“In any case,” Chen Wuya said, cleaning the blood off his claws, “I can teach you how to seal that immortal energy, if you have something for me in return.”

Hui pressed his head back together, circulating his life qi to heal it shut. “What would Senior like?”

“Ah, now you’re learning. I sensed you entering Xui Jiu’s realm earlier. How was she doing?” Chen Wuya asked.

“Eh? You know Senior Xui Jiu?” Hui asked. Come to think of it, she indicated that she knew him as well. Him… and Fen Long, as well, the mysterious senior with the hobby of locking other mysterious seniors up in hidden realms.

Chen Wuya nodded. “She used to be a friend of mine. How was she?”

Even as his thoughts began to form, Hui drew out his mental energy and shielded his thoughts from Chen Wuya. Er… how do I tell him she was a psychotic drunkard hell-bent on soaking the qi of random cultivators into alcohol to make the strangest spirits of all time, whose liquor I stole and then set on fire? Hui wondered, frowning.

Red eyes flashed. “Not well?” Chen Wuya asked.

I shouldn’t lie, though! I shouldn’t lie to Senior. After all, Fen Long is the Patriarch of All-Heavens Sect, so I can likely recruit Chen Wuya to attack All-Heavens Sect with me. Hopefully he won’t kill this small clone… Hui grit his teeth. “Senior…”

The truth. Tell him the truth!

“Yes?” Chen Wuya asked.

Hui smiled and drew out a vial. “Would you like some liquor?”

“Ah, you have some of her liquor? Fantastic, fantastic. To tell the truth, I was more a friend of her liquor than a friend of hers,” Chen Wuya said, hopping over smilingly.

Ah… I’m selling all my morals here. Feeding Senior me-flavored liquor from the senior whom I set on fire… ah, well, it was Sectgoer who did that, not me, so I shouldn’t be the one to take the blame! Still smiling, Hui drew out some cups and poured liquor for Chen Wuya, then held the cup up to the crow.

Chen Wuya hopped onto Hui’s arm and clacked up some of the liquor, gulping it down and splashing it all over Hui. Hui’s arm grew weaker as the liquor soaked the qi out of it, but he forced himself to hold it up rather than dump Chen Wuya on the ground.

After a moment, he stuck his tongue out. “Ugh. Why does it remind me of you?”

“No reason, no reason,” Hui said, still smiling.

“In any case, if you have her liquor, why not use it on him?” Chen Wuya suggested, hopping off Hui’s arm again.

Eh… eh! That’s right. This liquor was brewed by a mysterious senior and can draw the qi out of all sorts of strange beings. Maybe it’ll work against Immortal qi, too!

Immortal-qi-infused liquor… I wonder what I can do with that? Hui’s eyes shone. He looked at the vial, then at the man on the table. Rather than pouring it over the man, he summoned one of the giant bottles out of his storage space, then placed the man into it. He poured liquor from the vial into the bottle, soaking the man in it.

“You have one of her bottles, as well? Those aren’t easy for her to make. She must have taken a shine to you,” Chen Wuya commented.

Hui laughed lightly.

Chen Wuya whipped his head around. His eyes narrowed. “You killed her, didn’t you.”

“No! No. How would this small cultivator even manage that?” Hui said, shaking his head insistently. I didn’t kill her, I really didn’t! Probably… uh, I guess I didn’t check if she was alive after I set her room on fire and burned all her liquor down…

A heavy sigh came from the crow. Chen Wuya shook his head at Hui. “I can’t blame you. She… the last time I saw her, she was deeply inflicted with her heart-demon. Even if you killed her, it might have been the only way to free her from her demon.”

“I didn’t kill her, though,” Hui assured him, nodding.

“Hmm, so you did fight her,” Chen Wuya said, cocking his eyebrow.

“Senior!” Hui complained, tired. I don’t want to play mindgames with a powerful senior. I’d rather he just read my mind!

No, wait. It’s better if he doesn’t. He still doesn’t know the precise details, like me looting her space, or destroying it… or thinking about looting her space, or how excited I was to steal her stuff…

When the liquor closed over the man’s body, Hui stoppered the vial. The man floated in the bottom of the bottle, his body barely covered by a thin layer of liquor. The needles stuck out of the liquor, shining in the low light. Hui sent a strand of qi down to the gold needles. He waited a moment, then pulsed a bead of mental energy down the qi thread. Although the man’s body remained contaminated by Immortal qi, the qi had grown weaker.

Excellent! It’s working. The liquor is leaching it out! Hui reached out and twisted his hand. Below, all the needles twitched, opening the man’s meridians. He screamed as qi poured out of him, but at the same time as his qi poured out, so, too, did the Immortal qi.

Hui watched closely, his face twisted in concentration. Leach out all the Immortal qi, but not all his qi. I don’t want to kill him!

“Sacrificing him to create Immortal qi liquor? Excellent,” Chen Wuya commented.

“Isn’t Senior the one who suggested this to me?” Hui grumbled, only half-paying attention to Chen Wuya.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve tasted Immortal qi-flavored liquor,” Chen Wuya replied, smacking his beak.

Hui narrowed his eyes. I should’ve known not to trust Chen Wuya!

Oh well. He did tell me how to resolve this issue, even if he did so selfishly. In the end, I can still drag this man out of the liquor before he dies, but after the Immortal qi drains from him.

Which is… almost…

Hui’s eyes shone. He made a snatching motion, drawing the man out of the liquor. The man’s screaming faded the second he left the liquor, and his eyes fluttered shut again.

