Once Fei Hu ate its fill, Hui picked it up and took to the skies once more. Out of the valley and back to the stone, the empty vast wasteland where nothing grew and nothing lived but the black birds.

Senior Fen Long certainly created an interesting space to seal himself away in. Endless, desolate wasteland, spotted by little oases of golden grain. If I looked too heavily into the symbolism, and assuming that the autumn grains symbolize Senior Chen Wuya, then could it be that he saw Chen Wuya as his only friend in a cold and uncaring world, while Senior Chen Wuya saw him as a rival and threat? How sad, how sad.

Mmm… no, no. I’m certainly reading too much into it. I don’t even have confirmation that the grains symbolize Chen Wuya, let alone… anything else. Besides… how could anyone see Chen Wuya as a refuge? Even seeing him as a friend… I’m somewhat struggling with, although I’ll boldly claim he’s my friend at any time it benefits me.

Maybe Chen Wuya wasn’t always like this?

…

Of all people, I don’t think Chen Wuya had a sudden embittering. He seems the type to be cynical and bitter from the start. That can’t be it. Then, did Fen Long just have heavy tastes? Maybe he liked being harassed and beat up.

Chen Wuya coughed. “It’s fine to think absurd things, but at least maintain your mental discipline while you do it.”

“Ah! Senior is too kind. Thank you for reminding me,” Hui said, bowing. He hurriedly shored up his mental defenses, exuding mental energy to disguise his thoughts.

Snorting, Chen Wuya exuded the aura of rolling his eyes. “It’s only because I’m too lazy and don’t want to materialize to give you some discipline, or else I’d claw your brains out again.”

“Did Senior also give Fen Long some discipline?” Rogue asked lightly.

Silence.

“I don’t know what that means, but I don’t like the way it sounds,” Chen Wuya said, voice low and threatening.

“Ah, no. Fen Long gave Senior some discipline,” Hui corrected himself, nodding. After all, Fen Long is the one who locked Chen Wuya away for all those years. If someone was dishing out discipline, it certainly wasn’t Chen Wuya. He was the one taking the discipline!

Chen Wuya burst out of his chest in a blur of black feathers and wicked claws. He swirled around and set upon Hui’s head, viciously tearing into his flesh.

“Senior—ah! I know what I did wrong! Senior, you can’t punish this small cultivator for being right! Senior…!”

Settling down on the remnants of Hui’s head, Chen Wuya licked the blood off his claws. “You know, there are some things you shouldn’t say.”

“En. I understand,” Hui said, pushing his head back together. He reached into the pile of mush and shaped his nose back into place, patting the flat of his face where it belonged. His other hand scavenged the bits of his hair from where they mixed into his caved-in skull.

“What do you understand?” Chen Wuya asked, stopping mid-lick.

“Nothing, nothing,” Hui said, waving his hands.

Hui shook his head, then sighed. Ah, well, teasing is fine and all, but I’m sure I’m far off the mark. In any case, this small clone might be a little addicted to teasing, but even I know when to stop. Chen Wuya really hates Fen Long, ultimately, and if I keep up teasing, he’ll keep pushing that hatred onto me. Any further, and Chen Wuya might kill me for real.

He flew on, moving faster now. Another valley opened up to his right, the same as the previous one. He paused there for a moment for Fei Hu, only to find deer like the one he’d seen fed to beast babies back in the original valley. On again. Another valley. Another. Another.

Five valleys later, Hui stood atop the tallest mountain and squinted off into the distance. Barely visible, another valley loomed in the distance, only the lumpy outline of its mountains visible from where he stood. Hui put his hands on his hips, frowning. “Senior, does this place have an end?”

Chen Wuya chuckled darkly from within Hui’s robes. “Hmm, I don’t know. Why don’t I discipline you until you figure it out?”

Senior is still sore over that? It wasn’t even that bad… Oh well. Hui shook his head and raised a hand, shading his eyes to peer into the distance. Even further beyond the next valley, he faintly made out yet another valley.

“Is this space… infinite?” Hui mused aloud. The qi continues to feel thicker in this direction, but… it isn’t actually getting thicker. If it was, I’d be absorbing much more qi than I am right now.

Instead, it’s as if I’m running on a treadmill. I’m making progress without getting anywhere. This realm is deliberately built to trick poor cultivators like myself into thinking they’re getting closer to Fen Long, while they stand at the starting line the whole time.

Hmm… could it be? Is that… perhaps… exactly what’s happening? For me to move without moving, to sense stronger qi in the distance without ever getting closer… is this space, perhaps, like a VR room? I see different things, but really I’m standing still, moving on a treadmill.

Hui knelt. He put his hand to the ground.

Beside him, Fei Hu knelt down, sniffing where Hui touched. In the time they’d travelled together, a few weeks or so, Fei Hu had grown to its full size. It stood far taller than Hui, its head drooping to about Hui’s head height. At times, it flew off, but it always returned to Hui’s side by the end of the night. It tilted its head and looked at Hui.

“Stand back. I don’t want to hurt you,” Hui said.

Fei Hu huffed. He jumped back, watching from a small distance away.

Eh… far enough. Hui closed his eyes and focused on the ground below him. He sent a pulse of qi into the mountain, down into the rocky depths. Far below, an intricate net of qi met his senses. There was a familiar feeling to the qi and a familiarity to the design of the space. Hui peered around, taking it all in. I recognize the themes of this design. It is definitely one of Fen Long’s spaces… not that I’m doubting it, but it’s nice to have confirmation.

I could attack it with death qi, but I’m not sure that’s the right choice here. This is where Fen Long hid himself away. He isn’t going to do things by half measures. If I were him, and I had half the spatial abilities Fen Long does, I’d make sure that when the space failed, it either self-repaired like the one in that city with Chen Xigui—that guy I fought with Li Xiang, who was kidnapping all those women—or the space collapsed around the one who broke it… something like that. If I assume this is the culmination of all Fen Long’s skills, then I think it’s safe to go ahead and assume he’s doing something serious to protect this realm.

So… in that case, I shouldn’t blindly attack the spell array. Instead, let’s take a moment. I want to only attack the parts that will collapse this infinite space in on itself to let me through. I know Fen Long’s designs. I’ll study it, and figure out how to break through without destroying the whole space or activating its defenses!

Hui carefully reached out and injected his senses into a single strand of the net of qi threads. The thread trembled, instantly on the verge of breaking. Hui retreated, cutting back his qi to a thread nearly as fine as Fen Long’s. The thread stopped trembling, and Hui again sent his senses into the thread.

This one… isn’t doing much. Then… what about this one?

One at a time, Hui picked through the threads. The deeper he got into it, the more his brows furrowed. I don’t understand. Maybe it’s because I don’t have enough comprehension of spatial techniques and spell arrays, but… I really can’t understand what’s happening here. The only thing is…

He turned. A thick thread laid under all the other threads, twice as bright and twice as obvious. I thought it was a fake. Is it not? But then… could he really have put such a fatal and obvious flaw into this spell array? Compared to the one he created for Chen Xigui, it’s…

Hui reached out and attached his senses to the thick thread. Instantly, a thick flow of qi rushed through him. Ah! This is the array’s power cord. If I yank this—

But still, it’s… it’s so simple. Is this really Fen Long’s ultimate array?

Hui bit his lip, then shrugged. What’s the worst that can happen? I’m a clone. If I lose everything, that’s more for the others to learn! He drew out a blade of death qi and severed the thread.