The young woman was startled, not afraid. She observed Wei Wuyin with a spiritual glint within her eyes, clearly inspecting his cultivation base and other aspects with a unique ocular-based spiritual spell. Unfortunately, she couldn't gather as much information as her grandfather.
But she did verify that he was indeed a Soul Idol Phase cultivator, and she felt a little bit of unintentional disdain within her heart, but she soon recalled her grandfather's words and her expression became solemn. Unintentionally, she shifted her gaze to between his legs, and then as if catching herself, snapped her eyes away, returning to Wei Wuyin's face.
Wei Wuyin didn't bother about the young girl's inspection or looking him up-and-down with disregard. He focused his attention to the old man that sat calmly in his seat, looking a little guilty but not fearful or overly shocked. While Wei Wuyin was outwardly calm, he was inwardly shocked to the utmost. This old man gave him an unfathomable feeling that he'd only discovered from Wu Yu, and it was far stronger.
"How did you discover me? A treasure, perhaps?" The old man asked, curious how a Soul Idol cultivator noticed his presence. Was his Spiritual Spell flawed? Considering how many years he'd refined it, that would be quite the disappointment and a hit to his pride.
"…" Wei Wuyin remained silent. If it was normal circumstances, he would've never revealed himself to this old man and young woman. He would've acted as he did with that young woman that stood by Lin Ming's side on the Myriad Yore Continent, remaining outwardly ignorant but inwardly vigilant.
"You don't want to say?" The old man asked, feeling a little amused by Wei Wuyin's presence. His eyes swept the surroundings playfully before returning to Wei Wuyin's figure. But his mind was quite heavy.
Wei Wuyin wasn't bothered by the implications of his tone, explaining: "You were the only one who triggered my hidden mechanism in my mental transmission. It was meant to lure out and discover any experts in hiding. I have no intention of getting sneak attacked by a hidden Realmlord within the city concealing themselves."
"Oh?" The old man's eyes brightened. He had fallen for a trap? When he considered Wei Wuyin's message that was sent directly to the mind, he seemed to have come to a realization. When he received the message, he had scanned it to ensure no negative effects before receiving it. But when he thought about it, only those who've comprehended a Worldly Domain would be able to inspect mental energies so thoroughly, likely for the same reason: to hide or prevent a hidden assault.
It was highly unlikely for a Realmlord or higher to not inspect a mental transmission out of instinct or fear, not wanting their secrets to be preyed upon. After all, he had done so instinctively. As for a Spiritual Transmission? Every expert and their mother's would've inspected that, at least they would have the means to.
The old man chuckled, he felt that this young man was quite interesting. As for the young woman, she was bewildered and surprised by Wei Wuyin actually tracking them down, discovering who they were in a city of tens of millions, and moreover, his courage to approach them.
"Who are you?" Both Wei Wuyin and the young woman asked at the same time, coincidentally with the same calm cadence. This caused them to exchange stares, feeling that the moment was quite peculiar.
The old man broke this moment with a laugh, "She's a fierce one. If you want to lock her down, be ready for a Dao Companion Ceremony." When he said this, the young woman broke away from their stare and glared at the old man, feeling that his thoughts were always inappropriate and indecent.
Wei Wuyin faintly smiled, "I see. Well, my name's Wei Wuyin. I'm not a native of this World Realm. I originate from an outside starfield, arriving via a Gateway Door." He didn't hold back his response, speaking the truth.
This shocked the old man and young woman, especially with Wei Wuyin's direct explanation and holding little back. But when the old man heard this, he faintly smiled after correcting his expression.
"You're reading our responses? Quite fierce and intelligent." As if exposing Wei Wuyin, the old man spoke while rubbing his beard.
Wei Wuyin didn't answer, merely smiled. But the young woman was thoroughly confused, uncertain about what the old man meant.
The old man decided to explain, "It's a tactic to gather information or answers to questions without asking any. You simply say certain information or details about things and view your target's reaction. When he said those words, he was watching to see if we revealed any markers of disbelief or surprise in our body language or facial expressions. Which we obviously didn't. So he answered a question of his: 'Are we also natives from this world?'"
The young man was still confused. "How does that verify if we're from this world?"
The old man moved within his seat a little, getting a little more comfortable. "You'll have to ask him. But we aren't, and we told him as much. Furthermore, he answered honestly which would lower our guard, allowing us to trust him more as a result. It's hard not to be honest to the honest. There's more you learned, right? Such a tactic is only learned by those who have been schemed against or have schemed against others, quite thoroughly in fact."
Wei Wuyin didn't respond, there was utterly no need. Since the old man noticed his intentions, he didn't need to confirm nor deny, and he knew the old man was cut from a similar cloth as himself.
