Han Xuhan walked a few steps forward while they bickered, distracted by the fact that they were standing very close to the bamboo shoot Wang Four had pulled out through a hole in the ground.

The hole was not arbitrarily made, nor a consequence of Wang Three's mighty stomp, contrary to his assumption. Now that he was close enough to notice more details, he realised that the hole was almost square in size. He could even see the square borders around its mouth.

Straining his neck, he took a peek down and saw a remarkable scene. The hole extended downward as low as the bottom of the floating island. The bamboo shoot actually went down through it and directly sunk into the sea, its roots possibly at the rock bottom on the seabed.

How long was this thing?! At least close to a kilometre! Han Xuhan suddenly felt glad that he didn't have to learn physics, chemistry and biology in this world. He would rather end up as a cripple and die in a ditch after being brutally mutilated than spend a lifetime deciphering the xianxia version of science.

He found out that the tunnel's walls were mirror-smooth, save for some thick roots that pushed out from several areas. Then he noticed the mouth of a vertical tunnel halfway down the hole and it all suddenly clicked in inside his mind.

No wonder there weren't any residences on the surface of the island! This entire chunk of earth was designed like a beehive!

"Enough of looking at that brat Three's hole. The honour of hosting the first guest cultivator shall belong to my hole!"

A hand grabbed his shoulder roughly and pulled him back before he could discern more details. Turning his head around, he realized that their argument had come to an end.

In the end, Ling Nine, the painter, had won by 'exercising her right' as the spiritual leader of the team, a fact that everyone else had objected to half-heartedly.

Han Xuhan was dragged along with her a few steps forward into a different square area. Keeping him standing on the borders, she stomped hard in the same way Wang Three had a few minutes ago. This time, Han Xuhan was close enough to notice the movement of the qi rushing through her feet. A magical lock opening technique? Truly sophisticated!

Were these guys really as simple as their behaviour suggested? Or was he just being paranoid again? After all, every sect was bound to have its special side....right?

The ground beneath her feet sunk. Han Xuhan locked his sight on the moving portion of the soil, extremely curious to understand where the relocated soil would end up.

The soil broke down into tiny units with its descent. As if an invisible boring machine was crushing its way downward, the tiny units of soil were plastered at the sides of the tunnel, leaving a smooth surface behind. The entire process took less than a second and then Han Xuhan found himself gazing at the sea.

Ling Nine had leapt backwards right beside him after her stomp. Seeing his look of wonder, she seemed downright proud.

"Hmph! This is nothing! How can a measly island of this size capture the true charm and magnificence of our home? Come on, little brother! Big sister will let you discover a whole new world!"

With a tug, she dragged him down with her as she leaned over and let the gravity do its work. The wind rushed to Han Xuhan's face, almost blurring his sight. Then he felt an abrupt change in the direction of their fall. Judging by the noise and his limited vision, he deduced that she had kicked the wall of the tunnel to guide their fall.

Then Han Xuhan had the wind knocked out of him. He had already guessed her plan. Hence he wasn't surprised to find himself landing at the mouth of a horizontal tunnel, Ling Nine beaming at him from behind.

"Your way of living sure is impressive, sister Ling Nine."

"Ahaha, it's nothing compared to our daily lives back home. We had to cut a lot of corners while redesigning this place since the material they allotted to each sect wasn't enough to copy our sect wholly."

The two of them roamed the narrow tunnels at a brisk pace. Ling Nine let Han Xuhan take the lead since walking behind her in there was pretty much the same as taking a hike with blindfolds on. The only source of light in the tunnels were small orbs that radiated a yellowish light, similar to bright sunlight at noontime. The orbs had been fitted on the ceiling every few feet away, lifting the darkness from the otherwise stuffy tunnels.

"You know, that's a terribly large amount of labour you've been talking about," Han Xuhan said. He was slowly getting used to his current situation. His thoughts now organized, he decided to fish for precious information and plot a scheme or two for the near future.

"According to the Celestial Gateway Spell, all participant sects in the tournament are supposed to reach the Titanfall Archipelago at roughly the same time. So how come your sect got here so long before we did?"

Ling Nine scratched her scalp with a dirty finger and replied, "Celestial Gateway spell? What a domineering title! Is that how you got here?"

". . . .Yes."

"Huh, you must hail from a pretty large sect, little brother. Red Ice sect, was it?"

"Something along those lines, yes," Han Xuhan quickly glossed over the issue and asked curiously, "You mean there's a different way of reaching this place? And the organizers of the tournament let you use it? No...it isn't just you. Even the Sunrider Sect definitely used the same method!"

