Unable to focus enough to meditate or relax enough to sleep, Hui wandered around his house, pulling random things out of his node and stuffing them back. Spirit stones… gold… dried-up bits of herbs from back when he cooked Fatty… a black dagger exuding death qi… a random demonic hammer he didn’t recognize… Song Weilai’s hammer…

Hui gripped a hammer in each hand and hefted them, somewhat confused. Is this a sign from the heavens to… dual-wield hammers? Why am I holding on to this many hammers? Am I trying to build a house?

He stuffed the hammers back away. A half-dozen random pill bottles, some from Song Weilai’s cave and others from the demonic sect, came up. He shook his head at both. Why do I only have pills from the sketchiest of sources? In a pinch, I can take them, but… but—well, Song Weilai’s pills are probably better used as weapons than medicine, based on what she did to me!

Hmm… this one… He held up a pill bottle with a single, baby-fist sized pill inside, and squinted at it. This one… I feel like…

Ah! It’s for fifth-stage ascension! I—

Er, whoops. I’ll gift it to Ying Lin. She’ll need it soon, at the rate she ascends.

Need it soon… it feels like yesterday that she stepped into the world of cultivation! Is she Master’s reincarnation, or something?

He glanced upward, thoughtful. The Heavens are in disarray. Usually that shows in the form of random attacks, but… could it also be that Ying Lin is a symptom of the Heavens’ disorder?

Hmm. Food for thought.

At last, he came up with a pair of scrappy pieces of paper. Hui frowned. Why did I keep these things around? He flipped them over, looking closer.

After a moment, his eyes lit up with recognition. Bai Luoren’s talisman scraps, the ones he sent me that he found in some inheritance zone or secret realm or another! They’re only meant to be second to fourth stage in power, but they’ll be a good distraction. He settled down to study the talisman scraps.

As slippery as eels, the talisman scraps evaded comprehension. Hui drew them and re-drew them, finding new lines and fresh emphasis marks each time. None of it made sense. These two talismans… or these two pieces of one talisman… are they even a proper spell? I can’t get any of the usual sense of qi flow from them. It’s as if they’re operating on a totally different set of principles. Some… other qi, maybe? But what?

The night passed on, and the talismans continued to evade him. As the sun rose, he threw his experimental versions across the room in frustration and leaned against the working table. Stupid talisman. Why aren’t you working? Come on! What am I missing?

“Master! Come on, let’s go!” Ying Lin called from outside.

Hui stood. He looked down at his opulent robes, then shook his head. I’ll get robbed if I go out into the wilds like this. Moving to his closet, he changed into a simpler set of blue robes, then reached out his arm. “Zhubi!”

Zhubi dawdled down the stairs, robes twisted from sleep. His long hair draped on the steps behind him. He yawned wide, showing off an impressive set of fangs, then leaped toward Hui. Midair, he transformed, wrapping around Hui’s neck in snake form once more.

Hui clicked his tongue. That wasn’t so hard, was it? You silly snake.

Zhubi hissed back, flicking Hui’s neck with the tip of his tail.

Hui checked his appearance in the mirror one last time, then breathed out. Okay. It’s fine. It’s just meeting my sect sibling. There’s nothing weird about it. Yes. Perfectly normal.

Should I do my hair in a crown style instead? Isn’t that trendy? Er… or maybe—

“Master, the sun’s going to set again if we don’t start moving,” Ying Lin called from downstairs.

“Coming, coming!” Hui called. He left the bronze mirror behind and hurried to meet Ying Lin.

Outside, Ying Lin stood atop Gu Tian, her robes neat and orderly, her hair done up in looping braids and pinned in place with the matching lotus pin. She beamed at Hui, excited. “I’m going to meet my Martial Aunt.”

“Eh—I suppose she would be,” Hui allowed. It’s not as if Ying Lin was ever officially accepted into the sect, but on the other hand, I am the only inheriting disciple of Unrivaled blah blah Peak. I have the right to take disciples, and any of my disciples would naturally become part of the sect.

Ying Lin looked Hui over. “What happened to those nice robes?”

“I… don’t want to get robbed,” Hui confessed.

Taken aback, Ying Lin frowned. “Then what about me? Should I—”

“No, no, Elder Sister. I’ll protect you if someone attacks,” Hui said hurriedly. Me wearing slightly less fancy robes is fine, but I won’t let Ying Lin wear those ragged old robes to meet Li Xiang for the first time. I don’t want Li Xiang to think I’m unable to provide for my disciple. Of all people, not Li Xiang!

