In no time, Hui reached the foothills of the protective mountain formation of the Eight Tiers Palace. He circled the sect, searching for signs of a resentment demon. If the resentment demons are all after the Eight Tiers Palace, then there should be a few resentment demons hanging around.

Far below, he caught sight of a writhing ball of white. His eyes sparkled. There it is! Right on schedule. He darted down, flying down from the sky to hover just above it.

Mindlessly, the resentment demon rampaged the countryside. Uprooting trees and tearing at the ground itself, it dug its way through the world without a care for what it destroyed or didn’t. At the sight of Hui, it paused for a moment, then went back to rooting its way through everything it could reach.

Huh. It can tell I’m not a member of Eight Tiers Palace at a glimpse? That’s better than the first one I made, which attacked me on sight. Is this the second resentment demon? Or… is it learning?

And for that matter… the smaller resentment demon that attacked Eight Tiers Palace last time… come to think of it, I didn’t spawn a demon that small. Are they—

Even as he thought it, the big resentment demon shuddered. It backed up, pushing itself back with its many hands, then opened its mouth and leaned forward. A slimy white ball rolled forward on its hand-coated tongue, then fell to the ground.

The resentment demon waited, quietly watching.

Lying on the ground, the slimy white ball sat there for a moment. Abruptly, it stretched hands out from its surface, wiping at the slime desperately. It rolled around some, then shook itself like a dog, waving its arms at the same time. The slime flew off the fresh resentment demon. Standing up on its legs, it waved at the larger resentment demon, which waved back with arms immensely larger than the small resentment demon’s. Turning, the little resentment demon roll-walked off, hands reaching out, grabbing, and pulling it onward while its rear hands pushed it forward.

Hui licked his lips. Ah.

You know, this isn’t the first time that lotuses being hermaphroditic has kicked me in the rear. If I ever reassess my cloning technique, I should use a less troublesome plant!

Before the situation could escalate further, Hui dropped down, blocking the path of the newborn resentment demon. The larger resentment demon peered over, instantly on guard, while the little one scurried back, startled by his sudden movement.

Hui put his hands up slowly, as non-threateningly as he could. “Elder Siblings! I’m just here to talk, here to talk!”

The little one looked at the big one. The big one rolled forward, looming threateningly over Hui.

“Elder… Senior! Senior, please. Do you remember me?” Hui asked nervously. I’m not sure if I want it to or not, but… it’s worth a try! I did create it, and I’ve never attacked it. Maybe it will treat me gently?

The big resentment demon reached out an enormous hand. It descended toward Hui, who instinctively played dead. With some effort, the resentment demon picked his limp body up, twisting its hand to let him lie in its palm. Lying prone, Hui still failed to stretch as long as the demon’s palm.

Fuck, this thing is huge!

It lifted him up to its mouth. Its mouth yawned open, dark and damp. A wave of fetid breath washed over Hui, damp and dense.

Hui jumped up. “Senior, I’m alive, I’m alive!” Don’t eat me because I’m dead!

The demon stopped. It pulled him back from its mouth and peered at him, tilting its body inquisitively.

“Er, Senior… That is, is there anything I can do to help? I want to assist Senior in destroying the Eight Tiers Palace—or, or whatever Senior wants to do,” Hui said, glancing up at the demon.

The demon’s mouth opened again. Hui raised his arms and ducked, preparing to be eaten.

“W… want,” the demon said slowly, searching for each syllable.

Hui stood. He straightened his robes primly and nodded with a sage air, as if he hadn’t just braced for impact. “That’s right. What do you want, Senior?”

“Want… destroy.”

“Mhm, what do you want to destroy?” Hui asked indulgently.

The demon vibrated under him, shaking so vigorously that Hui almost fell over. He spread his legs and braced himself, lowering his center of gravity. Whoa! I’m about to be the first cultivator to get shaken to death. “Senior!”

“Destroy… ALL!” the resentment demon bellowed. Its voice burst from its mouth in visible rings of force, flattening the trees around it.

The sound blasted toward Hui, too. Giving up all semblance of appearance, Hui dropped to the ground and clung to its palm. The first wave smashed him into the palm, flattening his body. His arm creaked, barely holding together as he held on. His other hand scrambled, painting barrier talismans on the air around him with death qi. The second wave flew toward him, the precursor vibrations already shivering through his bones. The first edge of the sound blew past him. His hair flew straight back, and the skin on his face grew taut.

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Hui slammed his hand out. The barrier activated, snapping to life just as the full force of the wave struck. Black sparks flew from its surface like smoke as the sound wave eroded the barrier. Inside, Hui quickly drew a second, then a third. I don’t think I need the full Hundred and Eight Layers, but at least three can’t go wrong!

The first barrier snapped, letting the sound through to the second. The second barrier began to shed sparks as well, but before it could break, the sound wave passed it. Hui breathed a sigh of relief.

Still swaddled in his barriers, he looked up at the demon, putting his hands behind his back in a scholarly fashion. “Senior, is there a particular part of ‘all’ you want to destroy?”

The demon startled. It turned itself and looked at him, pulling him closer as if it couldn’t believe he was still there.

Hui smiled. He clasped his hands like a friendly merchant. “Senior, I want to help you. But you have to use your words!”

