Hui stared. He looked at Zhubi, and Zhubi looked at him. He cleared his throat. “Ah… Zhubi is…”

“He’s always been with you, hasn’t he? Actually, I’ve been curious about him, too. Is he your spirit beast, or…?” Bai Xue asked, frowning.

Hui hesitated another few seconds, then nodded. “Ah… that’s…more or less.”

It doesn’t hurt if Fa Chuyou knows Zhubi is mine. Neither she nor Yi Ping has ever seen me outside of this sect. Gu Tian might be a problem, or Erlan, or Yunxu, wherever that terrifying senior vanished off to… but Fa Chuyou and Yi Ping should be fine. It’s best if no one sees him, but it shouldn’t be a problem for these two to see him.

She tipped her head, then nodded. “Make sure he doesn’t eat any of my corpses. Some are poisonous.”

“I’ll keep a close eye on him,” Hui promised, bowing.

With that, they lifted off, flying back toward the sect. Xixing cast a single glance away at the edge of the sect, then turned her eyes away, facing resolutely into the demonic sect.

The shuttle circled into the Corpse Refining Valley. It settled outside Fa Chuyou’s cultivation zone, and they leaped off. Zhubi wriggled out from under the cicada and quickly wriggled down, leaping up to settle into Hui’s sleeve again. Hui gently pet his head.

“Leave me out here. I’ll dismantle this cicada,” Xixing declared. She slashed out with her palm and severed it just under the abdomen. Grabbing the gold wire, she kicked the other half of the cicada away, and slid it off. She passed it to Hui.

Hui took the wire and hung it over his shoulder, then nodded to her. “Thank you, Elder Sister.”

“It’s nothing, nothing,” Xixing said, waving her hand. She stared at the cicada, a bright smile on her face, and moved in. Wet wrenching and sucking sounds came from within the cicada.

Hui turned away. I… never wanted to see that. He gave a quick bow to Fa Chuyou. “Elder Sister, if I may?”

“Of course, of course,” Fa Chuyou said. Humming to herself, she bustled into the zone, Hui trailing after her.

“Then, I’ll see you later,” Bai Xue said, setting the cage of cicadas on the floor beside Xixing. “When you make those pills…”

“Yeah, got it. I’ll give you a discount,” Xixing replied absent-mindedly.

“A free batch,” Bai Xue argued.

“Half price,” Xixing bit back.

Bai Xue hesitated, then shrugged. “Sure.”

Hui hesitated at the entry to Fa Chuyou’s cultivation zone. He turned back and bowed to Xixing. “Elder Sister, about those pills…”

Xixing looked at him, then gritted her teeth. “I’ll… give you a free batch!”

Taken aback, Bai Xue looked at Xixing. “You… him, but not me?”

“A silkpants like you has had everyone bow to all your wishes all your life, haven’t you? Ah… one must learn humility to walk the true path of cultivation,” Xixing said sagely. Contrary to her words, an expression of immense satisfaction spread across her face.

“You…! Shameless! You’d give him free pills, just to look down on me?” Bai Xue exclaimed, flabbergasted.

“It’s good that Elder Brother learns so quickly,” Xixing replied, still dreamy.

Bai Xue ground his teeth. He scowled at Xixing, then stomped off in frustration, robes whipping after him.

In the end, half price is still a good deal. He can’t rightfully protest it. And yet, to get a worse deal than me… I like Bai Xue, but it can’t be denied that he’s a silkpants, used to getting his way no matter what. Even outside of his sect, he uses his beauty to get his way. I feel bad for him, but I understand Xixing’s desire to knock him down a peg.

Of course, this small cultivator would never dare! Someone as lowly as me has no right to challenge Bai Xue. Besides, I’d rather clutch the golden thigh than throw his silkpants tendencies in his face.

Hui shook his head at Xixing’s back as she once again climbed into the cicada’s corpse. Only someone as bold as Xixing would dare! Ah, and it benefits me, so I won’t complain.

So thinking, he followed Fa Chuyou into her cultivation zone.

Fa Chuyou vanished deeper into the area to attend to her ghouls. Hui glanced after her, then settled by the coffin. His black-blooded corpse sat within, quiet and still. Despite having been refined once, she showed no signs of waking.

I wonder if I have to refine her to a certain level to wake her? Maybe all the way back to the level she was before she died. Mmm… either way, I intend to wake her as a jiangshi, so it’s fine if she remains asleep until I create the talisman.

He sat down before the corpse, settling into the lotus pose. He set the amber and the wire before him and closed his eyes. The twofold fluctuations at both second and third realm from the amber caught his attention first, still unexplained. With a flick of his hand, he drew the amber to him and began to meditate.

In his mind, the amber turned. The two fluctuations fought one another. At times, the amber gave off both fluctuations weakly, at times, it gave off almost no fluctuations, and at times, one or the other fluctuation surged, while the other vanished.

Hui frowned. This… are the fluctuations starting and stopping? Or… He focused closer, completely covering the amber with his consciousness.

