Then, as he sat comfortably over the bed, Liam guided his gaze.
His divine mind, the golden energy mixed in with his consciousness, drifted out across the space like a gentle tide, scanning casually.
At the same time, his fingers moved with an idle flick, without touching it, a fruit rose from the table and floated into his palm.
Magically that was, but Ilya noticed it right away.
Without a sound, the fruit was sliced into three equal parts by invisible blades, precise and clean.
He made a small motion, and one of the slices floated up, landing in his mouth with casual accuracy.
Ilya glanced sideways at him.
Then, after a small, polite shuffle closer, she leaned in slightly.
"S-senior…"
Her voice came out soft, almost rehearsed, trying its best to sound sweet, maybe even endearing.
She wanted to push things forward between them. If possible, she hoped to deepen the relationship while the opportunity lingered.
But Liam was never someone who played along with anyone's plans. He rarely followed a script.
He popped the remaining slices into his mouth, chewed once, and with a small shrug, spread his hands.
"I already ate them all. Sorry."
"..." Ilya's face froze for a heartbeat, lips parted blankly, but she quickly forced a small smile to return.
"No, that wasn't what I was going to say."
Liam tilted his head a little, then replied with the same unbothered tone, "I don't cut fruit for other people. Sorry."
It almost sounded like he already assumed her intention. That alone made her expression flatten again for a second.
But no, he'd misunderstood completely.
She straightened her posture again, looked at him plainly, and said, "Senior, let me cut the fruits and feed them to you instead."
That made him pause.
Liam's hand, which had been reaching for something else, froze mid-air.
He glanced at her from the corner of his eyes. It wasn't a surprised look, but definitely a curious one.
After a brief pause, he leaned back again with a small nod. "Please do. I thought you were going to ask something else."
"…"
Ilya let out a small breath.
She realized, not for the first time, that Liam's thoughts might just be completely detached when it came to romantic cues.
And so, a short moment later, under Ilya's quiet attentiveness, she gently brought a piece of fruit to his mouth, feeding him directly by hand.
Liam chewed the fruits, gave her a plain stare, then retracted his gaze back, 'Having someone to feed me is kinda nice?'
The auction was only seconds away from starting now.
Liam's divine sense, which had been hovering above the entire venue, suddenly pulled back, receding like a drawn curtain.
To many, especially those sensitive to such pressure, it was a breath passing by, a huge one.
As sudden was it was, it came and went by as if the pressure was just on a short sightseeing.
Qi refining realm monks reacted none, they couldn't sense it. But the foundation building realm monks felt it the clearest.
Like a huge eyeball that hung over the sky, overlooking them, briefly.
There was one woman in particular, seated in one of the highest VIP rooms, who exhaled in visible relief the moment that overwhelming sensation vanished.
She was the sect leader from the Violet Needle Sect.
Just a moment ago, as she waited alongside the elders that followed her, she had sensed it, a divine probing so direct, so unapologetically invasive that her temper had nearly snapped.
Though, the so called snapped was only for a moment.
When she tried to respond, spreading out her own divine sense to counter…
She barely brushed the edge of the presence, and in that instant, it was as if she had been thrown into a stormy sea without warning.
Her divine mind reeled violently.
Her vision was pulled elsewhere into a vast void.
It was a huge land that couldn't be scaled. So huge that everything seemed to be titanic compared to her.
Then, huge towering shadows came from the distant, the earth rumbling, dirt the size of continents floated briefly under the incoming impact.
And there they were, she saw them, multiple huge entities that betrayed anything she had ever seen before.
Soulless eyes, body made out of strange divine wood, and their heads touched the heaven while their feet touched the earth.
"Arghh!"
Snap!
Her vision turned back to normal.
Her face paled. The color drained completely from her cheeks.
Her back drenched in sweat, as if she had just gone through the worst nightmare of her life.
And she said nothing more.
She had thought she'd sensed wrong.
Cold sweat clung to her back as she let out a shaky breath, fingers lightly quivering over the edge of the couch's armrest.
Her eyes darted around the room, unsettled and restless.
The sect elders accompanying her glanced at each other, visibly puzzled by her sudden change in demeanor.
But she said nothing.
Lips sealed tight, she lowered her head slightly, silently praying that whoever that Senior was… hadn't taken notice of her, "What the hell was that? Did I accidentally entered a certain someone's divine mind?"
What she didn't know, however, was that Liam had already noticed her, and not just her.
Every single Foundation Building expert seated in this hall had been seen through.
And just like her, all of them sat there pale-faced, utterly horrified.
They saw the same scene.
They had just brushed against something they never should've touched, a divine mind so deep, so wide, it felt like plunging headfirst into an endless ocean.
Overwhelming didn't even begin to describe it.
It made sense, in a way.
Liam's divine mind was rooted in the dungeon space itself. To be more precise, both co-existing with each other.
The sheer scale of it wasn't just large, it felt infinite, almost unreal.
No one here was dumb enough to brush that off.
Every Foundation Building cultivator in attendance now understood one thing:
A very powerful figure was present tonight.
Better be in their best behavior.
And then, the lights in the venue dimmed.
Over on the platform, soft golden beams formed a spotlight at the center of the stage. The graceful clerk stepped forward, ready to speak.
But before she could open her mouth.
Boom.
A voice rang out.
Calm. Deep.
And oddly magnetic.
It didn't press down like killing intent. It simply existed, like a still well beneath ancient stone, resonating across the walls, filling every corner.
"Please enjoy tonight's auction. This seat is here to observe."
The room fell into silence.
Then.
Gasps, murmurs, confused glances, like a wave sweeping through the crowd.
Heads turned upward all at once, searching for the source.
Whispers grew louder.
"Who was that?"
"Where did that voice come from?"
"Just now... that wasn't spiritual transmission, right?"
The clerk stood awkwardly frozen under the light, words stuck in her throat, unsure whether to speak or wait.
Then, Ilya's calm voice rang from above, cutting through the rising chatter.
"Go ahead."
Only then did the clerk recover and begin again, though her posture was noticeably stiffer than before.
Everyone present, Foundation experts, inner disciples, wandering cultivators, remained unusually quiet, their hearts still pacing from that earlier brush.
And from the shadows, Liam said no more.