The familiar walls of his dao tower greeted Han Xuhan's eyes as Zhanxian's shout reverberated through his mind.

"We're back...? Is that how you managed to return from that planet? I don't get it," he mumbled in a confused tone.

"Yup! Didn't you see the instructions? It was clearly written in there that once I imprint the fusion glyph on myself, the teleportation array would respond to my qi!" Zhanxian explained.

"Fusion glyph?! Teleportation array?! Zhanxian, what the fuck are you even talking about? Why didn't I see anything like that?" Han Xuhan's confounded voice gave the minions a pause.

"...You're telling me, that you didn't experience the boon of the glyph?" Zhanxian said slowly.

"Didn't you see me concentrating on my portrait? That's when the glyph activated!"

"Are you talking about the hallucinations you went through when you looked at the drawing inside the circular chart? All I could see there were some patterns and pictures that didn't make any sense."

Zhanxian and Tun Shi Tian exchanged a puzzled look.

"But we saw some simple illustrations, with a voice explaining the whole thing to us. How else would we know what to do in order to leave that terrible world?"

"Yeah, although the illustrations seem hard to explain because of the foreign symbols and language used, the guy explaining it taught us thoroughly. Even master Kong Ye isn't that good at teaching!" Tun Shi Tian added after Zhanxian.

Han Xuhan's thoughts spiraled into a series of doubtful assumptions. After a moment of blindly groping for clues...he found one.

The message written for him in English inside the dao tower talked about some sort of a fusion...and Zhanxian too, had just spoken of a fusion glyph.

Could these two be related? Quite possibly!

"What's a glyph?" Han Xuhan asked calmly.

"...No idea," Zhanxian shrugged. "But the voice said he was using the glyphs to inject us with information in an easy, comprehensible way. And the fusion glyph was just the one we had to imprint on ourselves if we want to survive in the future when your meridians get destroyed."

"And you did it? You...imprinted this fusion glyph thing on yourselves?" Han Xuhan asked. "How? When?"

"By memorizing it, of course!" Tun Shi Tian answered proudly.

"Why do you think we spent such a long time staring at the glyphs? Even when that disembodied voice was lecturing us, it kept pressuring us to memorize the glyph! Honestly, it was actually way easier than we thought it would be. It almost felt like....like I'd learned something similar before."

All three of them fell silent, contemplating the implications of Tun Shi Tian's theory. It was a plausible situation, Han Xuhan could see it.

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The souls of his minions hailed from this planet to begin with. It would hardly be unnatural if they happened to be familiar with the language, culture, cultivation techniques and secrets of that burning world.

"What does this fusion glyph do?" Han Xuhan asked in the end, deciding this wasn't the best time to pursue such long-winded mysteries.

It was better to focus on the present circumstances. Since his minions had returned safe and sound, carrying this glyph imprint on themselves, that should be his main query right now.

If what they claimed was true...

"Actually, it's really simple, what this glyph does. Just like its name suggests, it enables you to fuse with anyone who shares the same imprint. You can think of it as a separate, secondary cultivation technique that has been integrated into your cultivation technique, master. Instead of 10 layers, this new integrated cultivation method will provide you with 20!"

"....Fuck."

"That came out sounding like a negative development. I get your reaction, master," Zhanxian hurried to explain.

"In these 20 layers, you only need to cultivate the original route by yourself. Each time you construct a new skeleton body to summon the souls from that planet, you'll reach a new layer of the Physique transformation realm, as usual.

Simultaneously, one of the empty outer circle segments we saw in that glyph construct at the center of the cavern will automatically be filled with the information and image of the minion which you've summoned.

Subsequently, the fusion glyph for that new minion will be created inside its corresponding inner circle segment.

Ten layers, ten minions, ten imprints. All you have to do in order to use these fusion glyphs is to memorize them, each of which will leave a unique imprint on your mind, as well as our dao tower. Climbing the ten extra layers is as simple as that!"

Han Xuhan listened, feeling more and more dumbfounded with each passing second. After a long stretch of silence, he asked the most obvious question.

"Exactly why would I want to 'fuse' with you lot? What does that even mean?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Tun Shi Tian laughed. "Remember the monstrous skeleton that took shape around Zhanxian when he filled his inner circle segment with qi? You saw it, right? The one with dual sets of bones all over its body! If you fuse with Zhanxian, that will be the result!"

Have you two gone insane?!" Despite having suspected it, Xuhan couldn't help being shaken at the notion.

"Not at all! You will NEED to fuse with us if you want to continue cultivating, master. You're not an idiot. How come you can't see something so obvious?" Zhanxian replied, sounding annoyed.

Imagination running wild, Han Xuhan spoke cautiously as he entertained the concept.

"From your words, it seems that this fusion you speak of is not only a mere metaphor..."

"Indeed, it's very much a literal fusion. We shall be fused together physically, spiritually, and mentally. Our powers, our cultivation, everything shall aggregate together!" Zhanxian's excitement was infectious.

"If we fuse together physically, then your artificial qi channels can replace the job of my meridians!" Han Xuhan suddenly came to the realization and exclaimed out loud.

Heavens!

That one decision he had made impulsively the day he had purchased his first-ever cultivation technique...was it about to turn his life around completely?! If this worked, then all the troubles he had gone through to let his minions become cultivators would be absolutely worth it!

The thought of the possibility was like a magical seed in his brain, suddenly taking root and germinating at lightspeed.

But he controlled his roiling emotions. Caution was still required, especially now.

"That voice which taught you all of this sure seems awfully helpful. Could this unknown entity have an agenda in mind...?" he wondered loudly enough for his minions to hear.

Zhanxian nodded immediately. "Absolutely, master. I thought of this possibility too after returning here. Whoever it was, he can clearly influence our dao tower heavily. So, my theory is that, this benefactor helped us because he didn't want the tower to be damaged. I've already told you that he addressed that planet as his prison.

But he can clearly come out of there and beat us up here in the tower, which should not be accessible to any outsiders, let alone a prisoner stuck in a damned ruin. Doesn't that mean that he has escaped through the connection our dao tower has with his world? And he also hasn't done anything adverse to our interests and safety so far, which signifies that either he holds goodwill towards us, or..."

"That he is unable to harm us, for now," Han Xuhan finished the sentence before Zhanxian.

"Either way," Tun Shi Tian chirped in, "he's stuck with us in this tower. So if this tower is damaged...boom, he'll be in the same danger as the rest of us."

"And this is why, I believe, that he guided us to the way to preserve your cultivation, protect our existences, and fortify the foundation of this tower. The fusion glyphs, if cultivated successfully alongside the Skeletal Monarch Manual, can achieve all three of those targets." Zhanxian drew the conclusion to his theory with a bow.

"Excellent, Zhanxian, excellent. I never noticed that you were this sharp!" Han Xuhan applauded with an approving nod.

"Unfortunately, you've overlooked one obvious problem."

Zhanxian and Tun Shi Tian snapped to attention.

"What?"

"Where?!"

"If this was the entirety of his motives...then why did he not just tell us directly? Why did he force the two of you to go inside his prison and discover the clues piece by piece? If he could lecture you and guide you there, why can he not do the same here? He is still here, after all. Am I correct, senior?"

Han Xuhan looked up and around his dao tower impassionately, waiting for a response.