Bai Xue frowned. “Happily, but right here? Right now?”

Hui stared at him. A second later, his cheeks burned. “B-Hong Xue!”

“What? How else am I supposed to interpret that?”

Hui rolled his eyes. “Literally! I mean—ugh. I mean, if you carry me on your back, I think I can transmit what I see to you! My attacks are too weak to counter his strings, but you should be strong enough.”

“Hop on,” Bai Xue said, gesturing.

“You… how are the two of you going to sync your qi so quickly? It’s not a simple process! You have to have immense practice dual cultivating, specifically dual cultivating with each other to pull that off!” Huang Muwen asked, startled. “We need to run, not waste time on useless gambits!”

“D…dual cultivating,” Hui mumbled. His mouth suddenly felt dry.

“No worries. I’m an expert. And we’ve done it once or twice, right, Hui?” Bai Xue said.

“We… eh?” Hui asked, confused. “When?”

Bai Xue let out a deep sigh. “Whenever we pass energy, that’s technically dual cultivating. Everyone makes such a big deal about it, but it’s nothing special, really. In the B… Hong Clan, no one thinks twice about it. For some reason, though, most of the cultivation world puts way too much emphasis on what should be a simple, helpful technique.”

Hui reeled. The world wobbled around him. Whenever we pass energy… ah, when I… when I healed those fellow cultivators of qi seeds, when I sent the ducks out to eat the seeds, I... did I—

The luminous green strings flew toward them, cutting through the air. Hui grabbed Bai Xue and yanked him back, narrowly avoiding the string. There’s no time. I can have a moral crisis later! For now, we need to defeat Xi Guping.

Bai Xue held his hands out behind his back, offering a piggyback. He hopped onto Bai Xue’s back and passed his qi into Bai Xue. Bai Xue reached out and resonated with him with practiced ease, matching the fluctuations of his qi perfectly. Hui focused, reaching out to his death qi. He passed the images from his death qi to his ordinary qi, then through to Bai Xue.

“Wow. What is this? Hui, what is this ability?” Bai Xue asked, amazed. He looked around, taking in the strange world Hui's third eye saw.

The luminous strings lashed at them. No time to reply, Hui’s eyes widened. “Bai Xue!”

“I see them.” Flipping his second fan back into his sleeve, Bai Xue drew the black dagger and slashed at the glowing string. The glowing string looped around the dagger and yanked, trying to free it from Bai Xue’s hand.

In his third eye’s vision, the black dagger glowed with a faint dark light. Hui reached out and transmitted his death qi into it. The dark light surged as the dagger resonated with his death qi and with Bai Xue’s qi, and the black light ate into the green string. The green string frayed, light fading. Flicking his wrist, Bai Xue severed the string.

Xi Guping gaped, then grimaced. He gestured, and all ten of his strings lashed out at Hui and Bai Xue. The one they'd sliced rushed back out to full size, its frayed ends snapping with his gesture.

“Hui! Cooperate with me!” Bai Xue shouted.

“Of course!” He transmitted more of his death qi into the dagger, and Bai Xue likewise added more qi. Hui narrowed his eyes, keeping his death qi a hair away from Bai Xue's to keep it from destroying Bai Xue's qi.

The dagger flashed, twisting through the air. Bai Xue wielded it like a fan, favoring sweeping strikes. Dancing left and right, he severed all the strings and grinned at Xi Guping. “Is that all?”

“You!” Xi Guping’s face darkened. He gestured, and a pair of living puppets appeared. Loose fabric draped their bodies, obscuring their forms. Muslin veils left their faces in shadow. Little was clear about their features except that one was male and one was female. He started to send them toward Bai Xue and Hui, then hesitated, eyes flickering toward the black dagger.

Come on, send them here. Let Bai Xue sever their strings! Hui cheered, grinning widely.

“Let me handle it.” A burly swordsman elbowed Xi Guping to the side. His eyes were a shocking red, fierce to the extreme.

“You can try.” Lifting his other hand, Bai Xue waved his fan once, twice, thrice. Each time, fire rushed out of his fan, growing larger each time he waved it.

“Wang Doxin, fall back!” Xi Guping shouted, annoyed.

Wang Doxin shouted and sliced at the flames. One, two, a dozen slashes. His sword let out massive booms as it clashed with the flames, but his expression grew more fierce each time. Maddened red light began to glow in his eyes, and his cultivation surged to the height of the third realm.

