Hui took a deep breath and circulated his qi, expelling the yin qi with his life qi. When his cultivation recovered, he approached the formation again, this time drawing toward a section he hadn’t probed before. Carefully, using almost none of his strength, he poked at the formation. When the formation turned red, or yin qi gathered, he immediately retreated and tried again from another angle.

The night drew on. As it became darker, the yin qi grew stronger and stronger. Caught up in probing the formation, Hui barely noticed as his breath began to cloud on the air and his fingertips turned numb from the cold. He pressed on, repressing his shivers as best he could. Come on. I’m not expecting to be able to draw out souls or anything, but at least let me through to check on everyone’s condition!

A ragged shape dropped down from the sky, and a weight settled on Hui’s shoulder. “Trying to break through my formation? Good luck. I designed the spell to grow stronger when the formation is physically damaged. It’s a one-time thing and it’s hard to undo, but it’s as strong as it ever was. Maybe even stronger.”

Hui glanced at the crow on his shoulder. “Patriarch! Not precisely. I just want to check on everyone inside. As for breaking it and returning everyone to their bodies… that’s… I don’t expect I’ll be able to accomplish all that in one night.”

“It’s alright. You can call me Daddy,” Chen Wuya replied indulgingly.

“Absolutely not,” Hui muttered under his breath.

“You already did it once.”

“A dark moment in my history.”

Chen Wuya paused. He cocked his head and looked at Hui. The crow’s red eyes glittered. “That’s what you consider a dark moment?”

“Senior, could you please refrain from teasing me? I’m trying save the sect right now,” Hui replied.

“Hmph. As if that ever stopped me,” Chen Wuya replied.

Hui gave him an exasperated look, but quickly repressed it behind a smile. “Glorious Patriarch, please understand. I need to finish this before the All-Heavens cultivators pick up on the formation suddenly fluctuating.”

“Ah, that’s what you’re worried about? The sixth peak has an obfuscating array on it. Anyone who doesn’t carry my qi will have a hard time detecting anything going on inside. Don’t worry. They won’t detect you for a while yet,” Chen Wuya replied, rearranging his feathers idly.

“Eh?” How convenient. Wait… but I’ve been able to sense the formation this whole time. Does that mean… I have his qi in me? Hui quickly took stock of his body. I thought that crow-duck left…

Chen Wuya cawed in amusement. “It left. That’s what this body is. Your qi, manifested into a crow, through which I can pass my thoughts. But there’s remnant aura on you anyways. Rejoice! This Senior has gone out of his way to accept you. Aren’t you lucky, being accepted by the Patriarch?”

“Small cultivator is honored,” Hui replied, deadpan.

Chen Wuya hopped on top of Hui’s head and tilted his head to look down at Hui. “Anyways, when it comes to probing the formation, everyone has habits, and so do I. Whether deliberately or accidentally, all formations have weaknesses. Can you guess where I’d leave a weakness? Think. Where would your great and all-illuminating Patriarch leave a hole in his formation?”

So there is a hole. Good to know. Hui narrowed his eyes. He continued to probe the formation, but wracked his brains at the same time. The way he’s talking… in all the things I’ve seen about Chen Wuya so far, is there anything that sticks out? Something he habitually does, or doesn’t do? Something he avoids, or loves, or hates…

Crows… no, my comprehension is too lacking to figure out how ‘crows’ could cause a weakness in a spell formation. Red robes? Red and black? No, that falls in the same category as crows. I’m not Master. If that was enough for me to find a hole in the formation, I wouldn’t have needed Chen Wuya’s hints. Fen Long? …Forget finding a hole in the formation, if I invoked him here, I’d definitely end up activating the spell formation’s super-secret ultimate attack mode, instead!

What else? What else? He was attached to that sword… right, but I’ve never seen a red-bladed sword, except in that rotten pavilion. That’s useless. Uhm… teasing people… no. Er…

Wait. I’m thinking too hard! Chen Wuya’s no different from anyone else. Even if the formation’s gone berserk, he’d definitely leave a route to allow himself to control the berserk formation. He closed his eyes and reached out to the reed shoes. They responded at his thought, changing his aura again to match not Zhi Ahn’s, but that of the crow on his head.

The crow cawed loudly, as if laughing. “Not bad, not bad. It’s crude, but it works, and if it works, what else matters?”

The formation twisted under his hand. A small gap opened up, and Hui reached through to the souls on the other side.

Sensation surged into him. Hui’s eyes blurred. He staggered back, slumping. If Gu Tian hadn’t been flying for him, he would have fallen to the ground. A thousand-thousand screams sounded in his ears. His limbs trembled. A thousand-thousand souls pushed through the gap he’d opened up, all vying for his body.

“Oh, right. I should have warned you… they are disembodied souls, now, after all. They’ll instinctively attempt to possess your body. The stronger ones might even attack you on purpose.” Chen Wuya hopped on Hui’s head and let out the cawing laugh again. “Hmm, I wonder if that weak coward will come back out?”

Darkness. Swirling clouds. Lightning and thunder. A thousand hands clawed at Hui. They shoved him down, into water. He fought his way up, gasped a breath, only for them to push him back down.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry—” Water covered his mouth. Back under.

Youkilledyouyouit’syouyouwe’redeadyoubecauseofyoubecauseof

Hui sank down, dragged by a thousand claws. He opened his eyes, but didn’t fight back, simply watching the surface recede.

Ah. I was careless.

After all, this is the array that summoned me. Fifty thousand mortals died because of me. Naturally… they’d hate me.

But this level of verbal abuse… how do I put it? It’s… too unrefined. I can’t even feel anything from it. And in the end, I’m a fourth stage cultivator, being harassed by mortals. Maybe an ordinary fourth stage cultivator would end up in danger from this situation, but as someone who diligently cultivated his soul, I… well, this can’t be caused a punishment. I feel their anger, and I understand it, but I feel kind of bad that their attacks can’t hurt me at all.

After all, they deserve to be able to get at least one good hit in. They died for me, against their will. Even if I had no say in it and no idea it was happening, I can’t blame them for hating me.

I’ll let them vent their hatred for a bit, then break out.

In the distance, a light appeared. The black souls clawing onto him screamed and fled. The water, too, rushed away, swirling off to some other location. A pair of glowing hands reached out and took Hui’s hand.

Who…?

“You aren’t giving up, are you, Xiao Hui?”

“Sis Mei?” Hui asked, peering up at her. Her face glowed too brightly for Hui to make it out.

“We’re all waiting for you. Hurry up and let us out. You can’t eat my cooking until I have a body again, you know?”

“I’m not giving up. Not even close! You just wait. I’ll get you all out of there as soon as I can,” Hui replied.

“For food? How typical, Hui.”

“Xixing, is that you?” he asked, looking around. A mass of light approached him, more brilliant than the first souls had been dark.

“Xiao Hui? Hey, how’s our idol doing? You better protect her, okay?”

“Ha, what happened to protecting us, huh? We all died in the end.”

“We didn’t die. Besides, if the extermination power hit us, we wouldn’t even have souls right now! Don’t complain!”

“I don’t care if you fight despicably, just get us all out of here!”

“I guess we can’t complain, but hurry up, alright? We want to beat those All-Heavens bastards to a pulp!”

Hui looked around. His eyes shone. “Everyone… You don’t hate me?”

Sis Mei’s laughter rang out. “How could they? You saved us, Hui. You saved us all. Even the ones who disliked you have to admit, if you weren’t here, we’d all be dead.”

Hui laughed. Is this what it took? Just saving everyone in the sect? Ha! I’m sure it won’t last forever, but… while it lasts, it’s nice!