Baotian, feeling dizzy, opened his eyes and looked at his body, expecting it to be charred in all places. However, as he realized he was still in one piece, he quickly looked up, and so that they were protected in an elaborate barrier of spiritual energy, which had shielded them from the shockwave.
'Thank heavens, there was a Void Ascension under contract to save us' he thought.
He could hardly imagine how bad it would be, else. But instead of imagining this possibility, he looked at the battle stage, wanting to see if one of the two had died. However, when the smoke settled, both of them were still standing. Breathing roughly, but alive.
As he saw this, more than anger, he felt despair: he knew that past this day, there would likely not be any more chances to eliminate this problem. He did also know that if he tried to attack now, he would just get squashed by Xuanhe Wuxin. From now on, his only chance would be to wait for Zhenyun to reach Void Ascension and advance far enough into it to ascend to a better realm, and spend the rest of his journey avoiding him like the plague.
"T-the… the time allowed for this match has arrived to its end" the referee, who had just woken up, said. "Therefore, as both esteemed fighters are still able, the winner of the third round is Liu Zhenyun!"
Hearing this, the young swordsman smiled. Not only had he recovered his cultivation, but he also had accumulated enough hardships for his talent to resurface. Now, once he returned to his clan, it would take him at most a month of preparation before attempting advancement again, with close to no chance of failure!
'Still… it's a shame I couldn't end him' he thought, looking at Hanliang.
There were not many types of persons that he wholly hated with his body and soul, but the ones using their power to abuse people with no consequence were absolutely part of those. Just the simple mention made him wince and lose his mind, to the point he hadn't even been able to listen when the griffin attempted to squash the rumors. Had he been in a normal state, he would've likely listened, and realized that these weren't much more than slander, but right now, there was no talking between them.
Hanliang, understanding this perfectly, resolved to send him a discreet explanation letter in a few months or so, and excused himself before leaving. Zhenyun, too, decided to leave, joining his master and Jin Yue.
Baotian watched the two of them congratulate him, hugging him and, even with his anger toward his junior brother, he wished he was there. He wished he could congratulate him for his victory, he wished he could hug his master and receive some praise too for winning his match, he wished he could let Zhenyun introduce her to him, endlessly listening him telling some story that should've sounded great, but ended up coming out as boring because of how bad a narrator Zhenyun was.
In the end, he could only watch them leave. He discussed with Bai Zisheng for a few minutes, too, and they agreed to come back separately and later reunite, along with Zi Moyan. Baotian was left alone, but he didn't allow his pain to show on his face. It was alright. He had a few friends. He had good prospects in his cultivation journey. He had made a name for himself, and he could now go take his reward. Even most of his plans had been successful so far.
'I'm alright, I'm alright'
I'm alright.
Repeating this single sentence in his mind, he furtively glanced at the referee, and then left to get his prize. However, to his surprise, the one welcoming here was not part of the administration. Instead, it was someone who he had talked two only twice, yet had left him with an unforgettable impression:
"S-senior Hanliang!?" he exclaimed.
Hanliang, waving at him, greeted:
"Junior Zhang, I see you came to recover your reward" he said.
"I… did, I suppose… Uhm, should you really be here? Your injuries do not seem to have recovered much, shouldn't you be recovering, senior?"
