Hui’s foot sank deep into the loam, heavier than before. He stepped forward, reaching out for the sprout. In his other hand, he drew a fire talisman and held it at the ready, just in case. Carefully, he reached out into the sprout.

The plant shivered. Its roots shot up and wrapped around Hui’s body in an instant. Thorns and suckers slammed down on his arms. The root tips bored at his flesh.

The thorns skittered off his crystalline arms. The suckers grabbed onto the crystal, but couldn’t harm him. The root tip pressed against his stiffened flesh, unable to break through.

Hui grinned. “Perfect. Just like I wanted!”

He closed his eyes and focused his energy on the plant. Before his vision, the plant burst with life qi, glowing with brilliant green-gold energy. Down below, in the depths of its roots, however, a black cloud of yin energy sat, thick with the aura of death. It spread in all directions under the earth, entirely encompassing the black, loamy soil of the garden patch. Within the aura of death slunk amorphous earthbound souls. Every now and again, one pressed against the verges of the black cloud, forming a fearsome crying, scowling, or screaming face. All the faces burned with madness, and only appeared for a second before the plants once more drew them into the depths of the cloud. In that moment, however, their lips formed curses, curses that only served to strengthen the cloud of yin energy and death qi. The curses spooled off into the cloud, streams of black symbols that swam through the cloud as if alive.

I don’t need yin energy, but I could use that death qi! I’ll draw the death qi out of the cloud, then use a burst of life qi to disperse the yin energy. Hui sent a bolt of his qi down through the plant, towards the cloud in the depths of its roots. The yin cloud surged at his approach, rushing up to meet him. Hui yanked his bolt back, afraid. If that touches me… I don’t want to be cursed! Death qi is one thing, but curses are totally different.

A faint quack sounded from his dantian.

Hui glanced down, startled. He stared for a second, then licked his lips. “Are you hungry?”

The quack came again, but louder.

Hui laughed. He reached into his second dantian and swirled his death qi, drawing the death qi ducks to the surface. “Go! Eat your fill!”

The entire flock of ducks took flight. For a moment, the air in front of Hui blackened as the bodies of the ducks filled the air. As one, the ducks surged at the plant. Roots sprung up, desperately swinging. They closed around the death qi ducks and passed through, unable to hold the qi constructs. Quacking raucously, the ducks flapped down into the earth and vanished. Hui watched with his qi as they sped at the cloud, beaks wide open, and swooped into it.

Where the ducks passed, tunnels opened in the cloud. The clouds closed over the tunnels, healing them almost instantly, but as soon as the cloud closed the gaps, another duck would charge through, opening another hole. The ducks shivered in pleasure, swooping left and right. A few teamed up to hunt down the souls. Hui watched as they cornered one of the souls, then charged at it all at once. The ducks tore into the soul, gobbling it up in seconds.

“Hey—” Hui bit his tongue, suddenly worried. He cast a look around him, searching for the reaper. Er, Elder Sister Reaper, this small cultivator never meant to eat souls! It’s those unruly ducks, not me!

It… should be fine? It’s Mysterious Heavenly Forest Sect that made these souls into earthbound ghosts, not this small cultivator! I just came along and, er, freed them… from their misery?

Hui gritted his teeth and clenched his fists. That’s all bullshit. They’ll see through it in an instant. Argh, I hope Senior Zhu Diyu doesn’t kill me on sight… Elder Sister Reaper, please have mercy!

Charging back and forth, the ducks plunged through the cloud again and again. The cloud diminished under their attack, sinking down. Strands of cursed symbols materialized out of the cloud and flew at the ducks. Whenever they appeared, the ducks’ eyes gleamed with a hungry light, and they immediately diverted their course to gulp down the curses.

The earthbound ghosts stared in wide-eyed horror. The madness in their eyes turned to the madness of fear. They fled, but could only slam up against the borders of the cloud, unable to escape its boundaries. One by one, the ducks surrounded them and hunted them down. Some of the ghosts attacked the ducks, but the ducks barely flinched at their attacks, then rounded on them and gobbled them down bit by bit, tearing them apart viciously with their flat beaks. The ghosts howled and screamed, truly piteous.

Watching them, Hui felt a pang of sympathy. He bowed to the ghosts and whispered a mantra under his breath, pressing his hands together. I’m so sorry, Seniors, but I’m helpless to stop these ducks!

The ducks grew larger and larger, and as they grew larger, they devoured more and more of the yin and death qi cloud with each pass. In the space of a few breaths, they devoured all of the cloud, including the curses and the earthbound ghosts.

The black, loamy soil hardened and sunk down underfoot. No longer did it exude an aura of energy and lushness. Now, it appeared overburdened and exhausted, the earth on the verge of turning to dust.

Hui shivered, looking around him. Seeing no sign of the reaper, he took a deep breath and focused on the plant again. No use worrying about what’s already been done. As long as I’m going to piss someone off… might as well get as much as I can out of it! The real tragedy would be if I went this far and still left empty-handed!

Without the cloud of death qi to protect the sprouts’ energy, Hui quickly reached out to their life qi and qi and absorbed it. The green wood-elemental qi nourished his crystalline body, while the life qi swirled into his dantian and condensed into songbirds. One, two, three… Hui rapidly absorbed the life qi from all the sprouts, tapping into the entire garden through the interlocking network of roots. Rapidly, he condensed a full ten songbirds, and still the garden provided more life qi.

Green and gold qi swirled around his arm, pouring into him. His body cracked and snapped as the crystal hardened and became tougher. The roots wrapped around his arms began to wither, and still he drew more qi from the plants. His crystalline body grew more powerful with every passing second, the thin qi passages glowing with qi. The thin qi passages became thinner, and his crystalline flesh refined, appearing less angled and more flesh-like.

Abruptly, the qi stopped. Hui opened his eyes, confused. Eh? I wasn’t done refining my body.

He looked down at the plant before him. Nothing remained but a pair of brown, withered leaves.

Hui licked his lips. He glanced around him. The entire garden patch had become a field of withered brown leaves. Not a single sprout remained upright, nor did a single patch of green remain.

Laughing slightly in embarrassment, Hui scratched the back of his head. Whoops. I should’ve held back a little more!

Oh well. Now the threat to the Southern Sect Conference is thoroughly demolished. When the sects arrive, the Mysterious Heavenly Forest Sect won’t have any traps left to spring! He put his hands on his hips and nodded smugly to himself.

“Hey! Are you done? It’s almost time for the sects to arrive!” one of the guards shouted, stepping out of the woods. At the sight of the garden patch, he stopped dead. His jaw dropped. He turned and looked at Hui.

Hui swallowed. He put on an innocent expression and shrugged at the guard. “Er, Elder Brother… it was like this when I arrived?”