Han Xuhan wasn't surprised to witness the super stylish method the infiltrators used to escape. He, however, was disappointed sorely. Since his entrance into Titanfall Archipelago, he himself had been the one to constantly get in trouble in foreign territories. This had been a golden opportunity to vent some of the frustrations his adventures had left him with. He really wanted to beat up a bunch of tied-up, powerless intruders.
"Xuhan? You managed to come back?"
"Whoa! When did you return?"
Both Mu Ran and Xiao Wu seemed to suddenly realize that the owner of the familiar voice should be out there fighting for his life in foreign sects. Eyes wide, the target of their attention shifted towards him.
"This morning. But we can talk about that later. Boss, do you require medical assistance to heal those injuries?" Xuhan asked after rushing into the grove. The enemy team was gone. There was no reason for him to hide behind trees and wait for backup.
Mu Ran rubbed the gashes on his back solemnly, watching the numerous disciples who had rushed forward from nearby regions pouring into the grove.
"I'll heal," he said, a displeased tone in his voice that didn't escape Han Xuhan's perception. Having predicted this subtle result, Xuhan didn't hesitate to apply the remedy. After all, how could Mu Ran publicly accept a defeat when he hadn't gone all out and revealed half of his secret trump cards?
"Boss, my apologies for interrupting your grand battle scheme. I was just too eager to teach those honourless scums a lesson. How could I bear to see my martial brothers be bullied?" He said while nodding implicitly at the inquisitive gazes targeting him. After all, everyone saw him being thrown off the floating island just yesterday. They were curious to know how he had made his return completely unscathed.
His words were loud, diverting the attention of all instantly. Everyone who had gotten a good glimpse of Mu Ran's injuries was stunned.
What the hell do you mean by interrupting his grand battle scheme? Was Mu Ran scheming to get himself killed in a grandiose fashion?
Even Mu Ran, an experienced praise-sponge, looked caught off guard.
"Eh? How did you know I had a battle scheme in mind?" he couldn't help but ask, a green tint coloring his face.
Han Xuhan snorted coldly, stretching his hands wide. "That Meng Shan is a mere frog in a well, to be bold enough to challenge boss. How could his meager schemes stand in front of absolute power? He just got lucky to have caught you by surprise, boss, that's all. I don't believe that there is a single physique transformation realm cultivator in this world who can overshadow you, boss."
The surrounding disciples had odd looks on their faces as they watched Han Xuhan kick up a fuss. It didn't take one to be a genius to understand that this guy was just buttering up Mu Ran for benefits. After all, Mu Ran was a renowned genius in Crimson Snow sect.
However, wasn't this going too far...? Mu Ran's bloodstained body and dust-coated face hardly gave off the aura of someone who had the upper hand in a fight. Although none of them had witnessed the battle, they could glean a lot from the results. To them, Han Xuhan's flowery speech nearly toed mockery...
Mu Ran, meanwhile, wiped off the embarrassed expression from his face and gracefully nodded.
"Not bad, not bad. Your battle instinct seems to have improved. I did indeed have a trump card ready to turn the tide. Who could have guessed that those cowardly dogs would run so suddenly? No matter, I'll meet them for sure in the future."
His musings were not uttered in a low volume, earning him some snickers from within the group of spectators. But both Mu Ran and Han Xuhan were too confident of themselves to care much about the opinions of the mediocre.
"Brother Wu, they didn't manage to injure you, did they?" Xuhan enquired, turning his attention to the dumbstruck Xiao Wu.
"Uh- no, I'm fine." He shook his head.
The disappointed crowd dispersed. So far, they had mostly fended off trials set by the organizers. Only once, a small team of infiltrators had been caught attempting to rob the vaults. How they managed to evade detection of the guards at the periphery of the island was still a mystery, as they had refused to spill the secret regardless of how 'persuasive' the enthusiastic disciples interrogating them were.
They knew that no one would dare to do anything too cruel in a friendly competition. The Crimson Snow sect had ended up chasing them away once the disciples understood this.
Being the thieves and robbers held an advantage over being the defenders.
It now appeared that the sects that had arrived earlier were already implementing sneaky tricks to evade detection upon crossing over to foreign sects.
Although most of them were small sects that hardly seemed like a threat, the infiltration by Beasthaven's disciples would light a fire among Han Xuhan's fellow disciples, that much he could predict.
Once the grove became devoid of prying eyes, Han Xuhan gestured at his martial brothers to follow him.
"Master and I were waiting for all of you to come attend today's lesson. But seeing that the two of you were late, master told me to come check up on you two," he explained on their way to Kong Ye's residence.
