Light filtered in. The gray glow that passed for dawn in this strange realm faded up the passageway and into Hui’s cavern. He focused on the ghoul skin, absorbed in his work. His qi spiraled across it, from one point to the next. Every surface of the skin stood alive with his qi. The spell shimmered, a thousand glowing lines and nodes spiraling across the skin.

He focused, pushing deeper. The qi pulsed, filling the skin from the head to the toes.

Now!

Hui pulled his consciousness out of the skin.

The spell struggled. His qi bled from the skin, dissipating faster as it met the remnants of the ghoul’s death qi. Without him to provide constant power, it collapsed in on itself, bleeding qi into the world until there was none left in the skin. Nodes shattered. Lines faded away. With a soft whump, the last of the spell gave out.

Frustrated, Hui threw the skin on the ground and stood. He paced around the cavern, thinking.

It’s not sticking. Why isn’t it sticking?

There’s something I’m missing. I can’t sense anything else in the pig-skin, but maybe the pig-skin didn’t need it. The pig-skin doesn’t have any death qi, and it’s much smaller than the ghoul’s skin. No… I need something else. A conduit, maybe, or an anchor… but what could I use for that?

A yawn interrupted his thoughts. Xue sat up, wiping her eyes with her sleeves. Her hood fell back, revealing snow-pale skin and long white hair. She blinked slowly, lashes fluttering in the low light. “Is it morning?”

The fire moth descended toward her. She held out a hand, and it vanished into her palm, leaving a small reddish mark behind at the base of her thumb.

“Good morning, Xue,” Hui greeted her. He picked up the ghoul’s skin and tied it around himself. For now, I’ll bring it with me. If nothing else, it’s a tough material that naturally sloughs qi. It’ll make for good armor until I can turn it into a proper disguise.

“Are you… wearing that?” Xue asked, mildly disgusted.

Hui glanced down. Its arm knotted around its ankle, the ghoul draped bonelessly over him, its floppy, skull-less scalp dangling across his chest. Tattered robes stained from years in the secret realm made his own robes look dingy. Bits of blood still stained its fingernails and lips. A macabre version of a tiger-skin slung over one’s robes, it leant him a demonic air, somewhat horrifying and completely at odds with his handsome face and polite demeanor.

“I don’t have any better armor,” Hui replied, shrugging.

Xue stared at it one more second, then shrugged. “I never thought I’d team up with a demonic cultivator…”

“I’m not a demonic cultivator!” Hui insisted, though it came out a little weaker than before. I am wearing a ghoul’s skin… but, but it’s a ghoul! Not a human skin. It’s fine. It’s like wearing a zombie’s skin in a zombie apocalypse. Right?

“As you say,” Xue said lightly, unconvinced. She stretched and headed down the tunnel out of the slate cave.

Hui followed behind her. Despite her bound feet, she moved with grace and speed. The rope gave her steps an odd shuffling sound, and forced her into a strange, almost lurching gait, but for all that, she remained well ahead of Hui.

They came out into the realm. Hui patted his ghoul skin, thoughtful. I have two objectives now: figure out how to refine this ghoul skin, and study death qi. I could try gathering more ghouls, but what if that attracts another undead cultivator? One was enough, thanks.

So… what next?

Temporarily stymied, he turned to Xue. “What did you come to this realm for?”

“You… don’t know?” Xue asked.

“Er, should I?” Hui said.

She shook her head and lifted a hand. Red-painted fingernails pointed dead ahead. “In the heart of this realm is a rare artifact that’s said to allow one a full revival after death up to the fifth realm, so long as the soul is not destroyed. This realm was formed by an ancient master to hide the artifact. The bodies of cultivators who have gone before us, searching for the artifact, populate this realm. Or… so the legend goes.”

Wait, hold up! Revival? I need that artifact! Hui turned toward the center of the realm, suddenly eager. What was I wasting my time on up until now?

“The Mysterious Heavenly Forest Sect has been searching for it for centuries, to no avail. The secret realm only opens once every two hundred years, and it only permits cultivators at the third stage and below inside, or else their higher-realm cultivators would have retrieved it already.”

