Dual Cultivation God Returns Chapter 4: Doubts

Witnessing her graceful but powerful, soft yet rapid sword strikes, a deep sorrow long buried beneath endless years of healing efforts surged up from the profound depths of his soul.

Wu Long felt stunned, as he believed that at his immense age, the scar from his youth etched on his heart would no longer rattle him so profoundly as it did in this instant.

For immortals who endured lives so vast that millennia passed like fleeting instants, and who unraveled the secrets of the Great Daos en route to immortality, their feelings inevitably grew somewhat muted. They still felt emotions, yet their awareness of those emotions and their perspective on them transformed in essence.

It resembled how a dropped candy could spell utter devastation for a child, while seeming trivial to an elder.

Yet the instant her sword came into view, those years flashed by in a blink, as though his heart had shattered into countless shards just the day before, stripping away every trace of the poise from his tens of thousands of years.

'... a precious gift ...'

The mysterious woman's words echoed in his memory.

'is it possible-? ... but if...'

Thoughts churned wildly in his mind. For the first time in countless millennia, true dread gripped him—the fear of being mistaken. Yet that sharp fear stemmed from a faint spark of hope.

She concluded her sword display and began directing the disciples gathered before her.

Simultaneously, Wu Long restored his calm, for despite the staggering prospect ahead and the abrupt onslaught of fierce emotions, he endured as an immortal shaped by millennia.

Wu Long scanned his surroundings, soon noticing a cluster of disciples watching the session nearby from his position.

He moved toward them, querying a female disciple who had glanced his way repeatedly.

"Hello, do you know who that instructor is?"

"That's Elder Liu, one of the sect's finest sword instructors and among its mightiest elders."

The female disciple responded with enthusiasm, having noticed him since his arrival.

"Elder Liu? Might you know her full name?"

The disciple showed slight surprise at the query, since seeking an elder's full name was uncommon—using it could seem disrespectful unless among equals, and even fellow elders stuck to surnames without close bonds or privacy—but she nodded and replied: "Her name is Elder Liu Li."

"Thank you," he replied with a smile, though his thoughts raced within.

'Liu Li, huh... name and looks both altered... yet that sensation... I can't confirm it yet.'

A striking male disciple lingered beside the girl he'd addressed. Indeed, in this dual cultivation sect, all disciples and elders boasted at least striking looks, with many hailed as prime beauties and handsome figures beyond its walls. Naturally, none of the male disciples could rival Wu Long's transcendent allure, fueling instant resentment from any who beheld him, sight unseen.

"Hey, rather than eyeing Elder Liu, shouldn't you join your peers over there, or is their cultivation beyond your level?"

The male disciple quipped with a grin, though inside he seethed at Wu Long drawing the attention of the female disciple he'd futilely pursued for weeks.

Wu Long's keen focus on Liu Li, idolized by every sect disciple, only heightened his ire.

In the spot the male disciple indicated with his jaw, another section of the training ground held a band of disciples of assorted ages, yet noticeably younger than most Wu Long had encountered.

They donned unique uniforms, their cultivation realms matching his own—Body Transformation Realm.

These Junior Disciples couldn't engage in dual cultivation until adulthood at 16. Ideally, they reached 7th level or above in Body Transformation Realm by then, the standard for age-eligible recruits joining every decade.

Wu Long stood out uniquely as the sole adult disciple lagging below that cultivation threshold.

Most Junior Disciples there had hit at least 5th level already.

Since dual cultivation hinged so much on partners' cultivation and aptitude, his low realm at his age doomed his future pairings, which the male disciple spotted and swiftly highlighted.

Wu Long paid him no attention whatsoever, not even glancing toward the direction he was pointing, and continued conversing with the female disciple who had responded to him before, acting as if those recent moments never occurred.

"If she is one of the strongest elders, why is Elder Liu an Outer Court elder?"

He had spotted Liu Li in Outer Court Elder robes not long ago.

The female disciple showed slight astonishment at his unflappable demeanor amid the prior scorn from the male disciple, yet she went ahead with her response.

"Well-"

"Hey! I spoke to you! Are you looking down on me?" the earlier male disciple scowled and growled in a fiercer tone, raised a notch, cutting into her words.

Ignored like thin air, his temper ignited at once, fueled by his innate rivalry, lingering grudge, and a full cultivation realm above Wu Long, prompting him to strike a belligerent pose.

Wu Long shifted his blank gaze toward the male disciple.

"I do", he stated flatly, then returned his eyes to the female disciple, his look silently pressing her to proceed.

He wasn't bluffing—he truly held him in contempt, having pierced the precise cause of the male disciple's antagonism with ease. Males who fumed when their pursued woman took interest in another ranked high among the things he detested fiercely. If a man couldn't claim a woman's favor, he forfeited the right to resent one who could.

This curt reply left not just the female and male disciples, but all onlookers drawn by the uproar, utterly stunned.

"Y-You!", the male disciple erupted in rage. "Do you want to die?"

"It seems to me that you do" Wu Long replied as his gaze flicked back to the male disciple, now chillingly sharp, mild irritation rising in him.

Typically, he'd dismiss such a petty irritant entirely, but remnants of earlier turmoil still stirred his feelings, and his burning need to probe deeper into Liu Li's affairs to settle uncertainties made the disruptions grate deeply.

Over millennia, none had dared address him so brashly or barge into his talks, eroding his forbearance for such insolence.

Catching sight of those icy eyes fixed on him, the male disciple quivered abruptly, lurched backward, tripped, and collapsed onto his backside. Cold sweat beaded across his entire form in a flash.

At this sight, Wu Long sighed, a hint of self-ridicule in his tone.

'So rattled that I'm intimidating youngsters over trifles... time to steady myself.'

'I can verify my suspicions leisurely since time remains in this sect.'

'Whatever the facts reveal, rashness could yield regrettable results. Prioritizing my foundation's strengthening is key now; the rest will fall into place more smoothly later.'

He reined in his surging passions deliberately and eyed his position with detached, analytical pragmatism.

Here, raw power dictated all—feats demanding hours of toil, stamina, cunning, and assets today could unfold in seconds with a mere gesture, provided he targeted the true essentials.

Despite his urge to dash to her now and banish his questions, he grasped his present limits and the smartest course ahead.

With a sigh and headshake, he flashed a soft smile at the female disciple, uttered "thank you for answering my questions", and strode off, abandoning a cluster of stupefied disciples who stared blankly at his vanishing silhouette.

Meanwhile, the disciple on the ground churned with fear, disgrace, and loathing all at once, yet the terror from instants prior let the first eclipse the others.