On top of the highest summit belonging to the Gladiator Guild, three figures sat amidst a pile of motionless bodies. The brown soil was painted with fresh blue blood, the sources of which were the dozens of wounded bodies.
"Martial brother Wu, how did your night go?"
Xiao Wu didn't seem to appreciate the mirth in her tone. He replied snappily.
"I almost died several times throughout the last night. martial sister. Would it hurt you to not sound like you're enjoying my misfortune?"
Yuen Zhou's grin got more pronounced. "I told you to obey my orders yesterday. Serves you right to be confined within that trap. You're already lucky enough to not have entered any of the restricted zones in the void. Death would be the only outcome in that case."
Xiao Wu's countenance turned somewhat fearful as he recalled his experience inside the trap arranged by the disciples of the Gladiator Guild.
"You can't trust anyone's appearance these days," he muttered to himself. "Even those brutish fellows can set up such elaborate traps...it's unbelievable!"
At this moment, Mu Ran, who had been meditating calmly until now, opened his eyes abruptly as if alerted by something.
Both Yuen Zhou and Xiao Wu turned to look at him as he leaped to his feet and pulled a green metal tube out of a pocket of his frayed robe. The tube was as thick as a finger. Both ends of the tube were open, but they could see an unnatural array of colorful lights dancing inside the tube.
"Looks like it's started," Mu Ran commented in a grave voice. "We need water, something transparent, at least."
Xiao Wu sprinted away, returning ten precious seconds later with a bowl. Mu Ran looked at the bowl he was being presented with. His expression turned gloomy.
"I asked for water, Xiao Wu," he said in a voice that was struggling not to rise to its highest, strongest pitch.
"I know that. But if you need water, you'll certainly need something to hold the water, right?" Xiao Wu replied.
"Good job. Now we're just missing the most important element of the spell...the water."
Xiao Wu's short temper flared up once again as he perceived the authoritative disapproval in Mu Ran's tone.
"Why don't you piss on it, martial brother?" he growled. "Xuhan told me you love pissing on random objects. I brought the bowl, now you provide the main element since you're apparently the boss here."
Mu Ran sent him an incensed look. Had he not been overly concerned with what the metal tube would show them, he would have beaten some sense into Xiao Wu right then and there.
But this was not the time to argue. He looked around for sources of water, only to find Yuen Zhou holding a wine gourd in her hand.
"This will do," she said while snatching the bowl out of Xiao Wu's hands.
Once the wine filled the bowl to its brim, Mu Ran held the green tube vertically one foot above the still liquid, just as Leng Qing had instructed them to.
The dancing colorful rays from within the tube fell on the wine. Slowly, a picture formed inside the wine. Instead of reflecting the three faces towering above the bowl, the wine showed the reflection of a brightly lit room.
It was as if someone had opened a window that connected the room with the Gladiator Guild's highest arena! They could see and hear everything that went on inside that room from here!
They could see the entire room from their vantage point. One young man occupied a seat by the bed, his eyes focused on the door as if expecting somebody.
To seemingly nobody in particular, the young man suddenly whispered, "A game begins... now."
Mu Ran, Yuen Zhou, and Xiao Wu knew who the words were meant for. Their focus gathered on the door of the bedroom.
From beyond the door, someone coughed loudly.
"Come in, fellow cultivator, come in," Leng Qing said from his recliner. His eyes flickered towards the magical 'window' through which the three martial siblings had become an audience to this destined meeting.
All three of them took a sharp breath as Han Xuhan walked in through the door.
* * * * * *
As Han Xuhan handed the vial to Shen Mi, he noticed a stiff look taking shape on Leng Qing's face. Whether it was because of the poison acting up inside his bloodstream or something else...he did not know.
What he did know was that if Leng Qing's ability to predict the future so intricately was real, then he would have been able to predict this ambush as well.
But he had not managed to do so. Leng Qing had jumped right into the trap Han Xuhan had set.
Shen Mi pushed Leng Qing down on the recliner and examined the small wound on his neck for a moment before grimacing. She probably didn't know what poison Han Xuhan had used on the crossbow bolt.
It had been worth it to purchase a bundle of that unique sedative from the treasury yesterday. Grown only in the herb gardens with an improvised formula, this heavy sedative could even knock out tonnes-heavy elephants.