"Well, this Sunrider Sect must be like us as well. This method was allowed to Sects which had too few disciples from what I heard. Master said we don't have enough disciples to use the method other sects were using," Ling Nine answered.

"But wouldn't having too few disciples disqualify the sects, to begin with? Otherwise, any random practitioner could take in a couple of disciples and claim to be a participant!" Han Xuhan said in puzzlement.

"Nah. The organisers wouldn't be that dumb. Master thinks very highly of them. He even addresses one of the old grandmas from the Forestheart Foundation as 'Miss'! That's the highest amount of respect I've ever seen him give to anyone."

Ling Nine's reply made Han Xuhan pause in his stride. But before he could form a thought on it, she loudly yelled in his ears,

"Look! Behold the majesty of artificial cultivation!"

Following the direction she was pointing at, Han Xuhan found himself staring at a wide, circular expanse inside the cavern where several tunnels had met.

Unlike the previously embedded orbs, the lighting in this area was the result of dozens of floating orbs of orange light. The overall design prodded the PTSD he had earned from his experience in the Holy Land of Laws, making his body turn stiff for a good few seconds.

Amidst the miniature suns, the floor of the area sported a sparse growth of vegetation. The colours of the plants were off– with yellow leaves and bright purple trunks that contained red rings every few inches.

To top it all off, the roots of the plants had pushed their way out of the soil stubbornly and created an entire miniature jungle made up solely of roots, obscuring nearly half of the body of the plants. It would have been pleasantly interesting to look at had the grey roots not been covered by a layer of dirty, slimy substance.

"Artificial cultivation, huh?" Han Xuhan remarked, his mind still processing the information he had collected.

"Yup! Master said this is the most interesting project he has ever worked on– to make plants that aren't dependent on the sunlight at all. So far we've had a small success, and this is the result! Don't tell anyone though," Ling Nine finished her words in a hurried tone as if suddenly remembering that this project was probably not meant for the public eye.

Han Xuhan bobbed his head up and down, trying hard not to recall his knowledge of basic botany. It would just screw things up in his head if he wanted their project to make sense scientifically.

"Don't worry, sister Nine. Nothing related to this type of cultivation falls under my area of expertise. I have no idea what makes this project of yours special. I'll forget it in a jiffy."

Ling Nine's face took on a look that could be labelled as 'displeased'. Han Xuhan bit his tongue, realising that he shouldn't have treated their secret so lightly.

Oh Dammit! I misused my hidden trump card– social skills!

It didn't take Ling Nine much time to recover and return to her bubbly persona. But for the rest of the trip, Han Xuhan noticed the small details in her behaviour suggesting a sense of distance between the two of them.

Glossing over the secret 'leucoplast supremacy' project, she took him to visit their underwater plantation, which turned out to be very close to Wang Three's hole. The giant bamboo was the main supplier of the water on their island, especially for the irrigation system.

"Don't the saltwater harm the plants? You couldn't have grown so many halophytes in the short span of a few days," Han Xuhan enquired at one point while watching streams of seawater pouring out of tiny holes on the bamboo.

"We use special qi to nourish the plants, from the root to the topmost leaves. Our plants grow faster, stronger, and smarter than regular breeds. Our expertise in purifying harmful substances from plants is unmatched; at least that's what master's manual says," Ling Nine answered.

"It is one of the reasons why we reside underground. Our cultivation techniques are beneficial to the plants in our surroundings as well."

"So hypothetically, would you be able to purify poisoned animals and humans?" Han Xuhan asked, finding this topic to be rather interesting compared to all the agriculture stuff.

Ling Nine stroked her chin with a surprised expression on her face for a while before answering, "I have no idea! Never gave it much thought."

The two of them then proceeded to travel the entire expanse within the floating island, visiting hole from hole, meeting his new acquaintances who awaited their arrival eagerly. He got to eat some fairly delicious leafy food, saw some very beautiful plants, decided to forget some plants in order to evade nightmares and finally spent an entire hour trying to comprehend a lecture on how agriculture is the only way to save human civilisation from utter ruin.

His gait unsteady and gaze unfocused, Han Xuhan climbed back outside from Wang Twenty-Four's hole using the outgrowth of roots on the wall of the tunnels.

Loud yells and a scent of charred meat invaded his chain of thoughts. Squinting under the rays of original sunlight, Han Xuhan found himself facing a...party.

"Man, wish I could change sects..." he grumbled wistfully.