As he and Fang Hua ran, they passed by a pavilion. Hui grit his teeth, trying to ignore it, but at the last second, swerved toward it.

“Hey! Xiao Hui, where are you going?” Fang Hua asked.

“I… I can’t face Li Xiang like this!” he shouted back. Walk away from good fortune? Ignore a jackpot of death qi? I’d be betraying Master’s final teachings if I did that! Li Xiang, hold on. It’ll just be another minute or two, I promise.

“We’re still mind-linked, you idiot. Don’t try to bullshit me,” Fang Hua muttered.

“Eh?” Hui asked, startled. But… the mental barrier… and she isn’t a terrifyingly powerful senior like Chen Wuya…

“I knew it. It was bullshit,” Fang Hua said, smirking triumphantly.

Hui narrowed his eyes at her. Tricking me like that? Elder Sister…

She waved her hand. “I don’t mean to stop you. I don’t want you to die, for now. Until I stabilize my soul fully, I’m not sure what would happen to me and Jin Xian if that happened. Grow more powerful, Xiao Hui. I’ll wait right here.”

Hmm? I did personally refine Jin Xian, but she should live on after my death. Or… is Fang Hua worried about something else? Could it be… Jin Xian has something like a proto-consciousness, a vague will without full awareness, more akin to an animal than a human being. Without me here, is it possible for her to evolve to full awareness? At that point, there will be two fully conscious wills within their body: Jin Xian’s, the will of the ghoul embedded in the body, and Fang Hua, the will of the soul embedded in the blood. In that case, Fang Hua is suddenly threatened by Jin Xian.

I don’t think I guessed perfectly, but I bet it’s something like that, Hui mused to himself, lifting his short legs high to climb onto the pavilion. The second he stepped inside, four fierce dark auras caught his senses, one from each of the four walls. A shocking spear, the blade mottled with a muddy red stain that looked like dried blood, a gourd, from which could be heard the shrieks of ghosts, a resplendent robe the color of wet blood, and an ordinary-looking pair of woven rush shoes emanated the auras. Each aura differed slightly. The spear and the robe emanated a bloody aura, while the bottle gourd full of ghouls had an icy cloud of yin energy around it. The shoes, strangest of all, fluctuated, giving off a multifarious aura neither life, nor death, neither bloody nor demonic, neither pure energy nor ordinary qi. Despite appearing as ordinary straw sandals, the kind any ordinary peasant would wear, they exuded an ancientness that exceeded the other treasures in the pavilion.

Hui darted from artifact to artifact, absorbing their qi. The gourd fell silent, no longer surrounded by a dark, icy cloud. The robe faded to a pleasant pink, and the bloodstain faded on the spear’s blade. Hui licked his lips, already back to his usual height. There was some blood qi in that batch… ah, I suppose Fatty can have it.

A quack was his reply.

Unseen by Hui, Fang Hua whipped around and stared at his midsection. Her brows furrowed in confusion.

Hui approached the shoes, somewhat hesitant. Sometimes they seem to emanate an aura of death qi, but other times… not. Should I absorb them? Can I?

He reached out.

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Woven rushes met his fingers, cool and solid. Hui yanked his hand back, but the shoes came with it, as if they were glued to his skin. He shook his hand desperately. No! I haven’t… I haven’t picked a treasure! I refuse!

The shoes refused to let go. They sunk into his hand, merging with his flesh.

Terrified, Hui stopped trying to shake them off. In the same instant, they appeared normal once more, simply sitting atop his hand rather than merging into it.

Fang Hua peered around his shoulder. “Is that your fated treasure?”

“I don’t want it! I don’t want any treasure,” Hui complained, scowling at the shoes. Now I can’t absorb any more qi, dammit! I…

He looked over his shoulder. Fang Hua stood within the pavilion. She cocked an eyebrow at him, silently asking for an explanation.

“You can still enter the pavilions?” he asked.

She nodded. “Who said I couldn’t?”

Oh. I… guess I assumed I’d be kept away from the treasures once I acquired one. Turns out… nothing’s stopping me! He grinned for just a moment, suddenly pleased, and reached out to a treasure beside him. A force of repulsion welled up, preventing his hand from contacting the treasure, a small silver ring, but he could still sense the qi within. As the ring stored an ordinary-qi enchantment, it refused to leave the ring and come to him, but aside from that, he could sense and absorb qi still.

Hui looked at the sandals, then shrugged and knelt. The shiny black shoes on the plant-body’s feet cracked and fell off as he lowered himself, and he slipped on the sandals. In that instant, his aura began to change. Life aura, death aura, an elemental aura of wood, an ordinary aura… it passed through all the auras in the time it took for a spark to fly off a flint, then settled on an ordinary aura.

Hui raised his eyebrows in surprise and kicked the sandals, giving them a feel. They perfectly fit his feet. Huh. As expected of a treasure fated for me… being able to change my aura with the treasure instead of my own effort will take a burden off my mental energy when I play dead!

“It is… a disappointing treasure, though. Rush sandals…? Is there even anything special about them?” Fang Hua said, frowning.

“Elder Sister, can you sense my aura?” Hui asked. She didn’t notice a difference. Is it only me who thinks my aura has changed, then?

Fang Hua frowned. Her eyes widened. “I… incredible. It feels exactly like the ordinary you. And your skin is peach again!”

Oh, really? Hui lifted his arm and turned it over. Instead of the pale green skin of a lotus beast, his skin was once more flesh-tone.

“A treasure that allows you to disguise yourself? I see. How well-suited for you! The only thing better would be a magical treasure that let you play dead, but what cultivator would create such a thing?”

“A magical treasure that lets me play dead?” Hui repeated, his eyes glittering. A second later, he coughed, turning away. “Right. What a strange thing. No one would make that.”

Fang Hua shook her head at him.

With that, they set off again. Whenever they passed a pavilion, Hui raced off and went to absorb any death qi from the treasures inside. After a while, he began to absorb life qi as well, once his soul was strong enough to withstand the additional life qi. The more he absorbed from the pavilions, the more streamlined his absorption process became. Eventually, as they approached a pavilion, Hui sent out streams of life and death qi to start the absorption, and by the time they passed the pavilion by, a half-dozen or so treasures would lie dead and inert inside.

The process became so automatic to Hui that he began to think to himself as he ran. A magical treasure that can fake death… magical treasures… talismans… Faking-death talismans… are exactly what I need! Mm, but how would that work? If I… maybe… imbue restrictive energy into the talismans… hmm, it’s not a bad idea, but then there would still be energy. I need to have the talisman kill their qi and slow their body processes. It’ll be a body-manipulation talisman, not unlike Fang Hua’s jiangshi talisman.

He glanced over his shoulder at the black mark on Fang Hua’s forehead.

It would be a ferocious offensive talisman, forcibly stopping someone’s qi flow, but I don’t think it would work on anyone at the same cultivation level as me or higher. It’d have to be a talisman anyone at the same level as me used willingly.

I’ll start with a willing fake-death talisman, and then, if I can figure that out, I can move on to trying out an offensive qi-blockage attack. I knew it, faking death is the most powerful technique!