C117-1 : A Sunset In Silence

The view of the sunset from mountains was always a treat for the eyes that had been focused on complicated diagrams for far too long. Han Xuhan too, appreciated the view as it took his mind off the new development inside his home as well as his dao tower.

Today, he had reached the fourth layer of physique transformation realm, right before which he had 'given life' to the dusty skeleton of a rattlesnake that he had painstakingly created during the last few weeks. It now was a part of his dao tower just like its two predecessors. Both Zhanxian and little Tian had welcomed their new housemate with open arms and wings. But that was where the good news stopped.

The first issue Xuhan hadn’t considered was what a moving snake skeleton would look like.
The crimson spine, along with the countless moving ribs on both sides gave the skeleton the exact appearance of a nightmarish centipede. A centipede that had the head of a dragon, fangs that could rip off a human limb and a total length of three meters.

When it had moved for the first time, Han Xuhan's brain dug up the most primal fear of annelids existent in human beings since time immemorial. The fact that he hadn’t gasped in shock and revulsion at that time was already an achievement he was proud of.

And then it had spoken. That was when the real nightmare had begun.

"Papa ! Food !"

As his watering eyes kept their focus locked on the setting sun, an adorable, high pitched voice that should belong to toddlers came from his neck where all of his hair were standing up straight.

Soundlessly, Xuhan broke off a small piece of crystallized qi from his pocketful of 'minion food' and offered it toward the source of the voice, his hand shaking slightly the whole time.

A mouth full of sharp teeth and thick fangs brushed past his ear and gingerly picked up the piece of crystallized qi.

The serpentine form wrapped around his upper body lightly adjusted itself, pressuring Xuhan's nerves to react violently and throw off the predator resting on his body.

But he sat still like a sage contemplating the meaning of life. His eyes took in the last few rays of the sunken sun, the busy borders of the sect across the vast, green fields and rivers where hundreds of disciples of various generations were laying down formations after formations of various levels, guided by their elders. He noticed Mu Ran labouring to finish both of their quota by himself while Kong Ye hesitantly tried to dissuade him from executing the brilliant idea Xuhan had provided him with.

He saw the troubled expression on Xiao Wu's face as well as the thoughtful gaze Yuen Zhou was directing at Mu Ran.

"My eyesight has improved so much. I wonder, if I ever reach the limit of a cultivator's physical improvement, will I be able to peek at the surface of celestial bodies in the sky and observe the tiniest of viruses in the air? That would be so cool...."

Hai Yin Zhe couldn't quite understand his words, and she showed it by hissing lightly and tightening up around his neck, her sharpened tailbone lazily scraping along Xuhan's artery.

That's right. Han Xuhan had named the snake Hai Yin Zhe. He had actually ran out of cool sounding names for his minions, the dusty memories of his past dalliance amidst trashy xianxia novels proving themselves to be unreliable once again. However, as a practitioner of the demonic arts of machine translation, Xuhan had learnt more than a few chinese words that could mean several things. Besides, it wasn’t as if the langauge he used here itself followed every detail of the mandarin language. Apart from a similar naming scheme and culturally close development, most of the language was a paraphased version of various asian languages. Had he been one of those instant transmigrators from novels, he'd probably have a stroke trying to navigate through the differences.

If memories served him right, Hai Yin Zhe roughly meant 'Drinker Of Seas'. The name had felt befitting of a serpent, if he were to overlook the irony of its skeletal form.

As the horizon lost its touch with the sun, Han Xuhan stood up and walked back to his hut carefully, avoiding stepping on the countless qi formations all around him on the mountainback. The draconic head popping out from the back of his robe curiously observed their surroundings in silence. The mountain peaks had changed their appearance fast under the fervent hardwork of hundreds of disciples. The ethereal presence of qi saturated the air everywhere. Occasionally bursts of qi would alarm those working nearby, causing them to rush over and fix the issue. The entire sect had turned into something comparable to a spaceship under construction.

The mental comparison slightly startled Xuhan. A spaceship in a world where basic metallurgy was run by magic spells ? It would be truly a wonderful experience to be a part of the event.

The final execution of the spell was to be held tomorrow after a few experimental drills. During the last few days, many geniuses had shown their colours. Their sect now boasted of nine disciples at the third realm of the Celestial Gateway technique, a fact that all the elders seemed happy about. Some dissatisfied whispers had come toward the Heavenly Hailstorm peak for bagging two of those nine geniuses despite its shallow roots. But the sect master seemed to have taken care of the issue secretly.

"Disciple Xuhan, congratulations on the breakthrough. I see your undead family has welcomed in a new member !" Exclaimed a hearty voice from inside his hut right when he was about to knock on the door.

Speak of the devil....