Cowering atop Unrivaled Under Heaven Peak, Hui looked up. Brilliant light lit the heavens above, nearly as bright as the sun. He shaded his eyes rather than look directly at it. Is this the realm that Master warned me about? Naturally, I won’t enter! I remember your words, Master.

Beams of light burst from the surrounding peaks. One after another, disciples poured into the rift. Lower-realm disciples held on tight to their master’s and elder’s coat-tails to ride into the rift. Hui caught a glimpse of Gu Tian holding on to another disciple’s sword and laughed, waving at him from the peak. Gu Tian smiled back, then vanished into the realm.

Li Xiang hurtled toward the rift. She hovered there, looking at it, then turned and looked at Hui.

“I’m busy, Elder Sister. Go on ahead of me,” Hui called. I’m sorry, Li Xiang! As much as I would like to enter alongside you, this small disciple hates danger more!

Li Xiang nodded and vanished into the realm.

Hui sat down on his peak, meditating and absorbing Mount Mu’s qi while keeping half an eye on the realm. I wonder what kind of dangers are hidden inside the realm? Hopefully the other disciples won’t be in danger. I’m not worried about Li Xiang, but Gu Tian might have a hard time…

A few hours passed. The first disciples to enter popped out, laughing and grinning. A few showed off new magical treasures, either weapons or precious items. One or two of the luckiest burst with power, either on the brink of a cultivation base breakthrough or just having made one. Their conversations drifted down to Hui’s ears.

“Super easy! It was literally a walk in a park.”

“The Sect Master’s basically handing out magical treasures. I guess I’m a bit scared that the sect is this desperate…”

“Too bad we can only enter it once. If I could enter it a thousand times, I would!”

“Ha! Good fortune is usually accompanied by danger, but not this time! It’s good fortune all the way through! I’m only concerned that I didn’t grab the most perfect treasure for me…”

Hui’s ears twitched. He frowned up at the passing cultivators. That can’t be right. Master said there was grave danger inside the realm… but to hear them talk, it’s basically a treasure storage room, without so much as a gate guard!

Master… is this not what you meant? Your comprehension is so great that I can’t be sure! Maybe there’s some other realm. Another realm that’s going to open soon, full of danger. Or maybe he means this mortal world, which could be considered a realm, is going to be very dangerous, and I should definitely enter that treasure realm!

Hui licked his lips, staring up at the glittering portal, then shook his head. No! Listen to Master’s words. It’s better to safely and quietly meditate down here to build up strength for the coming battle, than to risk unknown danger by entering the realm.

To distract himself, he drew out the talisman formulae Bai Luoren had given him and began to study them, a frown on his face. Right, right. What could I find in there that’s better than what I already have, after all? These talisman formulae are all I need!

He immersed himself in studying the barrier formulae. One of the formulae was at his level, fourth realm, but the other two were higher, one at the fifth realm and one at the sixth. A final talisman seemed to hold a storage formula, rather than a barrier. Unlike a normal talisman, the talisman only covered half the paper, and the half of the paper without a formula on it was fragile and pale, as if half-burned up. Confused, Hui examined it deeply, then copied the formula to a spare piece of paper and activated the talisman.

Ink and paper poured out of the talisman, piling up at his feet.

Ah! It’s a talisman-based storage technique. Like a miniature storage ring or bag of holding, but temporary. It looks like you activate it twice. First, you activate it to capture whatever you wish to store in the talisman. Then, when you activate the talisman a second time, whatever is inside is forcibly ejected, but until you activate the talisman, it can hold items indefinitely. It’s a wonderful way to send things to other people, like a mail package back in my original world. Interesting, interesting!

Then, I suppose the blank half at the bottom was where the first half of the formula went, the half used to store things inside the talisman, which was half-burnt when the talisman was activated to store those items.

