Another few days passed by. Jin Xian raced from pavilion to pavilion. Unlike Hui, she felt no particular emotions at the insides of the pavilion. Suddenly, she froze in place.

“What is it?” Hui murmured, paying more attention to what his left eye saw.

Jin Xian stared hungrily at a set of finger-blades. Pitch black and wrought with delicate ornamentation, they were meant to sit at the end of one’s fingers and form talons with which to attack the enemy.

“Eh? Jin Xian, don’t you already have claws?” Hui asked.

Jin Xian continued to stare at the blades.

He sighed. “You’re the one who entered the realm. If it’s your fated good fortune, take it.”

Come to think of it… maybe the trap is once someone picks up an item!

Jin Xian reached out. Her hand closed on the blades. Hui held his breath.

Nothing happened. He sighed, shaking his head. No, no. I’m too paranoid.

Ignoring his mood swings, Jin Xian slotted the claws on the fingers of her right hand. The second the last one settled into place, she closed her eyes and circulated her qi through them. The blades merged into her flesh, darkening the fingernails on her right hand to black. Black veins ran through the tips of her fingers close to the flesh, visible as dark streaks in her skin. She flexed her hand, and fearsome black claws emerged from her fingertips. Before they had merely been claws, but now, they dripped a dark purple poison that hissed where it dripped on the grass below.

Huh. Hui raised his eyebrows, then shrugged. I hope Fang Hua doesn’t mind…

“I don’t mind at all,” Jin Xian replied.

Hui startled, nearly falling over where he sat. “Jin Xian?”

“No, it’s Fang Hua. You hadn’t noticed, so I wasn’t going to say anything, but… it’s been me since I entered this realm. The second we stepped inside, Jin Xian fell asleep.”

“Eh…” And you weren’t going to say anything?

Fang Hua blinked her left eye. “We’re connected mentally. I can hear your thoughts.”

“…” Elder Sister, that’s kind of important to mention! Wait, she can hear my thoughts. Apologies, Elder Sister!

“In any case, I didn’t think it was necessary. I was equally willing to search for your friends as Jin Xian was, and it’s nice to be out for a change. But Hui, I’m not growing tired. I’m sleeping in Jin Xian to recover because my soul was tattered by the Xi Clan’s puppet technique. I shouldn’t be able to remain out for very long. In fact, I said nothing because I expected to fall asleep and for Jin Xian to reawaken perhaps an hour after I woke up. And yet, here I am, days later. This realm seems ordinary, but… there’s something strange about it.”

“You think it’s the realm that allows you to be out?” Hui asked.

Fang Hua shrugged. “I woke up when I stepped inside. I can sense my soul, and it’s still as tattered as ever. I should not be awake, or if I am awake, my soul should be dissipating. Instead… it’s as if I entered a sort of waking stasis. I only hope I won’t have to pay some price when I emerge.”

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“If it’s dangerous, you should leave,” Hui said. I really want to search for Li Xiang longer, but I can’t do it at the cost of Fang Hua’s soul deteriorating.

“It’s fine. Even I don’t know if I’m going to deteriorate when I leave this place. I’ll enjoy being out while I can, and if I have to pay for it with another hundred years of slumber when I emerge, so be it. I’m a fourth stage death cultivator now, thanks to you. I could look forward to hundreds of years of lifespan as an ordinary fourth-stage cultivator, and probably thousands as a death cultivator.”

“Death cultivators have that much of an advantage?” Hui asked.

Fang Hua shrugged. “Most of them are like your friend Chang Bolin, barely sentient. Their minds finish decaying in a few hundred years, and they perish. But you preserved me immediately. Even Jin Xian is uncommonly sound of mind, not to mention that I managed to hang on in my blood after death by using a blood-soul fusion technique. Since death cultivators don’t have bodily processes, we only have to worry about preserving our flesh, mind, and soul. Technically, any death cultivator at any stage has an unbounded lifespan, it’s simply a matter of preservation, both of physical tissue and sanity. However, one’s cultivation can only support so much of either. Therefore, when speaking practically, death cultivators do still progress in terms of lifespan as they progress through cultivation. It’s just that it’s more a matter of being better able to preserve their bodies and more able to bolster their minds as they reach higher tiers, rather than bolstering their lifeforce or extending their longevity.” Fang Hua paused. “We. As we reach higher tiers.”

“You know about… me and Chang Bolin?” Hui asked.

“We are in a mind-sharing state, essentially in the same state as cultivators enter during a soulsearch, Hui. The difference is that it’s a willing state with you and I or you and Jin Xian, so there’s none of the attack and defense of a soulsearch to worry about. If I didn’t have barriers in my mind, you would be able to read my memories, as well.”

“Er, Elder Sister, could you teach me about those barriers…?” Hui asked.

Fang Hua chuckled. “Sure. Hmm, there’s a lot of memories of this pretty white haired girl, who’s she?”

“Fang Hua!” Hui protested.

“Throw your energy against mine if you don’t want me to see,” she said.

Hui frowned. I can’t even sense her energy, how… Wait! There. That cold spot. Is that her?

“What’s this? Even in her male form…?”

“Elder Sister, that part of my mind is a mess. Could you look at something less embarrassing? Like my childhood?” Hui replied, bringing up memories of his second life’s childhood, and being suppressed in Starbound Sect. At the same time, he drew a talisman using his mental energy and one of the Bai Clan’s new barrier techniques. Silver lines materialized and bound up the cold spot, freezing it in place.

“Well, now you’ve trapped me in your memories of Bai Xue. You haven’t really fixed the problem,” Fang Hua commented dryly.

Frowning, Hui modified the talisman in his mental energy and activated it again. “Expel!”

The wires bound the cold spot and ejected it, forcing it out of that part of his mental energy.

“Hmm, I can’t go there anymore. Who’s this Li Xiang girl?” Fang Hua asked, wandering through his mind.

Hui threw up another mental talisman, then another, chasing the cold spot around his mind. At last, he scowled. All I want is for her to access my active thoughts. Then, what if…

Again, he drew a talisman with his mental energy. This time, he modified the top half, then cast it out. Silver threads appeared and wrapped up all of his mental energy, binding it with a powerful force of expulsion. Fang Hua’s cold spot popped out of the depths of his mental energy and could only hover outside, unable to pass through the wires.

Fang Hua laughed. “Impressive! I didn’t even teach you my technique, and you figured out one all on your own. No wonder you’re Weiheng Wu’s inheriting disciple.”

“Er, I think I’ve inherited that, now. He ascended,” Hui said.

Silence. Fang Hua hummed. “Xiao Hui, you’re sad? Your Master ascended. Could there be a greater honor?”

He left me behind. Just like— Hui slapped his own cheek, forcing the thought to stop. “Elder Sister, please. Let’s focus on searching for Li Xiang now.”

Silence. Fang Hua took off again, striding through the poppies. For a while, she ran without speaking. At last, she spoke. “I’ll leave one day, too, you know.”

“I know.” Everyone does.

“Oh well, but that’s centuries in the future.”

Hui laughed. “Are you trying to reassure me, Fang Hua?”

Fang Hua winked her left eye. “Someone has to.”