Ding Bo lifted his sword, his hands trembling. “This—”

Hui grabbed the Jade Garden disciple by the arm. A sudden thought leaped to the top of his mind, irrepressible. In this situation, what would Bai Xue say? His brows furrowed slightly. A serious expression on his face, he looked the disciple in the eye. “Cooperate with me and let me in, okay?”

“E-eh?” the Jade Garden disciple squeaked.

Closing his eyes, Hui sent his qi inside the disciple. At first, the disciple’s qi resisted him, but then it calmed. Hui rushed through the disciple’s passages until he found the glittering seeds, faintly shining with qi. Repeating the process he’d used on himself, he managed to draw out the life and death qi, but it took too long. The seed’s qi coating resisted his efforts too much for the life qi to easily draw out the existing life qi.

Maybe… if I kill the coating with death qi? But then I risk injecting death qi into a fellow disciple’s passages, and they can’t handle that they way I can…

A female disciple gasped. “He—right in front of everyone…?”

Another female disciple squealed, clasping her hands over her eyes. A second later, she peeked through her fingers.

The Jade Garden disciple coughed, spitting bad blood and the seeds, then cleared his throat. “Er, I appreciate the help, elder brother, but now that you’re done healing me, could you…?”

“Oh, right.” Hui withdrew his qi. Why’s he emphasizing those words? Weird. He turned to the next disciple. She backed away, hands up, but Hui caught her. “Don’t run away. I need to draw out the seeds.”

“It’s fine, it’s—not in front of everyone?” she requested, suddenly blushing.

“There’s no time. Don’t be fussy.” Frowning, Hui inserted his qi, repeating the process. The disciple resisted weakly, but gave in. After a few breaths, she, too, spat blood and seeds.

Dammit. There’s got to be a faster way. There’s dozens of people here, I can’t take them all one at a time!

“Shut up! I won’t let you!” Ding Bo snapped his fingers.

Qi plants burst out on all the cultivators around Hui, with the exception of Li Xiang and the two he’d healed. Roars of pain and screams of anguish rang out. The plants grew and grew, surging out of the cultivators.

“Kill your qi! Everyone, kill—” Hui bit his lip. Shit! No one else here knows how to kill their qi except Li Xiang, and she’s not infected! “Stop circulating it! Flow it as slowly as you can bear, even if it hurts, okay?”

A few of the cultivators hesitated. The plants grew taller.

“I—I heard it from a Mysterious Heavenly Forest cultivator. He’s… he’s a heavenly-skilled healer,” Su Yan grunted out, extremely regretfully. “Trust him.”

“Ah, is that so?”

“Huh, it explains why he couldn’t fight.”

“How come we never knew? Wait, does Weiheng Wu even know healing arts in the first place?”

It’s not so! It’s not true! None of it! Li Xiang—ah, wait, but it helps me, so… Hui took a deep breath and nodded. “That’s right, that’s right. Listen to me. I can save you!”

Li Xiang frowned from the arena. With all the cultivators facing away, they couldn’t see her shake her head.

Hui desperately grimaced at her and shook his head back. Don’t say it, don’t say it, please?

Quietly, Li Xiang turned her head aside and muttered, “That’s not true.”

“SHUT UP!” Ding Bo slashed at the ground. A rift opened up in the marble floor of the arena, extending over the surface of the mountain.

Hui closed his eyes, searching out the life and death qi inside him. I need a way to treat everyone at once. If I, maybe…

“I don’t care! I don’t care any more! Demonic, righteous, in the end it’s all nonsense! Our sect is in decline. It’s been in decline for decades! With every year, the demonic sects infringe on our land. And why? Because they’re strong! They’re so much stronger than us! At the end of the day, cultivation is about achieving immortality! Even if I have to trample over all of you to do it, even if I have to deliver Starbound Sect to the demons, I—”

“Right!” Hui cut into Ding Bo’s monologue. He took a deep breath, then held his hands out.

A half-dozen tiny golden songbirds materialized in his hands, each no larger than a fingernail. They chirped, then flew off, darting to the nearest cultivators.

