Hui arrived to a melee. Cultivators battled in every which direction. Qi sizzled on the air, alive from the fight. Higher realm cultivators launched massive magical attacks in the sky, while lower-realm ones fought with swords and artifacts below. The forces appeared evenly matched, to a certain extent. Gui Delun’s forces slowly pushed back Hui’s, greater in cultivation, if not number.

The rot spider screeched and darted about, spinning a web between two peaks. Already, cultivators dangled from its silk, limp and lifeless. A few daring warriors charged toward it, only for slender silk threads drifting on the air to entangle them. In moments, the rot spider plucked its way to their side and bit them, binding them, too, into its web.

In the middle of the fight, two ten-meters-tall wolves danced back and forth. If one looked closely, one almost appeared to be chasing the other, which fled with its ears down and tail tucked, though whenever someone attacked either wolf, the other one immediately retaliated. Together, the two carved a maddened path through the battle.

Sectmaster Lan faced off against Chen Changguang, one of Gui Delun’s followers. Above them, Fen Long fought Gui Delun himself. Hui raised a hand to his brow and squinted, but saw no sign of Chen Wuya. Even so, an unusual number of crows circled in the air, cawing out to one another as they flapped on ragged wings.

Hui clapped his hands. A surge of lotus clones darted from Healer’s peak. Rather than join the clash, they darted around the outskirts, healing the injured and rejuvenating the exhausted.

Pausing, Hui bit his lip. I feel like I’ve forgotten something…

He looked out at the battlefield, raising a hand to his chin. The lotus beasts… the rot spider…

The rot spider let out a horrible, clicking roar and gulped down a cultivator whole, the man screaming the whole time.

Hui’s eyes widened. He looked up. That’s right. Fang Hua and the ghouls! He nodded at Bai Xue. “Elder Sister, if you’ll forgive me, there’s something I must—”

“Go, go. I’m off to battle,” Bai Xue returned. She flew forth, white hair changing to black and her form turning masculine as sparks burned in the air around him. He waved his hands, and a pillar of flame materialized in the midst of Gui Delun’s forces, tossing a dozen cultivators into the air.

Nodding to Bai Xue, Hui flew off across the sky. Spells flew all around him. A pair of cultivators crashed past, exchanging sword blows. A stray fireball burned past his arm. Heat cut into his body, distracting him. He flinched back, grabbing his arm.

That… hurt? It burned! Ow!

Why does it hurt so much?

Wait, hold on. I’m back in my real body. I’m not a plant anymore! Sure, back in my real world, they scientifically proved that plants can feel pain, but obviously not to the same extremes or degrees that humans can!

A sudden flashback rolled through his mind. His head getting chopped off, multiple times. Severing his limb on instinct and leaving it in Gui Delun’s hand. Turning a bit of himself to flesh so Fei Hu could eat it. A thousand other instances of injuring himself or getting gruesomely injured burst through his mind.

Oh. Ohhhh. You know, I didn’t notice at the time, but now that I’m thinking back on it, I obviously wasn’t feeling as much pain as usual back then! Damn. I need to be careful. I can’t just injure myself wildly anymore! Now that I’m back in my real body, I feel real pain!

…Maybe I should just go back to being a plant. Being a plant was good. I didn’t feel pain, I didn’t have to worry about losing any particular part of me, I could regenerate quickly…

But! But I didn’t have my true body. And that’s very important. Or something. Maybe.

Hui clenched his fist. Power roiled inside him, his qi surging. That’s right. I couldn’t break through the fifth stage as I was. Now that I’m in this body, I can…

Or was that just because I was clones? I broke through to the fifth stage as a plant, right?

He frowned. But then, the sixth stage is where you take the first steps onto your own dao. Maybe… it’s because my dao has something to do with my real body, and so it wasn’t possible for me to break through in a clone body?

My dao…

Ah, that’s right. No wonder! He clenched his fist, holding his energy back. But not right now. I’ll be vulnerable while I’m ascending. I need to wait until after the battle! After all, I’m not like Ying Lin, with the protagonist’s halo. If I break through mid-battle, everyone won’t stop and watch. I’ll just get my head cut off!

I mean, it worked out when I was ascending to fifth stage, but that’s a dangerous ascension, with lightning and such. I wouldn’t get near someone ascending to fifth stage! Plus, Lu Lintei was there! I can’t count on such reasonable personages making the correct choice to stand back and let the inevitable happen. Other cultivators might be less lazy—ahem, less reasonable!

