Deep inside Hui’s soul’s dantian, one of the ducks stirred. This duck’s eyes burned red, its feathers ragged and crow-like. It flapped its wings once, twice, then took flight, bursting out of Hui’s soul’s dantian and into his flesh. It tore its way free, biting and clawing, twisting a bloody path out. Black wings flecked with greenish blood, it took to the sky.

Hui stared as a crow-like duck tore its way out of his dantian region. That duck? The one that formed from the first scrap of qi he gave me. Ever since that moment, I’ve been dancing in the palm of his hand!

Chen Wuya’s voice rang out again. “You, who cultivates the technique I left behind. You, who assimilated my qi. Did you really think you’d escaped me?”

Senior Chen Wuya left that technique behind? But… I thought, the reaper…

Then again, Zhu Diyu was only interested in the technique I cultivated. Maybe it piqued his interest, but only because it was unique, not because he’d developed it.

Or… Chen Wuya only said he left that technique behind. It doesn’t mean he made it, just that he left it.

A second crow burst free, then another. The crows grew to a torrent, then a sea. A dozen, a hundred, a thousand crows flew out of Hui. When they couldn’t claw their way through the holes the others had torn, they bit their way through his flesh, boring new holes. The crows riddled Hui’s stomach with holes, leaving his flesh a hollow mess. If his lotus-beast clone had had organs, the organs would have been in pieces. As it was, Hui coughed, then spat up a mouthful of green blood. He stumbled back, unable to do anything to stop the flow of crows.

“Xiao Hui!” Fang Hua shouted. She supported him by the shoulders, but was powerless to do any more to help. Hui sagged against her, spitting another mouthful of blood. He lifted his hands, now soaked in his own green blood.

Shit… I… if I survive this, I…

I need to figure out some way to color the lotus-beast clone’s blood red! It’s a dead giveaway that this isn’t my real body if they stab it and green gook comes out!

At last, the sea of crows slowed. Hui gathered his life qi and drew it toward his ruined stomach. Gold sparks knit his flesh back together, the lotus beast’s extreme vitality working alongside his life qi to patch up his flesh. In a few seconds, his ragged gut returned to normal.

He stood up, away from Fang Hua. They both stared upward, where uncountable crows circled high in the sky. The crows wheeled, red eyes darting around.

“Are they… searching for something?” Hui murmured.

One of the crows let out a cry. At once, all the crows turned and flew toward it. They clawed and bit at the sky, tearing something Hui couldn’t see. He frowned and opened his third eye, focusing above him.

In his third eye’s vision, the crows tore, not at nothing, but at a complex spell formation hanging high in the sky. Bit by bit, they destroyed the formation. Runes darkened. Lines deadened. As they tore it apart, Hui felt a pull, a pull that drew him toward his original body.

The pearly orbs in his sleeve trembled, then darted toward the swordswoman and the sword. They settled inside, and the swordswoman straightened. The blur fell off her face, revealing Li Xiang, who looked around, then frowned at the sky. “Crows…?”

“Li Xiang, is that you?” Hui called.

“Xiao Hui? When did you enter the realm? How… did I end up here?” Li Xiang frowned, looking down at her hands. Seeing her sword in her hand, her frown deepened, and she sheathed it.

“Li Xiang, hurry. Go find your fated treasure. We need to leave, immediately!” Hui replied.

Li Xiang glanced at the crows again, then nodded. She hopped on her sword and sped off toward the nearest pavilion. In a few moments, she reappeared and rushed off to the next pavilion.

Overhead, the spell formation continued to shatter. Hui hesitated another moment, then leaped out of the lotus-beast body he’d grown and back into his own. He settled in, instantly comfortable. No strange rejection refused him. His body belonged to him, perfectly his.

He sighed out, relieved, and stood, catching the lotus-beast body as it sagged. The lotus-beast body rotted away to nothing but a black seed in a few moments. Hui grabbed that seed and paused, looking around for the rush sandals.

Fang Hua pointed at the seed.

Hui looked closer at it. Two pieces of rush wrapped around the seed.

Wait, does that mean… the sandals were the lotus beast’s fated treasure? But that makes no sense. It’s the same soul in two different bodies. I shouldn’t have two separate fates.

No, I don’t think that’s it. Instead, I bet it’s the type of treasure that binds to one’s body. And I accidentally bound it to my clone’s body instead of my own!

…Oh, well. It works that way, as well. I’m used to repressing my own aura. The lotus beast, however, emanates a fierce life aura on its own, one that’ll be hard to surpass with my death qi. With the sandals, it’ll be easier to fake a death aura when I need to. And I should be able to hide the lotus beast body’s weird coloration that way, too.

I wonder if the sandals can make my blood look red…?

In the distance, Li Xiang burst out of a pavilion, a new ring glittering on her finger. She rushed toward Hui at top speed, barely any more than a beam of light.

