C116-1 : Not A Bad Idea ?

The Celestial Gateway technique was not particularity complicated in comparison to most of the techniques Xuhan was familiar with. But it was unique in the sense that he could neither test nor raise his proficiency in it by cooping up inside his hut all by himself and burning resources.

The sun during high noon felt like a torture device strapped to his head despite his improved physique. Bent over and sweating profusely, Han Xuhan continued to design the qi formation that would soon encompass the entire sect if all the disciples did their job properly.

The Heavenly Hailstorm mountian peak, his current home, only had four disciples in total. Despite being smaller than the rest, it was still a large area, and the workload that fell on each disciple of the peak was much higher as well. Elder Kong did more than half the work on his own, seemingly having comprehended the technique unnaturally fast. Mu Ran and Yuen Zhou were neck to neck in terms of apparent talent and speed while Xiao Wu stayed barely ahead of Xuhan.

Each of them was to practice the technique on papers first. Once their proficiency had reached a certain level and they broke through to the first minor realm, they'd go outside and start designing qi formations for the main spell. A practitioner at the first minor realm could only design the lowest level of formations which, during the execution of the main spell, would affect the area it covered at the basic minimum. A practitioner at the second minor realm could even affect the three dimensional space around the formations while a practitioner at the final minor realm could actually manipulate and modify the affected space during the execution of the spell.

Han Xuhan, currently a beginner at the first minor realm had designed enough formations to cover an area of fifty square meters since the morning, and that didn’t even cover ten percent of the area he had to cover by the next three days.
He had taken far too long to reach the first realm of the Celestial Gateway technique, which had cut down his original time before the deadline by half. The lack of talent was a curse he couldn’t get rid of no matter what.

Just as he was about to give up trying to absorb any more qi, the sound of footsteps came from behind. Xuhan didn’t have to turn around to know who it was. His increased sense of perception, coupled with the distinct uniqueness of the approaching person made it far too easy to detect his identity.

"Boss ! How is it going ?” Jumping up, Xuhan shook his arms and stretched his back as he greeted Mu Ran.

Mu Ran had a wide smile plastered on his face for some reason. Experience told Han Xuhan that either something really good had happened, or some serious shit was about to go down soon.

"Underling Xuhan ! Still struggling at the first layer of this simple technique, I see."

"Ah well, boss. What can I say? The heavens blessed me with nothing but with the wisdom that recognizes mountain Tai such as yourself. How could I even match your speed in cultivation? I reached the first realm just today while you...."
Xuhan trailed off, not finishing the sentence. He was curious to know which realm his boss had reached. While their relationship was pretty good, Mu Ran usually tried to hide his relevant accomplishments whenever possible, something that greatly puzzled Xuhan. Once he had even enquired about it to Mu Ran himself. The answer he had gotten was ridiculous. Apparently Mu Ran just found it extremely entertaining to observe mediocre cultivators being hailed as a genius and showing off their accomplishments in fields of cultivation where Mu Ran had already treaded far longer paths. In many cases, he would find opportunities to slap these mediocre talents in the face, both figuratively and literally, with his superior accomplishments.
'It's my main hobby, to be honest. A man's gotta have a source of entertainment in these barren worlds.' That had been Mu Ran's justification.


Mu Ran's smile widened and a hint of embarassment appeared on his face.
"Hey now, stop with all that praises, Xuhan. Sometimes you take them too far. I just consolidated my proficiency at the second realm. That's not as awesome as you’re making it out to be. I have reasons to suspect that martial sister Zhou has already reached the final layer !"

His heart in woe, Xuhan maintained his standard brilliant, honest, down to earth smile and said what Mu Ran wanted to hear. The guy was so easy to see through.

"Hah! I bet her foundation isn’t half as solid as boss. She might be a crouching white tiger but you are the hidden azure dragon !"

"Aiya~ I told you to stop...."

While Mu Ran laughed in deep satisfaction, Han Xuhan changed his expression and slipped into a serious, worried demeanour.

"But what about me, boss ? I've barely managed to cover this tiny bit of area here. How am I going to cover the entire area that fell into my quota ? Besides, Xiao Wu said every mountain peak will earn the respect of the opponents through these formations. If all of my formations are at the lowest level while the rest of you beautify the mountain peak with your own formations, wouldn’t we attract ridicule from everybody ?" In an anxious tone, Xuhan began his tirade of worries that he had 'bottled up' long ago.

Mu Ran fell silent, his brows creasing as he contemplated the issue.
"That....that doesn't actually sound like a bad idea!"

"I know, righ-wait, come again?"