Wang Quan's eyes shone as he focused on the black smoke, analyzed its structure, examined its design, and worked out how to repair it.
Beside him, the cultivator leading the group secretly transmitted his voice to his disciples. "My dear ancestors, could you please not talk for a moment?"
A female cultivator blinked. "Master, you're the ancestor here. When you get old, we'll call you our venerable ancestor!"
"What's this about calling us your ancestors now?"
"If outsiders heard that, they'd think we were betraying our master and destroying our ancestors!"
The group leader wanted to cry. "You've spent all these years refining treasures with me and hardly ever gone out. You don't have enough experience of the world!"
"Now take a deep breath and think carefully: he traveled on a streak of light and easily smashed our Magic Treasure Blank!"
"Do you think someone capable of that might be very powerful?"
Inhale! Inhale!
The dozen or so cultivators took deep breaths, stirring the air into something like a gust of wind that made Wang Quan's robes flap loudly.
Sweat dripped from the group leader's forehead. He was terrified of attracting Wang Quan's attention.
One cultivator whispered shakily, "Master, even at full strength, you couldn't smash this Magic Treasure Blank!"
"Even the Foundation Establishment Grand Cultivator from our enemy, the Clear River Sect, couldn't smash it!"
"So... is this cultivator at Purple Mansion? Or even a Golden Core patriarch?"
The group leader took a deep breath. "They say our region is so barren that no Golden Core patriarch would ever come here!"
"He must be a Purple Mansion powerhouse!"
Drip! Drip! Drip!
Sweat beaded on the cultivators' foreheads.
One cultivator sounded close to tears. "A Purple Mansion powerhouse? If... if he gets angry, could he crush us to death with