Nodding to himself, Hui picked up the paper and ink. Despite the joyful shouts and loud comparisons of magical items overhead, he forced himself to focus on his talismans. One after another, he copied the barrier talismans. The fifth and sixth realm talismans escaped him, as expected, but with the fifth realm talisman, he felt as though he could almost comprehend it. One tiny iota was missing, a single step in his comprehension that didn’t quite fit the talisman’s formula.

Time passed. One day, then another. A week crawled by. Hui studied the talismans and absorbed life qi alternatingly. As he absorbed Mount Mu’s life qi, a powerful death qi welled up from the petrified tree. More than once, he reached out to it, but every time, the life qi got in his way, too bright and brilliant for him to reach the dark death qi.

Hui nodded to himself, putting a hand on the giant tree’s trunk. Once I’ve absorbed all the life qi, then…

“Has anyone seen Li Xiang?”

Hui froze. He glanced upward.

A few disciples flew by. One carried a spear wrought with a dragon over one shoulder, and another tapped a fan against his chin. With every tap, small rainbows appeared around his face, as if the fan granted him a rainbow aura.

The cultivator with the fan paused in tapping his face for a second. The rainbow aura faded. “No, not for… about a week, now. Didn’t she enter the realm? Why hasn’t she come out yet?”

“Maybe she’s still searching for that perfect weapon.”

“I don’t know… hopefully she didn’t get cut down by that sword spirit. That terrifying thing leaves people alone if they leave it alone, but she is a sword cultivator…”

Hui jumped on his sword and flew up toward the two cultivators. They startled and stared at him, surprised. “Eh? Weiheng Hui…”

“Excuse me, Elder Brothers, but… you say Li Xiang hasn’t returned yet?” he said, bowing to them. I wasn’t paying attention because it was too distracting to my cultivation! I should have watched more closely.

“No, it seems not. You must be happy,” the one with the spear scoffed.

“Why would he be? He’s the one trying to corrupt our idol,” the one with the fan said, taken aback.

“Huh? I heard Weiheng Hui was incredibly jealous of Li Xiang and wanted to cut her down to size.”

“Where’d you hear that? All he wants is to get into her robes. Everyone knows that.”

Hui waved his hands. “Elder Brothers, never mind what I want. What about a disciple named Gu Tian? Has he emerged?” If Li Xiang vanished into the realm… maybe the realm is secretly dangerous! It appears benevolent on the surface, but maybe that’s only a honey pot to trick unwary cultivators into being devoured!

“Gu Tian? I don’t know who that is,” the cultivator with the sword said.

The cultivator with the fan nodded. “Oh, Gu Tian? That guy you brought back with you. One of my martial siblings mentioned him. He apparently vanished as soon as they entered the realm. No one knows where he ran off to. Honestly, my martial sibling was a bit worried he’d betrayed the sect, or something, but…”

Gu Tian and Li Xiang have both vanished. Is it that the realm is secretly eating people? Or is it something the two of them share in common?

Hui looked at the disciples again. “Have you heard rumors of anyone else vanishing? Aside from Li Xiang and Gu Tian.”

The two shared a glance. The one with the fan shook his head, and the one with the spear shrugged. “Sorry, no.”

“Just the two of them…” Hui murmured, putting a hand to his chin. He descended back toward his peak slowly, thinking to himself. Should I enter the realm? Master warned there was great danger… is this what he was talking about? But then… if I don’t enter the realm, who’s going to search for them? Li Xiang… Gu Tian…

Hui’s eyes lit up. “Ah! I…”

A second later, he sagged. “Dammit, I can’t use Jin Xian here. She’s a ghoul. She’ll immediately emanate an aura of death. The lotus beast… is too unstable. If I…”

“Wait! What if I use Jin Xian, but mask her death aura with life qi? Once she’s in the realm, it doesn’t matter, and then it’s just a matter of being there when she emerges from the realm. Argh, but while she’s inside, I might lose my connection to her, and then…”

Hui rubbed his chin, thoughtful. “A talisman… hmm, but if she vanishes like the others, it might burn out. And if I lose my connection, I’m not sure how long she’ll remember my orders. Maybe if I make a charm, of sorts… If I could go in myself, but…”

Jin Xian pressed against his consciousness. A kind of hunger pushed against his mind, along with a desire to slaughter and do battle. A second later, all that vanished, replaced by a simple wish to go outside and stretch her legs, almost petulant.

