Hui turned to Jin Xian. The problem still remains… what to do with Elder Sister?

Jin Xian blinked. She grunted at him quizzically.

She has grown more… I wouldn’t say intelligent, but certainly aware. My treatment did something, but… did it work?

“Elder Sister, you have to go away now. You can’t make it through this trial,” Hui said gently.

Jin Xian shook her head.

Hui sighed. “Elder Sister, you can’t make it through this trial. Even if you stayed, you’d only fail. I have all the faith in you, usually. Your martial prowess is far beyond mine. But this is not a trial you can fight your way through. Although you have far fewer weaknesses than this measly bug, you must acknowledge your own weaknesses!”

Jin Xian shook her head.

Exasperated, Hui reached for her head. “Jin Xian, it’s no good. Even if you want to try, it’s simply not possible.” You can’t beat the trial, and your life will be in extreme danger if you accidentally reveal yourself… not to mention that this small cultivator will fall into suspicion for interacting with you! If Fang Hua isn’t awake, there’s no hope of passing this trial, so therefore, it’s better to retreat!

She shook her head again.

“Unless… you’re waking up?” Hui asked.

She tilted her head.

Ugh! She doesn’t know? I don’t know either! I’ve done everything I can, but… but it’s such a gamble! She has to not only wake up, but wake up and realize what’s happening. She came from a demonic sect. Fang Hua, that is. She might not necessarily immediately understand that she can’t openly use demonic arts, because she spent so long in a sect where it was fine to openly seek demonic cultivation. If she wakes up in the cave, after all, there’s little to indicate that she’s in a righteous sect. True, that man is literally blazing away with righteous light, but… but I can’t help but worry!

“Jin Xian… can you do this? Can I believe in you?” Hui asked her desperately.

She blinked at him.

Ugh. I can’t do this. I should just send her back. He raised his hand again.

She caught his wrist.

“Elder Sister, please,” Hui said, exhausted.

Jin Xian closed her eyes and opened them slowly. “Believe.”

Hui stared. “Elder Sister!” Why couldn’t you have said that a long time ago? I’ve been sweating over here for no reason!

Ah, this is good, though. She’s waking up. It must be a slow process, with all the rot qi inside her. I took most of it out, but there’s still healing and removal to do, which she has to do herself. All I can do is believe in her… and wait.

Hui bit his lip. Dammit. I don’t like this. I guess I can always send her away at the last second and just… look very suspicious, but… ugh. I’d rather it be a sure shot one way or another.

Oh well. One cannot prepare for everything. If it comes down to it… if it comes down to it, I’ll tell them that I healed her… because I noticed something wrong with her! Yes, yes. It was because something was off that I tried to help her, and I can’t be blamed for overlooking her being undead when everyone else has also overlooked it!

Ah, it might be harder to explain why I didn’t notice when I was literally healing her with qi…

Have faith, Hui! Jin Xian has saved me a great many times. If I can’t have faith in her now, how can she ever have faith in me?

Taking a deep breath, Hui settled his heart. He turned ahead. The line had shortened significantly ahead of him. Only six cultivators remained between him and the front.

Eh, wait, hold on! I haven’t come up with my spiel yet! How am I supposed to impress this golden boy if I don’t even have a good presentation practiced and ready for him?

Practical… practical demo? Should I do a demo? But how can I demonstrate my arts? I need an injured cultivator to be able to show off my healing techniques. Or a ghoul, so I can give an example of my exorcism.

They must have ghouls somewhere for exorcism purposes… or ghosts, or something. That seems reasonable to me. But how do they let people exhibit their healing prowess? I can’t imagine they have injured people lying around. Maybe they have injured spirit beasts, or people with underlying illnesses?

Who knows. I suppose I’ll find out in a minute or two.

Hui closed his eyes, quietly focusing on his presentation for the man inside the cave. He crept forward as one participant after another vanished into the cave. The line grew shorter and shorter, until at last Hui was the last remaining participant.

Staring into the darkness, he frowned. Hold on. Have I seen anyone come out of this cave? Where have all the other participants gone?

Has anyone else gone? Hello?

No response. Hui scowled. The node is shut again. I can’t cheat, dammit!

