C130-1: Cultivation Prowess

"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 entire 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 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 cloud 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!!!"