The vast emptiness above was complemented by the endless plains beneath. Han Xuhan had never quite had the time or curiosity to explore the seemingly infinite blank space outside his dao tower, always too busy with matters inside the stark-white building.
But today, he was forced to stop, see, and think of ideas that had never been conceived in his mind.
After realizing that he had once again lost control of his body, the first thing he had done was to force his consciousness to fight back against this foreign control.
Needless to say, he had been unsuccessful. Just when he had been about to give up, he had felt the tiniest trace of mental connection to his body reforming.
Han Xuhan had used it to its maximum utility to run a small, simple circuit of qi, barely completing it.
This had helped his consciousness sink into the depths of his mind where the ethereal dao tower existed.
He knew he had to negotiate once more with the senior hiding there. The man had clearly said that he would leave him alone. Han Xuhan had trusted him, only to find out now that the senior had not kept his words. Moreover, somehow even his master Kong Ye and his martial siblings had discovered the existence of the senior.
It didn't make any sense to him. He could only resolve his doubts here, inside the dao tower.
However, when the tower surfaced in front of his consciousness, Han Xuhan found himself in a bigger bucket of doubts.
This was not his dao tower, not the one he knew.
In front of him lay three buildings. Two of them were square-shaped, simple in outline. Between them was a...swimming pool, filled with what appeared to be bluish, liquified qi. The pool was circular in shape, its edge surrounded by a foot-high wall made up of the same substance as the other two buildings.
These weren't, however, the only objects there. Strewn across the sandy ground, countless pieces of bricks, slabs of concrete, and shards of iron rods could be found everywhere. It was as if another building here had been demolished down to its smallest units just recently.
Han Xuhan put two and two together, forming a hypothesis regarding the changes his dao tower had undergone.
Back when he had discarded his own body and cultivation for Fang Xie's body, his dao tower was supposed to be destroyed according to the technique provided by Lady Caizhi.
However, the senior possessing him had revealed that the technique she had given to him was faulty, and instead of fully destroying his dao tower, the technique had preserved it, giving birth to a strange phenomenon where the owner of the dao tower was not the owner of the body that carried the dao tower.
The essence of cultivation contained three subjects. The body was the material subject, the mind was the ethereal subject, and the meridians filled with qi were the semi-material, semi-ethereal subject that connected the mind with the body, thus paving the road to forming and building the dao tower. Without mental connection, it could not exist, and similarly, without a physical carrier, it could not exist either.
In his case, the mind had no connection to the body. But it could draw upon a different body to connect to his dao tower. Yet, being connected to the dao tower meant being connected indirectly to his old body again, which would create a paradoxical state, because one mind cannot coexist in two living bodies capable of forming two different dao towers. It was a gross violation of the heavenly law. And naturally, this had attracted the heavenly tribulation at that time, forcing Han Xuhan to return back inside his dao tower.
Looking at the remains of his old dao foundation, Han Xuhan had nothing to say except, "...What a mess."
He floated over to one of the buildings and pushed on its door, only to come to a halt.
It wouldn't budge. The door was locked, and nothing he did changed that. This was a first for him. Inside his dao tower, there had never been a single brick fully out of his control. Now this entire tower seemed like a foreign object capable of defying his will.
Han Xuhan floated over to the other building. Same result. He couldn't get inside. As for the swimming pool of qi, he could not step past the foot-high rim surrounding it either.
"Oh...no, no, no. These three separate buildings... Are they the individual dao towers of my three minions?"
The theory seemed more and more likely as he observed the surroundings. That meant, the innumerable bricks and concrete lying around the three towers belonged to his original tower, the portion that solely belonged to him!
"Senior! Senior, where are you?!" Han Xuhan yelled, fury and frustration leaking through his voice.
"He's not here," said an unfamiliar voice.
Han Xuhan swerved around and found himself facing an unbelievable sight.
'He' was standing a dozen meters away, dressed in a formal black suit. A dull smile hung on his face, and a malicious gaze occupied his eyes.
"....You, wha-"
"Yes, it's me, Han Xuhan. Just not the same Han Xuhan you are."
