Feeling their eyes on her, Xiao Dong turned away. Hui took a deep breath, then stepped forward. He walked over to her like a mortal, allowing his feet to sink into the mud of the earth. His chest tightened, and his palms began to sweat.

For the first time… for the first time ever, I’m going to repay a debt!

Even with the Heavens themselves conspiring against me, even with a villainous elder at my side, at long last, this small Hui will finally pay off his debt! Ah, I’m so nervous! I have to do this right, do it right! Come on, Hui. What do you say when you pay someone back? Er, “I’m done?” “I did it?” “Here, take your money?” None of those sound right, though!

The woman stared up at him. She shrank back, her eyes wide as dinner plates, her whole body trembling in fear. Hui abruptly realized he was standing silently over her, staring at her with his mouth twisted into a frown. In my worry, I—I already arrived here! Ah! Oh no! I’ve scared her! What do I do? What do I say?

You can do this, Mortal! Start with introducing yourself, Healer guided him.

Hui took a deep breath. He smiled at Xiao Dong and bowed. “Elder Si… that is, Seni… er, belove… Honorable Mother!” There! I did it!

Xiao Dong still stared at him. She stopped trembling, though, and her brows faintly furrowed. “Mother…?”

Okay, keep going! Keep going, Hui! He smiled gently. “I’m Mortal—er, er, er, I’m, I’m Xiao Hui. Xiao Hui, do you remember me? A… a few decades ago, you—”

“Xiao Hui!” Xiao Dong jumped up and threw her arms around him, holding him tight.

Hui stood there, his hands awkwardly in the air, not sure where to touch. After a long moment, he carefully put his arms around her. Warmth filled up his chest and swirled into his heart, hotter than any qi. He closed his eyes, smiling earnestly.

This warmth… reminds me of Sis Mei.

After a long moment, Xiao Dong abruptly pulled away, throwing her arms up. “Ah! Apologies, apologies. I wasn’t thinking. It wasn’t proper for me to—”

“No, no. Please. This small Hui doesn’t mind,” Hui replied, shaking his head. He reached out and took her hand, folding a perfume sachet into it.

She closed her hand around it. “This?”

“Mother, Xiao Hui entered a sect. I became the inheriting disciple of a powerful cultivator, and I’m now a proper righteous cultivator myself. Please accept this. It’s a small repayment for everything you’ve done for me, in setting me on this path,” Hui said, looking her in the eye.

It’s a special spatial treasure I had Sectgoer buy in Twin Elemental City a long time ago. Unlike other spatial treasures, it opens even when the user doesn’t insert their qi. Instead, it locks onto the signature of the first person to open it, and will only open to that person’s hand ever again.

It cost far, far too much, but… but it’s all worth it!

Xiao Dong opened the sachet and reached inside, then kept reaching. Her arm vanished to the elbow. The deeper her hand went, the wider her eyes got. “How… how much…”

Hui smiled. “It’s all for you.”

Xiao Dong’s eyes glittered, but then she frowned. She yanked her hand out and shoved the sachet back at Hui. “Seeing you grow up healthy is payment enough. Keep your gold.”

Eh? But I was sure… Hui glanced around and found all the other laborers staring hungrily at Xiao Dong. His eyes narrowed. Oh. I see.

Yunxu laughed. “After all this time, you’ll fail at the final step. How pitiful, Xiao Hui.”

Ignoring Yunxu, Hui cleared his throat. He reached into his robes and drew out several stacks of talismans. Loudly, he narrated, “Ah, Xiao Dong, if that’s the case, then please accept these talismans instead. This stack will cast fire, and this one ice, and this one earth. These are barrier talismans. Ah, although you don’t have qi, I’ve primed them with my own qi. As long as you paste them somewhere, they’ll activate on their own and protect you. Besides, I’ll know if my talismans activate, and I’ll directly rush over to protect you.” With that, he also pushed the perfume sachet back at Xiao Dong.

Hearing that spiel, several of the closest laborers clicked their tongues and turned away, no longer interested. The further ones hurried over to their side, curious, then stared at Xiao Dong with powerless, jealous eyes.

Yunxu scowled and turned away, crossing his arms.

Xiao Dong smiled. Her face crinkled with age, every wrinkle heartbreaking to Hui. “Then, I’ll accept it.”

“Thank you.” Hui opened his mouth, but didn’t know what to say. He backed up instead, giving her a low bow. I never had a mother. She died when I was too young to remember her in my first life, and my first memory in this one is her sending me off to the sect. Not that I blame her. Exactly the opposite! I’m eternally grateful. However, because I never experienced a mother, I don’t know properly how to act around her…

Xiao Dong stepped forward and grabbed his hand, slipping something into it. “Xiao Hui, I always knew you could do it. Even if I couldn’t see you… I believed in you.”

Hui glanced down. A dumpling sat in the palm of his hand. Rough and coarse, cold and congealed, the skin already dried, it somehow felt warm to him. He closed his hand slowly around it and nodded. “Yes!”

“Are we done?” Yunxu asked impatiently.

