Chapter 156.1 : Mortal World of Smoke and Fire (Part 1)
"Uncle Lin, can you discern anything unusual?"
The girl in pink withdrew her gaze and spoke, asking the man driving the carriage.
The middle-aged man known as Uncle Lin fell into contemplation.
He too had been astonished by the bearing and presence of Chu Ge's group, and the shock in his heart had yet to subside. Hearing her question, he pondered for a moment before finally responding:
"That young man's realm is by no means low—he's at the peak of the Fourth Heaven…"
The girl in pink showed no change in expression upon hearing this.
She had seen as much herself; that alone meant little. She too was at the peak of the Fourth Heaven. In fact, if she wished, stepping into the Fifth Heaven would be no more than a thought away.
What she wanted to know was not such superficial information, but something deeper.
"However," Uncle Lin continued in a low voice, "what's strange is that from that young man, I sensed an extremely heavy aura of danger—so much so that if I were to fight him, it feels as though I'd be pushed into a life-and-death situation. It's very odd, highly abnormal!"
Even as he spoke, Uncle Lin found the feeling hard to believe, to the point that he had briefly thought it an illusion.
Though he appeared to be nothing more than a carriage driver, within the forces behind him, his status was anything but low.
After all, even being a coachman depended on whom one served.
"Is that so?" the girl in pink murmured, sinking into thought.
Others might not know, but she knew very well.
This middle-aged man driving her carriage looked ordinary, yet his cultivation had already reached the extreme peak of the Sixth Heaven—and he was an outstanding figure even among those at that level. In his youth, he had been a true genius.
Within her family, he was treated as a core talent. The probability of him stepping into the Great Power realm in the future was even higher than that of some carefully cultivated direct descendants of the clan.
That was precisely why she was willing to address him as "Uncle Lin."
Once one stepped into the realm of Great Power, it was an entirely different world—one where he could stand shoulder to shoulder with the core elders of the family.
"Besides that," Uncle Lin said gravely, "that noble woman was even more terrifying to me. Compared to her, the core clan elders are like heaven and earth apart!"
The clan elders were all in the Great Power realm.
Yet that woman was far more frightening than an ordinary Great Power—at the very least, she was among the elite of that realm, perhaps even at its extreme peak, or perhaps…
A faint conjecture formed in his mind, but it was far too shocking to voice.
The girl in pink was equally shaken; the astonishment in her eyes was no less than Uncle Lin's.
After a moment of silence, she spoke again:
"Let's go, Uncle Lin. We're entering the city as well."
A strange light flashed through her eyes as a jet-black notebook edged with gold suddenly appeared in her hand.
She, too, harbored her own conjecture.
The moment it took shape, her thoughts grew lively and restless.
But she still needed to verify whether this conjecture was correct.
If it truly was as she suspected…
Then perhaps this would be her chance to glimpse a true and unparalleled destiny.
Chu Ge and the two women entered the city.
The Lingxiao Ancient City truly lived up to its reputation as a colossal metropolis.
Even before reaching the central districts, the crowds were already as dense as swarming ants, the noise rolling like surging tides.
Wave after wave, rising and falling, endlessly overlapping—lively beyond measure.
Banners of the Wanqing Empire fluttered in the wind; merchant stalls lined the streets; battle platforms drew gathered crowds in loud cheers; towering pavilions and lofty buildings rose into the sky.
Cries of hawkers, bursts of laughter, and clamorous voices filled the air without end.
The ceaselessly bustling atmosphere unfolded like a painting of the mortal world—brimming with the smoke and fire of everyday life, rich in worldly humanity.