Ten Thousand Years in Seclusion
Chapter 5:I only wanted to keep a low profile...

Chapter 5: Chapter 5:I only wanted to keep a low profile...

The moment Qi Tian spoke—

"Master, your appraisal is mistaken."

For a heartbeat, the marketplace fell silent.

Then the laughter came.

"Who does this wild cultivator think he is?"

"He dares question Master Zhou?"

"If a two-star appraiser says it’s worthless, then it’s worthless!"

"What would a savage like him know?"

The jeers rose from every side, washing over Qi Tian like a tide.

To everyone present, a ragged stranger dressed in beast hide openly contradicting a two-star appraiser could only be one of two things: a madman or someone with ulterior motives.

Qi Tian stood amid the ridicule without the slightest change in expression.

The ragged man clutching the bronze bell slowly turned around. His face was still hollow with despair, yet somewhere deep inside his bloodshot eyes, a tiny spark of hope flickered back to life.

Zhou Shen turned as well.

The easy smile that had worn so naturally on his face moments ago had disappeared. As a respected two-star appraiser personally invited by the lord of Zhenyuan City, he had never been contradicted in public before—least of all by a complete stranger who looked no different from a wandering beggar.

Still, he did not lose his temper.

Instead, he studied Qi Tian in silence while a thread of refined spiritual sense drifted toward him, subtle enough that no one else noticed.

The spiritual sense swept over Qi Tian.

Early-stage Qi Refining.

Zhou Shen frowned almost imperceptibly.

Either the man truly possessed only early-stage Qi Refining cultivation...

Or his realm was so far above Zhou Shen’s own that he had concealed it flawlessly.

For the first time that day, Zhou Shen found himself uncertain.

Before he could think further, the attendant at his side stepped forward.

The man had long been accustomed to throwing Zhou Shen’s name around wherever he went. Seeing his master’s authority challenged in public, he could no longer contain himself.

"You insolent fool!" he shouted, pointing straight at Qi Tian. "Who are you to question Master Zhou’s judgment? You’ve slandered his reputation before everyone here. Kneel and beg forgiveness at once!"

Qi Tian looked at him calmly.

"Beg forgiveness?"

His voice remained even.

"Why should I? I said nothing wrong."

The attendant’s face reddened instantly.

"Sharp tongue!"

"You refuse a toast only to drink the forfeit!"

"I’ll teach you your place!"

His palm shot forward before the final word had fully left his mouth, spiritual energy surging around his hand.

Ninth-stage Qi Refining.

Qi Tian’s heart sank.

Trouble.

He should have kept quiet.

He was still only a Foundation Establishment cultivator, having just awakened from ten thousand years of seclusion. He knew almost nothing about this new world, and keeping a low profile should have been his first priority. If he drew the attention of someone truly powerful before understanding the situation, dying over something this trivial would be the most absurd ending imaginable.

Qi Tian gave a bitter smile inwardly. I only wanted to keep a low profile...

Yet, in the end...

he simply hadn’t been able to ignore it.

Suppressing a sigh, Qi Tian shifted half a step aside.

The incoming palm swept harmlessly past him.

To the spectators, it looked like nothing more than a lucky dodge.

"Hah! You’re a slippery one!"

The attendant only grew angrier. He unleashed one strike after another, palm winds howling through the air.

Qi Tian evaded every attack with effortless precision.

He dared not fight back.

If he did, a ninth-stage Qi Refining cultivator would collapse after a single exchange.

The more easily Qi Tian avoided him, however, the more the attendant lost face.

Each strike came within inches of its target.

Each strike missed by the narrowest of margins.

Not even the edge of Qi Tian’s beast-hide cloak was touched.

Before long, the attendant himself was breathing heavily, humiliation burning across his face.

His eyes turned bloodshot.

"I’ll see how you dodge this!"

"Mountain-Sundering Strike!"

Both palms slammed forward.

Spiritual energy erupted from his body, condensing into a wall of force nearly ten feet wide that roared toward Qi Tian, ripping through the air with a deafening crack.

"That’s a killing technique!"

"He’s serious!"

"That man’s finished!"

The surrounding crowd cried out and hurried backward, afraid of being caught in the attack.

Qi Tian’s expression finally turned cold.

He had tolerated the man’s arrogance.

He had tolerated the bullying.

But this strike...

This strike was meant to kill.

Had he truly been an ordinary early-stage Qi Refining cultivator, he would already have been a dead man.

Enough.

A trace of killing intent flashed through Qi Tian’s eyes as his fingers slowly closed into a fist.

Just as he was about to move—

"Stop!"

The shout rang across the marketplace like thunder.

It was Zhou Shen.

The attendant froze instinctively, forcefully dispersing the technique before it fully landed. He turned back in confusion.

"Master? He insulted you! I was only trying to—"

"Idiot!"

Zhou Shen’s face darkened.

Without another word, he stepped forward and struck the attendant across the face.

Smack!

The man spun half a circle before staggering backward, blood spraying from the corner of his mouth. One hand clutched his swollen cheek as he stared blankly at Zhou Shen, unable to believe what had just happened.

Watching from the side, Qi Tian almost smiled.

So he noticed.

To everyone else, those evasions had looked like little more than extraordinary luck.

To someone of Zhou Shen’s caliber, however, they revealed something entirely different.

Every movement had been measured to perfection.

Every dodge had been made with effortless composure, as though Qi Tian had seen each attack before it was launched.

Zhou Shen still couldn’t determine his true cultivation.

But he no longer doubted one thing.

No ordinary cultivator possessed movement like that.

More importantly...

he had seen the killing intent that flickered through Qi Tian’s eyes a moment earlier.

That slap wasn’t merely punishment for an insolent subordinate.

It was an apology.

An apology for the attendant’s recklessness.

Qi Tian’s opinion of Zhou Shen rose another notch.

The man truly had discerning eyes.

Not only for treasures—

but for people as well.