Bai Xue snorted. He waved his fan again. As he did so, Hui threw a thread of death qi behind it, mimicking Xi Guping’s strings. Wang Doxin gritted his teeth and clashed against the new wave of flames, but blinded by the flames, missed Hui’s dark string. The string connected to his shoulder.

Hui instantly felt the man’s life force. He pushed death qi into Wang Doxin, simultaneously pulling at the man’s life force. Distracted by fighting fourth-realm flames, Wang Doxin didn’t notice the thread. He began to sweat, weakened, but still pressed on, eyes glowing brighter with madness as his life force dwindled.

“Wang Doxin! Stop!” Xi Guping snarled, incensed. He lashed out with his green threads and connected to Wang Doxin. Instantly, the man’s face went slack. His natural resistance to Hui’s pulling vanished under the weight of Xi Guping’s influence.

Hui’s face lit up. Don’t mind if I do! Pulling harder, he sucked away Wang Doxin’s life force until only a scrap remained. At that, he released the black string. Wang Doxin crumpled, his body wrinkled and aged, skin loose and dry and hair grayed, as if with age.

Bai Xue waved his fan again. Xi Guping gestured, and Wang Doxin flew backward, but too slow. The flames pivoted, rushing at Xi Gupnig instead. Scowling, Xi Guping reversed his initial move and threw the weakened Wang Doxin in front of Bai Xue’s flames. With a scream, the man perished.

Though it takes some time to describe, this all happened in the blink of an eye. In the space between one breath and the next, Wang Doxin went from a strapping swordsman battling toe-to-toe with a fourth-realm cultivator to a pile of ash on the floor.

“You control freak. If you let Wang Doxin keep fighting, he might have stood a chance!” Hui mocked, too disgusted by Xi Guping to keep his mouth shut. A demonic cultivator, truly! He sabotages his own teammates and throws them into the flames to block an attack that he could have ignored, had he allowed Wang Doxin to fight with his own power!

Xi Guping’s other two teammates drew subtly away from Xu Guping, casting him looks from the corner of their eyes.

“How chatty, for a rot-brained death cultivator,” Xi Guping growled. He gestured, sending the two living puppets out toward Hui and Bai Xue.

Hui sent more qi into Bai Xue’s dagger, trying to match the forceful heat of Bai Xue's qi with the cold aura of death. Leaping forward, Bai Xue severed the strings with a short slash. The puppets slumped. Bai Xue darted past, racing for Xi Guping.

A devious smile twitched the corner of Xi Guping’s lips.

Hui’s heart caught. Something’s wrong. Eyes darting, he counted the strings. One, two, three… nine… Shit! “Bai Xue!”

A green string burrowed out of the ground at Bai Xue’s feet and connected with his ankle. Bai Xue stiffened. Green energy coursed through him, overwhelming his qi passages and surging upward. It fed off Bai Xue’s qi, corrupting it like death qi corrupted qi.

Hui killed his connection with Bai Xue. Unhesitating, he threw himself off Bai Xue’s back and hurtled down at Xi Guping.

Xi Guping’s smirk grew wider. He raised a hand, and five strands flew at Hui.

Hui killed his qi. I might not be able to keep you from controlling me forever, but I can at least slow it down if you can’t corrupt my qi. With the last of his strength, he stole the black dagger from Bai Xue’s hands.

Green qi flooded into his qi passages. Finding no qi, they faltered for a moment, then surged onward anyways.

Bai Xue’s qi shimmered up at his beck and call, imbued into the dagger. Even without me explaining, he understood. As the green qi stole his limbs away, Hui tossed the dagger into his mouth and threw all his death qi into the dagger.

Xi Guping’s eyes went wide. He pushed his qi faster, racing for Hui’s dantian. There, still, his green qi faltered, finding almost no qi to corrupt. The songbirds trilled and pecked at it, unaffected by the green qi. Confusion played over Xi Guping’s face as the green qi flinched under the life qi’s onslaught.

Their faces zoomed toward each other. Hui twisted his neck. A third realm cultivator should never have been able to do more than scratch the skin of a fourth realm cultivator, but with the power of Bai Xue’s qi and the full force of Hui's death qi behind it, the dagger bit into Xi Guping’s throat and severed it. Blood splashed across the stone. Death qi poured into Xi Guping, fighting the qi inside him. He struggled for a few moments, then went limp, eyes fading.

