A hair’s breadth from his neck, the sword stopped. Hui sucked a shallow breath, staring down at the naked blade. “Li Xiang. Li Xiang, it’s you, right?”

The sword shivered. It backed away a centimeter.

“Dao Dao, return,” the sword cultivator called.

The sword shivered again, then swooped around and rushed back to the sword cultivator’s hand. She caught the sword and turned to them. Despite the blur that obscured her face, Hui had the intense sensation she was staring directly at him.

“You. Can you get us out of this place?” she asked.

“I don’t know. But I can try,” Hui said.

She pointed her sword at him. “I don’t know you, but Dao Dao trusts you. I’ll take a risk.”

“Dao Dao… is that… Li Xiang?” Hui asked.

“I am Li Xiang,” she replied.

Hui frowned. She’s… Li Xiang? But she’s not… and the sword knows me, so then… “Are you… the woman I saw, trapped in the sword?”

Li Xiang pointed her finger at him. Pressure descended on Hui’s shoulders. He struggled to stay upright, fighting against the weight. “Not another word.”

“Elder Sister, I mean no harm. I would never do anything to hurt Li Xiang… or yourself. I’m trying to get all of us out of this realm, and back into our bodies,” Hui said.

The swordswoman hesitated. She lowered her finger, and the pressure dissipated. “Do you have a way out?”

“I…” Hui hesitated.

The woman lifted her finger again.

“Wait, wait. I have something I can try!”

Hui paced around, feeling out the area. At last, he sat down cross-legged and circulated his death qi. If this woman is in the same place in this realm as her body is in the other realm, Fang Hua should be sitting right around here. If she’s closer, maybe I’ll be able to reconnect with her mental energy. I can’t guarantee it’ll work, but it’s worth a try!

Remembering the sensation of linking with Fang Hua, he replicated that sensation to the best of his ability, reaching out to her. Darkness awaited him. Emptiness. He pushed further, reaching out into that darkness. His death qi whirled, growing slowly closer to Fang Hua’s resonance.

A darkness within the darkness. A blackness within black. Hui reached out, approaching the shapeless thing. Fang Hua. Fang Hua! Can you hear me? Is that you?

“…ui? Hui? Where are you?”

Relieved, Hui sighed with exhaustion. “Fang Hua! I’m stuck on the other side of the realm. Can you find my body? It’s somewhere in this realm, stuck on your side.”

“Your body?” There was a pause. After a moment, Fang Hua spoke again. “I can still sense a vague resonance with your body. I’ll go find you.”

“Thank you. Fang Hua, if you run into Sis Mei, tell her to get out of this realm. There’s something wrong with this place. Something very dangerous.”

“Dangerous? What do you mean, Hui?”

Hui slit his eyes open, cutting a look at the crows. They bounced around, pecking at the ground. Chen Wuya squatted amongst them, a bored expression on his face. Idly, he plucked a few of the dead poppies and rubbed them between his fingers. Gray dust filtered down. Whoever this Chen Wuya is, he isn’t good news. He was locked here for a reason. And if he’s the one who created the soul transferal spell array, he’s more dangerous than anyone I’ve ever met. “I can’t say now. Go, Fang Hua. Reach out to me once you find my body.”

Fang Hua hesitated, then stood. Hui felt her moving away from him. Her mind faded away into the distance, leaving him alone.

“So?” the swordswoman asked.

“I’ve contacted my friend on the other side of the realm. She should be able to find my body. Once I have my body… I should be able to get out of here,” Hui said.

“If it was that easy, I would have left long ago,” Chen Wuya scoffed.

“Respectfully, Senior, it might be easier for me to escape, because the realm was not expressly built to seal me,” Hui said, bowing.

Chen Wuya inclined his head. “Granted.”

“Er, if you don’t mind me asking… this realm is currently in the possession of Starbound Sect. Er, Senior, do you have any… that is, what is your relation to Starbound Sect?”

“I founded it,” Chen Wuya said.

Hui blinked. “Come again?”

Crossing his arms, Chen Wuya tilted his head back and looked down on Hui. “Call me Patriarch, child. I founded Starbound Sect. When it comes to standing among the sect, I’m your great-great-great…great-great-great grandfather. Which makes me your daddy.”

“Please forgive this junior for not showing Patriarch the proper respect,” Hui said, bowing stiffly. Who’s my daddy? Don’t joke, Senior. You’ll scare this small cultivator to death.

“Tell me, child. How does the sect fare? Are we still the most powerful of the southern sects? Or has that damned All-Heavens Sect edged us out?”

Hui coughed. “Answering Daddy—” he coughed again, choking on his words. Fuck! What the fuck did I just say?

“Go on,” Chen Wuya said, smirking.

“Answering Patriarch, we… er, are a minor sect, unable to dream of standing up to All-Heavens Sect. All-Heavens Sect rules over the Southern Sects.”

