"Wait, there may well be something suspicious about this!"
Just as Sima Lingzhen clapped his hands and laughed, a low shout suddenly came from a jade table opposite him.
Sima Lingzhen frowned at the words and looked over with some displeasure, then an expression of unsurprised recognition appeared on his face.
"Junior Brother Hou Wen, you again? Ever since you arrived in the Southern Territory, you've been jumping at shadows. What, do you really think your divination can calculate every mystery of heaven and earth?"
Sima Lingzhen raised his eyebrows and gave a faint laugh.
"It's not that I look down on you, but even Senior Brother Jun Yao, the most accomplished diviner in our Jade Dawn School, who received its secret true teachings, wouldn't dare think such a thing.
How long has it been since you entered the Upper Sect from the Lower Court, Junior Brother? Your experience is shallow, after all.
You've been fretting all this time over a single divination before we set out. You're rather disgracing our Jade Dawn School and giving the senior brothers here a needless spectacle!"
Auspicious mist shone in myriad rays, and clear light curled around them-
Within the Orchid Pavilion, six or seven raised daises had already been set up, each seating a Golden Core True Person, cloaked in treasured radiance, their faces bearing profound virtue.
On the jade tables before them were such rarities as immortal fruits, spiritual pills, and fine wines, their exquisite spiritual energy refreshing the heart and lungs.
The True Persons had been smiling courteously at Sima Lingzhen and Hou Wen, their conversation lively and reasonably harmonious.
But as the two Jade Dawn School disciples began subtly crossing swords, and Sima Lingzhen made no effort to conceal the mockery in his words, the atmosphere abruptly fell silent,