The dark orb rolled on the ground. Hui eyed the blood splatter again. He swallowed.

Well, uh… my apologies, senior! I really thought you were an enemy. How’d you get this far out, if you really were a mortal? Ah! Such tenacity! Although it’s too late, let this small cultivator admire your inner strength.

No, no. Maybe all is not lost. I still have the phoenix fire. Maybe I can rebuild his body… his soul shouldn’t have dispersed yet, right? Yes, yes. A small mistake, one easily fixed. Ahhh, how bold I’ve become since my stint as a reaper! How inured to taking human life! I need to readjust my mental state. Return to my usual stable demeanor! This world has tainted me, truly tainted me!

Waving his hand, Hui called out to the dark orb. It floated up out of the gore, then abruptly stopped. Hui frowned at it. He waved his hand again, calling harder this time. The orb trembled, but stayed locked in place.

Huh? Is there some kind of spatial lock on the orb? Hui stepped toward the blood splatter.

Just as he was about to step onto it, the blood splatter moved. Coming to life, it crawled toward itself, forming a puddle in the center of the clearing. The puddle congealed together, then reformed into the hunter, still holding the orb.

The hunter looked up at Hui, their eyes flashing with a vicious light that hadn’t been there before. He smirked slowly, shifting his weight onto one leg and popping his hip out in an unusually feminine pose for a hunter.

“So you saw through my blood clone,” the man said, in a high-pitched feminine voice. The hunter waved the orb back and forth temptingly. “Incredible. No one else has ever seen through it.”

“Mmm. I understand why, Elder Sister. Truly, it is an impressive death-faking technique!” Hui praised her, nodding. I’m learning so much today. So many new techniques to consider!

Ah! So it was a blood clone. I don’t know what a blood clone is… but I think I understand what happened now! In fact, Elder Sister likely prevented this clone from having a qi signature by—

“Most cultivators are too busy with battle to pay attention to a mere mortal with no qi signature wandering through the woods toward a teleportation formation that also lacks a qi signature. I suppose you’re the first one who ever successfully broke away from battle with my minions to come and find my blood clone here. After I went to such effort to craft him from true mortal flesh and blood, so that none of my qi would taint him and mark him as strange… despite all that, you still found me,” the hunter said, sighing in that strange feminine voice. After a moment, the hunter’s expression twisted slightly. Did… he call my clone technique a death-faking technique? What is a death-faking technique?

Hui sighed and put his head in his hands. Silently, he cried, Elder Sister, please! Let me explain your tricks! I can do it myself, I don’t need you to give me the answer key! He shook his head. I suppose there are villains like this, after all. The kind who can’t wait to explain themselves!

In any case, it’s a good strategy. First, limit the defenders to those who can see past the karmic technique. Second, distract them through multiple commotions—false incense trails, multiple battles. Third, while they’re busy with tracking down the distractions and fighting them, send a mortal-appearing clone to do mortal-appearing things, which no cultivator in their right mind would ever pay any mind to! By the time they notice the teleportation formation activating, it's already too late, and they’ve gotten away with what they wanted to take.

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He eyed the clone. “True mortal flesh and blood…”

The hunter squirmed in a way that might have been sexy if he was a woman, and not a bulky, muscular man. “Yes! Ah, it takes so many bodies to make a single blood clone. But the end product is the ultimate in stealth! No qi signature, and yet, I’m still able to project half of my strength and battle prowess into this body. Isn’t it wonderful?”

Hui pressed his lips together. “Truly, the Eight Tiers Palace is a demonic clan.”

The man tutted. He waved his finger at Hui. “No, no. We’re an alliance. An alliance. Everyone must be allied in one organization. Only then, can they be controlled. We were originally a free-roaming demonic clan, but when I saw the light of the power of the alliance, I immediately ran over to join in. We’re allied with the righteous parts of Eight Tiers Palace. Do you know what that means? It means they don’t dare to touch us! It means they have to look the other way as we carve through mortal villages to craft blood clones. It’s true that we don’t have the same freedom we used to… but in a way, we have earned an even greater freedom. As long as we fill out the sect paperwork ahead of time, the righteous sects have to step aside and allow us to commit our demonic acts! Isn’t alliance a wonderful thing?”

“Don’t you have to allow them to commit righteous acts, too?” Hui asked, tilting his head curiously.

“Oh, of course, of course. But they’re righteous. At worst, they’ll sweep through and wipe out some free-roaming ghouls for us. That’s annoying, don’t get me wrong, but…” the man spread his hands and shrugged. “It isn’t a huge setback, in the end.”

Heh. It seems like the Eight Tiers Palace isn’t as monolithic as I thought it was. For each tier to be a sect in of itself… naturally, there should be some drama between the Tiers! And if righteous and demonic sects are forced together, then of course there will be trouble! Hui cleared his throat. “Elder Sister, will you do me the honor of telling me which Tier you represent?”

“Would it mean anything to you if I did?” the hunter asked, tilting his head.

Hui nodded. “I’ve been to the Eight Tiers Palace before.”

“Surprising, for a frog in the well to know of the outside world!” The hunter laughed, then nodded. “In that case, why don’t I tell you? I represent the Sixth Tier. The Blood Tier. Before we joined the Eight Tiers Palace and the Eastern Alliance, we were a legendary sect of demonic healers.”

Demonic healers… hmm. I bet I could learn a lot from them.

Ah! Not… not that I’m planning to join the Eight Tiers Palace, no, no. Hui shook his head. He offered her his palm and nodded at the orb. “Will you hand my children over? Or will we fight?”

The hunter looked at the orb. Tilting it, he held it up to the sun. A single beam of pale sunlight struck the dark orb and illuminated it, turning the dark crystal translucent. Within, two tiny forms could barely be seen, like the stripes of paint inside a marble: white-haired Bai Xingxue, and dark-haired Li Weiqi. Both laid asleep, seemingly unharmed and unperturbed.

Hui’s heart twinged. Anger welled up inside him. His shoulders straightened, and his fists clenched. He stared down the hunter, barely repressing the urge to dash for it. That’s what she wants. She’s provoking me right now.

The hunter laughed. He tucked the orb away. His body shifted, changing into a flat-chested woman with long bangs and a tight-tied ponytail. A dot of red makeup colored each of her cheeks. She was attractive, but in the way avant-garde models are attractive. She lifted her hand and pointed at Hui with fingernails the color of blood—not painted, but colored that way, the same way pill cultivators’ hair and nails changed color from exposure to pills. “This Shue Yinyue will fight.”

“Then this Weiheng Hui will defend,” Hui returned gently, cupping his hands to her.

With a laugh, Shue Yinyue darted at him.