Yet again, Hui turned a corner and bolted into a wide-open space. Again, a duck awaited him, furious and primed to fight. It leaped off the ground and flapped at him, whirling around to strike with its claws at the last second.

Hui drew the flint from his robes and held it out, circulating the death qi around his hand. He met the duck’s claws with a clawed hand.

The death qi met the duck’s claws. He felt resistance. Hui shoved, and the duck went flying back, flaring its wings wildly. It fluttered to the ground and blinked at him, startled.

He grinned. Alright! Now I can fight back!

The duck backed away, hissing, wings flared. Behind him, the other two ducks hurtled through the passage and ran at him, beaks wide, one white, one still pinkish.

Black crawled over the surface of the third duck. It shook its head and flapped its wings, rising up from the ground like it was stretching its wings on a lake. Black flowed over its surface, until the entire duck was black.

Where have I seen that before? Wait, Bai Xue! No—not like that. He shook his head, banishing the distraction.

The black duck shook its head and settled down. It looked at its white and pink compatriots, then trotted over to Hui. The ghostly duck wiggled its tail at him and hissed, waiting expectantly.

Eh? Did… did I recruit him, somehow? Hui looked at his death qi, then at the duck.

The black duck turned to its friends and quacked. The other two paused and looked at it, then at Hui. The three of them crowded close, circling around Hui.

Huh? –Wait. Hui shifted the death-qi-filled flint left, then right. The ducks followed it with their heads, almost hypnotized.

No, not me. Around the death qi.

Don’t tell me… is death qi tasty to ghosts?

As one, the three ducks lunged at Hui’s flint.

Hui lashed out, knocking them back. The pink one fluttered back, quacking in dismay, but the white one latched onto his flint with its beak. Death qi rolled down its transparent neck and began to color it black as well.

“Let go!” Hui shook his hand, shaking the duck loose.

The second black duck lunged for his hand. It collided with the first, knocking it off, and the two thumped to the ground. Hissing and glaring, they bit at each other.

Hui backed away. He drew his sword, putting it between the ducks and his flint, for all the good that did him. The ducks advanced, heads low. They darted, snakelike, at his ankles, beady eyes locked on his flint.

His back struck the mist wall. Hui whirled around and ran, vanishing down the passage and back into the mist maze. With a cacophony of quacks, the ducks gave chase.

Again, he blasted out of the maze. An opening stretched before him, a single white duck in the center. It turned and hissed, vicious.

“Get out of the way!” Hui shouted. He ran at the duck, brandishing the flint like a weapon.

The duck backed away, confused.

Behind Hui, the black ducks quacked. The white duck sat upright, listening, then turned toward Hui with hungry eyes.

Hui’s stomach curled inward. He sped up, racing on. “No, no no no! Leave me alone!”

Is this what it feels like to be treated like food? Is this what it feels like to have someone want to eat you? I’m sorry, Fatty! This small cultivator’s cultivation was too low, he didn’t comprehend such an advanced concept! I’ll never treat ducks like food again!

The white duck charged after him, joining the other three ducks in the chase.

The demonic ancestor’s voice sounded again, echoing through the maze. “You must be confident, to draw so many enemies at once. I admire your courage. As a reward, I will cease wasting your time.”

“Er, dear ancestor, you’re the first one to accuse me of courage,” Hui said, concerned. Cease wasting my time? I hope that doesn’t mean—

The pink walls turned dark red. They boiled, shifting and bubbling. A duck popped out from the wall, then another, then another.

—what I think it means! Hui finished despairingly.

Duck after duck popped out of the walls, as the walls darkened from red, to scarlet, to a single shade from black. Feathers ruffled. Beady eyes blinked. Hui backed away, holding the flint in front of him.

“Stay back!” he snapped commandingly. “This flint—one touch from this qi, and you’ll be—”

A quack from the back of the pack interrupted his bluff. All the ducks’ heads turned. The two black ducks and the one pink one quacked together, and the ducks all stilled. As one, they turned toward Hui.

“Don’t listen to them. They’re liars. They don’t know anything!” Hui tried, waving his hands.

A hundred ducks rushed at Hui, eyes locked on his flint.

Hui turned to run, but the mist walls revealed no gap. No path opened forward, nor behind. Black-red walls continued all around him, solid and secure.

The ducks closed in around him. Wings rustled. Beaks clacked.

“Be gentle, please?” Hui tried.

Ducks launched themselves at him. White wings flapped all around him. He held the flint close to his chest. Relentless, the ducks bashed at him. Claws bit at his hand. Feathers battered his face, white fading to black. Hui stumbled back, batting blindly at the ducks.

His shoulders struck the wall. Still the ducks slammed into him. Hui tensed, turned his head away, and held his breath.