This person standing in front of him was none other than he himself.
"...Who are you?" Han Xuhan said in a raspy voice. "Where is the senior?"
The Han Xuhan in the black suit shrugged. "You wanted him gone. He's gone. I believe he warned you of the grave consequences of your action. I am the consequence. An individual cannot form two different dao towers. But since when were we an individual? You are Han Xuhan, born and raised on this planet. I am Han Xuhan, born, raised, and dead on planet Earth. We have the same set of unified memories, and the same goals of survival. But we are not one. Since you created the opportunity to be separated, the heavenly law was more than willing to assist us with the separation."
Han Xuhan, who had looked terrified until now, suddenly began to chuckle. The Xuhan in black froze upon seeing his relieved expression.
"What's so funny?"
"I'm laughing because you're lying," Han Xuhan said.
"What makes you think so?"
"Even though I had no control over my body, I could see you fighting martial sister Zhou. The Han Xuhan from Earth may be many things, but a martial artist capable of avoiding the continuous assault of a sixth-layer cultivator isn't one of those. He couldn't even beat the current me in a fight, let alone someone as skillful as Yuen Zhou!"
"Tsk, had I my way, you would have been locked here from the start. But it wasn't easy surviving the body-to-body transfer. At least I'm finally in charge now. You can do nothing about it even if you know this. I have all of your memories. I'll just wake up and pretend I'm you. The only reason your master was able to perceive my existence was because of the gradual takeover of your body. He won't perceive any anomaly now that I've fully possessed your body."
The other Xuhan didn't change his appearance even after being caught lying, insinuating that he didn't intend to reveal his true self at all, whoever he was.
"So why have you kept me around? Just erase me or something if you're so capable. Me being here is just gonna be a constant source of worry for you. What if my master discovers my existence when he's examining this redesigned dao tower of yours? You know he's capable of that," Han Xuhan said in a light tone.
The false Xuhan groaned.
"That master Ye is too pervasive. His patron Celestial has broken too many rules. He should worry more about himself."
"...What?" Han Xuhan asked in confusion.
Right then, Han Xuhan felt a tremor surging through his very existence. Even as a spiritual body, he felt like a giant being assaulted with innumerable tiny arrows.
The false Xuhan was faring even worse than him. His composed appearance completely broke apart, revealing a mass of black smoke that writhed around, emitting agonized screams.
Amidst the pain, Han Xuhan felt a foreign power tugging his consciousness out of the dao tower. Suddenly, he found himself opening his eyes, back inside his body, fully in control of himself.
Kong Ye was standing right in front of him, holding what appeared to be a talisman of some sort.
"Disciple! I used the Mindkiller Poison to damage his soul! Use this opportunity to fight for control!" Kong Ye shouted excitedly.
"How?!" Han Xuhan asked.
"He will try to take over control of your body. Keep fighting with his mental influence over your limbs! Constantly move them around so that he is always distracted in his attempts to take control of your limbs. Use the lapse in his distraction to keep pushing him back!"
Understanding the method, Han Xuhan tried to flail all of his limbs around chaotically, only to realize that at some point, the other Xuhan had returned and snatched the control back!
But even as he opened his mouth to shout for help, nothing came out. Han Xuhan realized that the other Xuhan had just used his temporary freedom to fool Kong Ye into thinking that he was recovering. This wasn't a fight for control, really. This was an attempt to hoodwink everyone into believing that the original Xuhan was winning!
"Is it working?" Kong Ye roared in excitement, watching his vigorous movements.
"I'm doing it! I'm fighting him off!" The false Xuhan shouted in fervor.
Han Xuhan tried to sense something, anything that he still had a bit of control over. With a start, he realized that he could still control his qi to some extent just like the last time.
But going back inside the dao tower to argue with the new occupier of his body wasn't really going to produce anything fruitful. So what could he do with the qi? Signal to Kong Ye? That would just create a repeated cycle of deception like the current situation.
Perhaps...there was a way.
Han Xuhan ran a family cycle of qi, resulting in the summoning of Zhanxian.
