The entity possessing him had taken his leave, but his departure had left Han Xuhan with a numbness he was well acquainted with- the feeling of being crushed by a pressure beyond his ability to bear.
Nonetheless, one fact had been ascertained, the most crucial of them all.
This entity hiding in his dao tower was unwilling to take possession of his body, unless absolutely necessary...for now.
This gave Han Xuhan a small semblance of hope. Maybe his death was close, but not so imminent that he needed to say goodbye to the world.
He reshuffled his list of priorities once more in his mind, considering how to spend the remaining days of his life from now on.
Pretend everything is normal and go about his business like he was supposed to?
Or was there a necessity for something more, perhaps a new task...to find a cultivator with power beyond the Soul Reformation realm, restrain his abilities, and present him to this entity inside him?
Han Xuhan almost laughed out loud, imagining the scene of a mid-level Physique Transformation realm cultivator dragging in a tied-up, unconscious cultivator TWO major realms above him.
Heck, he wasn't even sure what the realm above the Soul Reformation realm was called...
A thought occurred to him, suddenly. If he wanted to know how many cultivators above the Soul Reformation realm were nearby, he could actually find the information within seconds!
Han Xuhan leaned over from the bed and took out a scroll from inside one of his bags.
This was Xuan Zi's map, the object martial sister Zhou was desperately looking for– the weight allotment scheme used in their setup for the Celestial Gateway Spell.
Since this displayed the map of how the cultivation levels of the participants of the spell were spread across their island, Han Xuhan could ascertain his potential targets right away!
He unfurled the scroll and lit a candle on the table, spreading the map under the firelight.
The first thing he realized was that instead of exact cultivation levels, sect master Xuan Zi had used an approximate range of cultivation for a large number of participants.
Why?
Han Xuhan reached a plausible conclusion easily after a moment of contemplation.
It was the norm in the world of cultivation to have a few secrets, trump cards for self-defense, and surprises for unsuspecting enemies. Hiding one's real cultivation level was simply the most common, convenient, and traditional method of bringing an unwelcome surprise to one's enemies.
Even within their sect, some forms of rivalry existed, especially between the elders of each mountain peak and their close disciples. The senior generations had their own forms of hierarchy, but due to the lack of communication with them, Han Xuhan did not know much about the politics in their circle.
So it was hardly an exaggeration to say that the publicly known cultivation level of many members of their sect was false.
This must have been why Xuan Zi had used a small range of cultivation levels for these disciples and elders.
The map followed the physical structure of their sect, divided into many mountain peaks with an elder commanding over each. Some of them were only elders in name and they didn't teach disciples, restricting their routine to cultivation and some basic tasks to maintain their positions as elders.
The core of the map was based on a color scheme.
The elders, with cultivation levels ranging from the peak of the Soul Reformation Realm to whatever lay above, were represented by blue dots. There were more than 30 such blue dots...all of them a potential source of his salvation.
That was all he needed to see, but he couldn't remove his eyes from the rest of the map without taking a proper look.
The senior disciples who had reached the Soul Reformation Realm had not accompanied them to the tournament. So the next level of cultivation directly dropped to the Physique Transformation realm.
The disciples on eighth layer and above were represented with the color red. They closely surrounded the blue dots on each mountain. Out of curiosity, Han Xuhan counted the dots carefully and found 15 of them, spread across the island.
The revelation struck a nerve in him.
FIFTEEN!
He did not know of a single disciple in his generation who had reached the eighth layer of the Physique Transformation Realm! And there were actually fifteen of them?!
Thankfully, none of these fifteen red dots were placed on their Heavenly Hailstorm mountain peak. That meant neither Mu Ran, nor Yuen Zhou had lied outright about their progress so far.
Han Xuhan checked the entire map, mountain by mountain, looking for familiar disciples. But there were no names to mark them down, so he could only take guesses.
For example, in his own mountain peak, he could identify the persons behind all five dots. One blue dot representing Kong Ye; two orange dots representing Mu Ran and Yuen Zhou; and two black dots representing him and Xiao Wu.
The most common color on the map, orange, represented the numerous disciples with a cultivation level ranging from the fifth to the seventh layer.
The black dots represented the true black sheep of their sect, those with a cultivation level of the fourth layer and below...
Normally, a disciple would find it humiliating to be grouped in this category. But Han Xuhan had nothing but pride and appreciation for his magnificent self. He was very close to his target, the fifth layer, which he had to reach within the next five months in order to not get expelled from the sect per the rules.
As he was about to close the map, his eyes fell towards the central mountain peak, where the dots were sparse, surrounding a large blank circle drawn with purple ink.
He did not know which realm of cultivation this signified...but he knew who it was.
Sect master Xuan Zi's cultivation level was truly unfathomable. He was on a league of his own!