Hui blinked at Xue. “You’re third realm?” I could have sworn she was fourth realm. I guess I haven’t seen her ride a sword, but… to suppress two cultivators at the third realm as easily as she did… she has to be peak third realm.

Xue’s face twisted. She looked away. “Yes.”

Huh. Hui waited a few more moments, hoping she’d explain, but Xue tossed her hair and pressed on. “We’ve a long way to go, if we’re to catch up with the Mysterious Heavenly Forest cultivators.”

“Right,” Hui agreed, adjusting the ghoul skin around his shoulders. I can study death qi later. First, the revival artifact!

He cast a look at Xue. I can’t hope to beat someone nearly two realms ahead of me, and unlike with Chang Bolin, there’s little chance of goading her into publicly torturing me to give me an opening to defeat her.

Then again, I don’t need the artifact itself.

Hui cleared his throat. “Xue, er, being as we’re both after the artifact.”

She peered over her shoulder. “The artifact that you learned of just now?”

“Yes, that’s the one. Er, being as this small Foundation-Building cultivator couldn’t possibly defeat you, would you grant me the chance to study it, if you won it from this realm?”

“What are you hoping to learn from it? It’s an artifact crafted by a master, someone at a much higher realm than you or me. Even if we tried, we couldn’t possibly comprehend it.”

Hui shrugged. “I don’t need a full comprehension. Even a small insight would be worthwhile to me.”

Xue swept her eyes over him. “If you help me, if I attain the artifact, then I will let you study it. In return, promise me that if you obtain it, you will give it to me.”

“After I study it,” Hui agreed readily. I want to live a long time and enjoy this life. A revival artifact is nice, but both this enigmatic Bai Xue and the Mysterious Heavenly Forest Sect want it. Poor little me couldn’t possibly keep it from them. Better to let Xue handle the Mysterious Heavenly Forest Sect, while I glimpse a few of its secrets and bound off back home, unscathed.

“Shall we swear on it? Bind our lives in a formal agreement?” Xue asked, pausing.

Bind our lives? I don’t like the sound of that. That sounds like a loan agreement all over again. Hui shook his head. “I don’t think we need to take it that far. It’s a mere agreement of the willing, right?”

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Taken aback, Xue stared at him. “You’d trust a stranger you just met, with no compensation to hold against them?”

“Trust is a strong word. But there’s no reason for either of us to deny the other, right? You get assistance, and I don’t have to worry about you killing me later. There’s no need to make it a binding agreement, because neither of us are harmed by it.”

Xue nodded, slowly. “You’re a strange one.”

She took off again, odd lurching gait eating up the dusty earth. Hui struggled to follow. He fed qi into his legs to speed up, but Xue still pulled well ahead of him.

At the next outcropping, Xue waited for him to arrive. “Why aren’t you using your movement technique?”

“Movement technique?” Hui asked. You think Master taught me a—oh, right, you have no idea who my master is.

She frowned. “Even a Foundation Building disciple should know a movement technique.”

“I agree,” Hui replied, nodding.

Xue frowned at him. “What sect are you from, that you haven’t been taught a movement technique?”

Hui shrugged. “We all have our own… unique situations.”

Xue nodded. “Fair enough.”

Red eyes swept over him. Hui felt revealed to the world, and resisted the urge to cover himself with his hands. After a moment, Xue nodded. “Circulate qi through your eyes and watch my technique, Pond-Reflecting-Moon Waltz. I’ll use a simplified version of it that you ought to be able to follow. At the lower stages, it isn’t far separated from most common movement techniques.”

“Should I bind my legs?” Hui asked, nodding at her ankles.

She flinched. “Ah… no. That’s… an advanced technique. When you copy my motions, take full steps, not my shorter ones.”

Hui nodded. I don’t need Li Xiang’s ability to see through lies to tell she’s hiding something. Still, she’s not from the Mysterious Heavenly Forest Sect and she hasn’t tried to kill me—not only that, allied with me—so I’ll let it be. As I said, everyone has their own circumstances. I haven’t told her all about myself, so it’s understandable she won’t take the first steps.

