"So it seems that managing to fill up the words on the walls is basically like establishing a mental connection with the texts using the qi meant for myself. This, in turn, can transfer the data regarding the meaning of the words directly to my brain.
If that's the case, then all i have to do in order to figure out how to get out of here is to fill up enough texts with my qi."
Han Xuhan felt quite daunted by the taskload he could visualize ahead of him. The walls of this stadium were gigantic. And the texts reached all the way up to the rounded dome shaped roof above their head. The amount of words written on them had to be enough to rival a standard webnovel. It'd take him a very long time to fill them up with qi, analyse the transferred information in his brain and slowly decipher their meaning.
"Wait a minute, didn't the cyan robed guy say that Mu Ran left immediately after he wrote the texts in front of him?"
Invigorated by the sudden realisation, Han Xuhan suppressed his excitement lest somebody should suspect anything and walked toward the place where Mu Ran had left his mark on the ground.
Zhanxian followed behind him without missing a beat. The skeleton could perceive the not-so-friendly atmosphere inside the stadium. In case a fight broke out, it planned to hide behind its boss immediately.
Han Xuhan's reappearance In front of the texts on the ground didn't raise as much curiosity among the other observers as it had the previous time. Peering down at the writings, Han Xuhan realized that he couldn't recognize any of the letters used in the texts on the ground. Since there were others observing the writings closely alongside him, it was inconvenient to use his qi replenishing technique to fill the texts up. They might learn the trick.
Sneakily stealing a few looks at the young cultivators nearby, Han Xuhan decided to raise a ruckus in order to chase these cultivators away.
"Hey Zhanxian, weren't you always whining to get some tattoos? How about now? These drawings on the walls and ground look cool as hell to me. Rather than those stupid life quotes you were trying to engrave on your bones, why not try these?"
Very loudly, Han Xuhan voiced his thoughts to Zhanxian. The crimson coloured skeleton opened its jaw to protest vehemently, only to notice Han Xuhan's wink. It shut its mouth close for a few seconds to consider the option.
Personally, the skeleton felt that the words on the walls actually would make some badass tattoos. The archaic texts had an intimidating, chilly feeling to them that couldn't be found in any normal language. Since they looked so mysterious and cool...
"Sure, boss. But I get to pick which part of the texts I want tattooed."
Han Xuhan looked slightly startled at Zhanxian'a enthusiasm. Then he nodded thoughtfully.
Zhanxian started walking around, examining the walls closely. Every time he stopped, Han Xuhan would shout in a deafening voice.
"Not that one! That one looks too complicated. Look for another one!"
The shouts were enough to rupture some eardrums. The cultivators surrounding Mu Ran's writing on the ground were incredibly annoyed. They had been concentrating as hard as possible to look for clues or figure out the way to solve this puzzling strokes. The random shouts behind them were enough to make a dying man wish for immediate death. Who could concentrate in such an atmosphere?
"Boss! This one! This one looks cool! I want it!"
This time the skeleton also joined in. Han Xuhan enthusiastically ran over, making the annoyed cultivators think he was finally going away. But they soon realized their mistake a few moments later...
*Screeeechhh* *crriiinnchh* *krkrkrkr*
Sounds similar to a sharp metal rubbing against other metals came from the place Han Xuhan had run to. Everybody turned to take a look at what was happening.
Han Xuhan had taken out a knife and was busy sharpening it on an edge of the wall. Due to the rough texture of the walls, the sound emitted from there made them feel like somebody was caressing their eardrums with a thin spike while rubbing their spine.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
The shrill sound didn't die down even after ten minutes. Han Xuhan looked like he was about to sharpen his blade until it became invisible. What made it worse was the fact that everyone could see that the walls were not suitable to sharpen a blade in the slightest. It was downright obvious to them that this masked brat was simply trying to disturb everyone because he didn't feel like studying the texts himself.
One of the more impatient ones finally couldn't take it anymore and decided to stomp toward Han Xuhan, killing intent surging out of his body like a flood. Han Xuhan immediately looked back at him eagerly and took out the thick shaft of the glaive that he was carrying around on his back.
"Heh, brat! Do you think your puny stick can scare anybody?"
Han Xuhan laughed in a demented manner upon hearing the burly guy advancing toward him.
"Don't look down on my shaft, you trash! If there is one weapon in this stadium you do not want to be hit by, it's this stick of mine!"
