"What do you understand about the subspace gateways? Where did you learn the exact terminology from?" Shen Mi said, her voice filled with suspicion.
Han Xuhan coughed. "From you."
"...."
"Whatever the terminology is, I couldn't care less. Just give me the measurements and we're even."
Somewhat puzzled, yet mollified upon learning that he wasn't trying to make any excessive claims, Shen Mi agreed. Even the other three disciples of the Stardust Sect couldn't find anything to complain about.
"I'll make sure you get that. Now, come. Hit Brother Kexi."
Before Shang Kexi could prepare himself, a fist hit him square in the chest, emitting a thumping sound.
Shang Kexi grunted, his feet staggering back a couple of steps. Han Xuhan retracted his fist and massaged it, his expression stiff.
He had used every bit of his strength behind that punch, and all it had been capable of was to send a cultivator at a late layer of the Physique Transformation realm two steps back even though he was caught off guard.
At least the disparity wasn't so huge to the point of him being the one to get hurt from his own punch. In typical cultivation stories, one or two minor realms were synonymous with invincibility.
This was the first time he had tried to hit an average cultivator with the entirety of his enhanced strength. It was an enlightening experience. Practicing with Mu Ran or Yuen Zhou wasn't really something he could use as a reference in typical situations.
"Thanks for holding back," said Shang Kexi with a relieved expression.
"....Haha, you didn't think I'd actually try to hurt you, brother, did you?"
Han Xuhan did his best to hide his harrowing sorrow behind a winsome wink.
After his hands were loosely tied up, Shen Mi led the way to the middle ring...by walking in the air between the rings again.
"Uh, guys, I don't know how to do that, if you've forgotten. Can we wait for the-"
Shang Kexi gave him a measured glance and dragged him over to the void with the rope, cutting off his complaint.
Han Xuhan was carried over to the middle ring just that way. Shang Kexi walked, with him dangling dangerously a few feet below.
Despite looking desperately for any signs of qi manipulation or artifact usage around the four youths, Xuhan still had no idea how they were doing it by the time his feet landed on solid ground once more.
The sounds of combat grew in volume as they approached the plain in the middle ring. They began to hear shouts, warcries, and intimidating names of magical techniques alongside the occasional rumbles of soil being caved in, gongs of giant bells, and clangs of breaking steel.
"Damn, how many of them are fighting there?" Han Xuhan cursed under his breath as they reached close enough to get a clear look.
An enormous crowd had surrounded the spectacle. But one command from Shen Mi was enough for the crowd to part, making space for their team of five.
In a flat combat ground no less than five thousand square meters in size, ten people were fighting. Three of them belonged to the invasion team, and the other seven were probably the recently selected defense team members.
Three more disciples were sitting at the edge of the crowd, performing what appeared to be a superfast calculation. Han Xuhan could barely see their hands moving on the documents in front of them. Scrolls, charts, and thick books were being tossed around like ping-pong balls among the trio.
Suddenly, one of them stood up and shouted something at the combatants.
Han Xuhan strained his ears to catch his words.
"The Flying Sword formation cannot be activated beyond three times in a row. She has only one use left. After that, you can use the airborne assault methods freely!"
His enhanced audiovisual senses came into use, helping him fill in the gaps in his hearing with a seemingly accurate lip-reading despite the distance between them.
They were using their divination technique to predict the battle scenarios and map an ideal combat sequence!
Sure enough, the moment the advice left his mouth, the atmosphere of the battle transformed.
One of the seven defenders left the battle formation, leaving his six peers to fend off the ceaseless attacks of the three invaders. He stopped his retreat some distance away from the hotspot of violence.
Around his feet were chunks of rocks protruding from the soil. These rocks hadn't been touched yet by the combatants, very much intact in their size and shape, unlike those tiny, scattered stones near the center of the battlefield.
The defender was close enough for Xuhan to sense his usage of qi. And the moment the result of that use became apparent, he realized what they were trying to do.
They were using the Celestial gateway formation's domains to exert control over the soil of the island, much like Mu Ran had done during the invasion by the Abyss Guild.
