In Chen Xigui’s City

Healer strode down the streets, Ying Lin close at his heels. Occasionally, she bounded off to spar with some cultivator or another, only to bounce back to his side a moment later, slicking the blood off Gu Tian. She hummed under her breath, alive with the spirit of battle.

Gu Tian looked at Hui, giving the treasured sword at his hip a long look. This is what it means to be a sword. I feel sorry for you, fellow sword.

“Master, why don’t you join in the fighting?” Ying Lin asked.

Hui gave her a look. “I’m exuding my full cultivation strength—ah, with a very distorted aura—specifically so no one comes to fight me! Join in, willingly? I’m not the one possessed by a heart-demon. That’s Sectgoer.”

After all, as long as all I’m doing is exuding my cultivation, I can focus all my energy on changing my aura. Like that, there’s little chance Han Qin will pick up on it. When I’m in actual battle, I have to devote attention to fighting, and that’s when I’m unable to spend the focus to alter my aura. Then Han Qin catches up with me, and nothing good happens after that.

Ying Lin giggled. “No matter which clone it is, Master is still Master.”

“Naturally,” Hui agreed.

“You know, battle is a quick way to hone one’s abilities. Now that I’m trying it, I can’t imagine progressing further without engaging in battle,” Ying Lin nudged Hui.

“This small cultivator engages in battle often enough without seeking it out,” Hui returned, sagely tucking his hands behind him.

Ying Lin shook her head. “Master, you really do walk your own path, don’t you?”

Hui nodded. “And one day, you will, too.”

“Ah, that’s true,” Ying Lin allowed, nodding. “The sixth stage is where you take your first steps onto your Dao, right? It ought to be easy for you, since you’re already so used to it.”

“Never underestimate cultivation! It’s a life and death struggle. One could die at any moment, facing an unseen tribulation,” Hui replied, shaking his head. Although… I have noticed a blockage, recently. I suspect it has to do with splitting my soul to form clones, or perhaps with lacking my true body. Either way, I won’t be able to progress until I defeat All-Heavens!

He took a sharp turn down an alley. Ying Lin paused, then followed after him. “Master, are you looking for something?”

Hui nodded. “An entrance.” That dark passage… I don’t know for sure, but it’s probably where Chen Xigui kept his victims. If he still has victims, I should free them. Likewise, although I checked Wang Xiu’s body, I know how easy it is to create false corpses with clones. I won’t feel comfortable until I check that hidden space and find out for sure if she’s still hanging around the area.

A nondescript door opened in the wall to Hui’s left. He pushed it open.

Darkness still hung thick inside the hallway. This time, however, Hui sent a wave of qi down the hall, searching for the source of the spell. A resonance returned from the walls, the spell circuits built into the house itself. Not worrying about subtlety, Hui pressed his hand against the wall and sent a pulse of death qi into it. The spell circuit’s qi fought against the death qi, but in mere moments, the death qi absorbed the circuit’s qi. Hui made a grasping motion, drawing the death qi back into himself, and the darkness lifted.

A rather ordinary white hallway appeared. Nothing stood out about it, except for a bit of excess grime where the cleaners had failed to realize there was dirt in the shadow. Hui glanced around, then stepped inside.

Following him in, Ying Lin applauded. “Wow!”

Hui shook his head at her. “It’s a small trick. Anyone could do it, with the right tools.”

“But does everyone have the right tools?” Ying Lin prompted, tipping her head playfully.

Hui narrowed his eyes at her. “I see your game. You won’t inflict me with the heart-demon as well!”

Ying Lin laughed. “Master, it’s called confidence. It’s a normal emotion to feel, not a heart-demon!”

Hui shook his head. It might be normal for you, but it couldn’t be further from ordinary for me!

The path wound on. About where he remembered it branching, a second hallway split off, vanishing around the bend. Hui turned toward it, subtly gathering talismans into his hands.

A thick smell filled the air, one he remembered from his first life. He stopped abruptly and put up his hand. “Ying Lin, stay here.”

“Eh, why?” Ying Lin asked.

Hui shook his head. “Listen to your Master. Stay here.”

Ying Lin pouted, but stood against the wall obediently. Hui glanced back to make sure she’d stopped, then turned the corner.

The stench grew thicker, a coppery, rotten blast that hit him in the face. Hui lifted his robes over his nose and pressed on, narrowing his eyes against the smell. A small, square room awaited him. Metal equipment worked with enchantments provided restraints and chains, and wicked tools full of spikes and blades waited on the walls, some still marred with blood. In the center of the room stood a bed equipped with four powerfully spelled manacles, one for each corner. Brownish-red stains clung to the edges of a drain set under the bed.

A twisted, naked corpse laid on the bed, dried out and drained of both qi and blood, jaw still open in a silent scream, limbs still bound even in death.

Hui narrowed his eyes in disgust. Walking over to the corpse, he broke the chains, then closed the corpse’s dried eyelids. Setting the corpse in the corner, he drew Midnight Cutter and attacked, breaking the instruments and equipment to tiny pieces. Over and over, until nothing remained but tiny bits of metal and the thick stench of blood. Returning to the corpse, he set her atop the ruins. For a moment, he bowed his head over the corpse. I can’t do much more for you. I don’t know who you are, or who your family is. Take this in place of your funeral pyre—the knowledge that I have destroyed this room for you. The knowledge that no one else will be exploited in this room, as you were.

