"Excuse me, fellow cultivators. I'll be occupying the field of your vision for a few minutes minding my own business. It would be great if you did the same," he declared loudly while falling from the sky.

The target audience of his declaration, Shangguang Ce and Hong Wei looked as surprised as he had expected them to be.

Getting back to his feet, he rubbed off the dirt from his clothes and waved at them in a gesture of friendliness.

"Please, don't mind me. Do your job. I'll be gone in a jiffy!"

His insistence on each of them oiling their own machines was ignored, judging by the enthusiasm with which the two disciples of the Sunrider sect approached him.

"Was the undead bird-uhm, never mind, have you managed to find your way to your sect, yet, brother Qing? Or are you still blindly jumping from sect to sect?" Hong Wei said.

Han Xuhan noted down her abrupt change in enquiry. She had noticed Tun Shi Tian's appearances in the sky, it seemed. Since that was followed by his own reemergence, she had managed to link the two incidents and correctly guessed that he had sent the owl as a scout. Despite understanding that, she had taken a step back to display her ignorance of the fact that he was, in fact, not jumping between the folded regions blindly.

Perhaps Hong Wei was trying to make a statement here.

Nevertheless, it was of no concern to him at the moment.

Shangguang Ce rummaged within his robe and took out a small, square-shaped piece of blue crystal from a pocket.

"Here, I wanted to give this to you, brother Qing. Last time, you took your leave too fast and I didn't have the chance to hand it to you," he said, pushing the crystal into Xuhan's palm insistently.

Han Xuhan took a good look at the crystal.

"Thanks, brother Ce. But what am I supposed to do with this thing?"

"It's a contacting method. After you manage to return to your sect, we can contact each other through the crystal."

Han Xuhan's eyes brightened. A magical gadget! He simply adored these foreign, unscientific inventions.

"Whoa! How does it work?" he asked in excitement.

"You put it in your mouth and suck on it," Shangguang Ce answered.

"Wow....I- I'll try it later, I guess." His enthusiasm was killed by the way Shangguang Ce worded the process. Try as he might, he couldn't figure out if there was a hidden meaning to that description aside from the obvious, dirty one. Thinking too much about it brought him nothing but discomfort.

"So what do you plan to do here, exactly?" Hong Wei said, still keeping up her act.

"Ah, right, almost forgot what I came here to do. Fellow cultivators, can I borrow your elder for a few minutes again?"

On his way here, Han Xuhan had realized a serious issue. The elder of the Sunrider sect had been very kind in his treatment toward him in order to repay his 'act of selflessness' while saving Shangguang Ce from drowning.

Both parties had ended up helping each other. So why didn't any of the counsellors pop out to stop them from breaking the rules? If his experience with the unnamed sect was false, they definitely broke a handful of rules. How come there was no backlash? Not even a warning!

Were the disciples of the other sect lying this whole time? Or was there an even more sinister plot at play here?

This would be an excellent way to test that for one last time.

"Borrow the elder?" Shangguang Ce's eyes crinkled in a silent smile.

"Sure! Little Wei, go call the elder here."

Hong Wei disappeared behind the walls in a flash. Han Xuhan closed his eyes and meditated for a couple of seconds, summoning Zhanxian and Tun Shi Tian in a row.

"Do they have their own consciousness? Or do you control their mind with direct orders?" Shangguang Ce asked, sounding deeply interested in the Skeletal Monarch technique.

"5000 spirit stones," Han Xuhan declared.

"What?"

"If you want to buy this technique to summon undead soldiers, it'll cost you 5000 spirit stones."

Shangguang Ce's expression turned a bit stiff. Throwing his hands up in the air, he said in a surrendering tone, "forget I ever asked. My apologies for being nosy!"

"The price is open for bargaining. Don't give up so fast, brother. Tell me what your highest bid is. I'm sure we can come to a settlement."

Shangguang Ce opened his mouth to say something, only to close it shut and stare at Xuhan fixedly.

"You're seriously trying to sell your core technique to me? I thought you people had taboos..."

"Excuse me but when exactly did I say this is my core cultivation technique? And what do you mean 'you people ' ?"

". . .Never mind. I don't have 5000 spirit stones."

"Well, you're too broke to be investigating other people's cultivation techniques then."

Han Xuhan harrumphed snobbily and was about to order his minions to get to work, but Shangguang Ce stopped him.

"I do have a trade offer, though."

"Ah, nice! Now you're speaking my language, brother Ce. What do you want to trade? Let's see it."

Shangguang Ce craned his neck, glancing in the direction Hong Wei had disappeared. Then he closed his eyes, one of his outstretched palms clenched into a fist.