"Oh? Is he finally going to begin teaching astral cultivation?" Mu Ran asked, sulking. "I'm going to renounce him as my master if he doesn't hurry the hell up. I'm almost beginning to suspect that he isn't as skilled at astral combat as he boasted of."
Han Xuhan and Xiao Wu pointedly ignored the disrespectful threat. Xiao Wu's complexion seemed to have improved by the news. His footsteps carried a tad more vigor than before.
"Brother Wu, didn't you become master's disciple just to learn a spirit manifestation technique? Is that the manual those scums were trying to steal?"
Spirit manifestation... Spirit beasts... Shadowbeasts.
Han Xuhan had made the connections easily. Back when he had noticed how knowledgeable Xiao Wu was about the cultivation methods of the Beasthaven sect, much of which the boy had revealed during Luo Yi's arrival, the seed of suspicion had been planted in his mind. And now that he had gotten a glimpse of the situation Xiao Wu's family was in, a lot of the threads closed together to weave a picture, a very interesting picture.
But he was careful not to poke at the nest of stories hiding in that hole of secrets, leaving Xiao Wu with the freedom to choose whether to share those or not.
"What a shame! Now that you've sworn a heavenly oath, you can't even show the manual to master. How is he going to guide you into cultivating the technique?" Mu Ran sighed. "You shouldn't have been so rash. I had a plan to take them down."
Han Xuhan, about to pat Xiao Wu on the back to console him, went rigid as he noticed the hint of a sneaky smirk materializing on Xiao Wu's face.
"Wait...what did you do? There wasn't any loophole in the last oath!" He asked, mind firing up with all sorts of ridiculous possibilities. Mu Ran lost his composure as well, realizing something was up from Xiao Wu's expression.
"Xiao Wu, you're not thinking of breaking the oath, are you? I mean, it's not impossible but–cough!"
Mu Ran trailed off, ignoring the look of extreme interest from both of his martial brothers. Seeing that he wasn't about to complete that sentence anytime soon, Xiao Wu shook his head and laughed cheerfully.
"I swore that I would never reveal a word of that manual to anyone, ever, but..."
"You're not just going to reveal a word, but the whole thing at once?" Mu Ran asked, attempting to guess.
Both Xuhan and Xiao Wu sent him complex looks and once again, ignored his interjection.
"But the thing is...I have already revealed the whole manual to someone. So I don't need to break the oath in the future at all!"
"Who?!" Han Xuhan and Mu Ran collectively gasped.
"Master!" Xiao Wu answered with a proud smile. "I knew that I would be targeted by the members of the Nightblood faction for the manual. It's not the first time they've tried to snatch it! So I simply handed it over to the strongest cultivator I could trust! I always had a few decoy copies ready to fool others. So even if someone stole everything in my house, it wouldn't have been an issue. My anger and unwillingness were part of the act to strengthen their belief in my oath. I knew they'd manage to force me to hand the manual over sooner or later. It's the strongest sect of this world we're talking about, after all. All I wanted was time, and they stepped right into my trap."
Xiao Wu finished his explanation with an evil laugh. His victorious laughter traveled across the mountains surrounding them.
Their heart trodden by thousands of imaginary horses, Han Xuhan and Mu Ran kept silent, not sure whether to feel overjoyed about the fact that he had successfully fooled the enemy, or feel humiliated by the fact that they had been fooled too.
"By the way, martial brother Ran, didn't you say they stole something from you first?" Xiao Wu suddenly enquired.
"Yeah. Bastards stole that funny aura crystal of mine after drugging me in my room. If only my cultivation was a bit higher, I wouldn't have fallen asleep..." Mu Ran gloomily punched empty air.
Han Xuhan immediately recalled his trip to Mu Ran's house half an hour ago, back when he had just returned from the Sunrider Sect. He had sensed Mu Ran sleeping deeply at that time...No wonder! Were the thieves inside his hut when he had knocked?
A chill ran down his back, thinking of the possibilities. He had surely escaped a disaster there by not barging in!
Cough...Mu Ran didn't need to know that, though.
"The aura crystal? Out of all things, they stole just that?" Xiao Wu asked, surprised.
"I know, right? It's like they're looking down on my treasures! Those bumpkins probably didn't even recognize how precious and rare the treasures in my room are! Hmph!" Mu Ran snorted angrily.
"Wait a minute, when I first found you two fighting those guys, that Meng Shan was saying something about an elder Di Qian, right?" Han Xuhan recalled, a grave premonition taking shape in his heart.
Xiao Wu sent him a measured look. "Elder Di Qian is an elite member of the Beasthaven sect's Deepworld faction. Do you know him?"
Once again, Han Xuhan and Mu Ran were stunned into silence.
"Fuck!"
"Heavens!"
A collective series of curses colored the peaceful trip to Kong Ye's dwelling.