Chapter 188: The Domain of Time

The bottom end of the chain of qi that had disappeared for a while suddenly appeared in their sights during Tun Shi Tian's fourth circular flight track.

It almost seemed as if something had thrown the chain's other end out, putting it back to its original spatial region.

The radius of Tun Shi Tian's current orbit was nearly ten meters. The reappearance of the rest of the length of the chain indicated that this invisible spatial crack was almost circular.

This also confirmed the answer to a more important question Han Xuhan had been wondering about.

Could the edges of the spatial cracks be...deadly?

He had never read anything on this topic from the scientific community on earth. The junk novels and movies he could recall having such concepts all unanimously confirmed that a separation or warping of space would directly decimate anything occupying the space.

Some of the more wild literature even had scenes of the main characters using their powers to cut space itself and disemeber their opponents, break past solid obstacles, destroy super robust treasures...

Naturally, he had been brooding over the issue ever since his journey into the cracks. But now, the chain looked totally unscathed after directly crossing the edge of a spatial crack! It seemed more like the chain had been dangling inside a large basin, and when it hit the walls of the basin due to being spun in circles, it got thrown off trajectory.

This threw the logical scenario in his mind off balance.

"Stop! Hover in that position!" Han Xuhan yelled.

Tun Shi Tian, having realized it as well, lowered his speed and began to circle that area where the bottom end of the chain had reappeared, balancing the momentum of the chain below.

"Boss, can you sense the chain from here?" Xuhan asked Mu Ran, who nodded confidently.

"Alright. Little Tian! Lower the chain by ten more feet. Then swing it slowly, but only forward and backward this time."

Under his command, the chain was soon set in a pendulous motion. After adjusting his position in the air by a few feet, Tun Shi Tian soon found the exact spot where the chain of qi had fully come out of the spatial crack, in other words, the 'wall' of spatial fissure.

"Lower it and then raise it up. Keep repeating that." All four of them stooped as low as possible from where they were standing to focus the entirety of their attention on the chain of qi.

The chain went up and down, half of its length disappearing and reappearing continuously right at the boundary of the spatial crack. After five repetitions, all of them noticed a change.

"Stop!" Han Xuhan ordered.

"The chain is shorter than before," Mu Ran confirmed their thoughts. Being the one in control of most of the qi on the chain, his connection with it was better than the rest. After a careful examination, he added, "The bottom part is melting off."

Yuen Zhou looked like she wanted to say something, but scrapped the idea in the end.

Han Xuhan was lost. What could possibly cause this effect?

The chain of qi should have been fairly stable after going through multiple rounds of furnishing by Yuen Zhou, Xiao Wu, and Mu Ran. Kong Ye had approved of it himself.

Turning to their teacher, Han Xuhan laid out his question very sincerely.

"Teacher, how does warped space affect a material object?"

Kong Ye glanced behind as if looking out for eavesdroppers.

"The answer to this question can be found on the third floor of our Archive Pavilli-"

BOOM!

A white bolt of lightning directly hit Kong Ye. Han Xuhan could not even see which direction it had originated from. Kong Ye looked physically unaffected and mentally unfazed, definitely having expected that.

"Told you." He sighed. "It's rare to see competitions where the rules are intentionally kept hidden. Even we elders are making mistakes, tsk tsk...this will have consequences."

His gaze locked on Han Xuhan with unnatural stiffness, as if trying to relay a hint silently. After a few seconds, he looked away and added, "I may not have the permission to answer your question, or even guide you to the answer, but I have the liberty to correct your mistakes. Disciple Xuhan, you asked me how warped space can affect a material object...but are you dealing with a material object?

Kong Ye's question made Han Xuhan's thoughts slam to a halt.

Indeed, qi has never been considered a material object. The most agreed-upon consensus was that qi is an element existing between the material and the ethereal world, able to freely transition from one to another and adapt to any atmosphere.

Han Xuhan's eyes were locked on Kong Ye's meaningful smile. He could try visiting the Archives right now to find the answers to his question, of course. But...

The fact that Kong Ye had been punished the moment he broke the rule meant that they were under observation. Going to the archives to use the information Kong Ye had let out would also possibly be taken into account.

He recalled how emphatically Kong Ye had stared at him when he said that there would be consequences for leaking the information.

Han Xuhan decided to not pursue the matter, not right now at least.

However, there was no way he'd give up on it, rather, he had just thought of a more roundabout method to approach the answer.

"Er...so what are we doing now?" Xiao Wu tentatively asked, breaking the silent stare-off between Han Xuhan and Kong Ye.

"Tun Shi Tian!" Han Xuhan called.

"Yes, master?"

"Repeat that set of movements ten more times."

"...Sure."

The four martial siblings sat with their feet hanging over the three-hundred-meter drop. Their eyes were not on Little Tian this time, because both on their right and left, far more interesting scenarios were taking place.

"Those guys are from the Steel Searing Heaven Peak, right? Look at that assortment of weapons! Heavens!" Xiao Wu exclaimed.

He was talking about the group of disciples on the far right, who were hanging from the bottom of the floating island using chainhooks. Brandishing their weapons, they had stirred up a strange force-field of some sort, which distorted the air below them and accomplished some other purpose that Han Xuhan and co. could not decipher. But they certainly looked very happy at their progress, that much was evident by the cheers and whistles audible from a distance exceeding a hundred meters.

"That girl is from the Silent Snow mountain peak. She's the one I peeked at bathing...by accident. She hasn't spoken to me since I beat her up. I wonder why!"

Mu Ran was pointing at a girl who was floating in the air, at the same height as Tun Shi Tian, a storm of snowflakes surrounding her like a protective shell.

The source of the snowstorm seemed to be her teammates, who were standing at the edge of the island's lowest regions like the four of them.

So far, only these two teams of disciples had gotten bold enough to directly get close to the spatial cracks and experiment like them. But this did not mean the rest of the teams of disciples were sitting still.

Many disciples had already had experiences of traveling through the spatial cracks. They would continue to brainstorm and come up with ideas Han Xuhan could not conceive.

The numerous cultivation techniques practiced in this sect would show their worth now. Surely, some of those techniques would be a perfect fit for the task Xuan Zi had set for them.

"Master, I'm done!" Tun Shi Tian screeched suddenly.

Han Xuhan asked the owl to bring up the chain of qi and take some rest...to rejuvenate its mental state, as the undead minion couldn't really feel physical fatigue.

More than half of the chain was gone. The bottom that remained was melting off at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"Stabilize it," Han Xuhan ordered. Mu Ran, Yuen Zhou, and Xiao Wu immediately cast their mental influence over the chain.

Within ten mere seconds, the melting stopped.

"Halt!" Han Xuhan raised a hand. "Can you sense any difference in the qi here? Is it the same thing we sent below there or has the qi undergone any changes?"

"Other than going out of my command at that time, nothing has changed," Mu Ran answered.

"If it was not carried into the spatial crack, how long would your command last?" He asked.

"If it had been purely under my control, then more than an hour. But martial sister Zhou and brother Wu also had their share of influence over its solidity. So, I don't know..."

"No matter how much weaker our commands are, I don't think the chain would fall apart this fast. It hasn't even been ten minutes since we constructed it," Xiao Wu said in a displeased tone.

Yuen Zhou nodded in assent.

Han Xuhan sighed.

"Guys, I might have an idea why this has happened."

Five necks snapped towards him, their gazes boring into his face.

"We have, perhaps, tapped into the key to manipulating time," Han Xuhan announced unceremoniously.