As he saw her elegant yet strong, gentle yet swift sword movements, an unbearable sadness buried under countless years of attempts to heal surfaced from the depths of his soul.
Wu Long was astonished, he thought that being as old as he was, the wound his heart bore in his youth would not shake him to his core as it was doing right now.
It was inevitable that for immortals who lived so long that millenia were like mere moments and who comprehended the mysteries of the Great Daos on their way to immortality their emotions would become somewhat dull. Not that they do not experience emotions, it is just that their perception towards their own emotions, as well as their way of viewing them changes qualitatively.
It is like a fallen candy might mean the greatest tragedy to a child, but a mere happening to an old man.
But the moment he saw her sword, he felt like those years went by in a second, as if just yesterday his heart was shattered into a million pieces, and all of his composure of being thousands upon thousands years old was gone.
'... a precious gift ...'
He recalled the words of the mysterious woman.
'is it possible-? ... but if...'
His mind stirred with thoughts. And for the first time in many millennia he felt genuine fear. Fear that he might be wrong. But what made that fear possible and so acute was actually that glimmer of hope.
The woman finished her sword demonstration and started giving instructions to the disciples before her.
At the same moment, Wu Long also regained his composure, as even with the unbelievable possibility before him and sudden, unexpected assault of intense emotions he still remained an immortal who lived through millennia.
Wu Long looked around, and quickly spotted some disciples also spectating the lecture not far from where he was standing.
He approached them and asked a female disciple who seemed to look at him from time to time.
"Hello, do you know who is that instructor?"
"That's Elder Liu, she is one of the best sword instructors in the sect, as well as one of the strongest elders overall."
The female disciple he asked eagerly answered him, as she was conscious of his presence ever since he appeared here.
"Elder Liu? Do you perhaps know her full name?"
The disciple was a bit surprised by this question, as one normally would not ask for the full name of elders, calling them by full name would be rude if they are not peers, and even fellow elders would only call each other by surname unless they had a close relationship and were in private, but she still nodded and said: "her name is Elder Liu Li"
"Thank you" he said with a smile But inwardly his mind raced.
'Liu Li huh... so both name and appearance are different... but that feeling... I cannot be certain yet'
A handsome male disciple was standing next to the girl he was talking to. In fact, in this dual cultivation sect every disciple and elder had at least above average appearance, and most would be described as top handsome men and top beauties outside of the sect.
Of course, not one of the male disciples could hold a candle to the otherworldly appearance of Wu Long, hence the predetermined hostility any male disciple held against him even if they never met before.
"Hey, instead of looking at Elder Liu shouldn't you be joining your peers there, or is their cultivation too high for you to be their peer?"
The male disciple asked with a smirk, but inwardly he was annoyed with Wu Long getting so much attention from the female disciple he was unsuccessfully courting for the past few weeks.
Wu Long's high interest in Liu Li, the woman revered by all disciples of the sect further antagonized him.
In the direction the male disciple pointed to with his chin, in another corner of the training field there was a group of disciples of varying ages but clearly younger than most of the disciples Wu Long had seen before.
They were wearing distinct uniforms and their cultivation bases were in the same realm as his - Body Transformation Realm.
These were Junior Disciples who were not allowed to dual cultivate until they reached adulthood at 16 years of age. They also preferably needed to achieve a 7th or higher level of Body Transformation Realm by that point, as that was the requirement for disciples that are of age who enter the sect every 10 years.
Wu Long was, in fact, a somewhat unique existence as the only disciple of age below that cultivation level.
Most of the Junior Disciples there were at least at 5th level now.
As dual cultivation depended heavily on the partners' cultivation and talent, having a low cultivation base at his age was a fatal flaw to his prospects, so when the male disciple noticed it, he quickly pointed it out.
Wu Long did not even look at him, nor did he look in the direction was pointing and proceeded to talk with the female disciple who answered him earlier as if the last few seconds did not happen.
"If she is one of the strongest elders, why is Elder Liu an Outer Court elder?"
He noticed that Liu Li was wearing robes of an Outer Court Elder earlier.
The female disciple was a bit surprised by his calm attitude to the ridicule from the male disciple earlier, but she proceeded to explain.
"Hey! I spoke to you! Are you looking down on me?" the male disciple who spoke before furrowed his brows and spoke in a menacing tone, slightly higher than before, interrupting the explanation.
Being treated as empty space immediately flared up his anger, coupled with his natural competitiveness, predisposed hostility as well as being an entire realm higher than Wu Long caused him to take an aggressive stance.
Wu Long expressionlessly turned his gaze to the male disciple.
"I do", he then spoke in indifferent tone and turned his gaze back to the female disciple, seemingly urging her to go on with his eyes.
He didn't lie, he really did look down on him as he easily and accurately saw through the reson for the male disciple's hostile attitude. And men who became indignant when the woman they courted became interested in another man were included in top ten things he despised with passion. If one could not even court a woman, he had no right to be angry if someone else could.
This short response, however, dumbfounded not only both the female disciple and the male disciple but also everyone whose attention was attracted by the commotion.
"Y-You!", the male disciple instantly burst in anger. "Do you want to die?"
"It seems to me that you do", Wu Long's gaze shifted back to the male disciple, but this time it became colder, as he was starting to feel slightly annoyed.
Although normally he would completely ignore such a minor nuisance, his emotions were still a bit shaken from before, and he was eager to learn more about Liu Li to clear his doubts, so being interrupted greatly unnerved him.
The fact that no one spoke to him in such a tone, or dared to interject into his conversations for thousands of years thus slightly weakening his tolerance to it did not help.
When the male disciple saw his cold eys looking at him, he suddenly shuddered and staggered back only to trip and fall on his butt. His whole body instantly covered in cold sweat.
Seeing this, Wu Long sighed with a self-deprecating emotion.
'To be shaken so much that I began bullying children because of a minor nonsense, it seems I need to calm down.
I can slowly confirm my doubts as I still have some time in this sect.
Whatever the truth is, being impatient might bring worse than desirable outcome. For now, I need to focus on solidifying my foundation. Everything else would be easier resolved after that.'
He forcefully calmed down his heated emotions and looked at his situation in a cold, calculating and pragmatic way.
In this world, strength was everything, anything he could achieve now using time, energy, wits and resourcefulness could be resolved in mere moments with a wave of his hand as long as he put his focus on the right priority.
As much as he wanted to run to her and clear his doubts right this instant, he knew his current situation, and also knew what was the most efficient way of going about this.
Thus, he sighed, shook his head, said "thank you for answering my questions" to the female disciple with a gentle smile and walked away, leaving behind a group of dumbfounded dosciples who watched his receding figure in a daze.
Meanwhile, the disciple sitting on the ground was conflicted as he felt terror, humiliation and hate at the same time, but the feeling of dread he felt a few moments before caused the first of those three emotions to dominate the other two.