Fire raged through the forest. Hui raced ahead of it, zig-zagging through the forest. The flames burned up the rot energy, clearing the air, but also scorched the trees. With the remnant inheritance inside him, Hui felt their pain, their wordless cries, their—smug satisfaction? He paused and looked over his shoulder at the smug tree behind him, then shrugged. I guess some trees do use fire to help them breed and expand.

There was no time to help the trees, or stop Han Qin. Hui pressed on, toward the depths of the forest. It’s the Forest of Death. Don’t get attached, Hui. I don’t know how long the… whatever will block Han Qin’s true self from coming through, but if it ever stops, I’m dead meat. It’s probably the demonic cultivator’s rot energy or something, right?

Well, whatever it is, I need to get as far away from Han Qin as I can before it wears out, if only to buy a little more time for the other clones to figure out how he’s tracking us and eliminate it!

He glanced at his right hand, then scratched it nervously. Hopefully it’s not that mysterious Heaven mark, if this me even has it. I can’t see it, and cutting off my hand doesn’t remove it. It’s seared into my being by a power beyond my ability to fight… and likely beyond my comprehension, at that.

The node buzzed. The rogue cultivator’s voice sounded. I found a bit of odd qi in Ying Lin’s robes and destroyed it. Nothing on Zhubi. I’m sending her on to the searchers.

Hui nodded. So he did put a tracker on Ying Lin. Since he didn’t go after her, I can assume he only did it as a way of tracking me down. Maybe he could even sense whether I was near through the tracker. I can’t be sure. One way or another, it’s destroyed now.

Thanks, Elder Brother! Hui replied.

He surged ahead, darting to the left to reach the vegetation spirit. The spirit had manifested in a large tree, ancient and thick, heavy with leaves. Hui put his hand on the tree, offering to absorb the spirit into himself. You can survive the fire by escaping into my body. I’ll find another body for you afterward.

The spirit hesitated, but only for a moment. It replied in the negative in the next moment. This is my life-spot. I won’t leave. If it is time for me to die, then here I die.

Hui pressed his lips together. It would have been nice to pick up a vegetation spirit, but… well, if it doesn’t want to come, it doesn’t want to come. He raced by it, leading Han Qin away from the vegetation spirit’s tree.

Past the spirit, the forest grew dead and cold. Leafless gray trees stretched skeletal branches to the moon. Hui burst by, shattering paper-dry branches in his passing. He sucked a breath and sped up, releasing some of his suppressed cultivation to move faster. When Han Qin’s fire hits these trees… not good!

“There you are! Quit your scurrying, rat!” Han Qin shouted. A fireball burst inches behind Hui.

Hui threw an ice talisman over the fire even as it blossomed. Ice domed over the flames and suppressed them, quickly melting. The fire died, but in that time, Han Qin shot another three fireballs. The dead forest began to blaze with heat and flame.

Hui twisted his nose, frustrated. Is it better to be a plant right now, and weak to fire but able to heal quickly, or flesh, and less weak to fire, but unable to quickly heal? Not to mention the rot energy and the spirit beast… dammit, I don’t know. I’ll stay plant for now!

Overhead, the sky darkened. A great net spread over the sky, separating him and Han Qin. Han Qin fired another ball of flame, and the net lit up, brilliantly burning.

A high-pitched shriek rattled from deep in the dead forest. Limbs rattled and clicked. A shadow loomed in the dark, easily seventy meters tall and a hundred long. Eight eyes glittered with evil intelligence. Mandibles dripped acid, hissing against the fallen leaves and trees. Stomping through the forest, a giant spider launched itself into the sky and lunged at Han Qin.

The spirit beast! Hui grinned and backed away a few steps to watch it and Han Qin fight.

“You coward! Refusing to fight for yourself?” Han Qin mocked. The spider sliced at him with razor-sharp feet, and he had no option but to trade blows with the beast.

“Respectfully, Senior… I’d rather not,” Hui replied, bowing.

The spider whirled around and shot a stream of sticky silk at Han Qin. He threw his hand forward. A stream of fire slammed into the silk. Still wet, the silk didn’t light up as easily as the dry silk.

