Han Xuhan woke up to a stinging sensation crawling all over his face.
Had someone slapped him awake?
Probably.
The sky looked a bit off, he realized upon opening the crack of his eyes by a mere millimeter. The bright blue expanse was covered with a greyish drape, almost see-through in terms of material, but still prominent enough to exude a constant, heavy presence on those below its shadow, blocking them from seeing anything overhead clearly.
Staring at the airborne drape for a long, long time, Han Xuhan gingerly sat up, feeling his spirit protesting against any kind of movement at all.
He had no idea how the principle behind the Astral Heatwave spell worked, but it wasn't so powerful in his memory.
Now it made sense how Mu Ran was able to casually catch spirited beasts from the sea when there weren't many options to take to catch ordinary fish. His skillfulness in executing this technique had skyrocketed over the last couple of months!
Looking around, he realized that he must have been the last one to recover from the spiritual attack. All around him, people were awake, though not having fully recovered.
Shang Kexi was the one who had slapped him out of his unconsciousness, it seemed. Shen Mi looked too pale and weak to have done any such thing, sitting a bit further away with a grotesque expression on her face. The other two girls were still lying on their backs, appearing groggy.
"Get up, we need to end the fight." Shang Kexi tugged the rope around Xuhan's wrists, helping him stand on his feet.
Shen Mi jumped up unsteadily and rushed into the fray with the two of them tagging behind.
Mu Ran's AOE spell had affected all ten defenders, causing a great disturbance in their Astral Bodies, thus rendering them temporarily incapable of using techniques that relied on their spiritual capacity. The Celestial Gateway spell, for this reason, was not something they could use to their advantage now.
But that hardly meant the defense team had been declawed. Each member of the team had a cultivation base at the late stages of the Physique Transformation realm. They had their own cultivation techniques, be it their primary pursuit or secondary skill. And right now, they were resorting to those techniques with full force.
Shen Mi, Shang Kexi, and their 'prisoner' Han Xuhan had to stop moving forward once they reached close enough to be affected by the techniques being cast one after one in the combat.
Han Xuhan couldn't even see the fights clearly. He could only observe someone when they stopped for breath or posed for a heavy physical attack. It turned out to be a fight of three against seven. Perhaps the three other stargazers of the defense team weren't that good at fighting, or perhaps they had been affected too severely by Mu Ran's spell, because none from that trio joined the violent tempest, opting to stand at a distance and observe instead.
No spells were being cast here. Every conflict was a short, impactful brawl that lasted less than ten seconds before the combatants separated to recover their strength. Each dozen-second-long conflict consisted of at least a hundred attempts at injuring the opponent.
Mu Ran and Yuen Zhou were taking on three opponents each with ease, attacking left, right, and behind them with mechanical precision. How they had gotten so good at fighting was a mystery. And they were so good at it that the Stardust Sect's defense team was beginning to cave in from the pressure despite their advantage in numbers.
Xiao Wu had been left to deal with the seventh opponent. But his low cultivation base was dragging him down slowly. Despite his naturally gifted physical prowess, he was losing the fight against the passionate saber user. Xiao Wu preferred to use a traditional heavy sword in combat. Already a slow weapon by its merit, the sword quivered more and more in his hand until with one sudden cut of the saber tearing into his palms made him drop the sword.
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Saber laid across his neck, Xiao Wu surrendered.
"You two better stop resisting if you don't want me to-"
The saber user didn't get to finish his sentence when a random flying dagger suddenly appeared in front of them, about to stab into Xiao Wu's chest!
Shocked, the young man moved his saber to knock the dagger away. And Xiao Wu seemed to have been waiting for this exact thing to happen. He leaped away from the young man and ran out of the fray. Mu Ran and Yuen Zhou adjusted their positions immediately to block the young man from giving chase.
Now it was a two-to-seven fight, and yet still, both of them continued the combat without a care in the world.
Due to Han Xuhan's stolen garments, none of them realized that the fourth member of the invasion team was standing right there, tens of meters away from their combat zone.
Shang Kexi took out a tiny packet from inside his robe and whispered, "Seems like your teammates aren't willing to back down easily. Cooperate with me here for a bit. Act like I've poisoned you and this packet has the antidote. Unless your team surrenders, you'll suffer severe harm within minutes."
Han Xuhan shrugged and complied with a terrified look on his face as Shen Mi shouted to the combatants.
"I've caught your other teammate here. If you do not surrender, prepare to carry a living corpse back to your sect."
All nine combatants paused, turning to look at them. Mu Ran and Yuen Zhou both groaned simultaneously upon recognizing Han Xuhan.
Han Xuhan tried his best to look helpless, wearing a stiff, embarrassed smile.
Yuen Zhou's gaze bore into his own, as if trying to sense the degree of truthfulness behind their threat.
