Hui burst back to reality as a hand slapped toward his face. Blood already dripped down his body, and Zhubi hissed, rearing up from Hui’s arm to glare at their attacker. Rather than a hand of flesh, this hand was pitch black and huge, at least as large as his head. Hui instantly played dead, and the hand sent him, Zhubi, and Gu Tian’s sword flying. They fell, hurtling downward.

And fell. And fell.

We’re falling for quite a long time this time… ah, this is going to hurt, isn’t it? Hui quietly activated his crystallized mode as he fell and subtly turned to keep Zhubi from hitting the ground.

They crashed into the mountain peak far below. Hui released the crystallized mode and flopped there, letting his lotus body slowly recuperate its wounds, but carefully holding back his life qi. With all this life qi, I’d heal instantly if I wasn’t careful. Who would have expected life qi to get in the way of my death faking? Ah… but it’s a good problem to have, a good problem!

He peered upward, silently searching the sky for his attacker. Who… where? One of the All-Heavens cultivators? That felt like a fifth stage attack. Then… that Ding Qinwen person, maybe?

A familiar cackle sounded out. Erlan stood overhead, balancing on an ink brush. Behind him, an inky-black gash in the sky closed, and a small teleportation array set on an innocuous stone near the altar went dark. “You used it, didn’t you? His Excellency’s formation. You used it, didn’t you, Xie Hao. Or should I say, Xiao Hui?”

Hui scowled. If Erlan’s seen through me to that extent, he knows I’m playing dead. He stood and brushed off his robes, then looked at Erlan, slightly confused. “You know Chen Wuya?”

“I… who?” Erlan asked, momentarily lost.

Hui blinked. “Then… ‘His Excellency’….”

“His Excellency Yunxu, of course.”

Hui stared at him, frowning. He shook his head silently, confused. Wait. Erlan thinks Yunxu created the array, doesn’t he? Ha! I guess he must have joined Yunxu after Yunxu revived the formation.

Well, that tracks. After all, Erlan doesn’t seem like a former Starbound Sect cultivator, and Yunxu activated the formation for the first time while he was still a member of Starbound Sect. I don’t know that for sure, I guess, but for the sequence of events to make any sense, it must be true. After all, both Li Xiang and Gu Tian are former Starbound Sect cultivators. He must have been experimenting on Starbound Sect cultivators for a while before he got kicked out.

A sudden feeling of injustice struck Hui, and his frown deepened. Yunxu was experimenting with our demonic patriarch’s soul transferal array and was allowed to stay in the sect with no question, but I get threatened with death and removal over what, injuring one disciple? This… what favoritism!

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“Who is Chen Wuya?” Erlan asked, taken aback.

“No one, no one,” Hui said, waving his hand. “Forget I said anything.”

“No one, my ass!” A crow dropped out of the heavens and raked at Hui with its claws.

Hui fell back, covering his head with his arms. “Senior, forgive me! Patriarch! Surely you can overlook such a small error!”

“…” Erlan stood there awkwardly, feeling forgotten. Er, hello, I’m here to steal your spell array, can you stop playing with birds?

A second later, his scalp went numb. Did Xiao Hui just say… Patriarch? He squinted at the crow, suddenly suspicious.

Atop Hui, the crow wiped its claws on his robes, muttering to itself, then turned and glared at Erlan. “Huh? What’re you looking at?”

“You… one of Xiao Hui’s constructs?” Erlan guessed. I had no idea those birds could talk… In any case, it’s no threat. It has Xiao Hui’s cultivation, at best.

The crow cawed, a sound almost like laughter. Its whole body shook. It shook its head and flapped into the air to look down on Erlan. “You think Xiao Hui made me? No, no. Wrong. If anyone made anyone, then I’m the one who made him! He ought to call me—”

Hui jumped up. He pointed over to the left, eyes wide. “Ah! Fen Long!”

The crow whipped around to the left, then turned on Hui. Beating him about the head with its wings, it chided him, “What kind of dumbass distraction was that?”

“Senior, have mercy,” Hui cried, falling back.

Erlan cleared his throat. He reached out a hand, clenching it into a fist. A ten meter wide hand drawn from a few rough lines of ink materialized and reached out toward the storm of souls. “If you’re busy, I’ll simply take the array.”

“You’re free to try,” the crow said smugly.

Erlan frowned at the crow. Where did this creature come from? Why is it so infuriating?

“Senior, Erlan is going to take away the souls, not your soul transferal formation itself. He’s misspoken,” Hui explained.

“Ah. Well. You should probably stop him, then,” Chen Wuya replied, suddenly disinterested. He turned over his shoulder and adjusted several of his feathers.

Erlan coughed, swallowing back a mouthful of blood. That Xiao Hui always speaks politely, but to hear him politely correcting me to a crow, I… what is this stifling feeling?

The crow looked at Erlan. “I know, right? It disgusts me, too.”

Don’t understand me! Erlan thought, scowling.

“Eh? What? What disgusts you?” Hui asked, looking at the crow with earnest eyes.

Shaking his head, Erlan ignored the two of them and focused on the mass of souls. The hand blazed away as it met the corrupted formation and its blasts of yin qi, but the counterattack gave Erlan a better feel for how to approach taking away the souls. Those idiots put me completely on the back foot, but they can’t stop me. I’ll ignore them and complete his Excellency’s request, and take back that foolish Xiao Hui while I’m at it. To himself, he muttered, “After all, the time has come for the harvest.”

“You aren’t harvesting anyone’s souls!” Hui shouted. He patted himself down, then, finding the snakeskin still in place, adjusted the reed shoes, and fired a pulse of qi into the air.

Erlan braced for an attack, but nothing happened. He frowned at Hui.

Hui grinned back, triumphant. “I don’t know if I can beat you, Erlan, but I don’t need to beat you.”

“What does that mean?” Erlan asked, frown deepening.

Hui ignored him, staring at the souls, lost in thought. I can’t leave them here. I forgot about it, but Yunxu knows this spell formation better than anyone, save Chen Wuya. If he wants to take the souls away, the spell formation’s defenses will mean nothing. I can’t let that happen!

In that case, I need to protect the souls before that happens. Protect them…

Hui’s eyes lit up. He tore off a section of his robe and bit his thumb, drawing blood. Or take them away!