“Student recognizes teacher.” He bowed formally to her, cupping his fists.

“It’s nothing worth thanking me for. The technique I’m going to teach you is something every cultivator should know. If you can copy the higher levels of the Pond-Reflecting-Moon Waltz without practicing my cultivation technique, then you’re a true genius, and there’s no point trying to keep my clan’s secrets from you in the first place,” Xue replied.

She stretched out to her full height and shook out her hair, eyes locked into the distance. With that, she strode off over the realm. Though the floor remained gritty underfoot, she kicked up no dust as she moved.

He followed after her, carefully watching as she strode away, then copying her motions. Most of the technique was simple enough. Instead of simply feeding qi into his legs, he circulated it according to a particular pattern, winding it through his muscles in a certain order, then recycling it into his body. With that, each step ate up ground, though he appeared to walk little faster than an ordinary pace. Unlike Xue, he kicked up dust and occasionally stumbled over a block of slate half-hidden in the dirt, but he moved much faster than he had before.

Wind blasted his hair out of his face. His robes fluttered behind him. Hui raced onward, a smile plastered across his face. This—this is what it feels like to be a cultivator!

Ahead of him, Bai Xue shuffled along. Awkward and graceful at the same time, her short steps caught on the rope, then yanked her back foot forward and repeated the process. Every few steps, her form would flicker, wavering like a mirage, except that the secret realm remained a comfortable low temperature. Silently, Hui focused his qi-enhanced vision on her, waiting for the next time she flickered.

Before his eyes, her body shifted suddenly, form wavering. An energy he didn’t recognize welled up in her body—no, Hui realized. It didn’t well up. It was always there, it just… swapped, like a flipped card.

The energy swapped back, and her form solidified again, a pace ahead of where his eyes tracked her.

Hui stretched out his legs and operated the technique as quickly as he trusted himself to manage, and caught up to Xue. “What is that? That energy.”

She glanced at him. “That energy?”

“The… thing that swaps when you do the wavering step,” Hui tried, not sure how else to explain it.

Xue narrowed her eyes at him.

Wait, did I overstep? Is that the part I wasn’t supposed to be able to see? Hui put his hands up apologetically. “Forgive this disciple. I saw nothing. It must have been a trick of my eyes.”

She laughed. “No need to be so nervous. I’m simply surprised you don’t recognize it. It’s yin and yang energy. My clan practices the Twin Elemental Mirrors cultivation technique, which requires a cultivator to swap between the two at will. Without our bloodline’s disposition, it’s almost impossible to learn.”

“Oh,” Hui said.

“Still, I’m surprised you saw through it so quickly. You must be talented in magical techniques.”

“Ah… I, I have invented a technique,” Hui tried. A technique for faking my death. Does that count?

“Really? That’s incredible,” Xue said, amazed. “What kind of technique? Can you demonstrate it?”

“Er, it’s… it’s very situational, I…” Hui grimaced. Am I supposed to show off my ability to play dead? She’s expecting a fireball, or some kind of ferocious offensive spell, or impressive spell array, but instead, I’ll plop over backward… Even I have some dignity left in me! I can’t embarrass myself like that.

“Forgive me, now I’ve overstepped. Of course you wouldn’t want to reveal a technique you invented yourself to a stranger,” Xue apologized.

“Oh, no, no, it’s just… I, er, it, it isn’t very impressive,” Hui muttered.

“Are you sure? For you to invent a technique… at Foundation Building, you can’t have practiced more than a few hundred years…”

“I’m… fifteen,” Hui said. Kind of. But it’s not like I learned magic in my past life, so… And I only properly started cultivating a few months ago, but… I was learning the foundations before that, so… anyways, let’s just say fifteen.

Her eyebrows flew up. “You—are you joking? Fifteen! You’re a genius!”

“Me? No, no. I’m no genius. Ah, forget it. It isn’t important,” Hui said, raising his hands. Not compared to Master. And besides, I’m not sure what I’ve done even qualifies as a magical technique. I shouldn’t have brought it up.

