Ashes Of Heaven Book 1 : Solar Calamity

If one were to ask Han Xuhan how unfortunate he was, he would answer that he was quite unlucky, but not terribly so.

After all, even though he had been screwed by fortune countless times, he was still having the time of his life playing around in super mysterious realms, exploring all sorts of interesting cultivation techniques. How many humans from earth would be jealous of him if they heard about his incredible adventures?

Moreover, there were many others whose fates were s dozens of times more miserable than him. For example, Mu Ran, who was now as powerful as a tied up chicken with all of his qi gone, surrounded by the creepy legion of cultivators under Qian Yun's commands.

Then there was martial sister Yuen Zhou. That poor lass had finally made her appearance right after the seal had activated fully. The second she had appeared, countless spells had hit her right in the face. As she was also instantly affected by the Seal of Myriad Laws, she wasn't even able to put up a fight.

Now she was sitting beside Mu Ran with both of their hands and feet tied up. Of course, Han Xuhan was in a similar position as well, but at least he had been spared the spell attacks both Mu Ran and Yuen Zhou had suffered because he had been captured much more easily.

Such is life...a hero does not always win, unlike fiction. Sometimes escaping was the only way!

"Hey, brother Xuhan, you look quite bored. Why don't you chat with me for a bit?"

Qian Yun sat down in front of the most suspicious guy among the trio of cultivators they had captured.

The other two, Mu Ran and Yuen Zhou, were sufficiently powerful, with lots of secret techniques at their disposal. But Qian Yun could not figure out exactly how or why Han Xuhan had managed to evade the trap in the third stage of the inheritance test. Logically speaking, unless he knew some secrets about this place beforehand, it should be very difficult for anyone to evade it. Qian Yun still needed to wait for a while for the main body to finish its assimilation. He wanted to utilize that bit of time to figure out exactly where he had made a mistake while planning the purification process.

"Sure, brother Yun. I had some things I wanted to ask as well. Let's talk." Han Xuhan nodded lightly and squirmed a bit, leaning back on Mu Ran and Yuen Zhou who were tied up behind him, getting into a comfortable sitting posture.

"You stink," Mu Ran muttered.

"You're getting your sweat on me," Yuen Zhou added.

Han Xuhan ignored them both. Human cushions were truly comfortable. This wasn't the time to practice democracy and listen to every useless opinion. This was the time to make a comfortable final stand.

"Don't interrupt me when I'm about to have my big brain moment, my martial siblings," he said to the two before concentrating on Qian Yun and sorting out his thoughts. Curious to see what the two would converse about, Mu Ran and Yuen Zhou fell silent.

Qian Yun leaned over and unmasked Xuhan's face for all to see. Han Xuhan's expression turned sour at that.

"I'm not some jade beauty you lot need to behold. Put the mask back where it belonged," he ordered in a gloomy tone.

"Just making sure to recognize your face, brother Han. Same goes for your siblings."

Mu Ran and Yuen Zhou we're subsequently unmasked as well.

"What did you do in the third test, brother Xuhan ? The leaderboard says you failed twice..." Qian Yun put the masks back on their faces and directly approached the question that had been bothering him the most at the moment.

"Ah, good question, brother Yun. If I were to answer directly...I just took a look at the two orbs that were provided to me by the representatives. But I failed to come up with any suitable law fragments.

Yeah...that's it. But if you want a longer explanation, I can share that too."

Qian Yun opened his mouth to say something but got stuck halfway. He wanted to shout that any cultivator who had passed the circle of laws should have been able to use the alphabets in the orbs to create a law fragment. Unless...of course...

"You didn't absorb the qi in the orbs," Qian Yun muttered.

Han Xuhan laughed.

"Seeing how fast you were able to figure out the issue, it seems like my guess was correct. The qi in the orb really was problematic!

I'll have to admit, that was a good trap. To enter the third stage, one has to expel their entire qi reserve. But to perform in the test, they need qi, and that's where your trick comes in.

Tell me, brother Yun, what was mixed in the qi?"

Qian Yun gloomily stared back at Xuhan. After a long bout of silence, he spoke.

"Your answer has some inconsistencies. Why would you suspect the qi provided by the platform to begin with?"

Mu Ran and Yuen Zhou did not react to the news of polluted qi for some reason. Looking at their lack of shock, Qian Yun felt the doubts in his mind become thicker instead of clearing up.

"Of course, I do actually have reasons to suspect that particular mechanism," Han Xuhan replied in an amused tone.

"First of all, when I was inside the circle of laws, stuck deciphering all those law fragments, I noticed that a majority of the law fragments had something to do with restriction, suppression, punishment, reduction of powers above certain levels, strict rules that one must always abide by..."

Qian Yun nodded in agreement and said, "of course, how else would they keep out powerful entities with malicious intentions and curious cultivators who aren't worthy of the inheritance?"

"That I agree with wholeheartedly. But there was this one thought that had occured to me back then.

