Hui followed after Long Tongshi and Mo Riyan as the two flew ahead. They led him to a spartan temple carved directly from the mountains’ stone. A pair of dragons bared their teeth from either side of a tall square doorway, while a phoenix spread its wings over the top of the doorway. The doorway itself stood empty, no more than a dark rectangle cut from the brownish granite.

Sighing, Hui paused, gazing up at the massive scaled coils. He put a hand to his empty neck. I miss Zhubi…

“They’re gorgeous, aren’t they? No one knows who made them or where they came from,” Mo Riyan said, looking up at the carvings as well.

“Huh? Oh, yes, yes indeed,” Hui agreed, nodding. He looked at the carvings again. He’s got a point. This is clearly an uninhabited part of the Eastern Alliance, and it’s on the wrong side of the wall from the Southern Sect Conference, so who bothered to create these carvings? “Previous guards?” he suggested.

Mo Riyan shrugged. “Perhaps.”

A chill fell over them as they walked into the darkness within the temple. Long Tongshi waved his hand. Torches lit across the cave, illuminating the carved granite. Dragons danced across the walls, carved in such loving, lifelike shape that they appeared to fly in the flickering torchlight.

“It isn’t a spell,” Mo Riyan said, looking up at the carvings. “They were carved like that. In steady light, they sit still. Look a little odd, quite honestly. In torchlight, though, they dance.”

Hui gazed up, amazed. The dragons undulated above him, flying with the wind. Someone carved them with that much care? They must have been a master of their craft. But why? Why put so much effort into this far-flung, little-visited place?

They must have been an exile. Who else would have had the time to create this?

“The teleportation formation is here,” Long Tongshi said, pointing.

Hui ripped his eyes away from the dragon carvings and looked down. A web of red string wound around a set of stakes, forming the outline of a spell formation. Hui drew close and crouched down, closely examining the string. His brows furrowed. “A red thread?”

“It’s romantic, isn’t it? A red thread, binding me back to Gui Yutong,” Mo Riyan sighed.

“She’s married now. To me,” Hui said flatly.

Mo Riyan laughed. “It’s good to jest, but one should jest within reason.”

It’s true, though. Hui shrugged. “She is married, Elder Brother. She has a child, too. Her child should be ten years old this year.”

“No… it can’t be,” Mo Riyan murmured. He stumbled back.

“Ah, also, Elder Brother, you should know… Gui Yutong prefers women,” Hui said, nodding.

Mo Riyan turned to Long Tongshi. “He’s lying. He must be!”

“It seemed obvious to me,” Long Tongshi said, shrugging. “She wasn’t aware of it yet, but the signs were there. I wouldn’t have challenged for the hand of a woman I thought would actually marry me. It’s not as if I wanted love. I merely wanted the challenge of true battle.”

Hui licked his lips. Elder Brother, you should give up, too. There’s a limit to everything, and five hundred challenges in about a day is far more than merely wanting the challenge of battle!

Still… I’ve never seen a spell formation like this before. This thread… Hui hovered his hand over it, then delicately touched the thread. He injected a little bit of qi into it. His brows furrowed. As I thought. It’s ordinary, mortal thread. The stakes, too, are but mortal wood. This entire formation is nothing but a receiving array for qi sent from afar.

Is this a dead end…?

Months. Months to get around these mountains and storms. I can’t waste that much time. I mean, I’ve wasted ten years, but… I was dead for those years. Now that I’m awake, I don’t want to spend months getting to Starbound Sect. Besides, if I circle around the mountains and fly through the seas… can my seeds survive saltwater? Even if they can, won’t they drift away from where I leave them? I can’t use them as checkpoints the way I do on land.

As for flying over… He turned his eyes up, looking toward the top of the mountain, although he couldn’t see it from inside. These mountains practically pierce the heavens. Although I’m pretty tough as a fifth-stage cultivator, I’m not sure I can survive in the void of space… and if the void of space isn’t what awaits me, then that Heavenly Net I saw earlier will surely block my progress.

No. There must be a way. It can’t be impossible. Hui sat back on his heels, rubbing his chin. He stared at the red threads. Red thread… marriage… Gui Yutong… Bai Xue… Li Xiang… no wait, I never married her, technically! Ah, shit. I’ll have to fix that.

Focus, Hui, focus. Is there any way I can do this? Send qi from the other side… I should still have other lotus clones on Starbound Sect. I haven’t been able to sense them at all from the Underworld, but maybe I can sense them now?

Well, if I can sense them enough, I can skip all this! If the lotus clone works for my dead self, then I don’t need to cross the mountain and storms barrier in the first place. Damn. Why didn’t I think of this earlier?

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

Hui sat back, folding his legs into the lotus pose. “Elder Brothers, please watch over me. I’m going to attempt to activate this teleportation formation.”

Mo Riyan nodded. “Go ahead.”

Long Tongshi leaned against his spear, silently watching Hui.

Hui closed his eyes. Lotus clones… answer me! That gold network… connect!

Nothing happened. He scowled. The network is—er, was, life qi, and I’m using death qi, but… come on. It was a good thought.

Wait. Death qi… someone I have a connection to inside the Southern Sect Conference, that I might be able to connect to with death qi. Fang Hua! She’s technically my jiangshi that I cultivated and raised. I even controlled her, once upon a time. If I can reach out to her… it’s a long shot, but it’s worth a try.

Threads… no, it’s too far. I might as well fly around. Uh… radio? No, the mountains would block the signal, like if you were driving through mountains in the real world and trying to listen to music at the same time. Actually, that place I died had really horrible radio signal… but that’s aside the point. Light? Same problem. What can work? Is there anything that does work with mountains in the way and no infrastructure pre-laid?