A calm voice called out of the darkness. “Next.”

Hui swallowed. I guess I’m going to find out. He stepped forward, into the dark.

The floor sloped gently downward underfoot. Hui descended into darkness. On and on, far longer than he’d expected. Dark earth pressed down on him from above and below, the cave little more than a raw hole in the ground. Hui rubbed his arms, somewhat creeped out. Aren’t immortal caves meant to be unrealistically nice? Not… realistically dank and gross caves.

I wonder if it’s so deep to hide Senior’s glow. This deep in the earth, surely no one could see Senior, even if he decided to change clothes at midnight. Though… why not use a door? Surely doors can contain his glow. Although I was joking about his glow earlier, there are a great number of obvious solutions. It’s not as if there’s no way to cover up a source of light.

Hmm. I’ve been walking for a while. Senior must be awfully inconvenienced every time he leaves his home to get groceries. Or—whatever passes for groceries for cultivators. A new set of pills?

Wait. Is this part of the trial? Have I been caught in a befuddling array without realizing it?

Pausing, Hui put a hand to the wall and sent his qi into it. Eyes closed, he searched through the wall. For a long time, he found nothing. Only earth and the faint stirring of the earth’s qi, the pulse of the dragon vein twisting through the mountain even now, when it hovered far above the earth.

Nothing? Is it really just a long tunnel into the earth? But why? Why do this? Is it just a test of patience, or—

A thin strand of qi brushed against his probe. Hui stiffened, then surged his qi toward it. Grasping the thread, he followed it along, examining the shape of the spell he’d found. The spell twisted around him, resisting his understanding.

A befuddling array. Ha, I knew it! Hui grinned. He started to send a pulse of death qi into the spell, but held back at the last second. Wait, wait. I’m a miracle healer, not a death-qi user. I shouldn’t use death qi. Instead…

He licked his lips. How did I break realms before death qi? Think back, back. To… in Bai Xue’s clan, that maze realm. The realm where I got the ducks! I… overrode the trial with my own qi…?

Hmm… I don’t think that’ll work now. I’m up against a live spell being maintained by a cultivator at a realm above my own.

Then… what about making it look like it died on its own? Rot qi can happen naturally. It happened in Jin Xian’s brain, after all, and it happened on that dead body, too. What if I rot the spell?

Excellent, excellent! I can break my way out of this little trial, and make it look like an accident at the same time.

Drawing out one of the ducks that held the rot qi, Hui drew a thread of rot qi out of the duck and inserted it into the formation. The line of qi darkened and began to rot, falling slowly apart in either direction. The rot crawled through the formation, deteriorating it as he watched.

Hui withdrew his mental energy and lifted his hand. He walked on as if he hadn’t noticed anything. The passage continued on and on, seemingly endless.

Come on. It’ll rot through any moment now, right?

Hui kept walking. He licked his lips. Maybe I should send a pulse of qi into it? Just enough to break what’s rotted through—

Abruptly, something snapped. Hui stepped forward and found himself in a crowded corridor. All the other cultivators who’d gone ahead of him stood close to one another. Eyes glazed, they walked in place, never moving forward.

Hui looked around. Is this what it looks like outside the spell? How embarrassing.

Across the room, the glowing cultivator stood from behind a table. “Welcome. As the first to pass my trial—”

“Eh? What’s going on?” one of the other cultivators asked, coming to.

The glowing cultivator coughed. “As the first two to pass my—”

“Where are we?”

“What happened? Hey, get back!”

“Huh? Is that the tester? Wait, when did you get here?”

One after another, all the other cultivators dropped out of the formation as the rot qi ate it away. Behind Hui, Jin Xian grunted and moved toward him. In a few seconds, all the cultivators looked around, blinking and confused but aware.

The glowing cultivator furrowed his brows. Huh? How’d they all break out of my formation at once? I intended to use that formation to winnow the good grains from the chaff, but… I didn’t expect everyone to break out at once. “Ah… congratulations to everyone for breaking out of my preliminary trial…”

Hui rubbed the back of his neck and laughed lightly. Uh, whoops. Maybe I shouldn’t have rotted the entire formation…