Several rocks enormous in size rose up from the depths of the loose soil as if attracted by a magnetic force. One by one, the defender began to spin them around himself, controlling the momentum and power behind the rocks to shoot them at the center of the battlefield.
The six of his peers seemed to have eyes behind their heads. They leaped away to safety the moment the spinning rocks reached their vicinity, leaving the invader team to face the rocks.
It went to show that both parties were keeping things safe as much as they could. If cultivators at their level went full hurt-anything-in-sight mode using their main cultivation techniques, the death count in this tournament would be too high. Using secondary techniques like the Celestial Gateway Domains to attack and defend was a much safer method of determining which party had more skill. Of course, not all sects would be this lenient on invasion teams.
Once again, Yuen Zhou's instantaneous sword formation came into view, appearing in the way of the flying rocks to hack them into pieces. However, right after the utter demolition of the first one, the airborne formation disappeared, letting the rest of the rocks fly at their target unimpeded.
Mu Ran jumped forward and shielded Xiao Wu and Yuen Zhou, and then punched the second rock the moment it reached him.
Boom!
The rock cracked apart, and Mu Ran used the larger broken pieces to construct a dome by planting them into the ground with all of his strength.
For someone at the peak of the sixth layer of the physique transformation realm, he was unusually strong in terms of physical power, and this factor showed its face right then.
Yuen Zhou and Xiao Wu took shelter below the makeshift dome as the third and fourth rocks smashed into it.
Boom!
Boom!
The dome, along with its occupants, was buried beneath. For a moment, the battlefield fell into a stretch of silence as dust and ruin occupied everyone's vision.
Han Xuhan, alongside the disciples of the Stardust sect, held his breath, waiting for something to happen.
*Clunk*
*Clunk*
Two half-ton heavy rock shards were pushed out from beneath the heap slowly. As the dust cleared up, the team of three emerged out, looking relatively fine.
At that very moment, the team of seven defenders used their control over the domain of the Celestial Gateway formation to rip out multiple chunks of soil and rocks from the ground. They towered over the middle island like miniature satellites. From all four directions, Han Xuhan's peers were surrounded.
"If you do not surrender, you will suffer fatal injuries. Please do not blame us for being heavy-handed," shouted one of the seven defenders.
"Hahaha!"
This laugh, surprisingly, came from Yuen Zhou. At that moment, Han Xuhan distinctly felt like sister Zhou was giving off a much different aura compared to her usual restrained self. The battle seemed to have unlocked something peculiar inside her.
"If that prediction had any word of truth in it, you wouldn't be the one to tell us. Your clairvoyants would have done so," she yelled back.
"Clairvoyants?" Shen Mi muttered in confusion.
"I think she's talking about the stargazers," Shang Kexi explained hesitantly.
Meanwhile, the team of defenders was clearly enraged by her blatant disrespect. All of them began to rotate the mini-hills above their head, aiming for the center of the battlefield.
Mu Ran walked a step forward and said something to Yuen Zhou and Xiao Wu. Both of them tensed up, even more alarmed than before. Han Xuhan felt the hair on his neck rise straight up.
Right when the dozen balls of rock and earth were about to head out in a frenzy towards him, Mu Ran spread his arms wide, making a gesture that Han Xuhan was all too familiar with.
Surreptitiously, he took a step back and hid himself behind an enraptured Shang Kexi.
"ASTRAL HEATWAVE!"
A golden radiance erupted from the center of the battlefield, surpassing the bright sunlight, and suppressing the sight of every living being on the island.
Unlike Mu Ran's prior attempts at executing this spell, the heatwave that formed around him this time spread out like an explosion, engulfing everyone and everything like an unstoppable tide.
Even Han Xuhan wasn't spared despite using Shang Kexi as a meat shield. This strange spell relied on the spectrum of the Astral Totality to traverse space, just as he suspected since hearing Kong Ye's lecture. Few material objects in their macrocosm could affect its advance.
Dizziness encompassed his senses as he fell with the rest of the crowd.
But his consciousness remained active long enough to curse out loud.
"Fucking idiot! Now everyone can attack you!"