"You sure can brag, kid. " The burly guy took out a heavy sword from his back.
"Oh, I'm not bragging. This stick has been smeared with dog poop and pee. Why do you think I'm wearing gloves? Hehehe..."
The burly looking cultivator suddenly felt a wave of nausea washing over his body like an unstoppable tide. His body shivered and his spine went cold. It didn't matter if he won the fight or not, but one hit of that staff would destroy his reputation.
Immediately, the burly guy backed off. Han Xuhan chuckled and went back to 'sharpening' the knife on the wall. Seeing that no one was still moving away from the place Mu Ran had written on, Han Xuhan decided to take things up a notch again.
"Aahhh! Stop! Slow down! It tickles!"
High pitched moans and yelps soon started coming from behind the studious cultivators again. With black lines forming on their foreheads, they all turned to look at the masked scum again.
Han Xuhan was busily engraving the texts Zhanxian had chosen on his bones carefully. He had borrowed a pen from the cyan robed cultivator and was using its ink to color the engraved lines created by the knife. With his rudimentary knowledge of some alphabets of this archaic language, alongside his constant attempt at using qi to decipher the texts made him able to understand most of the words he was etching on Zhanxian's bones. The current sentence he was trying to write on Zhanxian's arm was a very cool sounding one.
ANY SOUL UNDER THE 'ABYSS LURKER' REALM SHALL ROT UPON COMING INTO CONTACT WITH THIS WALL.
Of course, Zhanxian's arm was not a wall. After a lengthy research, Han Xuhan had managed to find a substitute for the last word. Instead of the word wall, he engraved the word 'material' on Zhanxian's bone. He had no idea if it would actually end up transforming Zhanxian's arm into a soul slaughtering machine. But he felt that it was unlikely. That abyss lurker realm sounded pretty badass. Just some random words written by a cultivator at the second layer of physique transformation realm couldn't possibly become so deadly without a proper source, right? This might be a magical world, but the humongous amount of energy required to kill powerful beings was completely illogical without a source of the power, even with magic involved.
Regardless, it was undeniable that the skeletal arm looked cool as hell with the carved, black tattoos. If Zhanxian had been an odd looking, red skeleton before, he was now an odd looking, red, gangster themed skeleton. There was a huge difference between the two.
Feeling very satisfied with his work, Han Xuhan proceeded to carve more and more texts all over Zhanxian's body. The more intimidating Zhanxian looked, the more useful he'd be. It wasn't as if Zhanxian had any nerves on his bones. All of his screams and moans were just being produced in order to annoy the studious cultivators around Mu Ran's writings.
"Oooh.., owww... eeehh... mmmph...slower...Aye..Just like that!"
All the cultivators in the vicinity felt rage enveloping their mind uncontrollably. They couldn't concentrate for a single moment without hearing the strangely suggestive moans. Finally, a young female cultivator couldn't take it anymore and stomped away to another part of the stadium after getting one final look at the texts on the ground, her face red and her teeth gritted. Soon, more cultivators followed. By the time Han Xuhan had finished tattooing Zhanxian's arms, skull, legs and ribs, almost fifty meters around Han Xuhan was devoid of any cultivators...except one, the cyan robed guy.
Han Xuhan stood up and admired his handiwork. Zhanxian looked like he was cosplaying as Tekashi 6ix9ine now. All he needed to complete the look was a disgustingly colourful wig.
"Hah, abyss lurkers? My boy can scare off the abyss itself at this point with one look !"
Zhanxian looked at his own body and seemed pretty satisfied with what he saw. Han Xuhan was about to go take a look at Mu Ran's writings finally when he saw the cyan robed guy walking over.
"Do you have no shame?" He asked in a strange tone.
Han Xuhan made a show of checking the pockets of his robes and then displayed his empty hands to the cyan robed man.
"Not a milligram of anything so useless in my pockets. "
Zhanxian felt that his boss had just made a very cool move and it tried to copy him. But it had no pockets because of the lack of clothing. So it put its fingers inside one of its eye sockets and moved it around for a few seconds before speaking.
"None of that stuff on me either, absolutely nothing."
"Zhanxian, do you have to go so far to prove that you don't have a brain? Grow some self respect, man!"
Han Xuhan scolded the dumbstruck skeleton.