Taking a deep breath, Hui threw his arms wide. “Go!”

The ducks poured out of his dantian, black as night save one in pale pink. They chased after the songbirds, a dozen of them to a bird. Where the songbirds landed, the ducks soon followed. The songbirds sank into the cultivators and drew the life qi out of the seeds, then flew on to the next. The second they left, the ducks poured through the cultivators, snatching away the death qi.

And if I guessed right, then next I’ll—

Hui’s knees went weak. He toppled backward, as the world turned monochrome around him. All sound from the mortal world ceased, and he fell into silence.

Li Xiang rushed to his side, but before she could reach, Ding Bo darted forward, past the other cultivators. He sprinted across the mountain, Li Xiang chasing after him. In the distance, he launched himself at a passing cultivator in white and launched the flurry of blows at them as well. A second later, qi seeds burst through the cultivator’s flesh.

“The ones he strikes, too,” Hui said, uncertain if the birds could hear him. The songbird first came to me when I was in this form, so… maybe?

A dozen songbirds chirped back at him. As they finished with the cultivators around them, they chased after Ding Bo. The ducks ignored him, but followed after the songbirds, curious wherever they were going.

Eh, a dozen? They multiplied? Well, it is life qi, and life multiplies… wait, does that mean I doubled what I had? What a windfall! Ding Bo, let this small cultivator express his gratitude!

Though… why is it that a demonic plant is full of life qi? It makes sense that a plant with such incredible life force would have life qi, but… I thought demonic cultivators used demonic, death, or blood qi, not life qi… Hui put his hand on his chin, thoughtful.

“Is now the time to think?” a familiar voice asked.

Hui startled. He stared up at the white-robed reaper. “Ah, aha…”

“He’s the one,” she said, pointing.

From behind the reaper, out stepped a shape. Hui’s mind boggled, unable to comprehend it. Shadow. Death. Blood. It reeked of evil and emanated such a pressure that his unprotected soul almost shredded away. Hui circulated what little was left of his death qi and fell backward, playing dead.

“Sir,” the reaper said to the shadowy form, impatient.

“Ah, it seems I overestimated this intruder of ours,” the shadowy form said. A pale hand appeared out of the darkness and waved it away as though it had never been.

Where the shadow had been stood a man. Tall and cold, he was almost unbearably beautiful to look at, but equally cold and brutal. Dark hair swept from his temples all the way down to his waist. Skin as pale as fine porcelain showed blue veins at the wrists and chin. Vicious eyes that burned through whoever they turned upon, a brutally sharp chin, high cheekbones, and haughty aura surrounded him, such that Hui knew immediately that he wasn’t worthy to look upon such a being.

Ah, well, it’s fine. I’m playing dead.

Wait, ah… why do I feel like there’s something strange about my state? I’m already a soul…

The vicious-eyed man laughed, shoving a single stray strand of hair back from his brow. “You’re right, he is quite unique. This is the first time I’ve had a soul play dead before me. Little one, you’re already dead, you know?”

“I, I’m not dead!” Hui protested, sitting up without a single shred of shame.

“So I’ve been told. So how is a third-stage cultivator like you floating around out of his body, if you aren’t dead?” the man asked tilting his head. His eyes flashed with a vicious light, and Hui suddenly had a premonition of the man strapping him to an operating table, scalpel in hand.

No, no! I didn’t spend all that time protecting my poor little organs from the loan sharks my whole first life to get sliced up in my second!

“Ah, ah, ah, I, I, I’m—cultivating death qi!” Hui spat out at last.

“Cultivating death qi, in a righteous sect? Shouldn’t someone like you be on my side?” the man asked.

Hui swallowed. My side? So he is a demonic cultivator. Not as if it’s surprising! No, the only thing that would surprise me at this point is if he’s—

“I am.”

Hui blinked. He looked slowly up at the man before him.

The man tossed his hair and smiled, eyes gliting with a feral light. “What is it you were going to call me? Enma? It’s been a long time since I heard that name.”