"What do you understand about the subspace gateways? Where did you learn the exact terminology from?" Shen Mi said, her voice filled with suspicion.
Han Xuhan coughed. "From you."
"...."
"Whatever the terminology is, I couldn't care less. Just give me the measurements and we're even."
Somewhat puzzled, yet mollified upon learning that he wasn't trying to make any excessive claims, Shen Mi agreed. Even the other three disciples of the Stardust Sect couldn't find anything to complain about.
"I'll make sure you get that. Now, come. Hit Brother Kexi."
Before Shang Kexi could prepare himself, a fist hit him square in the chest, emitting a thumping sound.
Shang Kexi grunted, his feet staggering back a couple of steps. Han Xuhan retracted his fist and massaged it, his expression stiff.
He had used every bit of his strength behind that punch, and all it had been capable of was to send a cultivator at a late layer of the Physique Transformation realm two steps back even though he was caught off guard.
At least the disparity wasn't so huge to the point of him being the one to get hurt from his own punch. In typical cultivation stories, one or two minor realms were synonymous with invincibility.
This was the first time he had tried to hit an average cultivator with the entirety of his enhanced strength. It was an enlightening experience. Practicing with Mu Ran or Yuen Zhou wasn't really something he could use as a reference in typical situations.
"Thanks for holding back," said Shang Kexi with a relieved expression.
"....Haha, you didn't think I'd actually try to hurt you, brother, did you?"
Han Xuhan did his best to hide his harrowing sorrow behind a winsome wink.
After his hands were loosely tied up, Shen Mi led the way to the middle ring...by walking in the air between the rings again.
"Uh, guys, I don't know how to do that, if you've forgotten. Can we wait for the-"
Shang Kexi gave him a measured glance and dragged him over to the void with the rope, cutting off his complaint.
Han Xuhan was carried over to the middle ring just that way. Shang Kexi walked, with him dangling dangerously a few feet below.
Despite looking desperately for any signs of qi manipulation or artifact usage around the four youths, Xuhan still had no idea how they were doing it by the time his feet landed on solid ground once more.
The sounds of combat grew in volume as they approached the plain in the middle ring. They began to hear shouts, warcries, and intimidating names of magical techniques alongside the occasional rumbles of soil being caved in, gongs of giant bells, and clangs of breaking steel.
"Damn, how many of them are fighting there?" Han Xuhan cursed under his breath as they reached close enough to get a clear look.
An enormous crowd had surrounded the spectacle. But one command from Shen Mi was enough for the crowd to part, making space for their team of five.
In a flat combat ground no less than five thousand square meters in size, ten people were fighting. Three of them belonged to the invasion team, and the other seven were probably the recently selected defense team members.
Three more disciples were sitting at the edge of the crowd, performing what appeared to be a superfast calculation. Han Xuhan could barely see their hands moving on the documents in front of them. Scrolls, charts, and thick books were being tossed around like ping-pong balls among the trio.
Suddenly, one of them stood up and shouted something at the combatants.
Han Xuhan strained his ears to catch his words.
"The Flying Sword formation cannot be activated beyond three times in a row. She has only one use left. After that, you can use the airborne assault methods freely!"
His enhanced audiovisual senses came into use, helping him fill in the gaps in his hearing with a seemingly accurate lip-reading despite the distance between them.
They were using their divination technique to predict the battle scenarios and map an ideal combat sequence!
Sure enough, the moment the advice left his mouth, the atmosphere of the battle transformed.
One of the seven defenders left the battle formation, leaving his six peers to fend off the ceaseless attacks of the three invaders. He stopped his retreat some distance away from the hotspot of violence.
Around his feet were chunks of rocks protruding from the soil. These rocks hadn't been touched yet by the combatants, very much intact in their size and shape, unlike those tiny, scattered stones near the center of the battlefield.
The defender was close enough for Xuhan to sense his usage of qi. And the moment the result of that use became apparent, he realized what they were trying to do.
They were using the Celestial gateway formation's domains to exert control over the soil of the island, much like Mu Ran had done during the invasion by the Abyss Guild.
