A blast of air, stirring the ghoul skin’s hair. Xue rushed past him and pressed against the door, dragging Hui after him by the wrist. He shoved against it once, twice, then leaned on it, face plastered to the door like a dog begging to go out. As handsome as Xue was, it only made it more hilarious to watch him act like an idiot.

It worked! Resisting the urge to laugh at Xue’s antics, Hui grabbed Xue’s hand and peeled the fingers away from his wrist.

Xue tightened his grip on Hui.

“Hey, hey, ow—” Hui twisted his wrist, trying to break away.

Xue tugged at his arm, dragging him toward the door.

“Alright, alright. What am I, emergency food?” Hui muttered to himself.

Bumping repeatedly into the door, Xue’s white eyes stared ahead.

Hui sighed. “You fused it shut. We can’t get out.”

Xue whipped around to him and growled.

“Okay, okay, as you like,” Hui said, putting a hand up. Is there some hierarchy to undead I don’t know about? Is a mere Foundation-Building undead supposed to follow a fourth-stage undead like Xue? Ah, even in the afterlife, we’re still bound by hierarchy…

Something thumped against the door from outside. “Here! I heard something!”

Hui’s eyes narrowed. That voice… that’s one of the cultivators who was with the triplets!

“It’s sealed? Blast it open!”

Hui dragged Xue back from the door. Xue dug in his heels stubbornly. Annoyed, Hui yanked him with all his might. “You dumb undead—”

The door blew open in a blast of fire. Rock smashed into the opposite wall. Xue whipped around, inadvertently dragging Hui after him. Hui stumbled, barely keeping his feet under him. Xue bared razor-sharp fangs at the hole, white eyes wide with fury.

“Hey, hey! Let me go!” Hui shouted.

“There they are! Get them!” the lead cultivator shouted back.

Two cultivators stood amidst the rubble. Both in green robes, both male, neither of them particularly attractive, they pointed their swords at Xue and Hui. “Give up the furnace. She’s ours!”

Hui looked at them, then at Xue. Xue growled at the cultivators.

He’s still got fourth stage strength, right? Hui nodded at the cultivators. “Sic ‘em.”

Xue charged. Still caught in his grasp, Hui stumbled after him. “I didn’t say—bring me!”

The green-robed cultivators jumped back. The lead cultivator stumbled into the second, who fled into the hallway. Xue slashed down at his head.

The cultivator raised his sword and barely blocked Xue’s claws. Xue grabbed onto his sword, teeth bared in a growl, eyes wide. The cultivator’s sword creaked under Xue’s strength.

Frowning, the cultivator raised their hand. “Immersion Flam—”

Hui darted in and slapped their hand up. Fire slammed into the flint ceiling, over his and Xue’s heads. Wide-eyed, the cultivator tried to jump back. Hui twisted his wrist, grabbed their sleeve, and yanked the cultivator toward himself.

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“Uwah!” The cultivator tripped toward them.

Xue clenched his fist. The sword shattered. His hand kept moving, through the sword. As the cultivator fell, Xue smashed his hand into the side of the cultivator’s head. With a sharp crack, skull met flint.

Stunned, the cultivator struggled weakly. Gripping their head, Xue slammed it into the flint. Again. Again. Blood splattered over black stone. White bone shattered, falling to the floor in fragments. Gray mixed in with the red. The cultivator stopped moving.

“Stop! Xue, stop!” Hui commanded.

Xue froze. He turned white eyes on Hui. Black hair hung in his face. Tipping his head, he released the cultivator.

“Yes, that’s right,” Hui said, hesitant.

Slowly, Xue blinked. After a second, he raised his arm. Blood and viscera coated his hand and streamed down his arm, almost to the elbow. Lifting it to his mouth, he extended a long, gray tongue and licked the blood.

“No, no, bad. Bad Xue,” Hui snapped.

Xue paused. Lips stained with blood, teeth traced with it, he raised a lip and growled at Hui.

Wait, seriously? He responds to commands? He’s almost like… a giant dog.

A fourth-stage undead dog? Hot damn. I can work with this!

He faced Xue and raised his arm, the one Xue held tight to. “Release.”

Xue hesitated. He flicked his eyes at Hui, then at the hall.

“Xue, bad. Let go.”

At that, Xue startled and let go of his wrist.

“Follow.”

Ducking his head, Xue fell in behind Hui.

What is this? How does he know these commands? Did someone already train him?

Wait, no. I don’t want to know that answer. Hui waved those thoughts away. Given his background, it’s probably… not something he wants to talk about, either.

Taking a deep breath, Hui stepped into the hallway. He glanced left and right, searching for the cultivator who’d escaped. It doesn’t matter. For now, I have to use the tools I have if I’m going to survive this.

Icy cold flickered in Hui’s dantian. He froze, directing his awareness internally. The smoke billowed close to his dantian, drawn by the energy there. It flitted closer, almost touching, and cold spiked through him again.

Shit! I wasn’t paying enough attention! Hui closed his eyes and meditated, pressing the scrap of energy away until his dantain became warm once again.

Opening his eyes, he took a deep breath. I’m maintaining the ghoul-skin-mask’s spells and circulating death qi in my dantian, where a single mistake quite literally ends me. My mental energy can handle those tasks, but not much more. I can order Xue around, but I should avoid actively fighting if I can.

“Foolish undead! Take this!”

Hui whipped around. The other cultivator leaped from the room opposite, chest swelled up, flame already flickering between his lips. No time! “Xue!”

Cold arms snatched him up. Xue leaped directly upward, toward the ceiling.

Wait, wait, wait! Hui hunched over, bracing for impact.

Xue raised an arm. They smashed through the ceiling and onto the next floor. Fire burst through the hole behind them, but Xue was already running, Hui draped over his shoulder.

Propping himself up, Hui watched the cultivator jump through the hole after them. Again, the cultivator’s chest swelled.

“Xue!”

Xue leaped. Flint smashed. Again, he ran.

“Wait, stop! Turn around!” Hui snapped.

Stiffly, Xue drew to a halt and turned toward the hole.

“Crouch!”

Obediently, Xue dropped to a crouch.

Fire blasted through the hole once more, burning through the space they’d stood in seconds ago. Roiling heat rolled over them. Hui felt the undead skin crisp, the heat baking his own skin underneath.

Close!

The cultivator jumped up through the hole. “Come back here, you—”

“Xue, smash! Get ledge-guarded, bitch!” Hui shouted.

For a split second, the cultivator hung in midair, a stupefied expression on his face.

Xue punched the cultivator in the face. His head snapped back so far it hit his back, and he cartwheeled backward down the hallway, head, then heels striking slate with a dun-dun-dun.

“Run, run!” Hui urged.

Xue turned and clomped away, shuffling along. Behind them, the cultivator coughed weakly. Hui didn’t turn back. He deserved it. Trying to turn someone into a furnace, ptui! Disgusting.

He looked at Xue, pushing up off Xue’s back and craning his neck to see the ghoul’s face. “Wait, but you just jumped an entire story. You’re telling me you can’t navigate stairs and thresholds? Is it some kind of spell that prevents you from climbing stairs? Or... I don't know, a mental block?”

Ahead, a set of stairs loomed. Time to figure this out. Hui slapped Xue’s back. “Xue, stairs.”

Numbly, Xue turned toward the stairs. He stumbled over to them and hit his toe on the first stair. Xue lurched forward and barely caught himself before he fell. Feet still working, he struggled to push himself back upright.

Ah. He doesn’t lack strength, he lacks coordination, and he’s too dumb to figure out he can leap the whole staircase in ghoul form.

Good thing this Hui is here to think for him! “Xue, jump.”