As he drew harder at the life qi, more rushed to his hand. Now fully healed, his hand glowed with vitality. Life qi poured into his dantian, forming into songbird after songbird. They swirled in the void, fluttering around happily.

Immersed in absorbing life qi, Hui’s eyes went blank. He fell into the stream and descended past the tablet, into the earth beneath. Coldness closed in around him. Only a small ember of warmth remained, and even that quickly escaped toward the surface.

“Master… why was I cast away?”

“Who?”

“Master, I can still fight. I can still cultivate. Please, let me out.”

“I’m not your master.”

Rage burned, coiling red up the life force. Hui flinched back, startled back to himself. Sunk in darkness, he looked around. This is… my soul? Dammit, I fell out again!

“Who is this? Who are you?” the mysterious voice asked.

“It’s… a friend. I came to free you,” Hui lied. Don’t eat me, mysterious Senior! But… that voice. Where have I heard it before?

He doesn’t seem dangerous. And if he’s stored under the ground, sealed away with death qi, he’s almost certainly not a friend of the sect! If I free him ahead of whatever trap they plan to spring, isn’t he likely to become an ally?

“You can’t. I’ve only barely been able to hold on for this long. Like all the others, I’ll die soon. Vitality forcibly burned, converted into energy, I… even if I made it to the surface, who would recognize me?”

Hui reached out. His hand closed on a cold hand, flesh soft and damp. “Come with me. I’ll get you out of here.”

“No, I—!”

They soared upward, out of the tablet. Hui passed easily through his tunnel, but as he passed through, the tablet’s repressing aura suddenly surged. The tablet glowed with black light, and it clamped down on Hui’s tunnel. Hui’s hand stuck in the tunnel, holding on to the slippery hand.

“Hold on!” Hui called. He pulled harder, yanking at his hand.

“It’s no use.”

The hand he held went limp. This close to the surface, his third eye faintly pierced the tablet, allowing him to catch a glimpse of the face below. Pale skin and sunken cheeks, dark eyes full of blood, dark hair flowing behind. Though the face appeared like a ghost’s, he made out familiar features under the surface.

Hui’s eyes widened. “Ding Bo?”

The one I fought in the tournament. The one who spread the qi seeds, whose leg got chopped by Li Xiang, whose master covered for him by faking his death! This is where he ended up?

“I—my name… I—I am not, I… am many, not…”

“Ding Bo, what happened to you?” Hui asked, frowning.

The specter’s eyes flickered. Madness glimmered in their depths. “I am many, not one. I am the unspent lives. I am the karma of all those consigned below. I am the sect!”

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“Ding Bo! Listen to me!” Hui said.

As Hui called his name for a third time, light snapped back into Ding Bo’s eyes. For a second, clarity overpowered madness. “I failed. This is my punishment.”

“But… but what is it?” Hui asked.

“When we fail, we… must be punished. If we fail enough, we feed the sect. The hunger must be fed. The trees must be nourished.”

Hui froze. His mind trembled, as if struck by lightning. He stared at the trees around him with new eyes. Now that he knew what to look for, the green qi inside the trees shimmered with fragments of souls, the green the exact same tone as the qi inside Ding Lao’s body!

The garden patch was nourished with cultivators, too, but their bodies, not their souls. Is this where the souls of those bodies end up? Their karma… becomes entwined with the sect’s. They become the soil beneath the trees, and their souls and karma nourish the forest. The Mysterious Heavenly Forest is built off the bodies and karma of failed cultivators! While they live, cultivators are trained to use wood-elemental qi, so that when they fail or die, their bodies can more easily nourish the trees!

What a bloodthirsty sect, to build its strength off the dead! If I were to compare the bloodiness of Mysterious Heavenly Forest Sect to the bloodiness of Black Asp Sect, I’m not sure who would come first!

Determined, Hui gazed down at Ding Bo. He heaved harder, and Ding Bo moved toward the surface, now so close that his face could be seen pressing against the surface of the tablet from beneath even with Hui’s ordinary eyes. “I’ll get you out of here!”

He’s my enemy, he attacked my sect, but no one deserves this fate. Let him face his karma at the Yellow Springs, not suffer here, stuck under the soil until his soul dissolves and the trees devour him!

Ding Bo shook his head. “I can’t. I—”

“There you are!” Ding Lao shouted.

Instinctively, Hui jerked away from the tablet. Ding Bo’s hand slipped out of his. For a second, his specter laid there, just under the surface, looking at Ding Lao.

“Cousin?” Ding Bo murmured.

Hurtling through the air, Ding Lao froze as well. “Ding Bo? Weren’t you… sent away?”

This is my chance! “I’ll come back!” he promised Ding Bo, and leaped into his body. The world shuddered as his soul and body synced again. Even as it shuddered, Hui operated his qi and sped away from Ding Lao. No more hesitation. Straight to the palace!

Life qi glimmered inside him, a wild heat that roared in golden motes as it sped through his veins. Hui took a deep breath and circulated it into his dantian, slowly condensing it into more songbirds. So much life qi. Why didn’t I think of absorbing the life qi from the traps earlier? It’s perfect for me! I’m only taking apart their cowardly sneak attacks, so they can’t blame me or make me pay for it without revealing their hand!

“Over here!”

“Help!”

“Hey! Don’t you run away on your own. Help your Elder Brothers out!”

Hui hesitated. He grit his teeth, then glanced over his shoulder. Ding Lao and Ding Bo still stared at one another as Ding Bo’s form grew blurry.

“Cousin, what happened?” Ding Lao prompted.

Okay. I have a few seconds! Hui kicked off a tree and hurtled toward the voices.

The triplets appeared—or at least, their heads did. Planted in the ground, the earth encased them up to their shoulders, only their heads left out. Hui reached them and grabbed the first by his armpits, hauling him up. The earth resisted, glimmering with qi, but he poured qi into his arms and heaved. The first triplet popped up like an overgrown carrot.

“Ding Lao’s body might be strong, but his magical arts are pathetic!” the first—no, that’s definitely the third—crowed as soon as he was freed.

“He got you.”

“Yeah, says the loser.”

The third scowled. “You two got caught too, you know.”

Hui darted to the other two triplets and quickly freed them from the earth. They moved to dart in all directions, but Hui raised a hand. “If I might, Elder Brothers, follow me. I know a place Ding Lao cannot infiltrate!”

“Oh?”

“Show us!”

“It’s your palace, isn’t it? We can’t go in either.”

“You can go in if I let you,” Hui declared confidently. Probably?

The triplets glanced amongst one another, then back at where Ding Lao stood. Ding Bo had almost completely faded away, only a faint shadow visible under the tablet.

“Worth a try!”

“Can’t hurt!”

“Yeah, I guess it’s better than running around the trees like headless chickens,” the third agreed.

Hui nodded. “This way, Elder Brothers!” If I have the triplets with me, I can get back into that secret area where the qi seed and Lotus Pill plants are! I can’t throw them away now!