The lotus beast leaped up and caught the man in midair. Hui flicked his fingers, and the needles twitched, no longer forcing the meridians to remain open. Another flick, and the needles removed themselves from the man’s body and flew back to circle around Hui. He unwound a velvet casing, and the needles darted away into slots in the case.

The second Hui removed the man, Chen Wuya flew up to the mouth of the giant bottle. He wrapped a claw around the bottle’s mouth and tipped it back, but so little liquor sat in the bottom of the bottle that he couldn’t tip it enough to reach the liquor in the small chamber. With a grunt, Chen Wuya dropped through the mouth of the bottle and swooped over the liquor, reaching his head down to scoop up a mouthful. He swallowed with evident relish, then swooped around and took another drink.

After a third mouthful, he flapped back up to the top of the bottle, folding in his wings and zooming through the narrow neck before he circled down to sit on Hui’s shoulder. “Delicious.”

“I’m glad Senior likes it,” Hui said. He jumped up and flew down to the liquor, ducking the mouth of the vial under the surface of the liquor. The liquor drained away, and he flew back up and escaped.

“Hmm… if there’s nothing else, I’ll go now,” Chen Wuya declared.

“Senior… I heard from Zui Jiu that you were once considered one of the four Great Evils,” Hui started timidly.

Chen Wuya hiccupped. He nodded his head. “That’s right. Eh… I had a lot of fun in my youth. Fen Long did not like that, not one bit.” He chuckled under his breath, swaying slightly on Hui’s shoulder.

Is Senior drunk? Now’s the time! Hui glanced at Chen Wuya. “Senior… if I told you that Fen Long was the Progenitor of All Heavens Sect…”

There was a pause. Chen Wuya swayed, his eyes glazed. Hui held his breath.

Abruptly, Chen Wuya jumped off Hui’s shoulder and rapped his claws on Hui’s head. “Are you stupid? Everyone knows that! But where is he now? Still hiding in the sect? I don’t know! No one knows. Even before I was imprisoned, no one had seen him for years.”

“Eh? But then, how was Senior imprisoned?” Hui asked.

Chen Wuya landed back on Hui’s shoulder and began to preen himself. “Obviously, he appeared out of nowhere for that, then vanished again. He’s a troublesome child, a troublesome old friend of mine.”

“That’s right. The two of you were childhood friends, right?”

The crow on his shoulder hummed.

Hui glanced at him. Chen Wuya’s eyes had shut. He snoozed gently beside Hui.

Sighing, Hui shook his head. I guess I can’t expect too much from prying. Chen Wuya has his guard up, even when he’s drunk.

He walked over to the patient, who floated over the lotus beast’s palms. Pressing two fingertips to the man’s forehead, he quickly inspected his meridians and the flow of his qi. Everything seems normal… his passages are a bit damaged, but a little bit of life qi can fix that. He drew a bit of life qi out and threaded it through the man’s body. Where the life qi passed, the damage to his passages healed.

The man trembled, his brows furrowing. His eyes snapped open. He grabbed ahold of Hui’s wrist, wild gaze burning into Hui’s. “No.”

“Elder Brother, please. I’m healing you,” Hui explained.

“I’m no… slut, I won’t let anyone but Gui Yutong touch me!” the man snarled.

Eh, what is Elder Brother’s name again? Hui searched his memory, but came up short. Oh well. He gave the man a kindly smile. “Please, Elder Brother. Gui Yutong brought you here. She’s the one who asked me to heal you. Please allow me to obey her wishes and fix your broken body.”

The man’s brows furrowed. He blinked slowly. The strength left his wrist. “I… what, what happened? I… remember protecting her, but then… she…”

Hui smiled. He gently pressed the man back down on the lotus beast. “Rest. You need to rest and recover.”

As he spoke, he continued to circulate life qi through the man’s passages. At last, he finished the circulation and extracted his qi. The man’s brows furrowed faintly, but he let his eyes shut, protesting no further. Within a second, he, too, was dead asleep.

Hui glanced at Chen Wuya on his shoulders, then at the man sleeping over the lotus beast’s hands. Is everyone going to take a nap? Ying Lin is sleeping, too. Maybe I should take a nap.

No, no. First, let’s return this Elder Brother to Gui Yutong. Hui snapped his fingers, releasing the barrier on the room. He paused, then quickly sent the giant bottle away.

His vision darkened, and he sagged a bit, on the verge of passing out. Hui pressed his hand against the wall of the chamber and breathed deeply, circulating his qi to recover. Moving that bottle around takes a lot out of me. That, and healing… doing the two on top of each other is exhausting.

At last, his vision recovered. Hui looked at the lotus beast, then gestured at the bed. “Go ahead and lay him down again. There’s no need to carry him around like that.”

The lotus beast chirped and tossed the man lightly onto the bed.

“Not like—oh, whatever,” Hui muttered. He wasn’t externally injured. All his injuries are qi-based. It shouldn’t be a problem if he’s tossed around a little bit, since it’s not as if his physical body was injured.

He pushed his hair back and tapped the door. It whooshed open. Gui Yutong stared up, her eyes wide. “How is he?”

“I’ve healed him,” Hui declared, crossing his arms.

Gui Yutong ran to his side and embraced him, then paused. She sniffed. “Why does it smell like alcohol in here?”

Hui coughed. “Er, don’t worry about that, Elder Sister…”

“It’s especially strong on Wu Fanyun,” she muttered, then touched his clothes. “Damp…?”

Ah, so that’s his name… no, wait. That’s not what’s important here. Hui cleared his throat. “The mysteries of healing are vast, indeed.”