“Whenever he moves his head, his hair follows,” she continued, “…flowing in the air like strands of silk, and afterward, it goes back in place, still neat and straight as if it has just been combed.”

The details she had given me were a lot more than I had expected. Even the dreamy sound of her voice was that obvious “You have not taken a good look at his face but you’ve been staring at his hair.”

“Ah…”

Even if I could not see her reaction, I knew that she blushed.

“It’s because… I was jealous of his hair and I couldn’t keep my eyes off it while you two were talking earlier. I thought it was unfair that a man like him has such beautiful hair while a woman like me has to struggle with these tangled curls every day.”

I stared at her silhouette. I could indeed see the waves on her hair. “Your hair is beautiful as it is.”

“Your eyes are not fine, so you can’t tell.”

That may be true. “As you’ve said, he is wealthy and has servants to take care of his hair. If he were born a commoner, I don’t think his hair had turned out that way.”

“You’re right.” She sighed. “The advantage of being rich.”

“How old do you think he is?” I asked.

“From what I see, he has the look of someone in his late twenties to early thirties.”

Late twenties…

That was close to my earlier guess based on his voice.

I tried to remember how that man who had traumatized me as a child looked like, but I could not paint a picture of his face. I only remembered the look in his eyes. They were dark and frightening even for an adult. “He looks that young?”

She nodded. “But I may be wrong. It’s hard to tell the exact age of someone who comes from a noble family. Wealthy men don’t do hard work. Servants do everything for them, including pampering their skin and hair. So it’s possible that he may be older than how he looks.”

“You think he’s a noble?”

“He has the bearing of a noble, and his robe is made with the finest silk brocade. Just one look and you’ll know that he is.”

I nodded. Even with my visual impairment, I definitely had not missed that. His domineering stance and the air of arrogance wafting from him while he spoke imperiously yet eloquently were signs of a man who boasted both power and wealth.

“Why did you ask?” she asked.

“Because he told me earlier that he is older than my master, which I found… preposterous.”

“How old is your master?”

“He’s sixty-three.”

She gasped. “That’s impossible! Even if he is indeed older than he looks, he can’t possibly be more than forty.”

“Unless he is indeed Ruan Yanjun.”

“He really is?!”

I shook my head. I refused to believe that Ruan Yanjun was that guest that my master had accommodated in the Sacred Hall twenty years ago. My master was too righteous he would never want to have anything to do with a devil. However, I could not simply turn a blind eye to glaring pieces of evidence just because I found them hard to believe.

“Ruan Yanjun… is the strongest cultivator in the world,” I explained. “Once a person reaches the grandmaster level, aging slows down drastically. To someone of his level, aging stops entirely.”

“Wow,” she whispered, her voice sounded awed. “So you’re saying that Lord Lan may be Ruan Yanjun. He simply did not age up?”

“It’s possible.”

“Have I known that, I should have signed up into a sect when I was young.”

I smiled as I tried to get a feel of her aura. “Not everyone can be a grandmaster. Ordinary humans cannot possibly reach that level unless they have a core to enhance their attributes. And in order to sustain a core, they need to have a good foundation, and that’s something that a person must build at a very young age, and not every person is capable of building one.”

“You mean core like… light core and dark core?”

I nodded. It seemed she had some knowledge about cultivation. “That’s correct.”

“And what’s a foundation?”

“That’s the totality of a human’s strength, internal and external, not only physical but mental, as well as emotional. They should be stable and strong enough to handle the power of a core.”

“Do you think I have a good foundation?”

I reached for her hand and pressed my fingers on her wrist. I shook my head. “I’m afraid… your foundation is weak. Unless you can pay, no sect will accept you.”

“Oh.” She sounded sad.

“Don’t be unhappy. You should be glad you have done the right thing not to waste your time entering a sect.”

She sighed. “You’re right. Going back, you are level seven, right? Does that mean you are also a grandmaster?”

“Was,” I corrected. “My cultivation has been nullified. I’m currently level zero.”

“Oh…” She sounded sorry for me. “What about Ruan Yanjun. What is his level?”

“Although he is not officially recognized, he is one of the very few, and the only one alive, who have reached the ninth level.”

She gasped in surprise. “Ninth?!”

“Since history has been recorded, he is only the third who has achieved the pinnacle of cultivation.”

“Wow! But I heard there’s also the level of immortality. Has anyone reached that level?”

 “The ninth level is the immortality stage. Anyone who reaches that level becomes immortal and will live forever.

“So you mean… Ruan Yanjun is an immortal?”