Then Han Xuhan's gaze flickered towards the only other dot in that area, a black dot.
Who's this? Sect master Zi hadn't brought any of his servants along with him. Did he have a secret disciple whom nobody knew about? Why would he do that?
Or a concubine...ahem!
Han Xuhan's respect towards that man surpassed any other cultivators he had met so far in his life. Although Xuan Zi had never exactly shielded him from the dangers that befell him, something about the way the man treated him struck a chord in Xuhan's mind. The two of them shared an odd sense of kinship between themselves.
This made Han Xuhan feel too awkward to dig into the sect master's personal life. So what if he had a secret concubine? That was fine by him as long as the relationship wasn't forced.
And even if it was forced, there wouldn't be much he could do to break them up. Who was he gonna complain to?
Han Xuhan pushed away those dark thoughts and was about to close the scroll when his eyes fell on a corner of the map, the weight scheme of the Black Sheep peak causing him to pause.
His pupils shrank, brows furrowed, and his heart skipped a beat as he traced his finger across the few dots in that mountain.
The central dot was blue, which was expected from Elder Daheng. But there was another blue dot in that area, right beside him.
No other elders were placed in that mountain peak, and no one would voluntarily go there either, that much Han Xuhan knew.
But this was hardly where the abnormality lay.
Not too far away from the second blue dot was a third dot, neither black, nor orange, not red, and not even blue.
This was a unique green-colored dot.
Han Xuhan went through the layout guide of the map a second and a third time to make sure he hadn't missed any crucial information about that color scheme.
Yet he could not find any information about this green dot, let alone know who it represented.
This time he focused on the actual weight allotment used in that mountain peak by going through the three tiers of formations constructed there in order to take part in the Celestial Gateway Spell.
Then Xuhan's mouth fell agape. Because all the formations shown to have been used in the Black Sheep Peak were at level 3, the highest possible tier of the formations. In comparison, the rest of the mountain peak only managed to make a tenth of their formations 3rd level, half of which was the contribution of the elders.
Even then, every peak had managed to house their entire body of disciples in the weight scheme to attend the tournament.
So what could be the need for a construct with all the formations at the 3rd level? Did they want to house someone above the elders' level? That was the only reason why a mountain would require so many high-tier formations!
What the hell is this?
Just who is hiding in the Black Sheep Mountain Peak? Who does the second blue dot represent? And what is even the green dot?
He was forced to close the map with confusion brewing in his head.
The entity possessing him had taken his leave, but his departure had left Han Xuhan with a numbness he was well acquainted with- the feeling of being crushed by a pressure beyond his ability to bear.
Nonetheless, one fact had been ascertained, the most crucial of them all.
This entity hiding in his dao tower was unwilling to take possession of his body, unless absolutely necessary...for now.
This gave Han Xuhan a small semblance of hope. Maybe his death was close, but not so imminent that he needed to say goodbye to the world.
He reshuffled his list of priorities once more in his mind, considering how to spend the remaining days of his life from now on.
Pretend everything is normal and go about his business like he was supposed to?
Or was there a necessity for something more, perhaps a new task...to find a cultivator with power beyond the Soul Reformation realm, restrain his abilities, and present him to this entity inside him?
Han Xuhan almost laughed out loud, imagining the scene of a mid-level Physique Transformation realm cultivator dragging in a tied-up, unconscious cultivator TWO major realms above him.
Heck, he wasn't even sure what the realm above the Soul Reformation realm was called...
A thought occurred to him, suddenly. If he wanted to know how many cultivators above the Soul Reformation realm were nearby, he could actually find the information within seconds!
Han Xuhan leaned over from the bed and took out a scroll from inside one of his bags.
This was Xuan Zi's map, the object martial sister Zhou was desperately looking for– the weight allotment scheme used in their setup for the Celestial Gateway Spell.
Since this displayed the map of how the cultivation levels of the participants of the spell were spread across their island, Han Xuhan could ascertain his potential targets right away!
He unfurled the scroll and lit a candle on the table, spreading the map under the firelight.
The first thing he realized was that instead of exact cultivation levels, sect master Xuan Zi had used an approximate range of cultivation for a large number of participants.
Why?
Han Xuhan reached a plausible conclusion easily after a moment of contemplation.
It was the norm in the world of cultivation to have a few secrets, trump cards for self-defense, and surprises for unsuspecting enemies. Hiding one's real cultivation level was simply the most common, convenient, and traditional method of bringing an unwelcome surprise to one's enemies.
Even within their sect, some forms of rivalry existed, especially between the elders of each mountain peak and their close disciples. The senior generations had their own forms of hierarchy, but due to the lack of communication with them, Han Xuhan did not know much about the politics in their circle.
So it was hardly an exaggeration to say that the publicly known cultivation level of many members of their sect was false.
