Hui plunged into water.

Down, down. Icy currents swirled around him. The water choked him. He desperately sucked in a breath, but he could only find water, not air. His lungs filled. His chest plumped. And still he sank. Not dead, not alive, falling deeper and deeper into the freezing water. His hands numbed. His chest ached. He clawed at his neck, to no avail. There was no air, only water. Water everywhere, sinking into every crack, freezing him to the core.

Wait. I’m a cultivator. I don’t need to breathe.

Steadying himself in the water, Hui looked around. Gauzy robes clung to his body, drifting around him when he moved. His hair whirled, caught by the wild currents. He closed his eyes and steadied himself, then forcibly expelled the water from his lungs. The resulting blast of water sent him tumbling backward, head over heels. When he landed, he found himself utterly lost.

Dark water stretched infinitely in every direction. Even with his eyes as powerful as they were, he couldn’t pierce the pitch blackness that awaited him in the distance. A few bubbles and currents turned the water, indicating which way was up, but even when he turned to face it, there was no visible indicator of the way out. Darkness. Utter darkness, and nothing else.

The last thing I remember is… Elder Sister Reaper.

So… is this hell? Or rather… the Sanzu River?

But the Sanzu washes away all traces of one’s mortal life. I shouldn’t be able to remember who I am if I’m this deep in its waters, let alone able to perfectly recall not only this life, but also my past life. I…

Past life…

Hold on. Am I naturally resistant to the Sanzu? Is that why I remember everything? Then, all this hubbub with the Heavens is because this small cultivator’s soul is a little bit resistant—

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

Eh, Elder Sister Reaper? Where are you? Hui wondered, looking around.

A hand plunged through the surface of the water and gripped his head. The reaper dragged Hui out of the water with one hand, his whole wet body and soaking robes dangling from his face. He gripped at her hand, struggling against it. “Elder Sister, hurts, it hurts—”

“Then fly on your own,” she said, releasing him.

Hui instantly tried to circulate his qi. The second it moved, his entire body jolted. As if gears that were not meant to catch had suddenly meshed, his cultivation ground against itself. His whole body trembled, threatening to shake apart. Hui stopped circulating his qi, but without his qi, there was no way to fly. He dropped back toward the icy water below.

“Elder Sister, this small cultivator was wrong, I was wrong!” Hui cried, reaching for her.

The reaper darted down and caught his head. His feet hung a hair’s breadth above the water, the highest of the shallow waves lapping at his soles. Even the slightest touch sent a shiver through Hui, the water colder than ice. The cold seemed to touch his very soul and cultivation, piercing directly through the flesh.

He smiled up at the reaper. “Thank you, Elder Sister. Truly, Elder Sister is gorgeous and munificent beyond words. If only—”

“Not long enough?” she murmured, almost thoughtful.

I don’t want to go back in, don’t put me back in! Cold, cold, it’s too cold! Hui shook his head insistently. “No, no, it’s clearly long enough. I’m fine, small cultivator will be fine—”

Before Hui could finish protesting, she pushed him back under the surface of the water. For a moment, the silver surface shimmered around her wrist, bare centimeters above Hui. Her hand retracted, and the surface vanished, leaving Hui in pitch black again.

Aha, but I know where the surface is! Hui kicked upward, reaching for that silver sky.

He found water. Water, water, and more water. So much water. Hui’s brows furrowed. How long are Elder Sister’s wrists? She clearly put me just under the surface, so how come I can’t break free?

Is it a confounding array, perhaps? Or some kind of spatial trick? Oh, could it be a small realm? I love small realms. If I can—

Hui stopped. I can’t even circulate my qi right now. What am I supposed to do about this?

He furrowed his brows, floating in the water for a moment. Am I dead? Is this hell? Er, the Underworld? Or… I mean, I’m in water. Did I become a drowned ghost after I died?

It could be worse, I suppose. Drowned ghosts are notoriously hard to expel. I’ve got a long, ghostly life ahead of me. I can’t circulate my qi right now, so I can’t cultivate, but there’s always time, always more time! I can…

Eh, wait. I can’t circulate my qi?

Holy shit! I’m in a huge crisis! My cultivation is in tatters! My chances of immortality are—

Well, no. I’m dead.

I mean, in terms of huge crises, it doesn’t really get worse than being dead, but compared to having a ruined cultivation, the whole death part really seems like the bigger issue here. Or is it the ruined cultivation that’s the bigger issue? I know plenty of death cultivators, after all. And I never met one, but supposedly there’s ghost cultivators, too. So… I guess losing my cultivation is the bigger issue? But… I mean, also, I’m dead. Which one is higher priority, ultimately? Death? Gotta be death. Probably.

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The icy cold waters whirled around him. The currents gripped his body mercilessly, whirling him around. Never much of a fighter, Hui let the water take him where it would. As he floated along, the water suddenly surged and smashed into him. All the air escaped Hui’s lungs in a single huge bubble, and with it, a single mouthful of bad blood colored the water. The river washed away the blood almost instantly, but for a moment, it hung before Hui’s eyes.

Wait. Is the river healing me?

He closed his eyes and carefully inspected his cultivation, mindful not to circulate his qi. His body was a mess. Bits and pieces of his cultivation laid jumbled inside of him, twisted, turned, and shattered almost beyond recognition. Likewise, his soul fluttered inside his body. Seven disparate pieces hung near one another, not one continuous soul but a jumble of different souls not quite similar enough to join back together.

Ah. I see. There are consequences to that clone technique of mine.

Another blast of water sent him tumbling to the side. The jumbled cultivation inside of him whirled around, and one of the pieces clicked back into place. At the same time, the thickly-suppressant icy cold of the water soothed his soul, quietly blending the pieces back into one.

