Wind streamed past them as Hui flew at his newly-discovered top speed back in the direction from whence they’d came. Bai Xue clung to him instinctively, startled by the speed. After a moment, she laughed and tossed her hair, exhilarated. Humming aloud, she flicked her fan. Icy traces darted after them, spinning on the air.

Hui looked at her quizzically.

“It’s fun. And we ought to make an entrance,” Bai Xue said, continuing to send ice flying out behind him.

He looked ahead of them. Li Xiang battled a pair of blurry forms in the distance, but even as he looked, they grew much closer. Hmm, I guess she has a point. At this rate, I’ll arrive in no time.

One of the blurry forms peeled away and zoomed toward Hui and Bai Xue. Bai Xue stepped forward. Imperiously, she gazed down at the form, her gaze icy, long white hair caught on the breeze. She lifted her fan.

The approaching cultivator released his pressure. A wave of seventh-stage force slammed into Hui and Bai Xue.

Before the pressure forced Bai Xue to crumple, Hui quietly put a hand on the small of her back and exerted his pressure over the both of them. The incoming cultivator’s seventh-stage pressure overwhelmed his slightly, but only enough to weigh on his shoulders, not enough to crumple him.

The man’s eyes widened subtly, but he continued to close in. Even as he closed in, his body remained blurred. Although Hui could vaguely tell the man wore dark robes, he struggled to make out the man’s features or proportions. He frowned. Is that a technique he’s using to blur himself? Does the Fourth Tier also specialize in disguise and karmic techniques? Or maybe it’s borrowing power from other tiers of the Eight Tiers Palace.

The man bared his hands into claws. A strange green light swayed from the clawed hand, as the hand itself turned pure black.

That’s poison, if I’ve ever seen it!

Fuck! The Fourth Tier of the Eight Tiers Palace can’t be underestimated! They truly are dangerous, far more dangerous than I realized! Everything is poison, everything is secret and hidden… no, no. I need to destroy them. Completely, utterly, and in whole!

I knew there was a reason for keeping around the resentment demons. Now that I’m alive and susceptible to dying and poison once more, I need to destroy that Fourth Tier as quickly as I can!

Hui fell back, swaying away from the attack as he activated the Hundred and Eight Layers on himself and Bai Xue.

The man’s eyes glittered. He slammed his hand into the Hundred and Eight Layers. The barrier flickered as his hand made contact, giving way as it was meant to. However, unlike an ordinary attack, the barrier failed to reflect the hand. Where the man’s hand brushed, the barrier melted, the gold light dripping down in the moments before it vanished.

Hui’s eyes widened. A barrier-melting hand? I can’t think of anything more horrifying! He’s my antithesis! He must be destroyed, immediately! He danced back again, pulling Bai Xue with him.

The man charged after them. Frustrated, Hui waved his hand and sent a wave of death qi at the man. The man burst away, using a strange technique to flash back from the pair of them.

“Why aren’t you attacking?” Bai Xue asked.

Hui coughed. “Elder Sister, I’ve been seventh stage for a few hours. My techniques were lagging behind my stage before I became a reaper. I have… about one usable seventh-stage attack.”

Bai Xue hummed. “Give me your qi. I can use it to power my attacks.”

“Yes, yes, of course! Elder Sister is indeed intelligent,” Hui commended her. Ah! That’s right! It’s very common for a main character to be able to use a higher-level cultivator’s qi to empower their attacks! Clearly I’m no main character, but I can assist Bai Xue in becoming the main character!

Hui sent his qi through the hand on Bai Xue’s back, monitoring her cultivation to be sure he didn’t overwhelm it.

“We’ve done this before, haven’t we?” Bai Xue commented. She took a deep breath and adjusted her qi flow to match Hui’s incoming qi. Her eyes flashed, and she waved her fan once. An icy snow leopard formed from the ice particles swirling around them and darted at the man with the barrier-melting hand, fangs bared.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

“Have we? I can’t remember,” Hui said. “It does feel familiar, though.”

“Mmm. I think… maybe, back with the pill lotuses?” Bai Xue commented.

“No, I think you’re right. We’ve done it a few times, I believe,” Hui said, nodding.

“Whether or not we’ve done it in public before, I will always accept your qi, wherever and whenever we are,” Bai Xue hummed, her voice like velvet.

Hui squinted at her. Elder Sister… why is your phrasing always so suspect?

The man raised his hand, catching the snow leopard in the throat. The snow leopard melted where he caught it, but even as it melted away, it clawed at his dark robes. The fabric shredded under its claws, revealing a second set of ordinary robes beneath… and an ordinary, un-blurred cultivator.

