Heat haze suddenly shimmered beside Hui. It grew thicker and thicker, then condensed into a wavering, translucent form of Qian Liqiu. She looked at the clones. “Is this your solution?”

“Senior! Yes. Er, I’m still working on the details, but… ah, and don’t worry! They can be reshaped,” Hui added quickly.

She narrowed her eyes slightly. “The shape is no issue. These are plants. We are fire.”

“Yes, yes. I’m figuring that out right now,” Hui said, nodding.

“What is there to figure out? We will burn them,” Qian Liqiu said, crossing her arms.

“Senior… Your Majesty, please. Give me some time. I’m… seventy percent sure I can solve this,” Hui said. I have a lead, after all. Life qi, fire qi, death qi… every state but fire qi works. Surely it can’t be true. There must be something I’m missing.

Beside Hui, Bai Xue gasped. “Hui, you never said!”

“Ah, apologies, Elder Sister. This is Qian Liqiu, the Queen of the Phoenixes—”

“You should have mentioned you liked having women inside you. I could have made that happen a long time ago,” Bai Xue said, waggling her eyebrows at him.

“Elder Sister,” Hui complained.

“Indeed. I see you are skilled in dual cultivation,” Qian Liqiu said, her eyes flickering over Bai Xue. “Such an act is truly an advanced skill.”

Eh…? Senior, too…? Hui cleared his throat. “Could we stop talking about horny—”

Bai Xue nodded. “The complete transfer of one’s soul and energy into their partner is a difficult task. It requires much trust. I’m surprised you were able to accomplish it after such a short time period.”

Wait, huh? It isn’t horny… Ah! I gave in to the world’s logic! Dual cultivation isn’t only horny things, it’s also the simple transfer of energy. I must be careful. If I give in too much to the world’s logic, the next thing I know, I’ll be harrumphing and flicking my sleeve and acting haughty toward the next generation of heroes.

Qian Liqiu waved her hand. “We had few options. I had to move blindly and with conviction. My people depended on it.”

“Eh? How many people are inside you right now?” Bai Xue asked, looking Hui up and down.

“Elder Sister, phrasing,” Hui insisted. He sat down, resting a hand on one of the lotus clones. Once again, he circulated his life qi through the clone, resonating with the native qi inside the clone.

“The entirety of what remains of the phoenix race,” Qian Liqiu replied for Hui.

“Advanced indeed,” Bai Xue murmured, half to herself.

Hui peeked a glance at Bai Xue. What does Elder Sister mean by that?

She smirked back.

Don’t get drawn into her pace. Now that she’s past her initial shock, I bet she’s using humor to buffer herself against her anxiety toward Bai Xingxue going missing. It’s understandable, but I can’t allow myself to be distracted. With the phoenixes, we can search exponentially faster… as long as I can send them forth from my body, instead of projecting them a small circumference from my dantian!

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

I could search a small portion of Starbound Sect with the death ducks back in the day. Considering the increase in my realm, I could likely search the entirety of several Starbound Sects now by simply projecting the ducks, songbirds, and phoenixes as qi constructs, but the children could be anywhere in the Southern Sect Conference… or even the Eastern Alliance. It would take me years to search the entire realm. Rather than waste my time trying to search alone, I’d rather go straight to the core of the problem and search the entire realm with the help of the phoenixes, separated from my body!

The root-based lotus clone under his hand trembled. A hundred palm-sized lotus clones, these ones the usual androgynous body, burst from its chest. They stepped free, snapping their feet away from the original clone’s chest.

The clone laid there, inert. Hui couldn’t help but wince a little. Ouch. Seeing that happen to my body… oof.

Hui gently touched one with his finger, and the rest joined hands. They circulated their qi separately, each creating its own distinct tiny qi circuit.

You learn more from failure than success. You learn more from failure than success! Hui took a deep breath, then sent his flame qi into the clones.

One. Two. Ten. Twenty. One after another, the tiny clones twitched and burst into flames. Their life qi converted smoothly to fire qi, but the fire qi ignited their bodies the instant they began to circulate it.

Hui bit his lip. Is it different ratios? Maybe if I change less to flame qi… or more?

The ones where he used less flame qi lasted a little longer, but no matter what, the second it all converted to flame qi, the clone burned up. Where he used more, the clones burned up faster. Thirty. Forty. Half of the clones vanished. He burned the flame qi longer, hoping to revive the lotus bodies from death, but they merely burned away to white ash, then nothing.

Hui scowled. That’s no good.

It’s not the ratio. What else? What else?

Hui compressed the flame qi, settling it into the clones’ dantians, separated from most of the clones’ qi. The clones survived. Hui stepped back, grinning.

Abruptly, fire burned through the clones’ stomachs. Twisting up like paper, they burned to ash in moments.

Fuck. I thought that would work. It worked for life qi and death qi… wait, but I had the soul/body separation. Hmm… no, I don’t think that will work here. That worked for me because of the cultivation manual I used, because of my specific technique. The phoenixes can’t use my technique without starting to cultivate again from scratch… in fact, due to being innately flame qi, they may be entirely unable to use my technique!

Let’s give it a try… but I’m not expecting much.

Unlike life qi and death qi, the balance between life qi and flame qi collapsed. Over and over. Seventy. Eighty. Ninety. Circulation patterns. Barriers. Intricate constructs. One after another, every clone he tested burned up.

What is it about the phoenixes that makes them unique? Hui thought, despairing, staring down his last clones. Their flame qi… no. They’re innately flame qi. That’s the problem.

Or is it the solution?

Hui’s eyes lit up. He reached toward the final clone, and his fingers curled.

Inside the clone, life qi spun, neatly contained in its dantian and qi passages. Under Hui’s guidance, the life qi cycled to flame qi. The clone began to burn, but before it could fully burn, it cycled back to life qi. A harmonious cycle began as the flame qi fed into the life qi which fed back into the flame qi.

Carefully, Hui drew back his hand. The clone remained standing. Life and flame qi continued to cycle on their own, back and forth, back and forth. As they cycled, the flame qi no longer burned the clone’s body, but instead invigorated it, slowly seeping into the clone. The clone’s body began to glow faintly red, its skin blackening. Rather than burning up, it became like charcoal, able to burn for a long time without burning away. The life qi cycle healed the body. Between the flame qi and the life qi, the body grew harder and stronger, until it no longer glowed or became blackened like charcoal, but instead began to glow a faint pale red. More and more, until the clone once more turned a pale white. This time, though, the clone emanated a fierce heat, its body shiny and hard instead of soft and flexible.

“How…” Qian Liqiu whispered.

Bai Xue nodded proudly, her hands on her hips. “That’s our Xiao Hui. He’s never let ‘common sense’ stop him.”

Qian Liqiu took a deep breath. She flew forward.

Hui held out his hand. “Senior, not yet.”