Hui tapped the barrier with his death qi. A black hole instantly opened up in the shimmering barrier, growing rapidly as the death qi infected it. In the space of a breath, the barrier vanished, its qi all eaten away. The death qi kept going, devouring every bit of qi in the spell, and a moment later, the suppression from the spell array winked out.

Turning, Hui fired his finger gun and shot a death duck at Bao Huli and Zhubi each. The second the ducks impacted the barriers, Bao Huli’s eyes opened, glowing with anger, and Zhubi rolled back over from playing dead to watch the barrier fall apart.

Hui lifted his finger to his lips. “All at once. Wait for—”

Before he finished whispering, Bao Huli leaped upright and sliced through the iron bars of her cage with a swish of her claws. Instantly, she leaped at Song Weilai.

Zhubi slithered out from between the gaps, tilting his head at Hui.

Hui put a hand to his forehead. Alright, fine. We’ll attack now!

He stood and raised a hand, calling Moonlight Cutter to him. The sword flew through the gaps and landed neatly in his hand. Hui slashed the cage, then neatly sheathed Moonlight Cutter as the cage crashed down. Flicking his hand, he summoned a dozen talismans, while he set Zhubi around his neck with his other hand.

Song Weilai’s eyes snapped open before Bao Huli reached her, her deep meditation nothing but a bluff. She snorted and jumped up, war hammer appearing in her opened hand. “As if you could defeat me!”

Even as the hammer thumped into her hand, Bao Huli clawed at her face. Song Weilai danced backward and stepped out into the sunlight, easily transitioning from solid ground to treading sky in a single step. Bao Huli gave chase, and Hui burst out of the cave, desperate to get his back to the sky and not stone. Outside, he heaved a sigh of relief. Now it should be easier to escape and retreat, if we need to!

Song Weilai smashed her hammer into Bao Huli’s side. Bao Huli flew back, blood flying from her mouth. Hui frowned, then realized: Bao Huli still has the poison in her! She didn’t circulate it out like I did. I can’t count on her!

Darting after Bao Huli, Song Weilai made a gesture, and a net flew out from her hand toward Bao Huli. Before it could strike, Hui threw Moonlight Cuter. It sliced through the net and impaled itself in some distant tree, out of sight.

Bao Huli hissed and charged up at Song Weilai, fire flickering in her clawed hands. Hui threw out his fire talismans. Foxfire flew at Song Weilai from below, and flaming tabbies charged from above. Caught in between, Song Weilai let out a fierce laugh and spun her war hammer, forcing both back as a vortex of wind formed around her. Hui flicked his hand, and the tabbies turned back to attack Song Weilai a second time, but the vortex around her rebuffed them.

“Pitiful. Is fire all you have?” Song Weilai mocked.

In response, Hui threw out an earth and wood talisman, shaping each into ten meter long hands. They flew forth and clapped around Song Weilai.

Song Weilai turned her hammer sideways, letting the long shaft impact the earth hand, and the flat top of the head impact the wood. The hands slammed together, but couldn’t break the hammer. They shook, then fell apart themselves. Splinters of wood and clumps of dirt rained down.

Before she could recover, Hui fired off a volley of Lightning Palm talismans. Let’s see how this works! My Master’s ultimate technique, as a fifth-stage technique!

Song Weilai spun her hammer, and the lightning shot off into the distance, utterly suppressed. She laughed, rushing at him. “Weak! Is this all you have?”

Hui blinked. Eh? Master’s… ultimate…

Ah! My comprehension is insufficient, dammit!

Blasting through the weak lightning, Song Weilai charged at Hui, who instantly fell back. Her hand flew out. He clasped a hand over his mouth, wary of more powders.

Instead, a handful of clove-like seeds bounced against his skin. Hui frowned and looked down, in time to watch the seeds burrow into him. He reached down with lightning speed and caught one, but the rest vanished inside him.

Song Weilai laughed. “Vampiric Thorns. See how you like those!”

“Senior, I can already cure Qi Seed infection,” Hui murmured, quickly circulating his death qi through his body.

The Vampiric Thorns shrugged off the death qi, dissipating it with their powerful life qi. They twisted into him, siphoning Hui’s qi and life qi to speed their growth. Thorns dug into his insides. A thousand fatal-to-human blows dug internally through his plant body, enough that even a fifth-stage cultivator would have struggled to survive.

Hui fell back, frowning. He attempted to absorb the thorns’ life qi, activating his old void technique. To his surprise, the void technique sucked in all the qi around him, but failed to draw in a drop of the Vampiric Thorns’ qi. A strange oil coated the thorns’ thick shells, rebuffing his attempts to absorb them. He bit his lip and extracted his qi from around the thorns. If I can’t kill them, I can at least suppress my qi and prevent them from growing.

