"Pang Ji discovered the secret within, and he may well have deduced that Huang Xiao has been studying these images for the past four years. That means Huang Xiao could have learned a great deal from them even without our guidance. In Pang Ji's eyes, this would probably make Huang Xiao a tremendous threat to Pang Yi," Shi Hen added.
Pang Ji could disregard Huang Xiao, even knowing that he had spent four years in Kui Yong's place of seclusion.
That was because no rare treasures or cultivation manuals had been found there.
Huang Xiao had broken through to a higher cultivation realm, but without an expert's guidance, that was all it amounted to.
Pang Ji thought nothing of such an increase in strength.
But if he knew these images had served the same role as Huo Lian and himself, Pang Ji would probably think otherwise.
For instance, the sudden decision to bring forward the contest for the Hall Master's Seat, catching their side off guard, might have been because of this very matter.
"Senior Shi, that's unlikely," Huang Xiao said. "Even if he discovered the secret of the Stone Gate Relief and saw those Memory Images, he doesn't know I possess a Demonized Divine Beast Core. Without Supreme Demonic Qi, I couldn't have unlocked the secret within."
"True. You have a point, Huang Xiao. In that case, my earlier conjecture doesn't quite hold up," Shi Hen said with a frown.
"We can't jump to conclusions about this yet," Huo Lian said gravely. "We still need to gather information on Pang Ji and hope to find a few spider's threads and horse tracks in it."
"Gathering information on Pang Ji won't be easy," Shi Hen said.
"There's no need to target him directly," Huo Lian said. "What we want to