At last, the ducks fell away. Hui gasped a breath and sagged, exhausted. He looked at the flint, hopeful.

A piece of rock sat in his hand. Not a single scrap of death qi remained.

“Elder brothers,” Hui sighed, turning to the ducks.

An array of black ducks stared back at him. One pinkish one sat in the back. It quacked.

“Er… can I help you?”

The black ducks edged closer to him. One let out a quiet hiss. Another quacked, but lazily.

Hui backed away. “I don’t have any more death qi…”

They scooted closer, blinking, completely silent.

Wait. They aren’t attacking me anymore. Hui frowned. Is it because I fed them? But… a little bit of death qi shouldn’t be enough to buy loyalty from a vengeful spirit.

A vengeful spirit… but there’s a hundred copies of Fatty. These can’t all be Fatty. Or—isn’t it more accurate to say that none of them are Fatty? They’re illusory copies of Fatty’s ghost, built by the trial array. Illusory pseudo-ghosts, at best. And those illusory pseudo-ghosts ate the death qi that’s been circulating inside me. It wasn’t my qi at first, but after circulating it so many times, isn’t it essentially my qi?

In summary, I’ve fed the trial array’s creations my qi. Death qi, at that! Qi that rejects and overrides other qi! Doesn’t that suggest that I’ve taken over the array? Or at least, my own portion of it.

Aha! Even a demonic ancestor isn’t better than the great, small me!

Hui cleared his throat. “Jump.”

The ducks jumped, a wave of motion from the front to the rear. The pink duck in the back looked around, confused.

An army of ducks! Hui put his chin in his hand, thinking. An army of ducks. Illusory pseudo-ghost ducks. What can I do with that?

He waved his hand, breaking up his own thoughts. Wait, wait. I have to break out of this trial first! I still can’t harm the ghosts. Even if they’re docile, I have no way to defeat them.

Hui looked at the ghosts, then at his hands. Experimentally, he pointed his palm at the ducks. Drawing the sensation of circulating the death qi to the surface of his thoughts, he reached his qi toward the ducks.

The nearest duck fluttered its wings. His qi brushed its exterior. It flinched back, but didn’t run. The familiar chill of death qi met his. He drew his qi back inside himself, and the duck came with it.

As the duck reached his hand, it swirled down into a blot of death qi and vanished into him. He circulated it around his dantian instinctively. The tiny scrap of death qi settled into orbit, and circulated without his conscious focus.

Alright, let’s try the rest of them! Hui lifted his hand again, this time reaching out to the entire flock of ducks.

The ducks shifted, flinching, then lifted off the ground. Twisting together, the black stream of death qi poured into Hui. It twined around his dantian, following the first scrap into orbit.

Eh? Have I gotten better at handling death qi? I did open another few meridans… handling qi has been getting easier lately, and particularly death qi. I barely need to pay attention to it anymore. He flexed his hands, feeling the cool stream rotate around his dantian. I’ve been relying on the slate, but I’ve already surpassed having to rely on it.

He looked up. Only the pink duck remained. It peered at him from the corner of its eyes, then snaked its neck around, preening its wings.

“You and me! Alone in this ring,” Hui announced. He summoned a scrap of death qi to his hand and grinned, gesturing the duck on. I just need to feed this last duck some death qi, and then I can break out of this trial!

He cocked his head back. “Just the two of us. Let’s fight it out!”

The duck ignored him, preening its chest and wiggling its tail.

“You aren’t even a real duck! You don’t need to preen!” Hui informed it.

Halfway through adjusting a feather, the duck stopped. It looked at him, then went back to preening.

“You! Aren’t we supposed to fight?” Hui asked. I’d feel bad just attacking it. I already did it once, I don’t need to do it to Fatty’s ghost, too.

Uninterested, the duck sat down, tucking its legs under it.

Hui gritted his teeth. “I didn’t want to do this, but…” He held up his palm toward the duck. Illusory pseudo-ghost made of blood qi! I only barely circulated this blood qi, but—maybe it’s enough? He dismissed the death qi back into himself and drew on the blood qi in the final duck.

The pink duck looked at him. It hopped into the air and flapped at him. Claws bit into his shoulders. The duck hauled back and chomped on his nose.

“Ow!” Hui stumbled back, squinching his face up.

The duck let out a last, indignant quack, then a hiss almost like a sigh. With that, the pink coiled into red and vanished into Hui’s body, no more than another stream of qi.

“Eh… Fatty?” Hui asked, looking at his hand. Was that one actually Fatty? Did he… forgive me?

The dark mist walls shuddered. The trial array began to fade away.

I’ll figure that out later! For now, it’s time to get everyone out!