"That is utterly ridiculous!"

"Thank you for your opinion, child."

The exchange between Yuen Zhou and Luo Yi ended on a short note right there. The revelation that all of them would have to rely on external sources of food as soon as their current stock ran out struck the disciples the hardest. As cultivators, all of them had a fairly large appetite, an appetite that grew day by day with their cultivation level. To feed so many hungry, super active stomachs, that too from purely marine sources?

That would quite possibly be one of the hardest tasks to get past.

The fact that they had been able to transport more than five hundred disciples belonging to several generations was no longer something they could quite be happy about. Now, more disciples just equalled more mouths to feed. No matter how much of a genius the disciples were, they were completely inexperienced in matters of hunting, fishing and preparing food suitable for a cultivator's appetite.

Insidious, ridiculous and humiliating! That was the only way to describe the elimination methods of the tournament.

"With that cleared up, let me clarify the role of Meatball here. He is going to be your eyes and ears whenever you need him to be, provided that it is permitted to let you use his talents. Once you embrace your missions here fully and learn to use every advantage you can find, you'll realize why he is truly necessary. Hopefully, that time shall come soon enough. In the meantime, I must trouble you with arranging a residence for me since I must accompany your sect at all times. And oh my, I would sure love the taste of the luxury I am used to in my sect. Who knows, I might even let slip some clues every once in a while. . . ."

"Ahem !"

The extremely loud cough from senior Tang, which HAD TO BE magically produced, Xuhan believed firmly, put a stop to Luo Yi's secretive smirk.

"Right, getting ahead of ourselves there. Surely, the honest, young disciples of the Crimson Snow Sect would rather compete righteously, regardless of the temptation of preferential treatment. My sincerest apologies for making such a hideous assumption. I meant no disrespect, senior Zi," she said with a short, 'fearful' bow toward Xuan Zi. The sect master looked mildly entertained at the whole drama.

The disciples exchanged dirty looks among themselves, realizing what their most important task for now was.

"Hmph, what a weak test! It is so obvious that she wants to examine whether we have the heart of true cultivators, to choose the hardest option rather than bow to such disgusting methods to get ahead of our peers. How can we call ourselves righteous if we choose to cheat? How can we pursue the heavenly dao when the dao tolerates no shortcuts?"

Yuen Zhou's remarks were truly enlightening. Han Xuhan privately agreed that her logic was flawless. But he also felt that the concept of 'righteousness' in the world of cultivation was stretchy. . . .to say the least.

And his opinion did not fly off the mark, it seemed, judging by the eager-to-please-mommy flavoured gazes that were being cast at Luo Yi at that moment from the vast disciple body.

"For now, Meatball shall display to you your tasks ahead," she declared, poking at one of the beast's scales. A collective gasp rose among the disciples as the beast's entire outer shell suddenly turned transparent, revealing the image of a giant scroll inside instead of organs. The scroll displayed a simple-looking chart listing the tasks they were to perform in near future.

The first and foremost was remodelling the sect, written colourfully, its strokes exuding dominance of a spiritual sort. This task also had a completion percentage box beneath it. The criteria for completion were not specified, leading Han Xuhan to form the impression that creativity might play a significant role in this task.

The second one was more complicated. It stated that the Crimson Snow Sect, as a singular competitor entity, had to maintain a survival rate of 60 percent and above per disaster. Every time the number of surviving disciples went down by more than 40 percent of the previous number, they would accumulate a single negative point. At the end of the preliminary round, the sects with the highest number of negative points would be eliminated. The number of sects bound for elimination was not provided. Han Xuhan contemplated the implication of this obscure detail for a long moment before arriving at the conclusion that based on the insidious methods of the event designers, there had to be some hidden rules of elimination or redemption for the sects. They would just have to find out the latter in case things went south.

Before he could concentrate on the rest of the tasks, Luo Yi interrupted his line of sight, seemingly preparing to speak once more.

"Well, your next disaster should arrive any moment now. So don't waste too much time. I'll be heading over to the rest of the newcomer sects for their introduction along with fellow cultivator Tang. I do hope to see substantial progress by the time I return. . . .especially with the residences and food, ahem! Any questions for now?"

Han Xuhan was feeling quite curious about one thing. Tentatively, he raised a hand and said,

"where are the rest of the sects? Aren't there other sects that reached this 'archipelago' before us? And where are the newcomers like us?"

Luo Yi smiled warmly. "Ah, I thought nobody would inquire about such an obvious issue! Finally! Come here, disciple Xuhan. Let big sister Yi show you how it is done."

". . . ." With deep suspicion in his eyes, Han Xuhan walked over to her.

"There, look!" She pointed at the sea behind her, beneath the floating mountains. Han Xuhan followed her direction and looked down from the edge of the island.