The moment the red skeleton landed on the ground, it let out a hysterical yell.
"He confined me inside a room! Don't believe him! He's not my master!"
So Zhanxian had been locked up inside one of those two towers?
Kong Ye turned to look at Xuhan with a hint of suspicion in his eyes.
"I didn't do it! It was the other guy!" The false Xuhan shouted angrily.
Just as Kong Ye was about to nod, Han Xuhan pulled out a drop of qi from his meridians and launched it at his face. The false Xuhan didn't notice such a tiny anomaly amidst his chaotic flailing. Kong Ye, however, realized what was happening immediately.
A second syringe of Mindkiller Poison appeared in his hand as he leaped over and jammed it into Xuhan's neck.
Once again, Han Xuhan found himself back in control of his body after a moment of terrible mental discomfort.
"Zhanxian! Visualize the glyph!" he roared immediately.
"The wha- Oh! I got it!"
Zhanxian wasn't the smartest when it came to schemes. But he wasn't a fool either. He realized what Xuhan wanted to do.
Master and minion started visualizing the glyph together on the spot. Stroke by stroke, pattern after pattern were constructed in their minds. Due to the merit of repeated learning through memory sequences, both of them had little trouble with completing the visualization.
Halfway through the process, Han Xuhan lost control of his body. But he didn't even need it at this point. He only needed the clarity of his mind to construct the glyph from memory.
"I did it!" Zhanxian roared suddenly. "I'm holding on to it! Hurry!"
The false Xuhan immediately tried to advance toward the red skeleton, hoping to interrupt him. But Kong Ye jumped forward with another syringe in his hand.
"Where the fuck are you even getting those?!" The false Xuhan screeched in fury as he was struck with the Mindkiller poison for the third time.
Getting the control of his body back, Han Xuhan immediately shouted, "Zhanxian, guide me through the last segment! I'm having trouble!"
With Zhanxian's accurate instructions, he managed to complete the glyph.
The moment the glyph became complete, Han Xuhan lost track of all of his senses, his consciousness jarred by a cold, numbing blow.
The vast emptiness above was complemented by the endless plains beneath. Han Xuhan had never quite had the time or curiosity to explore the seemingly infinite blank space outside his dao tower, always too busy with matters inside the stark-white building.
But today, he was forced to stop, see, and think of ideas that had never been conceived in his mind.
After realizing that he had once again lost control of his body, the first thing he had done was to force his consciousness to fight back against this foreign control.
Needless to say, he had been unsuccessful. Just when he had been about to give up, he had felt the tiniest trace of mental connection to his body reforming.
Han Xuhan had used it to its maximum utility to run a small, simple circuit of qi, barely completing it.
This had helped his consciousness sink into the depths of his mind where the ethereal dao tower existed.
He knew he had to negotiate once more with the senior hiding there. The man had clearly said that he would leave him alone. Han Xuhan had trusted him, only to find out now that the senior had not kept his words. Moreover, somehow even his master Kong Ye and his martial siblings had discovered the existence of the senior.
It didn't make any sense to him. He could only resolve his doubts here, inside the dao tower.
However, when the tower surfaced in front of his consciousness, Han Xuhan found himself in a bigger bucket of doubts.
This was not his dao tower, not the one he knew.
In front of him lay three buildings. Two of them were square-shaped, simple in outline. Between them was a...swimming pool, filled with what appeared to be bluish, liquified qi. The pool was circular in shape, its edge surrounded by a foot-high wall made up of the same substance as the other two buildings.
These weren't, however, the only objects there. Strewn across the sandy ground, countless pieces of bricks, slabs of concrete, and shards of iron rods could be found everywhere. It was as if another building here had been demolished down to its smallest units just recently.
Han Xuhan put two and two together, forming a hypothesis regarding the changes his dao tower had undergone.
Back when he had discarded his own body and cultivation for Fang Xie's body, his dao tower was supposed to be destroyed according to the technique provided by Lady Caizhi.
However, the senior possessing him had revealed that the technique she had given to him was faulty, and instead of fully destroying his dao tower, the technique had preserved it, giving birth to a strange phenomenon where the owner of the dao tower was not the owner of the body that carried the dao tower.
