Chapter 171: Which Fellow Cultivator Is Behind The Bluepill Prank

A thunderstorm trial had appeared! Right on top of their mountain peak at that!

Han Xuhan stood frozen in awe at the majestic, horrific sight above, his eyes still immersed in double-layered imagery.

In one image, the clouds had surrounded the curved moon, moving so fast that his eyes could barely keep track of their entire volume. Like a volcano eruption, the black smokey barrier covered his entire field of vision and blocked out the moonlight. Blue lightning cracked across the sea of darkness, creating crisscrossing webs wherever he cast his sight.

In his second vision, the scene was much different. His eyes lost the track of the clouds as soon as the wind began blowing. A near-infinite number of grey lines spun across his vision crazily, as if stimulated by the wind. As seconds ticked away, Han Xuhan noticed something.

His second vision was growing weaker with each passing moment. The more the wind's speed rose, the more his vision blurred out of focus. By the time he had recovered from the shock, his second vision was but a landscape of grey blotches and fluttering lines; much alike an old, malfunctioning tv screen.

Han Xuhan raised a hand and focused on it. Prior to the thunderstorm, his hands were multicolored extensions of light, letting out bright pulses from every millimeter. But now, the air between his eyes and his hands had become an obstruction to his sight. He could barely make out the outlines of his limbs, splashes of colors blooming inside the chaotic grey lines.

Closing his eyes for a second, Han Xuhan took a deep breath and tried to see if that had changed anything. The disappointment he experienced was not shocking.

Good thing was, he could focus on his ordinary vision singularly, ignoring the secondary vision as if there was a command switch in his brain that turned off the processing of the sensory input brought by the secondary vision.

"Master!"

Han Xuhan spun around and saw Tun Shi Tian flying towards him like an arrow.

"What's up with the qi in the air?! It's amazing! Zhanxian and I can definitely make a breakthrough if we cultivate under these conditions! But..." The bird cranked its neck upwards and shuddered fearfully.

Meanwhile, Han Xuhan was completely taken aback, because his Tun Shi Tian's approach made his new sight act up crazily, ignoring his control. It forcibly made his brain 'see'.

Xuhan was intrigued by what his second vision captured as the skeleton owl landed on his forearm.

Tun Shi Tian's body in his second vision did not contain any grey scribblings, nor any bright pulsing light. Rather, it showed a sharply detailed outline of a tiny bird, as if the grey scribblings that should've been there had united and organized themselves into one intricate structure.

Neither a dead object nor a living being?

At least that was what his previous observations led up to, truly befitting Tun Shi Tian's current state of existence.

But why so...well organized? Even living beings didn't look so neat and tidy in his new sight.

Blinking rapidly, Han Xuhan sent out his orders. "This is a thunderstorm, a part of this tournament's trials. However, there is also the possibility of a tribulation storm popping out of this. So, don't cultivate right now. Get inside the house. Wait for me to return. And if I summon you back into the dao tower suddenly, be ready for a battle."

The owl gaped at him for a moment before nodding in acknowledgment. Han Xuhan chucked it at one of the windows of his hut and walked out cautiously, heading towards the peak of the mountain where the shooting star had landed.

He wasn't exactly fearful of that phenomenon. Kong Ye was right there. The peak of the mountains were all visible from Xuan Zi's residence. If anyone or anything had the balls to threaten him there, hiding in his hut right now wouldn't provide much security anyway.

Soon, he reached the landing site of the shooting star, his steps somewhat unsteady due to his unsettling visual perception.

However, he couldn't locate the exact crash site of the meteor. The trees and soil nearby showed no signs of damage. No burning grass, no hole in the ground, and no pieces of foreign rocks strewn around.

Why hadn't Kong Ye come out? Or was the business already taken care of?

After a dozen minutes of fruitless search, Han Xuhan decided to go visit Kong Ye's residence. He was curious to know what that shooting star was, and even more important was the issue with his eyes.

Halfway down the road, his second vision began to spiral out of control again. Grey and black swirls exploded in his sight, almost submerging his normal vision.

Clutching his eyes, Han Xuhan stood stock-still in the middle of the road, not daring to open them again.

Maybe if he screamed, Kong Ye would hear.

But before he could act upon that thought, things got worse. The grey swirling lines seemed to surpass all physical barriers, appearing in his sight once more despite his eyes being closed and covered with his palms.