Time passed. Focused on the stone, Hui didn’t notice. The fluctuations surged and fell seemingly at random, understanding always just out of his grasp. His brows furrowed.

Is this amber simply flawed?

No, no, it can’t be. If it is, I won’t let it be! I’ll refine it until it’s flawless. As soon as I fully understand it, I’ll proceed!

The amber loomed in his mind. He could see every flaw and facet of its surface, its bulbous body and dark color, all in perfect detail. Within the amber, he caught sight of two colors. Almost completely blended to a smoky dark brown, they remained barely distinct. The lighter one fluctuated at the second level, and the darker color fluctuated at the third level.

That—that’s it! Hui furrowed his brows, separating the colors in his mind. The amber is always fluctuating with both, it’s not wobbling. But the two fluctuations are fighting one another, so it appears as if it sometimes fluctuates at the higher level, and sometimes at the lower. Sometimes they stifled one another to the point the amber became a mortal rock, while sometimes the fluctuations enhanced one another so that only one rang through, the other acting to make the first stronger.

If that’s the case, then it’s simple to refine it!

Hui opened his eyes. Understanding flickered within. He made a grasping gesture at the amber with both hands.

The amber shivered. For a moment, it appeared liquid, and in that moment, Hui drew his hands apart. The light amber flew to his left hand, while the darker amber flew to his right. Instead of one fluctuating stone, he now held two stones, one at the second realm, and one at the third.

He gave the amber a satisfied look for a moment, then set them aside in his storage ring and drew the gold wire closer. It gave off fluctuations at the second level already. Drawing Gu Tian’s sword, he chopped a small section off the end of the wire, about as thick and as long as his pinky finger. He put that away as well, storing it in his ring along with the amber.

This much wire… if I understand the principles of this world, from my experience reading cultivation novels… then I should be able to refine it to the third level. Hui considered, putting a hand on his chin, considering the wire, then shrugged. It’s worth a shot. Worst case, I can still refine the corpse to the second level.

Drawing the wire into his lap, he coiled it up neatly, then entered a meditative state once more.

The wire surged with bright light in his mind. Where the amber had fluctuated, flickering, sometimes bright, sometimes pale, the wire beamed, steadily letting out a golden glow. Hui sent his qi into the wire, syncing it with the golden qi.

He breathed steadily. Now… I need to advance this qi to the next realm.

His hands moved, touching the ends of the wire together. Guiding the golden qi with his qi, he began to circulate it. The qi swirled in the ring in an imitation of the qi swirling in his dantian. As it swirled, it began to purify the wire. Impurities oozed out of the wire’s surface, and the wire shrunk in his hands. From a loop ten meters long, coiled in on itself, it retracted slowly to a meter, then continued to contract.

Qi poured out of Hui into the wire. As though the wire were breaking through to the next level, it drew wildly on his qi, devouring it away. Eyes still shut, Hui summoned the bottle of silvery qi replenishment pills from his storage ring and swallowed one. Instantly, cool, silvery qi emanated from his stomach and poured into his dantian. He continued to pour qi into the wire.

From a meter to half a meter, half a meter to the span of a hand, it continued to shrink. As it shrunk, a shocking purity began to emanate from the wire. At the same time, it consumed vastly more qi. Hui swallowed another two pills and barely continued to support the wire’s qi draw. His brows furrowed, and he swallowed another. At this rate, I’ll run out of pills before I refine the wire to the third realm. Break through! Break through, already!

Qi continued to pour out of him, showing no signs of stopping. Although the wire purified at a slower rate than before, it continued to purify and shrink, but it had not yet reached the third realm. As its rate slowed, Hui sensed a bottleneck in the wire’s progression, a wall that reached up before him. He slammed his qi into it, but the wall remained firm. Not even a crack appeared in his wall.

He hesitated, then decisively swallowed three pills at once. Rather than sending the qi into his dantian and into the wire, he held it, balling it up in his dantian. It built, qi climbing to the heavens. Hui’s dantian creaked, barely able to hold back the pressure of the qi from three pills. Still, Hui held on, brows furrowed. I can do this. I must do this! To break through to the next realm of playing dead—this is the only way!

The instant the last strand of qi joined the ball in his dantian, Hui unleashed it at the wall in the wire. The wall trembled. Booming sounds rattled out through Hui’s mind. The qi drew back and slammed into it again, then again. Cracks spread through the wall.

Decisively, Hui drew back all of his remaining qi, then slammed it into the wall. He pierced through. In his hand, the wire let out a brilliant golden glow and shrank down suddenly, diminishing from a hand-span to a centimeter and no more than a hair’s width. Although the wire was now tiny, it emanated extreme purity and, most importantly, fluctuations of the third realm!

Hui opened his eyes, panting. His own cultivation had experienced growth from the process, the hollow space in his dantian growing more defined. He looked at the wire, eyes glittering. Very carefully, he stored the tiny item into his storage ring. If it fails or doesn’t, at least I achieved a better comprehension of refinement through this process!

He stood and looked at the corpse. A smile played over his lips. Now… to awaken my body double!