His fingertips brushed the cool, smooth roots. The second they made contact, a strange energy surged through the roots, rushing toward him. Hui yanked his hand back, but found it stuck to the lotus root, unable to let go. Life and death qi surged under his fingertips, barely out of his reach. His own life and death qi surged, drawn toward the lotus root against his will.

Hui clenched down on his qi, killing it back. Vicious lotus, you aren’t going to eat this small Hui!

The life qi in the lotus stirred. It changed shapes, from circling amorphously to a hand. Hui’s third eye leaked black blood as it opened wide, the black blood dripping down his physical forehead even though the eye opened in his soul.

A woman curled up inside the lotus, her eyes blank, half-open. She lifted a hand and pressed it against his, a faint smile on her face.

Hui stared. “J…Jingwen?”

“Eh?” the third triplet asked.

Hui yanked his hand free, staggering back. In the lotus, the woman’s expression darkened. Vicious and hungry, she lashed out at Hui. The lotus root slashed against his body. Hui staggered back, robes ragged, body bruised.

He pressed a hand against his chest, frowning. Bai Jingwen. That was definitely… Bai Jingwen! Bai Xue’s original betrothed, the one she abandoned. Bai Fenfeng’s daughter, who was absorbed by the lotus after her lotus-form mother killed her! Don’t tell me. Did her soul stay in the lotus seed rather than enter the cycle of reincarnation? Is she now… the spirit of this lotus?

“You met the woman?”

“You recognized her?”

“It’s usually just the feeling of a hand touching yours. Xie Hao, did you actually see the lotus spirit? Did she show herself to you?” the third triplet asked, tilting his head.

“Y…yeah,” Hui said. He stared at the lotus, still getting over his surprise. It’s absolutely Bai Jingwen. That clinches it. Black Asp Sect gave them this seed. It can’t be any other seed.

As for what Black Asp Sect’s getting out of this… isn’t it obvious? If the righteous sects fall except for the righteous sect they have a deal with, a demonic sect like Black Asp Sect can surge in power! No one will hold them back anymore.

…Not that anyone’s particularly holding them back now, as far as I can tell. Maybe that one righteous sect that almost killed me for being a ghoul back when they took me into the sect, but that’s about it.

Huang Yan drew up alongside him. As he watched, she offered a box of spirit stones to the lotus. Hui watched them pile up at the lotus’ roots, and felt a pang in his heart. So many spirit stones…

The lotus twitched. Light streamed out of the stones and collected in the lotus. It absorbed the light hungrily, stretching out to search for more.

Almost too fast for him to see, Huang Yan’s arm lashed out. Hui threw himself back, softening the blow. Even so, his ribs caved in under her blow, and a mouthful of blood flew out of his mouth. Hui tumbled dramatically to the ground, killing his qi as he fell limply to the ground.

“Huang Yan!”

“Why?”

“He was our guest! Our guest. And a guest of the sect! How are you going to explain that to—”

“Explain? What do I have to explain? This never happened. He was never here,” Huang Yan said haughtily. “You three are the ones in the wrong, for bringing him here. Did you not hear our Sect Master’s instructions? No one is allowed inside except conclave disciples and Master Erlan.”

“Even so!”

“Overreacting!”

“So what? Who cares? Black Asp Sect gave us the plants in the first place. Master Erlan’s planning to bring them by next week!”

Huang Yan shrugged. “I’m the one following the rules. You’re the ones in the wrong.”

The triplets glared at her. At last, the third one clenched his jaw and shook his head. “I’ll hide the body, but Huang Yan, I won’t take the fall!”

She narrowed her eyes at him and harrumphed. “You dare…?”

“I dare. We all dare,” the third triplet declared.

“I don’t dare.”

“Can we not?”

“We all dare,” the third triplet repeated resolutely, ignoring the other two.

Huang Yan waved her hand. “A trifling cultivator like him, who still wore lower-tier robes despite being fourth realm and crumpled in one blow surely isn’t anyone’s valued disciple. Even if they discover I killed him, they won’t dare demand either of our lives in return.”

“He’s a guest. It’s different.”

