Blindly guessing at the unwritten, secretive rules of the tournament was of no use. The conversation couldn't really make any substantial progress that way, and so Xiao Wu eventually switched the topic.
"Also Xuhan, you need to visit the defense team. Sect Master apparently visited them after leaving our mountain and assigned one of the members of that team to one of the invasion teams. They're not very pleased about it, from what I could glean. Sect Master must have told them that you're exempted from any duties and liabilities. Their team wasn't very strong to begin with. So..."
Han Xuhan wasn't surprised. He had been planning to visit them anyway. Sister Chen Su and her team had fooled almost everyone and played the biggest role in acquiring the treasure-tracing technique that originally belonged to Abyss Guild. How could he not be interested in getting better acquainted with these talented peers?
Deciding to get over with the formal introduction, he delegated the cooking duties to a regretful Xiao Wu and headed for the Incorporeal Snow Mountain Peak, where Chen Su lived.
His destination wasn't too far away. Ten minutes later, Han Xuhan stood beneath a vaguely familiar archway that declared itself to be the entrance to the Incorporeal Snow Mountain. He had been here a few times in the last seven months, sometimes from curiosity, sometimes in the course of his education. As a disciple who had subscribed (by mistake) to the highest tier of the education curriculum, Han Xuhan owned the privilege of visiting almost every Elder to ask for guidance.
The peak master of the Incorporeal Snow Mountain was a man highly accomplished in movement techniques...well, that was what he claimed anyway. Some more unsavory rumors about him redefined that accomplishment, asserting that what he was really good at was running away. Had Han Xuhan been given a choice during his admission examination, he would have probably chosen this man as his master instead of Elder Daheng.
And he wasn't the only disciple to harbor this sentiment. The Incorporeal Snow Mountain peak was probably the most populous mountain in the Crimson Snow Sect. Just in Xuhan's generation, more than 40 disciples had chosen, or had been chosen by the Elder to reside and learn under his care. In different circumstances, that would have made this mountain one of the most influential, powerful factions within the outer court. But true to their goals, most of these disciples mostly learned how to run away, which greatly affected their morale and political standing within the outer court.
In a way, Sect Master Xuan Zi had made a really wise move by redistributing the disciples of every mountain peak right before the tournament under the guise of apprenticeship. Otherwise, the common characteristics of the disciples in each mountain peak would have badly affected the overall performance of the sect, causing chaos and disharmony.
Right now, there were only twenty apprentices residing all over the mountain peak. It took Xuhan a lengthy search to figure out which hut belonged to sister Chen Su.
Upon seven polite knocks, the door to her hut opened up, revealing a distraught Chen Su and several members of her team having a heated, but muffled discussion. All of them immediately recognized Xuhan, and not all of them looked happy to see him.
Being naturally blessed with skin as thick as the very mountains they stood on, Han Xuhan was not at all bothered by the unfriendly reactions. He greeted them all with a wide, innocent smile.
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"Sister Su, Brother Yue, Sister Miao, Brother Pang, Brother Zhang, good evening! Your new teammate Han Xuhan has arrived to report for duty!"
Needless to say, they didn't share his enthusiasm. Chen Su grabbed him by the cuff and dragged him inside, shutting the door behind him with an unnecessary amount of force.
"Goodness, what's with the gloomy faces, everyone?" Han Xuhan said as he took a seat in a corner of the room. His innocent question seemed to light up a powder keg.
In a furious tone, Brother Zhang put it all on the table.
"Han Xuhan, do you know how many losses we have suffered today as the defense team of Crimson Snow Sect?"
Seeing his nonplussed reaction, the young man answered himself, "Eleven! Almost one every hour of the day. Do you know why?"
"Normally I'd guess it's because you're not very good at your job," Han Xuhan replied, and almost immediately regretted being so cheeky. The others didn't take it well.
"It's because of you!" Brother Zhang roared angrily.
"The pot calls the kettle black!" Sister Miao said with a heavy snort.
"That mouth of yours is more likely to cause your death than any heavenly tribulation, brother Xuhan." Even Sister Su looked quite displeased.
"What did I do?!" Han Xuhan exclaimed, half in anger, half in amazement. "I swear I didn't do anything!"
"Exactly, dumbass. You don't have to swear to prove it. You got us in trouble by doing absolutely nothing," Zhang Dahai said.
"Do you remember how many treasure sets Abyss Guild took from us under the penalty imposed on us by Luo Yi?"
"Of course," Han Xuhan answered. "They took all the sets our sect had amassed in the early days of exploring this archipelago. We had an entire box of those treasures, right? Oh...wait a minute..."
It finally occurred to him where the problem was. The rules of the tournament dictated that the defense team would protect the treasure sets from the invasion teams of other sects. But if there were no more treasure sets to guard-
"Luo Yi! Did she twist the rules against our favor once again after the assembly ended?" he asked, wide-eyed.
"Yes, she did," Chen Su confirmed. "We couldn't argue with her. She said that since we have no treasure sets to protect, we will automatically forfeit the round every time a new invasion team lands on this floating island. We even went around asking those invaders whether such a rule was common for every sect. Turns out, Luo Yi is just abusing her discretionary power. When other sects run out of treasure sets to defend, they get a protection period of a few hours so that their invasion teams can snatch one back. Failing that, only a minimal deduction of points is awarded. When we went back to argue with her over her unfair rule, she said she had the discretionary power of punishment, and since we lost our treasures due to cheating, she can impose that kind of unfair rule on us without any impediments. We even complained to the sect master, but he just told us to have faith in YOU!"
"Ah, well, you should probably listen to him, then," Han Xuhan replied, feeling somewhat awkward.
"Listen to him, my ass!" Zhang Dahai shouted once again. "Right when we were about to leave his mountain, he called us back and said that he has exempted you from all duties and penalties. So even if you do nothing, we can't force you to comply with the demands of the entire sect. Have you forgotten the promise you've made? You're supposed to master the basics of the Treasure Tracing technique by tomorrow and disseminate it to everyone else! That's the only way we can make it out of our current position. And this entire day, you haven't made a single report to anyone, nor shown any sort of progression in mastering the technique. One of our teammates went to visit your mountain and found you sleeping on a rock. So you tell us what to do now! But don't insist on keeping faith in you!"
Han Xuhan harrumphed and stood up, pointing a finger at Zhang Dahai.
"Young man, you can doubt my talent. But you must never doubt my honesty! Since I made the promise, I'll naturally do my best to fulfill it. It seems to me that until tomorrow evening, I don't have to return here for defense duty. In that case, I'm taking my leave."
Before they could respond, Han Xuhan hurried out of the hut.
"So embarrassing..." he could only complain to the sky. He had been indeed too self-absorbed in this matter. The fate of the entire sect depended on his ability to master and disseminate the technique within the fastest possible period. But he also felt that Zhang Dahai was being too excessive. They had no knowledge of the incidents he had gone through today. Could they not have been a bit more civil in expressing their concern?
"Whatever, I'll just scam him in the future to teach him some humility. It must be done for his own good," he said to himself in consolation and disappeared into the night.
Watching his back mesh into the darkness, Chen Su closed the door of her hut and nodded approvingly at Zhang Dahai.
"Good job, martial brother! The exaggerated sense of threat you put in your words really convinced him. For the sect, he wouldn't lie, but we can! Hopefully, this sense of urgency will push Brother Xuhan to work hard on mastering the technique. It must be done for his own good!"