Hui carefully deposited the dumpling in his node, sending it all the way to their storage ring, then turned and nodded. “Yes, Senior. Whatever you must do to me… at least I’ve repaid my debts. I can die with no regrets.”

As the two walked away, Yunxu rolled his eyes. “When one tells a lie, it has to be believable.”

“Ah! Well, then, in that case, this small cultivator can die with a great number of regrets including that he failed to accomplish immortality, his ultimate goal,” Hui replied.

Snorting, Yunxu shook his head. “You’re still convinced of your own death?”

“Small cultivator has a realistic view of his chances against an Immortal and a sixth-realm cultivator,” Hui replied, bowing. After all, I sent the extra energy I gathered back to Sectgoer so he could fight against that mysterious Senior, Zui Jiu. Although I remain at the peak of the fifth stage, a sixth stage is a serious threat to me. Perhaps not the unbreakable wall that other fifth stages would find them—ah! Not that this small clone has the heart-demon, but simply, I saw the way Sectgoer handled Chen Xigui. If a fellow fifth-stage dies so easily, perhaps we could put up some small resistance and escape from a sixth-stage, the way we do from Han Qin. But if an Immortal is present as well… this bug understands! It’s simply my fate to get squashed.

“At times, you’re surprisingly level-headed,” Yunxu replied. “As much as you fear death, I thought you’d run screaming at the mere threat.”

“Mmm, small cultivator understands his chances at fleeing openly from Senior, as well,” Hui replied. Do you want me to win a footrace against a sixth-stage cultivator? Ptui! I might be a mere fifth-stage, unable to match senior’s comprehension, but I’m able to comprehend the chances of winning that race! I might as well match my original self against a truck!

Ah, I did that. It didn’t end well.

Yunxu tipped his head. “What’s a truck?”

Hui froze. He licked his lips, then took a slow step away from Yunxu. “Er… Senior wasn’t… reading my thoughts this whole time, no?”

Yunxu smiled.

Hui’s eyes widened. Shit! No wonder my playing dead failed! He listened to me narrate the whole thing! Argh, I need a technique to block my thoughts from thought-reading Seniors when I play dead! As high as my realm is, that’s rapidly going to become a serious threat to my death-playing!

Hmm, I seem to recall a technique to use my mental energy to rebuff those attempting to read my thoughts… but that only works if I’m awake and alive. I need a technique to guard my thoughts even when I’m dead! A technique that makes it look as if my mind is empty of thoughts, exactly as a dead man would be!

“It did make your denial somewhat ridiculous, when you were thinking things like ‘in my original world’ the entire time,” Yunxu added, tipping his head and resting a finger against his chin.

“Senior, I do quite a bit that’s entirely ridiculous,” Hui replied with a straight face.

Yunxu sighed deeply. He shook his head. “None of this is going how I expected it to go.”

“Mmm, isn’t that wonderful? You’re getting to experience so much!” Hui said encouragingly.

Yunxu narrowed his eyes at Hui. “I don’t want you to encourage me.”

“Ah, my apologies, Senior,” Hui replied sincerely, bowing.

“Right. Just follow me,” Yunxu declared. He strode back toward the village with big steps, putting some distance between himself and Hui.

Hui hurried up, following perfectly at Yunxu’s heels. He swept his hands behind his back and walked with a learned smile on his face, putting on a scholarly, if somewhat toady-like, air.

The village stood deserted when they returned. All the villagers had fled, and no one remained. Even the stray dogs had vanished. The two swept through the town, nothing but the wind and the dust joining them.

Yunxu stopped before one of the huts. He gestured at it and stood back.

Hui looked it over, then turned, crouching down. Yep, this is the view I saw when I entered this world! I’ll never forget that sight. He looked at Yunxu. “Senior is indeed impressive! Small cultivator couldn’t have found this hut so easily. Has Senior been watching me for that long? Impressive, impressive!” Creepy stalker. You get arrested for watching children like that in my world.

Yunxu narrowed his eyes at Hui, who smiled in return, his eyes squinting so hard they almost vanished. He shook his head. “I lost track of you in the rush of souls. I was not even sure I had properly summoned an otherworld soul to this world. It was only when I saw you, and sensed the faint traces of otherworldly energy on your soul, that I knew for certain I had succeeded.

“After I had confirmation that I’d succeeded, I searched the world for the matching otherworldly energy. It took years before I discovered this place, and the energy still clinging to this hut. The Immortal nearly lost faith, but when I found the energy—”

“Ah, so that’s why it took so long for you to call on the Immortal. You weren’t sure I was an otherworlder, and once you were convinced, you still had to convince the Immortal. Calls to the Immortal Realm must be quite expensive, no? It’s not as if anyone can pick up the phone and contact Heaven. Hence, you wanted to be completely sure yourself, and completely sure you could convince the Immortal, before you attempted to contact Heaven. Thus why it took so long for you to seek me out and bring me here,” Hui said, nodding to himself.

Yunxu stopped dead in the middle of his explanation and scowled at Hui. “Could you stop?”

“Eh? Many apologies! Small cultivator knows not what he did wrong!” Hui said, bowing repeatedly.