“Enma, Yama, Yan-Lo, King of Hell, Lord of the Underworld, Demonic Emperor… what was that one I heard recently? Grandmaster of…” He glanced at the reaper.

“That one doesn’t bear repeating,” she said shortly.

“You’ve caught my interest, though. Mmm, I give you permission to address me as Zhu Diyu. Ah, you’re right. I really want to take you back to the underworld and cut you open.” The man sighed wistfully, shaking his head.

Hui kowtowed in midair, prostrating himself repeatedly. “This small cultivator has no right to address such a mighty cultivator! It would be too forward of me!”

The man tipped his head, brows furrowing.

“Too forward of me to possibly occupy so much of the heavenly… er, hellish one’s time!”

The man laughed again. He knelt and caught Hui’s chin, peering at his face. His eyes ran over Hui’s features repeatedly, committing him to memory as though Hui’s face was the most interesting thing he’d seen in a long time. “As I thought. You’re really an interesting one.”

Hui stared back, paralyzed. “Er, ah—”

“Zhu Diyu.” He frowned and licked his lips, turning Hui’s face to one side, then the other.

“Er, Zhu Diyu, I, I’ve been told I’m handsome but surely this small cultivator’s face isn’t that interesting?”

“Handsome!” Zhu Diyu barked. He threw back his head and laughed.

Behind him, the reaper chuckled as well.

Hui frowned, then bit back his protests and laughed along as well. “I know, I know, a third stage cultivator calling himself handsome—”

Abruptly, Zhu Diyu released his chin and stood. “I see why he’s interested in you.”

Hui blinked. There’s people the King of Hell knows that are interested in me? Who? A shiver ran down his spine, and fear pooled in his stomach. Ahhh, even the King of Hell is too much! It’s never good when bigshots are interested in tiny antlike cultivators like me!

“No need to panic. He’d never bother to personally go find an antlike cultivator like you. Unlike the gracious me.” Zhu Diyu flicked his hair haughtily.

“Only because you wanted to run away from paperwork,” the reaper muttered under her breath.

In the distance, purple-gold lightning sparked. The only shred of color in the world, it burst from the heavens to the earth, thirty meters thick, emanating a killing intent all of its own. Zhu Diyu looked up, then stepped back from Hui. “We’ve been here too long. You! Stay in your body! If I wasn’t in a gracious mood, I might have accidentally crushed the antlike you.”

Hui kowtowed repeatedly. He turned and scurried back into his body.

Standing beside the reaper, the only two figures in the monochrome world, Zhu Diyu hesitated a moment. “To think, that thing I threw away hadn’t been lost…”

“What?” the reaper asked.

Zhu Diyu chuckled. He took a step, and the both of them vanished.

Snapped back into a whirlwind of color and sound, Hui found himself on the ground. The two cultivators he’d healed first hovered over him, the girl holding his head up, the boy pressing a hand to his forehead. “Cold… he’s—eh?”

Hui pushed himself off the ground and shook his head. “I’m fine. Thank you for your concern, elder brother.”

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“Ah… by ranking, you’re my elder brother…” the Jade Garden Peak disciple murmured.

Hui ignored it, climbing to his feet instead. He looked around.

Fallen cultivators lay all around them, groaning. Sprigs of qi seed sapling laid in withered piles around them. In a few places, the saplings slid out of their clothes as they shifted. He knelt next to one, who let out a low grumble as Hui passed his mental energy over him. No trace of death qi or the qi seeds. Good.

“If anyone has any troubles, speak up!” he shouted.

No response. One person let out a heavy groan.

He glanced around, then jogged after Li Xiang and Ding Bo. A faint glimmer of direction and location passed back to him, along with a glimpse of the mountain. Naturally, I can sense my death and life qi, but getting a glimpse of the area as well… that’s a technique I need to develop! I’ll call it… the Death Duck Scouting Technique!

Eh… the name could use some workshopping.