“Isn’t important? Not at all. I had no idea we had a genius in our midst.” She wrapped an arm around him and scruffed his ponytail. “Xiao Hui, our clever little genius.”

Hui blushed and pushed her away. “Let me go!”

Xue laughed. She released him and backed away. “Such a flatterer, but you’re weak to flattery.”

Hui undid his ponytail and tied it back up. He pulled a face at her back. Shut up! Shut up.

They ran on. The slate spires rushed past, little more than blurs on the gray background. Hui followed Xue, on through the desolate void.

All at once, Hui drew to a halt. “Xue, wait.”

She stopped. “Hmm?”

“Don’t you think it’s strange that we haven’t seen any cultivators or undead yet today?” he asked.

Xue frowned. “Now that you mention it…”

“And that outcropping up ahead… I think it’s the same one we sheltered in last night.” Hui pointed. In the distance, the large outcropping loomed out of the fog.

“Ah, how clever! I knew it, you are a genius.” She shuffled over to him, steps deceptively fast, and reached out for his hair. Hui ducked away, operating his movement technique in return.

“I am not,” Hui grumbled.

Xue’s eyes glittered. A teasing smile played over her face. “So humble, so humble.”

“Stop it. We’ve got to figure a way out of here first. This has to be some kind of befuddling array, right?” Hui guessed.

“Which means there’s two ways out: one, to find a way to dispel the array, or two, to find the proper path out,” Xue replied.

“Or… what if we brute-forced it?” Hui suggested.

Xue wrinkled her brows cutely at him. “How do you mean?”

“It’s a befuddling array, but it’s set up in an open area, and it’s not meant to be unsurpassable for cultivators at our level, so I think it’s quite possible. What if we marked the slates as we passed them and kept travelling in a straight line?” Hui pointed out into the emptiness, between the two large slate outcroppings. “We can use the outcroppings as our guides. Here, between the two, we can see both, and that way, we can ensure we don’t travel in a circle.”

“Oh, good idea, good idea!” She pounced at him, hands out for his hair.

Hui ducked into a roll and popped up beside a slate. “I’ll mark it with my blood. I don’t have anything else…”

“Why don’t you rely on your elders instead?” Xue suggested, eyes slit in a coy smile.

He looked at her, then bowed. “Does the Venerable Bai Xue have an idea?”

“Oh, I could get used to that. Venerable Bai Xue…” Chuckling, Xue slapped the slate. A patch of ice crawled over the spire’s face.

“Excuse this small Hui for questioning Venerable Bai Xue’s judgement, but… won’t that melt?” Hui asked.

Xue clicked her tongue. “Not until I desire it to. And even if I lose control or contact with it, it won’t melt for days.”

“Many apologies,” Hui replied, bowing again.

Xue laughed and reached for him. “Let this Venerable play with your hair, and the great me will forgive everything.”

“I’m afraid that would go beyond politeness,” Hui replied stiffly, backing away.

“What? Nonsense. It’s a custom in our clan for higher-ranked members to freely play with the hair of lower-ranked members,” Xue replied.

“Bullshit,” Hui shot back.

She shook her head disapprovingly, her own snow-white hair lashing around her face. “How impolite. This Xiao Hui thinks he’s better than the venerable me?”

“Of course not,” Hui said, shaking his head.

“Then… you will let me play with your hair, yes?” Xue asked, edging closer. A slight melancholy played across her face, as if he’d truly deprived her of something.

Hui hesitated for a moment. It’s not actually a custom, right? I mean, clans are weird. They’re a lot more… er, should I say, esoteric than sects, since they’re based around a family… it’s easier for strange customs to arise.

Her eyes sparkled. Xue leaped at him, melancholy expression vanishing.

What am I thinking? It’s just this madwoman who wants to touch my hair! Hui dodged neatly away from Xue.

Xue clicked her tongue. “It almost worked.”

Hui cowered away from her, covering his hair with his hands. Stay away! It’s my hair, you lunatic!

Xue smiled, resting a hand on her chin. “Aww, too cute.”

Oh, no. What have I gotten myself into? Hui wondered, backing away slowly.