In the end, corrupted democracy always wins, and as the beneficiaries, the majority declares this a golden victory for the righteous cause, for the greater good. And Han Xuhan was no exception.
Cherering alongside his fellow disciples, he celebrated Luo Yi's admission of guilt and promise of immediate compensation.
"Meatball, go deliver this to Big Jiang." She wrote a memo and stuck it inside a gap between Meatball's incisor teeth.
The pet shook its rotund body, as if warming up, and then suddenly inflated like a balloon. It's body grew at least 50 percent larger.
And then, again!
And again!
Thirty seconds later, the dumbstruck disciples were looking apprehensively at a monster bigger than their houses, with a radius of more than 15 feet!
The transparent body of the monster, which displayed the sigils of all the sects taking part in the tournament, turned opaque, slowly returning to its former appearance.
Just when it seemed like the monster would burst like an over inflated balloon, it farted.
POOOOOOOOOOO!
The sound produced by the fart could be used as a warhorn. First came the auditory impact, but then the olfactory devastation followed.
"AAHAGHGHGH!"
"AWWK! AWWWWWKKKHH!"
"I'm dying! Help! Give me a piece of cloth!"
A brother even tore away his girlfriend's scarf to cover his nostrils.
A desperate youth took off his robe and handed it to a pretty lass near him with the strained smile of a hero. The girl hurriedly took it, flashed him a charming, grateful smile, and then turned around and rolled her eyes.
Luo Yi had taken out a small fan at some point. Using it, she warded off the smell, and then seemed to deliberately guide the air towards the young man who had started the movement against her unjust acts. Being close to her, the young man seemed to be affected the most. He was already on all fours, coughing and hiccupping.
Han Xuhan had the opportunity to observe such fine details because he was a bit far away, and more than a dozen feet above the ground. He had taken out a pinch of mind-calming balm and applied it on the opening of his nostrils the moment he realized what was happening. The strong stink could not affect him due to the heavy scent of the balm.
However, his attention was diverted fast by a more ridiculous spectacle. Meatball's voluminous body was rising in the air, inch by inch, powered by the outflow of gas, it seemed.
Just when he felt like this could not get any more ridiculous than this, the sound of the continuous fart doubled.
Two farts at once!
The speed of meatball's upward levitation increased.
Then the sound tripled!
Quadruple!
Quintuple!
Sextuple!
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"Heavens above! How many assholes does this beast have! Why?!" Someone cried.
The crowd was scattering. Luo Yi was smiling. Meatball was flying. The stink was strengthening.
WHOOOOSHH!
A heavy burst of wind came from behind, making the stinky air flow away from the retreating disciples.
Sect master Xuan Zi was the source of the wind, coming to the rescue heroically. In his hand, he held up a fan the size of a door. Waving it lazily, he trotted up to Luo Yi and watched Meatball disappear into a spatial crack far above.
"Good morning, and welcome back, fellow cultivator Yi! I see that you have left a wonderful impression on my disciples already. I could not have given them a better understanding of your character myself!"
Damn!
Han Xuhan almost felt the air burn. Sect master was too cool!
Turned out, Luo Yi did not have the balls to begin a feud with Xuan Zi.
With the pleasantries exchanged, sect master Xuan Zi invited Luo Yi to his house for a meal. Luo Yi happily agreed and left a message for the disciples who had barely recovered from their shocked stupor.
"I assume each of your mountain peaks has a leading disciple with some qualifications. Inform all of them to come visit me within the next hour. My tent will need to be assembled somewhere safe. Master Zi's mountain looks nice. I'll begin my job as your counselor once the tent is ready."
Then she left with Xuan Zi. The entire time, the white brilliance spreading out from her Celestial Body didn't decrease in the slightest. Han Xuhan's Ghostsight was almost blinded temporarily from staring at her for too long.
Now that he thought about it, back when Luo Yi had thrown him into a spatial crack, the first sect he had landed on was the Sunrider Sect.
At that time, he hadn't thought anything of it. But now, if he took in the possibility that Luo Yi herself was a Ghost Cultivator, then the situation became anything but a random occurrence.
Interesting. Very interesting.
Pushing those thoughts aside for later, Han Xuhan found himself in another dilemma. Who was supposed to be the leader of the Heavenly Hailstorm mountain peak?
He was the weakest of the four. It would not look good for their peak if he proclaimed himself as the leader and went to visit the woman. Besides, he didn't feel very safe around her. If possible, he did not want to interact with her at all.