Elder Shen had been so happy with the fact that he had finally paid for an item that he hadn't even enquired what he would do with such a powerful medicine.
Shen Mi uncapped the vial and practically forced Leng Qing to drink up. Leng Qing's eyes flickered a couple of times to the window beside his recliner as if expecting somebody to come and rescue him from his current predicament.
Ten seconds after the first mouthful went down his throat, Leng Qing's eyes lost focus. His pupils rolled back and his muscles relaxed suddenly. To Shen Mi and her team, Leng Qing looked no different from someone who had been knocked out.
Sensing their aggressive questioning gaze, Han Xuhan didn't bat an eyelid to reply, "The antidote won't take effect so fast. The poison in the crossbow bolt can paralyze those with a weak physical constitution. But don't worry, he'll be fine since he has had the antidote. We'll probably need to wait several hours to see him recover, though."
"Those with weak physical constitution? Leng Qing is a body cultivator! A weak physical constitution is the last thing he needs to worry about!" One of Shen Mi's teammates expressed her doubts directly.
Her rebuttal was supported by the rest of the team. It was indeed rather suspicious to hear that a body cultivator had fallen to poison.
Han Xuhan wore a disdainful look on his face.
"Do you guys have some misconception about what's considered 'weak'? The poison in my crossbow isn't something a mere body cultivator at the fifth layer can counter. If he was at the peak of the Physique Transformation Realm, perhaps the result could have been different."
Shen Mi and her fellow disciples looked flabbergasted. Perhaps the scene of an early fourth-layer cultivator calling a fifth-layer body cultivator a weakling didn't quite seem right to them.
That's okay. Han Xuhan was more than glad to show them the errors in their worldview.
As they simmered in anger and frustration, Han Xuhan turned toward his minions and began to lecture them about the grave consequences of not obeying orders. Although everyone in the room was giving him looks of mild disbelief, Han Xuhan persisted in his effort to make himself be portrayed as a mere bystander to the entire ambush.
Almost half an hour passed by. Leng Qing showed no signs of waking up. Appearing rather nervous by his lack of improvement, Han Xuhan suggested something reasonable.
"Guys, should I return to my sect and ask the healers whether there's anything else we could do?"
Shen Mi gave him a doubtful look.
"You're not planning to escape responsibility if something happens to Brother Qing, are you?"
"Do you think Feng Jun is going to forgive me if I do that?" Han Xuhan replied.
"...I guess not."
Han Xuhan gathered his minions and walked out of the room. Behind him, Shen Mi subtly nodded at one of her teammates, who immediately got the hint and turned invisible to the naked eye.
Silently, he followed the foreigner named Han Xuhan.
As soon as Xuhan crossed the front yard of the cabin, he took out a paper talisman from inside his robe and placed it on the ground. Then he drew an arrow on the soil, pointing towards the cabin.
The young man silently following Xuhan clearly saw the whole thing. Once he realized that Han Xuhan was heading towards the edge of the island to jump off, he returned to the cabin in a hurry and informed Shen Mi and the rest about the strange incident.
"Where is it? Have you brought the talisman with you?" Shen Mi said anxiously. All of them had grown alarmed by Han Xuhan's odd actions. It was clear to them that he had other plans unbeknownst to everyone.
"No. It's right there, outside. I didn't touch it fearing that might trigger something," he answered.
"Talismans are complex constructs. It's good that you thought of that."
All of them rushed out of the cabin to see what Han Xuhan had left in the yard. The talisman was still where he had left it, glowing dimly with a green light along the patterns drawn on it, powered by heavily compressed qi and qi conduits.
They surrounded the paper and observed its patterns.
"What do you think, sister Xueshi? You know the most about talismans among us," Shen Mi said uneasily.
"...This...it looks like a signal-type pulsar formation," Ning Xueshi said slowly, her mind racing to judge its characteristics.
"Signal? Of what?!" Shen Mi wondered aloud, echoing everyone's thoughts.
Right then, a final pulse spread out of the paper on the ground, enveloping all of them. As the bright light faded, they discovered that.... nothing had happened.
Whatever this signal was meant for, they couldn't see any results.
Yet, Shen Mi couldn't shake off the feeling that something was off.