Rather than fall dormant, as the Qi Seeds had, the Vampiric Thorns bit deeper into him, chasing after what little of his qi remained. Excruciating pain crawled through him as they carved out paths through his flesh and internal organs. Panting, Hui sagged toward the earth. He threw death qi at the thorns.

That, at last, beat them into a sort of stasis, but only temporarily. They fought back with life qi, negating his death qi. Compared to his limited stocks, the Vampiric Thorns burst with life qi under that strange oil, enough that even his full body would struggle to overwhelm the life qi with death qi. The second he stopped battering them with death qi, the thorns leaped back to life.

Not willing to give her opponent time to figure out the thorns, Song Weilai chased after him. Great swings of her hammer battered in his chest and limbs. Green blood poured down his limbs and soaked his robes. He coughed, spitting up gouts of the same green blood.

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With his life qi held back to prevent feeding the thorns and death qi circulating his body to batter them back, Hui’s physical condition quickly deteriorated. He reached for his robes, only to remember he hadn’t recast the snakeskin technique. Instinctively, he began to cast it, but bit back the technique as his qi invigorated the thorns again.

Shit! This technique… how vicious! It’s even worse than the Qi Seeds!

Song Weilai noticed his furrowed brows and grinned. “Vampiric Thorns are vicious to humans and plants alike. Once they latch on, they’ll suck out every last ounce of vitality, until all that remains are withered scraps. I’m afraid you’ve met your match.”

Hui scowled. Damn this spirit plant and spirit beast dealer! I liked it better when no one knew I was a plant. Stop taking advantage of this small cultivator, hey!

He fell back, crumpling in on himself and allowing the thorns to wither him up. Song Weilai summoned a net and approached him holding it. “Come back to mama. I’ll pull out the thorns, feed you some good fertilizer and water, and you’ll be back in top form in no time.”

Why don’t you eat some damn fertilizer? Wanting me to call you mother—stop dreaming! Internally, Hui raged, but externally, he turned a withered and pathetic face to Song Weilai. “Please… they hurt so much…”

“Come, come. Once you’re safely in the net, I’ll take good care of you,” Song Weilai promised, approaching slowly.

She grew within arm’s length, and Hui’s eyes flashed. He charged forward, making a sword-calling gesture with one hand and throwing out a talisman with the other. The void talisman struck the net and shook it to bits as gaps opened up in the material, while the sword whistled at her back. Bao Huli howled and dropped down from above, while Zhubi spat venom.

Song Weilai laughed. “Such pitiful acting… do you think I didn’t notice?” She spun, swinging the net. Although ruined as a net, it was still made up of thick, heavy rope, and slammed into Bao Huli with a clunk. Bao Huli fell back, and the net continued its swing, tangling around Moonlight Cutter. With her other hand, she smashed into Hui. A chunk of green flesh flew off his body, but with it went two of the thorns.

“Oh? You’re smarter than I thought. Tricking me into removing my own thorns…” Song Weilai tutted, shaking her head.

Hui fell back, bowing. “It’s Senior who’s the clever one. Locking up innocent spirit beasts and demons, what a superior intellect a cheap scammer like yourself must have.”

Irritation flashed in Song Weilai’s pupils, but no more than that. She snorted. “What a silver tongue. Too bad it’s wasted on a plant, to be bought and sold.”

Hmm, I’m losing my game. That’s twice now that my taunts have failed. I need to practice my poisonous tongue more!

The two charged at one another again. Hui fired off talismans, but Song Weilai knocked each one away with a swing of her hammer. Whenever she grew too close, Zhubi lunged at her to bite or spat venom. She flinched away every time, but the constant assault of poison prevented her from battling Hui at close quarters.

Whoa, first Mortal, now Wildman, both neck-deep in danger. You guys are living it up! a familiar voice commented in the back of his head.

Shut up, Sectgoer. Someone like you who only knows how to sit on his ass will never understand the allure of a hot-blooded battle, Hui snarked back.

Ha! You’re me, too. I know you’re jealous, and would much rather be the one sitting on your ass. How about this? If we don’t find Li Xiang by the time the five years are up, we can swap, and I’ll go into the wilds.

Bullshit. By then, we’ll be so knowledgeable about the wilds or the local sects that it’ll be impossible to swap.

The healer cut in with a sigh. You two, shut up. I’m in the middle of something important. Catfight some other day, okay?