"Brother Xuhan, are you okay?" She said unhurriedly, her daggers still raised and ready to slash out.
"Underling, what were you thinking, separating from our team like that?" Mu Ran sighed despondently.
"This island isn't stationary like ours. I couldn't find you three and got caught on my way out." Han Xuhan didn't want to prolong the conversation. He sent a very subtle shake of his head towards Yuen Zhou, pupils moving left and right to signal a less-than-ideal situation. She was perceptive enough to get the hint, thankfully.
Mu Ran, however, didn't lower his sword. He looked offended when Yuen Zhou stowed her daggers back into her sleeves in a gesture of surrender.
"Underling, would you mind if I...uh, took a small risk and tried to kill that guy standing behind you? He's the one who has taken you hostage, right?"
Shang Kexi looked dumbfounded.
"...I would definitely mind, boss. That's not a small risk, and killing this guy isn't really going to solve anything either. I've been poisoned. They've agreed to hand me the antidote as long as our team surrenders and calls this attack a failure."
Mu Ran stomped hard on the ground and sheathed his sword.
"Alright, alright. I, the leader of the Crimson Snow Sect's Invasion Team, officially annou-"
"Now wait a damn second!" A new voice interrupted the negotiations just before their plan could succeed.
All of them turned to look at the speaker, who turned out to be one of the defenders. Han Xuhan recognized him at a glance. This guy was named Feng Taishang, the one to defeat Miss Xueshi in the first contest he had witnessed here in the Stardust Sect. His incredible ability with the handleless blade that could supposedly break space to strike an opponent had left a deep impression on Xuhan.
Feng Taishang had been watching the sudden turn of events from the sidelines until now. Seeing the sweetness of victory arriving so easily should have relieved him. But his countenance told another story.
"We can't just end this battle because you've chosen to surrender! You've caused us to suffer some irrecoverable damages. Two of my fellow brothers have had their prized artifacts broken during the fight. The entire body of disciples on this island has suffered spiritual injuries. And right after breaking the rules of battle by attacking everyone indiscriminately, you want to take advantage of the rules to make a clean getaway? I don't think so!"
His seething rant, combined with the image of his raised blade gleaming under the filtered sunlight roused each and every disciple who could see and hear him.
From all four directions, a cacophony of furious voices, twirling, clanking steel, and searing radiance of spells being prepared assaulted their perception at once. Technically, Mu Ran was now an opponent who could legally be attacked by every disciple who had been assaulted by the Astral Heatwave spell. They were more than ready to teach him a lesson.
Han Xuhan felt rather overwhelmed by the sheer deadly intent surrounding them. And that boosted the speed of his thoughts immediately. Despite being of the opinion that Mu Ran deserved a proper beating in the hands of the furious mob, he couldn't let that happen.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" he shouted at the top of his voice, attracting everyone's attention.
"Is that jealously I sense there, brother? No wonder y'all were fighting between yourselves when we landed on your island. Clearly, these guys caught me and they are about to get the credit for diffusing an invasion that your team would very obviously lose otherwise. So you're trying to create an unrest and subvert the situation for your personal gains? Heavens!"
The ridicule in his tone wasn't hard to insert. He was pretty sure that this was indeed a part of Feng Taishang's motive. Shen Mi, a member of the Phoenix Faction, was about to be credited for not only saving their sect from a defeat, but also be clearing the smear Leng Qing had thrown on their faction via his prediction of betrayal.
Feng Taishang was smart enough to figure it out in a mere half-minute! So cunning!
Han Xuhan couldn't help but be impressed at how quickly he had reacted.
Feng Taishang's expression darkened further upon being called out like that. He pointed his blade at Xuhan.
"You seem to be trying hard to imply that I would betray my sect for personal benefits. Yet you are an outsider who also happens to be the source of the trouble. Whatever comes out of your mouth, it is painfully apparent that you're trying to sow discord here. Which fool would listen to you?"
"If I was trying to sow discord in your sect, I wouldn't have agreed to help you rescue those brothers and sisters of yours who are till today trapped inside a world fragment detached from our plane."
Han Xuhan dropped the bomb so casually that for a moment, not even Shen Mi knew how to react. Feng Taishang, who had never expected such a development, stared wide-eyed, slack-jawed as she recovered her bearings and shouted in support of his revelation.
"That's right! The Phoenix Faction hereby declares its partnership with the invasion team of Crimson Snow sect! The objective of this partnership is to recuse our friends and family! We will do everything in our power to help them return!"
The blade dropped from Feng Taishang's loose grip.
The fury of the crowd was thus rendered immobile. Han Xuhan noted with satisfaction that most of them looked delighted, excited even that their friends could still be alive and make a grand return.