"From ten thousand years ago?" Wu Xuancang asked quietly.
"Yes, ten thousand years ago. You find it hard to believe-how could I feel any differently?" Huo Lian sighed softly. "But judging by the circumstances back then, I had no choice but to make that conjecture."
Wu Xuancang knew Huo Lian would not shoot an arrow without a target. The possibility was already considerable.
"No wonder you wanted to escape. If the first Demon Hall Master really is still alive, just how powerful would an old monster like that be?" Wu Xuancang asked.
Before Huo Lian could answer, Wu Xuancang continued, "There is another possibility. The first Demon Hall Master might no longer be in Peak State. The price of living so long must be enormous. Perhaps he is like those other Hall Masters?"
"If that were the case, why would I need to care?" Huo Lian sneered and asked in return.
"Then his strength is still at Peak State?" Wu Xuancang asked.
"That is only my conjecture," Huo Lian said. "Actually, that old bastard should have appeared a thousand years ago. In the end, my defection disrupted his plans."
Hearing this, Wu Xuancang's heart tightened. "In other words, you delayed this matter for a thousand years."
"You could say that. All of you really ought to feel grateful. Without me, your Three Immortal Mountains would have been reduced to ashes a thousand years ago," Huo Lian said.
"If it truly is as you say, then delaying this matter for a thousand years was your achievement, and we should indeed be grateful," Wu Xuancang said. "But we must face it eventually. Returning to the Central Plains will not be so easy for you, either. If you cannot return, surely you must have a countermeasure?"
"I have no countermeasure," Huo Lian said.