lord Xie yelled at him in frustration.
"So what if I am?" Su Yang remained sitting there with a calm expression on his face. "If you can't wait, you can try figuring it out yourself."
Liu Lanzhi and the other disciples began sweating after seeing the fierce atmosphere between Su Yang and Lord Xie, fearing that the alliance between them might end before the day even ends.
"Calm down and have a little more patience, father. Su Yang said he'll tell us when the time is right. There's no reason for him to lie to us." Xie Xingfang suddenly said to him in a calm voice.
Lord Xie's eyebrows twitched when Xie Xingfang took Su Yang's side, and he looked at her and said, "I have been ignoring this for a while but you… you are becoming more and more rebellious lately, aren't you?"
"With all due respect, I have no clue as to what you are talking about, father." Xie Xingfang spoke with a nonchalant expression on her face.
"Hmph! You can act stupid all you want, but don't think I can't see what's happening." Lord Xie coldly snorted.
He then turned to look at Su Yang and spoke, "Anyway, if you don't want to tell me, I won't linger around any longer, as there is still a lot of work to be done!"
Once Lord Xie left, Xie Wang spoke with a weird smile on his face, "Is there any particular reason why you are always trying to irritate him?"
"No, not really." Su Yang shrugged. "It's just my nature to tease anyone who seems to be begging for it."
Xie Wang lifted his eyebrows in a surprised manner. Did Lord Xie have a face that begged to be teased? He couldn't tell. Though, it was not as though he didn't understand Su Yang's feeling, as he also enjoyed teasing Lord Xie when he was only a young man.
But little did Xie Wang know that from Su Yang's perspective, everyone in this room— this entire world could be considered a mere child before his countless years of experience.
Sometime later, everyone returned to their own rooms to rest for tomorrow.
"Master, I can sleep with you tonight, right?" Yan Yan asked him as they approached their rooms.
"Of course, since that's what I promised you yesterday." He nodded.
Thus, Yan Yan switched rooms with Liu Lanzhi and the disciples for the night.
Once they entered the room Yan Yan immediately climbed on the bed, laid down, and proceeded to stare at him in silence.
Su Yang smiled upon seeing this and also climbed on the bed, before sleeping right beside her.
"Thank you, Master, for sleeping with me. My parents used to do this every night before they died," she suddenly said to him as she snuggled closer to him.
"Your parents… If you don't mind me asking, how did they die?" he asked her a moment later.
