Liu Guang waved his hand, and the world melted away. A golden world enveloped Hui, glittery and metallic. Liu Guang’s glow reflected off every angle. Hui squinted and raised his hands, desperately blocking the light. It burns! Liu Guang, why…?

Looking at Hui, Liu Guang frowned slightly. A moment later, his eyes widened. He closed his eyes, and the glow clinging to his body diminished, fading to a faint aura.

Hui lowered his hands and sighed in relief. Without Liu Guang’s blazing sunlike halo burning out his retinas, he took in the world around him.

Sharp lines. Right angles. Boxes dominated the world, sharp and square. Buildings rose up around them, and roads marched off in perfectly straight lines. Golden light sparkled off the sharp edges, delineating the line between one boxy building and the next.

“This is an illusory world I created. Illusions are a hobby of mine, second only to the healing arts,” Liu Guang stated, turning to take in his world.

Hui quietly examined Liu Guang’s face while it lacked its golden aura. He’s surprisingly handsome for someone who hides his features all the time. Fierce eyes, sharp brows, strong cheekbones… I can’t understand why Senior hides his face.

Liu Guang clasped his hands behind his back and strode forward, facing his town, his back to Hui. “I find this world comforting. It’s simple. Straightforward. Everything is clean and clear. More than anything, that… is what I seek. Purity. Cleanliness. Simplicity. You understand, yes?”

Hmm… does Senior maybe… not understand how powerful a handsome face can be? Handsome faces are an asset to be used, not something to be veiled and hidden from the world! Or does Senior not realize his handsomeness? Perhaps I should pass on the dao of the handsome face to this Liu Guang…

A long silence stretched. Abruptly, Hui looked up from his musings and found Liu Guang looking at him. He licked his lips. Oh, shit. What was Senior saying? I hope it wasn’t something important. Er… Come on, Hui! What should I say? A shot in the dark. One chance! Okay, here we go!

“Yes?” Hui tried.

Liu Guang nodded. “This world… what do you think of it?”

Hui licked his lips. He watched Liu Guang from the corner of his eyes. “It’s… very… golden?”

Liu Guang narrowed his eyes subtly.

“Square…?” Hui tried.

Liu Guang’s expression didn’t change.

What’s left to say about this world? There isn’t anything to it! It’s gold and square! What more do you want, Senior? Exasperated, Hui said, “Simple?”

“Precisely. Simple,” Liu Guang said, satisfied.

I seem to have succeeded! Er… but how? Hui nodded along, smiling.

“So what is your skill?” Liu Guang asked, turning to face Hui.

Ah, okay. The important part of this conversation. Hui cupped his hands to Liu Guang. “This small cultivator specializes in the healing arts.”

“What do you need to showcase your arts?” Liu Guang asked. He waved his sleeve, and a black doorframe appeared in the air, perfectly clean and sharp-edged.

“I can exhibit my life qi techniques in the open air, or… if you have anyone who needs to be healed?” Hui tried. They probably have something prepared. After all, this is the healing and life qi trial! He nodded. “Ah, or I can exorcise with my life qi…”

Liu Guang nodded. He strode to one of the golden boxes and put a hand to its lustrous surface. The gold metal rippled like liquid. A dark gash appeared, then widened, as if an invisible hand plunged into the flow of the liquid and drew it back.

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Liu Guang retrieved his hand. “I’ve managed to create a pseudo-real realm inside the illusory realm. In this space, I can store things as if in a storage space. When the illusory reality closes… they collapse into a ring.”

Hui glanced at Liu Guang’s hand. I guess he is wearing one fewer ring, now. It’s an interesting ability, but I have to wonder… why? Why attach an illusory realm to a storage space? What does that gain over an ordinary storage ring?

“If I had a true miniature reality, I could keep it open and compress it into a ring, making the ring the only entrance until I decided to open it again… however, as it is, the things inside the realm simply stop moving while the realm is closed,” Liu Guang explained. He reached into the darkness and drew out a badly-injured cultivator, dragging her by the arm.

Eyes dead, the woman let herself be dragged. An open gash bled down her chest, and her left arm and leg hung loose, broken. Bruises littered her visible skin.

