Shao Yang watched Ji Lingchen approach, instinctively growing somewhat wary. He secretly assumed that Ji Lingchen had come to resume their unfinished match.
With that readiness for battle in mind, the aura he had kept perfectly restrained inadvertently leaked out by a trace.
Ji Lingchen had originally been walking calmly, but upon sensing the aura emanating from Shao Yang, his expression could not help changing. For some inexplicable reason, he sensed a trace of threat from Shao Yang.
This had never happened before. In his eyes, although Shao Yang was quite formidable, he was still far from strong enough to make Ji Lingchen wary.
Yet now, it was not merely wariness. Shao Yang's aura had actually shaken him enough to stir a faint sense of unease within him.
With such thoughts in his heart, even his approaching footsteps grew a little heavier.
Ji Lingchen walked straight up to Shao Yang. Rather than speaking at once, he turned and glanced outside the courtyard, glaring until all of Chen Yuanqing's disciples who had been craning their necks to watch curiously retreated.
Once there were no longer any noisy figures around them,
Ji Lingchen finally spoke slowly. "Don't worry. I haven't come to challenge you. I only came to ask a question."
As though he had seen through the reason for Shao Yang's vigilance, Ji Lingchen went straight to the point and explained his purpose.
"What question?" Shao Yang looked at Ji Lingchen in surprise, vaguely feeling that the latter seemed somewhat weary.
Ji Lingchen fixed his deep gaze on Shao Yang's face and enunciated each word. "Your public provocation today wasn't a sudden impulse. It was something you did after careful deliberation, wasn't it?"
Shao Yang's expression changed, but he instantly regained his composure. "What careful deliberation does something like that require?"