Tap, tap, tap....
The sound of a pen rhythmically poking a tabletop reverberated inside the deathly silent hut. Han Xuhan sat on his bed, his arms resting on the table, watching Zhanxian and Tun Shi Tian write down whatever he instructed them to. It was both a punishment and a training for the minions, as they had already moved past the language spoken in their region, Xuhan having brutally hammered it into them after the incident with the report on Fang Xie where they had skipped a very important paragraph because apparently, it looked really hard to read.
Right now, Xuhan was teaching the skeletons English, as it seemed much easier to learn compared to his own native language on earth. To familiarize the minion with the alphabets, Xuhan randomly uttered one every few seconds and made them write it from memory.
There was an easier way to learn, of course. After gaining initial mastery over the memory transfer technique inside his dao base, Xuhan could make them experience much of his memories of learning English and thus let them learn it automatically in the process. However, that would be a bit risky. He didn’t trust the minions that much.
"Okay, that's it for tonight. Off you go, and teach little Zhe some manners once you’re there. I'll be testing how effective you two are as teachers. Remember, your cultivation depends on it, as do your future prospects."
Cancelling the summon on the disgruntled faces of his minions, Xuhan dragged over the pages they had been writing on. His minions were increasing in number, as were the anomalies he was haunted by from every direction. He wouldn’t have the luxury to teach the future newcomers everything by himself. It was necessary to train Zhanxian and Tun Shi Tian for this exact reason.
His eyes fell on the amateur scribbles on one page that little Tian had made. It contained his current thoughts on several issues.
The world of the crimson sun is clearly a form of punishment. Perhaps a battle of epic scale had taken place between two sects, or between two planets, or between a protagonist and a random young master's extended family. Even I, little Tian who was clearly a bird, wasn’t spared....or maybe a little shit like myself deserved it.
Han Xuhan imagined the day when little Tian would be able to fluently read and understand the contents of these pages.
Hehehehehehe....
From what we've observed so far, the world of the crimson sun is filled with a layer of fire on its surface. However, the fire doesn't seem to require any fuel except for the soul-like entities it tortures. Our avatars were clearly not harmed even though we should have melted under the searing heat all around. It suggests that the fire is a result of a massive curse or spell. Clearly, the forces involved in a conflict of this calibre are far beyond anything we have encountered till now.
Han Xuhan stifled a sigh as he got to rereading this portion of his observations. Ever since he had started cultivating, his perception of 'incredible power' had skyrocketed. Every other week, he would encounter an incident that made him reorganise his thoughts on the highest possible power in his vicinity. Where did the cliches go when he needed them? Why couldn't the power progression of his opponents be the same as his?
A couple minor realms higher? He had easily escaped Shen Kai.
An entire major realm higher? He had even tricked brother BB.
A FEW major realms higher? He still hadn’t lost all control of the situation with Fang Xie and Xuan Zi....
But a realm of power that could burn an entire planet and keep its inhabitants' souls intact, slowly torturing them into submission of some sort?
That was way beyond his league. That type of powers was supposed to pop up only after a protagonist had conquered a few universes. But looking at Mu Ran, Xuhan couldn’t quite find any signs of that sort of progression. Yuen Zhou herself was barely a few steps ahead of that guy, and she was supposed to be Mu Ran's trophy wife of this realm....if his suspicions about their cliched relationship were correct.
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Regardless, the fact that the appearance of little Zhe had formed a permanent interdimensional connection with this world is definitely suspicious. According to the Skeletal Monarch scripture, there should only be a connection with the satellite of the burning world. In fact, the scripture is pretty vague about these details....
Could there be a bigger scheme here that we are missing? Have we unknowingly become a chess piece in another power struggle between old monsters?
Being the passive party in this situation will do us no good. We need information. We need more resources. We need to tread more deviant paths to fool our opposition. Choosing the safe road and not meddling in these events anymore is no longer an option. We have gone too far down a path we ourselves desire to tread.
When so many tornadoes have surrounded us, we cannot escape the fate of being swept off our feet. But we can attempt to find something to hold onto.
We simply must figure out what it is.
As for the second page on which Zhanxian had written, a to-do list had taken shape.
1. Do whatever is necessary to complete Fang Xie's task without a hitch.
2. Create some countermeasures for obvious reasons.
3. Investigate the world of the crimson sun.
4. Try to gather more clues about the orphanage. If necessary, ask for Fang Xie's cooperation through Xuan Zi.
5. Learn some easy, useful spells or trapping mechanisms.
The last one was his target for now. But tomorrow was the day when the entire sect would execute the Celestial Gateway spell. There was no time for him to learn something new. Moreover, his master was far too busy teaching private, troublesome techniques to the rest of his martial siblings. Had this mountain peak existed a few more years ago and carried a legacy of older disciples, Xuhan would probably not even get the scrapped lessons he had manged to get from the man by now.
From Kong Ye, he had learnt two spells which he had already tested by using them on Zhanxian and little Tian. Sadly, no matter how many creative uses he came up with in order to use the spells to their full potential, one big hurdle stopped him from achieving them in reality.
Both the spells' effectiveness was restricted within his dao tower. He couldn't affect anyone or anything by them outside in the real world. In fact, the only reason his spells worked was that he was the creator and controller of every-no-most molecules of his dao tower, consciously and subconsciously.
Otherwise, spells of that sort would be way too overpowered. The possibilities were endless. Learning, discerning, proving something, all would be so easy! And these were merely the good aspects! If one intended to use the spells for evil purposes, spreading lies, discontent and falsifying proofs would be far too simple to do.
So it hadn't surprised Xuhan when elder Kong had explained why learning these spells wasn't as awesome a feat as one might imagine. Speaking of using those spells....
Xuhan summoned Zhanxian once more.
"How many times do I have to repeat it? It's a spoon, not a poon! You're a goddamn snake for heaven's sake. Why do you have a problem uttering 's'- eh?"
"Little Zhe's education seems to be going well, minion."
"Oh yes, it’s going very smoothly."
Master and minion exchanged a look that contained a vast amount of unsaid words.
Clearing his throat, Xuhan said,
"We haven’t yet discussed how you were able to use that spell I cast on you only once, have we?"
Cranking his head to one side, Zhanxian thought about it for a while before answering.
"I knew you would ask this. So I've been thinking about what exactly happened at that time....and I honestly don't have a clue."
"Are you sure?" Leaning forward, Xuhan lowered his tone, his expression hardening. He was sure Zhanxian would realize what his body language implied.
". . . .All I can say is that when you cast the spell on me, I could somehow sense what exactly was happening inside and outside my body that made the spell work. It was like I successfully cast the spell myself alongside you without prior knowledge. So it was easy for me to cast it again. But I don’t think I can cast it in the real world. I've tried to do so on little Tian and little Zhe. There was no reaction to the movement of my qi. It only seems to work inside the dao tower, specifically my own part of the dao tower."
Han Xuhan crossed his arms and leaned back, his mind wandering amidst possibilities. So this was another effect of his minions' own improvements?
Or was there more to the issue that he just didn’t realize? The biggest change to his dao tower were not the superficial appearances and weird designs. They were still perfectly under his control. The problem most likely stemmed from the minions. Their cultivation, their 'share' in his dao foundation, their own quirks....
When he put those clues together with his newfound information from the crimson sun, Han Xuhan's nose smelled a scheme....an intricate, universe-spanning scheme.