Zhubi hissed, undulating in the air. He watched the huge snake, not intimidated.

The huge snake looked down at Zhubi, a dismissive light in its eyes. It let out a low roar. Heat radiated from it, boiling in waves from its jaws. Huge fangs glowed, outlined in brilliant flames.

Zhubi trembled. His eyes flickered, and his head lowered.

“That’s right. Cower!” Gui Delun laughed.

The huge snake roared louder yet.

Shaking so hard his scales clattered together, Zhubi lowered his head until his body laid flat in the air. Still shaking, he rolled over, belly up, then went limp.

Looking over his shoulder as he charged toward the false peak, Hui scowled and slowed. Maybe I should turn around. I can’t let Zhubi die! Dammit, what was that snake thinking?

Zhubi hissed quietly at Hui. He shook his head a little.

Hui blinked. What? Is Zhubi telling me to keep going?

I… I should trust him, but… but I’m worried!

No, no. Trust Zhubi. Zhubi is doing this for me. Look at how long he’s already held up Gui Delun! Ah, like a true villain, Gui Delun loves grandstanding and looking down on his victims! Zhubi is providing a distraction I never could, by pretending to be defeated by him. What a smart snake!

The illusion-clad peak loomed up on Hui’s left. He raced toward it, speeding up. Okay. I’ll let Zhubi do his thing, and take advantage of it to go get Fang Hua!

As he flew, he quickly cycled his body from crystal to flesh to plant. The wound on his side from Gui Delun’s swordlight closed, and he cycled back to crystal.

Gui Delun threw his hand out. The fire snake charged at Hui.

Zhubi jumped up. Opening his mouth, he spat venom at the fire. Purple venom struck the fire snake, corroding the back of its head. The fire snake whirled around and charged at Zhubi instead, its mass outweighing Zhubi’s by tenfold.

Zhubi’s eyes flashed. In the space of a breath, his body swelled up, growing from thirty meters to three hundred, from three hundred to three thousand. Now dwarfing the fire snake, he gazed down on it. Hissing quietly, he licked his lips.

The fire snake fell back in surprise, its pupils turning round and fearful.

Eh? When did Zhubi get so big? Hui wondered. He reached the barrier and slapped his hand on it. Ripples spread over the illusion, disrupting the perfect scene. Now death qi… wait, no. This was a death-qi-based barrier. Life qi!

Gold light pulsed from his hand. The barrier rippled again, but this time, the truth of the peak appeared in the gaps between the ripples—the bare, dead rock and the wandering ghouls, the dead gray fog and dark energy. As the waves passed, the lively disciples running about the peak were intercut with the ghouls, ghouls taking up more and more time as the ripples spread further.

As one, the ghouls looked up. Hunger flashed in their eyes.

The barrier broke. One last wave of illusion travelled over the peak, the happy disciples appearing for one more moment. When it passed, only the bare rocky peak and the ghouls remained.

Hui stared down fiercely. “Come forth, Fang Hua!”

Cold laughter echoed from the depths of the dark rift. A white dot appeared, a comet of black streaking after it, and then Fang Hua burst from the depths, pale face chased by her inky hair. She grinned, her fangs bared. “I’ve been waiting!”

The other ghouls leaped up after her. A tide of pale flesh and filthy robes flooded off the peak. Fang Hua at their head, they charged into battle.

Away from the peak, Zhubi darted down, swallowing up the fire snake with relish. His belly glowed for just a moment, and then the fire extinguished. He swished his tail, flying over to Hui’s side.

“What realm are you now?” Hui asked, looking Zhubi over. I can’t quite tell. Did my cute snake hit sixth realm while I wasn’t looking?

Zhubi hissed happily and swished his tail again, nuzzling Hui with his massive muzzle.

“Meaningless!” Gui Delun shouted. Gold light burned around his hands.

Hui jumped up. “It’s my turn. Zhubi, will you fight with me?”

Zhubi hissed fiercely.

“Let’s go!”

Together, Hui and his snake leaped into the sky, blocking Gui Delun’s path to the ghouls. Gui Delun charged back at them, his eyes narrowed in hatred.

“This is pointless. Even if you succeed, this is a sect of exorcists. We excel at killing ghouls!” Gui Delun snarled.

“I’ve done a great many pointless things, Senior. Most of them were more pointless than this!” Hui shouted back.

Twisting his wrist, Gui Delun shaped his life qi into a whip. He lashed it over Hui’s shoulders toward the ghouls beyond him.

Hui cloaked his hands in death qi and reached up, clenching his hands on the whip even as it flew by. The death ducks swirled around his hands in miniature, letting out battle cries. The life qi ate into them, shrinking them away one by one. At the same time, the death qi corroded the life qi. Still, Hui’s qi moved too slowly. Gui Delun overpowered him, his life qi washing away Hui’s death qi.

Gui Delun laughed. “A mere fifth-stage cultivator… what did you think you could accomplish?”

The whip smacked down, knocking a hole in his crystallized shoulder. Hui fell back, his teeth gritted. “I—I thought—”

“Yes?” Gui Delun asked impatiently.

“It might… buy time!” Hui’s eyes flashed. He zipped backward, hiding behind Zhubi’s coils. For a moment, he vanished from Gui Delun's sight.

My current form... isn't perfect. Progressing my cultivation, recombining, no matter what I attempt, they're all only momentary accomplishments. Dust in the wind. Everything, my body, my soul... they're all unstable. Even now, I'm falling apart. Too much of me has gone. Too much is dead.