The essence of cultivation contained three subjects. The body was the material subject, the mind was the ethereal subject, and the meridians filled with qi were the semi-material, semi-ethereal subject that connected the mind with the body, thus paving the road to forming and building the dao tower. Without mental connection, it could not exist, and similarly, without a physical carrier, it could not exist either.
In his case, the mind had no connection to the body. But it could draw upon a different body to connect to his dao tower. Yet, being connected to the dao tower meant being connected indirectly to his old body again, which would create a paradoxical state, because one mind cannot coexist in two living bodies capable of forming two different dao towers. It was a gross violation of the heavenly law. And naturally, this had attracted the heavenly tribulation at that time, forcing Han Xuhan to return back inside his dao tower.
Looking at the remains of his old dao foundation, Han Xuhan had nothing to say except, "...What a mess."
He floated over to one of the buildings and pushed on its door, only to come to a halt.
It wouldn't budge. The door was locked, and nothing he did changed that. This was a first for him. Inside his dao tower, there had never been a single brick fully out of his control. Now this entire tower seemed like a foreign object capable of defying his will.
Han Xuhan floated over to the other building. Same result. He couldn't get inside. As for the swimming pool of qi, he could not step past the foot-high rim surrounding it either.
"Oh...no, no, no. These three separate buildings... Are they the individual dao towers of my three minions?"
The theory seemed more and more likely as he observed the surroundings. That meant, the innumerable bricks and concrete lying around the three towers belonged to his original tower, the portion that solely belonged to him!
"Senior! Senior, where are you?!" Han Xuhan yelled, fury and frustration leaking through his voice.
"He's not here," said an unfamiliar voice.
Han Xuhan swerved around and found himself facing an unbelievable sight.
'He' was standing a dozen meters away, dressed in a formal black suit. A dull smile hung on his face, and a malicious gaze occupied his eyes.
"....You, wha-"
"Yes, it's me, Han Xuhan. Just not the same Han Xuhan you are."
This person standing in front of him was none other than he himself.
"...Who are you?" Han Xuhan said in a raspy voice. "Where is the senior?"
The Han Xuhan in the black suit shrugged. "You wanted him gone. He's gone. I believe he warned you of the grave consequences of your action. I am the consequence. An individual cannot form two different dao towers. But since when were we an individual? You are Han Xuhan, born and raised on this planet. I am Han Xuhan, born, raised, and dead on planet Earth. We have the same set of unified memories, and the same goals of survival. But we are not one. Since you created the opportunity to be separated, the heavenly law was more than willing to assist us with the separation."
Han Xuhan, who had looked terrified until now, suddenly began to chuckle. The Xuhan in black froze upon seeing his relieved expression.
"What's so funny?"
"I'm laughing because you're lying," Han Xuhan said.
"What makes you think so?"
"Even though I had no control over my body, I could see you fighting martial sister Zhou. The Han Xuhan from Earth may be many things, but a martial artist capable of avoiding the continuous assault of a sixth-layer cultivator isn't one of those. He couldn't even beat the current me in a fight, let alone someone as skillful as Yuen Zhou!"
"Tsk, had I my way, you would have been locked here from the start. But it wasn't easy surviving the body-to-body transfer. At least I'm finally in charge now. You can do nothing about it even if you know this. I have all of your memories. I'll just wake up and pretend I'm you. The only reason your master was able to perceive my existence was because of the gradual takeover of your body. He won't perceive any anomaly now that I've fully possessed your body."
The other Xuhan didn't change his appearance even after being caught lying, insinuating that he didn't intend to reveal his true self at all, whoever he was.
"So why have you kept me around? Just erase me or something if you're so capable. Me being here is just gonna be a constant source of worry for you. What if my master discovers my existence when he's examining this redesigned dao tower of yours? You know he's capable of that," Han Xuhan said in a light tone.
The false Xuhan groaned.
"That master Ye is too pervasive. His patron Celestial has broken too many rules. He should worry more about himself."