On top of the highest summit belonging to the Gladiator Guild, three figures sat amidst a pile of motionless bodies. The brown soil was painted with fresh blue blood, the sources of which were the dozens of wounded bodies.
"Martial brother Wu, how did your night go?"
Xiao Wu didn't seem to appreciate the mirth in her tone. He replied snappily.
"I almost died several times throughout the last night. martial sister. Would it hurt you to not sound like you're enjoying my misfortune?"
Yuen Zhou's grin got more pronounced. "I told you to obey my orders yesterday. Serves you right to be confined within that trap. You're already lucky enough to not have entered any of the restricted zones in the void. Death would be the only outcome in that case."
Xiao Wu's countenance turned somewhat fearful as he recalled his experience inside the trap arranged by the disciples of the Gladiator Guild.
"You can't trust anyone's appearance these days," he muttered to himself. "Even those brutish fellows can set up such elaborate traps...it's unbelievable!"
At this moment, Mu Ran, who had been meditating calmly until now, opened his eyes abruptly as if alerted by something.
Both Yuen Zhou and Xiao Wu turned to look at him as he leaped to his feet and pulled a green metal tube out of a pocket of his frayed robe. The tube was as thick as a finger. Both ends of the tube were open, but they could see an unnatural array of colorful lights dancing inside the tube.
"Looks like it's started," Mu Ran commented in a grave voice. "We need water, something transparent, at least."
Xiao Wu sprinted away, returning ten precious seconds later with a bowl. Mu Ran looked at the bowl he was being presented with. His expression turned gloomy.
"I asked for water, Xiao Wu," he said in a voice that was struggling not to rise to its highest, strongest pitch.
"I know that. But if you need water, you'll certainly need something to hold the water, right?" Xiao Wu replied.
"Good job. Now we're just missing the most important element of the spell...the water."
Xiao Wu's short temper flared up once again as he perceived the authoritative disapproval in Mu Ran's tone.
"Why don't you piss on it, martial brother?" he growled. "Xuhan told me you love pissing on random objects. I brought the bowl, now you provide the main element since you're apparently the boss here."
Mu Ran sent him an incensed look. Had he not been overly concerned with what the metal tube would show them, he would have beaten some sense into Xiao Wu right then and there.
But this was not the time to argue. He looked around for sources of water, only to find Yuen Zhou holding a wine gourd in her hand.
"This will do," she said while snatching the bowl out of Xiao Wu's hands.
Once the wine filled the bowl to its brim, Mu Ran held the green tube vertically one foot above the still liquid, just as Leng Qing had instructed them to.
The dancing colorful rays from within the tube fell on the wine. Slowly, a picture formed inside the wine. Instead of reflecting the three faces towering above the bowl, the wine showed the reflection of a brightly lit room.
It was as if someone had opened a window that connected the room with the Gladiator Guild's highest arena! They could see and hear everything that went on inside that room from here!
They could see the entire room from their vantage point. One young man occupied a seat by the bed, his eyes focused on the door as if expecting somebody.
To seemingly nobody in particular, the young man suddenly whispered, "A game begins... now."
Mu Ran, Yuen Zhou, and Xiao Wu knew who the words were meant for. Their focus gathered on the door of the bedroom.
From beyond the door, someone coughed loudly.
"Come in, fellow cultivator, come in," Leng Qing said from his recliner. His eyes flickered towards the magical 'window' through which the three martial siblings had become an audience to this destined meeting.
All three of them took a sharp breath as Han Xuhan walked in through the door.
* * * * * *
As Han Xuhan handed the vial to Shen Mi, he noticed a stiff look taking shape on Leng Qing's face. Whether it was because of the poison acting up inside his bloodstream or something else...he did not know.
What he did know was that if Leng Qing's ability to predict the future so intricately was real, then he would have been able to predict this ambush as well.
But he had not managed to do so. Leng Qing had jumped right into the trap Han Xuhan had set.
Shen Mi pushed Leng Qing down on the recliner and examined the small wound on his neck for a moment before grimacing. She probably didn't know what poison Han Xuhan had used on the crossbow bolt.
It had been worth it to purchase a bundle of that unique sedative from the treasury yesterday. Grown only in the herb gardens with an improvised formula, this heavy sedative could even knock out tonnes-heavy elephants.