Though I guess if I can catch a moment’s respite behind the ghoul barrier, I might as well—

A bolt of swordlight flew across the field, locked onto Hui. He looked up moments before it struck. Instinctively, he cycled his body to crystal form and hunkered, activating one of his last precious barrier talismans.

The barrier instantly shattered. Swordlight pierced through, angling for his heart. Hui shifted, letting the beam pierce his flank but not his chest. The enemy’s qi burst inside him, attempting to riot, but he touched it with his death qi, assimilating it into the death ducks instead.

He put a hand on the wound, the pain dulled from the crystal technique. I really don’t want to turn back to flesh right now. It’s going to hurt so bad…

Gui Delun hurtled at him, murder in his eyes.

Hui instantly fled. Oh fuck! Hey! Leave me alone! I’m just an innocent small cultivator. Not worth your time! Don’t waste your time on me, Senior! Over his shoulder, he shouted, “Fen Long!”

“He can’t save you now,” Gui Delun chuckled.

What? Why not? He glanced past Gui Delun.

Up in the sky, Fen Long battled a hundred-meter-long bat, its wingspan enough to block out the sun. He clearly had the upper hand, but the bat occupied all his attention. The second he shifted his eyes away, the bat darted at his neck, going for the kill. Fen Long whirled and slashed out, slicing one of its fangs off, and the two burst across the sky, wrapped up in a fierce battle.

Ah… dammit. I guess I have to resolve this myself! Hui sucked in a breath. He struck a pose, throwing his hand out. “Zhubi! Now! Whirlwind Snake Attack!”

Gui Delun paused, wary. He narrowed his eyes.

Zhubi rose up around Hui’s neck and looked at him, confused.

Whipping around, Hui fled again. He put a hand to the snake. “Stick with me, Zhubi. I’m bluffing, only bluffing!” If I can get to the barrier, I’ll be able to buy some time! Liu Guang’s ghoul-holding barrier is higher-realm than any barrier I can create, after all. It won’t hold for long, given that it isn’t meant to keep things out so much as in, and given that Gui Delun is higher realm than Liu Guang, but hey, maybe I can think of something!

Liu Guang…

“Petty tricks. You’ve bought another breath, but no more,” Gui Delun murmured contemptuously. Heat burned at Hui’s back.

Hui hurtled on, ignoring the attack. He darted behind a peak, putting the mountain between himself and Gui Delun. The fireball smashed into the mountain. Fire rained down around Hui.

“The next attack won’t miss,” Gui Delun predicted.

Hui glanced over his shoulder. Fire coiled around Gui Delun, growing stronger and stronger with every passing moment. It formed into a raging, fiery serpent, swirling around Gui Delun. Longer and longer it grew, ten meters, twenty, thirty, forty. Longer and longer. Flames burned in its eyes and flickered from its mouth, while its whole body burned with fiery light.

On Hui’s shoulders, Zhubi perked up.

“Elder Brother! We’re only fifth realm cultivators. We can’t take an attack like that head on!” Hui warned Zhubi.

Zhubi hissed at him. He rose up on Hui’s shoulders, swaying gently, almost hypnotized by the fiery snake. Abruptly, Zhubi leaped off his shoulders and flew toward the magical technique. In midair, he burst up to his thirty-meter-long form.

“Zhubi!” Hui shouted. He stopped and turned back. That foolish snake! Rushing to his death! I can’t let him—

Zhubi turned back and hissed over his shoulder. He flicked his tail and sped up, leaving Hui in the dust.

Hui bit his lip. I… I’ll believe in Zhubi. Just for a moment! All I need is a moment. A moment, to release the ghouls and launch our counterattack!

Gui Delun scoffed as Zhubi rushed at him. He flicked his sleeve, and the flaming snake reared up. It dwarfed Zhubi, easily three hundred meters long. “Foolish.”

Can I trust Zhubi? That fire snake is huge. There’s no way Zhubi can handle it! He wouldn’t be… throwing away his life, would he?

No, no! Zhubi believes in preserving his life as much as I do! There’s no way! Trust in Zhubi, Hui. He wouldn’t do something stupid like that!

He wouldn’t… right?