Hanliang shook his head, proudly bumping his fist against his chest:
"Haha, it is good to see a junior worrying for me, but you should not, I'm more than robust enough to walk off a match with a kid like this and still be up for the day-"
He was interrupted by a cough, along which a bit of blood splurted out of his mouth. Embarrassed, he quickly wiped it and switched the topic:
"So, what would you want to obtain as a reward? As a limit, I would say the most you can ask for is a Core Formation pill. But my instinct tells me you already have such a thing, so if I had to advise something, it'd be this…"
Holding onto Baotian's shoulder, he whispered something in his ear, which made the latter relatively uncomfortable. However, hearing what he suggested, his eyes quickly lightened up:
"Can I really have that?" he asked, surprised. "It does sound like something the Spirit Beasts would want to keep away from a human cultivator… well, especially a human"
"Of course, it's not something to give out carelessly, since a Spirit Beast's Golden Core is one of the main requirements, but it's just an old one-use thing that none of us can use, anyway" the griffin replied. "Not many people have the second required item, a Core Formation Restoration Elixir, and I believe you already have both it and the Core, so I don't believe you will commit any more evil act with it than without"
"Well, I… thank you, senior"
Considering the requirements, it was obvious that 'this' wasn't much use to a Spirit Beast: it required one to be a human, to be below Core Formation but still somehow obtain a Spirit Beast's core, and to possess the Core Formation Restoration Elixir. The latter in particular was something even a Nascent Soul cultivator would have trouble obtaining, Baotian just got lucky finding one in the Void Hurricane. Taking this into account, it was indeed something much less valuable than a Core Formation pill for pretty much any cultivator not called Zhang Baotian. Even then…
"May I know why is senior going to such lengths to help me?" Baotian asked. "I'm honored, truly, but such attention might be a little too much for a mere junior like me from another country…"
"I am not trying to make another inappropriate request, if that is what you're wondering" the griffin said. "Quite honestly, I am not particularly fond of relationships with people less than half my age, I just needed an excuse to give a bit of support to a likeable junior, haha"
He shook his head, laughing again:
"By the way, let me ask, how did Ye Mu's tribulation go?" he asked. "I couldn't help but notice how he hasn't shown himself since the end of the second round"
Baotian smiled meaningfully:
"Senior already knows about it, doesn't he?" he said. "After all, as much as this lowly junior could guess, that is the true nature of senior's Earth talent: by using it to observe someone, you are able to see their next move in the near future and, by touching someone while it's activated, you can look into someone's past to some extent, is that wrong?"
Baotian had had his realization during the third round: watching him always reacting ahead of time to Zhenyun's moves, he quickly deduced his talent was tied to observation. It was the most logical conclusion he could draw: be it the Core Formation pill or the Elixir, both were things he should not know about. Moreover, the way he acted as if he knew him, ever since he touched Baotian's shoulder during their first meeting. Even when tipping him off about the Divine Storm Sect elder, he seemed to know far too much than he should have. As for Ye Mu's advancement:
"And perchance, senior, would you happen to be the one who informed Ye Mu of the quantity of blood essence I possess?"
Hanliang didn't deny, shrugging:
"Quite honestly, I am not even sure which of us two is blessed with observation" he joked. "To answer your question, I simply thought I would give my favorite junior a bit of help"
"Your… favorite junior?" Baotian repeated dumbly, frowning. "We barely met, are from different nations, opposing paths even! So why are you going out of your way to help me? Even if you have seen my past, as much as I remember, I have never been particularly friendly toward Spirit Beasts, or even in general. So why? Please, just tell me, senior"
Hanliang grabbed his chin, as if he was wondering what was the best way to say it:
"You know, unless they are in a higher realm, there is no real limit as to how far I can look in someone's life, from yesterday down to the day of their birth" he said. "Yet, past all that, when I patted your shoulder on the day of your arrival, even though I didn't particularly try to read your past, it felt as if there was something beyond the day of your arrival… but something blurred. I felt the same thing from Liu Zhenyun when I separated him and Bai Zisheng"
Hearing him talk, Baotian had an ominous feeling, but the Nascent Soul griffin kept talking nonetheless:
"I already had the opportunity to examine the past of a reincarnated cultivator who managed to keep his memory, and had no problem seeing past the day of her birth, so I had doubts: was it something else than reincarnation, or did you have previous lives, which were obscured by superior entities?
And so, when I met you the second time, and then during my duel, I examined yours and Liu Zhenyun's early memories to verify and, indeed, they were those of people who had already fully-formed consciousness. And so, I had the confirmation you truly were reincarnated souls. Since in your early memories, the two of you truly seemed to discover everything about the cultivation world, I first thought you were simply mortals that had been reincarnated into cultivators bodies by a playful higher entity.
But while his perspective was not much different from that of a mortal, yours was too different. Even for a cultivator, it would not fit, it's… a subtle, but fundamental difference in the way you interact with the world. And so, I came to a conclusion"
He paused a bit before spelling it out loud through his spiritual sense:
"Junior Zh- No, Baotian, I believe you come from another world, one completely different from the realm we live in. Am I right?"