Extra's Strategy: Cultivate Protagonists, Become Invincible-Chapter 117: The Chaotic Deduction

"Hey, Brother Xuhan, you look quite bored. Why don’t you chat with me for a bit?"

Zhao Weiqing sat down in front of the most suspicious guy among the trio of cultivators they had just captured.

The other two, Mu Ran and Xuanyuan Zhou, were sufficiently powerful, with lots of secret techniques at their disposal. However Zhao Weiqing could not figure out exactly how or why Han Xuhan had managed to evade the trap in the third stage of the inheritance test.

Logically speaking, unless he knew some secrets about this place beforehand, it should be very difficult for anyone to evade it. Zhao Weiqing still needed to wait for a while for the main body to finish its refined spirituality assimilation.

He wanted to utilize that bit of time to figure out exactly where he had made a mistake while designing the traps.

"Sure, Brother Yun. I had some things I wanted to ask as well. Let’s talk." Han Xuhan nodded lightly and squirmed a bit, leaning back on Mu Ran and Xuanyuan Zhou who were tied up behind him, getting into a comfortable sitting posture.

"You stink," Xuanyuan Zhou muttered.

"You’re getting your sweat on me, underling," Mu Ran added.

Han Xuhan ignored them both. This wasn’t the time to practice democracy and listen to every useless opinion. This was the time to make a comfortable final stand.

Zhao Weiqing leaned over and unmasked Han Xuhan’s face for all to see.

"I’m not some jade beauty you lot need to behold. Put the mask back where it belongs," he ordered in a gloomy tone.

"Just making sure to recognize your face, Brother Xuhan. Same goes for your siblings."

Mu Ran and Xuanyuan Zhou were subsequently unmasked as well. Among the trio, Xuanyuan Zhou got the least amount of attention. Mu Ran was the least cooperative, throwing a tantrum and cursing everyone’s mother from the moment he was unmasked. The overreaction made even Han Xuhan frown.

Zhao Weiqing put the masks back on their faces and directly approached the question that had been bothering him the most at the moment.

"Now, what did you do in the third test, Brother Xuhan? The leaderboard says you failed twice..."

"Ah, good question, Brother Yun. If I were to answer directly... I just took a look at the two orbs that were provided to me by the hall representatives. But I failed to come up with any suitable law fragments. Yeah... That’s it. But if you want a longer explanation, I can share that too."

Zhao Weiqing opened his mouth to say something but got stuck halfway. He wanted to shout that any cultivator who has passed through the first circle of laws should have been able to use the letters in the orbs to create a law fragment. Unless, of course...

"You didn’t absorb the qi in the orbs," Zhao Weiqing muttered.

Han Xuhan laughed.

"Seeing how fast you were able to figure out the issue, it seems like my guess was correct. The qi in the orb really was problematic! I’ll have to admit, that was a good trap.

"To enter the third stage, one has to spend their entire qi reserve. But to perform in the test, they need qi, and that’s where your trick comes in. Tell me, brother Yun, what was mixed in the qi?"

Zhao Weiqing gloomily stared back at Han Xuhan. Mu Ran and Xuanyuan Zhou did not react to the news of polluted qi for some reason. Looking at their lack of shock, Zhao Weiqing felt the doubts in his mind become thicker instead of clearing up. After a long bout of silence, he spoke.

"Your answer has some inconsistencies. Why would you suspect the qi provided by the platform to begin with?"

"Of course, I do actually have reasons to suspect that particular mechanism," Han Xuhan replied in an amused tone.

"First of all, you were the one who warned me back during the first stage of the test. You said nobody here would trust the environment enough to absorb anything, not even qi, into their bodies. But it looks like you forgot your own advice, heh!"

"...." Zhao Weiqing could only curse his current prime vessel in silence.

"Secondly, when I was inside the stadium, stuck deciphering all those law fragments, I noticed that a majority of the law fragments had something to do with restriction, suppression, punishment, reduction of powers above certain levels, strict rules that one must always abide by..."

Zhao Weiqing nodded in agreement and said, "That’s natural. How else would they keep out powerful entities with malicious intentions and curious cultivators who aren’t worthy of the inheritance?"

"That, I agree with wholeheartedly. But there was this one thought that had occurred to me back then. Don’t these powerful suppressive laws work both ways? Does that mean something or someone might actually be sealed here and the laws could have been placed to stop them from getting out?" Han Xuhan replied.

"The possibilities of either of these two theories being true are equal, right?"

The moment he finished speaking, the temperature of the atmosphere seemed to drop. Mu Ran’s breathing rhythm suddenly became irregular, which Han Xuhan could feel due to their closeness.

He could also feel Xuanyuan Zhou becoming tense behind him, like a coiled snake ready to spring out. But oddly enough, he could infer that she wasn’t particularly surprised.

The moment he had approached the topic of his suspicions regarding the circle of laws, Xuanyuan Zhou’s arms, which his back was leaning on, had become tense. It was a slow process, not one that stemmed from surprise.

Han Xuhan’s eyes narrowed. Now he was absolutely certain that Xuanyuan Zhou hadn’t wandered into this world fragment by mere coincidence and curiosity. She knew a lot more than the vague warnings she had given him earlier.

Hohoho, now this... this was getting interesting.

"Go on, continue your explanation. There should be more to it than just a plain ’what if’ realization, right?" Zhao Weiqing said finally.

With a genial smile, Han Xuhan nodded like a good boy and continued. He couldn’t just resist showing off his deductive skills. It brought him immense satisfaction.

"You’re correct. Now, going back to the time when I had just realized that this circle of laws can work both ways, my overly imaginative mind, influenced by the basic survival principle of not trusting sudden strokes of fortune, I began to cook up some theories as to what other aims can one accomplish through this testing ground..."

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