I understand. Of everyone, I understand most. Ha, count this as my final jibe.

Thank you.

Gui Delun’s brows furrowed. He advanced toward Zhubi, his whip sizzling. It fluttered around him, dancing on the air like a living being. “Buy time? Don’t act like you’ve won when you’ve accomplished nothing.”

“Have I accomplished nothing?” Hui asked cryptically. A plant-form Hui stepped out from behind Zhubi, the hole in his shoulder quickly recovering. “But Senior, what about my sect? What about yours?"

Scoffing, Gui Delun shook his head. “I pinched your sect to death once. A small bug once pinched, is easily pinched a second time. Your might is nothing compared to mine.

“However… I ought to thank you. This trifling skirmish is an excellent way to discover the malcontents among the sects. Once I massacre them, there should be no one left to oppose me in the Southern Sect Conference. Finally, I can lead the Southern Sects to dominance, with no outliers or paltry idealists blocking the way!”

Hui’s eyes grew large. “I… I won’t allow it!”

“You won’t allow it? Your pitiful army won’t stop me. They haven’t even forced me to use my full strength yet. The weakened Patriarchs are nothing against my current might. You moved too swiftly, I’m afraid. A hundred years to restore their strength, and this would be a different conversation. Instead…” Gui Delun brandished the whip again.

“That may be so. Still, I think I’ve done well, given my ten-year timeline,” Hui said, defending himself.

“Ten years? It hasn’t even been half that. You move too quickly. A child’s mistake, that deserves a child’s punishment. A hundred lashes.” Gui Delun whirled the whip over his head.

“Father-in-law, it doesn’t work very well if you threaten me with a good time,” Hui crooned, smiling malevolently.

Gui Delun’s expression darkened. The whip smashed down on Hui.

Hui cowered. “I’m sorry! Forgive me!”

“Spare my eyes your mewling, pathetic self,” Gui Delun sneered.

“Eh, but isn’t that what Senior wanted to see with the hundred lashes? Mixed messages do no one any good, Father-in-law!”

Gold light bore down on Hui’s head. He tensed, afraid. Inches before it hit his quivering form, the light broke apart into motes, dissolving away like soap bubbles. Gui Delun blinked, puzzled.

Hui stood upright, no longer cowering. He laughed in Gui Delun’s face. “Did you think I caught your whip in some vain attempt to dissolve it with death qi? Senior, have you ever encountered rot qi?”

“Naturally,” Gui Delun said. He twisted his hand again, summoning another whip. “And the best way to treat it is to cut it off at the source.” His eyes narrowed at Hui.

“That may be so, but Senior, there’s still something you haven’t considered.” Hui glanced around, then gestured Gui Delun to come closer.

Gui Delun flicked his wrist. The whip shot forth and coiled around Hui. He fought back, but to no avail. Gui Delun’s greater strength outmatched him by a dozen times.

Fingers latched onto Hui’s skull. Gui Delun stared him directly in the eyes. “Use your last words wisely.”

Hui giggled. He nodded to himself, then grabbed onto Gui Delun’s hand with both of his. As quickly as he could, he pulsed death and life qi into Gui Delun’s flesh, one rapidly following the other. Kill cells and regenerate them, over and over, as fast as I can! Take my attack. I call this one the Hand of Cancer!

Gui Delun scowled and closed his hand. Hui’s head smushed into plant goop, but he kept pulsing qi into Gui Delun. Gui Delun retracted his hand, but headless Hui held on as tight as he could, refusing to let Gui Delun retreat a single inch. Raising his hand, Gui Delun slashed at Hui with his palm blade. Pieces of Hui fell away, but they regenerated in the next moment. His head came back, and he beamed at Gui Delun.

“Senior… what I wanted to tell you, is that… I did all this to buy time!”

“Buy time?” Gui Delun looked over his shoulder. Fen Long still battled the bat far overhead. Chen Wuya circled as a thousand disparate crows. He scoffed. “Who for?”

“You’ll find out,” Hui said.

Gui Delun put his hand on Hui’s head. Fire burned from his palm, eating up his plant body. Flames licked up Hui’s body, burning him faster than he could regenerate. In a breath’s time, only his black core remained, and then even that burned away.

Dropping his hand, Gui Delun looked around. “Useless. Everything this fool does… useless.”

“That’s not true. I’ve done a great many useless things, but that… that wasn’t one of them! Rogue, thank you.”

A thick wave of qi burst out from behind Zhubi’s coils. It roiled, doubling back on itself, the qi emanating fiercely out from something—then instantly absorbed back in.

“Who?” Gui Delun demanded, narrowing his eyes.

Light laughter. “But you already know, Father-in-law.”

Hui stepped out from behind Zhubi. His qi aura shuddered, bursting up as high as seventh stage one moment, only to fall as low as fifth the next. As little as is left of me, I can’t fully ascend to seventh realm. Not in the time I had. Maybe not ever. But I can at least reach the pseudo-seventh stage! It’ll set back my cultivation, but… but who knows if there’s a future for me after this.

Focus on destroying Gui Delun. Everything that happens afterward… happens!

Rogue blinked. He looked around, then laughed. “No rest for the wicked, huh?”

Elder Sister Reaper stood opposite him, her sword bared. She stepped forward.

“Elder Sister, won’t you tell me your name? Your real name. Come on. I’m already dead. What can I do?” Rogue argued.

She shook her head and raised her sword.

“What’s the harm in it?” Rogue asked.

The sword fell.

Rogue scowled up at it. “Well, fuck you too, then.”

Slash!