Chapter 28: What Does It Mean to Oppress Others with Power?
Song, the elder, regarded him with some surprise and asked with a gentle smile, “Your breath is unsteady—have you only just entered the realm?”
“Master Song, your insight is truly remarkable…”
Liu Shen felt a weight lift from his shoulders. He realized that the elderly man before him, though seemingly frail with age, was no ordinary person. Obediently, he explained, “I was fortunate enough to break through in the dead of night, just a few hours ago.”
“Indeed…”
Song nodded, a sigh of reminiscence escaping him. “It took me several months to find the thread of energy and step into the path. For you to do it in just three days—there is talent in you.”
Looking at the old man before him, whose life seemed to flicker like a candle in the wind, Liu Shen asked in wonder, “Master Song, are you also a practitioner of martial arts?”
“I trained for a time…”
Song’s face softened with nostalgia. “In my youth, my ambitions soared, but my aptitude failed me. It took much effort to reach the third realm. I once tried to force my way to the fourth, but it injured my foundation. I had to disperse my cultivation to save my life. Later, I turned to business and neglected the path.”
He sighed with regret. “If only I’d had the resolve to start over, perhaps I wouldn’t have achieved glory, but at least my vitality wouldn’t have dwindled so.”
Liu Shen nodded in sudden understanding.
Song smiled benignly. “Ah, when a man grows old, he tends to ramble and dwell on the past whenever he meets the young. I hope you won’t take offense.”
“You flatter me, Master Song…”
Liu Shen respectfully clasped his hands in the gesture of a junior, smiling. “You are a senior to Lady Pei, and since she and I are friends, if I may presume to say so, you are a senior in my eyes as well.”
“Ha ha ha, good, very good…”
Song chuckled. “There’s an old saying—never underestimate the old, nor despise the poor youth. For a spirited young man like you to treat me as an elder is quite to my advantage.”
With that, he rose unsteadily, leaning on his cane, and poured two cups of tea. “Don’t just stand there—come, keep an old man company. Sit and have some tea with me.”
“A gift from my elder, I dare not refuse.”
Liu Shen sat down and sipped the tea with care before asking, “Lady Pei said you wished to see me, Master Song. I came without knowing why—may I ask what instructions you have?”
“Nothing so formal as instructions.”
Song simply smiled, speaking without reservation, “A few days ago, my people told me that Xue Yan had grown close to a young man. As her elder, I know her to be pure of heart and I worry she might be deceived, so I wished to meet you, that is all.”
Liu Shen was silent for a long moment, understanding the unspoken meaning in Song’s words. At last, he smiled wryly. “If you’re worried she’ll be deceived, Master Song, perhaps you should be meeting the managers of the Song family businesses instead.”
“That’s different…”
Song sighed and fixed Liu Shen with a piercing gaze. “Those men might swindle a bit of money from the family, nothing more…”
He paused, his sharp eyes seeming to pierce through Liu Shen’s soul, and spoke each word with deliberate weight, “But you are different. Your ambitions run far deeper.”
“My ambitions run deep?” Liu Shen frowned, meeting the old man’s gaze without flinching. “Then, Master Song, what is it that you think I seek from Lady Pei?”
“You seek her body.”
“I—”
A mocking laugh escaped Song as he saw the change in Liu Shen’s expression. “I am sixty-seven this year. I’ve trained in martial arts, done business, and seen countless people. Do you think I can’t see through your little schemes?”
Liu Shen felt his temples throbbing. He had thought Song might accuse him of coveting the Song fortune, or perhaps their martial secrets, and had even prepared counterarguments in his mind. Never did he expect the old man to ignore both wealth and power, and bluntly say, “You want her body.”
That single statement pierced directly to the heart of Liu Shen’s secret desires, leaving him utterly speechless, with not even a sliver of ground to refute. After all, Pei Xue Yan was the young mistress of the Song family, the daughter-in-law of the elder before him. To have one’s intentions to pursue another man’s daughter-in-law laid bare by her own father-in-law—despite all his experience across two lifetimes, Liu Shen could not help but feel his face burning…
“Caught you, haven’t I?”
Song lifted his teacup with trembling hands and took a sip. “Listen, boy, I’ve had you investigated. You should be grateful that your interest is in Xue Yan herself and not something else. Otherwise, you would not have left here alive.”
