Bright white light shone from all around him. All around him, pure white. Ice walls whiter than whitest jade, snow floor, crunching underfoot, paler than finest silk. Thick yin still swirled around them, but now, the light was so bright that he could see clearly through it. Chandeliers of icicles dangled overhead. Frost coiled on the air, mixing with the yin.

Hui’s breath clouded the air, cold so intense it chilled him to his bones. Subconsciously, he ran his hands over his arms. Good thing Zhubi isn’t here. He’s a snake, and can’t regulate his body heat well. He’d freeze to death!

“Gui Hui!”

Meimei waved at him from across the room, still held in a frostbitten hand. Behind her, a massive woman stood, frozen deep in a thick block of ice. Only her arm stretched out of the ice. A perfect beauty, the woman’s skin glistened like ice, almost translucent. Black hair framed her face and cascaded around her shoulders in gentle waves. Lips as red as blood brought color to her otherwise pale face. The woman’s eyes laid shut, as if she slept within the ice.

“I’m caught,” Meimei said, struggling a little, only to give up. She sighed and flopped against the hand.

“How’d she grab you from the entrance?” Hui asked, tilting his head. Her arms look normal from here, so how did she reach that far away? Even Zhang Zhisho would struggle to reach that far!

Zhang Zhisho… Whoops. I forgot to heal her. Well, to be fair, Meimei got stolen as soon as we entered! I didn’t have time!

…I hope she doesn’t die. I’d feel awful about that.

Meimei shrugged. She looked down at the hand that held her and patted at the strong-as-steel fingers. “Stretchy arms?”

Hui shrugged. Makes as much sense as anything I came up with. He jumped into the air and flew over to her. Grabbing one of the fingers, he peeled it back, away from Meimei.

The stiff, icy cold finger resisted his motion, but when he pulled it away, it didn’t snap shut again. Hui frowned, then shrugged. If it’s making my job easy, I won’t fight it! He dropped a little, pulling the next finger down.

“Gui Hui, you’re strong! I couldn’t lift it at all,” Meimei said, shocked.

“Eh? No, no. I’m average strength for a fourth-tier cultivator,” Hui demurred quickly.

“Right, right. You practiced with Jizhi Zhimei and got strong. I should practice with her.” Meimei sighed wistfully.

“Ah, well, it’s not as if everyone would have the same benefit from the same practice. I had a good resonance with Jizhi Zhimei’s techniques. Perhaps your optimal resonance comes from someone else’s techniques,” Hui said, waving his hand.

Meimei squinted at him. “I’m a disciple on Jizhi Zhimei’s peak. How am I supposed to find another Master with different techniques? I only was able to escape music techniques thanks to killing my Master.”

Hui spread his hands. “That is for you to discover. I can’t tell you your path in life. You should always search out your optimal path for yourself. A path that someone else guides you down is just that: someone else’s path.”

“That’s… huh,” Meimei murmured thoughtfully.

Peeling away the third finger, Hui went to pull off the fourth and final finger. “Prepare yourself, Meimei. I almost have you free.”

Even as he said it, the hand snapped shut around Meimei once more.

Hui pressed his lips together. Elder Sister, did you have to wait until I was almost done? I’ll scream, I will scream! I’m not afraid!

Meimei looked over her shoulder at the giant woman frozen in the ice. “What do you want me for? You didn’t hurt me. There must be a reason, right?”

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Silence. The frozen woman remained perfectly still.

Hui coughed. “Am I interrupting? Should I go…?”

Meimei shook her head. “You came all the way here. Whatever she wanted with me, she can do it in front of both of us.”

Despite her bold front, her voice quavered a little, and she paled slightly at the suggestion Hui leave.

I see. She’s nervous, too. Understanding, Hui settled into the lotus pose. “Then I shall become atmosphere.”

“Eh?” Meimei asked.

Hui raised a hand. Taking a deep breath, he drew a massive amount of the icy, raw yin into himself. It chilled him inside and out, leaving his qi passages icy cold, even tinging his qi with cold yin all over. He took another breath, drawing yet more qi. Again, his qi cooled. Yin surged inside of him, coloring not only his qi but his qi passages and meridians with cold, dark energy. More. Enough to give me yin poisoning. I want to completely blend into this place until I become transparent, and that means becoming completely soaked in yin!

