Even as the pillars closed in, Hui reached out to Chen Wuya again. “Senior, give me a moment. I have an idea…”

“You again? Didn’t you just rudely cut me off?” Chen Wuya snorted.

“Senior, you can vent your anger on me if I survive this. Listen!” Hui took a deep breath and plunged into it, explaining his idea quickly.

Chen Wuya paused. After a moment, he laughed. “It might work. It’s beyond dangerous, and if anything goes wrong, you’ll be branded a kinkiller, the man who massacred your own sect, but…”

“But it’s possible?” Hui confirmed.

Chen Wuya grunted an affirmative.

Hui retracted his mental link and spun around. Leaving the other cultivators to hammer against the barrier, he flew over to the Sect Master’s body. “Sect Master! Your soul is still here, right?”

After all, I didn’t see Gui Delun crush his Nascent Soul. Nascent Soul usually comes after Gold Core, right, and Gold Core is the fifth stage. Sect Master is at least sixth stage… didn’t Master estimate him as seventh or eighth? Even if I’m off by a stage or two, he should still have a Nascent Soul, and if he has a Nascent Soul, he isn’t fully dead until the Nascent Soul is crushed as well!

He might lack all his battle prowess as a soul… I’m not sure exactly how Nascent Souls work in this world. I can’t be sure why he hasn’t made a move, one way or another. Maybe he’s waiting for his chance? In any case, far be it from me to criticize anyone for playing dead!

A transparent version of Sect Master Lan emerged from his crumpled body. He looked at Hui, his eyes exhausted. “It’s too late. Once I was killed, no one is capable of breaking Gui Delun’s barrier. Maybe if they had minutes, hours, but… Right now, all we can do is wait for death.”

“Sect Master, can you remove the barrier over the… over Chen Wuya’s spell formation?” Hui asked. If I think of it like that, it doesn’t hurt me.

The Sect Master’s brows furrowed. “Why? Wait… Chen Wuya? How do you know—”

“There’s no time. Sect Master, please believe in me. Release that barrier. If you do, I might be able to save everyone.”

The Sect Master’s brows furrowed. He frowned, turning to look at empty sky. After a single breath’s time, he sighed and waved his hand. A sixth peak appeared, and with it, Hui’s memories of the time spent there. He put a hand to his head and winced as memories flowed back into his mind.

At the top of the sixth peak, dark clouds circulated, endlessly swirling around the mountaintop. Occasionally, screaming or crying faces pressed out of the clouds, as if someone trapped inside desperately wanted to escape. Four gold spikes jutted up into the sky, framing a jet platform. A cylindrical black pillar rose to waist-height from the center of the platform. Gold dragons crawled up its sides, each clutching a ruby.

Hui clicked his tongue. Chen Wuya’s tastes are a bit… er, how do I say? A bit much.

Sect Master Lan shook his head. “There’s no harm now. After all, we’re about to get exterminated one way or another. No one else has a plan. Weiheng Hui, for the first time, I put faith in you.”

“Many thanks, Sect Master! I won’t let you down!” Hui shouted, bowing even as he flew off toward the peak.

“As I said, they hide evil within them! Destroy Starbound Sect!” Gui Delun barked.

As if you weren’t trying to do that already, Hui thought, rolling his eyes.

Chen Wuya’s voice sounded in his mind. “I can’t exert any power into the world, but I can guide you to my formation and show you how to use it. It’s very intuitive. Up to the mountain peak, that’s where you want to go.”

“Understood, Senior!” Hui shouted. Obviously. Even I can see that!

“Fine, if you don’t need my help, I’ll get out of your way,” Chen Wuya muttered sulkily.

“Senior, many apologies, but this small cultivator is a little stressed right now,” Hui replied.

A snort was his only reply.

Hui landed on the black platform and ran to the cylinder. The entire platform exuded an intense cold, and the sensation of death and evil seeped into Hui’s bones. The coldness pressed, not only on his body, but his mind. The whole world grew darker, more bleak. You can’t make it. No matter what you do, you’ll only fail.

