Han Xuhan put on the armor parts he had purchased from his fellow disciples. It was an odd sensation, having them sticking seamlessly to his skin. His skin could not feel their slim presence, but he could see and touch them if he wanted. No odd behavior from them had been detected so far, which meant that he could equip them during combat.
He took his time to feed each part with his entire qi reserve while refilling his meridians with the help of expensive gadgets meant for assisting children in their cultivation sessions.
Then he pocketed some materials he hoped to use today. From cheap spiritual treasures to rare herbs to exploding knives, the variety of objects jingling in his robes could overwhelm any ordinary man. But his enhanced body, combined with the fact that the robe was specially made for such occasions, made it easy for him to wander around unimpeded.
His preparation done, Xuhan walked out of the hut with a confident gait. By this time of the morning, the island was virtually empty except for the elders and the team of defenders. Every disciple had leaped down into the spatial fissures beneath the island to go invade other sects. Han Xuhan's trek to the edge of the island behind the Heavenly Hailstorm peak was uneventful.
"Tun Shi Tian," he called faintly.
The summoned owl knew what was coming. It flapped its bony wings and swooped past the edge of the island, heading towards the sea.
It took several attempts to find the fissure that would lead to the Stardust Sect. After pinning down its exact location in the air, Han Xuhan jumped down without fear or hesitation. The three-hundred-meter of fall didn't even raise his heartbeat too high. He was slowly getting used to the excitement of a cultivator's deadly adventures.
The void between the two mouths of the fissure greeted his senses as usual. But for some reason today, the wait to reach the other side seemed exceptionally long.
The sensation of being dropped inside a bowl of slippery noodles continued to assault his mind. His limbs felt stretchy. A dull throb began to beat inside his head with each passing moment.
Suddenly, he felt a shockwave go through his head, as if someone had smashed a blunt object on the back of his skull. A moment later, his body appeared on the other side of the fissure, dozens of meters above the island of the Stardust Sect. The pain he expected to accrue from the heavy hit didn't, however, appear. As he fell to the ground slowly, only a dull throb of pain remained.
What the hell was that?
Upon regaining his balance, Han Xuhan quickly checked the back of his head. But nothing there indicated any semblance of being hit.
Could it be a spiritual attack? The headache was indeed one of the indicators of such a possibility.
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What could there be hiding inside that void that could send out spiritual attacks?
Han Xuhan recalled his last theory about the nature of the void zone. He had hypothesized that due to the spatial distortions caused by gravity affecting the space-time continuum, there may be a time dilation inside the void zone. It would explain many of the phenomena related to the void zone.
Speaking of the phenomena, the armor parts he was wearing right now were from the void too. This strange incident couldn't be related to them, right?
Panicking, Xuhan examined the armor parts all over his body again. But nothing seemed out of sorts with them either.
Puzzled, he massaged his temples and made his way towards the barracks. Tun Shi Tian, having previously delivered messages for both him and Shen Mi, knew where she lived. Following the owl's lead, he reached her cabin easily.
Just like the disciples of the Crimson Snow sect, nobody in the Stardust Sect was willing to sit around cultivating. Almost every cabin was empty, their occupants having left for adventures in foreign sects. Unlike yesterday, they knew they couldn't just rely on tricks to fend off invasion attempts. Just Mu Ran and Yuen Zhou alone had nearly defeated their entire defense team.
Shen Mi's cabin was one of the few exceptions. In the front yard of her cabin, over a dozen disciples were sitting with impatient expressions. The moment their eyes fell on Xuhan, all of them jumped to their feet.
Han Xuhan surveyed the team. All of them belonged to the Phoenix faction, judging by the bandanas over their foreheads. And judging by their aura, he could sense that most of them were at the later layers of the Physique Transformation realm.
Perfect.
Shen Mi walked out of the yard, standing face to face with him, her eyes cautious.
"You still have some explaining to do. You've received my message. Which fellow disciple of yours are you planning to subdue with our help?"
Han Xuhan took a deep breath. Here it begins...
"Not my fellow disciple, actually," he replied with a mysterious smile. "I'm planning to confront one of YOUR fellow disciples, who I believe is not quite what he seems in your eyes."
Shen Mi's pupils shrank. An invisible tension spread across the disciples standing behind her. They weren't certain whether to trust a stranger's words enough to attack one of their own peers. Heck, in their shoes, Xuhan wouldn't either. But that was where the brilliance of his plan lay.
The Phoenix Faction was now at the edge of a violent collapse. Their most talented martial siblings, alongside the prodigal leader Feng Jun's fate were dependent on Han Xuhan's mere whims. The reason why he hadn't used that card as an excuse to blackmail the Phoenix Faction was because turning it into a contractual exchange would make him obliged to perform his part in the deal.
He had told them he was helping Feng Jun and his followers out of goodwill. He had proved it with his actions, too. Feng Jun had exchanged some information with his current faction members through Han Xuhan, ascertaining his words.
Who could force him now to act other than the way he intended to act? He owed nobody here.
Now, in the last message he had sent to Shen Mi, he had told her of an enemy she had to watch out for. Then he had asked her for enough manpower to take down someone at the peak of the Physique Transformation Realm.
Shen Mi must have had her suspicions. But she hadn't probably expected him to be so direct about it.
"One of MY fellow disciples?! You're trying to say that this enemy you spoke of in your message belongs to the Stardust Sect?"
In all honesty, Han Xuhan felt that Shen Mi was a bit too naive to be running a faction. It made sense that as an interim leader, she hadn't been able to lead the Phoenix Faction out of their predicament.
"Yes. You'll surely recognize him by his name alone!" he answered, drawing out their anticipation and disbelief.
"His name is Leng Qing. He was the stargazer who defeated you in the competition yesterday with a prediction that reached the orange floor of the Mouth of Destiny. Do you remember?"
A collective series of gasps and whispers took birth the moment he named his target. Shen Mi was taken aback as well, but she replied fast.
"Just because he defeated me in stargazing doesn't mean he harbors ill will towards us. Since you seem to have witnessed the competition, you'd know very well that he didn't even want to evaluate his prediction in front of us initially. We were the ones who forced him. Do you have any other reasoning behind such an accusation?"
Han Xuhan nodded. The mysterious smile was still plastered on his face, and that confidence was clashing with her belief in her peer.
"Of course. Whether he wanted to submit his prediction or not is just a matter of appearance. In substance, he did submit it. And in consequence, you were defeated. But that's really not enough to incriminate him. What incriminated him was the very prediction be submitted!"