In his youth, his heart had stirred; with a heart full of sincerity, he had loved her in silence, yet had never dared truly reveal his feelings.
The gap between them had simply been too great.
Family background, talent, cultivation—the difference had been like heaven and earth.
Hong Kuo continued in a low voice:
"Time flows on. Decades have passed, and you and I spent half our lives stumbling about in the Elixir-Embracing Realm, only now barely breaking into Vajra Force. Yet Xiao Xian'ai has long since reached heights far beyond our reach."
"She was born into one of the world's great clans, with profound foundations, and later entered the Profound Truth Sect to cultivate."
Profound Truth Sect!
The three words fell lightly, seemingly plain, yet they concealed the foundation of a supreme sect far surpassing the Dragon-Tiger Sect and the Cloudpiercing Sect.
Hong Kuo's gaze was filled with wistfulness.
"Xiao Xian'ai's cultivation is now unfathomable. She is no longer the green young girl she once was. She resides in a great sect, holds an exalted position, and possesses profound attainments. With you and me having only just entered Vajra Force today, we are already utterly beyond her reach."
Young love; though close at hand, they were separated by the ends of heaven.
The boy's ignorant love from back then had now become nothing but the sighs of passing years, the difference between clouds and mud.
Zhang Jin listened quietly. After a long silence, he merely sighed softly, raised his cup to the moon, and drained it in one gulp.
"Such are the times; such is fate."
That soft sigh encompassed the regrets of half a lifetime.
He had only just stepped into Vajra Force and had thought his martial path had advanced and his state of mind broadened. Yet