Hui sat there, meditating. His brow furrowed in focus, hands clenched on his robes. Come on. I only have a few moments. Think!

Death qi and life qi. Killing and forcibly growing cells. No one in this world should have a defense against an attack like this. If I can figure it out, then…!

Across from him, power continued to build on Han Qin’s sword. Gui Delun smashed through a second barrier, then paused, stepping back to give Han Qin room to work. “They’re easy to break, but the barrier comes back the moment you smash it. It tests one’s patience more than one’s strength.”

“We’ll see about that,” Han Qin murmured.

Fire passed down the length of his sword. His sword keened, trembling in his hand. He drew it back. Flame traced after the blade as it moved. In the arc of flame, a phoenix appeared and cried out, vanishing the next moment.

Pressured, Hui gritted his teeth. Come on. Come on! I can do this. I just—

A quiet hiss interrupted his wild thoughts. He peeked open an eye to find himself face-to-face with Zhubi, the snake’s silly upturned nose inches from his own. Zhubi flicked out his tongue. It struck Hui in the face gently, almost a slap.

Hui took a deep breath. “That’s right. I won’t get anything done by panicking. I’ll have faith in myself, and in you, Zhubi… and immerse myself fully in this technique!”

Han Qin unleashed his sword technique. A line of fire swung from the blade of his sword at the barrier. The second it impacted the barrier, the barrier melted away. The line continued on, even as the talismans created a new barrier to entrap Han Qin and Gui Delun. In a moment, it reached the talismans.

Fuck, Hui thought.

Fire spread over the talismans, instantly burning them to nothing. The first barrier vanished, popping like a soap bubble. The attack continued on. It struck the second layer. The second layer of barriers held for a moment before the attack burst it as well, burning the talismans on the far side. At the third layer, the barrier burst, but the attack was so weakened that the flames merely washed over the talismans, rather than burning them outright.

“Never mind, Zhubi. I’ve got to handle this first,” Hui said, jumping up. He bit his lip, thinking.

“Don’t bother. The natural enemy of talismans is fire. Your barriers are nothing before me,” Han Qin sneered. He drew back his sword, flame gathering on the blade already.

If that’s the case… Hui took a deep breath and gathered his qi to his fingertips. He drew a talisman on the air with qi.

The second he finished drawing it, the talisman activated, becoming a barrier.

Han Qin laughed. “Meaningless.”

Beside Han Qin, Gui Delun sat in the lotus position. Qi swirled around him as he focused on recovering from his wounds and stabilizing his cultivation.

That’s right. I’ve never created delayed-activation air talismans before. Hui scowled. A second later, he lifted his hand again. Well, if that’s the case… then I simply have to draw the network of 108 talismans all in one go!

At this point, it’s basically a spell formation, but… whatever. Didn’t Master say it? Labels are just things people apply to actions after the case. Talisman, spell formation, does it really matter?

Lifting his hands, Hui paused, like a conductor about to conduct an orchestra. He closed his eyes, drawing the image of the interlinked talismans in his mind. From each talisman, he added a tail of qi, drawing one to the next so that the whole piece worked together as one. One stroke. From start to finish, without lifting the brush, the entire talisman should be a single stroke!

Han Qin’s sword keened. He shifted, preparing to release his attack.

Hui’s mind raced ahead. A hundred, a thousand configurations passed by. Each with a defect, imperfect, not quite right. Lips moving, Hui murmured silently to himself, his eyes dancing back and forth as he reviewed the imagined images. No. Not quite. That won’t… I can’t. I need…

I need more hands!

Hui’s eyes flashed open. A clone stepped out to the left and to the right of him, and the three of them formed a triangle around the barrier. Together, the three of them began to move, every motion and brush stroke perfectly identical, not a single breath apart in timing or spacing. The image of a golden tree hovered above each one of them, and their qi synced together. The three of them freely shared qi as though they were a single being. The air filled with symbols as the three each drew their share of the formula.

“Too slow.” Han Qin struck. His sword attack flew out, bursting the third barrier. The talismans crinkled to cinders in an instant. The fourth barrier popped a moment later, and its talismans faced the same sad fate. Flames struck the fifth and final barrier. The sword attack burst out, more ferocious than the first time. Fire devoured the fifth layer of talismans. The fifth barrier fell, and the sword attack kept flying.

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The three Huis flinched, but not a one of them ran away. They faced down the sword attack, not bothering to defend. If I can’t finish this, we’re all dead. If it means I have to take a blow, so be it!

Eyes narrowing, Han Qin let out a cold chuckle. He flicked his sleeve.

Nearly petered out, the sword attack suddenly died. Mere cinders tumbled toward the Huis. Completely harmless, they tumbled down.

Weird. Why would he—

From the cinders of the attack, a new attack burst forth, twice as ferocious as the first. Passing through their unfinished formation, the attack slammed into the Huis. Flames burst up two of the clones, their flammable bodies instantly setting alight, while the third one let out a low grunt as the air escaped him. Blood ran down his stomach, his flesh carved open. Embers burned in his gut. With every passing moment, they burst to life, then died, burst to life, then died again.

“This is the true meaning of phoenix fire. A fire that can never be stilled, that must always consume! The flames cannot be put out. Until the day you die, they will burn at your insides. When you die, they will consume your corpse! When your corpse is gone, they will consume your grave. There is nothing you can do!” Han Qin shouted. He leapt forward, grinning maniacally. “But let me assist you toward death.”