Ah, I see. His robes are some kind of stealth treasure. Probably meant to blur his moves in close combat to make it harder to dodge that barrier-melting hand of his. I bet it would be vicious if it landed a hit on me or Bai Xue, with the way it destroys qi like that. Luckily, I wisely use barriers instead of attempting to dodge attacks like that! To think, betting one’s life on their limbs and reflexes! No, no. Only if all else fails.

Hui’s eyes locked onto the man’s hand. Actually, I wonder what the principles of that attack are? Is it death qi-based? It doesn’t seem to have the decay and infection properties that death qi does. Rot qi, then? But no, rot qi creates that smoke, and besides, it has even stronger infectious properties than death qi.

No, I don’t think it’s death qi or any variant-based. Instead, it seems to attack the structure of qi, rather than the qi itself. In other words, rather than destroying the qi, it’s just destroying the structure the qi is forced into. The qi still exists, uncorrupted, but it’s dispersed back into the environment.

If that’s the case, then there should be a small pocket of dense qi right about… Hui reached out. …here!

Dense qi flowed into his hand. Hui’s eyes lit up. He looked at the man’s hand hungrily. I want that technique! Think of the barriers I could rupture with it. The secret realms I could break apart!

And once I understand it, naturally, I can strengthen my own barriers against it! Oooh, I want that hand of his. I want that technique!

A shiver ran down the man’s back. Seeing Hui’s hungry eyes on his hand, he quickly hid it behind his back, then paused. His brows furrowed. Why did I just hide my attack? I should use it, instead!

And yet, somehow, he didn’t want to fly forth.

Hui nudged Bai Xue. “Let’s close in. I want to take that technique of his.”

“Do you have any immobilization techniques?” Bai Xue asked.

“No, but I’m pretty sure I can figure it out. It’s just a matter of hitting the right qi points, right?” Hui said. How many times have I read about striking someone else’s qi points to paralyze them? Obviously, it’s simple to immobilize opponents!

“Each person’s qi points are in slightly different places. If you’re off by millimeters, you’ll kill or be completely ineffective. Usually, one has to deeply study their subject, or otherwise know them well, before they dare use them in combat,” Bai Xue commented.

Hui opened his third eye. Without the blurring technique hiding the man’s body, all it took was a moment to focus, and the man’s qi passages appeared before him. The qi passages twisted together, some as thick as a thumb, and some as fine as a hair, making a dense yet orderly net inside his body.

Hmm. I don’t need to worry about the tiny ones. After all, my objective is to block his qi from flowing. If I focus slightly less…

The man darted forth, speeding toward them.

Hui scowled. Pressing a small packet of qi into Bai Xue, he stepped away from her. His hands flickered, drawing another copy of the Hundred and Eight Layers.

Instantly, the man darted toward Hui. His hand flashed forward. Internally, he laughed. This cultivator is clearly newly-ascended, having to rely on his dao companion to help him attack and lacking any techniques of his own! He’s bold to attack, but nearsighted.

His fingers closed in on Hui’s neck.

Hui’s own copy of the Hundred and Eight Layers appeared, then melted away in the same instant. Hui watched it go, his eyes following the qi as it melted away. Yes… yes! He is decaying the structure of the qi. If I learn this, I can face any purely-magical attack barehanded! What a technique, what a technique! I praise whatever grandmaster created this fantastic technique!

The next layer flashed up even as the first melted, then the third, the fourth, the fifth. With each layer, the man’s hand grew slightly closer to Hui, as the layers failed to properly deflect his hand. As his fingers began to pinch down on Hui’s neck, Hui smiled. He circulated death qi at his neck, just under the man’s fingers. Let’s see how he reacts to this.

Unflinching, the man continued to pinch close. His fingers melted the death qi away, though his skin flecked away as he pinched, revealing bloody flesh beneath.

Hmm. He can’t entirely negate the properties of qi, but he can still melt his way past, Hui noted.

The fingers landed on his throat and squeezed.

Quietly, Hui watched his own qi inside himself as the man’s hand closed. At the same time, he reached out and pressed the barrier he’d created onto the man’s body, hiding the qi-talisman on the man’s ordinary robes.

Alright. Now that I’m ready… Hui’s qi melted inside his neck. Instantly, the structure of the qi inside his body trembled, falling into total disarray. Except for the qi swirling inside his dantian, his qi began to riot, flowing wildly out of the melted qi passages in his neck and invading his flesh.

Hui widened his eyes. He gripped at his throat and gagged, then struggled.

The man laughed, just once. “It’s hopeless.” He squeezed his fingers completely shut, then dropped Hui.

Qi in chaos, flesh turning purple and red, Hui plunged toward the ground below, dying as he fell.