Hui coughed. “Many apologies. Er, I came here to issue a grave warning… and it seems you’ve come to understand it?”

Glancing around at her fellow cultivators, a female cultivator stepped forward. Timidly, and with great respect, she cupped her hands to Hui. “With all due respect, aside from kidnapping your children, what has this Eight Tiers Palace done to break morals and disrespect the Heavens? I dare not disbelieve Senior. It’s merely that this cultivator wishes to know Senior’s immaculate reasoning.”

Ahh… uncomfortable, too uncomfortable! This small cultivator can’t handle this. It’s not right, not right! Treating me with so much respect? Ah! Please, I’d rather be treated as someone lesser, or an equal, at most! I’m not used to this. Not used at all!

Scratching the back of his neck, Hui nodded. “Right, right. The Eight Tiers Palace… ah, well, if we’re putting aside the kidnapping, which is a considerable threat… they have also sown resentment in the land they occupy… Hmm.” That’s not very compelling. It’s not as if anyone here has seen the resentment demons or has any idea how much of a problem this is for the Underworld. Hui considered for a moment.

The female cultivator’s brows furrowed. “Resentment…?”

Hui’s eyes lit up. He nodded. “Ah! That’s it. They’re also the aggressors in a territorial war to their north, against the Northern Lands. They dare to one-sidedly attack the frozen wasteland occupied by demons… why won’t they one-sidedly attack our small, resource rich Southern Conference? We’re a ripe fruit ready for the picking in their eyes. Even if you don’t choose to prepare for war now, war is inevitable. They will bring it to us, if we don’t bring it to them.”

The female cultivator’s eyes shone with dangerous light. All around the room, cultivators began circulating their cultivation subconsciously, glimmers of killing intent in their eyes.

Wait, wait, wait! Is this small Hui warmongering? Me? No, no! Ahh, the message is coming out all wrong. I want to warn them, not incite them to attack!

Quickly, Hui cleared his throat. “Which is why we have to prepare! It would be beyond foolish to bring the war to a massively more powerful enemy. Instead, we should prepare, prepare! Build our defenses. Train our warriors. Give them such a fight that they regret ever attacking us.”

Across the room, the cultivators nodded along. A few of them reached for their swords. One or two glanced at the windows, ready to leap forth at a moment’s notice.

Hold on. That still sounds like warmongering! Hold on, hold on! I need to impart upon them that this is all defensive. Defensive-only! I don’t need anyone haring off as a lone wolf to attack the Eight Tiers Palace and inadvertently bringing all its might down on us!

“Defending our home is vital. The most essential of all! If we dare make such a mistake as to attack the Palace wholesale, only to turn back and find our home razed, we’ve accomplished nothing at all. Defense. Defense first! Once we have a strong defense, we can worry about offense!” Hui said, nodding furiously.

Clearing her throat, Bai Xue stepped up beside him. “What Weiheng Hui means to say is that defense is the best offense. First, we focus on defense. Only once our defense is ironclad should we turn our attention to striking the Eight Tiers Palace.”

No, no, no, we should never turn our attention to—Hui took a deep breath. No. Even I realized it. To hunker down and defend ourselves is to cut off our own feet. We won’t get anywhere that way. We need to strike first. In a way that can’t be detected, using techniques to hide our true nature, we need to find a way to raze that impossibly stronger force before it can even think about attacking us.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Because as soon as Eight Tiers Palace decides to destroy us, we’re gone.

In a way, we’re fortunate that the Palace decided to kidnap my children rather than attack outright. I don’t know exactly why, but clearly they value Li Xiang and Bai Xue’s future potential enough to leave them alive, when they could easily crush the entire sect conference. But now that they know that they’ve failed…

Hui stilled. He put a hand on his chin thoughtfully.

What if they don’t find out they’ve failed?

Bai Xue glanced at Hui. He nudged Hui. “Your audience is waiting.”

Hui glanced up, quickly scanning the room without actually taking anything in. He bowed to everyone. “Please excuse me. I—I have something to attend to.” With that, he rushed off, hurrying out of the room.