“Try… harder!” Hui grit. He clawed at the air in front of him and tore a ghost out of the air.

The spirit stared at him, startled, then leaped for his face.

“Leave me alone!” He threw the ghost behind him and charged toward the cylinder.

The pillars continued to encompass the sect. They reached the halfway point and marched on, slowly closing in. Hui cast them a glance, then tore his eyes away. Ignore them. It doesn’t matter. I'll fix this myself.

Starbound Sect… Sis Mei, Xixing! I can’t let them die!

A Feng Shui compass sat atop the cylinder. Forty concentric rings circled the center, the needle pointing steadfastly south. Each ring was broken into dozens of segments, and each ring and segment could be moved, twisted around the center or shifted in and out. Hui looked at it. Aren’t these usually used to find things? And I don’t even know how to interpret one for that! How am I supposed to use one to manipulate souls?

“Easy and intuitive, right? You can take it from here, I’m sure,” Chen Wuya commented.

Hui bowed. “Senior, I was wrong! Forgive this poor cultivator! Bestow your enlightened guidance upon me!”

Chen Wuya chuckled. “That’s more like it. Follow my commands exactly. I’ll show you how to properly activate it. Now, bear in mind you’ll have to use something as the source of power. I don’t suppose you’re fine using mortal souls?”

Hui glanced over his shoulder at his Master’s peak, and Mount Mu hovering over it. “I have something, Senior.”

“If I could, I’d use those All-Heavens bastards as fuel, but…” Chen Wuya sighed. “Ready? Align Small Metal, Yin Metal, and Third West. Second Southeast to Yang Earth. First…”

Hui’s hands darted over the device, adjusting it according to Chen Wuya’s directions. As he shifted segments and twisted rings, the red Heaven Center Lines began to multiply. From two crossed in the center to three, four, six, increasing without logic or reason. The lines all met in the center point, creating a denser and denser star.

Overhead, the clouds began to writhe. More faces pressed through the ring. Now the faces gnashed their teeth with hunger, faces twisting in agony. Sweat rolled down Hui’s face as he glanced up at them. “Er, is that…”

“That’s fine. Ignore them,” Chen Wuya said. “Continue.”

Hui grit his teeth. I wouldn’t do this if there was another way. But…

The Peak Lords slammed into the barrier again. A crack wide enough for someone to squeeze through opened up. Two of them stepped into the crack, forcing it to remain open.

Hui looked over, hopeful. Is there another way out? If everyone can escape, then I don’t need to finish this.

“Hurry! Escape!” the Jade Garden Peak Lord shouted.

A few cultivators rushed through. Sis Mei hurried to the crack and shuttled young cultivators through, some little more than mortal children. They cried, afraid, but passed into the hands of the cultivators on the other side, who rushed off, carrying them along as they flew.

Gui Delun snorted. “A few insignificant flies are escaping.”

At his words, white-and-gold cultivators, including the fifth-realm cultivators, leaped up and flew toward the escaping cultivators. In a few seconds, the All-Heavens cultivators caught up with the Starbound Sect disciples. The Starbound Sect disciples turned and fought, but the All-Heavens cultivators slaughtered them, one after another. If multiple fourth-realm All-Heavens cultivators couldn’t take down a Starbound Sect disciple, one of the fifth-realm cultivators would step in and make short work of them.

“Focus,” Chen Wuya snapped.

Hui turned away, biting his lip. Escaping is no good. Now that we no longer have anyone who can stand up to Gui Delun, we’re sitting ducks. If he wanted to, he wouldn’t need this formation to slaughter all of us. It’s just… that he doesn’t want to risk even a single one of us escaping!

Is this really all to gain favor for the throne? Or… is there something else? Surely this soul transferal formation isn’t that demonic…

Hui glanced up at the swarming cloud of faces and paused. Okay, maybe it is.