Han Xuhan's shock could not be more pronounced on his face. He stared at Li Mingyu open-mouthed like a fool, eyes wide as saucers. If it were up to him, he would have remained seated like that for an hour or so, just as a show of appreciation and respect. But the ticking clock in the back of his mind reminded him that he had a promise to keep. Still, he could not help being curious.
"Sect Master Li Mingyu, may I know how this technique of yours works? It is fascinating!"
Li Mingyu shook his head. "Unfortunately, I cannot reveal anything about it to you except its name."
"Oh." Han Xuhan felt disappointed, but he had expected as much. "Does this name have any significance in relation to the technique?"
"Yes, it's one of those incredibly upfront titles that lets people guess what the technique's essence is," Li Mingyu explained, causing a sense of intrigue to be born in Xuhan's heart. He leaned over a little to catch the name.
"Thousand Chains of Fictitious Reality— that's the title of my technique. Sounds familiar?" Li Mingyu said in a merry tone.
Han Xuhan slowly nodded, recalling the scene three minutes ago when he was stuck inside Li Mingyu's unhinged illusory world.
"I have to admit," he said, "Your foretelling is making me feel like a puppet on strings. But if you were truly so close to omniscience as you portray yourself, would we be having this conversation? Would I really be able to use Ning Xueshi's condition to pressure you?"
Li Mingyu snickered. "I've never claimed to be a near-omniscient oracle. That's just what your limited perception leads you to believe. In fact, I didn’t even predict that part about you using Ning Xueshi this way. I just heard you blackmail the elders outside so that they would let you enter this tower. Who else in the Stardust Sect except Ning Xueshi is afflicted by the Soul Shattering Puppet Refinement technique? After you named that forbidden technique, arriving at the answer to your question was just climbing a logical ladder."
Han Xuhan clapped his palms together. “I have learned from sect master!”
“What have you learned?” Li Mingyu said, skeptical.
“Shamelessness.” Han Xuhan answered boldly and moved on to a different topic without giving the man a chance to get angry. “But master Mingyu, the fact remains that I now hold your sect's reputation in my grasp. And my grasp is usually very tight. Today, I want to do you a favor and loosen this grasp, so that your Stardust Sect's dirty demonic practices don't get publicized to the whole world of cultivation. That would lead to the extinction of your sect, not just a faction.”
Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!
Li Mingyu met his passionate eyes with a placid gaze. “And your price for doing me this favor is to help the Phoenix faction maintain its existence?”
“Yes.”
“How does that benefit you? Why are you so concerned about the fate of this faction of a foreign sect?" Li Mingyu asked, his voice suddenly taking a sharp turn.
“It benefits a friend of mine, and I owe this benefit to him.” Han Xuhan chose to hide his dealings with Feng Jun for a good reason. But Li Mingyu's follow-up made him realize that he might have walked into a trap.
“If this friend of yours happened to be surnamed Feng, it'd be quite a joke, wouldn't it?”
“...Feng Jun? Isn't he the genius of Phoenix faction who disappeared inside a world fragment half a year ago?” Han Xuhan said in a voice so natural that even he was convinced by his innocent response. “Sister Shen Mi told me a little about him. Why does master Mingyu think I'd be a friend of his?”
Li Mingyu started laughing so hard that his fat body began jiggling all around. “Young man, I can see Feng Jun and your fate intersecting even now. The reason I could predict that you'd come to my sect with some demands is due to my familiarity with Feng Jun's fate. And oh, I forgot to mention something crucial! Feng Jun has been contacting his fellow conspirators in this sect regularly since he was trapped inside the Holy Land of Laws. Of course he would try to do something big after learning that his faction is about to be eaten up, even if he needs to ask for the help of an unscrupulous foreigner!”
The revelation left Han Xuhan silenced and frozen for a good few moments. The only reason he could regather his scattered thoughts quickly was due to his frequent brushes with such backstabbing scenarios. From the very beginning, he hadn't really trusted Feng Jun to be wholly honest during their exchange.
But Li Mingyu's answer was itself another trove of twists. So he couldn’t help but ask, “Master Mingyu, what do you mean by conspirators? How is Feng Jun contacting them?”
To his knowledge, Feng Jun and his team were under Qian Yun's command inside the world fragment of the Holy Land. Qian Yun had made it clear that none of them could get out of that place, and their only contact with the outside world was Han Xuhan. This was the main reason behind their frequent deals and exchange of resources. Otherwise, why would they acquiesce to so many of his unfair dema- Ahem! Ahem!
“Has Feng Jun not told you how or why he and his team got into the Holy Land of Laws?” Li Mingyu said, sounding surprised. Seeing Xuhan shake his head, he snorted.
“No wonder you've been so cocky and self-righteous since stepping onto my sect. The world fragment of the Holy Land was sealed with the goal of keeping it hidden for at least a century. By then, the dangerous elements inside it would have been wiped out, and a harvest of rare resources could be extracted. But something went wrong a year ago, and the seal loosened up, letting the world fragment's aura leak into this macrocosm's spatial borders.
“Having detected the signs, those of us who were involved in the sealing process decided to send a team of disciples from each sect to investigate if there were any anomalous developments inside the ruined world. However, Feng Jun, misguided by some greedy elders of this sect, decided to use this opportunity to infiltrate the furthest depths of the Holy Land and extract the resources left in there, alongside the Holy Land's legacy.
“To accomplish this, they needed some materials and treasures from my personal collection. Knowing that they wanted to break the pact among so many powerful sects, I was naturally not happy with their scheme. I refused to relent, and as a result, two-thirds of the elders of the sect banded together to force me to hand over what they needed for the journey. It ended with a fair bit of violence, and I suffered some long-term injuries, both physically and spiritually.
“Hence, I locked myself up inside this tower to undergo a desperate breakthrough, and let their idiotic plan play out just as they wished, only for it to backfire and trap the team inside the world fragment.”
Li Mingyu sneered as he concluded the story.
“Since then, Feng Jun has been sending out broken messages through one of the stolen treasures of mine. The elders who helped him are doing their best to guide him with their meager understanding of the Holy Land. It's laughable, really.
Why not listen to an Oracle who wants to help you? Why gamble with fate knowing how slim your chances are? But then again, I am expecting too much from those mediocre cultivators who have become puppets to their own greed and fear. Having realized that Feng Jun is in a hopeless situation now, they've turned to a more extreme solution! They've begun resorting to forbidden demonic arts!”