Ashes Of Heaven Book 1 : Solar Calamity

Han Xuhan's answer made Qian Yun do a double take. He instantly whipped around to gaze at the platform behind him, hidden by a thickening layer of fog.

As far as he could remember, there were only two cultivators whose judgment still displayed the 'pending' status after he had returned from the testing ground. One was Mu Ran, who was now lying down a few feet away, unconscious. The other one was...Yuen Zhou.

Now that he thought about it, he should have known something was up when he had taken his first look at the leaderboard. But back then, he had been distracted by Han Xuhan's 'exceptional' result and hadn't gotten the time to mull over the suspicious coincidence.

Yuen Zhou was a troublesome cultivator to deal with. Even from where he stood, he could see the silhouettes of her undead army standing still, not far away from the platforms, completely ignoring the ongoing conflict.

"Think about it, brother Yun. If Yuen Zhou comes out and doesn't become your lackey like that brother Feng crawling behind me, do you think you'll be in a good position? You might outnumber me, but her undead army outnumbers all of us. At that time, you'd be lucky to escape this place alive."

While kindly explaining the peril Qian Yun would face once Yuen Zhou returned, Han Xuhan took out a pair of knives from his robe. He didn't have a numerous supply of knives, as his only medium of carrying the weapons was his voluminous robe.

But they'd be enough to buy him some precious time. And right now, time was the only thing he needed.

"Now, the thing is, I might not be able to defeat the two of you once you attack me," Han Xuhan said in a weak tone.

"But I can definitely waste a lot of time fighting you off, and my martial sister Yuen Zhou should definitely return here by that time. After all, both Mu Ran and her tests seem to have followed a similar path."

His sentence barely finished, Han Xuhan suddenly pulled his arm back and whipped it toward Qian Yun.

Qian Yun had long noticed the unsubtle movements of the knives inside Han Xuhan's sleeves. He instantly held up a high-ranked contract document from his stack of papers.

To destroy the weakest of sentient contracts, one must exert superhuman strength. The higher the rank of a contract, the harder it is to damage it. And if the person attempting to damage the contract is someone who has already signed the contract...it is bound to be a futile endeavor no matter how powerful that cultivator is.

This was one of the most basic principles of sentient contract cultivation techniques.

Han Xuhan, as a cultivator at the second layer of the physique transformation realm, had absolutely no chance of affecting Qian Yun through this paper shield!

However, the impact he was expecting did not come.

Qian Yun peeked past the document he had shielded himself with and noticed Han Xuhan's empty hand, still completing the throwing motion.

Where did that knife go?

A dull tumbling sound from afar answered his question.

Even though Han Xuhan's skill in throwing knives was mediocre, he was a cultivator. And the speed he could throw things at was nothing to laugh at. The knife had never been intended to go at Qian Yun, rather, it had left Xuhan's hand when his arm was in mid-swing, hurling in the air behind him and striking the ground a few meters ahead of Feng Jun.

Due to the interference of the fog, weapons like throwing knives and arrows were ten times deadlier. But Feng Jun was a cultivator at the sixth layer of the physique transformation realm himself. No matter how fast Xuhan's knives were, his enhanced reflexes and agility were enough to save his skin. He came to a stop immediately and concealed his presence within the much thicker fog, biding his time for a new opportunity.

"Oops, missed that roach by just an inch or so," Ha Xuhan said without a hint of embarrassment at missing the target by a margin so huge.

"What a shame. Shen Kai would have gotten a new kindred soul. So anyways, as you can see, we are once again in a temporary stalemate. So how about you..." Xuhan trailed off, lost in thought.

"How about I what?" Qian Yun asked curiously.

"I just realized that I haven't thought of what to say after that part of my speech. Excuse me for a moment while I make something up," Xuhan answered, appearing distracted.

Qian Yun had already seen through Xuhan's attempts to buy time. But he didn't feel particularly threatened by Xuhan in any way. What could a single cultivator at the second layer of the physique transformation realm do here other than defend himself using these tricks?

It did not matter how much time Han Xuhan bought for himself. In the end, he was hardly a threat to Qian Yun's plans. Moreover, it wasn't as if he was in a hurry. With each passing second, his plans were coming closer to completion. Within a few minutes, this entire land of laws would fall within his grasp once more...

Wait, where did those thought come from?

Meanwhile, Han Xuhan finally managed to come up with a following part of his speech.

"Ah, right. Where were we? That part about being in a stalemate. So my thoughts on the current situation are... since both of us intend to buy time in our own ways, it seems that we have the same aim and we can work together. Why don't you keep standing there, and I'll keep standing here, and brother Feng Jun will keep crouching behind me like he's taking a dump until new variables to our battle are introduced. Sounds reasonable, right?"

Qian Yun sighed. This was getting ridiculous. How long did he need to keep listening to this clown? If he hadn't needed all the cultivators here alive and intact, he would have found a way to directly kill this eyesore by now.

Just as he was feeling conflicted over whether to just sacrifice this guy in front of him instead of using him for the purification process, another flash of violet light appeared on the platform.

Finally!

Qian Yun rejoiced silently. Another soul shard has been purified...

But the flash of light did not disappear as he had expected and instead got brighter. Concentrating hard, Qian Yun could sense a web of mental network connected to his mind appearing across the platform. As the violet light got brighter and brighter, the web of mental connection expanded continuously, strengthening his perception of the surroundings more and more, as well as giving him a certain feeling of control over everything around him.

A smirk appeared on Qian Yun's face. The wait had been worth it. Sixteen new chains of mental connection had appeared in his mind. The purification process is mostly completed. Other than the three soul shards that had been prepared for Han Xuhan, Mu Ran, and Yuen Zhou, the rest should have started assimilating with the main body...

Qian Yun turned to look at Han Xuhan, who had suddenly fallen silent after seeing the appearance of the violet lights.

The cultivators who had reappeared above the platform received Qian Yun's orders through the mental network. Sixteen silhouettes slowly walked over toward their position.

Han Xuhan started fidgeting nervously, making Qian Yun feel a rush of vengeful relish.

Once they had gotten close enough for them to see the newcomers, Qian Yun scanned for the familiar figure of Yuen Zhou. But she wasn't among them. Qian Yun immediately shouted out an order.

"Everyone, the cultivator who was controlling the undead army earlier might pose some problems once she returns. Take care of the zombies before she appears."

The cultivators nodded in acknowledgment of his order and rushed toward the zombies standing guard near the platform. Through the veil of the fog, Xuhan and Qian Yun could vaguely see the chaos that ensued. The zombies were slowly being pushed back, away from the platform, deeper into the fog.

Secretly, Qian Yun ordered two of the cultivators who were busy fighting to sneak around the area and attack Han Xuhan from two different directions. Then he ordered three other cultivators to stand guard near the platform and attack Yuen Zhou the moment she makes her appearance.

Using the fog and Qian Yun's mental directions, the two cultivators, combined with Feng Jun and Qian Yun himself soon surrounded Han Xuhan from all four directions, who was completely unaware of this fact.