"Mountains upon mountains, rivers upon rivers—one doubts there is no road ahead; then willows shade and flowers brighten, and there is another village."
After Qiu Yan finished saying this, he did not continue. He fell silent, yet Wu Meng and Sun Xun were left in vastly different moods, hope rising in their hearts.
But in truth, Qiu Yan had not promised anything.
Such were the affairs of this world. Wu Meng and Sun Xun had spoken without pause along the way, each with his own distinct manner. Wu Meng acted as he pleased, his words uninhibited and often striking straight at the heart of the matter. Sun Xun, meanwhile, was gentle yet firm, citing classics and precedents in speech, revealing the breadth of his learning.
Yet a thousand, ten thousand words from the two of them could not compare to two sentences from Qiu Yan. One sentence sank a person into the Nine Abyss; another sent one's thoughts soaring. One word meant death, one word meant life—truly wondrous, like a Divine Ability.
Yet what produced an effect akin to a Divine Ability was neither Dharma Power nor authority, but Qiu Yan himself.
On the other side, having received Qiu Yan's answer, Sun Xun and Wu Meng did not press their luck. He knew that taking disciples was no trivial matter. Since he was not the disciple Qiu Yan had foreseen, he could not hope to achieve it in one stroke. Besides, even if someone were the person of that prediction, Qiu Yan could not blindly follow Karma and accept him directly into his school. There would inevitably have to be some test.
Sun Xun understood this especially well. Born into a great aristocratic clan, with close blood ties and talent displayed from childhood, he had received focused cultivation and soon