He threw a few fire talismans onto the pile and snapped his fingers. Brilliant flames leaped up, eagerly consuming the corpse and the metal alike. Hui watched for a long moment, long enough to ensure that the scraps were destroyed.

I seem to be burning quite a few seniors’ rooms today. At this rate, it might become a habit.

“Master, something’s burning?” Ying Lin asked.

“Mmm. Don’t worry. I have it under control.”

The fire licked up the walls, crawling over the floor and eating into the ceiling. Hui backed up, then turned and left, leaving the fire to its own devices. Ying Lin stepped toward him, but backed up when she saw his face. “Is something wrong?”

“Something has been made right,” Hui returned grimly. He strode off.

Ying Lin blinked at him, then at the thick smoke billowing from the room. After a second, she followed Hui.

Heading deeper into the palace, Hui wasted no time in making it to Chen Xigui’s chambers. Ying Lin followed, occasionally glancing back. “Master, doesn’t one usually set a building alight, then leave it?”

Hui waved his hand. “I have important business to attend to. Please understand.”

Ying Lin tilted her head. Is it just me, or is this Master more assertive than the other Masters?

In Chen Xigui’s chambers, Hui moved to the side of Wang Xiu’s corpse. He swept his mental energy through her, searching for signs of life or any indication that this corpse was instead a clone. Instantly, his eyes widened. He jumped back. “Ying Lin—”

“Move another step, and your disciple dies,” Wang Xiu snarled, pressing her razor blade to Ying Lin’s throat.

Hui narrowed his eyes. “I knew it. I should have checked at the time!” Damn you, Sectgoer! Falling for our own trick like that…

Ah, it’s this heart-demon, this damn heart-demon, Sectgoer lamented.

Rolling his eyes, Hui grumbled, You can’t blame everything on the heart-demon.

Wang Xiu scowled at him. She lifted the blade. “I mean it!”

“Ah, Elder Sister, please forgive me. I wasn’t rolling my eyes at you, but at myself,” Hui explained.

“Master,” Ying Lin sighed, shaking her head.

“Give me your head. Or I will kill her!” Wang Xiu snapped.

“Ah… naturally, Elder Sister. But please… are you not the one who expressed such a diligent attitude toward righteousness to Sect… to me?”

Wang Xiu narrowed her eyes. “Yes, and? I’ll use hostages if it—”

Hui waved his hand. “No, no. I meant to ask, how did you explain away Chen Xigui’s kidnapping, raping, and torturing women to death? How did you convince yourself that he was righteous, even knowing all that?”

“I—” Wang Xiu faltered. She frowned at him. “What?”

“You surely knew of the rumors around Chen Xigui,” Hui prompted her.

“Mere rumors,” Wang Xiu said dismissively. “Certainly, he took in female cultivators, and sometimes in questionable circumstances, but he did it to better them. He would send them to All-Heavens Sect for training. I was a strong proponent of his practice, in fact.”

“Did you ever see one of the girls get sent to All-Heavens? Arrive at All-Heavens?” Hui asked.

Wang Xiu’s mouth opened, but no sound emerged. After a second, she scowled and shook her head. “Why would I care? They’re all just rumors.”

Hui snorted. “Ah, then the corpse and the torture room I set alight below us are rumors too, I suppose.”

“Wh…what?” Wang Xiu asked. She stumbled back.

Now! Hui darted forward, using the skip-step in his movement technique to reach Wang Xiu and Ying Lin. He grabbed Wang Xiu’s blade with one hand and sent Ying Lin into the node with his other.

Wang Xiu slashed at him. As her blade bit into his flesh, Hui switched to his flesh mode. Her blade sliced his body in half. Blood flew everywhere. “You lie!”

“Elder Sister can find out… if I lie… or not,” Hui mumbled, collapsing heavily to the ground. His vision darkened, and his breath came slow. He gasped against the pain, the upper half of his body tightening up on reflex. Dammit! I forgot how bad it hurts in flesh form! Argh, ow, ow, ow! Hurry up and go, Wang Xiu! I want to heal and leave already! I’m begging you!

Wang Xiu kicked Hui’s body over. He stared at the ceiling, his eyes still and dead. She frowned, then bent down and smacked him in the face. When that didn’t react, she stabbed him in the chest. At last, she knelt and ran her mental energy over Hui.

Hui pulled back his qi and hid, gathering everything up as small as he could manage it. Her mental energy passed by him without finding a thing.

She straightened up. “I know this is a clone. Come out!”

Hui remained dead. I am a clone, but I’m a dead clone. You can prove nothing!

Minutes passed. The smell of smoke grew stronger.

Wang Xiu’s lips twisted. At last, she lifted her razor sword and sliced Hui’s head off. Lifting it by its ponytail, she walked off, hurrying deeper into the palace.

The second she was gone, Hui returned to his plant form. The pain abated, and his beheaded and cut in half corpse sprouted a new head and a new bottom half. Robes made of lotus petals wrapped around his body as it grew back, preventing him from scandalizing the world.

Drawing Moonlight Cutter, he pulled the snakeskin off himself and quickly cast a new one, disguising himself as a bold-looking, sharp-eyebrowed sword cultivator. He flew off at top speed. Wang Xiu is alive, but she thinks we’re dead, now. Li Xiang can defeat her, and Ying Lin is safe. It’s fine to leave her be for now.

Understood, Sectgoer replied. Thank you for checking.

Of course, Hui replied. Clasping his hands behind him and putting a fierce and determined expression on his face, he flew away from the battle as quickly as possible.