As his vision faded, Hui burrowed into his seed-core, currently located into his head. From within its protective shell, he circulated just enough of his qi to be able to hear and see what happened to his body. Quietly, he regarded Han Qin. I didn’t see that attack coming, which means our supposedly weak physician Han Qin is at least at the high fourth, if not fifth, stage. After all, even repressing my cultivation, my reflexes and perception are still enhanced. I should have been able to react to that attack.

Interesting, interesting. Something to keep in mind.

Han Qin made a fist, and the earth gripped Hui and drew him down. He frowned at Hui’s corpse. “My apologies. I had no intent to harm you. It’s simply too close, now. Any disruption at this stage could cost us everything.” Turning half away, he added at a whisper, “…a second time.”

“Han Qin! I heard—”

A man stepped into the hut as Hui dipped under the earth. He got the impression of a face like Fu Liyu’s but much more severe and weathered, with a silver streak striping the man’s hair back from the left side of his forehead, and then his head dipped under the earth, and he saw no more. Fu Renyi, I bet. The Fu Clan’s Patriarch.

Mmm, compared to Chen Wuya or even Bai Xue’s mother, what can I say? He seems a bit… lacking.

Hidden beneath the earth, Hui released the reversed-plant technique with a sigh, returning to his clone’s normal plant form. His body began to regrow, but the earth suppressed it. With nowhere to extend a full body, his healing merely sealed over the end of his neck instead.

Fu Renyi sighed, casting a pained glance at the corpse sinking below the dirt floor. “You’ve already taken care of it.”

Han Qin hummed in affirmation. “It’s done.”

“We’re so close. Fu Liyu had to run off and hire a random physician at the very last minute. Ah, but thank goodness you caught him. He told no one?” Fu Renyi confirmed.

Han Qin hummed again, then paused. He looked at Fu Renyi. “He came in with a servant girl. That one, the one who lives outside the gates. Ying… Ying Min?”

“Ying Lin,” Fu Renyi corrected him. He stepped outside the hut and made a quick hand gesture to the servant waiting outside. The servant instantly jumped up and ran off.

Ying Lin? No! I went to great pains to make it clear I told her nothing! You—you villains! Idiots! Conscienceless fools! How dare you! Hui gnashed his teeth, frustrated. He almost quit playing dead and jumped up to confront the two of them right then and there, but calmed himself at the last moment. I sent Zhubi with her. Zhubi should protect her.

…Probably. If he doesn’t play dead instead.

Well—well, I—I’ll run over as soon as I can! Zhubi… I’ll put my trust in you, okay? I believe in you, my snake companion! Protect Ying Lin! She doesn’t deserve to get dragged into this just because a few idiots failed to notice all my obvious signs that she’s a mere mortal who knows nothing!

Hui shook his head at himself, an impressive maneuver when that head wasn’t attached to a neck and buried under meters of earth. Phew. Stay calm, Hui. There’s no need to quit playing dead for a few low-tier cultivators going after Ying Lin! Zhubi will handle it.

I’ve noticed it lately, but… there really seems to be something wrong with my mental condition. I get worked up too easily, and I even… look down on people? I wonder if I’m developing a mental demon.

A mental demon, how horrifying! I suppose even someone with my mental resilience isn’t proof against such things! The next time I get a chance, I’ll ask a fellow cultivator about it and see if I can get confirmation on the symptoms.

Putting that aside, though, this confirms that there’s more to this conspiracy than Han Qin alone. At the very least, the clan patriarch is in on it. Which means… well, it means that no matter what I find, there’d be no use pointing it out to anyone. Even if someone took issue, Fu Renyi would immediately suppress it. I was right to suspect that something was truly wrong with the situation.

“How much longer until the banquet?” Han Qin asked quietly.

Fu Renyi shook his head. “Three days. Then… all of this will be over.”

Three days until the banquet. Three days until… until what? Until that seal in Fu Liyu’s soul activates. And then what? What does it do? Hui stretched his senses upward, listening closely.

Han Qin sighed deeply. “It feels like it’s been an eternity.”

“Indeed. But soon we’ll see her again,” Fu Renyi replied quietly.

See her again? Who? How? Is that seal summoning a soul? Wait… bound to Fu Liyu’s soul. Some kind of dangerous seal they don’t want anyone to see. Summoning a soul. Are they sacrificing Fu Liyu’s soul with the seal to call back someone who’s already passed on? Hui licked his lips. He stared at the earth above him, waiting, but only the sound of retreating footsteps echoed down to his ears.

In any case, I think I can say definitively that they shouldn’t be allowed to do this. But… how will I stop them? Just because I assume the seal is summoning a soul, doesn’t mean it is. And even if it is, it might endanger Fu Liyu’s soul if I remove it. I don’t know what kind of secrets it’s hiding, if there’s any traps, counterattacks, or hidden barbs that will tear her soul when I take it out. In which case, the best move would be to remove it at the banquet, as they activate it! When they activate it, any precautions should be removed, or at least revealed. As soon as I know there’s nothing dangerous, I can destroy it with my death qi… or perhaps remove it and seal it away? The curse he’d removed from Xixing came to mind, and he nodded to himself. I sealed that one in a pill bottle. I wonder if I still have the pill bottle? I bet it would fit a second one.

Hui grimaced. It’s in my spatial ring… which is on my first clone, dammit. Argh! I guess I’ll have to make a trip back to grab it, after I check in on Ying Lin.

Oh well. It’s not like anyone keeps tabs on dead men.

No more footsteps sounded in the vicinity. Hui threaded life qi through the dirt, reaching out to his body. The life qi connected, and his body twitched, then came alive. It dug toward his head, and his head reconnected with his body, then both combined dug toward the surface of the hut. He broke through and climbed out. Glancing at the disturbed floor, he quickly grew a leaf in the palm of his hand and scribbled an earth talisman on it, using it to smooth the floor once more. This plant body is handy! Way more useful than my actual body.

Circulating his qi, he quickly adjusted his face to match one of the servants he’d seen earlier, changing his robes to match the Fu Clan’s uniform as well. When he heard no one outside, he strode out of the hut and confidently hurried back toward the gates, humming a little tune to himself to try to calm himself down.

At last, it’s all coming together. But first, Ying Lin!