“I know, I know, but we’re in a righteous sect right now, Jin Xian. It would put you in too much danger,” Hui whispered back.

Huffing, Jin Xian turned her back to him in their mental connection, but didn’t retreat, instead prodding into his mind like a splinter.

Hui sighed. I’m just trying to keep you from being subdued by a righteous sect. Why are you making it difficult for me?

A familiar face passed by overhead. Hui instantly darted out of the barrier to intercept them. “Sis Mei!”

“Eh, it’s little Hui. Have you been in the True Self Realm yet? Want to go together?” Sis Mei asked, tilting her head. She stood atop a ladle, floating there in midair.

Hui shook his head. “Master warned me not to…”

“Why not? There’s no danger,” Sis Mei said, laughing. “I was here last time it opened. It really is just a treasured realm… it’s really a pity you can only enter once every few hundred years, and only bring out one item each time.”

Eh? But then… why did Master warn me against it? And what happened to Gu Tian and Li Xiang? Maybe… they really did just get wrapped up in picking the right treasure, and forgot about the time? Hui hesitated. He looked at Sis Mei, then quickly drew out a piece of talisman paper. Turning away from her, he drew the formula for the package talisman, surged his life qi, quickly drew out Jin Xian, applied the snakeskin technique with a snakeskin of himself, and stuffed her inside the talisman, then held it out to Sis Mei. “Take this. Activate it once you get inside, even if there’s no danger. Please?”

Sis Mei laughed. “Hui, you can’t trick the realm. Even if you send a puppet or a clone, you only get one—”

Hui shook his head. “I’m not trying to trick the realm. Gu Tian and Li Xiang—that is, two of my friends—have vanished in there. I’m worried about them, but Master told me not to enter. I… ultimately might have no choice but to enter, but if you bring that talisman with you, I can take a peek first. Please?”

Sis Mei looked at him, then sighed and ruffled his head. “Alright, alright, fine. I’ll do it.”

“And, uh, could you not look at the talisman… when you activate it?” Hui requested nervously. “It, er… it’s a bit embarrassing for me…”

“Xiao Hui, lots of clone techniques create a naked body. It’s not unusual. I won’t be bothered,” Sis Mei said, shaking her head.

It’s not a naked body, it’s a ghoul! Really, I’d beg you not to examine ‘my’ qi, if it wouldn’t completely give up the ghost! Well, ‘ghoul’ in this case. Hui shook his head insistently. “Please, Sis Mei?”

She smiled at him. “Oh, alright. I won’t look. Promise.”

Hui nodded. “Thank you!” Silently, he issued orders to Jin Xian to get as far from Sis Mei as quickly as she could, or disguise herself so Sis Mei couldn’t see her. A second later, he paused, then added a few more orders to protect Sis Mei at all costs.

Jin Xian replied back with a burst of confusion and frustration that expressed, hide from this woman or protect her?

Both? Hui tried.

The mental equivalent of a sigh passed to him. Jin Xian settled down.

Sis Mei waved. “I’ll see you on the other side, Hui! And don’t worry about what your Master said. There’s no danger in here, really. Once you see that, come join me inside!”

Hui nodded, quietly hesitating. But… it’s Master who said it. Master’s comprehension is too great for him to make a mistake. I could be interpreting his words wrong, but…

He grit his teeth. If Jin Xian really sees no danger, then… I’ll stop hesitating! I’ll go in there and figure out what happened to Li Xiang and Gu Tian myself! And maybe… seek a little good fortune while I’m at it!