There was nothing under them except the clear blue sea. He turned to look at Luo Yi with a questioning gaze, only to see her hands snatching his robe by the collars at a speed too fast to follow.

"Hey!" My Ran's shout came from far away. Han Xuhan's world turned into a blurry, spinning mess as gravity suddenly seemed to disappear. The surface of the sea rushed toward his face.

"Ahhhhh-"

POP~

For a good few seconds, his consciousness went haywire, his thoughts in chaos.

Han Xuhan's scream came to an abrupt halt as his body hammered onto an incredibly soft, squirming substance, barely avoiding critical joint displacement from the fall.

No, he hadn’t landed on a curvy girl. This wasn’t a xianxia novel with trashy romance. . . .hopefully.

His landing turned out to be a cloud; a small bed-sized miniature version of the usual sort that could be found in the sky.

The cloud was exceptionally elastic, to the point where his body bounced twice before coming to a final stop, making his organs lurch around violently enough to keep him still on his back for a good ten seconds before finding the courage to move gingerly.

"For fuck's sake. . . ." Xuhan muttered to himself once he realized that he wasn't fatally injured from the fall. He wasn't injured at all, in all honesty. But his mental state certainly wasn't stellar.

He had just been thrown off a mountain to a sea. Logically speaking, he was supposed to find some super awesome legacy down on the seabed as he almost drowned to death; well, at least that's what transpired in cultivation stories. But he had landed on. . . .not sea, wherever it was. Moreover, Luo Yi didn't seem to have murderous intentions toward him either. Maybe he hadn't fulfilled those critical conditions in order for the cliche to happen.

"Hello there! A newcomer, are you? Which sect do you hail from, brother?" a voice came from his back, making Han Xuhan jump in fright. He had barely gotten back up on his feet. There hadn't been enough time for him to run a threat check on his new surroundings. He had no idea where he-

His thoughts came to a sudden halt as he took a proper look behind him. That was happening a lot these days.

The first problem was— nobody was standing behind him. Nobody was flying either, which was a possibility he had learnt to consider after becoming accustomed to the world of cultivation. But that wasn't nearly as striking as what he COULD SEE now that he had turned around.

There lay a gigantic castle made up of aquamarine crystals before his eyes, barely a hundred meters away. It looked like a crossover between a Disney creation and Tolkein's imagination. Walls as high as small peaks surrounded the castle, sporting dozens of outposts from where different types of accessories stuck out.

Han Xuhan took a deep breath. Some of those accessories looked a bit too similar to cannons; cannons which were pointed right at his frail, vulnerable body right at the moment. Did gunpowder and explosives get invented already? When? How? Was it another transmigated senior whose brain had been full of convenient 'common knowledge of modern weaponry'?

And those weren't even the most intimidating ones.

There were also crossbows– giant ones, pointed in his direction from every visible angle.

He could even sense massive structures running on qi, constantly growing in terms of intensity. Those probably were not friendly mechanisms, as far as his experience with magical gadgets told him.

Han Xuhan experienced a faint urge to sob pitifully. But alas, he was too manly to shed tears in the face of deadly threats; and too distracted by the sentence that followed after his invisible greeter received no answer to his enquiry.

"You know, I thought people would be much more surprised by an invisible entity trying to make a conversation rather than that ugly shack over there. Hey, brother, you know I can kill you long before any ammunition from the stronghold reach this place, right? That's like. . . .basic aerodynamics. Oh hell, who am I kidding..."

Basic Aerodynamics?

Oh.

Fuck.

Han Xuhan craned his neck around for a second look at his surroundings. Whoever the speaker was, Xuhan didn't have the capability to fight them head-on, not when he didn't know their cultivation level, which the party was actively hiding from his senses. It implied that the other party was perhaps not very powerful. However. . .that implication itself smelled like a trap.

Were they trying to test whether he was an enemy by offering him a weak, juicy prey, which could even stand as his hostage against the cannons on the walls? It was a life-saving opportunity delivered to his doorstep.

As far as realistic strategies went, it was a decent trap. The only reason Han Xuhan hadn't fallen for it was that he had no confidence in being able to overpower any cultivator in a fight, regardless of their cultivation level. He had zero experience in hand-to-hand combat. He also happened to be borderline paranoid, constantly trying to analyse any element around him that might be dangerous. Where others saw risks and opportunities for themselves, Han Xuhan saw interlinked interests of the parties involved. And right now, if he put himself in the shoes of a sect competing for the Championship, such a trap was barely surprising.

The matter of their unnatural advancement in scientific fields required proper investigation. But he had to take control of the situation first. Wracking his mind, Xuhan tried to come up with an appropriate strategy to tackle the issue.

"Hey, brother, are you deaf? Nod if you're deaf."

Han Xuhan nodded emphatically with an honest grin on his face.

". . . . ."