Stupefied, the demon stared at him for another few seconds. A few of its hands curled up into binocular-shapes and pointed toward him, though it had no eyes to hold them to.

With a light laugh, Hui nodded at the demon. “Go on.”

The resentment demon shook itself, seemingly reorienting itself after Hui’s unexpected resilience. It paused again, thinking, then raised a single enormous hand and pointed.

“First… palace.”

“Good, good! First, the palace. The Eight Tiers Palace,” Hui said, nodding.

“Eight, hate,” the ball of arms grumbled.

“Rhyming! Impressive, senior. Once you destroy the Eight Tiers Palace, what then?” he asked.

The resentment demon hesitated. Its arms curled in on itself, as if this was something it had never considered before. It shook in place.

Hui hunkered again, preparing his hand to draw more barriers.

“Then sleep,” the resentment demon rumbled.

Excellent! Hui beamed. He paused, thinking, then looked up at the demon. “You attacking Eight Tiers Palace won’t seed more resentment, will it?”

The demon rolled in place. Several of its arms shrugged non-committally.

Well, if I think about it, resentment demons are formed from the failing of the Heavenly Dao. As long as they don’t continue to count as the failure of the Heavenly Dao, they probably won’t create more resentment demons by killing people… right?

Or… wait. It’s creating more resentment demons right now! And it isn’t killing people for that. So… it seems that it’s the failing of the Heavenly Dao alone that creates resentment demons. Ordinary resentment isn’t enough. Probably.

In any case, it’s not like I have a better plan to defeat Eight Tiers Palace. For now, we’ll go with this. If I come up with something better later, there’s always time to talk the resentment demons down from all-out war. He bent and patted the resentment demon’s hand. “Good, good. Let’s do that, then.”

The resentment demon shook itself side to side.

“No?”

It waved a few arms toward the Palace. “Too many. Too strong.”

“What if I help you?” Hui offered.

The resentment demon turned slightly toward him. It had no face, yet Hui got the impression it raised a sarcastic eyebrow at him.

“Ah, fair enough, Senior, fair enough,” Hui said.

Lifting its hand, the resentment demon patted the little resentment demon. “Make more. Make enough. Then attack.”

Mmm. I’m not sure I like that plan.

On the other hand… if you look at it from a certain angle, I basically created a self-replicating, nearly-indestructible army! There’s the small problem that I can’t destroy said army or control it… but those are small problems, small problems. It’ll be fine! What I can’t destroy or control, neither can my enemy! Probably. Unless they’re high enough realm… but, but then, then I no longer have the problem of the indestructible, uncontrollable army! So one way or another, I win. Hui nodded, reassuring himself more than anything else.

“You’re surprisingly easy to talk to,” he said, glancing at the giant demon. Compared to the little one who couldn’t talk, it’s quite easy. It even has some intelligence.

The demon bounced in place, its hands drifting as it jumped like hair. It rolled away, reaching out toward the earth around it. After a moment, it began rampaging again, rolling through the wilderness and destroying everything it touched. All its hands pushed the things it destroyed into its mouth, where they vanished into the depths of the demon.

Come to think of it, the resentment demon was formed from the bodies and remnant resentment of those killed before their time when the Heavenly Dao went rampant. So how is it creating more material to create new demons? It isn’t killing people out here. Is the resentment of the earth and the beasts enough? Or… is there resentment against the Heavenly Dao built up in the very fundament of the world?

Hui licked his lips. He looked downward, slowly. Ever so carefully, he peeked open his third eye.

The earth looked normal, but only for a moment. His vision drilled down into the earth, beneath the surface layer, and a layer of dark red energy appeared, simmering just under the surface. The longer he stared, the more vast the energy grew. Deeper, darker. He fell into it, dragged down by the bubbling hatred.

Whoa! Hui, wake up! He slapped himself, startling awake, and pulled out of a dive seconds before he impacted the surface of the earth. He jolted upward, flying back into the sky. Shit. No kidding! There’s something here. Something that’s gone horribly wrong.

It’s just as they’ve said. The three realms are falling apart. The Underworld might be the first to go, but the other two won’t be far behind. Now that the Heavenly Dao is breaking down, so, too, is the entire cycle of the world. Without the Underworld pulling its weight, it’ll all sink under that much faster.

He licked his lips. This can’t be allowed to stand like this. My future as an immortal! My happy no-effort life with my wives and my children! It’ll all end long before I get to truly enjoy paying off the Sect Master and having no debt at this rate! No. I have to do something. If I can. Though… who else is aware of this? Surely the Immortals in the Immortal Realm… that is, the Heavens, but…

He glanced up. They don’t seem to be doing anything. Is the Heavenly Emperor suppressing them? Or is it like Zhu Diyu, and they just don’t care?

Master…

Hui bit his lip. Damn, I really don’t know. Would Master care? Yes, probably. But… would he do anything about it? Probably not until he comprehended everything. And since it’s the Immortal realm, it’s taking even Master some time to comprehend it! That’s probably it. Probably!

And Ying Lin… well, she just ascended. She needs at least a few months until she surpasses everyone up there. And, and, maybe… maybe more like a few years, since Immortals are immortal, after all!

Hui nodded to himself. In any case, I can’t rely on others to protect the realms. If this small cultivator can do something to help, I will!

Though… what on earth should I do?