Oh. So Elder Sister Reaper is trying to help me.

Then… I suppose all I can do is lie here and let the water run its course.

Time passed. Trapped in the endless dark, Hui couldn’t tell how much or how quickly. Minutes, hours, days, they all became the same. Ever so slowly, his internals healed. His soul blended together, and his cultivation clicked back into place. Unresistingly, Hui laid there and let it happen, happy to be healed.

Whether it was an instant or an infinity later, a hand jabbed into the water again. The reaper dragged Hui out by his face once more, peering closely into it. “Hmm…”

“Elder Sister, I’m healed now,” Hui declared.

“It does seem that way,” she agreed. She looked down at him. “I suppose it’s time for you to cross the bridge of reincarnation and return to the world.”

Ah! Wait, hold on. That’s right! I’m in the Underworld! The Sanzu River might heal me, but it’s only so that my soul can cleanly pass on into reincarnation! Hui quickly slapped himself in the gut and spat a mouthful of blood. Pitifully, he looked up at the reaper, letting the blood drip dramatically down his chin and stain his white robes. “Actually, Elder Sister, I think I need more time.”

She scoffed and threw him toward the river. “Wash yourself off and follow me. You’ve had time enough.”

Excellent! I’ll enter the river and swim away from Elder Sister as fast as I can. It’s time for me to become a drowned ghost in the Sanzu River! True, it’s not the simplest path, but it’s better than being reincarnated!

This small Hui might be dead, but I’m not gone yet! I refuse to pass on quietly. I’ll reach immortality as a ghost if I must, but I refuse to quietly reincarnate!

Seconds before he hit the water, the reaper caught him by the back of his collar. Hui jolted to a halt, his collar digging into his throat. He coughed, choking. “Elder Sister—”

“Look at yourself,” she demanded.

Hui looked down. Red blood ran down his chin, but even more startling was the black ink rolling down his cheeks. Where his eyes should have been were instead dark, soulless pits, piercing directly through his head. Wavy hair unlike his usual mane hung around his head, and his fingers were long and pale, tipped in icy blue, claws already curling from their tips. From the front of his robes, an emaciated chest with soggy, translucent flesh showed the ribs, and his stomach bloated with water.

Hui gasped, startled. Have I looked like this the whole time?

Even as he thought it, his face and body reverted to normal. Dark eyes blinked back at him, and his silky, wet hair hung down in his face. He looked at his hands. What… what was that?

“You’re in a delicate state right now. Don’t have any stupid thoughts, or you’ll alter your entire form of being,” the reaper declared, rolling her eyes. “Now come quietly.”

“Eh, but… I don’t want to be reincarnated,” Hui said. Despite his best efforts, a bit of a whine crept into his voice. Dammit, all the time I’ve been in this world, that’s the one thing I’ve tried to avoid! And now Elder Sister tells me I have no choice? I don’t want to, I don’t want to! Even if I have to be a drowned ghost—

“Oh, come on. That was a joke. Do you think we’d go through this much effort just to reincarnate someone?” the reaper said.

“Eh.” Hui blinked. Elder Sister was… joking?

She shook her head at him. “The newly dead are so sensitive. So what, you’re dead. I’ve been dead for centuries. Get over it.”

That’s a tall order, Elder Sister! I mean, us poor mortals… being dead is kind of the worst possible state, you know? We can’t all be calm and collected like you reapers. Hui shook his head at her, but quietly collected himself. If they don’t want to reincarnate me, then that means there’s still hope for me and my route to immortality. I still have hope! There’s no need to go to such extremes as to become a drowned ghost yet. I’ll see where Elder Sister is taking me, and we can go from there!

“Anyways, wash yourself off, and let’s go,” the reaper said, releasing the back of his robes.

Hui splashed into the water. This time, he didn’t drop into the depths, but remained at the surface, floating face-down like a corpse. Well… I am a corpse, after all. He pushed himself up and carefully circulated his qi, still mindful of the internal snags and not-quite-fixed spots. It’ll take a while before I’m back at a safe fifth realm, but for now, I can at least circulate enough qi to fly. “So, Elder Sister, where are we going?”

The reaper gestured ahead of them.

A bridge stretched across the river. A long line of pale souls shuffled over its planks. In its middle, an old lady bent over a pot, offering soup to the passerby. At the far end, the bridge touched down onto dry land. There, the man Hui recognized as Zhu Diyu, who’d come to visit him in the mortal realm once or twice, sat upon an enormous throne. Bored, Zhu Diyu propped his head up with one hand and lazily scanned a long scroll. He waved his hand, and one of the souls flew into a shining silver portal. The next soul stepped up, and Zhu Diyu flicked his hand the other way. With a scream, the man plunged into darkness, vanishing into the depths of the Underworld.

Hui swallowed. Eh. I am being reincarnated, after all! His body trembled, and he flopped down onto the river’s surface again, face down.

The reaper sighed. “You know, it isn’t any use playing dead in the Underworld.”

Hui perked up. “That’s true!” Dammit! My greatest trick!

In any case, Elder Sister said I wasn’t being reincarnated, and… right now, what can I do? My cultivation is shaky, and it’s not like I can jump back in my body to escape her. Even if my cultivation wasn’t shaky, I’m pretty sure I couldn’t take on Elder Sister. So… I might as well figure out what she wants from me.

Setting his jaw, Hui rose from the water with a determined expression. He nodded stiffly at the reaper. “I’m ready. Let’s go.”

The reaper shook her head. “I really don’t know what Zhu Diyu sees in you…”