A, familiar, audible popping sound reverberated through the air, making Han Xuhan's brows jump upwards in surprise at the implications.

Did this guy just casually use spatial manipulation techniques? Aren't such techniques supposed to be impossible to learn at their cultivation level?

Shangguang Ce might have been a late-stage physique transformation realm cultivator, but that, in no way, filled up any requirement to execute spatial techniques!

Or was this a unique ability of ghost cultivators?

Han Xuhan was not dumb enough to think that Shangguang Ce's secretive gestures were involuntary. This friendly, modest youth was definitely a crafty fellow. His shifty behaviour was a silent statement of the fact that he didn't want Han Xuhan to speak of this little trade, especially around Hong Wei.

What a hotpot of schemes! This Sunrider Sect was really a troublesome territory.

The object that had appeared in Shangguang Ce's palm turned out to be a scroll. In front of Han Xuhan's eyes, Shangguang Ce unfurled it and gave him a glimpse of the title, as well as a few lines of description. The rest of the content had been blurred by some magical technique, a common method to ward off the thievery of the contents.

Sensing Space: A Beginner's Guide

“The method inscribed within this manual allows the practitioner to sense space. It's theorized to be immensely helpful for cultivating techniques related to space, time and physical dimensions. The lower your cultivation is, the harder it will be for you to comprehend its contents. However, it is not outright impossible to gain a basic understanding as long as you have some talent.”

– Han Fei

Sunrider Sect

Celestial Armour Galaxy

Publisher's words:

Patriarch Fei is an illustrious cultivator whose comprehension of spatial laws and techniques is considered unmatched in the galaxy. He is also highly reputed for having taught some of the best cultivators ever seen in the history of the Sunrider Sect. Please note that when he says you can understand his manuals regarding spatial concepts as long as you have some talent, he is using his supremely talented disciples as benchmarks for the basic qualification. Be kind to yourself and tackle this manual with the utmost optimism you can assemble. Otherwise, you'll only learn to hate it.

"Heavens! This manual seems too precious! How could I be shameless enough to trade it for the price of my beginner-level cultivation manual?"

Han Xuhan was a very honest young man. He didn't want to scam brother Shangguang Ce, especially when the other party was willing to sell him such an invaluable manual, regardless of the price.

In fact, Han Xuhan was so honest that his hands instantly, automatically tried to grab the manual despite what his mouth spouted.

"I admire your honesty, brother Qing," Shangguang Ce said, his grip on the manual hardening in response to Xuhan's tugging.

"That is why I am willing to offer this manual to you, in exchange for your skeleton summoning technique, as well as a favour."

"Name your favour!" Han Xuhan generously proposed, still tugging on the manual insistently.

"Can we shelve that part of the contract for the future? We don't need to fix all of it right now..."

Han Xuhan fixed his gaze on Shangguang Ce's face and let go of the manual immediately.

"No deal. I am too smart to fall into such measly traps, hah!" He declared proudly, pointing a finger at himself.

"Last time I signed a contract without reading all the terms and conditions, I got into lifelong debt. Ain't falling for that again!"

Seeing Shangguang Ce's expression darkening, Han Xuhan quickly added another sentence.

"Not that I think you're going to entrap me in some kind of an illegal, unfair deal; but can you blame me for being cautious, brother Ce?"

Shangguang Ce shifted on his feet uncomfortably at his questioning tone.

"You know what? I've got just the idea of what to do. Right now I don't have the entire cultivation manual of my undead summoning technique with me. So how about I return to my sect and then contact you with this crystal thingy. We can settle the deal properly that way," Han Xuhan proposed, his eyes catching Hong Wei's return from within the distant walls.

Shangguang Ce nodded in agreement. The two of them exchanged a brief, secretive look and waited for Hong Wei to come closer.

"Hey, why do you two look like you just had a dick measuring contest?" Hong Wei said as soon as she got within earshot.

"My, my, lady Wei....You must have extensive experience in this dao. How did you know?" Han Xuhan asked in amazement.

"Do you even know how shifty you two appear as of right now? All those whispers and secretive glances at each other, hands in your pockets..." Her eyes roved over Shangguang Ce, who had just hidden the scroll inside his robe.

"Haha, brother Ce is just embarrassed that he lost in the contest by a very, very, very large margin. Don't give him a hard time. Now, where is your elder?" Han Xuhan asked in a brash, confident tone.

"....He'll be here in a few minutes."

"Great! Can't wait to see what's he packing!" He exclaimed, turning toward his minions.

"Zhanxian, I'll leave the bottom to you. Little Tian, you'll handle the top. We must not miss a single inch! Let's go!"