Han Qin fell back, scowling. “You rely on a beast? How shameful.”

“I rely on beasts, Elder Sisters, jiangshi, corpses… There’s no shame in it! As long as one wins, what else matters?” Hui retorted, tucking his hands behind him.

“Shameless!”

Hui nodded. “You understand, Senior.”

The spider caught sight of him and spat venom at Hui. He jumped back, but didn’t retaliate. Already in the midst of throwing a flaming sword at the spider, Han Qin’s eyes widened, but there was no taking back his attack. It cut into the spider’s abdomen. Dark, rotten blood dripped down. The spider wheeled about and charged at Han Qin again, hissing madly.

Hui smiled blissfully. Peace and respect, peace and respect! As long as we all peacefully respect one another, we can all live in harmony! See, Han Qin, even a beast can understand the universal language of peace.

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Not one to make the mistake of standing around and gloating, Hui grew a wooden fake body with a talisman, then cast a snakeskin over it. Turning, he suppressed his qi and fled through the forest. I can worry about catching the spider after Han Qin fights it. In the meantime, let’s go find that demonic cultivator’s corpse!

After all, Han Qin can’t directly locate me in this forest, nor can he lock down the area and completely suppress me the way he did with Sixth outside the banquet hall. I have to assume that has something to do with the demonic cultivator’s corpse! I could be wrong, but when I think about differences between this forest and the banquet hall, the only thing that stands out is that demonic cultivator’s corpse!

I could be wrong, but better to check and be wrong than to not check at all! After all, this is a trump card against the Han Qin that can obliterate me with a gentle hand squeeze. That’s worth braving the spider beast and the rot energy for.

He flicked his hand and summoned a death duck. The duck sprang to life and circled around him, gobbling up the rot energy. Hui turned, feeling for the stronger rot energy, then ran after it. The rot grew so thick that it blocked out the forest’s natural flow of qi, replacing it with rot. A second duck lunged from Hui’s dantian to join the first, then a third, until all his ducks circled around him, gobbling up the rot. The ducks grew larger and larger, until they were fatter than Fatty. The biggest duck trembled, then split into two smaller, skinnier ducks. The others quickly followed, splitting into two.

The skinny ducks devoured the rot with renewed ferocity, swirling around Hui like flies. The semi-transparent black shapes blurred the path ahead of him. More than once, he would have tripped on roots and knots hidden behind the ducks’ bodies, if not for his fifth-stage reflexes kicking in to save him.

We must be getting close, if the ducks are this excited. Hui glanced around, searching for any hint of the demonic cultivator’s body. …Hopefully she didn’t rot away already. All this rot energy… it had to come from somewhere, after all…

No, no. Let’s not be pessimistic! I’ve only just arrived here. Naturally, I can’t find her in an instant!

“Hey!”

Hui nearly jumped out of his snakeskin, whirling around at the same second. The forest stood empty in all directions. No sign of a living person appeared.

He swallowed, summoning a glow of life qi to his fingertips. That demonic cultivator… she didn’t become an undead, did she?

“Up here! Above you!”

Hui looked up.

Overhead, a thick spiderweb spread to the horizon, blocking out the sky. Three thick bundles hung in the web. One of them wiggled desperately, while the other two hung still. “Help us!”

That voice sounds familiar… three bundles, huh? It’s Zhi Ahn, Lu Lintei, and Ding Qinwen! He stared at them, biting his lip. Save them? But they’re All-Heavens cultivators… but they let me go before. Especially Lu Lintei. And when I think about it, if anyone else was hunting me, I probably would’ve been caught long ago.

Hui summoned a flame talisman and threw it toward the bundles. Before it reached them, two tabbies burst from the talisman and galloped at the bundles. They patted the bundles gently, burning off the silk to reveal the cultivators below.

Zhi Ahn burst out and caught himself on his sword immediately. Beside him, Ding Qinwen struggled, but couldn’t catch himself. Purple veins stood out down his body from a pair of deep puncture wounds in his neck. Grunting, he toppled from the sky.