Chen Wuya grit his teeth. He clenched his fist so hard blood oozed from his palm. The long robe streaming from his shoulders wobbled, somewhere between real and illusory, and for a moment, the red fabric flowed like blood. His eyes burned like embers, hideous to see. “That Fen Long! Damn him! If he hadn’t locked me up here, then—!”

The air around him grew heavy. Powerful fluctuations thrummed out from him, slamming into Hui and Gu Tian. Gu Tian’s soul streamed away, every strike of Chen Wuya’s cultivation base eating at his soul.

Opposite them, the woman in white narrowed her eyes slightly, but otherwise wasn’t affected by his fluctuations.

Hui cowered away, bowing repeatedly. His own soul shuddered under the weight of Chen Wuya’s fluctuations, and began to show signs of destabilizing. He reached out and snatched Gu Tian into his hand, pressing Gu Tian into a ball to keep him safer, protecting Gu Tian’s soul with his own. “Senior, please, remember yourself!”

Chen Wuya blinked. In an instant, he returned to normal, the robe just a robe, his eyes no longer glowing, no fluctuations emanating off of him. “Ah, that’s right. I don’t want to kill the clever juniors who are going to help me escape.”

Hui bowed deeper, still edging away. Help him escape? What’s he going to do once he escapes? I don’t get the feeling that he cares about Starbound Sect, and on top of that, he’s the one who initially created the soul transferal spell array. He’s not a good person.

In fact, he might even be… demonic!

Hui cleared his throat meekly. He looked up at Chen Wuya nervously. “Er, Patriarch, sir… was Starbound Sect originally a demonic sect?”

“Eh? Who cares,” Chen Wuya said dismissively.

I do! I care a lot, Senior! Hui cried internally.

Chen Wuya waved a hand. “Demonic, righteous, it doesn’t matter in the end. If I’d finished my formation and succeeded, they’d have called me a hero. I failed at the halfway point, and they attacked, calling me a demon. It’s simply the way of the world.”

Huh. That reminds me of the way Master thinks, Hui thought. After a second, he looked up at Chen Wuya. “Patriarch, sir, what was the original purpose of the soul transferal array?”

“I told you. Call me Daddy,” Chen Wuya said, a gentle light in his eyes.

Who would call you Daddy! Call you Daddy, my ass! Hui shouted internally.

“In any case, the original purpose was… to help a friend,” he said, shrugging.

“Help a friend?” Hui asked.

Chen Wuya nodded. “Mm. A friend of mine fell horribly ill, to the point that the illness could never be fully erased from their body. All the power of my cultivation couldn’t do a thing to save them. I built the spell array to offer an alternative. Transfer their soul into another body. Even if they had to cultivate again from the start, at least they could live on.”

He turned his head and scoffed. Back to Hui, he propped his head on his hand. “But no, that was no good. They weren’t willing to sacrifice even a single mortal, nor a single demonic cultivator, to survive. It’s almost like they wanted to die.”

Although he spoke in a light voice, an aura of sorrow settled heavily around him, a palpable chill in the air. It was as if his heart had died, as if someone had taken a piece of him away.

That friend… wasn’t just a friend, were they, Hui realized, looking at Chen Wuya’s back. Whoever they were, they meant more to him than that.

Chen Wuya sighed out, an exhausted sound. “And now here I am. Sealed away, and that friend of mine probably long dead.”

“I’m… sorry,” Hui said, at a loss.

“What are you sorry for? You didn’t kill my friend,” Chen Wuya said, turning back around. Annoyed, he narrowed his eyes at Hui, pressing his lips together.

“Apologies, apologies,” Hui said, bowing again.

Chen Wuya sighed and turned away again. “If you don’t want to be bullied, you should make it less fun to bully you.”

“Senior! What does that mean?” Hui shouted at the sky, frustrated. His eyes widened a second later. Shit! I didn’t mean to say that out loud!

“Out loud or silent, either way it’s the same. I can hear your inner voice, too,” Chen Wuya reminded him.

“Ah, well… that’s true.” Reassured, Hui let out a sigh of relief. Senior won’t punish me for my mistake. Thank goodness.

Chen Wuya laughed. “I never said anything about not punishing you. You’ve been silently sassing me for some time, haven’t you?”

An icy chill crawled up Hui’s spine. He backed away slowly. “Senior, there’s no need for that, this small cultivator understands that he has done wrong and is already reflecting on his sins, please Senior, I—”

Chen Wuya turned his eyes and smirked at Hui. Without moving an inch from where he sat, hand on his chin, Chen Wuya dissolved into crows. Instantly, the crows rushed at Hui, blood-red eyes blazing, claws bared.

Hui turned and fled. Oh shit! I’ve stepped in it this time! This guy’s insane!