Death qi escaped from him, and simultaneously from his bag of holding. The two puppets behind Hui let out a gentle, relieved sigh, releasing death qi as well. Hui spat the dagger out and sat up. He breathed in, drawing the death qi inside of him.

All his puppets died when he did. How horrific.

Xi Guping… deserved to die.

Footsteps made him look up. He gazed at Xi Guping’s former teammates, face splattered with blood, releasing a thick aura of death, his expression flat and dead. Truly ghoulish, he glared at the two cultivators. “Do you follow him into death, as well?”

The pair of cultivators exchanged a glance and retreated a dozen steps.

Behind Hui, Bai Xue stood. Unhesitatingly, he darted after the duo. One threw out a green mist, the other a fierce ghost. With a swipe of his fan, Bai Xue banished both, then swept again. Raging flames burned both cultivators to nothing, their screams barely out of their throats before they had no more throats to scream with.

Hui wiped his mouth, then looked at his hands. Blood stained the ghoul skin. I killed. For the first time, I killed.

A cold sensation passed through him, something not physical, nor magical, but which came from his heart. He closed his hands slowly. He'd lost something, but he couldn't say what. He looked at Xi Guping's withered body, throat slit, desiccated by death qi. His brows furrowed slightly.

…I’ve really grown more bloodthirsty since I’ve joined this demonic sect! The demonic arts must be corrupting me! I’ll have to be more vigilant in the future, or this little me might start killing fellow cultivators!

Though… Xi Guping deserved it. Those puppets… stuck between life and death… I can’t imagine their torment.

And of course, this small cultivator needs to be able to play dead! I can’t allow a man like that, who collects living bodies, to live! No, no. I chose... the right path.

But I have to mind my bloodlust!

Bai Xue rested his hand on Hui’s shoulder. “How are you doing?”

“I…” He looked up. “I’ll be fine. I did the right thing.”

Bai Xue frowned at him. “I meant physically.”

Hui bowed, embarrassed. I almost forgot, this is a bloodsoaked cultivation world! Bai Xue could probably never imagine... that this was my first kill! “Thank you for your concern, Elder Brother, but this small cultivator is fine!”

Bai Xue nodded. He glanced at Huang Muwen and narrowed his eyes. He didn't say a word, but killing intent glimmered in the depths of his eyes, passing the message just fine.

Huang Muwen put his hands up. “I’m injured, and I couldn’t see his strings! How could I jump into battle?”

Bai Xue nodded, eyes still narrowed. He turned aside.

Somehow, I feel as if Bai Xue won't forget this soon, Hui noted, eyeing Huang Muwen as well.

Hui sighed. He looked at Bai Xue. “Elder Brother… is that really all you’ve meant by dual cultivation all along? Passing energy between us?”

Taken aback, Bai Xue stared at him. “Don’t be ridiculous. Of course not.”

“E-eh? You two… have that kind of relationship?” Huang Muwen asked, staring from one to the other. Strange expressions flickered across his face as he recalled Bai Xue and Hui’s conversation from earlier in the fight.

“I—we—” Hui put his face in his hands. “Hong Xue, please…”

Bai Xue turned away and raised a sleeve over his mouth, glancing at Hui coquettishly from the corner of his eyes. “Mmm, not yet.”

Hui bowed his head. I should have known I couldn’t trust Bai Xue!

There’s nothing wrong with any of this, but… people are going to assume things about this small cultivator that just aren’t true!

“Well, I… I suppose everyone has their own circumstances…” Huang Muwen said hesitantly.

“Circumstances! Yes, circumstances!” Hui said, latching onto the word like a lifeline. “There are circumstances. Very specific circumstances.”

Bai Xue smirked and shook his head. “There’s no need to be embarrassed, Xie Hao. A great many men would pay to be in your position right now. In fact, one even cursed me for the honor.”

Every word you say is true, so why does it hurt? Hui sighed. “There’s a limit to mockery, Hong Xue.”

“Oh. Oh, it was a joke!” Huang Muwen said, thumping his fist into his hand. He laughed and shook his head. “You should’ve said so. I’ve always been a bit slow with humor!”

“Yes. A joke…” Bai Xue winked.

Hui scowled at him.