Ashes Of Heaven Book 1 : Solar Calamity

In retrospect, Han Xuhan felt that there were too many protagonist-level characters in this sect. Never having seen cultivators in his life before coming here, he couldn't come to a decision regarding whether it was this Crimson Snow sect that was odd, or if this was a general phenomenon all around the cultivation world nowadays.

That history book he had read on his first night in the sect suggested that the latter situation could very well be true.

There was his boss Mu Ran. What need was there to explain why Xuhan considered him a protagonist-level character? This guy hit every flag there was in the templates.

There was elder Kong, whose behavior was very suspicious too, just like in those novels where the main character reshapes the world by teaching outstanding disciples.

Martial sister Yuen Zhou was another, with a mysterious and tragic backstory as well as the demeanor of determined female protagonists.

And finally, there was Han Xuhan himself, an ordinary guy with no cheats, yet hounded by the heavens for some mysterious reason.

His character would fit the templates too so long as he took his grudge with the celestials seriously. And that was why he usually did his best to keep the grudge in his mind in check.

He didn't want to become a second Mu Ran.

But these speculations hardly bothered him much now that he had more pressing tasks at hand.

He had eleven days left to make another breakthrough and reach the second layer of the physique transformation realm. How else would he be able to safeguard himself from expulsion?

Looking down at the pile of spirit stones on the floor of his hut, Han Xuhan felt quite satisfied. His little business scheme had gone pretty smoothly.

Yesterday afternoon, countless female and some male disciples of the sect, as well as some of the outsiders, had rushed to the Black Sheep mountain peak, their faces showing rage and spite, probably angry at their partners for buying a book that contained instructions on how to make harems, in other words, how to cheat on them while appearing righteous.

In fact, the number of people who had bought the first book wasn't high. But many bought the second book just to be on the safe side and out of curiosity. Some bought it due to their suspicious nature as well, feeling that their daoist partners might buy the first book secretly.

This formed a chain reaction where the innocent daoist partners realized that since there was already a solution to the first book, then it wouldn't be a problem even if they bought it to satisfy their curiosity, at least that's what they told their partners anyway before proceeding to buy the first book gleefully.

Having gotten a very short time to prepare the second book, Han Xuhan had had to take some drastic measures. He had already prepared the materials and contacted a few businessmen from the caravans to mass produce the new book before the auction, since he didn't trust elder Shen fully. After all, anybody could take the credit for an anonymous work!

Convincing the new business partners had taken a toll on his wealth. But the subsequent profit had been worth it.

Mu Ran had played his part well as the main perpetrator of the drama. He had faced elder Shen according to the instructions Han Xuhan had left for him before going to confront Zhang Shi's caravan. He had also handled the disciples who had come to make trouble upon seeing them swimming in money.

Most of the readers suspected that Mu Ran was the author. Who else would be so audacious and shameless enough to pull a stunt like this?

A considerable portion of the readers also seemed to have found the content hilarious. They assumed that the author had penned the concepts sarcastically, and provided the advice as a joke...it became a trend among the disciples soon to quote the most ridiculous lines from the books in their conversations for laughs.

As the pile of spirit stones got bigger and bigger with time, Han Xuhan could already smell his target, the second layer.

It had only been three days. Nearly every outer sect disciple, regardless of their relationship status, had bought at least one of these books. In the caravans, anyone who could afford the price had also bought a copy.

If the situation continued, perhaps the two books would've started affecting even the elders. But unfortunately for Han Xuhan, the authorities, including the sect master himself, came out to put a stop to this farce and banned both books after lecturing the outer court disciples about how insidious and useless the books were.

"The sect only permitted the sale of the first book because we had great trust in Zhang Shi and his association. It is a tragedy that the infamous criminal Xiao Wang had infiltrated their association and charmed Zhang Shi into pulling such a scandalous scam! We, as righteous cultivators, can certainly not let these useless books be sold under our name! I strongly condemn disciple Mu Ran for profitting off the first book, even though he claims that he only wanted to help his fellow brothers and sisters by writing the second book!"

This was Xuan Zi's explanation for the ban.

Thankfully, he didn't mention that it was actually Han Xuhan who had written the first book to trap his fellow martial siblings into his scheme, possibly because Xuan Zi didn't want to delve into the details of how exactly elder Shen had trapped Xiao Wang.

That man truly was a formidable opponent in manipulation. He had used Han Xuhan's scheme to arouse the greed of Xiao Wang, who in turn had desperately made Zhang Shi agree to his plan of running away with the profit. Then he had sent Han Xuhan to confront Xiao Wang, with a sign that Han Xuhan was no longer a disciple of the sect.

Xiao Wang's greed and desperation had been pushed to the brink seeing how lax the security and attitude of the sect he had just robbed was. He had dropped all pretense and decided to go for broke...then elder Shen had broken his ribs.

From the whole incident, elder Shen had even earned some spirit stones!

With all the parties except the victims of these many-layered schemes left satisfied, the matter had concluded there.

"I've earned nearly two thousand spirit stones, excluding the production cost and labor fees. I must thank boss, brother Wu and those seniors who helped me. I'll remember this favor..."

Han Xuhan collected around a thousand spirit stones in a pouch and went to visit elder Shen again, this time to buy more resources.