"What do I call you, by the way?"
Han Xuhan spoke to break the pressing silence surrounding the three of them. It was a good question. He didnt yet know his companion's name.

"Qian Yun, that's a name I usually go by."

"Cool name. I need to make up one for myself too, one that I'll use while doing cool stuff. Something along the lines of Long Aotian or Mao Xuan..."

"Brother Shen Kai, is that really what we should be discussing right now?"

Han Xuhan and the cyan robed man, Qian Yun, stood beside the signboard and decided to discuss their next strategy to catch up with Mu Ran or simply beat this inheritance test methodically. With Qian Yun's strange cultivation technique and Han Xuhan's slippery methods, it actually didn't seem all that hard to them. And speaking of Qian Yun's techniques...

"Hey, brother Yun, you do realize that you've been lagging behind in terms of keeping our deal balanced, right?"

Qian Yun sighed. He hadn't had the chance to contribute much ever since they had made the deal. The information he had offered 'Shen Kai' was nowhere near as precious as the information 'Shen Kai' had provided later on.
Scratching the back of his head awkwardly, Qian Yun agreed with a nod, contemplating what sort of questions 'Shen Kai' would ask him. After all, due to their deal, during the exchange of information, he couldn't exactly lie and get away with it cleanly.

"Your cultivation technique, the one where you used our signatures to bind us together, has an incredibly similarity with the 'land of laws' and the law fragments we've dealt with so far..."

Suddenly, Qian Yun's body tightened like coiled spring, as if ready to attack any moment, before his posture deflated as fast as it had appeared.

"I suppose I should have known." A hint of grudging respect could be sensed in his tone.
"My decision to make the deal with you was rash. After seeing your way of doing things, I can't even tell if I should regret it or not. But oh well, I was desperate at that time. So ask away."

Han Xuhan had tensed up slightly when Qian Yun had shown signs of aggression. Honestly speaking, Han Xuhan had noticed this particular similarity a while ago in the first circle of laws. But he wanted to use this piece of valuable information to test the waters. He needed someone stronger than himself to protect him if they got out of the circle of laws and entered the dangerous foggy area again. Qian Yun was an excellent choice for that position due to their deal. But Han Xuhan wanted more information before he came to a final decision. Gauging Qian Yun's strength and his bottom lines, or secrets that he wanted to hide were all information that he needed to get his hands on. So he had finally found a moment when Qian Yun wouldn't expect such questions and thrown the clue at his face abruptly.

The result was neat. Qian Yun had entered 'battle mode' for a second or two there and let his aura leak out, as well as revealing that he was sensitive about this particular piece of information, which pointed toward deeper secrets behind the similarities.

A shark-like smile appeared on Han Xuhan's face behind the mask, one that has smelled blood.

"So, can you explain to me why and how you found out about the existence of this world fragment containing the inheritance ground of the land of laws when its traces were revealed barely before we entered this place ? You certainly entered long before we did. And why is your cultivation technique similar to the techniques we've seen so far in here?"

Qian Yun considered his options. Lying wasn't one of those. Massaging his temples for a few second, he started speaking.

"It is true that I entered this land of laws long before you did. As to how I know of its existence and got past the other... unsavory fellows outside the foggy area, let's just say that I inherited a map of sorts from one of my dying ancestors. It has been passed down to our generation for decades. I couldn't accept the fact that my family's core techniques were supposed to have originated from the legendary holy land of laws, yet none of us could decipher it for what it actually was. We use the superficial version of the techniques based on laws. I wanted to be the hero who would venture into the land of laws and retrieve our glorious past, bringing it into the present world of cultivation and shake the entire realm. It was... foolish, I admit. But an we humans strive the hardest to improve when I have an obsession to follow. Mine was this, and I don't regret it."

Han Xuhan listened in silence, head cocked to the side, Zhanxian sitting bedside him and still staring at his own tattoos.

"The map, did it not even give a hint of what you can expect during the inheritance test?"

Qian Yun nodded.
"It's just a map that led to the portal outside. The rest, I had to figure out myself."

Han Xuhan wasn't foolish enough to believe what Qian Yun told him. Truth can be easily twisted with a few key information hidden. As an honest and truthful young man, Han Xuhan knew very well how to speak the truth while lying in an overall scheme of things. Qian Yun didn't need to reveal all his secrets to directly answer Han Xuhan's questions.

Regardless, he had gotten a rough idea of the bigger picture now.

"Then let's not talk about such matters anymore. About our strategy...What do you think we can expect inside?"

This time Qian Yun straightened up and voiced his opinion confidently.

" The first stage of the inheritance test was to examine our ability to think up solutions and try everything at our disposal, regardless of the risk when pressed for time. It also tested our courage to bear risks. But in the backstage, while we were trying our best to learn the language of laws, our dao foundations have been infiltrated, which points toward certain possibilities that the land of laws may not practice righteousness. But I wouldn't fault them for the precautions. Now, on the next level, there are a few possibilities that we need to prepare for. If all the orbs of lights in the fog are circle of laws, then we've already learned what we could from them. At least according to your description, our dao tower can not hold too many alphabets of this language, which I assume are limits, just like any other cultivation technique. If we break through to the soul reformation stage and create the next floor of our dao foundation, then we can hope to absorb and comprehend more alphabets down the line.

Then this brings us back to the contents of the next test. Since we cannot learn much more of this language for now, then what we can do now is practice. From this point of view, I believe that we would have to frequently use these law fragments we've learnt so far, perhaps against other cultivators who have passed the first test and entered this stage already."

Han Xuhan closely observed Qian Yun as he spoke. He hadn't expected this guy to be so smart.
Qian Yun was definitely not as simple minded as he appeared. Han Xuhan had to admit that he hadn't thought of some of those points presented by him.

Nevertheless, Qian Yun was practically his bodyguard now, at least temporarily. They had to stick together for the next stage of the inheritance test.

"You present some fine points, brother Qian Yun. If your conjectures are true, then we have to do our best to avoid other newly made disciples of this holy land of laws. Which means, we cannot enter any of the orbs we can see from here, eh? After all, if we can think of what to expect in the next level, so can others. Then, any cultivator who enters the next stage would set up traps using laws before the rest of us can enter as well, no?"

Qian Yun mulled over Shen Kai's words. In the fog, vision was limited. They could see a few orbs from their position. But there was a high possibility that all those orbs had already been occupied. In that case, blindly entering them would be akin to jumping into a fire pit.

"...This is going to be problematic."

Han Xuhan and and Qian Yun exchanged a long look through their masks and then stood up together. Zhanxian jumped up a second later.

All three of them faced the fog ahead of them as the law fragments around them kept the fog at bay.

"Why don't we ignore all the orb containing the circle of laws and directly rush toward the centre of the foggy area?"
Qian Yun suggested.

Han Xuhan laughed. He had just remembered a certain detail from the time he had spent outside the foggy area. There had been a lot of shouts and sounds of battle deep within the fog.

"I'm afraid that many of our predecessors have done exactly that. And our next stage of test shall be fighting each other amidst the fog, brother Qian Yun."