Nothing.

Black.

Oblivion.

In the darkness, the faintest thought remained.

Energy must be conserved. It can be neither created nor destroyed. This state is but a temporary state, a storage of energy. And all I need to do, is—

A spark.

Instantly, the spark repressed itself.

Hui peered around. Barely the size of a spark, he hid in the pile of ashes, completely invisible to the naked eye.

Immediately, he let out a sigh of relief. It worked! We’re alive, and we cut off Huo Fenghuang. Perfect, perfect!

A huge, older Huo Fenghuang appeared, a manic grin on her face, raking through the flames. “Mine. They’re mine, all mine!”

Hmm… no, I don’t think so.

Ah, will it be suspicious if we continue to be ashes for too long? Phoenixes don’t usually spend much time dead. Even if I am faking my death…

The phoenixes stirred, impatient.

I think it’s time to return.

Flames surged from the ashes. Huo Fenghuang staggered back, hands up to block the flames. Hui rapidly grew, aging from a ball of cells to a fetus.

As he grew, he reforged his body. Every cell he infused with flame qi, simultaneously both life qi and death qi—or rather, in the intermediary step between the two. He routed his qi passages as they grew, perfectly aligning them through his body. Shaping his dantian, he circulated all three types of qi in it, transmuting life qi to flame qi to death qi and back again.

Rather than having two cultivation systems, he synced his soul’s dantian to his body’s, making the two one and the same.

He grew larger and older. In a series of moments, he passed through qi gathering, into second realm, third, fourth, fifth. His body still a child’s, he faced the barrier at the top of fifth realm, and felt no resistance.

Hui’s eyes glittered. While I have the opportunity… why not keep going? He threw himself at the barrier.

The barrier shattered. He surged through. The golden orb in his dantian liquefied and continued to spin, faster, faster. The barrier of the sixth stage appeared, then vanished. His dantian drew his soul in, and the qi rushed into it, forming it into no ordinary soul, but instead a Nascent Soul.

Seventh realm!

He pressed onward. Through the middle of the seventh realm, firming up his Nascent Soul, forming it into a near-physical form. Ah… condensing a Nascent Soul is beyond simple for me, someone who was once a reaper and who has been stepping out of his body since I was a young cultivator!

His Nascent Soul grew almost perfect, but there, Hui’s progress flagged. He frowned, looking it over. It’s almost perfect. I know that. But where is it not perfect? What am I missing?

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In that moment, he lost the edge. His cultivation stalled out, no longer surging forward. His age continued to grow, rushing up toward his previous age.

Hui frowned, then sighed and waved his hand. Ah, well, picking up two stages at once… I can’t complain about that!

As he reached his usual age, his aging slowed to a halt. The phoenixes flickered around him, burning endlessly. Hui looked down at his nude body, then ran a hand over his chest, materializing lotus clothes. As they grew, he imbued them with flame qi. The flames constantly burned at the clothes, but they constantly regenerated themselves. Aside from a few flames licking at his shoulders and the ends of his robes, he barely appeared to be on fire.

Huo Fenghuang snarled. She rushed at him, baring her hands in claws. “Give them back!”

Hui slapped at her backhanded. Flames burst around his hand without him even thinking. The blow struck her on the cheek and turned her in a full spin. She stumbled backward, falling against the barrier’s wall.

He looked at his hand, then at Huo Fenghuang. Er… whoops. I just meant to push her back, but… He flexed his hand thoughtfully. Too late now. Now that I’ve been domineering… let’s go all the way!

“Elder Sister, do you think I’m stupid? ‘Give them back?’ Why would I do that?” Hui asked. He shook his head at her.

“All this time… they’ve been mine for centuries. I won’t let you take them away!” she snarled.

“As I said, Elder Sister, what makes you think I’ll let you choose?” Hui asked imperiously. He stepped into the air, looking around. That hole where I broke through the barrier… where is it?

“Give them back!” Huo Fenghuang shouted, desperate.

Hui turned away. “You’re merely reaping what you sowed. Elder Sister, this, too, is karma!”

Ahhhh! I’ve wanted to say that phrase for so long! Hahah! Feels so good! There’s something incredibly fun about saying those ultimate phrases in real life, and actually meaning them.

Qian Liqiu appeared before him once more. This time, outside of Huo Fenghuang’s dantian, she floated beside him as a qi construct, ever so slightly transparent. Her face slightly flushed, she nodded at Hui. “We are with you for the moment, but who knows how long that will last. Our current state is unstable. Although we are conscious and sane for a moment, we cannot stay this way for long. No matter what, we will return to burning wildly. When that happens… I fear you will end up in the same state as Huo Fenghuang.”

“Then, I must act quickly,” Hui returned, nodding. I don’t want to absorb the phoenixes forever. I don’t want to absorb them at all, except… except that they’re my ticket out of the Underworld, without breaking the net as Zhu Diyu wants me to!

“I’ll warn you now. To abandon us in this state, removed from Huo Fenghuang but without bodies of our own… we would simply become a beast, the likes of which even Huo Fenghuang could not compare to,” Qian Liqiu warned him. “At that point, we cannot be held accountable for our actions.”

“Absolutely not, Senior, I wouldn’t dare!” Hui assured her.

I understand what she means. If I simply set them free, they won’t be able to survive. They’ve spent too long as qi constructs. They may not be able to create bodies… or perhaps, they forgot how!

Luckily, I have a solution… though it might take some time.

Or lots of qi.

Hui smiled quietly. Hmm. I might have a plan to come across some of that. But first…

Huo Fenghuang swiped at him. “Give them back!”

“Elder Sister, farewell,” Hui said. He threw his hand out, sending a bolt of flame qi toward the hole he’d opened in the barrier. As it flew, the flame qi transmuted into death qi. The hole had healed, but the weakness in the barrier remained. His death qi opened a wrist-sized opening, and Hui drilled through it, widening the hole as he burst out, then immediately closing it behind him.

Huo Fenghuang lunged for the hole as it closed, distorting into a sword light in her rush. Hui opened his hand, spreading the death qi across the hole. She struck the death qi and recoiled, grabbing her face. “What—”

“Death qi, Senior. Ah, I am a ghost, after all. Was a ghost,” Hui explained. He waved his hand, retracting his qi, and the hole sealed back up. He bowed to Huo Fenghuang. “The next time I see your disciple, I’ll tell him where you are.” If only as a distraction, to get him to momentarily leave me alone! I don’t get the impression that Han Qin is good at cracking barriers, so sending him to find Huo Fenghuang should distract him for a while. Mmm, and if it’s one of those barriers that takes a hundred years to crack, I might even be… at least a few realms higher, and perhaps strong enough to flee too fast for him to catch me!

Hui paused. Shouldn’t I already be a few hundred years old? With my mediocre talent…

Ah, well… I’ve gotten lucky, I’ve merely gotten lucky! There’s nothing particularly stand-out about my talent, nothing at all. Nodding to himself, Hui turned to go.