Confusion welled up from within the links, along with panic. Hui reached out, doing his best to reassure everyone. You’re safe. Stay quiet. Don’t fight it. A little longer, and they’ll all leave. Trust me. I’ll keep you safe!

The Peak Lords probed the link back. Hui trembled, his body deteriorating further. One by one, they made contact with him. One by one, they backed off. None of them chose to forcibly break the link, or force their way out of playing dead.

Hui let out a quiet breath. Thank goodness. Even with the compass and Chen Wuya’s help, I couldn’t stop a determined Peak Lord from breaking out of playing dead. If one of them leaped up, it would have completely ruined the illusion! I’m glad they all made the right decision. Hopefully now everyone understands: playing dead is always the right choice!

A bolt of light shot through the air, and Gui Delun stood there, hovering before him. He looked down at Hui, face as stiff as ever.

“Choosing to use that spell array to slay your entire sect before the extermination spell kills them in body and soul? A bold decision. I wonder if they’ll understand, in the cycle of reincarnation, that you acted for their sake? Or if they’ll simply curse your name, slayer of your own sect.”

Hui laid there, still dead.

Gui Delun raised a hand over the compass, threatening to smash it.

Hui continued to lay there. Do whatever you want, Senior! Just leave me alone!

“Mmm… if you value your sectmates, don’t let him smash the compass. Without the compass, no one can control the spell formation. Once it goes out of control, even I don’t know what will happen to the people connected to it. At best… nothing. At worst…” Chen Wuya paused. “Complete soul extermination?”

I can’t allow that. Hui gasped a breath. He stopped playing dead himself, but refused to stop the spell for anyone else. Sis Mei pushed against him, panicking. Xixing watched on from a distance, tense but silent.

He climbed to his feet and stared down Gui Delun, defiant. “That’s right. I did. What else would you expect from a filthy, heretic, demonic cultivator like myself?”

Internally, Hui quavered, trembling from fear. Don’t kill me, don’t kill me, don’t kill me. That extermination power hurt, I don’t want to feel any more! Please, Senior, move on. This small cultivator isn’t worth your time!

Gui Delun looked down on him, impassive. He exerted a little of his pressure, and Hui’s body creaked.

He fell to his knee, already exhausted simply by maintaining the formula, unable to hold himself up. A second later, he dropped into a full kowtow. Eh, whatever. As long as I’m already on my knees, might as well show Senior some respect.

“Senior Gui Delun, do whatever you want to this small cultivator. I have already made my move. I am unworthy of your direct judgement, but I ask of you to hand it down anyways. A wormlike existence like myself cannot help but await the judgement of one as enlightened and mighty as yourself. Even if you deem me worthy of soul eradication and bodily death, I will accept it as my fate!”

Absolutely not! If he tries any of that, this small Hui will resist with all his might! Senior, do what you want with me, but killing and soul eradication are completely out of the question!

Well, I can’t say that, though. I don’t want him to notice that the spell formation is still active. As long as he takes out his anger on me and not the compass, I can… probably survive, but I don’t have any techniques to fake the death of a magical item.

Ah! What a failing on my part, to never consider faking the death of non-living items! I still lack so much in the path of death faking.

Gui Delun blinked, just once. “Did you think I came to this peak for you?”

“S…senior?” Hui asked.

“I came to this pitiful backwater sect to destroy this spell formation and raze the sect to its roots in the process, if I had to. Now, I can take two pheasants with one arrow.” Gui Delun’s hand fell.

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Hui leaped up, eyes wide. Circulating his cultivation at its top speed, he forced himself up and threw himself at Gui Delun. His body and cultivation both creaked, on the verge of shattering, but still he forced himself to move. Blood burst out from his skin, and his muscles tore, but still he charged. No!

He slammed into Gui Delun, but an ant might as well have thrown itself against a bus. Gui Delun didn’t so much as budge. Hui cried out as his bones broke from the force of the impact, but Gui Delun was unharmed.

Dammit! There’s such a gap between us that no matter how I struggle, it’s useless! But even so, I… I can’t just give up!

Gritting his teeth, Hui circulated the plant technique, healing his injuries. Simultaneously, he threw out his barrier talismans one after another, layering them on top of the Feng Shui compass. As quickly as the golden barriers shimmered into place, Gui Delun’s hand cut through them. Smashed bits of barrier turned the air to gold.

“Is this formation that valuable to you? All the more reason to destroy it,” Gui Delun said grimly. Qi surged to his hand, and it continued to slice down.

Nothing I do does anything! No!

