"Duang! Duang!"
A kick landed squarely on the man's chest; a punch struck his cheek.
The man grunted and fell heavily to the ground. Just as he was about to get up, a large foot came hurtling towards his face again.
He hastily blocked, but was still kicked over onto his back.
Before he could react further, a delicate canvas shoe mercilessly stomped on his chest.
"If I'm not mistaken, you should only be a martial artist at the middle stage of Outer Strength, right?"
The man wasn't surprised that Han Lang could discern his cultivation level, but Ma Long was filled with questions.
"Hey? Young sir, how did you know his cultivation? I've been fighting him for so long, and I only felt his cultivation was about the same as mine! Could it be like in those cultivation novels, where you can know someone's cultivation with a scan of your divine sense? Why can't I do that?"
Han Lang was utterly exasperated by Ma Long's peculiar way of thinking. He sighed and explained helplessly.
"I told you to read fewer of those messy books, but you just won't listen! Cultivation is hidden within everyone's body, it's an ethereal thing, like how you can't see into someone's heart. How can you possibly tell with just one glance?"
It turned out that
the world of cultivators wasn't as magical as depicted in movies.
Although they could possess extraordinary strength, speed, and even practice spells, it was ultimately a transformation from the mundane to the miraculous!
Even if you had the ability to shake the heavens and earth, move mountains and fill seas, or even alter time and know the past and future, you couldn't precisely control a person's thoughts!
It was like the well-known story of the Buddha and the Monkey King!
If one could directly change his thoughts, why would they need to crush him under a five-fingered mountain for five hundred years?
Similarly,
although divine sense was powerful, it was ultimately just a sense belonging to the human body.
This sense could indeed allow cultivators to perceive every blade of grass and tree within their surroundings more finely, but it couldn't penetrate living bodies, let alone humans whose bodily functions were identical to cultivators.
The strength of a cultivator was usually reflected by the amount of spiritual energy contained within their body.
And the vast majority of this spiritual energy was stored in the cultivator's Dantian.
But did Dantians have size differences?
If containers were the same size and held the same substance, how could one distinguish their quality by sight?
If you don't weigh it, don't study it, how can you make a judgment?
Therefore, every cultivator judged an enemy's strength based on rich experience and keen insight, probing the opponent's details through every move and stance.
Conversely,
if one could know an opponent's strength with a mere scan of their divine sense, then battles between cultivators should be decided in one move.
If your Stone Golem could take out the Frost Mage with a single ultimate move, why would you bother slowly Q-ing him? By then, would you still have mana for your ultimate?
It was the same principle.
The battles of cultivators were usually life or death. Knowing the opponent's strength, wouldn't you go all out instead of waiting to be finished?
So, cultivators were individuals with flesh and blood, not game data. You couldn't possibly ascertain their level and skills with a single insight spell!
And the battles of cultivators were also constantly changing.
Even when fighting the same person multiple times, they wouldn't use the same format of combat techniques!
Of course,
in the world of cultivators, there were naturally more ways to obtain information about an opponent's strength than just this one method.
Cultivators absorbed spiritual energy from heaven and earth. To some extent, cultivators were essentially walking spiritual energy bodies.
Therefore, around their bodies, there would be more or less a trace of spiritual energy emanating from within.
And this spiritual energy could be detected by divine sense.
Generally, the higher the cultivation, the more substantial the spiritual energy surrounding the body.
But this wasn't absolute.
For example!
One could usually tell the disparity in strength between men and women at a glance; but you couldn't absolutely guarantee that a woman wouldn't be a match for a man.
Although not 100%, this could still serve as a basis for judgment.
Also,
a cultivator's cultivation, upon reaching a certain realm, would have different characteristics.
This was also one of the methods to judge an opponent's strength.
For instance, Golden Core stage cultivators could begin to use spiritual energy dan fire without instruction.
This was not only the foundation for learning alchemy but also a very effective means of attack.
In summary,
there were many ways to ascertain an enemy's strength, but it was impossible to know it clearly solely through divine sense scans.
"So, young sir! You made this judgment by observing my fight with him, right? Then, between this middle-stage Outer Strength martial artist and me, who is stronger or weaker?"
"Middle-stage Outer Strength is about the same as the third layer of Qi Refining! If I'm not mistaken, you should have already broken through to the fifth layer of Qi Refining? Plus, you're a former special forces soldier, so your combat awareness is already stronger than his. Dealing with him would naturally be a piece of cake!"
Upon hearing this, Ma Long looked displeased. He kicked the man lying on the ground unhappily and said with great disappointment.
"So you're just a trash at the third layer of Qi Refining? I was fighting you so seriously, it was a complete waste of my time!"
The man, at this point, had lost all his former confidence and arrogance. He could only beg for mercy with wide-eyed terror.
"Spare my life, you two! I was only acting on someone's behalf!"
Hearing this, Han Lang also remembered the important matter and quickly asked.
"On whose behalf? Who behind the scenes wants us dead!"
The man dared not conceal anything and quickly replied, "It's Master Jin, the underground king of Le City, Master Jin!"
Master Jin?
Both of them were somewhat puzzled.
"Young sir, who exactly is this Master Jin?"
"If I recall correctly, he should be the boss behind that Marquis of Yiyang District!"
Ma Long naturally had a deep impression of Hou Cang.
"But we have no enmity with him. Why would he want to kill us? Last time, regarding that Marquis fellow, we didn't go all out, so he shouldn't be like this, should he?"
Han Lang thought for a moment and applied a little more pressure with his foot: "You'll have to ask him!"
The man quickly replied, "It was Gou Feng! Gou Feng commissioned him, and that's why he sent me to deal with you. You two big shots, it really has nothing to do with me. I truly didn't know you were both cultivators!"
Han Lang ignored the man's pleas and retorted, "Is that Master Jin also a cultivator? What's his cultivation level? And what about the Gou family? Are there cultivators there as well?"
"No, no!" the man quickly replied, "Master Jin is not a cultivator, he's just righteous, so I was willing to befriend him. As for the Gou family, I'm not sure. But it seems he sought out Master Jin because he knew about the existence of cultivators, so it's possible he has some contingency plans!"
Hearing this answer, Han Lang fell into deep thought.
As he was lost in thought, the man lying on the ground suddenly lunged, and two steel needles shot out from his sleeve, heading straight for their foreheads.
The two reacted extremely quickly and dodged to the side.
Han Lang was even faster. While dodging, he executed a graceful turn and instinctively struck the man's forehead with a palm.
"Bang~"
The man felt a jolt in his head, and his sea of consciousness rapidly dissipated.
Soon, his eyes rolled back, and he completely lost his life.