The illusion played on. Days passed, but more quickly than actual days. Blocks of hours vanished at a time, and nights passed in seconds. Only the worst moments played out in real-time. Hui ignored the boy’s life and focused on the flow of qi around him, zeroing in on the outward flow. Sending out a probe, he followed the flow back. As he traced along it, the link connecting the probe to him thinned and thinned, until finally it broke. The qi vanished, his probe gone.

Frustrated, Hui furrowed his brows. Where is my qi going? I can’t search with the qi itself. Any mental energy I put into the qi is stripped out by whatever’s taking it. I could try to kill the connection with death qi, but… too much could go wrong with that. I can’t stop the flow of qi, for one. What if all I do is infect the stream of qi with death qi, and end up tainting all my qi with death qi?

Then this small cultivator really will die! No, no, too dangerous. Not unless I have no other option!

Hui choked back his qi again, but even killing it completely couldn’t stop the stream of qi from draining away from his body. He frowned. The illusion can’t take all my qi at once, and it’ll have to trap me in here for months to take all my qi. Someone at a higher realm would have to be in here for years, and by then anyone would figure out how to escape! There has to be something else. Some point, some trigger…

Alright, to be fair, I’m ignoring the choices that drain my qi faster, but even so! It’s not as if mind-cultivation isn’t a thing. Other people have durable wills and deep patience. There has to be something else to this!

The boy leaned against a wall, simmering with anger. Despite his disinterest in the boy’s life, Hui felt the anger like his own. He focused on breathing exercises and managed to stifle it, distancing himself from the boy again. Don’t get drawn in, no matter how hard the illusion tries!

“Are you ready? Your future bride will arrive today. You have to look perfect!” the second wife said, fluttering around the younger boy from earlier, fixing the last details of his robes.

Layered in finery, the boy stood stiffly, his arms blocked out from his sides by the thickness of the silk robes and fine ornaments. “Mother…”

“Qiu Beiling deserves someone like you. I’m sure they’ll transfer the engagement when they see what a fine child you are,” she assured him, fixing a jade pendant that dangled from his belt.

“She’s meant to be my wife,” the boy murmured, his voice rough. It hitched when he spoke, his youth showing through.

Ah, this plotline. It never fails! Next, the boy’s meteoric rise, and the reluctant girl, left behind, now betrothed to another man… Hui nodded, interested despite himself. If I think about it, this whole scenario is like living out one of my novels from back home. Hmm, there’s worse fates…

No, no, Hui! Don’t get drawn in by the illusion!

The second wife whipped around. At the sight of the boy, her smile twisted into a hideous scowl. Pointing a finger at the boy, she howled, “What is he doing here? Get him out, out! He mustn’t dirty the betrothal. Lock him in with the donkeys!”

The scene hitched, and Hui found himself in control. Yet again, he sat back passively, waiting for the scene to continue. Even though he knew it was a trap, a faint thread of frustration twisted in his heart. If only I could step in… I could change everything. Fix everything. This boy doesn’t have to live the way I did.

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Hui shook his head again. An illusion, an illusion, an illusion, it’s all an illusion! Closing his eyes, he murmured a chant under his breath to calm his mind and focused on circulating his qi. Qi and a faint aura of death qi flowed in, not quite enough qi to build back what he lost, barely more than a breath of death qi. If I cultivated here for a year, I wouldn’t have as much death qi as I currently have life qi. Similarly, this much qi… well, I barely absorb qi normally, without the qi-kill-qi-rush technique.

A second strand of qi caught his attention, not drifting away, but leading toward him. He probed it immediately. The scent of blood surrounded it, thick and heavy. On closer inspection, it emanated a reddish aura. It blended into his qi smoothly, unlike life or death qi, and slowly tainted the blue color of his dantian to purple.

This! It’s—the source of my frustration! How insidious. They prepared for uninterested passersby like myself! If they don’t fall the illusion, then force them to fall for the illusion!

Not this Hui. He sharpened the probe into a knife of qi and cut off the strand. The qi with the red aura fell away, fading. The frustration in his heart faded as well, but slowly. Red lingered in his dantian, swirling along with the blue.

Is there any way to speed this up? It’s too dangerous! Let me beat it already, let me out! I don’t like this! Fast forward, fast forward!

Almost as he thought it, the scene flashed forward again. This time, it sped through scenes he’d already foreseen: the betrothal swap, the cold eyes of the boy’s once-betrothed, the fury building in the boy’s heart, the inevitable beating as the boy broke in and protested, his father threatening to disown him.

At last, the boy snapped. He stood there, fists balled, veins standing out on his forehead, head bowed under his father’s admonishments. The scene slowed down again. Anger roiled through him, and suddenly, qi burst through his veins. Hui stared, taken aback. This kid cultivated without any instruction, instinctively? That’s—truly, a heaven-defying talent!

…Is this kid Master?

No, no. Master would have overturned this house long ago. Besides, he entered Starbound Sect at age five, far younger than this boy!

The scene sped up again. The boy leaped through the air and grabbed a sword from the wall. Maddened, his eyes red with bloodlust, he rushed through the house, massacring everyone he met. Even Hui, along for the ride, felt disgust at the blood splattering over the boy and staining the walls. The second wife fell. The servants fell. His once-betrothed and her servants all fell. He searched for the younger brother, but couldn’t find him, and instead charged back into the hall.

At last, they stood before the kid’s father again. Chest heaving, the boy stood before his father, bloody sword in hand. He’d killed without technique, slashing randomly. If not for the qi pounding through his veins, powering his every move, he would have been felled by the adults long before now. He lifted his sword, and the scene stopped dead.

Hui felt the weight of the sword, felt the sticky, hot blood on his body. The father stared down at him, frozen in abject horror, his face bloodless. Time had stopped.

So this is it. The end of the illusion. The final decision point. If I don’t make a choice, I’ll be stuck here forever. But if I'm not careful about picking the right choice, I’m sure the illusion will devour me!

Hui’s hands moved on their own, suddenly. The sword lifted to his throat. A second later, it dropped and pointed at the father instead.

“Is that your answer? Kill yourself, or kill your father?” Hui laughed aloud. “This whole illusion—whoever you are, wherever you are—it’s just to stroke your ego, isn’t it? To assure you that you made the right choice! That there were only two choices!”

Hui pointed the sword at the father, then shook his head. “Wrong. It gets you nothing but more debt… er, I mean… karmic debt. Trust me, kid, there’s no good that comes from your father dying. It’s useless. You can’t escape that way.”

He lifted it to his throat. “So suicide is the only other option you saw? Don’t be ridiculous. Life is precious. You can’t eat delicious food once you’re dead. You can’t meet beauties and befriend heros once you’re dead.”

“No! This Hui refuses! The correct option is the same as it’s always been!” He threw the sword away, then collapsed backward, faking his death.