Hui took a step back. “I’ve done all I can for now. My apologies for failing.”

“You did better than the rest,” Fu Liyu replied haughtily. She fluffed her hair and drew her robes back on, casting a quick dust-repelling spell as she did so to clean the blood off her inner robes.

Hesitating, Hui chanced a look at Fu Liyu. This is a great opportunity to casually run into Bai Xue and ask them for help. I shouldn’t give up on this! Besides, that array… if it really is a soul-affecting array, handling it might give me inspiration on how to handle Chen Wuya’s array and release Starbound Sect back to their bodies. “If Young Miss doesn’t mind, I could continue to look into the matter. I can’t guarantee I’ll find anything, or find it quickly, but…”

Fu Liyu clicked her tongue. “Do as you please. I’ll only pay once you resolve it once and for all.”

Hui bowed. “Lowly servant understands.” In any case, I’m not strapped for cash right now. I’m poor for a cultivator, but I’m not broke. And I can always sell Chen Wuya’s artifacts if I need to. Ultimately, I’m not doing this for money, I’m doing it to meet Bai Xue!

“You can take one of the servants’ huts outside of the manor. Most of them are empty. We’ve had to cut back to only the essential servants, after all,” Fu Liyu said flippantly.

Hui bowed. Come to think of it, her ‘fell on hard times’ and my ‘fell on hard times’ are a little bit different. After all, she still has dozens of servants and a huge manor! Meanwhile, I wouldn’t call it hard times until I was eating bugs and living in a tent!

Eh, come to think of it… I’m living in a cave right now…

Well, one’s sect collapsing is the definition of hard times. It’s understandable, completely understandable!

Fu Liyu flipped her hair and stalked out. Her guard saluted Hui with cupped hands and marched out, close by her shoulder. Hui returned the salute to the girl’s back and followed them out. He stood for a moment in the sunlight, his face turned to the sun, eyes shut.

Do I get involved? Do I actually figure this out?

I’m curious. I want to know. But it isn’t like it matters.

At the very least, I’ll peek around until Bai Xue shows up. If it’s just until then, I can use this little mystery to pass the time.

And besides, that messy array… did look a little like Senior Chen Wuya’s. The only other cultivator I know of who’s studied Chen Wuya’s arrays is Yunxu. Is this little clan connected to Yunxu and Black Asp Sect, somehow? Yunxu… he sent Erlan after Starbound Sect’s souls. All-Heavens is the bigger threat, but I can’t ignore Yunxu either! The more I know about my enemies, the better!

That’s leaving aside the chance to practice with soul arrays and gain comprehension from this. I think… I think I should take this as a fated meeting! Turning away now would be to waste the heavens’ benevolence. Yes, yes, I’ll stay for now. If nothing else, until the main clone is done contemplating the array.

A few of the servants shot Hui strange looks as he emerged from the room, and one of the servant-girls giggled. Hui cast her a glance, then turned away, not wasting his time. Let there be rumors. Who cares? I’m a mere mortal doctor. The interest will fade in a day’s time.

Following Fu Liyu’s orders, he wandered back outside to where Ying Lin’s hut stood. Rather than approaching her hut, he looked around. A hut of my own… I don’t really need one, but it won’t hurt. He glanced sideways at Ying Lin’s hut, then edged around it silently and headed for the hut furthest from hers.

Aunty Wen bustled over to him as he passed by one of the huts, giving him a smile. “Were you able to help the Young Miss?”

Hui shook his head. “I tried, but… there’s some kind of spell inside her.”

“A spell inside her?” Aunty Wen gasped, startled.

“Yes. I’m not sure who placed that array inside her, or why, and until I know, it’s better if we keep this between ourselves,” Hui said.

“Naturally. Oh, did you see Ying Lin inside? I sent her to check on you a few minutes ago, but she hasn’t come out.”

Hui frowned. “No… I was busy the whole time, and then I came straight here. She’s probably somewhere in the manor.”

Aunty Wen huffed and shook her head. “That girl… I hope she hasn’t wandered off again.”

Hui thought back to his first encounter with Ying Lin and snorted. “Does she have a habit of wandering off?”

“A habit? A habit,” Aunty Wen said, shaking her head again.

He patted Aunty Wen on the back. “Good luck.”

“Are you off again, then?” Aunty Wen asked.

Hui shook his head. “I’m to stick around for a time and see if any hints arise. Young Miss told me to choose a hut to stay in until then.”

“Oh! Then come right this way, right this way. Most of these huts are old and musty, full of holes, but there’s a few that are still sound.” Gesturing for him to follow, Aunty Wen led the way through the huts.

