"Looks like it wasn't a coincidence that the first Tupshu appeared so close to us when all four of you returned to the island. It was probably sent to the surface to send mental attacks to probe your strength. When it realized that all four of you were immediately hypnotized from the most basic mental pollution, it signaled for the rest of its brethren to attack directly," the demon remarked calmly.

"We're screwed, aren't we?" Zhanxian muttered. Han Xuhan looked down at Tun Shi Tian and found him restraining a panicking Hai Yin Zhe. All four of them did their best not to look at the direction of the orbs, no matter how strong their curiosity grew.

The sands on the shore began to shudder. Around the shoreline, the shimmering mass of light began to churn angrily, huge purplish bubbles rising to the surface of the ocean to signal at monstrous movements beneath the island. A low, deep hum spread through the surroundings.

Dhup! Dhup! Dhup!

It was as if the island was being battered with boulders from the bottom of the ocean. Han Xuhan didn't know what exactly was happening, but if the island really was being attacked by a horde of these alien terrors...

"Is there anything we can do at this point?" he said to the demon anxiously.

The demon's smile returned.

"You know the price, Xuhan."

Lightning-quick calculations ran through his mind as he assessed the risks associated with making this deal with the mental demon. Agreeing right away was out of the question!

"I have a condition, then. If you want to take my body over, you'll have to give me a warning and a choice. You'll get the control only if I deem it permissible at that moment."

Boom! Boom! Boom! The sounds and sensation of being thrashed got more powerful by the time he proposed his counteroffer.

"Nah-uh!" The demon shook his head. "At most, I can give you three choices. If you deny me three times in a row, I'll hold the authority to take over instantly."

"Yeah, nice try, buddy. Doesn't that mean you could just make the same request four times in a row and win?"

"Ah shit, you got me! Fine, I'll make it easy for you. I'll never make the same requests twice," the demon said with an unabashed grin.

Han Xuhan felt that the demon had agreed a bit too quickly, so he chose to push the deal to test his reaction.

"And also, I get to warn my sect master before you fully take over, that's my second condition."

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"Absolutely not!" the demon shouted, looking indignant.

"Seems like you'd take my body to do some pretty shady things. How can I guarantee my own safety when that happens? You know I don't trust you, buddy."

Boom! A particularly powerful tremor hit every inch of the island. On the shore, sand began to roll off toward the seawater from the incessant vibrations.

Casting a sour look at the ground, the demon suddenly shot forward. In the span of a second, he crossed the shoreline and waded into the sea of light! The moment his feet landed on the surface of the sea, the demon's entire body disappeared from their sight.

"...Okay, that was unexpected," Zhanxian remarked.

"Did he escape?" Tun Shi Tian said, unsure.

"Probably not. Where's he gonna escape to? He definitely has some unfinished business in our macrocosm for which he needs my body," Xuhan answered, trying to placate them and himself as well. "I don't believe he was forced to enter my dao tower just to keep my mouth shut about the whole disciple-hunting scheme of Fang Xie. There has to be more to the matter that we don't know yet. Let's just wait and see if he can preserve the safety of the island. If he can, then he'll ask my permission to control my body, and that's when we'll get to learn exactly what he's planning."

"Are we going to stand here for those orbs to reach us directly from the shoreline?" Zhanxian complained, not at all concerned about the schemes being thrown around.

"If these orbs are parts of their body, these creatures have to be massive! One rogue Tupshu can just swallow all four of us in one gulp. Why don't we go deeper into the island and hide inside our towers?"

"Zhanxian, how are you going to survive this place if you hide inside every time a new enemy shows up on the horizon?" Tun Shi Tian retorted. "I'm no more powerful than you are. Do you see me retreating?"

Hai Yin Zhe hissed something from within Zhanxian's grip. The little snake had gotten rather spooked by the turn of events here. The unfamiliar surroundings, the heavy atmosphere, and the repeated mental attack of the Tupshu had turned the lively child fearful.

"Hang on, Tun Shi Tian, since you have the guts for it, let's do a small experiment," Han Xuhan said, an idea forming in his mind suddenly.

"Look at the horizon when I tell you and count the number of orbs as fast as you can. Zhanxian, you keep a tight hold on his wings so that he doesn't fly away after being hypnotized."

Getting the idea, Tun Shi Tian nodded after a moment of hesitation. He couldn't stand to appear weak in front of Zhanxian, especially right after taunting the other guy for his cowardice!

"On my count; three, two, one...look!"

Ready to shout at the bird's ears, Han Xuhan watched Tun Shi Tian's head turn toward the ocean.

"One, two, three, four..." he started counting the orbs. But after the number ten, his voice began to slur like a drunkard's.

"Twelve...four-fourteen... seventee..."

His wings began to twitch, struggling to get loose from Zhanxian's grip. After reaching twenty, he fell completely silent and began to struggle with all of his might to fly forward.

"Tun Shi Tian!" Han Xuhan roared behind his neck at the top of his voice. But even that didn't seem to work as effectively as before. Perhaps due to the proximity of the orbs, their ability to exert mental influence over an observer had grown!

"Slap him," Han Xuhan ordered Zhanxian.

It took more than a dozen powerful smacks to finally make the bird snap out of the hypnosis. Even then, Tun Shi Tian seemed quite unsteady in his speech.

"I...I counted twenty-two," he reported weakly.

"And..and the orbs aren't the only things visible there. Each orb is attached to some sort of rocky, moving pillar. The pillars are interconnected. They can even move through each other! It's like they're just smokes and shadows! And somebody was screaming something in an unfamiliar language. Every time they screamed, I felt like I was getting closer to figuring out what they were saying..."

Noticing his wings being unfurled, Zhanxian smacked him again. But Tun Shi Tian's rant didn't end. He kept muttering to himself, switching from normal words to unintelligible sounds.

"Did his mind get broken permanently?" Zhanxian's voice was tinged with terror, now far more pronounced than before. Even Han Xuhan felt his thoughts growing frantic at the rapidly deteriorating situation.

"Hang on, I have an idea," he said, and immediately disappeared from the spiritual world. The last thing he heard was Zhanxian cursing him profusely.

Breaking out of his meditation, Han Xuhan found his martial siblings sitting in front of him, their faces eager.

"What did you learn?" Yuen Zhou asked. "Has the theory been confirmed?"

Instead of answering her, Han Xuhan closed his eyes again and ran the remaining qi inside his meridians at the fastest possible speed to form a small cycle.

Tun Shi Tian's bony body materialized behind him a few seconds later. Falling straight to the ground, the bird began to take deep breaths.

"...." Several times, he opened his beak to speak, but failed. Almost a minute passed by before he finally managed to croak a word out.

"You almost got me killed, asshole! You owe me for that!"

Relieved to see the minion back to his true self, Han Xuhan went back to meditation, sinking into the depths of his spiritual world once again.