Don't these suppressive laws work both ways ? Does that mean a powerful being might actually be sealed here and the laws could have been placed to stop him from getting out?" Han Xuhan replied.

"The possibilities of either of these two theories being true are equal, right?"

The moment he finished speaking, the atmosphere around them became still and heavy.

Mu Ran's breathing had suddenly become irregular, which Han Xuhan could feel due to their closeness. He could also feel Yuen Zhou becoming tense behind him, like a coiled snake ready to spring out. But oddly enough, he could infer that she wasn't particularly surprised. The moment he had approached the topic of his suspicions regarding the circle of laws, Yuen Zhou's arms, which his back was leaning on, had become tense. It was a slow process, not one that stemmed from surprise.

Han Xuhan's eyes narrowed. It seemed that Mu Ran was not the only one with certain knowledge regarding the land of laws...

Hohoho, now this...this was getting interesting.

Setting those thoughts aside, Han Xuhan focused back on Qian Yun and realized that all seventeen cultivators were now gazing at him intensely. Something felt off about their gazes, but Xuhan could not put his finger on what it exactly was.

"Go on, continue your explanation. There should be more to it than just a plain 'what if' realization, right?" Qian Yun said finally.

With a genial smile, Han Xuhan nodded like a good boy and continued. He couldn't just resist showing off his deductive skills. It brought him immense satisfaction.

"You're correct. Now, going back to the time when I had just realized that this circle of laws can work both ways, my overly imaginative mind, influenced by my life experience that can be summed up as 'never trust a sudden fortuitous encounter', I began to cook up some theories as to what other aims can one accomplish through this test ground.

"The second time my suspicions became stronger was when all of us who had passed the first stage were forcibly converted into disciples of the Holy Land of Laws. Sure, it makes sense that it is a necessary precaution against various loopholes of the first stage, like cloning techniques. But later, after all four of us met and I got to relax a bit in the second stage, I reflected back onto my experience in this test. Some doubts inevitably popped out.

"Using the assumption that a powerful being might have been sealed here and the circle of laws were actually placed to suppress it, what would be the aim of practically enslaving the cultivators who enter this...jail?"

Qian Yun instantly interrupted Xuhan.

"It doesn't make any sense. Your theory contradicts that clue. Doesn't that mean it's not a possible route?"

"Indeed, it does. But if we are willing to use our imagination a bit and assume that the being who has been suppressed by the circle of laws is so incredibly powerful that the unsuspecting cultivators who barge into his jail would end up becoming obedient to him by various means, such as possession, mind control and other esoteric methods available to incredibly powerful beings, then it all actually falls into a logical chain of events.

Because that's when the third clue comes in.

"Obviously, the person who suppressed the powerful being here did not want him or her to break out easily. But seeing how advanced this Holy Land of laws is, one can easily figure out that random cultivators might end up trying to explore this place. The creator of the circle of laws would not want to let that happen since it would mean those cultivators would become puppets of the powerful being sealed inside.

"So the creator of the circle of laws designed such a mechanism that it would instantly make the talented cultivators disciples of the Holy Land, unable to ever betray their cause and never collude with the powerful being inside to harm this place in any way. Now, this also corroborates with the theory that there is a sealed being here and he intends to harm the land of laws.

"Now, let's fast forward a bit and think about the next stage, the second test where the cultivators have to fight each other for the power sources.

"If we're going by the main theory that all of it was a test of skills, it certainly makes sense, except it's incredibly brutal. The fog here is poisonous. There were several cultivators who died along the way or suffered worse fates like mutating into terrible zombies. If the Holy Land of Laws truly designed such a test, they'd have to be some sort of top notch demonic sect. But seeing how grand and developed the sect is, it is impossible for the the rest of the world to not know about the existence of such a demonic sect. And as far as my research tells me, there has been no established demonic sects in the last few centuries around the seven regions.

"As you can see, the theory that this stage is a test begins to contradict itself! The other theory begins to make more sense!

"So, let's shift to our secondary theory, and consider this stage to be a part of the seal that suppresses the powerful existence inside.

"Several details suddenly start making sense.

To deprive a cultivator of their power, the most important step is to make them unable to use their qi. But at higher level of cultivation, it is quite a difficult feat to achieve. Any powerful expert worth their salt would be able to find a loophole inside the techniques used to deprive them of their qi. No technique is invincible or unbreakable in the face of time.

"Thus, another important issue can be unraveled using this clue. The emerald orbs, the incredible power sources that litter the second stage like they aren't worth a coin. Had I not frequently bought artificially collected qi from my sect's treasury, I might not have noticed how precious they are. Each of those orbs can be sold for thousands of spirit stones.

"You get what I'm saying, don't you brother Yun ? These power sources were collected by depriving the powerful existence using various types of suppressive laws, like the Seal of Myriad Laws floating above our head right now. It certainly worked its part on us three by sucking up our qi, hehehe..."

Han Xuhan's carefree laughter rang through the silent land of laws. No one answered his rhetoric question.