In and out. As he breathed in, he absorbed yin, and as he breathed out, he expelled yang. Rather than lose his phoenix fire, he sublimated it within himself, hiding it deep in the depths of his soul. After all, if that becomes tainted with yin, I have no way back to my ordinary yang-heavy form. I can’t allow anything to happen to that!

His flesh cooled. His heartrate slowed. No longer clouding on the air, his breath whooshed out of him as cold as it entered, not altered at all by his body’s heat, as the yin drained his heat to almost nothing.

“Gui Hui… Gui Hui! Are you dying?” Meimei asked, concerned.

Hui’s breath slowed. His entire body remained as still as an ice sculpture and equally as cold. Frost dusted his eyelashes, shoulders, and jade-white fingertips, so utterly paled by the cold as to become perfectly white. His heartbeat quieted, fading to silence.

Meimei held her breath, desperately listening. “You’re alive. You’re alive, right, Gui Hui?”

Silence.

Her lower lip trembled. She scrabbled at the fingers, fighting their grip harder than before. “Gui Hui! Gui Hui, wake up!”

Above her, the frozen woman’s eyes snapped open. Ice blue eyes gleamed in the low light. Although the rest of her body remained completely frozen in place, her eyes turned toward Meimei. Ever so slowly, her lips turned upward.

“Do not be afraid, child,” a female voice sounded. It resounded through the room, sourceless. Within the ice, the woman’s mouth didn’t move.

“Who are you?” Meimei demanded, fighting to see over her shoulder.

The woman sighed. “I’ve been locked within this prison for so long by that foul Tseng Caihong, but no longer! You will do as a fitting vessel.”

“A… a vessel?” Meimei asked. She trembled in the woman’s hand.

“Mmm. You are not a dark yin attribute, as I once was, but you will do. Once I use you, I can find a yet more ideal body,” the woman whispered. Her eyes gleamed in the ice, full of madness.

Meimei fought with all her strength, but she couldn’t escape the hand’s grip. “Gui Hui! Gui Hui, help!”

Hui’s eyes snapped open. He looked up at the woman and smiled. “Elder Sister, perhaps I could offer my body instead?”

The woman scoffed. “You? You aren’t even femal…” She paused. Her eyes widened.

Hui gestured. “As Elder Sister can see, I am the dark yin attribute you’re seeking after. Let Meimei go, and take my body instead.”

The woman squinted. “I could have sworn you were male moments ago. I sensed a male cultivator following after me, with powerful yang, yearning after my power as those tasteless creatures often do.”

“Ah, well, everyone makes mistakes,” Hui said, scratching the back of his head. I was already yin-attributed…? Oh, but I had the yang-attributed phoenix fire active, lighting my way. Elder Sister probably sensed that and assumed that was my body.

The female cultivator leaned in, pushing her face up against the ice. She stared at Hui with all her might. “You are… dark-yin-attributed. Nearly perfectly so. How…?”

Hui coughed. “All cultivators have their own attributes, no? I’m merely a spot of good fortune for yourself, I suppose.”

Suspicious, she glared at Hui. “Why offer yourself to me?”

“Well, I am rather fond of Meimei. I wouldn’t like to see her die,” Hui said. I suppose that’s true-ish? Really, it’s more that I want to study you! Elder Sister, I’m currently studying yin and yang, and you are the most powerful source of yin I’ve ever seen. Isn’t it natural that I’d want to get a closer look? Even if it means absorbing you!

Ah, well… I certainly don’t think she can actually overcome my mind. She targeted a second-stage cultivator. I doubt she would have targeted Meimei if she was confident she could take over someone at a higher level, let alone a secretly-seventh-stage cultivator. She’s a Senior, but a weakened Senior. I don’t like to think of myself as someone who takes advantage of others, but Elder Sister, since you attempted to take over someone’s body first, please don’t hold it against me if I take your soul over in return!

Hiding his thoughts, Hui gazed up at her innocently, making his eyes as devoid of guilt as though he spoke to Li Xiang.

The female cultivator hesitated a moment. All at once, her body distorted into a soft, malleable form, boneless and flexible. She released Meimei and swooped through the hole in the ice toward Hui, leaving her previous prison behind. “At last!”

As she flew toward him, Hui’s eyes lit up. Here we go!