As he walked, Hui watched Aunty Wen quietly. He took a deep breath and spoke at last. “Aunty Wen, do you remember when Fu Liyu’s mother died?”

“When her mother died? That was a century ago, how could a mortal like myself remember?” Aunty Wen chuckled.

A century ago… so only cultivators would know. Then, the physician, her father, or… Well, Fu Liyu said she was too young to remember, and the child, the young boy, he, too, couldn’t know. Aunty Wen said there were four disciples, though, so maybe one of the other two know what happened. If the spell array has to do with her mother’s illness, the more I know about her mother’s death, the better.

…eh, wait. I feel like I just learned something very important. Hui narrowed his eyes and looked at Aunty Wen. “Aunty Wen, if Fu Liyu’s mother died a long time ago, then… the young boy…?”

Aunty Wen turned and chuckled, a conspiratorial glint in her eye. She gestured him closer. Indulging her, Hui leaned in. Standing on her tiptoes, she whispered, “He was brought home suddenly in the middle of the night a few years ago. Ah, immortals are truly different, for someone as old and dignified as Fu Renyi to still be sowing his wild oats!”

Well, we do remain young, after all. Bai Xue is probably unimaginably old to this woman, but they’re still as vigorous as ever.

Come to think of it, I’ve never asked Bai Xue’s age. Well… it wouldn’t be polite.

“What about the other two disciples?” Hui asked.

“Here’s a good one. This hut is sound. It drips a bit in the corner on rainy nights, but it’s only one drip. I’ll give you a bucket.” Aunty Wen slapped the wall of the hut, then turned back to Hui. “Huh? Oh, the other two. One is a niece of Fu Renyi, older than Fu Liyu—Fu Suyin. The other is Fu Liyu’s older brother, Fu Haitao.

Hui nodded silently. I can ask Fu Suyin and Fu Haitao about their mother’s death. If I run into either of them, I’ll be sure to ask.

“Ah? There they are right now,” Aunty Wen said, pointing behind him.

Hui jumped. This quickly? I wasn’t expecting that! He turned in time to catch a flash of sword light falling from the sky, hurtling directly at him and Aunty Wen.

There was no time to react. With his cultivation suppressed, his reactions, too, were suppressed. Though he could release his suppression in the blink of an eye, that, too, took time, and the sword light moved too quickly for that. Gritting his teeth, Hui grabbed Aunty Wen and threw her out of the way. In the same moment, he fell in front of the sword light. It slammed into his chest and flew out the other side, splattering green blood on the wall behind him.

Shit! My blood! Shit! It’s so obviously wrong! Hui staggered back, slamming his shoulder onto the wall to hide the wrong-colored blood. He gasped, only half-faking the pain.

“Doctor? Xie Hao?” Aunty Wen asked. Wide eyes stared at the hole in his shoulder, then tracked green blood down his robes.

Hui’s mind cranked into overdrive. Aunty Wen… it’s too late to fool her. But it isn’t as important that she doesn’t know, as it is that the cultivators don’t notice! Color change… the snakeskin…

Transform not the skin, but the blood. Dye the green to red. Using qi, alter its appearance. Illusions… no, it’ll be better if I directly change the color, so I don’t have to track whatever it falls on! Plants… red… beets. Okay, got it! Change my body’s composition from lotus-like to beet-like. Like the plant technique, but changing the type of plant instead of transmuting flesh into plant. Hui closed his eyes and circulated his qi, activating the plant technique. This time, he focused on making his body beet-like instead of simply making it plant-like. Slowly, his soft body turned stiff, and his green blood became red. Extending his technique, he pushed red into the blood already on the hut and staining his clothes.

The red’s a bit too dark, but at least it’s blood! Still panting as if in pain, Hui clasped a hand to his rapidly-healing wound and swapped out of the plant technique, only leaving the part of the spell that turned his blood red active. Sword qi still bumped around inside his shoulder. He retreated his qi to allow it to tear his body back open. At least for a little while, I need to be injured like a mortal!

“Xie… Hao?” Aunty Wen asked, hesitant. Eyes following the now red blood, she frowned, and her brows furrowed. “That… what happened? Your blood…”

Hui grit his teeth and grinned at her, ignoring her question. “I’ll… I’ll be fine.”

Up in the sky, three figures faced two. Paying no attention to the mortals on the ground, the center figure of the three threw out her arm. “Ying Min, do you dare attack us even here?”

Hui looked up, squinting against the sun to make out the faces high above. Ying Lin? No, wait, Ying Min. That’s the female cultivator competing against that little green tea miss—er, Fu Liyu! What’s she doing here?