“Elder Brother!” Zhi Ahn shouted, flying to catch Ding Qinwen. “Don’t stimulate yourself. The poison will spread!”

Between the two of them, Lu Lintei started to catch herself, but when she saw Zhi Ahn catch Ding Qinwen, she let out a pathetic, mewling sigh and toppled over herself.

Zhi Ahn flew over, eyes wide, and caught her, too. He checked her for bites, but found none. His eyes narrowed. “Lu Lintei…”

“I’m so exhausted after that fight,” she excused herself lazily.

“We were ambushed and immediately tied up before we could do anything,” Zhi Ahn returned, narrowing his eyes.

“Ah… the poison… I’m too stimulated! It’s spreading!” Lu Lintei cried.

Zhi Ahn dropped her, annoyed. “What poison?”

Lu Lintei fell limply toward the ground. A hair’s breadth before she struck earth, her body came to a halt. She lifted herself back upright and landed on her feet, then brushed down her robes. “Zhi Ahn, treating a lady so roughly, tsk tsk.”

Ding Qinwen spat a mouthful of blood. His face turned pale, and his hands trembled. “I’ll be fine, Zhi Ahn. Look after… Lu Lintei…”

Hui patted down his robes, concerned. I don’t have anything to deal with high level poisons. I think I have some old pills, but… but they should only work on third or fourth stage poisons. Sixth stage poisons…

Come to think of it, will life qi work? Or what if I have to play dead from poison? I’m totally unprepared! This small cultivator needs to develop more methods to play dead! The more I see the world, the more I realize how pathetic my comprehension of playing dead truly is.

“You’re both insane,” Zhi Ahn complained under his breath. He reached into his robes and pulled out a pill bottle, quickly shoving a small purplish pill into Ding Qinwen’s mouth.

Ding Qinwen swallowed. Color instantly began to flow back to his face, and he no longer trembled or spat blood. He stood on his own, away from Zhi Ahn, and though he stood weakly, he held himself upright.

Ah, of course. Naturally, they have pills. They came prepared to deal with the spider, after all. Hui nodded to himself.

Zhi Ahn turned to Hui. He hesitated, then stepped forward. “You’re… from the caravan?”

Hui nodded. “I saw Seniors head into the forest and wondered what you were up to. Good thing I followed!”

“How did you get so far into the forest, without high-level cultivation?” Zhi Ahn asked.

Ding Qinwen turned. His eyes narrowed at Hui.

Hui laughed nervously and put his hands up, backing away. Damn my soft heart! I should have left them tied up in the web.

Lu Lintei sighed heavily. “Zhi Ahn, how rude. Before thanking him, you turn and immediately question our benefactor?”

“That’s right! Zhi Ahn, we haven’t thanked him at all, but you rudely question him instead?” Ding Qinwen said, nodding along.

Zhi Ahn scowled at his elders. “You realize he’s suspicious, right? In fact, he’s disguising his aura and his strength, just like a certain Xiao—”

“Zhi Ahn! Don’t be so paranoid. Paranoia leads to lots of unnecessary work! What if you’re wrong, and you’re being rude to this stranger for no reason?” Lu Lintei argued.

“Elder Sister, you can’t ignore the possibility—” Zhi Ahn started.

Lu Lintei cut him off. “Worse… what if you’re right? Think of all the extra work we’d have to do!”

In the distance, the fire raged closer. The spider cried out, a hideous, horrible sound. Han Qin screamed back, furious.

Hui glanced around, then bowed at the trio and backed toward the direction of intensifying rot energy. “Excuse me, Seniors, but this small cultivator… er, er, this cultivator… needs to hurry off. Please, I have no need of co… comp…”

Wait. Isn’t this an opportunity to get fifth-stage items and spells? Hui’s eyes suddenly lit up. He shut his mouth and gave a humble little cough. “That is, a little compensation would go a long way.”

Lu Lintei nodded, gesturing at Hui. “Exactly! Zhi Ahn, compensate this man for assisting us, right this moment!”

Zhi Ahn scowled. “Elder Sister, you can’t be serious.”