Bai Xue cleared his throat. As if nothing odd had happened, he stepped up to the podium. “Although the next speaker needs no introduction, allow me to nonetheless invite Li Xiang, Sect Master of All Heavens Sect, onto the stage.”

Li Xiang stepped forward and mounted the stage in one graceful leap. Nodding at Bai Xue, she took the podium. “What we face now is a threat far greater than we have ever faced before…”

Leaving the stage behind, Bai Xue strode after Hui. He caught up in a few steps. Hui walked slowly, chin in his hand, his brows furrowed in thought. “Xiao Hui. What is troubling you?”

“Nothing, nothing is troubling me,” Hui replied, still lost in thought.

Bai Xue waited quietly, tucking his hands behind him. He quirked a brow.

After a moment, Hui looked up sharply, directly into Bai Xue’s eyes. “Eight Tiers Palace is going to attack us. That is almost without doubt.”

“Yes,” Bai Xue agreed.

“However… our stopping their plot to kidnap our children will likely incite them to attack sooner, much sooner than they might have otherwise,” Hui continued.

“Unfortunate, but true.” Bai Xue nodded, walking alongside him.

“What if they didn’t know? Didn’t know that they failed,” Hui explained himself.

“What do you mean?” A smirk crawled over Bai Xue’s face. I think I know where this is going.

Hui nodded. “What if they had a child back at the Eight Tiers Palace? Not our children, of course. Or anyone’s child. But a child.”

“A child… who’s my Xiao Hui in disguise?” Bai Xue guessed.

Hui pointed at him. “Precisely!”

“But what about the escort? After all, if the child appears alone in enemy territory without the kidnapper, who would believe that?” Bai Xue pointed out.

Hui sagged. “That… I hadn’t…”

Bai Xue spread his hands. “Why don’t I stand in as the escort? You can disguise me. I know you’re more than capable of that. You can disguise yourself as one of the children… if you brought up this plan, I trust you have a method for it. I’ll play your escort, and then, once we enter Eight Tiers Palace…”

“You can fake your death and escape back to the Southern Sect Conference, while I learn as much about Eight Tiers Palace as I can!” Hui said, nodding along.

Bai Xue chuckled. “In any case, I’ll escape somehow, and you can investigate the Eight Tiers Palace alone. The only question is, Xiao Hui… are you prepared?”

Hui nodded. After a moment, he looked at Bai Xue and nodded harder. “Yes. Yes, Elder Brother. I—I may have… already laid out the foundation for a nearly unstoppable army in the region of Eight Tiers Palace…? Ah, in any case, I have backups and escape plans. There’s no need to fear for me.”

Shaking his head, Bai Xue caught Hui’s ponytail in his hand and ran his fingers through it. “Of course my Hui does. I should have known. You won’t fight on your own, but you’ll raise an army to fight for you, hmm?”

“Ah? No, no. That isn’t…” Hui’s voice petered off.

“The lotus beast, then the lotus clones. Your ghoul pet, who became the leader of an undead cultivators’ demonic sect. Now the phoenixes. Xiao Hui, once is a coincidence, but thrice is a habit.”

“Four… four times already?” Hui muttered to himself, shocked. I forgot about the lotus clones and the ghouls when I was counting earlier! How many armies have I raised? To think, I’ve raised so many armies as to forget them! Er, this small cultivator never meant to cause any harm. Please believe me, Elder Brother!

“Four?” Bai Xue asked, frowning.

“Nothing, nothing!” Hui waved his hands. He cleared his throat. “Ah… I should go prepare.”

“Yes, yes. Say goodbye to the children and Li Xiang too, this time,” Bai Xue reminded him gently.

Hui nodded. He took a deep breath. The children…

“I know they aren’t used to you yet. Li Weiqi particularly. But they’ll come around,” Bai Xue said, nodding. He stroked Hui’s hair again, comfortingly. “Trust me. I’ve had my fair share of child troubles.”

“How many children do you have, again?” Hui asked.

Bai Xue smiled. “One shouldn’t ask questions they aren’t prepared to hear the answer to.”

“Right, right.” Hui nodded to himself, then to Bai Xue. “I’ll… I’ll go see the children.”

“Yes, yes,” Bai Xue agreed, patting him on the back.