“For you, maybe,” Huang Yan said coldly. “I’m Sect Master Mu’s inheriting disciple.”

“That worked out so well for the last disciple,” the third triplet muttered under his breath.

“Ding Bo has become an honorable Dao Protector of our sect. I would be lucky to have such an opportunity,” Huang Yan returned.

“All Ding Bo has become is plant food,” the third triplet muttered under his breath.

The other two triplets elbowed him hard, shoving the air out of him. “Huang Yan, please ignore our third brother.”

“Many apologies. Third brother doesn’t know what he says.”

Ding Bo? Ding Bo… Wait! That’s the guy I fought in the tournament. The one from Mysterious Heavenly Forest Sect. He was kind of boring to fight, but he infected me with qi seeds, and then tried to infect our sect afterward!

As I thought. Sect Master Mu only pretended to kill him! You could fool anyone else’s eyes, but this small disciple is an expert when it comes to playing dead. I don’t often brag, but if I were to claim to be second at playing dead, no one would claim to be first! That killing blow on Ding Bo was an illusion, I knew it!

But… what happened to Ding Bo afterward? Li Xiang cut his leg off, I remember that. Losing a leg is bad, but there are healing techniques, and barring that, he surely could find an artificial leg or craft a replacement. Was Sect Master Mu so disappointed in Ding Bo that he punished him, somehow? He’s apparently become a Dao Protector, something similar to Black Asp Sect’s Ruined Calamity, but… the triplets don’t seem as excited about it as Huang Yan is. I wonder if Ding Bo has become like Bai Jingwen, nothing but nutrients for some mysterious magical plant.

What a brutal sect! I’m glad I ended up in Starbound Sect. Even with Lan Taijian turning half the disciples against me, it’s better than… mysterious things happening because I lost a single fight!

…Though I guess Weiheng Wu would have shielded me if Sect Master Lan tried anything too fishy. Ah, Master, I knew you were the best master!

Lying on the ground, Hui stared at the earth, somewhat bored. The Mysterious Heavenly Forest Sect cultivators moved around him, delivering spirit stones to the lotus, ignoring him. Er, elder brothers, elder sisters… are you going to leave this poor dead body here?

At last, someone grabbed his ankle. Hui let himself get drawn along, still limp. His head turned slightly as he dragged across the ground, giving him a view of one of the triplets holding onto his ankle. As they neared the wooden wall, the triplet hauled him over his shoulder and took off at a run, Hui thumping against the triplet’s shoulder uncomfortably.

Outside, the triplets looked amongst themselves. At last, three pairs of eyes came to rest on Hui. They shrugged.

“Kick him off the tree?”

“Bury him in the roots?”

“No, let’s take him to the garden patch. Let the young plants have him.”

The three nodded. The third triplet lifted him again and sprinted off, chased by the other two. They slipped along the edge of the sect, avoiding fellow cultivators. In particular, they cut a wide berth around the palace where the Black Asp Sect members were resting. Hui watched the floor bump by, only vaguely aware of where he was. I think this is the longest I’ve ever played dead. Everything’s getting dim… I don’t know how much longer I can hold my qi back.

Elder Brothers, drop this poor corpse off already!

At last, the triplet threw Hui. He rolled wildly through the air, occasionally glimpsing the triplets high above. He thumped heavily to the ground. His body held up, fourth tier cultivation able to stand up to the impact.

Soft loam swallowed him into its depths. He sunk slowly, the rich earth too weak to support his weight. The triplets watched him for a few moments, then ran off.

When the last scrap of green robes vanished, Hui sat up. He pulled at his face, and the skin separated. Hui peeled it down, freeing himself from the shed. As the skin fell away, his chest re-formed. Bruises faded away, and the bones snapped back into place. Rubbing the last of the skin away, Hui looked around.

He sat in a gigantic garden. Oversized plants loomed over him, stretching in neat rows in all directions. Most were only sprouts, slender buds with a pair of succulent green leaves.

So this is the garden patch? I’d better not touch any of these plants. They might be worth thousands of spirit stones, like the garden back at Starbound Sect!