"Dammit, dammit, Dammit!"

Cursing with every drop of venom he could muster, Han Xuhan flattened himself against the walls, his eyes locked on the churning clouds above which had come down way too low, some of the wisps almost touching the top of the second wall, a mere height of seven meters approximately.

The silent lightning bolts pulsed as if the entire chunk of cloud was a leviathan and the lightning its veins. Ghost cultivators. . .what else was he going to encounter in his mere entrance into the world of cultivation? These sorts of plot twists are supposed to be the material for a whole new arc in some shady secret realm!

Did the author decide to rush the plot? But his story, Mu Ran's story or even Yuen Zhou's story had barely begun!

As far as he knew, ghost cultivators were practitioners whose cultivation techniques were centred around soul manipulation. A quote by an anonymous daoist was recorded in a scroll on this topic, which the elders had made a reference to during the relevant lessons.

The dao a ghost pursues is not the dao man should pursue. The dao a ghost understands is not a dao man can understand. The dao encompasses all we see. Ghosts see what we cannot see, and do not wish to see. For the dao encompassing the vision of the dead is against the vision of the living. It is as incompatible as fire and water. This makes ghost cultivators a body of practitioners hellbent on the destruction of oneself. But once you've tasted the flavour of death, destruction of the self is hardly a future you'd fear.

The entire quote swayed between the lines of 'profound' and 'edgy' like a pendulum. It made sense that the daoist concealed his own name. Otherwise, he'd probably be laughed at in the old-monster-community. Even he, a noob in the world of cultivation, had rolled his eyes by the end of that passage.

Now though. . . now he didn't quite find the guts to laugh at what lay above his head.

Hong Wei hadn't still returned with help. Shangguang Ce's condition showed no signs of stabilization either. The guy sat unmovingly, his mouth spewing some of the bullshit Han Xuhan had spouted in order to keep up his act as a retard.

When had enlightenments become so cheap?

Oh, wait, if someone as mediocre as him could gain one, maybe it HAD really become cheap. . .

Had his enlightenment been like this as well? Perhaps with clouds of different colours and less threatening lightning?

He had no idea. He hadn't gotten the opportunity to talk about it with any of the witnesses.

To add to that, Hong Wei had mentioned that this guy was about to break through to a new realm. While the notion of someone breaking through during an enlightenment was hardly news to him, it did cause much aggravation in his heart when he realized that his own cultivation had not changed by an iota despite his enlightenment. Even in terms of physique or spirit, he didn't feel any different either.

In fact, now that he thought about it, how would an enlightenment help him advance in cultivation anyway? It wasn't as if he could summon an entirely new soul from the Burning World just in one sitting. He needed to construct the skeleton first, accurately down to every tiny joint. Countless hours of qi cycling couldn't be compensated by a measly two-minute 'Big Brain' moment.

Han Xuhan quickly pushed away these temporarily unnecessary concerns. He had to look for a quick escape route at first.

The walls were just too high, dammi-

Han Xuhan's curse hit a wall as a realization dawned on him.

He was a cultivator at the fourth layer of the physique transformation realm. A three-meter-high wall might prove to be an insurmountable obstacle to a mortal, but was that the same for him?

The ten-meter gap between the first and second wall was a substantial distance. He could gain a small momentum here.

Without a second thought, Han Xuhan dug his feet on the hard-wait, the floor was made up of concrete!

Briefly, Xuhan recalled some of the key moments of his encounter with these cultivators.

The Sunrider Sect boasted of quasi-modern artillery, having combined the magic of cultivation with rudimentary machinery.

Their disciples spoke in foreign dialects and thought of aerodynamics as basic concepts everyone knew.

Even their construction capability far outstripped the current era.

The initial seed of doubt that had sprouted during his first contact with the Sunrider Sect grew into a giant network of possibilities and schemes.

While his mind was embroiled in a web of the current, as well as future events, his body didn't stay still. Left in the wake of his rush were rough footprints on the hard concrete, spraying the broken pieces at the wall behind.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

As if compensating for the lack of thunder, his footsteps reverberated throughout the maze. In a flash, he was just two steps away from the peripheral wall. Gathering all the force he could muster, Han Xuhan leapt up.

"Ack-"

His midsection crashed with the top of the wall, sending waves of pain throughout his body, squeezing out the air in his lungs. The three-meter wall had been but a fraction over his current limits. With a bit of practice and a formal jumping technique, he could probably jump past this height in a breeze.

Han Xuhan clutched the top of the wall and swung the rest of his body over, surprised by how little effort went into the feat.

Taking a deep breath, he gave one last look at the meditating young man named Shangguang Ce.

So long, brother! I wish you a smooth breakthrough, which I'll not be witnessing.

His good wishes kept silent in order not to disturb brother Ce, Xuhan leapt down past the peripheral wall and ran like the wind. He had never tried running at the fastest speed he could reach after he had hit the fourth layer. No better an occasion to test that out!

