Hui passed by Xixing on his way out. She hacked away at the large cicada, happily butchering it for parts. Translucent and purple ichor splattered over the ground around her. He walked up beside her. “Elder Sister, I’m heading out now. Will you be safe here?”

Yi Ping gave him a fierce glare, which he ignored.

“Mmm. It’s more relaxing to concoct pills here, without those imbeciles breathing down my back,” she said. “I told them I’d make their pill faster here, so they let me stay.”

“Only until Xi Guping returns,” Yi Ping reminded her, glaring.

“Ah, right. Xi Guping, Xi Guping.” Xixing waved her hand, sending purple blood flying. Yi Ping flinched back, snatching his black robes out of the way.

“I’ll enjoy lording it over you once you’re nothing but a puppet,” Yi Ping snarled.

“Are you sure you’re safe here? I can ask Fa Chuyou to look after you,” Hui asked, giving Yi Ping an uncertain look.

Xixing shook her head. “I don’t want to end up an undead, either. I’ll be fine. I’m much older than you, you know? Don’t look down on the previous generation!”

“My apologies, Elder Sister!” Hui said, bowing deeply.

She snorted. “Hurry back. The body-strengthening pills won’t take too long to create.”

Hui bowed again and hurried off, down the Corpse Refining Valley. He peered around at the entrance to the valley, checking for any troublemakers, then sprinted across the dark plains and up the snake’s skeleton.

As he ran up the skeleton, a disciple in a black robe with green hems strode down toward him from a much higher vertebra. Hui glanced up, then bowed and stepped aside for the disciple to pass him.

The disciple halted directly beside Hui. For a long moment, he stood there, only his shoes visible in Hui’s vision.

Hui snuck a peek upward.

Fierce phoenix eyes glared down at him. A narrow face and thin, long mouth gave him a snakelike appearance. He scowled at Hui. “You reek of blood.”

Hui stumbled back, as if struck. I… of blood? Of corpses, I’d understand, but… He lifted his hand and sniffed it, brows furrowing.

The disciple’s hand flickered out, so fast Hui didn’t see it. Gripping his neck, the disciple hauled him upward. “You were in the Blood Mist Valley.”

“Er, er, El—elder Brother, I…” Hui gripped at the disciple’s hand, hauling upward to sneak a breath of air.

The disciple’s eyes narrowed. “What happened to Xi Guping?”

Hui gasped another breath, then, decisively, tossed a pill toward his mouth. The disciple caught it out of the air in his other hand, but as he caught it, Hui tossed a second. He heaved up, swallowing it down, then killed his qi and sagged in the man’s hand. An aura of death emanated from him, but not a single fluctuation of death qi.

Inside his dantian, Hui killed both his qi and death qi, suppressing the aura of his qi and life qi with the minimum of death qi. Copying the aura of the Yellow Springs River water, he emanated only the death aura part of death qi. When undead die, it’s like this, right? As far as he can tell, I took a suicide pill. It was only a Viscera Pill, but, ha, if these demonic cultivators have to kidnap Xixing to get pills, there’s no way they have the high understanding of pill cultivation required to identify pills at a glance.

The snake-like cultivator’s eyes widened, shining with anger. He clenched his fist, and Hui’s neck crumpled. The bones began to strain.

Even as it crumpled, the Viscera Pill surged, attempting to repair the damage. Hui held the pill’s power back, looping out a strand of life qi to keep it pinned in place. Just a little longer! Ah, Elder Brother, please don’t snap my neck. I don’t know if I can fix that!

Unprompted, his storage ring wavered, then burst open. Jin Xian burst out of the ring and rushed at the disciple, pulling back her fist to punch.

Making a disgusted expression, the disciple threw the pill aside, then caught Jin Xian’s fist with his other hand. Holding them both in place, he looked over Jin Xian. Realization flickered in his eyes, then disgust.

“So that’s why you committed suicide. As if I care what you do with that trifling daughter of the Fang Clan. How pathetic, a cultivator who seeks eternal life, yet gives up rather than explain himself to me.” With a backhanded gesture, he threw Hui away and knocked Jin Xian off the vertebra to the other side with the same motion.

Hui plunged. As he fell, he still restrained the power of the Viscera Pill and of his qi. It’s going to hurt, it’s going to hurt, it’s going to hurt, but, but, if I don’t play dead, he’ll kill me, for real! Ah, Elder Brother you were wrong! This small cultivator doesn’t throw away his life, he’ll do anything to keep it!

Mn, but don’t let me correct your misunderstanding.

Come to think of it, I really do have to get Fa Chuyou to refine my ghoul skin after this. Wash away the scent of blood, and change how it looks again! Fa Chuyou, in this moment—

Hui struck the earth. His whole body shook. Bones snapped, muscles tore. At the third stage, his body was far beyond the strength of a mortal’s, able to survive the blow, but as someone who had never specifically cultivated his body, his flesh alone wasn’t particularly strong or durable. He laid there in a pile of limbs, leaking blood.

Fuck! Hurts, hurts, hurts! Even worse than the time they broke my legs, dammit! Ahhh, hurts!

Ah, what was I thinking? Oh, right! Fa Chuyou, in this moment, I’d let you modify me however you like! Change my ghoulskin! Make it look completely different! Whatever you wish, Fa Chuyou!

