"Have you thought out any answers to my question yet?" Kong Ye asked.
Han Xuhan and Co. stood side by side, feet planted firmly on the lowermost edge of the Heavenly Hailstorm mountain peak, just a dozen feet shy of a deadly drop.
"What do you think the first step should be if we want to accomplish today's objective?" Kong Ye reiterated his question.
"We can use water. Just transport a large amount of seawater from below and use a pipe to spray the water in every direction around the island. The regions where the spatial cracks are at the moment can be easily detected that way, I suppose," Yuen Zhou said.
Han Xuhan mentally slapped himself for never thinking of an idea so simple. It was much easier to implement compared to the chaotic plans he had been trying to formulate.
Kong Ye clapped his palms together, looking satisfied. But judging by the surprised expression he had been trying to hide, Han Xuhan surmised that he hadn't thought of that idea either.
"Excellent, excellent! You read my mind, disciple! That's a very good plan. But to collect that much seawater, you'd need more than the collective physical strength of you four. Do any of you know a technique that can help you?"
The four of them traded glances among themselves.
As far as Han Xuhan knew, Yuen Zhou practiced two techniques- a zombie-controlling technique and a flying sword-controlling technique. He had never seen either of them in the sect's archives.
Mu Ran's main technique was a crossbreed between martial arts and qi manipulation. Another technique he had seen him use was the Astral Heatwave spell, but neither should be useful here...
Xiao Wu practiced a technique to enhance his physical strength. Han Xuhan did not know whether he had any accomplishments in the spirit beast nurturing technique, but it did not seem likely.
As for Han Xuhan himself....he couldn't do much either.
Seeing the lack of feedback, Kong Ye sighed. "I can't help you here, disciples. And it's too late for you to learn the appropriate techniques to practice right now."
"So....can we go back and continue to cultivate?" Mu Ran asked hopefully.
Han Xuhan elbowed him from the back, not very subtly. This new routine was devised by Xuan Zi himself, and that man had made it clear that all disciples were obliged to participate. Not doing so just because they did not know any techniques to help them would be pretty disrespectful.
Han Xuhan still remembered his first meeting with Xuan Zi. Despite his easygoing nature, the sect master was not exactly a kind, sympathetic, reasonable fellow.
"We can think of other methods. It wouldn't be appropriate to go back right now," Xiao Wu spoke up.
Kong Ye nodded. "Take your time, but that doesn't mean you can just sit around and talk. There's a good reward awaiting the mountain peak whose disciples make the best progress, and naturally, the disciples whose performance can be ranked at the bottom will be given....some less-than-rewarding tasks."
Han Xuhan ran his thoughts faster than ever as soon as he heard that warning. Maybe watching the disciples from other mountain peaks might provide a clue?
However, from where they were standing, the numerous disciples he had seen at the peak were not visible. The few he could see seemed as puzzled as they were.
He tried his hardest to see if any abnormalities could be detected with his second vision, the Ghostsight. But it did not produce any results either, which made sense. The Ghostsight was a tool to see the Consciousness Matrix, not their current macrocosm. How would it have the ability to detect spatial cracks?
But right after he retracted his focus from the second vision, a rather blunt method took shape in his head.
"Boss," he prodded a sulking Mu Ran, saying, "Can you use your qi manipulation technique to create threads?"
Han Xuhan's plan was simple. Just like his previous encounter with these spatial cracks, he was going to execute a strategy best summarized as- throwing stones in the dark.
To examine so many spatial cracks, throwing rocks and soil at empty air was not a very effective approach. Otherwise, someone would have tried this already. It was hardly a genius solution. No one would resort to it unless they were as desperate as Han Xuhan had been at that time.
Moreover, there were still some doubts in his mind about how these cracks worked, which defeated a few of his other plans.
Threads made up of qi on the other hand were expendable. He wanted to use a large number of threads to fish for the cracks.
"Threads? Do you want to use them to dangle yourself down and look for the cracks?" Mu Ran asked.
"Not exactly," Xuhan replied, bending down to pick up a couple of small, but heavy rocks. "Boss, make me a qi thread. You'll see what I'm trying to do."
Under the curious eyes of the rest, Mu Ran began to harness qi from the surroundings. Kong Ye helped by drawing qi around from further away, increasing the production rate of the thread Mu Ran was producing.
"Helping my disciple cultivate doesn't break the rules," he said to their inquisitive looks. "I don't care what he does with the qi. From what I see, my disciple is simply trying to cultivate."
With a nasty smile on his face, Mu Ran sped up his accumulation and conversion of the qi from gaseous to liquid, and then to a solid state. Yuen Zhou began to help by cutting the solidified qi into cylindrical, thin shapes, as befitting a thick rope. Xiao Wu joined the teamwork by connecting the suitable chunks and constructing a long, smooth chain of solid qi.
As for Han Xuhan...he offered encouragement by cheering every few seconds.
"Awesome, boss! That chunk won't even need to be processed anymore. Brother Wu will add it to the chain right away."
"NICE! How do you even control that much qi at once? I can't even do one-tenth of that!"
"Wow! The transition from fluid to solid was so smooth!"
Of course, most of his praise was for Mu Ran, with a few reserved for Xiao Wu. Mu Ran did not need the cheers, but he wanted them. Xiao Wu did not want the cheers, but he needed them.
Kong Ye's gaze shifted between the two parties his disciples were divided in. When Han Xuhan met his eyes, he saw a faint shadow of admiration there.
This was respect to the hustle!
"Hey, underling, how long does this thread need to be?" Mu Ran said as the length of the joined chunks of qi crossed the ten-meter mark.
"Boss, surely this cannot be your limit!" Han Xuhan exclaimed in disbelief. "It needs to be much longer than that. In fact, the longer the thread becomes, the more useful it will be for you, for us."
Mu Ran nodded and went back to work. Despite his many shortcomings, this guy was an absolute beast in practical tasks. Even Yuen Zhou could not keep up with his speed and quality of performance, although she wouldn't lose by much.
In the meantime, Han Xuhan summoned Tun Shi Tian.
"Progress?" he said in a monotone.
"Just as you asked for. Two cycles away from completion of the claw armor." Tun Shi Tian appeared very honest and straightforward.
Zhanxian must have made it too obvious that he was being monitored. Perhaps the threat Han Xuhan had made was already known to the owl...exactly as Xuhan had envisioned.
He widened the smile on his face and gave Tun Shi Tian a look full of approval. "That's awesome! I totally forgive your earlier misconduct which resulted in the destruction of my house."
"...Uh, thanks, master. This one does not deserve such benevolence!"
Tun Shi Tian's panic was growing, and Han Xuhan was going to nurture this panic with much care.