Huo Fenghuang’s eyes widened. She snorted. The flames surged instantly, phoenix cries rioting in the small orb of a barrier. “This small bug thinks he can force me…?”

“Small bug would never be so presumptuous!” Hui insisted. I thought she was acting strange for someone who begged me to kill them, but now… I wonder. That person who called out to me the first time I reached the phoenix flame… although they used Senior’s body, was it truly Senior? Or was it, perhaps… He looked at the phoenixes flying past.

“But you just…” Huo Fenghuang said, confused.

“Ah, well, Senior… do you want to meet your disciple again? Do you know? I’m very well acquainted with Senior’s disciple. If Senior cooperates, small cultivator can ensure Senior meets Senior’s disciple again.”

Huo Fenghuang rolled her eyes. “I can find him on my own. I don’t need your help.”

“Hmm, that’s true.” Hui circulated his own qi. Quietly, he reached out around Huo Fenghuang. If I’m going to survive Senior’s reincarnation, especially if Senior isn’t cooperating with me, I need an alternate method. But I think I know how!

The death ducks stirred inside him. Curious, they poked their heads up. A few called out to the phoenixes. The phoenixes screamed, living and dying in the space of a second. Even as they did, though, one of them turned, looking over at the ducks.

The lone songbird in Hui’s possession sang, fluttering its wings. The death ducks flapped out into Hui’s dantian. They landed on the surface of the death qi pooled there and quacked at the phoenixes, calling them over.

More and more of the phoenixes paused. Though they still only lived but a fleeting moment, they no longer screamed. Instead, they watched.

The voices in Hui’s head quieted. The pain burning at him lessened as well. Dancing in, the phoenixes fluttered past. Instead of biting him with flame and battering him with their wings, now, feathers brushed over Hui’s face, gently touching his skin.

“Is that it? Your entire gambit is to threaten me with my disciple?” Huo Fenghuang scoffed.

Hui coughed. “I’m merely a small cultivator, Senior. Naturally, my schemes cannot keep up with Senior’s boundless intelligence and deep wit.”

“It seems not,” Huo Fenghuang muttered.

All the phoenixes stared at Hui. No longer screaming in pain, they now flew quietly, watching him for their brief lives before they flickered away with the flames.

“Elder Brothers, Elder Sisters, Seniors… would you like to come with me?” Hui asked.

“What?” Huo Fenghuang asked.

He glanced at her, then turned back to the phoenixes. “Earlier, you possessed Senior’s body to ask me to kill you, right? But Seniors… instead, I’ll set you free.”

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The phoenixes turned to him. In a single voice hundreds strong, they asked, “How?”

“As if I’d let you!” Huo Fenghuang scoffed.

Hui sighed. “As I said, Elder Sister… do you think you have a choice?”

He turned to the phoenixes. “You’ve been trapped in Elder Sister’s dantian, but now… now, I offer you my dantian. Transfer yourselves to me.”

“You will die,” the phoenixes said.

Hui scratched the back of his head, laughing a little. He bowed. “Sincerely, Seniors… I’m already dead.”

“I won’t let you!” Huo Fenghuang shouted. She surged her qi. Red-hot fire qi rushed at Hui, threatening to overwhelm him.

Hui flinched. He bowled over backward, instantly playing dead. The qi continued to rush at him.

Shit! I’m dead, I’m so dead! Hui jumped up and ran, running through Huo Fenghuang’s body.

A feather dipped down and blocked the qi. The qi stopped instantly, unwilling to smash into the feather.

Huo Fenghuang flinched. She furrowed her brows. “You cannot—”

“It has been many years. We can. You thought you had completely consumed us, but to consume that which cannot die is not possible,” the phoenixes replied.

“No,” Huo Fenghuang murmured.

“How long have you been mad? We have had that much time to overcome you,” the phoenixes returned.

Huo Fenghuang paled. “I refuse to believe it. It can’t be so!” She surged her qi again, smashing it toward Hui.

The phoenixes twitched their feather. The qi returned to Huo Fenghuang in full force. She stumbled in the orb and spat blood, her body paling. Her brows furrowed as she desperately circulated her qi, fighting to avoid a full qi deviation.

Hui shivered. Er, now that I’m thinking about this… phoenixes are fundamentally immortal. If I incur a debt with them, I’ll never be able to repay it! Argh, I’ll—I’ll have to be extra careful with them! I can’t afford a debt with a true immortal, I can’t!

The phoenixes turned to Hui, then paused. They circulated around him, searching at his body. Hui let them, fully opening his cultivation to their vision. The only way to win is to trust them. To trust… that they want out of this eternal cycle of suffering, just as I wanted out of my old life.

The phoenixes brushed by the phoenix fire and inspected his dantian. The ducks and songbird fluttered up, circling around the phoenixes in excitement. A thrum of surprise ran through them. Whispers echoed back and forth through the phoenixes. “The Dao of Reincarnation… he bears marks of the Dao of Reincarnation!”

One of the phoenixes peeled off from the others. It fluttered over to Hui and transformed, taking on the appearance of a young girl, perhaps eighteen, in a fine, brightly colored embroidered robe. Phoenixes danced on her robes, showing their auspicious plumage. Her phoenix eyes flashed, darting to Hui with a brilliance he rarely encountered. Her hair, pulled back at the temples, gathered atop her head in a neat crown. A cast-gold phoenix pin with plumage colored with ruby, topaz, and sapphire held her hair in place. It caught the light of the phoenixes’ fire as she moved, sending scintillating bolts of colored light across the space they stood in.

“I am Qian Liqiu. I was the Queen of the Phoenixes, back when we were still a proud people,” she introduced herself, looking down on Hui imperiously.

Hui quickly kowtowed. “Small cultivator greets Queen!”

“There’s no need for formalities,” she said, though a small curl of her lip told him she appreciated it. “You are?”

“Small cultivator is not worthy, but if the Queen must, please call me Xiao Hui,” Hui introduced himself.

“Xiao Hui. After all this time, we have managed a small degree of autonomy from Huo Fenghuang. We wish to be freed. However, we fear facing the same fate once again… an eternity of servitude at the whims of a tyrant. We must know we can trust you, before we dare take the first step toward escaping this woman.”

“What must I do?” Hui asked. Anything. No matter what. This is for my children, my family. I’m willing to pay any price.

Qian Liqiu looked down on him. Her eyes flashed. “Die.”

Hui threw himself at her feet, instantly prostrating with his entire body. “Not that, Senior, anything but that!”