Hui startled. He turned to Liu Guang. What? Where did she come from? What’s happening? Why did Liu Guang have an injured cultivator lying in his realm?

Wait, if it compresses into a ring… storage rings can’t hold living things, right?

Unaware of Hui’s surprise, Liu Guang continued as if nothing had happened. “Because of the pseudo-reality of the realm, I can store living beings inside the ring. However, it seems ‘stopping’ strongly effects their mental fortitude. I believe they are still awake, and continue to experience the moment in which they were stopped until I open the realm again, be that minutes or decades. It preserves wounded cultivators… though at a considerable cost to their minds.”

Oh, okay. That’s why it can hold people—wait, wait, that’s not the problem here! Hey! Why are you freezing cultivators in extreme agony for decades? Isn’t that problematic, even in xianxia logic?

No, no. There must be a reasonable explanation. Maybe… maybe he had no other option!

Hui licked his lips. “Er, Senior, do you place cultivators inside in extreme circumstances only?”

Liu Guang looked down at the woman in his hands, then smiled reassuringly at Hui. “Oh, don’t worry. She’s a demonic cultivator. She deserves it.”

Holy shit! Holy shit! This man is insane!

Fuck! This can kill me in ways I can’t fake my way out of! Getting frozen eternally… this small Hui wants none of this! Can I go? I opt out, Senior! I give up! I don’t need to enter this sect after all! I’ll go home and figure out another way to fight it. Yes, yes. There’s always another way. Always…

No. I—I can’t give up now. This is what I’ve been waiting for.

Besides… this pseudo-real space… isn’t it similar to the way I have the members of Starbound Sect preserved? It’s not the same… they aren’t frozen in time. But it’s similar. If I understand this space… I might better be able to comprehend the secrets of returning my sect to life.

One way or another, this man must die. He and this small cultivator cannot live under the same sky! I’ll exterminate him, no question!

…But not now. Right now, I need to pass this test. It’d be very suspicious if the tester vanished in the middle of testing. I can lay the groundwork for his defeat… but I can’t make a single move against him.

Chen Wuya struggled in Hui’s robes. “Deserves it for being a demonic cultivator? Let me at him. I’ll show him a demonic cultivator! That child cultivates by an orthodox method, it’s plain as day!”

A chill ran through Hui’s stomach. He eyed the empty-eyed woman with sympathy. At the same time, waves of repulsion ran through him, directed not at the woman but at Liu Guang. This woman… she’s the same as my Starbound Sect. Someone one-sidedly denounced as being demonic by All-Heavens Sect. And who could stand up to them? A single Inner Peak Lord felled my entire sect. That’s power beyond what us mere ordinary cultivators and small sects can manage.

Liu Guang lifted the woman. A golden rectangle rose out of the earth, and he set the woman atop it. He turned and nodded at Hui.

Right, I haven’t replied yet. Hui smiled. “Naturally, Elder Brother. I take it I’m to heal her?”

“It’s good that you understand so quickly! Go on. Any arts you need, any techniques you require. Let nothing hold you back. Only you and I can observe this realm, so feel free to use secret or even hidden techniques… at your own discretion, of course,” Liu Guang said gracefully.

Hui nodded. He stepped forward and put his hand on the woman’s forehead. Instinctively, he sent a pulse of life qi into the woman to stabilize and comfort her.

The woman sighed. Her eyes regained life, and she locked eyes on Hui for a moment before she shut her eyes in relief.

Relax. You’re safe now, Hui thought, though he didn’t say anything.

Noticing his hesitation, Liu Guang smiled. “Ah, don’t worry. I didn’t personally inflict those wounds upon her. I prefer to heal, not fight. She’s simply someone I picked up on the battlefield.”

Hui smiled. “I understand, Elder Brother!” Stop talking. You’re only making it worse. Her only crime was falling in battle, and her punishment was to be locked eternally inside her moment of greatest agony? What kind of absolutist bullshit is that?

No. This man… cannot live.

Closing his eyes, Hui sent his consciousness inside the woman. But first, I have to pass this test. No—no. More importantly, I must heal this woman. I… I won’t stake everything on it. I can’t. I can’t choose one stranger’s life over my entire sect. But if I can… if I can, I want to save her!