"You could keep things simple," Wu Ling offered, his mind turning over rapidly as he tried to find a way out of their current predicament. If reading the slender man's emotions revealed a well of unreadable darkness, trying to read Chang Ai produced a sensation so intense that it momentarily blinded him for daring to pry into her inner thoughts and feelings.
He'd explained to Su Yao when she joined the Bamboo Silk House that an artist's ability to read people was one of their most powerful skills. At the same time, that ability was all but useless against people who possessed superior cultivation.
It was only now that he found himself squaring off against the imposing Master Chang that he realized how much he'd come to rely on his artistic senses when dealing with lesser adversaries. Now that he was robbed of the familiar tool, he found it much more difficult to find his way forward in this tense negotiation.
