C126-1: The Warp Zone

For a brief second, Xuan Zi froze, his eyes tracking the twisting air, space and scene right above Han Xuhan's head. But his surprise did not last long. With swift steps forward, he pointed at the dozens of disciples near Xuhan and made a familar tugging motion that they had seen previously during the apprenticeship ceremony.

"Woah-"

"Ow !"

"What the-!"

The disciples were caught off guard, as was Luo Yi herself. But Xuan Zi continued to propel away his disciples in the air like a cannon, clearing the area around Xuhan as fast as possible. To placate the surprised disciples, he gestured upward at the sky where a row of words made up of red smoke had appeared at some point during his movements.

'Disciple Xuhan has had an enlightenment! Keep silent !'

As soon as his words registered, the disciples themselves rushed away from Xuhan as if avoiding a plague. One of the biggest taboo in the world of cultivation was the interruption of one's enlightenment. None of them dared to be in the vicinity of a peer experiencing enlightenment, as long as their enmity with him didn't run to the highest possible level. It was the most important rule of a righteous cultivator's ethics.

Luo Yi did not stay still either. Her spirit beast moved with surprising fluidity without making any noise, leaping dozens of meters high while she produced a blue, liquid-like substance from her palms that connected her to the beast. A few seconds later, the beast disappeared into thin air, leaving behind the trail of liquid that fell from above like raindrops all around Xuhan. Everywhere the liquid fell, it created crystalline blue barriers that seemed to absorb both sound and light, blocking the onlookers' vision of Han Xuhan.

The cultivator from the Abyss Guild backpedalled extremely fast, his hands constantly punching at the air around him. Wherever the punches landed, cracking sounds could be heard, as well as a low hum that sounded like giant waves crashing into a barrier.

The elders all spread around the area, herding the disciples with their movements and casting spells one after one. Elder Kong Ye in particular was naturally the most active. He even threw out multiple scrolls around Xuhan containing complex looking formations, as well as a few small gadgets that he seemed to have been carrying for occasions just like this.

As their movement came to a halt, Xuan Zi made another shushing gesture and vigilantly observed the barriers surrounding Xuhan.

All the disciples held their breath. Even Mu Ran and Yuen Zhou, who experienced enlightenments as regularly as a regular cultivator experienced breakthroughs, watched the scene attentively.

The spatial deformation above Xuhan's head continued to grow in volume. The disciples who weren't familiar with the process stepped back every few seconds while the experienced elders held their ground with bated breath.

The sound of zither came from above. A single, unnaturally bright ray of sunlight fell on the barrier Xuhan was within for a brief second. A floral scent spread across the mountains. Far above on the sky where nothing but white clouds were visible, a single white strip of lightning cackled like an airborne dragon.

The phenomenon started receding as swiftly as it had appeared. The spatial deformation at the centre of the crowd warped back to normal. The faint hum of zither died down. The floral scent was carried away by the high sea breeze.

". . . .Uh, where am I ? Hello ?" Came Xuhan's confused, tense voice from within the barriers. Xuan Zi looked relived, his cloudy expression clearing up. Luo Yi gestured at the barriers quickly and the crystalline substance reverted back to its liquid state, flowing back to her as if gravity did not exist anywhere other than the inside of her palms.

Han Xuhan appeared under the scrutiny of hundreds of his peers with a dazed expression. After one brief moment of silent stares, he turned for help toward Xuan Zi. The sect master seemed eager to explain what had transpired just then. But Luo Yi emphatically waved her hand at him to let her speak, which seemed to convince him to keep his mouth shut.

"That was called an 'enlightenment', which I'm sure all of you are familar with," Luo Yi began speaking without wasting any more time.
"What disciple Han Xuhan here experienced just now is a common phenomenon in this place due to its speciality. For those who aren't aware or may have overlooked the information, we are now standing at the middle of the Titanfall Archipelago!"

Xuhan slowly slithered back to his martial siblings' side while listening to her attentively. Xiao Wu gave him a scandalized look, which he decided to ignore temporarily. Mu Ran's reaction consisted of an appreciative chuckle, the sort an elderly would show to an energetic newborn. Yuen Zhou, unsurprisingly, maintained her cool poker face.

"Why would something as precious and rare as enlightenments be common here ? What's the so called speciality of this place, if I may ask ?" Enquired one of the nine geniuses .

"Watch closely," Luo Yi answered with a grin. Pointing one of her hands at the sky, she loudly shouted, "MEATBALL !"

All the disciples looked up, eager not to miss a single detail.
Barely had Han Xuhan realized that the beast wasn't where he had last seen it and focused his attention at the direction her hand was pointing at when he noticed a strange scene. The air around that place twisted as if he was looking at a transparent cloth being folded roughly. A faint popping sound followed the warp, and the familiar spirit beast appeared once more right infront of the warped space.

One word rang in Han Xuhan's mind.
Teleportation !