Hui licked his lips. …magic.

Okay, yeah, but how do I make it work? How do I do the magic? What’s the basis for the magic?

Uh… what about quantum? If I can enter a quantum sync state with Fang Hua, then I can pass information to her by syncing our thoughts on a subatomic level…

I’m not going to actually be able to achieve quantum pairing, but as long as I use it as the basis for attempting to link up with Fang Hua, I might be able to succeed at contacting her! Cultivation is all about comprehension, after all. Or… that’s what Master said, anyways! Plus, since we already have a karmic link from me having forged her as a ghoul in the first place, that should form the basis for me syncing with her. In essence, that’s the first step of pairing the quantum molecules together… or something like that.

So… how do I sync with Fang Hua?

What does Fang Hua like? Hunger… viciousness… no wait, that’s Jin Xian. But… I mean, they’re kind of the same person. To some extent, Jin Xian is the sleeping form of Fang Hua. That intense hunger… and death qi. Oh! And the green puppeteering threads. Yes, yes. Search out! Search out the source of that!

Hui extended his mental energy out, while at the same time calling out to Fang Hua inside himself. For a long time, nothing happened.

Something resonated. A quiet buzz sounded in the back of his mind. Hui flew toward it, examining it. Thin gold threads stretched out from his body, extending infinitely.

The threads of life and death?

No, wait. These are slightly different. They’re connective threads. Are they… karmic threads?

Wait, why can I see the threads now? Is it because I’m dead? I’m dead, so my soul isn’t constrained by the limits of my living body?

…Well, it makes sense. I had to step out of my body to see them normally, or use my third eye. One way or another, I had to bypass my physical body to see the threads. Now that I don’t have a true physical body, naturally, it’s easier to see them.

He picked through the threads slowly, carefully, searching out ones that emanated death qi. A few of the death qi threads ended abruptly, cut off. Those must be from people who died. Hmm, I hope Fang Hua didn’t die… no, no. She has a whole sect’s worth of ghouls. If anything, I should be worried about all the cultivators in her vicinity.

Hold on. I have the karmic threads right here. Should I just… find Li Xiang or my children’s karmic threads and contact them that way? Hui regarded the threads. He reached out to one of the warmer ones, pressing his palm toward it.

As his hand approached, the thread dimmed. It frayed, threatening to give way. Hui jerked his hand back, and the thread healed itself, instantly popping back to its usual warmth.

I only have death qi right now, after all. If I apply death qi to an ordinary karmic thread, made of qi, the death qi will corrupt and destroy the thread! I can’t use this technique to contact anyone who uses anything but death qi right now.

Hmm… could I use this technique as a weapon?

No, no. I’m destroying my own karmic threads, not someone else’s. I might be able to use it to cut off relationships I no longer want, but I don’t think destroying a karmic thread will kill someone.

On the other hand, if I destroy a karmic thread… it’s the same as returning me and the person on the other end to strangers, as if we never met. If I accidentally did it to Li Xiang’s thread, or my children’s threads… Hui shivered. To cut off those familial bonds… no. I can’t risk it. I wouldn’t dare to. What would that even do to my children?

Icy cold emanated from one of the threads. Black death qi swirled visibly around it. Hui reached out and laid a hand on it ever so carefully. This one?

An intense source of death qi and hunger surged, full of resentment and anger. It lit up white-hot in Hui’s mind, brilliant magnesium bright. He shied away, lifting his mental energy hands to protect himself. Ow! What is that?

Oh, right. The resentment demon.

In the near distance, a roar echoed over the mountains. Hui twitched.

Er, please excuse me, Senior. I didn’t mean to disturb you!

He turned back to the threads. Come on, come on… oh, this one? He touched another thread.

At the other end, someone jolted, surprised. Hui felt eyes on him, the same as they felt eyes on them. Abruptly, Hui felt a blade to his neck, a promise as much as a threat. A cold voice asked, “Who is it?”

“Elder Sister—this is Fang Hua, right?” Hui asked.

“Who is this?” Fang Hua repeated.

Hui cleared his throat. “It’s… it’s Xiao Hui!”

“You died,” Fang Hua said.

“Er, yes. Well, you died, too,” Hui pointed out.

Fang Hua snorted. “I did, yes. Were you playing dead?”

“No… to be more accurate, Elder Sister, I’m playing alive right now. At any moment, I could be snatched back into the Underworld. But first… I want to see my children.”

“Mmm. So why did you contact me?”

Hui coughed. “Er, Elder Sister, I’m stuck on the far side of the mountain barrier at the border of the Southern Sect Conference.”

“And what can I do about that?” Fang Hua asked.

“Could Elder Sister put me in contact with Shen Aiguo or Lao Ning? I’m currently sitting beside a one-way teleportation formation created by All-Heavens Sect. I was hoping Shen Aiguo or Lao Ning might know where the other end of the teleportation is, being as they are All-Heavens disciples,” Hui said.

“A great many of my disciples are former All-Heavens disciples,” Fang Hua said lazily. “Any of them—”

Hui coughed again. “Elder Sister… I, er, not to dismiss your disciples, but I… somewhat… trust Shen Aiguo and Lao Ning.” After all, I’m contacting the Sect Leader of a demonic sect full of ghouls! It’s hard to just trust anyone, even knowing where they came from!

Fang Hua chuckled. “Ha! I understand. A coward to the end.”

“Elder Sister, it’s past the end. I’m already dead,” Hui gently reminded her.

“True, true. Wait for a moment. I’ll call them over for you,” Fang Hua said.

“Many thanks, Elder Sister!” Hui called, bowing.