After Chen Yu finished speaking, he saw the old man in the rocking chair opposite him fall silent.
Chen Yu knew he had guessed correctly.
Yet after confirming Senior Zhang's identity at the Scripture Repository, Chen Yu felt not relief, but even greater confusion.
According to Zhang Jiuge's Loan Legend, Senior Zhang had already reached the Qi Refining Eighth Layer when the Dao Sect elders took him away. That had happened roughly sixty years ago.
If Senior Zhang had not been refined into Spirit Essence back then, given his cultivation speed, he should now have reached at least the Foundation Establishment Peak, if not become a Golden Core cultivator.
But at this moment, Chen Yu could clearly sense it.
Senior Zhang before him was only at the first layer of Foundation Establishment, considerably weaker even than Chen Yu himself.
Moreover, an ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivator lived for around two hundred years. Senior Zhang had been about thirty when the Dao Sect elders took him away. Adding the sixty years during which he had "disappeared," that made him ninety.
For a Foundation Establishment cultivator, ninety was the prime of life.
Yet Senior Zhang before him had a head of white hair and looked as though he were in his twilight years.
This was far from normal.
Across from him.
Zhang Jiuge was not surprised to hear that Chen Yu had guessed his identity. He merely said expressionlessly, "Yes, you guessed correctly."
"Then, Senior, why..."
Chen Yu was about to ask.
Just then, Zhang Jiuge looked up at him and cut him off. "Don't ask. Some things are not for you to know."
Chen Yu froze at his words.
Then Zhang Jiuge continued, "Once you enter the Inner Sect, you'd best keep yourself hidden. Don't let your edge shine too brightly, or