Chen Wuya clicked his tongue. Dryly, he commented, “Well, that’s unfortunate.”

“Shut up!” Hui shouted. He changed his target and kicked at the Feng Shui compass with all his strength instead. If I can’t move Gui Delun, maybe I can—

His leg shattered. Hui fell back, screaming in pain even as the plant technique healed his leg.

“Well, what did you expect? It’s a formation I made. It isn’t something a fourth stage cultivator can kick around,” Chen Wuya replied, mildly amused.

Like a blade, Gui Delun’s hand sliced into the column. The compass smashed into a thousand tiny bits with the hand’s passing, completely eradicated.

The second the compass smashed, Hui’s connection to the sect stopped abruptly. No longer did the black threads connect them, nor could he sense anyone else’s state or thoughts. He stumbled back. His jaw worked, but no words came out.

No. No. No! I did it. I saved them all. It can’t, it can’t be. No!

“Now, to finish off the sect.” Casually, Gui Delun raised his hand toward Hui and dropped it again.

An intense sensation of danger jerked Hui back to the present. Instinctively, he calculated the angle of Gui Delun’s falling hand and threw himself out of the path of its blow.

Gui Delun’s hand strike slammed into the mountain. The mountain shuddered. Dust flew up, along with pebbles, dirt, boulders, trees, and everything else.

Hui whirled and fled into the dust, throwing up fire and ice talismans behind him to add to the smokescreen. Dammit! Dammit! Gui Delun… GUI DELUN! Why? Why!

No. This isn’t the end. I won’t let it end this way. This won’t be the end of the sect! I won’t let it be!

I’ll escape. I’ll escape, and I’ll figure out a way to bring everyone back. Whether they’re stuck in a state of playing dead, whether the backlash of the compass shattering killed them, it doesn’t matter! I’ll bring them all back. Every last one! Even the ones who teased me. Even Li Xiang’s creepy fans. I don’t care. They’re all Starbound Sect cultivators. They all deserve better than getting smashed on a whim by Gui Delun!

His hands danced, drawing out a flurry of items. Hui flew through the dust at top speed without looking back, almost too fast to see, ignoring as the dust drew long scratches on his already-broken flesh.

A hand closed on a ponytail-wearing man’s shoulder. He turned. Gui Delun looked at him, still emotionless. “Enough.”

Hui looked at Gui Delun’s hand, then hauled back and bit it. His skin cracked, revealing gray skin beneath.

Gui Delun’s face crinkled. A hint of a scowl pulled at his upper lip. He tensed his hand, sending a pulse of life qi into the ghoul. The creature screeched as light seared through it, breaking through dried skin in pulses of sharp gold, and died in a burst of sun-colored light.

“Xiao Hui. Come out, and you can die quickly, like your compatriots. Draw it out…” Gui Delun let his threat hang on the air.

No one emerged from within the dust storm. He furrowed his brows and waved his hand. Despite his best efforts, the dust refused to shift aside, as if the mountain itself, the very foundation of Starbound Sect, resisted his passage.

Far away, hidden within the debris, a white-robed form darted along. Hui glanced back and bit his lip. A ghoul down already? That’s faster than I’d like. I only have ten left… ah, nine now.

Chen Wuya’s voice whispered in Hui’s ear. “He’d already have you, but I set a trap on the sixth mountain long ago. This is my masterpiece, after all. I’d be an idiot not to set a trap or two around it. If anyone tries to destroy my peak, or destroys my spell formation, the mountain’s energy will block their divine sense to prevent them from easily locating the formation’s foundations. That foolish Gui Delun activated the trap with his own hand, twice over. He’s restricted to no more than a fifth… no, fourth stage cultivator, when it comes to sensing things with his mental energy alone.”

After a second, he clicked his tongue and continued, “It should have blocked his five senses and dealt a heavy blow to his cultivation base as well, but it’s already been activated a few times. A pity.”

“Are there any other traps hidden around here?” Hui asked, suddenly hopeful. Chen Wuya is our Patriarch, after all! If anyone knows the sect’s secret defenses, it’s him.

Chen Wuya paused. “None you can activate. If you’re lucky, that fool might activate them by chance, but…”

Dammit. I guess I’m on my own. Hui bit his lip, then furrowed his brows in intense focus. If anyone can get out of this situation, it’s me! And I will. No one can stop me. I refuse! I’m going to escape. Escape, then come back. I don’t care if they’re dead. I don’t care if they’re trapped in the soul transferal array. No matter what, until I bring back all of Starbound Sect, until I bring back Xixing and Sis Mei, I won’t die, even if I’m killed!