Okay. So. Somehow, I need to make Jin Xian a life qi user. An undead… life qi user. Undead, who are weak to life qi.

Hui put his head in his hands and sighed deeply. Oh no.

No, no. Let’s think on this. I can do this. Jin Xian doesn’t need to use life qi. They said they can score a great number of related arts. As long as she can manage some form of healing or regenerative arts, she—she’ll at least have a chance to make it.

Worst case, I’ll store her away in my node, so she vanishes rather than failing the test as an obvious jiangshi. But… hmm. There has to be a way.

Hui raised his hand to pet Zhubi, only for it to fall empty. He frowned. Wait. Fang Hua. She… knew something about ghouls before she died. She might be able to pass as a conventional my-world style healer, and maybe that’ll be enough.

But she hasn’t woken up in a while, and Jin Xian’s mind has only deteriorated. Can she even wake up?

Come to think of it, what triggered her to wake up in the past? She usually woke up for brief periods in the middle of intense fights… Can I simulate an intense fight? But no, lately she hasn’t woken up even in fights. Was it during fights with the Xi Clan, that awful puppeteer clan, that she woke up, in particular? But… how would I do that? First off, I’d have to simulate an intense fight, and second off—well, I could wear the face of a Xi Clan cultivator easily enough, but everyone around me would certainly notice my face change, even if I managed to create a realistic excuse to start a fight.

Even then, it isn’t like I’m sure that would trigger Fang Hua to wake up. I’m not sure she woke up for all those fights, and I know she woke up in other fights that weren’t those fights. So… I don’t know. I don’t think that’s a real option.

Ugh… what to do, what to do…?

Hui bit his lip. He looked at Jin Xian, who stared unblinkingly at him. Her mouth salivated a little, and she swayed where she stood, head drooping toward Hui’s neck. Jin Xian took a deep sniff. Her tongue flicked out, wetting her lips.

“Elder Sister, I’m not for eating,” Hui reprimanded her gently. Putting a hand on his chin, he went back to thinking.

What can I do to wake her up? Waking techniques… wait. I used life qi to enhance my body. Maybe I could use life qi to enhance her brain?

Well… not life qi. She is a jiangshi, after all. An undead. Life qi would burn her apart. But what if I use death qi instead of life qi? Treat her as anti-alive, essentially. As someone who grows stronger with death qi!

Or… it’ll just fully kill her and remove any chance of Fang Hua waking up, leaving me with only her Jin Xian half.

Hui considered for another moment, then shook his head. It’s my only option. I have to take a gamble! It’s either that or give up on Jin Xian passing this test entirely. Which… is an option, but it’s my last ditch option!

Jin Xian stepped in close. She grabbed onto his robes and opened her mouth.

Hui put his hand on her forehead, stopping her from biting. “Not now, Elder Sister.”

Disappointed, Jin Xian grunted.

A pulse of qi rushed through the hand on her forehead. Death qi surged from Hui directly into her brain. Rather than allowing it to form a duck and go wild, Hui kept a tight hold on it. Much like he’d used the life qi threads to reforge his body, he split the death qi into a thousand strands and connected it throughout Jin Xian’s brain, supplementing the rotting neurons inside. Raising his other hand to hover just outside her skull, he drew at the rot in her brain, calling to it with his rot qi.

The rot trembled. Mixed into Jin Xian’s forged body and her dark qi, it had become a preliminary form of rot qi. Sensing a greater form of itself, it released Jin Xian’s neurons and leaped toward Hui’s hand. It dodged the rot qi and drilled directly into Hui’s hand, opening a hole in the pale flesh. Instantly, Hui’s hand browned around the hole and began to emit a foul scent.

Hui furrowed his brows. Still half-focused on reinforcing Jin Xian’s brain, he clenched his hand, chasing after the rot qi with death qi. Unlike the original rot qi, this qi moved with a mind of its own and a desperate hunger unlike anything Hui had ever experienced before. He clenched his teeth and called on the ducks. I’ll let the experts handle this!

A dozen ducks materialized, tiny enough to stay hidden inside his body. They swooped toward the rot qi and hunted it down relentlessly. Darting and feinting, the ducks herded the rot qi into a corner, then circled it, dropping down to snatch a beakful of rot before taking back to the wing. The rot qi fought back, struggling to escape, but every time it almost broke the line, one of the ducks dashed in and swallowed it up. The ducks called and clicked their beaks to one another, excited to have such interesting prey.

Hey. Don’t have too much fun, Hui grumbled silently.

Anyways. They have that handled, so let’s focus on fixing Jin Xian! Hui closed his eyes and sent his awareness inside her head.

Though the death qi would have sapped an ordinary person’s qi and life qi, inside Jin Xian’s undead body, it strengthened her. Her neurons grew thicker and more plentiful as Hui threaded the death qi between them, forging the death qi directly into her brain. The rot that remained was warded off by the death qi. Like oil on leather, the death qi coated her brain and prevented the rot qi from invading it. Rot qi struck at her brain tissues, trying to get past, but it slid helplessly off the death qi.

Excellent! As I hoped, death qi is to undead as life qi is to humans! Excellent, excellent. Ah, even if I don’t succeed at waking Fang Hua, at least I’ll have a more powerful jiangshi add. Hui hummed happily to himself as he continued to work on Jin Xian’s brain. Experimentally, he sent death qi into the rest of her body, using it to reforge and reinforce her body. Rather than breaking her down the way he had with the lotus beasts, he twined the death qi into her existing muscles and bones, slowly enhancing the fibers that already existed.

A hand closed on his wrist, squeezing tight enough to hurt. Startled, Hui opened his eyes, though he continued to enhance Jin Xian’s body even with his eyes open.

Looming over him, a powerful man with a deep grimace scowled. “What are you doing to that woman? In full view of everyone!”

“Er, Elder Brother… I’m sorry! I didn’t know!” Hui said, instinctively flinching back. I’m not touching your woman. I’m not, I swear! I’m just helping her!

Wait. He said that woman, not my woman. …not that it would make any sense for Jin Xian to be his woman, either. He shook his head. Stay focused, Hui. This isn’t your original world. Things are different here!

The man blinked, confused. “You didn’t know…?”

“Ah, never mind that, never mind,” Hui said, shaking his head.

The two of them stared at one another. After a moment, the man furrowed his brows. “Huh?”