Leaving a giant flux of black clouds behind, Han Xuhan rushed toward the edge of the floating island and looked down. According to his theory of stacked dimensional folds, the bottom of the island would definitely not contain other sects but the sea itself just like the arrangement in the fold of the Crimson Snow Sect.

He was proved correct, as his gaze landed down.

The sea was the only thing beneath the Sunrider Sect as well.

However, his heart did not rejoice, for the distance between his face and the sea was shortening at the speed of a tsunami.

"AAAAHHH-GLRRREGGHHH!!!"

For the second time in his life, Han Xuhan experienced what it felt like to fly; and once more, he realized that it was not a good feeling.

The sea waves this time were ten times more intense compared to the first one which had given him a sore back barely half an hour ago. To make matters worse, this round of the routine disasters contained not only giant waves, but also columns of water that shot out of the waves like dragons, their speed so fast that he couldn't even react to the sight of one hitting him square in the face.

Lifted off his feet, Han Xuhan was dragged up with the column of water, back toward the Sunrider Sect where the ghastly tribulation clouds of a ghost cultivator awaited his return patiently.

For the second time, he crashed into the peripheral wall, this time from the opposite direction, his ribs letting out audible protests to the abuse.

Glancing back, Han Xuhan saw the water level showing no signs of ebbing away, rather the opposite. The three-meter-high wall was engulfed within mere seconds. His natural instincts that ordered his body not to drown like a lifeless rock kept his body afloat, flailing amidst the gentle waves. Thus with the rising water level, he too slipped on the other side of the wall, falling face first just a dozen yards away from Shangguang Ce.

His meditating friend did not seem aware of the fact that one-third of his body had been already submerged in seawater, a ratio that was about to climb high enough to drown him by the next thirty seconds according to Han Xuhan's estimation.

"Did that girl die on her way to find an elder?" He couldn't help but curse as he got to his feet. From above, seawater spilled on his head continuously. It was hard to think under such circumstances. He could not get out of this maze right now. He could only choose the option containing lesser possibilities of instant death– entering deeper inside the maze, right into the heart of the Sunrider Sect, a nest of ghost cultivators.

But as he took a good look at the second wall, his hopes of getting past it by himself vanished. It was at least seven meters high. The ground he stood on was no longer suitable for running- because at that point he was half floating on the water flooding the space between the two walls.

"Well, at least I can swim. The sea waves have been halted by the peripheral wall for now. If I manage to stay afloat, I'll eventually reach the top of the second wall. . . ."

Han Xuhan's self consolation trailed off as his eyes caught Shangguang Ce's body, which was now neck deep in water. His tribulation clouds neither receded nor attacked. Perhaps it was going to be a lengthy breakthrough, if he survived the tournament's routine disaster this time.

"I should be more worried about myself. In the past, I used to hate those busybody protagonists risking their lives for others. How can I turn into one of them now?" Xuhan muttered, trying to focus on the fact that he'd have to swim desperately once the water level rose beyond the first wall. He had enough on his own plate without the responsibility of someone else's life; someone who probably did not even have good intentions toward him.

A tiny voice inside his head asked a question that he couldn't quite answer– "but are you really a protagonist? You're supposed to avoid falling into templates."

The water level rose to Shangguang Ce's mouth five seconds later. Han Xuhan forcibly tore off his gaze from the sight, trying to drown out the hesitant voice of protest in a tiny corner of his heart.

The water level rose past his nose. Shangguang Ce visibly shuddered, the red lightning above pulsed as if mirroring his struggle.

With a long, deep breath, Han Xuhan concentrated hard, trying to execute a particularly complicated qi formation inside his body while standing up. Three seconds later, Zhanxian, Tun Shi Tian, and little Zhe leapt out from his back and fell into the water, screaming partly in fear and partly from excitement. Han Xuhan decided to ignore the former of the two apparent emotions from his minions.

"We need to get past that wall," he said in a dull tone.

The three minions exchanged brief looks and exploded into motion.

Tun Shi Tian flew up on top of the second wall. Zhanxian grabbed little Zhe by the tail and threw it at the owl who caught the snake in a single swoop. As a 'cultivator' at the first layer of physique transformation realm', Tun Shi Tian was considerably strong; and it showed as he confidently used little Zhe's body like a rope for someone to latch on to.

Han Xuhan grabbed Zhanxian and threw the skeleton at little Zhe's hanging body. He wasn't sure whether Tun Shi Tian would be able to drag Shangguang Ce up, or whether little Zhe's body would be durable enough to bear his weight.

In the end, he had failed to follow the code of a ideal xianxia character who would survive for more than a few arcs. He could neither be ruthless to himself, nor had he the heart to watch a stranger die when he could attempt to save him. It was almost laughable. He, a character proficient on the dao of meta, was about to fail the golden rule of 'ruthlessness'.

"This better fucking pay off. No-fuck, I'll MAKE this little stunt pay off," he muttered as he half-walked, half-swum to the fully submerged body of his new 'friend'.