“Xiao Hui, I… can’t hold on any longer. I return Jin Xian to you.” The light in Fang Hua’s eyes faded, and her shoulders slumped for a moment. A breath of time later, she straightened back up. Faded, dark eyes looked at Hui.

Hui peered above with his third eye again. The spell formation trembled under the crows’ onslaught. Already, it showed signs of crumbling entirely.

A sudden sense of deadly crisis gripped Hui. If Chen Wuya tearing that spell apart allowed all of us to return to our ordinary selves, then… what happens when the spell shatters?

A crack bit across the spell. It expanded, shattering the entire sky in two. The spell trembled one more time, vibrating rapidly, then broke apart to tiny shards. The crows let out a triumphant cry and wheeled about one last time. As one, they sped down toward the earth.

What are they doing? Hui wondered, as they neared the ground. If they don’t slow down soon, they’ll—

One after another, the crows slammed into the ground at top speed. Rather than splattering against the earth, they vanished into it, absorbed up like rain absorbed into parched earth. The earth trembled, and the poppies flickered. For a moment, Hui saw not unending poppy fields, but instead a vast expanse of crimson fabric, stretching off far into the distance.

“Xiao Hui!” Li Xiang shouted, reaching out for him.

Hui put both the lotus clone seed and Jin Xian into his storage ring with a short gesture, then leaped up and caught Li Xiang’s hand. He settled onto her sword, and she blasted up into the sky.

She glanced back at him. “That spell formation unsettled the world. The exit is rapidly crumbling. If we don’t leave soon, we won’t be able to.”

“Elder Sister, look back!” Hui shouted.

Li Xiang turned.

Beneath them, the land quaked. The pavilions collapsed, sending treasures flying everywhere. Hui flicked his sleeve and quickly drew a few of the closest ones to him, even as they flew away. Under the pavilions, the earth twitched and shuddered like a dog on the verge of waking.

All at once, the land shattered, illusion breaking into motes of light to reveal a massive crimson robe. The entire realm, the whole poppy field, was no more than Chen Wuya’s robe! His body formed the realm’s foundation, his head a distant, blurry but massive shape on the horizon. A hand reached out, groping blindly toward them. The robes stretched easily 30,000 meters, and the hand was wider than 1,000. Compared to the hand, he and Li Xiang were mere flies.

“Don’t leave so soon. I’m only just waking up. I haven’t properly received my visitors yet,” Chen Wuya said, chuckling darkly.

All over Chen Wuya, other stragglers darted into the sky. Some failed to fly up in time, and were smothered in his robe or crushed as he moved. Others zoomed to the same point they raced toward, aware of the only remaining exit in this place. Of the hundred or so that flew up, maybe fifty survived his waking.

What kind of cultivation base allows him to be so massive? Hui wondered, his scalp tingling. A sense of horror crept over him, and he remembered his Master, in the moments before he’d ascended. Weiheng Wu… would he have been equally terrifying, if he hadn’t immediately ascended? Or… was he even more terrifying?

One of the escaping cultivators flew past Chen Wuya’s ear. He flinched and obliterated them by the wind of his motion.

“You thieving flies! Get back here!” Chen Wuya howled. His hand closed in on Hui and Li Xiang. The fingers blocked out the sky, and the palm closed in on the two of them.

Hui’s scalp prickled with fear. He threw a dozen talismans behind them. The talismans slammed into the palm, bursting out with fire, wind, and ice. The hand didn’t flinch.

“Li Xiang!” Hui shouted.

She knelt and put a hand to her sword as well. The sword sped up. The wind streamed past them, hurricane force blasting by. Hui’s hair streamed horizontally behind him. Ahead of them, a black void opened up in his third eye’s vision. Li Xiang raced toward it at top speed. He glanced back, then at the void. Between the palm reaching for them and Li Xiang’s speed, Li Xiang’s speed definitely won out!

Eh… isn’t that a little odd? Even if Li Xiang is an inheriting disciple, her speed shouldn’t exceed the Sect Patriarch’s…

Chen Wuya sat up, stretching out to chase after the two of them. The sudden motion sent all the treasures on his body flying up into the air.

Hui’s eyes glittered. Without the spell formation to lock down this world… the treasures are free game! He reached out, snatching at the air. Each motion grabbed another treasure toward him. Treasures vanished constantly into his storage ring. He didn’t attempt to brand them, nor to assimilate them, but simply snatched any treasure he could reach.

If I can’t use the treasures, I’ll absorb their qi! If their qi doesn’t want to be absorbed, I’ll use the void technique to forcibly absorb it! Master, I’ve taken your teachings to heart! You won’t be disappointed in this small disciple this time!

They reached the void. Li Xiang plunged into it. Before Hui disappeared, Chen Wuya laughed once. His voice sounded in Hui’s ears alone.

“Take your treasures for now, boy. Consider them my thanks for freeing me… and down payment for the next time I need you!”

Why? Why am I always in debt? Hui despaired. Then the void swallowed him up, and he vanished.