“Your eyes see much, Master Song…”
Liu Shen nodded, openly admitting his feelings. “Since you’ve seen through me, why bother to meet me at all?”
“You’re mistaken.”
Song shook his head with a sigh. “I had you thoroughly investigated. To be frank, you don’t strike me as a seventeen-year-old boy. There are too many coincidences, so I couldn’t be sure if you were after the Song family’s foundation or something else…”
“It wasn’t until you two entered and I saw how Xue Yan acted toward you—and how you looked at her—that I could finally be certain of your intentions.”
“I could see it. Your gaze is pure—so pure that all you want is Xue Yan herself.”
Liu Shen furrowed his brows, unable to fathom how Song could be so certain that he desired only Pei Xue Yan and nothing else. Perhaps it was the feeling of being at a disadvantage since entering the room, or perhaps it was a streak of rebelliousness at having his thoughts so thoroughly exposed…
After a moment’s hesitation, he asked, “Who doesn’t like a beautiful woman? Why are you so sure that all I want from Lady Pei is her body?”
He paused, then added more bluntly, “To put it harshly, Master Song, after your time, the Song family business will likely fall to Lady Pei anyway. Are you so sure I’m not just biding my time to seize the whole Song fortune?”
“Are you?”
“I—”
“You may be clever, but you are still too green.”
Song glanced at him indifferently, continuing, “I told you, your gaze is pure—to the point that you are blind to all the Song family’s wealth, seeing only Xue Yan.”
“My gaze?”
Liu Shen shook his head, unconvinced that something as vague as a ‘gaze’ could reveal so much.
“You seem not to trust my judgment?”
With a genial smile, Song set his teacup aside, then narrowed his eyes at Liu Shen, his voice turning cold. “What about now?”
Liu Shen’s face went rigid as he met those clouded eyes—he felt as though an invisible hand was clutching his throat, even his scalp tingling with fear…
It was as if he had plunged into a nightmare. In his mind, he saw the aged and frail Song suddenly erupt, smashing his skull with a single blow from his cane!
He knew perfectly well that nothing of the sort had happened, yet the vision was so vivid that he could almost feel the pain.
Is Master Song trying to kill me?
“Well?”
Song tapped the table, and only when Liu Shen snapped out of his daze did the old man speak again. “Now do you believe a man’s gaze can reveal much?”
Liu Shen swallowed, slowly recovering, and only then did he realize his back was drenched with cold sweat. No longer trying to argue, he bowed his head. “It was my own ignorance, Elder.”
“This is called presence!”
Song continued, “Though my martial aptitude was poor, I was never lacking in insight. This was a little trick I discovered in my younger days while training.”
He paused, as if recalling his own youthful glories, and asked with a hint of pride, “Do you know what it means to subdue others with your presence?”
Liu Shen shook his head obediently. “My knowledge is shallow. I would be grateful for your guidance, Elder.”
“You are a clever one.”
Song nodded in satisfaction at Liu Shen’s change in address. “Presence is intangible, invisible—yet it exists, as real as can be.”
“From the moment you entered, every word and action of yours has been beneath my presence. Accumulated over time, even if I had no cultivation, a single look could defeat you. That is what it means to subdue others with presence!”
“To subdue others with presence…”
Liu Shen was lost in thought, as if he had caught a fleeting glimpse of something profound in Song’s words, yet it remained elusive, like a thin membrane separating him from understanding…
What is presence?
How could it allow a frail, dying old man to wield such oppressive force?
How could a man with one foot in the grave possess such soul-shaking power in a single glance?
As Song spoke of ‘presence,’ Liu Shen’s thoughts leapt to the “Heaven and Earth in Unison” killing move from the Mad Demon Blade Technique.
Song’s presence was methodical, laying a trap and taking the upper hand without notice, only revealing its edge at the critical moment.
If this were a duel, was it not true that he had fallen into Song’s snare from the moment he stepped in, his defeat sealed from the outset?
Meanwhile, the “Heaven and Earth in Unison” move was direct and unstoppable, striking terror into the enemy’s heart, gathering spirit, energy, and intent into a single blow, forcing the opponent to falter in fear.
Was there not a connection between these two approaches?