This must have been why Xuan Zi had used a small range of cultivation levels for these disciples and elders.
The map followed the physical structure of their sect, divided into many mountain peaks with an elder commanding over each. Some of them were only elders in name and they didn't teach disciples, restricting their routine to cultivation and some basic tasks to maintain their positions as elders.
The core of the map was based on a color scheme.
The elders, with cultivation levels ranging from the peak of the Soul Reformation Realm to whatever lay above, were represented by blue dots. There were more than 30 such blue dots...all of them a potential source of his salvation.
That was all he needed to see, but he couldn't remove his eyes from the rest of the map without taking a proper look.
The senior disciples who had reached the Soul Reformation Realm had not accompanied them to the tournament. So the next level of cultivation directly dropped to the Physique Transformation realm.
The disciples on eighth layer and above were represented with the color red. They closely surrounded the blue dots on each mountain. Out of curiosity, Han Xuhan counted the dots carefully and found 15 of them, spread across the island.
The revelation struck a nerve in him.
FIFTEEN!
He did not know of a single disciple in his generation who had reached the eighth layer of the Physique Transformation Realm! And there were actually fifteen of them?!
Thankfully, none of these fifteen red dots were placed on their Heavenly Hailstorm mountain peak. That meant neither Mu Ran, nor Yuen Zhou had lied outright about their progress so far.
Han Xuhan checked the entire map, mountain by mountain, looking for familiar disciples. But there were no names to mark them down, so he could only take guesses.
For example, in his own mountain peak, he could identify the persons behind all five dots. One blue dot representing Kong Ye; two orange dots representing Mu Ran and Yuen Zhou; and two black dots representing him and Xiao Wu.
The most common color on the map, orange, represented the numerous disciples with a cultivation level ranging from the fifth to the seventh layer.
The black dots represented the true black sheep of their sect, those with a cultivation level of the fourth layer and below...
Normally, a disciple would find it humiliating to be grouped in this category. But Han Xuhan had nothing but pride and appreciation for his magnificent self. He was very close to his target, the fifth layer, which he had to reach within the next five months in order to not get expelled from the sect per the rules.
As he was about to close the map, his eyes fell towards the central mountain peak, where the dots were sparse, surrounding a large blank circle drawn with purple ink.
He did not know which realm of cultivation this signified...but he knew who it was.
Sect master Xuan Zi's cultivation level was truly unfathomable. He was on a league of his own!
Then Han Xuhan's gaze flickered towards the only other dot in that area, a black dot.
Who's this? Sect master Zi hadn't brought any of his servants along with him. Did he have a secret disciple whom nobody knew about? Why would he do that?
Or a concubine...ahem!
Han Xuhan's respect towards that man surpassed any other cultivators he had met so far in his life. Although Xuan Zi had never exactly shielded him from the dangers that befell him, something about the way the man treated him struck a chord in Xuhan's mind. The two of them shared an odd sense of kinship between themselves.
This made Han Xuhan feel too awkward to dig into the sect master's personal life. So what if he had a secret concubine? That was fine by him as long as the relationship wasn't forced.
And even if it was forced, there wouldn't be much he could do to break them up. Who was he gonna complain to?
Han Xuhan pushed away those dark thoughts and was about to close the scroll when his eyes fell on a corner of the map, the weight scheme of the Black Sheep peak causing him to pause.
His pupils shrank, brows furrowed, and his heart skipped a beat as he traced his finger across the few dots in that mountain.
The central dot was blue, which was expected from Elder Daheng. But there was another blue dot in that area, right beside him.
No other elders were placed in that mountain peak, and no one would voluntarily go there either, that much Han Xuhan knew.
But this was hardly where the abnormality lay.
Not too far away from the second blue dot was a third dot, neither black, nor orange, not red, and not even blue.
This was a unique green-colored dot.
Han Xuhan went through the layout guide of the map a second and a third time to make sure he hadn't missed any crucial information about that color scheme.
Yet he could not find any information about this green dot, let alone know who it represented.
This time he focused on the actual weight allotment used in that mountain peak by going through the three tiers of formations constructed there in order to take part in the Celestial Gateway Spell.
Then Xuhan's mouth fell agape. Because all the formations shown to have been used in the Black Sheep Peak were at level 3, the highest possible tier of the formations. In comparison, the rest of the mountain peak only managed to make a tenth of their formations 3rd level, half of which was the contribution of the elders.
Even then, every peak had managed to house their entire body of disciples in the weight scheme to attend the tournament.
So what could be the need for a construct with all the formations at the 3rd level? Did they want to house someone above the elders' level? That was the only reason why a mountain would require so many high-tier formations!
What the hell is this?
Just who is hiding in the Black Sheep Mountain Peak? Who does the second blue dot represent? And what is even the green dot?
He was forced to close the map with confusion brewing in his head.