“Master, why do I not feel safe when you pledge to protect me?” Ying Lin asked innocently.

Hui glared at her. “Cheeky.”

She grinned. “I’m only joking. I’m sure Master can do it, if he tries.”

Eh? Are you implying this master doesn’t usually try? I try! I try very hard at… playing dead… all the time!

Ah… maybe I understand. Hui cleared his throat. “Of course, the first imperative is to play dead. It’s only if playing dead doesn’t work that we’ll be forced to fight.”

“Now that, I believe!” Ying Lin said, nodding.

Hui adjusted his hems one last time, then hopped onto Moonlight Cutter. “Let’s go.”

The two of them took to the skies. Hui led her on a roundabout route toward the west, careful to cut a wide berth around where Wildman had fallen. By the time the sun set, they still hadn’t reached the next major city.

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Hui glanced over his shoulder at Ying Lin. “Do you still need to sleep? We can stop.”

“Ah! I don’t think so. I’m not tired, anyways. Let’s keep going,” Ying Lin said cheerfully.

“Are you sure? You don’t have to push yourself,” Hui insisted.

“Master… are you trying to stall?” Ying Lin asked, tilting her head.

“No, no! I would never. If you don’t have to sleep, let’s keep going,” Hui said firmly. Dammit! My stalling tactic… dammit!

Gritting his teeth, Hui pressed on into the night. They flew through the night and into the next day, and finally, the next settlement appeared. Hui pointed at it. “Let’s stop there and ask for guidance.”

“Master, are you stalling again?” Ying Lin asked.

Hui shook his head. “Not this time. All we know is ‘to the west.’ The people here will have a better idea of exactly where.”

“Ah! So you were stalling last time,” Ying Lin said, nodding.

Hui narrowed his eyes at her. What happened to my cute and obedient disciple, huh? Wait… has she ever been cute and obedient?

He pointed Moonlight Cutter toward the city, and Ying Lin followed. A barrier curled from the walls into the sky, blocking out cultivators from entering the city’s airspace. Like all the other cultivators visiting the city that day, they landed just outside the city’s walls and walked inside. As they entered, a guard, dressed in the same green-hemmed white robes as many cultivators in the area, approached them. “Excuse me, have you been to Western River City before?”

Hui tucked his hands behind his back and adopted a studious posture. “Unfortunately not.”

The guard smiled and approached him. “I can tell that sir is a man of great quality. Sir, to enter the city, one has to pay one hundred spirit stones.” He looked at Ying Lin, then smiled a little wider. “Per person.”

Hui tensed. He wants my money? My hard-earned money? I still have millions in debt to pay off, and you want to take more of my money? I don’t even get anything out of it!

“Master, what’s the problem?” Ying Lin asked, coming up beside Hui.

The guard looked over Ying Lin’s fine robes, and his smile widened further. “Ah, I forgot. We raised the fees recently. It’s two hundred spirit stones per person. And if sir would like a guide to assist him through the city, that’s an additional five hundred.”

“We won’t need a guide. Is there any way to reduce the fees?” Hui asked through gritted teeth.

The guard shook his head. “I’m afraid not, sir.”

He scowled. “One pass.”

“One?” the guard asked.

“Master?” Ying Lin said, startled.

“One. Or will you reduce them back to their original price of one hundred?” Hui asked.

The guard hesitated. He looked at Ying Lin, then shrugged. “If Sir insists. I’ll warn you, however: anyone found inside the city without a pass is subject to a penalty of a thousand spirit stones.”

Hui held out two hundred spirit stones.

The guard sighed and handed him a pass. “I see I was mistaken about Sir. Nothing more than a poor dog!” His eyes turned to Ying Lin, and a slow grin spread over his face. He slowly licked his lips.

Ying Lin shivered. She backed up a step.

“Ying Lin, go back,” Hui said. He reached to his neck and threw Zhubi at her. Zhubi wrapped around Ying Lin’s neck, and at Hui’s gesture, released his aura. Fifth-stage pressure weighed down on the guard, and he gasped a breath, startled.

“Yes, Master,” Ying Lin said. She mounted Gu Tian’s sword again and hurtled toward the horizon.

“There’s no use trying to trick us! We’ll know as soon as someone without a pass steps foot inside! Sending her away to call her back later is meaningless. We’ll be on any intruder in a heartbeat!” the guard promised.

“Shut up,” Hui grumbled under his breath, frustrated. Trying to make things expensive for me… damn you! Is the whole world out for my money?