The disciple slowly descended the vertebra, casting nary a glance in Hui’s direction. As he walked past, Jin Xian raced over and held her arms out, protecting Hui. The disciple scoffed and walked on, slowly vanishing into the distance.

A few of the dark plains cultivators wandered around. Some drew close to Hui, peering at his equipment or robes, but Jin Xian stood over him, viciously snarling at anyone who drew near.

Quietly, as Hui laid there, he stopped holding back on the Viscera Pill. It surged to his neck and wounds. Bones snapped back into place, and his flesh recovered. He drew a shallow breath as his neck recovered, unwilling to draw a deep breath in case the other saw.

“Give it time. The ghoul’s imprinting will wear off,” one disciple advised another.

“But look, his storage ring is right there,” said another.

“No, no. You don’t want to draw attention to yourself by stealing Xi Guanxi’s prey. Wait until you can do it quietly.”

Xi Guanxi? Ah… so that’s why he was looking for Xi Guping. I’m sorry, Elder Brother, but your little brother is dead.

Hui sat bolt upright, eyes wide. The two cultivators arguing over his loot jumped back. One let out a shrill shriek.

Ignoring them, he stared at his hands. Sweat broke out down his back, and he began to pant. Wait, wait. Xi Guping has an elder brother? Oh no, oh no! I bet he also practices those awful puppeteering arts! And he’s stronger than Xi Guping? Oh no. Oh no. This is why this small cultivator doesn’t kill! Killing leads to killing, More importantly, killing leads to more scenarios where bloodthirsty, dangerous cultivators come after this small cultivator’s neck! No, no, no!

He stared in the direction Xi Guanxi had vanished to, the direction of Blood Mist Valley. Hui shivered. He glanced at Jin Xian, then sprinted up the vertebra, pushing the two cultivators out of the way. They stepped to the side, too flabbergasted to get in his way. Jin Xian chased after him, sprinting nearly as quickly as he could. When he reached his vertebra, he dashed directly inside and huddled there, staring at the floor.

Okay. Okay. I need to get stronger. I need to get stronger, fast!

First! I make Jin Xian a jiangshi. It won’t make her a realm stronger, but it’ll make her stronger. Sturdier.

Then… then, dammit, I need to practice replacing my body with hers. Even if I get grabbed, I need to be able to put her in my place. Ah, getting grabbed is such a problem. Shedding my skin doesn’t help me escape, dodging has already failed, defenses will only work on cultivators around my level. What can I do? There has to be something, some technique. Turning to mist, maybe? Mmm, but that sounds like such a high level skill… There’s got to be something easier. Something…

He touched his neck, and the rapidly-healing bruises there. Touch. If I’m grabbed, I’m touched. Then…

Bent over in his cave, Hui pressed his fingers to his wounds and began to write. Bloody characters crawled across the floor. His eyes blurred, and his mind wavered. Extreme fear propelled him into a state of enlightenment, unlike any he’d experienced up to this point. Unknown to him, Jin Xian moved and stood guard by the door, preventing anyone from disturbing her creator.

In this manner, a month passed. The bloody characters ran into one another, scribbled so densely on the floor as to be unreadable. At last, Hui sat up, his eyes cleared. Not only the floor, but the walls, and even his skin were covered in writing. It was as if he’d dyed the entire space in his blood. He stretched out his hand, gathering all the qi in this place, then pressed it into his chest.

The bloody characters burned to life, gleaming with red-white light. They squirmed, devouring not only the qi but the blood qi in this place. Suddenly, they swirled toward Hui, rushing in toward him.

Although Hui had no way of knowing, the spell resonated beyond the borders of the vertebra. The entire snake’s skeleton resonated with the spell. It drew qi from the entire skeleton, pouring it into the spell array. The skeleton began to glow as well, a brilliant, red-white light. Deep within the skeleton, a fragment of will came to life. It watched the qi gathering and silently gave its blessing to this spell.

Atop the skeleton, a young man with straight-cut shoulder-length hair blinked. Erlan rushed toward him, shouting something, but he ignored Erlan. He glanced down, then smiled. “Black Asp, you wish to see him grow, as well? Then I won’t interfere.”

He raised a hand toward Erlan, and Erlan stuttered to a stop, salt-and-pepper hair settling around him. Erlan bowed deep and retreated without another word.

Inside the vertebra, Hui’s eyes glowed with the same red-white light. His hand clenched into a fist. “My body as the talisman paper, my blood as the ink, my will as the spell. Like this, I myself become the talisman. By burning my lifespan, I can unleash power beyond my tier… and use escape techniques beyond my realm!”

The spell contracted, vanishing into Hui’s forehead. For a moment, a red-white talisman formula glowed on his forehead, but then that vanished, replaced by a single red petal-like mark.

While the light of enlightenement still burned in his eyes, he gestured toward Jin Xian. She leaped to his side unquestioningly. Hui lifted his finger and drew the jiangshi talisman formula over her face. It too burned red-white, then faded into her skin. Rather than a petal-mark, a black slash, almost like the cut of a blade, appeared between her brows.

“Ah… it’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Hui asked, smiling.

Jin Xian looked at him. Emotionless white eyes stared into oblivion. For a single moment, her stiff face twisted into a smile.

“That’s good, that’s good.” With that, Hui sagged to the floor and shut his eyes, exhausted. Enough work. It’s time… to sleep.