Hui waved his hand. “Putting aside the seniors I know…”

“Putting them aside,” Han Qin muttered under his breath.

“This space is relatively small, it’s just twisted. We can easily reach the ends of this current subrealm, but at that point, the space starts to loop in on itself and repeat itself. In which case, if we wander around circularly at the looping point of this space—that is, the point at which we stop getting further from the starting point, we can map its borders,” Hui pointed out.

“And then?” Han Qin asked.

“And then, once we know where the borders are, we can start probing them for weaknesses,” Hui replied excitedly.

“That’s it? That’s your plan?” Han Qin asked.

Hui shrugged. “If we fail, we can fall back to meditating on spatial techniques until we comprehend this world sufficiently to tear it apart. I simply think it’s worth our while to attempt to break out first.”

“It’s a very simple plan,” Han Qin argued.

Putting his hands up, Hui looked at Han Qin. “It’s worth an attempt. If you wish to sit still and not help, I won’t protest. This small cultivator has broken out of many small realms on my own.”

“And you did these kinds of menial, meaningless tasks first?” Han Qin asked, crossing his arms.

Hui nodded.

Han Qin furrowed his brows. He harrumphed, then walked away. His back turned, he replied, “Fine. I’ll give it a try.”

“Appreciate it, Elder Brother! Let’s rotate to the left. Probe the space as far as you can, and watch for any irregularities!” Hui said, beaming as he gave a quick bow to Han Qin’s retreating back. He walked the opposite way, bobbing along. I don’t have much hope for Han Qin, given how stuck up he is about actually doing work. But on the off-chance he finds something, it’ll help me break out! If he doesn’t, then no loss. I’ll scan the entire area anyways, one way or the other. Honestly, I mostly recruited him so he’d stop trying to kill me. Now that we’ve accomplished that… well, I hate to say it, but I don’t really have any hopes for him. Ah, not that I lay the blame on him. I’m simply not the kind of person who’s good at inspiring followers. I’m a coward, pure and simple, not a bold and brave leader. As such, there’s no point in having hope that an enemy might actually be inspired to join my side. I’ve already accomplished more than I could have hoped for by gaining his neutrality!

Hui reached the edge of the space and stopped. There was no discernable difference between this point in the grassland and any other point, but from his experimenting, this was the point at which he could no longer get further from the starting point. He circled to the left, as he’d said, rotating around that point.

What I’m really searching for is a difference. A slight change in this monotonous world. Rather than actually breaking out of this space, I’d rather find Fen Long’s exit and use that to escape alone. It might piss off the mysterious senior, but so far, she hasn’t seriously tried to kill me… probably. I’d rather die by her hand than Han Qin’s, anyways, if I have to die.

After all, I’m a mere fifth-stage cultivator. I can’t hope to comprehend the spatial concepts that lock us in here, especially not if Han Qin is equally at a loss. The small insights I gained are so small as to be useless. Unless the mysterious senior really is trying to break out as Chen Wuya was and has laid some kind of groundwork for me to make use of, our attempt to break out is basically doomed. Thus… Fen Long, don’t fail me now! Please, have left some kind of exit for the mysterious senior that this small cultivator can make use of!

Hui frowned. Though… if Fen Long keeps leaving exits for the people he locks away… what kind of jailer is he? If anything, he… kind of seems like a good guy. After all, Chen Wuya was largely considered a demonic cultivator, and this mysterious senior here has a hobby of striking innocent cultivators with lightning and kicking them into spatial traps.

He looked over his shoulder at Han Qin, who stared into the distance with his hands on his hips and his brows fiercely furrowed. Maybe I should have mentioned him to Han Qin. Han Qin knew about Chen Wuya and Zhu Diyu, after all. If he knew about Fen Long as well, I could’ve at least verified if the general impression of Fen Long was negative or positive. Argh! And if what Chen Xigui said as he died indicated what I thought it did… If Fen Long is the patriarch of All-Heavens Sect, Han Qin almost certainly would have known that! I should have asked, I should have asked.

It's too awkward now. Oh well. I’ll see if I can bring it up later.

Hui walked along, hands tucked behind his back, scanning the area around him with his mental energy. The sun rose again while he walked, the circle large enough that scanning it took more than a single night’s time. On and on he walked, continuously and slowly circling the center point.

I must have circled the entire space by now. Maybe even twice. So why don’t I feel like I’ve made a full circuit? Is there another spatial technique at play here, that makes the space larger when you begin to search it? Hui’s eyes lit up. Does that mean I’m on the right track, then? Because why bother to make it bigger when someone examines it if it isn’t a potential escape route?

Ah, it could be that Fen Long is a particularly meticulous creator of spatial prisons, and he simply added it as part of his hobby of locking up mysterious seniors. But somehow… well, Fen Long always gave hints as to where the exit is. If that’s the case, then… I have a good feeling about continuing to search this way!

Abruptly, Zhubi lifted up off his neck, hovering his upper body in the air and searching around. Hui looked at him. “Do you sense something, Zhubi?”

Zhubi tilted his head, then bobbed it up and down. He leaned out, flickering his tongue and flaring his nasal passages.

He smells something? Hui closed his eyes and sniffed as well. A faint, sweet scent met his nose, tinged with an alcoholic spice.

He opened his eyes. The grasslands spread before him, smelling of nothing but grass and sun and the hardpacked earth. Hui closed his eyes again, and again smelled sweet alcohol.

Zhubi looked at him, and Hui met the snake’s dark eyes. Both of them closed their eyes and stepped outward, following the scent of alcohol.

Han Qin circled the space, kicking up dirt with every step. He scowled, displeased. “This nonsense really works? Huh?”

No reply came. He frowned and looked over his shoulder.

He stood alone in the grasslands, as if alone was all he’d ever been. The grasses swayed in the wind, rustling in the bright sunlight. Even the spots he’d burned the previous day were regrown, as lush and green as though nothing at all had happened to them.

Han Qin’s face turned red. Fire burst from the corners of his mouth and his eyes. This is what I get for turning my back for even a moment! For daring to trust that slippery cockroach’s words! “Weiheng Hui! I’m going to murder you!”

Hui scratched his ear. “Did you hear something, Zhubi?”

Zhubi shook his head, bumping his snout against Hui’s neck so Hui could know what he did without opening his eyes.

“Huh. Guess it was just me.” Hui walked on.

The scent of sweet alcohol grew thicker and thicker. Eventually, it grew so thick that Hui began to choke on it, and he had to lift his sleeve over his mouth to breathe. Zhubi ducked into Hui’s robes, seeking shelter from the scent the same way. What’s happening? Are we walking into a distillery?

The same cute voice the senior had used before chuckled, but this time, there was a deep reverb to it that rattled through Hui’s very bones. “Oh? How kind. I was just thinking that I should try some snake wine.”

Cold hands ripped open Hui’s robes. Zhubi let out an alarmed hiss as his body whiplashed away from Hui, dragged off him by an unseen force.

“Zhubi!” Hui shouted. He tried to open his eyelids, but they were sealed shut. Gritting his teeth, he reached after the hands, but they vanished the second they left his body, taking Zhubi with them.

Letting out pitiful mewling hisses, Zhubi’s voice retreated into the distance. Hui grit his teeth and chased after the snake, sprinting deeper into the alcohol’s scent. “Zhubi, I’m coming! Hold on!”