Hui opened his eyes on his back in a dark cave. Stone bored own from above, oppressive in its thickness.
“So…” A shadow loomed over him. The reaper looked down at Hui, her arms crossed. She quirked a brow. “Coming again, so soon?”
“Ah, no, no. It’s but a momentary visit,” Hui insisted.
“Did I ever imply otherwise?” the reaper asked with a sigh. Expecting you to die is like expecting the sun to set and never rise.
Hui coughed into his fist. Ah, well… it is true. Pushing up to his feet, he looked up at the reaper. “Elder Sister, do you know a Tseng Caihong?”
“Yes.”
He looked at her. She looked at him.
“That’s it?” Hui asked.
The reaper shrugged. “I’m not beholden to tell you anything. If you want to know, then make me… or help me.”
“What do you need help with?” Hui asked.
Snorting, the reaper nodded at him. “There’s a small bug that keeps burrowing into the Underworld. Think you could do something about that?”
“Ah, well… my apologies, Elder Sister,” Hui said, bowing. He tilted his head thoughtfully a moment later. “That Tseng Caihong… she really liked calling me a small bug.”
The reaper quirked a brow. “Not only do you act like a weakling, but you’re also small right now. What did you expect?”
“Mmm… true.” Hui looked upward. “It’s probably been long enough for me to return.”
“Only one way to find out,” the reaper commented.
Hui nodded. He saluted the reaper, then stood and looked upward. His body vanished from the Underworld.
She sighed, shaking her head after him. “Hurry and ascend already, and stop causing me trouble.”
Back in the mortal realm, Hui gasped a breath, startling back to life. He instantly circulated his life qi, calling out to the other half of his body at the same time. His lower half flew to him, and, moving quickly, he sealed it to the upper half with life qi. Phew. How unpleasant!
But… that is strange. I definitely could survive a wound like that. Even for mortals, getting cut in half isn’t necessarily instant death. I should’ve been playing dead, not… making a quick visit to the Underworld.
He patted his chest, suddenly a little concerned. And come to think of it, that time I fell asleep and woke up in the Underworld… that wasn’t a dream, was it? The way the reaper referred to me burrowing through the Underworld… Did I die, back then? Is this form of mine unstable in some way?
It isn’t entirely unexpected. It’s my first time using this age-alteration technique, and on top of that, I was using a gender-shifting art too, just now. Considering how much modification I’m doing to my small body, I can’t be too surprised if it gives out a few times. Still, it’s not a good sign.
Hmm. I’ll have to keep an eye on it. If I can figure out the root cause, I can at least attempt to solve it!
Hui sat up. Halfway upright, intense pain assaulted him. He bent over, coiling in on himself. Icy cold swirled in his body, twisting into his organs and blood vessels. It surged through his body and settled into his bones. Hui shivered uncontrollably, his whole body trembling.
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Ah… shit. The yin got inside me while I was dead. Now I’m yin-poisoned, just like the resentment demons! Not a great way to start the day, not at all.
He started to circulate his cultivation. Again, immense pain spiked through his body. Hui curled up like a shrimp, hugging his cold stomach. Hurts hurts hurts…!
I can’t believe they’re sending low-realm cultivators through this valley. Dangerous, it’s far too dangerous! The yin here can even infect seventh-realm cultivators like myself, after all! Given, I’m suppressing my cultivation, and I was temporarily dead, but still!
Okay. Let’s take this slow. Life qi didn’t hurt. Can I use the phoenix flames…?
It seems reasonable, right? Fire has a strong yang attribute, so it should chase out the yin. After all, it’s a very powerful fire. Even this intense yin shouldn’t be able to handle phoenix flames.
Below him, the resentment demon stirred. Chains bound its arms to itself, but it still snuck a finger out to pat Hui on the back.
“Thank you. I’ll be okay,” Hui said, patting the finger in return. Probably. I don’t plan on dying, anyways!
Dying… again, that is.
Hmm. Yeah, I’d better not. The reaper might seriously step on me next time. I don’t want that.
Hui called up the phoenix flames. They leaped forth, surging over his body. Instantly, he began to age.
He choked back on them, stopping the flames in their paces.
Oh, whoops, I don’t want that. If there’s something unstable about this body, the last thing I need to do is continue to change it wildly!
But the phoenix flames always age me. It’s a fundamental property of their existence, to accelerate the cycle of life, death, and rebirth.
Ugh. Let’s try to focus them. Maybe if I only focus them on the yin energy, they won’t affect my body. With some effort, Hui uncurled and crossed his legs, entering a lotus pose. Calling back the phoenix flames, he circulated them in his dantian, while simultaneously tracking the flow of yin through his body.
And… there! Drawing the fire forth, he touched it to a strand of cold yin. The two trembled, fighting one another, then swirled together. Yin matched yang, and the two dissolved into Hui’s qi, vanishing into the balance of Hui’s natural yin and yang.
Hui let out a slow breath. Moisture clouded the air around his mouth, expelled when the hot fire touched the cold yin. Okay! That works. Now I just need to rid my body of the rest of the yin contamination.
That Tseng Caihong… what was her problem? Is it so bad for a small disciple to show curiosity in a masterwork barrier? Why did she kill me for such a tiny slight?
Who is she, too? Does she not know who I am? But no… as I died, I remember hearing something about ‘hostage.’ She knows I was the hostage, and that I was therefore the disciple of the Tier Master… if in name only. But name only is still enough for the Tier Master to kill any lesser disciple… and not only that, but she would basically be beholden to avenge my death, given the effort she went to gather me, and the slight killing me would be to her pride. Only a fellow direct disciple could kill me, or perhaps a Tier Master… but I don’t recall seeing her face back on the teleportation platform.
He let out another breath as he chased out the next portion of yin. A cloud gathered around him, giving him an otherworldly appearance in the icy dark.
Hmm… curious. I should take care… but I can’t exactly die for real, here. After all, I still need to be the hostage. So although it would be better for me to vanish and become truly ‘dead,’ I guess I’ll just have to… well, pretend like nothing happened!
So decided, Hui stood, simultaneously chasing out the last of the yin. He patted the resentment demon. “If nothing else, I’ve made progress! I can use the phoenix fire to destroy the yin, therefore bypassing the suppression directly. Using poison to suppress poison only works if both poisons are present. No matter how intricate the barrier is, it doesn’t matter if it no longer has anything to power it.”
Fundamentally, I’ve come to a door guarded by an electronic lock, and discovered a way to yank out the lock’s batteries. It might fail-safe and deadbolt after the electronic lock runs out of power, but then I’m only dealing with a deadbolt, rather than whatever alarms and traps might be attached to the electronic lock. And when it comes to barriers… I’m quite used to dealing with deadbolts.
“Can… escape?” the resentment demon murmured.
Hui patted it again. “Not yet. Have patience. But… the moment will come, and sooner than you might expect!”
Grumbling under its breath, the resentment demon nonetheless settled back down. Giving it one last glance to be sure, Hui leaped off its surface and flew away, hurtling out of the valley. I hope I didn’t spend too long in this place. I lose track of time when I enter the Underworld, which is problematic when Zhang Zhisho will surely punish me if I’m late for practice!
Leaping out into the sunshine, he took to his feet once more and raced away, back toward the other disciples.