Elder Shen had been so happy with the fact that he had finally paid for an item that he hadn't even enquired what he would do with such a powerful medicine.
Shen Mi uncapped the vial and practically forced Leng Qing to drink up. Leng Qing's eyes flickered a couple of times to the window beside his recliner as if expecting somebody to come and rescue him from his current predicament.
Ten seconds after the first mouthful went down his throat, Leng Qing's eyes lost focus. His pupils rolled back and his muscles relaxed suddenly. To Shen Mi and her team, Leng Qing looked no different from someone who had been knocked out.
Sensing their aggressive questioning gaze, Han Xuhan didn't bat an eyelid to reply, "The antidote won't take effect so fast. The poison in the crossbow bolt can paralyze those with a weak physical constitution. But don't worry, he'll be fine since he has had the antidote. We'll probably need to wait several hours to see him recover, though."
"Those with weak physical constitution? Leng Qing is a body cultivator! A weak physical constitution is the last thing he needs to worry about!" One of Shen Mi's teammates expressed her doubts directly.
Her rebuttal was supported by the rest of the team. It was indeed rather suspicious to hear that a body cultivator had fallen to poison.
Han Xuhan wore a disdainful look on his face.
"Do you guys have some misconception about what's considered 'weak'? The poison in my crossbow isn't something a mere body cultivator at the fifth layer can counter. If he was at the peak of the Physique Transformation Realm, perhaps the result could have been different."
Shen Mi and her fellow disciples looked flabbergasted. Perhaps the scene of an early fourth-layer cultivator calling a fifth-layer body cultivator a weakling didn't quite seem right to them.
That's okay. Han Xuhan was more than glad to show them the errors in their worldview.
As they simmered in anger and frustration, Han Xuhan turned toward his minions and began to lecture them about the grave consequences of not obeying orders. Although everyone in the room was giving him looks of mild disbelief, Han Xuhan persisted in his effort to make himself be portrayed as a mere bystander to the entire ambush.
Almost half an hour passed by. Leng Qing showed no signs of waking up. Appearing rather nervous by his lack of improvement, Han Xuhan suggested something reasonable.
"Guys, should I return to my sect and ask the healers whether there's anything else we could do?"
Shen Mi gave him a doubtful look.
"You're not planning to escape responsibility if something happens to Brother Qing, are you?"
"Do you think Feng Jun is going to forgive me if I do that?" Han Xuhan replied.
"...I guess not."
Han Xuhan gathered his minions and walked out of the room. Behind him, Shen Mi subtly nodded at one of her teammates, who immediately got the hint and turned invisible to the naked eye.
Silently, he followed the foreigner named Han Xuhan.
As soon as Xuhan crossed the front yard of the cabin, he took out a paper talisman from inside his robe and placed it on the ground. Then he drew an arrow on the soil, pointing towards the cabin.
The young man silently following Xuhan clearly saw the whole thing. Once he realized that Han Xuhan was heading towards the edge of the island to jump off, he returned to the cabin in a hurry and informed Shen Mi and the rest about the strange incident.
"Where is it? Have you brought the talisman with you?" Shen Mi said anxiously. All of them had grown alarmed by Han Xuhan's odd actions. It was clear to them that he had other plans unbeknownst to everyone.
"No. It's right there, outside. I didn't touch it fearing that might trigger something," he answered.
"Talismans are complex constructs. It's good that you thought of that."
All of them rushed out of the cabin to see what Han Xuhan had left in the yard. The talisman was still where he had left it, glowing dimly with a green light along the patterns drawn on it, powered by heavily compressed qi and qi conduits.
They surrounded the paper and observed its patterns.
"What do you think, sister Xueshi? You know the most about talismans among us," Shen Mi said uneasily.
"...This...it looks like a signal-type pulsar formation," Ning Xueshi said slowly, her mind racing to judge its characteristics.
"Signal? Of what?!" Shen Mi wondered aloud, echoing everyone's thoughts.
Right then, a final pulse spread out of the paper on the ground, enveloping all of them. As the bright light faded, they discovered that.... nothing had happened.
Whatever this signal was meant for, they couldn't see any results.
Yet, Shen Mi couldn't shake off the feeling that something was off.
