The countless gazes fixed on the team of ten attackers hailing from the Abyss Guild were uncertain, unfriendly, but eager.
Everyone had been caught unprepared by how fast the first invasion of the day was.
"So, it seems that the defending team of the Crimson Snow sect has chosen a partially passive strategy," said the leader of the attackers, her voice raised high.
Turning to her subordinates, she ordered, "Team, spread out. Cover all six directions."
All SIX?!
Han Xuhan, as well as the hundred other disciples witnessing the spectacle, felt puzzled for a short few seconds...and then they understood what she had meant.
Out of the ten disciples of the Abyss Guild, six teams formed immediately upon receiving her order; four teams with 2 members, and two teams of lone warriors. The leader herself was one of the latter category. She distanced herself from the rest of her teammates.
The four teams spread out in perfect sync, each heading towards different sides of the sect.
Although the shape of the floating island they were on currently was not exactly a square with four sides, this seemed like an effective enough strategy to cover the most ground in the shortest time.
Among the two lone warriors, the leader knelt down for a second.
Under everyone's curious eyes, the qi in the air around her pulsed. She had cast a technique, it seemed.
As she stood up, they realized the technique was focused around her feet. They were the reason the qi in the surroundings was behaving oddly.
With a deep breath, the girl raised one foot in the air as if to step forward, but she placed it a few inches above the ground, on nothing but air.
Han Xuhan's pupils shrank as he focused on that exact area.
There was nothing there! What was she trying to do? Act cool?
But then, what followed was indeed...way too cool!
Her other feet rose from the ground and stepped firmly on nothing but empty air, inches above where the other feet rested.
It was as if she could see and use a staircase in front of her that none of them could. Step after step, her feet carried her up in the air.
One meter, two, four, six, nine, fifteen...
Soon, she was standing stably more than a couple hundred meters above her original landing spot, looking down at the numerous disciples staring at her with their mouths agape.
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From where she stood, she could effortlessly cast her sight on every corner of the floating island. Even the mountains would barely restrict her sight.
"Did she just walk on air? Literally?!" Xiao Wu muttered. "That's way too powerful a skill to be something a Physique Transformation realm cultivate should have..."
"Her aura doesn't appear to exceed the Physique Transformation realm," Yuen Zhou denied his suspicion in a calm tone. "She isn't even at the peak of our realm. Her cultivation technique is just something that focuses on that skill. What do you think she's using to achieve that result? I doubt it's anything too sophisticated. Physique Transformation realm cultivators cannot fly so stably without external assistance, and neither can they access powers to control gravity or conjure an invisible staircase that huge in size. It has to be something more realistic."
"Air pressure, maybe?" Han Xuhan suggested. He was more inclined to believe the gravity cancellation theory, but Yuen Zhou had voted against that. This was the only other option he could think of.
"Air pressure? How would that work? I mean, if the air below her feet is so fierce that it can keep her afloat, we would sense it, wouldn't we?" Xiao Wu asked.
Han Xuhan scratched his head for a few seconds and decided not to elaborate on Pascal's theory. He wasn't sure if his suggestion was possible anyway.
"What a shame!" Mu Ran faintly remarked.
"What's a shame?" Xuhan said, curious to know this guy's thoughts on the topic.
"It's a shame that she's wearing trousers. If she had worn a skirt...well, let's just say, nothing would've escaped my powerful vision. NOTHING!"
Neck still cranked upward, Mu Ran shook his at the girl in the sky dispiritedly.
"...."
"...."
"...."
One of the two-person teams was headed in their direction. As they got closer, Han Xuhan finally got to observe these foreign cultivators down to the tiniest details visible.
On average, the cultivators from Abyss Guild had a pale complexion, much paler than what one would find in the regions Han Xuhan hailed from. There was an odd gloss on their skin that didn't quite appear natural, and their physique seemed more toned. That was where the differences ended. Unlike Earth, the cultural, physical, and social attributes didn't vary so wildly on this planet for some reason...although it would've been fairly hilarious if it did.
Han Xuhan had to suppress a mighty chuckle as he pictured a Dao Ancestor Jason, Sect Master Jamal, and Prime Disciple Jogesh...
In the sea of stars where countless other civilizations resided, the possibility of that happening wasn't low. If he ever reached a realm powerful enough to venture into space, he'd definitely search for the clues, Han Xuhan decided.
"Make way, make way, stand aside for our investigation, please."
The gentle voice of one of the two teammates brought Xuhan back to the present.
All four teams had to push their way through the crowd of disciples surrounding the gigantic ship.
Unfortunately for Crimson Snow Sect, these attackers were very polite. They did not behave like uppity young masters with a passion towards death, nor did they get angry when some of the cunning disciples from the sect acted like one to incite them into a fight.
After all, the rules stated that if the attacking team overstepped their boundaries with anyone other than the ten defenders, the aggrieved disciple could fight back and help the defenders. This meant that as long as they could start a fight with the attackers, not a single member of this team would make it out of the crowd without getting lynched by the mob.
Of course, they also had to be careful not to outright begin a fight when they weren't a member of the defending team. That would spell expulsion of that offender from the tournament, resulting in heavy penalties for the sect as well. So the crowd was indirectly forced to give way to these four teams.
Han Xuhan and his peers watched with rapt attention as two attackers jogged past them slowly.
"Both of them seemed to be using a spell while moving," Yuen Zhou said.
"It doesn't give off the aura of a cultivation technique. The qi leakage is too small, and the pressure is too faint." Mu Ran added his observations.
Han Xuhan and Xiao Wu exchanged complex looks. Neither of them was skilled enough to figure out that much from a three-second observation.
"A stub-type technique." Yuen Zhou reached the appropriate conclusion fast.
"For what?" Xiao Wu asked.
"The target they're here for," Han Xuhan answered. "The treasure that the defenders were supposed to be protecting."
"If there was a stub-type technique we need to practice in order to search for the treasure, why have we not been informed of that?" Mu Ran raised a valid question.
"We're supposed to head out to attack soon. What point would there be in telling us about the technique before we leave? We can't just cultivate on our way to the foreign sects, can we?"
His displeasure was apparent. All of them were quite dissatisfied with the lackadaisical, whimsical attitude of sect master Xuan Zi, as well as the organizers of the tournament. Everything they did felt so disharmonious and incomprehensible that the situation was beginning to grate on their nerves.
"Maybe the technique is something they figured out themselves, or the treasure has some relation to their own cultivation techniques." Xiao Wu's suggestion seemed more logical.
"Wait, where's the last guy? Where did he go?" Han Xuhan exclaimed upon turning back toward the ship. The last of the ten attackers was nowhere to be seen.
"He ran behind the ship," answered one of the disciples from another mountain peak.
"Seems like he's gonna climb down and scour the area below our island. The treasure can be kept hidden anywhere, you never know."
"Ahhh, so that's why she said six directions! Front, back, right, left, up, and down!" Mu Ran finally saw the connection.