Hui’s head snapped up. Phoenix fire? That… “The Phoenix-Spark Fire Altar,” he said, meeting Han Qin’s eyes.

“You—how do you know of that?” Han Qin asked, halting in midair to stare at Hui.

In the breath it bought him, the three Huis finished the talisman formation. Qi darted across the surface of the spell. It jumped to life, wrapping the two Seniors in a barrier more complete and thorough than any of the previous barriers.

Instantly, Han Qin’s face twisted into a scowl. “You filthy dog! Inciting the name of—” He fell silent, unwilling to continue.

Across from Hui, his two clones nodded. “I’ll see you later, First,” Sectgoer said.

“I see… I wasn’t Hui after all,” First murmured. He smiled.

The two turned to Hui and saluted, then vanished as the flames consumed them entirely.

Hui staggered back. Blood welled up in his mouth, and he spat it out, nearly falling over. His cultivation shuddered, barely able to hold on. Now, he danced between fourth and seventh stages, his dantian completely unstable.

Zhubi slid forward. A scaly coil supported him.

Leaning against Zhubi, Hui caught his breath for a moment. He was a sight. Ghostly pale, his eyes dark pinpricks in snowy white flesh, his lips spattered with visceral, crimson blood. He turned and spat again. This time, chunks of organs came up.

My body’s in total disarray. I’ve lost too much. My time is almost over.

Gritting bloodstained teeth against the pain, Hui nodded at Han Qin. “You were the one, weren’t you? The one who created the Phoenix-Spark Fire Altar. Senior… I’m the one who inherited your realm. I’m the one who finished your work.”

“You—you?” Han Qin asked, shocked. He pressed his palms against the barrier. “You’re lying! You always lie. You’re trying to incite a heart-demon, aren’t you?”

Hui shook his head. His hand trembled from the searing burn in his stomach as he gestured at the cultivators flying all around them. “These… my sect. I revived them using your altar as a basis. Senior… you should recognize your technique better than anyone.”

Han Qin stared. For the first time, he scanned one of the Starbound Sect cultivators with his qi. His eyes widened. “You… aren’t lying…?”

“He’s lying. Of course he’s lying. He’s a silver-tongued scoundrel. Han Qin, don’t listen to a word this man says,” Gui Delun said, shaking his head.

Coughing, Hui suppressed another surge of blood. “No. There’s no more reason to lie. I’m almost dead. Senior, you killed the one who knows how to use that altar you built. The one who finished your legacy. Senior… how can you live with yourself? Cutting off your own legacy… that is the kind of world you created.”

Han Qin fell back, his face nearly as pale as Hui’s. “No. No. It can’t be!”

“But… if you can extinguish…” Hui looked down, where flames still flickered in the deep wound in his gut.

Han Qin shook his head. “I can’t. Even I cannot. Those flames… are something I borrowed. Something above my level. Before you die, tell me! What did you do? What was I missing?”

Motherfucker. Don’t go attacking people with techniques you can’t cancel! Damn it. My ploy was for nothing! Sighing, Hui stood upright and wiped the blood off his face. His color recovered somewhat, body no longer fluttering on the verge of death. Looking Han Qin in the eye, he smiled sweetly. “Why don’t you fuck off, you fucking piece of shit. Go chase your woman’s shadow for another thousand years and die a dog’s death without ever knowing what I know right now.”

I still don’t have long to live, but well, I’m not that close to dying yet. These flames are no help, dammit! Still… He put a hand to his gut and sent death qi into the flames. They dimmed, but no sooner had they faded than they jumped back up at full strength again.

Hui twisted his lips, wincing from the pain. Right. Phoenix. Then maybe… He fed life qi instead.

The flames leaped up, jumping joyously in his flesh. His body crackled merrily, popping and snapping like a roasting piece of pork. Hui barely bit back a scream, crumpling in around the flames, his hands hovering. He wanted to grab the pain, but the fear of burning his hands or worsening the ache kept him from touching it, so all he could do was hover. Even from hovering distance, the heat smacked his palms, like reaching into a raging fire.

Alright, how about I leave them alone?

Desperate, Han Qin pushed up against the barrier again. “I know a technique to repress the flames. If you tell me how to finish the altar, I’ll teach you how to repress the flames.”

Hui laughed. “You’re bargaining with a dead man.” He might be able to repress the flames, but what does it matter? I don’t have long to live, flames or no. Sure, I might have told him the secret if he could remove the flames, but repress them? I’m not going to live long enough for it to matter. And I’m certainly not going to release a horrifying member of the Four Evils out on the world on account of this small cultivator’s short-term pain. I love life more than anyone, but I’m not totally lacking morals.

“Don’t bother. He’s bluffing. You shouldn’t believe a word he says,” Gui Delun said flatly.

Han Qin backhanded Gui Delun with a closed fist without turning around. “Don’t speak of things you don’t understand.”

Gui Delun pressed a hand to his cheek, startled more than anything. “How dare!”

“If you knew who I was, you’d be bowing and scraping for the chance to receive my fist,” Han Qin replied.

“Oh dear. Phrasing,” Hui said.

Ignoring the two bickering inside the barrier, Hui pressed his hands up against the barrier’s outside. He synced his qi to the barrier. I don’t have the time to come up with an actual technique. All I can do is… my best, I guess!

“If you won’t tell me, I’ll have to take the information from your mind,” Han Qin said, drawing back his sword again.

Hui licked his lips. And run as hard as hell if it doesn’t work. I don’t want to be soulsearched!