Han Xuhan wailed and began to scream... Only to stop short as from within the maddening chaos of the grey-black landscape, colored lines began to emerge, connecting, twisting, looping amongst themselves and creating a human outline.

Something about the outline was familiar.

BOOM!

A streak of lightning struck the nearest tree, so close that Han Xuhan's original vision overpowered the dominant second vision once more, letting him see clearly in the darkness. And the half-second-long clarity of his sight told him that an impressive fist was aimed at his face right now, ready to strike.

Han Xuhan did not hesitate to act upon the first reflexive thought in his panic.

WHUMP!

Two fists hit each other head-on and slipped past each. One of the fists carried with it far more power than the other, and that was not Han Xuhan's fist.

"FUUUUCK!" Han Xuhan skidded backward and lost his balance, falling down on the ground like a log, clutching his contracted fist in pain.

His opponent was at least three layers above his cultivation and wasn't even using his full strength. It had been a slow, casual punch for someone at that level, likely an attempt to greet him heartily.

"Good evening, fellow cultivator Ce." Han Xuhan greeted the stocky youth with a contorted expression.

His original vision had already been clouded by the new one by then. All he could see now was a grey world of tangled threads and nets. At the center of his vision, right in front of him stood the sole source of color in this world, an outline made up of many colors just like his own body.

"Good eve-hmmm? Wait, How did you recognize me? Is my celestial form so recognizable?"

Shangguang Ce sounded quite surprised. Han Xuhan let out a dry smile.

"What was in that crystal?" He asked in a tone that did not quite hide his anger.

"I told you it was a contacting method. Why do you think I came here? You summoned me...sort of."

"You should really explain my new vision problems, brother Ce."

"It's a method we ghost cultivators make use of for secrecy, brother...what was your name again? Mu Ran, right?"

"Something like that, yes."

BOOOM!

"Well, I'm ready to explain but we surely need to find a shelter first," Shangguang Ce said as another streak of lightning fell just a yard away, nearly deafening them.

"These bolts of lightning prefer hitting living beings. I'm certain you remember how being struck by them feels. Want a repetition of that day? "

"Yes, I remember quite clearly, no thanks to you." Han Xuhan hobbled towards a depression on the side of the mountain. Shangguang Ce was quick to follow.

"How well can you see right now?" He asked curiously, watching Xuhan's measured footsteps.

"Right now? All I can see are grey threads as thin as spiderwebs. The limit of my vision seems to be restricted at...three yards, give or take a foot."

Shangguang Ce nodded, seeming satisfied. "Mm, three yards is the upper limit for those who use the crystal to peer into our totality. That's surprisingly good. You've got to be incredibly talented if the limit of your vision has reached this far so fast! "

"Totality?" Han Xuhan shouted in alarm.

"Yep!" Shangguang Ce replied with a short laughter, full of pride and amusement at his reaction.

"What you're looking at right now, is a different totality. Do you know what totalities are? They are realms beyond the reaches of your normal universe...." he began to explain the concepts of macrocosms and totalities patiently while Han Xuhan bobbed his head. He let the guy ramble on, testing if everything Kong Ye had taught them on this topic matched with Shangguang Ce's version.

Other than some terms and phrases, it turned out to be pretty much the same as Kong Ye's explanation. In fact...both versions were eerily similar, as if stemming from the same source.

"Hey, brother Ce," Han Xuhan said as Shangguang Ce stopped for a breath. "Do you know anyone named Kong Ye?"

Shangguang Ce looked confounded as he answered, "...No."

"Okay. Keep talking. What's the relation between the crystal and my new ability to see this totality you speak of? "

"This new totality you're seeing right now is known as the Consciousness Matrix. And the crystal you consumed contained a chemical that alters your real sight, translating your audiovisual data into the dataset of the Consciousness Matrix." Shangguang Ce kept it brief and concise.

"....You're telling me, I ate the blue pill and now I can see the matrix?"

BOOOM!

"That's what I said, yes." Shangguang Ce scratched his head with a doubtful expression, making Han Xuhan realize that the intensity of his second vision was lessening. His original vision was returning slowly.

But that was less important of a concern now...he had to investigate exactly which transmigrating senior was behind this whole 'Bluepilling' prank.