Hui walked inside, paying no more attention to the guard or Ying Lin. His face twisted in displeasure, he stomped through the city, searching for a quiet alley. He slid into the first one he found and discovered a drunk, lying on the ground and snoozing away. With a snort, Hui settled down and examined the pass with his qi.

It’s a simple enough spell. In fact, I’d call it simple, but elegant. The array traps a mote of qi. That qi… is not any particular element, or rather, I should say, it belongs to a particular person. Likely the City Lord. Thus, the City Lord can instantaneously tell whether anyone has a pass or not, and—and fine them spirit stones!

No! I’ve just started to make progress on repaying my debt. I can’t! But neither can I leave Ying Lin to the wolves. Therefore… all I can do, is create my own pass!

The City Lord’s qi? That’s hard to get around, but I know just the thing. Hui drew out a strand of life qi. He hovered it over the pass, letting it synchronize with the qi in the pass. It’s hard to turn life qi into qi, and vice versa, but what it can do, is feed life into things. Make things more. Larger.

He fed the life qi into the pass experimentally. As expected, the qi in the pass grew stronger. Summoning a leaf, he etched the spell array into the leaf, then extracted the extra qi from the original pass. The whole way, he fed the qi with life qi, keeping it alive outside of the array, then fed it back into the lotus leaf, in the heart of the fake pass’s array. That done, Hui waved his hand and sent the original pass into the node. Clutching only his fake pass, he walked out into the city.

No guards surrounded him. No one moved to intercept him.

Hui walked past a guard, his back straight. The guard yawned, not so much as giving him a second glance.

A smile spread over Hui’s face. That easy, huh?

Though if I think about it, the only people with lots of life qi are likely righteous cultivators… or All Heavens cultivators. Either they’ll have the morals not to misuse it, or they’re All Heavens, in which case, what City Lord dares to defy All Heavens? Hui grinned to himself. Walking through another deserted street, he cast the snakeskin technique, changing his face, then drew the original pass from the node. He pressed his fingers to his forehead and sent forth his mental energy. Zhubi, lead Ying Lin back.

Wait, what about Zhubi? I’d better make a third pass. Repeating his earlier gestures, Hui made another leaf pass.

In a few moments, a hiss sounded at the edge of his mind. Hui darted to the deserted edge of the city’s walls and met Ying Lin and Zhubi there. He glanced around, then lifted his hand and used death qi to open a hole in the barrier. He gestured Ying Lin through.

She glanced at him. “Is… this okay? Won’t they find me immediately?”

Grinning, he passed Ying Lin the original pass and held his hand out to Zhubi, keeping the third pass in the node until he could be sure if Zhubi needed it or not. Zhubi slithered over to him happily, wiggling into his usual place.

“Master, don’t you need the pass?” Ying Lin asked.

Hui waved his hand. “Master has his own methods. It’s best if you don’t know.” I can’t give away all my techniques so quickly, after all! And besides, that sounds way cooler than ‘I mocked one up over there.’ Ah, it’s not my fault that this world doesn’t have such a thing as spell security.

Or… is it just that my comprehension is so great, that—

Argh, that’s the heart-demon speaking! Ignore it, Hui, ignore it!

“Ah… I understand,” Ying Lin said, nodding.

Adjusting his new robes, Hui nodded. “Let’s go see what we can learn about this female warrior!”

--

High up in the finest residence in the city, a man in long, graceful black robes, his hair tied in a half-crown, clasped his hands behind his back. “My qi… there is an extra pass, one I did not issue.”

Crouched at his side, a figure in all black, even the face obscured, clasped his hands. “Should I deal with the one who dares illegally copy City Lord’s pass?”

Chen Xigui raised a hand, halting him. “Find him. Bring him here. That female warrior has been a plague for far too long. With my beloved arriving soon, I cannot risk any unexpected discoveries.”

The black-cloaked figure looked up. “You suspect this false pass belongs to the warrior?”

Chen Xigui shook his head. “Unlikely. However, someone who can copy my array has no small skill, and the prescience to obscure their passage. They should be able to quietly and neatly handle our problem for us. After all, having provoked me in this way, how can they say no to a simple request of mine?”

The black-cloaked figure clasped his hands again. “This one hears and obeys.” He leaped out the window and vanished into the city.

Chen Xigui approached the window and gazed down on his city, a smile spreading over his lips. “Once she’s taken care of, who will dare oppose me? At last, my control over this city shall be unquestioned and absolute.”

“And if they fail… well, there’s always young talents willing to rush to their deaths.”