Hui barely dodged a swing of Song Weilai’s hammer and bit back his comeback. Instead, he tossed out another handful of talismans, continuing to fall back. How to win? I’m quickly running out of death qi. Song Weilai knows how to deal with plant spirits. Zhubi and Bao Huli are still influenced by her poison. At a guess, it’s more effective on spirit beasts than plant spirits, and besides, they didn’t focus on removing it. We won’t win a drawn-out battle, especially if her underlings finish off Jin Xian and come back. How do I end this quickly?

He looked at his hand, then at Song Weilai. Hui took a deep breath, then lifted Zhubi off from around his neck and set him atop Moonlight Cutter. Moonlight Cutter flew off toward safety, keeping Zhubi from danger.

I’m a clone. This is fine. I’m a clone.

“Oh? What’s this?” Song Weilai asked mockingly.

Hui gestured wildly. “This is it. My ultimate attack!”

Bao Huli rushed at Song Weilai from behind. Song Weilai easily sidestepped and swung at Bao Huli’s retreating rear. “What a cheap tactic. You—”

Hui rushed up inside her guard, practically hugging her. Song Weilai tried to leap back, but Hui grabbed her arm. He summoned one of the remaining death ducks and poured it into her body, infecting her with death qi.

It’s a cheap trick, but… it’s all I have left!

Song Weilai fell back. Black bruises spread over her skin from where Hui had grabbed, quickly climbing up her shoulder and down her arm. She stared, startled, then decisively dropped her hammer and drew a knife instead. Slashing upward, she severed her own arm.

Right choice! But even that was only a distraction. Hui took a deep breath and stepped out of his body.

When the world slowed, he breathed a sigh of relief. I wasn’t sure that would work. Sixth seemed to be in a similar state before his death, but even that…

“Are you trying to piss me off?” the reaper asked, glaring at him from the corner of her eye.

“Not at all, not at all! Elder Sister, forgive me, but I need only a moment!” Without waiting for the reaper’s permission, he jumped at Song Weilai. He circulated all his qi to his third eye, the one only present in his soul form, and forced it to open wider.

Strings of qi appeared, laid over Song Weilai’s body. Some, especially around her shoulder, were black, but most glimmered a lively gold.

At a guess, the dark ones are the ones I’ve injured with death qi… or ones that went dark from bad cultivation or internal injuries. I wonder what my body looks like…

At the last second, Hui resisted the urge to look back and pushed on instead. He thrust his hand into the center of Song Weilai’s body and yanked, pulling out a fistful of strings.

The reaper snorted. “Bold.”

Hui turned, frowning. “Eh?”

He snapped back into his body. The second he returned, a huge backlash smashed into him. All the qi, life qi, and death qi in his body jolted, thrown into disarray. Some of his qi began to flow backward, smashing open his qi passages and leaking qi into his body. Hui bent over, tasting blood in the back of his throat. It poured out of him like a fountain, showing no sign of ceasing. He tipped over in the air and smashed to the ground.

In the midst of intense pain, his entire body screaming out as his qi rioted and the Vampiric Thorns went wild inside him, Hui could only curse himself. Bold. Bold! Understatement of the year. If I wasn’t a plant, I’d be dead right now! Even as a plant, I’m dying. Elder Sister Reaper, would it kill you to warn this small cultivator?

Argh, it hurts so much. How come Sixth gets to die a quick death, but I have to languish in my suffering? I’m going to die, going to die…

Song Weilai fell down beside him, a dumbstruck expression on her face. Both hands were clasped to her chest, her eyes wide. The hammer landed beside her, narrowly missing Hui’s face.

He breathed out. At least I took her out with me. Damn beast merchant. You deserve a thousand deaths for capturing Zhubi!

Bao Huli walked over. She knelt down. “Thank you.”

Squirming in pain, Hui motioned to his body and the thorns inside. “Bao Huli, please, the, the—”

“I have to check on Ji Taiyu,” she said, turning her head. Without a backward glance, she sped off into the sky.

Fucking fox demons! Fucking lovebirds! Fuck you, fuck your father, fuck your grandfather! All your ancestors were lovestruck fox demons!

Eh, I mean… yeah, they probably were.

Writhing on the ground, Hui plucked at his body. His powerless hands failed to break the surface of his skin, let alone dig out the thorns. He went to extract his core, but the thorns tangled into a thicket inside him, too tight for him to extract his core through the mess. My core is tangled in the thorns. I can’t soothe my qi until the thorns are out. I can’t control my body until I soothe my qi. I’m fucked. What a dumb way to die!

Ah, at least I saved Zhubi…