Several rocks enormous in size rose up from the depths of the loose soil as if attracted by a magnetic force. One by one, the defender began to spin them around himself, controlling the momentum and power behind the rocks to shoot them at the center of the battlefield.
The six of his peers seemed to have eyes behind their heads. They leaped away to safety the moment the spinning rocks reached their vicinity, leaving the invader team to face the rocks.
It went to show that both parties were keeping things safe as much as they could. If cultivators at their level went full hurt-anything-in-sight mode using their main cultivation techniques, the death count in this tournament would be too high. Using secondary techniques like the Celestial Gateway Domains to attack and defend was a much safer method of determining which party had more skill. Of course, not all sects would be this lenient on invasion teams.
Once again, Yuen Zhou's instantaneous sword formation came into view, appearing in the way of the flying rocks to hack them into pieces. However, right after the utter demolition of the first one, the airborne formation disappeared, letting the rest of the rocks fly at their target unimpeded.
Mu Ran jumped forward and shielded Xiao Wu and Yuen Zhou, and then punched the second rock the moment it reached him.
Boom!
The rock cracked apart, and Mu Ran used the larger broken pieces to construct a dome by planting them into the ground with all of his strength.
For someone at the peak of the sixth layer of the physique transformation realm, he was unusually strong in terms of physical power, and this factor showed its face right then.
Yuen Zhou and Xiao Wu took shelter below the makeshift dome as the third and fourth rocks smashed into it.
Boom!
Boom!
The dome, along with its occupants, was buried beneath. For a moment, the battlefield fell into a stretch of silence as dust and ruin occupied everyone's vision.
Han Xuhan, alongside the disciples of the Stardust sect, held his breath, waiting for something to happen.
*Clunk*
*Clunk*
Two half-ton heavy rock shards were pushed out from beneath the heap slowly. As the dust cleared up, the team of three emerged out, looking relatively fine.
At that very moment, the team of seven defenders used their control over the domain of the Celestial Gateway formation to rip out multiple chunks of soil and rocks from the ground. They towered over the middle island like miniature satellites. From all four directions, Han Xuhan's peers were surrounded.
"If you do not surrender, you will suffer fatal injuries. Please do not blame us for being heavy-handed," shouted one of the seven defenders.
"Hahaha!"
This laugh, surprisingly, came from Yuen Zhou. At that moment, Han Xuhan distinctly felt like sister Zhou was giving off a much different aura compared to her usual restrained self. The battle seemed to have unlocked something peculiar inside her.
"If that prediction had any word of truth in it, you wouldn't be the one to tell us. Your clairvoyants would have done so," she yelled back.
"Clairvoyants?" Shen Mi muttered in confusion.
"I think she's talking about the stargazers," Shang Kexi explained hesitantly.
Meanwhile, the team of defenders was clearly enraged by her blatant disrespect. All of them began to rotate the mini-hills above their head, aiming for the center of the battlefield.
Mu Ran walked a step forward and said something to Yuen Zhou and Xiao Wu. Both of them tensed up, even more alarmed than before. Han Xuhan felt the hair on his neck rise straight up.
Right when the dozen balls of rock and earth were about to head out in a frenzy towards him, Mu Ran spread his arms wide, making a gesture that Han Xuhan was all too familiar with.
Surreptitiously, he took a step back and hid himself behind an enraptured Shang Kexi.
"ASTRAL HEATWAVE!"
A golden radiance erupted from the center of the battlefield, surpassing the bright sunlight, and suppressing the sight of every living being on the island.
Unlike Mu Ran's prior attempts at executing this spell, the heatwave that formed around him this time spread out like an explosion, engulfing everyone and everything like an unstoppable tide.
Even Han Xuhan wasn't spared despite using Shang Kexi as a meat shield. This strange spell relied on the spectrum of the Astral Totality to traverse space, just as he suspected since hearing Kong Ye's lecture. Few material objects in their macrocosm could affect its advance.
Dizziness encompassed his senses as he fell with the rest of the crowd.
But his consciousness remained active long enough to curse out loud.
"Fucking idiot! Now everyone can attack you!"