The old man continued, "We're from a starfield away from where you've entered; just a couple of visitors from the outside admiring the sights of someone's creation. You can't be thinking of acting against us lowly tourists, right?"
Wei Wuyin calmly looked at the old man, "Wouldn't think of it. Senior, if you have any questions for me, please don't hesitate to ask. Enjoy your stay." With his intelligence, he knew the old man's intentions from those words. Furthermore, the old man's cultivation was unfathomably high, and he had already verified his own guesses. After making himself openly available, he didn't bother with anything else.
After clasping his hands in a respectful farewell, his figure distorted into a misty light and vanished entirely.
The young woman was horrified, taken aback by Wei Wuyin's disappearance. She asked with a tinge of panic, "You killed him?!" Her words were directed to the old man, thinking he was the only one who could vanish someone so thoroughly.
But the old man frowned, and that frown was extremely deep and his eyes held a contemplative light that was heavy. This caused the young woman's heart to shake instantly as if an earthquake was born within its depths. She had never seen the old man so serious, so solemn. She realized there was far too much she missed through this short exchange.
The old man's expression soon softened, "Haha! Kill him? He was never even here." When the old man said that, the young woman's expression was filled with surprise.
What?!
Never here?!
He was right there!
The old man sighed, despite his granddaughter's unfathomably high cultivation base despite her age and exquisite legacy from a lineage of experts, such as himself, she was still too wet behind the ears. "Did you not notice that no one else in our surroundings reacted to him suddenly arriving? When others turned to look at us, they didn't react as if they just saw the man who just overtook their city?"
When the old man pointed that out, she looked around and realized that his words were true. No one reacted to their conversation or his appearance. "But…how?"
The old man didn't smile, frown, sigh, laugh, or reveal any expression after hearing this question. He merely stated in a flat tone: "We were in an illusion."
"An illusion? Illusions don't work like that! They bring one's mind into a false environment that affects the five senses, distorting their perception. But this is real, and only he was fake? That's against the principles of an illusion, more in line with a hallucination, afterimage, or a conjured decoy. If you told me he was an incarnation, then maybe, but we were in an illusion? I scanned him and saw his cultivation base! He was real!" The young woman rejected such an outlandish statement. She knew the current world was real, and they were never brought into an illusionary world, so it shouldn't be possible.
The old man didn't explain this time, but his heart was quivering despite his cultivation. He had noticed they were in an illusion early on, the moment it happened in fact, but he found that the only aspect of that illusion was Wei Wuyin. Everything else in this world was real, he was the sole product of their imagination and mind.
Otherwise, how could he approach without him noticing until he was directly behind his granddaughter? He wasn't that old and muddleheaded. He knew that Wei Wuyin was far, far more terrifying than he originally estimated. When he thought about Wei Wuyin's Elemental Origin Intent, two Astral Souls, and ten centimeter-sized Astral Cores, he knew that Wei Wuyin was…
—–
In the City Lord's Tower, Wei Wuyin's eyes finally opened, being blessed by Ai Juling's inspective expression. When she noticed him open his eyes, she looked away and just rested herself in his arms once more. The City Lord was fixed into his chair, gripping his armrest as he stared at Wei Wuyin with fear. He was sweating bullets, clearly under some extreme pressure.
Wei Wuyin furrowed his brows, his Celestial Eyes of Spiritual Divinity's Eye of Illusion deactivated, alongside the eden energies that it carried via void force. He felt somewhat exhausted as he used eden energies and void force to bypass the need for visual connection of the eyes using his Eye of Illusion.
The mechanism he had left in his mental transmission wasn't an unprepared one, causing him to instantly utilize Instant Transmission to project his eden energies stealthily with the powers of his Eye of Illusion to construct a mental link with the one who triggered the mechanism. The only reason the young woman was also affected was due to the old man simultaneously triggering his and her mental transmission trap.
The exquisite usage of his trio of powers left him a little exhausted, as he hadn't projected an entire illusory world with the Eye of Illusion, but merely projected his image connected to their five senses, which was far, far more advanced and less intrusive. He wouldn't have done this if he hadn't felt a feeling of unfathomableness from the old man. Instead, he would've caused a brief lapse of attention via mental burst and then ensnare them using the astral formation of the city.
And he definitely wouldn't meet that person directly. What if he was instantly killed? Who would he cry to?
°Others from outside…are they here due to the Temporal Reincarnator or for something else entirely?° His thoughts stirred as he contemplated the numerous possibilities, but he couldn't determine it. But now he had a glimpse of more variables, causing him to reassess his plans once more.
After a brief moment, he turned to the 'former' City Lord. With a faint smile, he asked: "Now, will you answer my questions peacefully or will I have to…"
As his voice trailed off, the 'former' City Lord heavily gulped, fear effusing from his normally imposing eyes.