Activating his movement technique, Hui quickly caught up to the retreating pair. Although their cultivation was at the peak of the third stage, and his barely over the bottom edge, the two repeatedly clashed. Li Xiang deliberately slowed Ding Bo’s escape whenever she had the chance, while Ding Bo paused to attack random cultivators as he ran by. Chasing after the two of them, the black ducks and golden songbirds let out a cacophony. The ducks quacked and the songbirds twittered. Before, there had been many more ducks than songbirds, but now, the two were almost equal.

I’ve accumulated so much life qi! Hui’s eyes glittered.

He issued a mental command, and one of the songbirds returned to him, nestling into the depths of his dantian. Instantly, a sensation of groundedness settled over Hui’s shoulders, a comforting weight that tied him to his body and the earth below. He stretched his shoulders and took a deep breath. In the future, I should always hold one in reserve, so I don’t fall out of my body!

The other ducks and songbirds moved as a flock. Almost like starlings, they danced in the air, shaping into polygons as they moved.

Ding Bo darted away from Li Xiang and landed an attack on another cultivator. The cultivator fell back with a scream, blood flying. Hui narrowed his eyes. Ding Bo isn’t holding back anymore!

The ducks let out an almighty quack, and the songbirds sang back. They descended as one and swooped through the cultivator’s body even as he fell. The cultivator’s screams grew louder, then faded away. They slumped, unconscious, eyes rolled back.

Ding Bo spat curses, frustrated.

A second later, Li Xiang carved a hideous wound into Ding Bo’s back. “Stand and fight honorably!”

Face as wooden as ever, Ding Bo staggered forward a step. He pushed himself faster, racing away from Li Xiang.

Li Xiang scowled. “If you continue to attack innocents, I have no option but to strike you down!”

Ignoring her, Ding Bo tossed back a medical pill. His wounds closed over, and he launched himself at another cultivator.

Li Xiang slammed her foot down, digging a clear footprint into the solid earth. Her body transformed into a blur, and she reappeared in front of Ding Bo, blocking his strike. “Stop!”

That’s right! Though… I wouldn’t mind if he infected a few more cultivators…

Wait, no! What am I thinking? He must hold those qi seeds somewhere on his body. As long as he’s brought down, I can gather life qi!

Hui drew his sword and darted in, then thought better of it. He drew a talisman instead. “Activate!”

Ding Bo jumped instinctively, but it didn’t matter. Qi burst from the talisman and rushed into Hui’s body. He pointed at Ding Bo’s ankles. Wood shackles condensed around his feet.

Ding Bo glanced down woodenly and kicked. The wood turned to splinters.

In the moment’s distraction, Li Xiang darted in. He flickered his sword, but she steadily beat him backward. As he stepped, Hui drew another talisman and pointed. Ding Bo flinched, and a wound opened up on his arm where Li Xiang’s strike landed.

Hui smirked and moved his fingers. A block of wood encased Ding Bo’s sword arm.

Ding Bo’s blank expression tinged with a faint snarl. He whipped around and raced at Hui. Li Xiang opened a dozen wounds on his limbs and back, but he bit his cheeks and ignored them.

Hui jumped back, alarm crying out in his heart. He recalled the ducks and songbirds, scared. I need all my qi!

The songbirds turned and flew back toward him. The ducks hesitated, reluctant. Hui pulled harder, and they spiraled back toward his body.

In that time, Ding Bo crossed half the distance to Hui. The death and life qi rushed in behind him, two rotating vortexes just behind Ding Bo. Hui’s eyes widened. They aren’t going to make it!

He drew out a stack of talismans. “Activate!”

A huge fiery tabby cat, easily thirty meters tall, roared at Ding Bo. He slashed once, cutting a gap in the flames, and rushed through. In another instant, his sword reached Hui’s chest. As sharp as a razor blade, the wooden sword pierced through Hui’s chest. Blood spouted from his chest, staining his blue robes. He spat up a mouthful of blood and stumbled back. Cold bit through him. Hui crumpled, instinctively going limp.