"...What?" Han Xuhan asked in confusion.
Right then, Han Xuhan felt a tremor surging through his very existence. Even as a spiritual body, he felt like a giant being assaulted with innumerable tiny arrows.
The false Xuhan was faring even worse than him. His composed appearance completely broke apart, revealing a mass of black smoke that writhed around, emitting agonized screams.
Amidst the pain, Han Xuhan felt a foreign power tugging his consciousness out of the dao tower. Suddenly, he found himself opening his eyes, back inside his body, fully in control of himself.
Kong Ye was standing right in front of him, holding what appeared to be a talisman of some sort.
"Disciple! I used the Mindkiller Poison to damage his soul! Use this opportunity to fight for control!" Kong Ye shouted excitedly.
"How?!" Han Xuhan asked.
"He will try to take over control of your body. Keep fighting with his mental influence over your limbs! Constantly move them around so that he is always distracted in his attempts to take control of your limbs. Use the lapse in his distraction to keep pushing him back!"
Understanding the method, Han Xuhan tried to flail all of his limbs around chaotically, only to realize that at some point, the other Xuhan had returned and snatched the control back!
But even as he opened his mouth to shout for help, nothing came out. Han Xuhan realized that the other Xuhan had just used his temporary freedom to fool Kong Ye into thinking that he was recovering. This wasn't a fight for control, really. This was an attempt to hoodwink everyone into believing that the original Xuhan was winning!
"Is it working?" Kong Ye roared in excitement, watching his vigorous movements.
"I'm doing it! I'm fighting him off!" The false Xuhan shouted in fervor.
Han Xuhan tried to sense something, anything that he still had a bit of control over. With a start, he realized that he could still control his qi to some extent just like the last time.
But going back inside the dao tower to argue with the new occupier of his body wasn't really going to produce anything fruitful. So what could he do with the qi? Signal to Kong Ye? That would just create a repeated cycle of deception like the current situation.
Perhaps...there was a way.
Han Xuhan ran a family cycle of qi, resulting in the summoning of Zhanxian.
The moment the red skeleton landed on the ground, it let out a hysterical yell.
"He confined me inside a room! Don't believe him! He's not my master!"
So Zhanxian had been locked up inside one of those two towers?
Kong Ye turned to look at Xuhan with a hint of suspicion in his eyes.
"I didn't do it! It was the other guy!" The false Xuhan shouted angrily.
Just as Kong Ye was about to nod, Han Xuhan pulled out a drop of qi from his meridians and launched it at his face. The false Xuhan didn't notice such a tiny anomaly amidst his chaotic flailing. Kong Ye, however, realized what was happening immediately.
A second syringe of Mindkiller Poison appeared in his hand as he leaped over and jammed it into Xuhan's neck.
Once again, Han Xuhan found himself back in control of his body after a moment of terrible mental discomfort.
"Zhanxian! Visualize the glyph!" he roared immediately.
"The wha- Oh! I got it!"
Zhanxian wasn't the smartest when it came to schemes. But he wasn't a fool either. He realized what Xuhan wanted to do.
Master and minion started visualizing the glyph together on the spot. Stroke by stroke, pattern after pattern were constructed in their minds. Due to the merit of repeated learning through memory sequences, both of them had little trouble with completing the visualization.
Halfway through the process, Han Xuhan lost control of his body. But he didn't even need it at this point. He only needed the clarity of his mind to construct the glyph from memory.
"I did it!" Zhanxian roared suddenly. "I'm holding on to it! Hurry!"
The false Xuhan immediately tried to advance toward the red skeleton, hoping to interrupt him. But Kong Ye jumped forward with another syringe in his hand.
"Where the fuck are you even getting those?!" The false Xuhan screeched in fury as he was struck with the Mindkiller poison for the third time.
Getting the control of his body back, Han Xuhan immediately shouted, "Zhanxian, guide me through the last segment! I'm having trouble!"
With Zhanxian's accurate instructions, he managed to complete the glyph.
The moment the glyph became complete, Han Xuhan lost track of all of his senses, his consciousness jarred by a cold, numbing blow.