Ruling him out, among the three of his martial siblings, Mu Ran was considered to be the strongest. But he was not exactly leader material. Allowing him to handle the tasks of this position would be a foolish choice.
Yuen Zhou would probably not be interested. She did not even interact with the disciples of other mountain peaks and avoided responsibilities actively whenever possible.
Xiao Wu...was sensible, but too honest and easy to take advantage of. But he was their best choice if they wanted no scandalous incidents.
Han Xuhan turned around and ran back to Xiao Wu's hut and informed him of the order. He did not specifically mention the issue of choosing the leader of their mountain peak, fearing that Xiao Wu might protest.
"Your serial is at the bottom for master's lecture. So only you can attend the meeting without any inconvenience, martial brother. Bye, I gotta go!"
Han Xuhan did not give him a chance to protest.
Kong Ye's house was not too far away. A few minutes later, Han Xuhan crossed the gate and caught the familiar voice coming from inside the house.
The largest room of Kong Ye's house, probably made specifically for such events, was occupied by Mu Ran, Yuen Zhou and Hai Yin Zhe, with Kong Ye sauntering around the three disciples, continuously instructing them. The qi in the air was exceptionally concentrated and pure.
Was this Kong Ye's personal cultivation chamber?!
Noticing him, Kong Ye made a gesture, signaling at him to wait a while.
Mu Ran, Yuen Zhou, and Hai Yin Zhe were sitting on the floor obediently, absorbed deeply in their cultivation session.
"Disciple Zhou, your origin point has inflated by 6 percent from its initial size. Regulate the flow of qi and reduce the size of the origin point, slow down the flow inside your meridians to lessen the qi pressure."
"Disciple Ran, your origin point has moved upwards. It needs to be just at the area where your tailbone curves inwards. Move the point down by half an inch."
"Little Zhe, stop playing with the qi in that curved groove and focus on the qi in the rest of your 'meridians'. Your qi reserve is going down every second due to the lapse in your concentration. No, stop, STOP!"
Kong Ye had to rush over and personally guide the lively little snake.
"Here, this is where you'll gather the qi. Once you've repeated the cycle enough times, there will be a permanent lump here. If you can do that faster than your aunt Zhou, I'll let you eat that big trophy you wanted!"
Hai Yin Zhe immediately put her heart and soul into following the instructions. What was that big trophy, though? Han Xuhan felt both embarrassed and grateful over how patient and sincere Kong Ye's tutelage of Hai Yin Zhe appeared to be.
More than ten minutes later, Kong Ye decided that his three students could stably reenact the qi cycles without screwing up royally. Ordering them to repeat their cycles twenty times at a stretch, he finally focused on Han Xuhan.
"Sit a bit further away from them." he gestured. Han Xuhan moved to follow.
"Your form will be somewhat different from the rest. Have you gone through the manual I gave you?"
"The whole manual? Er... it's too large to go through so fast, not to mention, so complex. I've reviewed the basics of the technique and the general outline. I tried to understand the texts thoroughly, but after the introductory sentences, every theory that follows is too chaotic and complicated to follow. This disciple can only await your guidance."
Han Xuhan had done his best to comprehend the manual and regurgitate his understanding to his minions. But that was the painful result of his endeavors.
Thankfully, his response did not elicit any anger from Kong Ye. Rather, Kong Ye actually seemed to have expected it.
"Fine, fine. It's not actually that tough. Bring out the manual and start from scratch. Which parts did you have trouble understanding?"
Master and disciple entered a passionate debate as the pages of the manual was turned one by one. More than an hour later, Xiao Wu appeared outside the room. But Kong Ye told him to wait and listen to their debate, as the discussion of the theories would strengthen Xiao Wu's theoretical knowledge, both of their astral forms being the derivatives of the same compound technique.
Occasionally, Kong Ye would leap away to correct mistakes made by Mu Ran, Yuen Zhou, and most frequently, Hai Yin Zhe. How this man was able to keep an eye on so many things at the same time was beyond Han Xuhan.
Finally, after more than two hours of endless questions, answers and arguments, Kong Ye declared the words Han Xuhan longed to hear.
"Disciple Xuhan, your comprehension has reached the appropriate stage to be applied in cultivation. I know you've not been able to cultivate for a very long time now in fear of damaging your foundation and meridians. This technique will at least solve the issue with your loosening control of your dao tower. So begin drawing qi into your meridians! Steel your heart! Steady your mind! Step into the world of astral cultivation!"
Han Xuhan took a deep breath and initiated the familiar set of actions after nearly an entire week of abstinence.