C118-2: Divide And Conquer

Placing the paper inside the box, Xuhan hid it inside one of his qi-print sensitive trunks where he usually kept his most treasured resources. Then he entered meditation to investigate what was going on inside his dao tower.

Soon, the bright white palace inside his mind surfaced in front of his mental gaze. Floating inside, he found Zhanxian and little Tian curled up in one corner of the main hall, hugging each other shivering quietly.

"Zhanxian, little Tian stole your spice flavoured qi juice yesterday. Little Zhe was not the culprit."

The moment he finished speaking, Zhanxian leapt upwards and threw the owl at the nearest wall in fury, his fearful act forgotten in the wake of massive torrent of emotions raging inside his nonexistent heart.

"Bastard, I trusted you! This is how you repay me?"

"Big brother Xian, don’t bully a young man just because he is poor! The river flows thirty year to the east-"

BANG!
Zhanxian rushed toward the owl and kicked it away like a football.

"I don’t know where the river flows but I know where I'll be scattering your crushed bones!"

"Dammit brother Xian! You gave away our plan-"

Little Tian yelped in sudden realization, making Zhanxian who was rushing toward him once more come to a stop.

Awkwardly, both skeleton avatars turned around and faced Xuhan, not quite meeting his eyes. Han Xuhan, having guessed that their traumatised state was probably an act, hurrumphed loudly.

"You have ten seconds to tell me why I shouldn't cut off your resource allotments for the next month."

". . . . Because you need us for the tournament," Zhanxian answered in an honest tone.

". . . .hehehehe," wordlessly, Xuhan started chuckling after a few seconds.

"Wha-why are you laughing ? What's so funny ?" Han Xuhan's creepy, familiar laughter unsettled the eldest minion greatly.

"Have you considered the fact that before  something serious happens to me during the tournament, you two will probably die? Because I'll definitely set up all of my strategies in that exact order. I know you do not fear death, Zhanxian. But I don't think little Tian is going to agree, in which case I'll let him take your share of resources so that he can surpass your cultivation fast and order you around like a dog."

"Little Tian wouldn’t-"

"Heheh, did you just say....little Tian? Really, minion, how could you forget how much Tun Shi Tian hates that nickname? Have you never noticed the hatred in his eyes everytime you call him by that name?" Han Xuhan's voice was like a devil's whisper behind Zhanxian's neck.

"His eyes?" The skeleton asked nobody in particular as it looked toward the dumbfounded owl skeleton.

"Zhanxian, Zhanxian, Zhanxian, you foolish little thing. How could you not notice its malice, its schemes? Ever since its birth, the owl has concocted plots after plots against me. But do you think you were spared despite having tormented and insulted its humongous ego?" Han Xuhan silently used his control over the dao tower to isolate his voice, making Zhanxian the only audience. It was one of the two very unorthodox functions he had learnt recently from elder Kong Ye's personal guidance sessions after actively requesting for it to the flummoxed elder. Now was the perfect time to execute it.

"Ohho, little minion....The owl has repeatedly made you comply with its reckless, foolish plans, thinking I wouldn’t notice. Even the greatest of fools would know better than to doubt my intelligence after being with me for so long. So why, just why did you keep agreeing to it, knowing fully well that the bird's plans would almost never succeed?
Have you considered the fact that it might have been targeting YOU the whole time? To make me take out my anger on you? To make me resent you and let it become my number one minion so that it can have the bigger share of resources? After all, you’re the leader of every task I set for you two. Upon your failures and attempted tricks, my wrath shall obviously fall on you most of the time!"

"He wouldn’t-"

"Ahahaha....come on, try to remember, Zhanxian. Or even better, let me help you remember!" His whispers fiercer and darker, Xuhan executed his second newly learnt function of the dao tower and mentally connected to Zhanxian's avatar as if he wanted to summon it back to the real world. But instead, he directed his qi toward his head and created a secondary cycle.

A chain of memories he had readied in his mind surfaced from the depths of his thoughts. Zhanxian, whose avatar had frozen mid air suddenly shook as scenes after scenes played themselves out in its mind, out of its control.

The scenes were blurry and often unfocused. The sound hardly matched with the scenes either. However, Zhanxian recognised it instantly. He was seeing the memory of little Tian's first appearance to the real world, from Xuhan's point of view this time.

"Trash," Tun Shi Tian's familiar voice said coldly.

"Trash, watch your mouth or I'll sew it up for you!

"DIE FOR MEEE!

"For now, I'll accept your tyranny, demon!

"Could you accept being forced to serve a talentless trash as cannon fodder?

"But perhaps this was meant to be. Perhaps you shall be my stepping stone, the catalyst that will guide me on my way.

"But I'll prevail one day and gain my freedom, remember that demon!"


The scenes played out ceaselessly, impacting Zhanxian's mind like a battering ram again and again. The hatred and malice in the owl's voice never subsided. Despite knowing this was Xuhan's point of view, Zhanxian felt a streak of wariness and animosity taking shape in his heart.

"Think about it, minion. Every task you screwed up in, was it really all your fault?"

"Not entirely.... No...."

"Maybe, just maybe, little Tian was merely hiding his animosity toward you and using ME as the target of its malice as the distraction...? Surely, all clues line up to say that, YOU were actually the initial target of the bird's insidious schemes?"

Looking at Zhanxian's silent avatar, a sinister smirk appeared on Xuhan's face.

Divide and conquer, that was the only way to keep his minions under his control, he'd come to realize.