Back atop his Master’s peak, Hui paced around, thinking. I originally found death qi in Bai Xue. From there, I had the fortune to encounter and absorb death qi a few times, especially with the lotus. When it comes to life qi, I’ve encountered it thanks to Master. Hypothetically, everything should have life qi, but I’ve never sensed it.

He twisted his lip. Is life qi this world’s equivalent of innate true qi? If it’s in everything, if it’s connected to life itself… But then Master’s gifting this much of it would be enough to shake his cultivation to its core, and he clearly wasn’t bothered by it. Likewise, that cultivator at the banquet was a specialist in life qi. It’s never possible to cultivate more innate true qi. You only have what you’re born with, and if you use it, it’s gone. No, no. Life qi is probably like death qi or blood qi: another type of qi that exists in the world around me.

He sat down in the lotus pose. Alright. Then the first step is to familiarize myself with the sensation of life qi. Once I know what it feels like, I’ll have a better chance of finding it in the world around me. He nodded to himself and immersed himself in meditation, focusing all his energy on the little ball of golden qi in his dantian.

Warmth emanated from the life qi. Sunshine gently bathed his skin. A soft wind blew. Hui breathed evenly as the energy flowed around him, suddenly aware of the grass under him, the trees in the forest, Zhubi around his neck and even the wolf, pacing in the near distance. All of it shimmered with life qi, but a thin, impure life qi.

How did I never notice it before? It’s so obvious!

He reached out with a strand of life qi and connected with the life qi in a nearby blade of grass. The life qi merged with the grass, purifying the blade’s life qi. Life qi bled out into the world, the purity of the stream he sent out lowering as it purified the blade of grass. At last, the strand returned, but weaker than he’d sent it out.

Hui frowned. Death qi is rare, but when I find it, it’s easy to absorb. Life qi is common as dirt, but impossible to absorb.

One is like a deposit of gold ore, and the other is like all the gold in the ocean. Most of my original world’s gold was contained in the ocean’s water, but at such a low percentage and purity that to remove it would be to lose money. The same is true here. I could absorb the life qi, but I’d lose more life qi attempting to absorb it.

There has to be a way to absorb life qi more efficiently!

Hui circulated the life qi through his passages. As it passed through, it mended his qi passages where the qi seed plants had injured them. Ah? How convenient! He circulated it through all his passages and back into his dantian.

The golden ball twisted together again, much smaller than before. Before, it had been the size of a large coin, but now it was only as large as a marble.

What? No, don’t tell me, that used life qi? Ah! How is life qi so inefficient? How much do I need to absorb to rival my death qi?

Hui sighed. Before he could fall into despair, tiny grains of life qi lit up in his qi passages.

Eh? What’s that? Hui guided his mental energy toward the grains, inspecting them.

Tiny seeds, no bigger than sesame seeds, floated in his passages, glimmering with life qi.

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Hui inched his energy closer. How did they…

The tournament flashed through his mind. Ding Bo’s attack, glancing off his body, then the plants twisting into his qi passages. Did that attack leave these seeds behind, dormant?

Hui shivered. What a vicious technique! Surely that’s not the kind of technique one uses in a friendly tournament!

Mysterious Heavenly Forest Sect… is this another attempt to go after my master? How far will they fall?

But no… what if I wasn’t up against Ding Bo? Wait, and what about Ding Bo’s first opponent? I didn’t pay attention. Did he use the same attack against them?

Hui frowned, then shook his head. No, no. If it wasn’t me, there was no way they would’ve been able to destroy the plants. Seriously injuring a disciple like that—but then, to me, why… unless… they saw the opportunity and went after Master?

No, no, now’s not the time! First, I need to kill these seeds. Shaking his head, Hui focused on the glimmering seeds. He nudged them with mental energy. They shifted like tiny scraps of paper in water, eluding his grasp. Hui tried circulating his qi, but the seeds resisted the flow, hovering in his passages where they sat.

Hmm, maybe… Careful this time, he guided the life qi back to them. I could try destroying them with death qi, but they resisted it the first time, and anyways, I desperately need life qi.

He touched the life qi to the first seed. The life qi hesitated a moment, then jumped from the seed to his larger mass of qi. Without any life qi, the seed went dark and shriveled, emitting a strand of death qi.

Dangerous, dangerous! Hui immediately cut off his qi flow and separated out the piece of tainted qi in his dantian. The death qi infected the qi it touched, turning into a black blockage in his qi passages. The blockage burned with cold, aching into his body. He shivered, crumpling in on himself. Hui tried to guide the death qi out, but it clung to his passages, tainting his flesh. I—help, I need—help! Don’t tell me I have to waste the last of my life qi on—

A quack sounded out. Wings fluttered. A tiny duck burst out of his death qi dantian and hurtled for the blockage. A second duck hurried after it. The two squabbled, feathers flying. Hui flinched his qi away, huddling the qi away from the death qi ducks. At last, one of the ducks beat the other off. It let out a victory hiss as the other duck fell back to his death qi dantian, then gobbled up the death qi with relish. Even plumper than before, it drifted lazily back to his dantian.

Hui evened his breathing and sat up. Sweat dripped down his forehead. This small cultivator wasn’t taking the seeds seriously! I need everything ready to go to take care of them! So thinking, Hui slowly approached the second seed. He drew out his death qi and life qi, hovering them around the seed. Slowly, he approached the seed.

The life qi in the seed shivered, quivering toward the larger mass of life qi. All at once, it jumped to the life qi.

The second it did, Hui jabbed at it with his death qi. A duck beak formed out of the death qi and snapped up the seed and its strand of death qi.

Alright. I have a technique!

But… wait. Doesn’t this increase my death qi at the same rate as my life qi? I’m trying to get my life qi to match my death qi! I need to absorb more life qi than death.

… Oh well! I need to get these seeds out of my passages more than anything. Any life qi is better than nothing!

One at a time, Hui approached the seeds, extracting the life qi, then letting the ducks eat the seeds and death qi left behind before it could poison too much of his qi. At last, he extracted the last of the seeds.

Hui directed his mental energy into his dantian again, where the golden life qi coiled into a thumbnail-sized ball, bigger than the marble it had been earlier, but smaller than the coin-sized ball it had started as.

Hui retreated his energy from his dantian and let out a deep sigh. Life qi is really too hard to cultivate. Why is it so hard to refine?

The sun lowered in the sky, dropping toward the horizon. Brilliant reds and oranges split the sky, warming the setting sun. Hui stood and stretched, wiping sweat off his brow. Unknowingly, his robes had fixed themselves while he was busy. He checked them over, then furrowed his brows. Master… did you do this? Does it really count as a body-cultivation technique if you can use it to create self-fixing clothes?

Setting it aside, he turned down the peak, his eyes instinctively finding a particular spot on Starbound Peak. It’s been too long since I had Sis Mei’s cooking. I think it’s high time I sat down for a meal!