A True Core After All, Intimidated into Letting Him Leave; Progress in Geomancy, the Cauldron's Peril (9K)

"-Must I, Li, personally invite you down? Invite you down-"

Lin Chang's cold voice echoed before the old temple and through the mountain forest, yet no answer came.

Aside from his voice, there was only silence and deathly stillness.

"Hmph! In that case, don't blame me for acting without asking."

A cold smile curled his lips. Lin Chang held out one hand, palm up, and a perfectly square jade-green Seal Platform materialized above it.

It spun slowly in the air.

Yet its vast, surging aura had already locked onto the old temple ahead, ready to smash down upon it at the slightest provocation.

"A treasure artifact?! Ahem-don't be hasty, fellow Daoist. Calm yourself."

Just as the jade-green Seal Platform rose higher, steadily expanding and breathing out waves of power as it prepared to strike, the voice rang out again.

At first, it still came from every direction. But as the jade-green Seal Platform grew to the size of a house and hung resolutely above the old temple, the voice paused, then gathered itself, emerging from a single location.

Its source-was inside the little temple!

Finally willing to behave?

Under Lin Changheng's cold, smiling gaze, the hoarse voice sounded from the temple again. "But this really is strange! I clearly sensed that the cultivation aura concealed beneath your disguise was at the Foundation Establishment late stage, Fellow Daoist Li. So why does your divine sense feel so incredibly powerful and surging, as though it has reached third-tier Core Formation? And what you're using is-a treasure artifact and third-tier flame?"

"Strange indeed, strange! It makes no sense at all. I can't understand it-"

At the same time, an old man emerged from the shadows of the temple's main hall, shaking his head as he stepped into daylight.

Lin Changheng raised an eyebrow