Hui deactivated his body cultivation technique as he stepped into the second tier, dismissing the crystalline form with a quiet ping.

Looking at his hands, he pressed his lips together thoughtfully. What if I created a large body, then condensed it down to normal size? If I could create a body with incredible size and muscle density, then compress it to make those muscles even more dense…

He turned up. The ceiling loomed over him, not far above his head.

…Well, I’ll leave that technique for another day. When I’m in a pinch, I can always try that out! Ah, but I’ll probably need more raw materials. Maybe if I grow a giant lotus clone, then use my plant-to-flesh technique on it… but then it would only be large, not large and densely muscular. But! If I use my phoenix fire on that and regrow that large body from scratch, controlling the muscle density the whole way…

A…anyways! I’ll worry about that later. For now, let’s explore the second tier! Who’s the Tier Master? I don’t remember. Was this the demonic healing tier…? Ugh, I hope not. Demonic healing… terrifying. That’s a tier I want to avoid!

At the moment, he walked through a short hallway. Behind him, the giant wooden doors shut softly. A second door opened at the far end as he approached. Hui tensed, ready to flee. Why does this tier have an airlock…? Don’t tell me, it is the demonic healer tier, and it’s so terrifying that they have to lock them away—

A blast of pink, bubblegum-scented smoke burst from the opening door and washed over Hui. He coughed, waving his hand to clear the air. What the—

From out of the smoke, a figure slammed into him. Bubblegum-pink robes filled his vision for a moment before the figure fell backward.

Prepared for it this time, Hui lunged and caught them before they struck the ground. People need to stop running into me! I’m a small cultivator. I have a low center of gravity! It’s easy for me to knock people over.

Ah, but I am small. I suppose they probably can’t see me. Hmm. I don’t want to hit puberty, but maybe I’ll artificially age myself up so I stop getting run into.

The smoke began to fill the airlock, completely blocking out the air. Hui retreated to the previous tier’s doors, but they wouldn’t budge. He pressed his lips together.

I get it, it’s an airlock, but still! Are you going to lock me in to my death?

I suppose I could run to the place the smoke is coming from instead… it’s a terrible idea, usually, but this is a cultivation world! It might work out okay…?

And behind me is the terrifying body cultivation tier! The body cultivators, who I just fled from! If I go back so quickly, there’s no way Shuhang Han will ever let me go! No, no, no! Argh! It goes against all my childhood fire escape training, but… toward the smoke it is!

He carried the cultivator who’d run into him and fled into the second tier, through the smoke and out into the open. The massive amounts of smoke issued from a small cauldron not far from the airlock doors. Barely a dozen paces into the second tier, the air cleared, and Hui could finally see who he carried.

Pink hair. Pink robes. Pink fingernails. Pink even tinged their cheeks and hands. A thoroughly pink cultivator stared up at Hui, her entire body pink as could be. She stared up at Hui in wide-eyed amazement. “You’re fine?”

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“Eh? Yes…?” Hui asked.

“That gas… it’s a high-tier sleeping gas. A fourth-realm cultivator can withstand it?” she murmured, mostly to herself.

Hui blinked. Oh. Whoops. I forgot that pills often have hard realm cutoffs when it comes to effectiveness! He wavered in place, quickly blinking and yawning exaggeratedly. “Ah, I’m… now that Senior said it, I am very tired…”

She jumped up and put a hand around his shoulders, steering him toward a double line of multicolored cultivators, all sleeping on the floor. “Here, quickly. Join the others!”

Hui stared. Elder Sister, how many people have you put to sleep? No wonder the body cultivation sect put an airlock between you and them! You pill cultivators would be disrupting the body cultivators nonstop if they didn’t!

“S…senior, why is the sleeping gas pink?” Hui asked, yawning again. Wouldn’t you want sleeping gas to be colorless?

“Ah, well, I was trying to make, er, a different kind of sleeping elixir…” Her eyes flicked to Hui, taking in his youthful appearance, and she quickly coughed. “Ah, no! A love elixir. An innocent and sweet love elixir. But aha, I made a small mistake in the formula…”

Hui stared at her. You… you were making an aphrodisiac gas? What kind of damage were you intending to wreak? Were you trying to drive the entire sect into utter chaos? And this close to the third tier! An aphrodisiac unleashed upon an entire tier of body cultivators… Elder Sister, explain to me what you thought would happen! What were you trying to accomplish, huh? Even if that’s your fetish, get consent first! And think about the fallout and those who might be accidentally involved!

He eyed the giant pile of sleeping bodies, both male and female. At least a hundred people snoozed away, chests gently rising and falling. If she had succeeded… this pile would be an absolute carnage right now. Even Bai Xue never drew this many people into her dealings!

“It wasn’t meant to be a gas…” she muttered to herself, pursing her lips at the billowing pill furnace.

Hui coughed. Falling into the female cultivator, he let himself go limp. I should probably stop talking and go to sleep now. But… based on the simple understanding I have of the properties of liquids and gasses, and the fact that Elder Sister called it an elixir, which are usually liquid pills, and not a smoke, which would be what she actually made… “Elder Sister… did you… perhaps… turn the temperature up too high?”

The pink cultivator’s eyes widened. Her mouth formed into a perfect O.

Hui closed his eyes, exhausted. Elder Sister, your gas might not have affected me, but just interacting with you has made me tired enough to sleep. Elder Sister… how are you a pill cultivator, if you can’t even consider such simple possibilities? Is the training of pill cultivators really so lacking? Or is Elder Sister a special case?

From around the corner, the Tier Master Hui had seen on his first day in the sect stormed over, seven-colored hair flying. “Xi Sanji, what have you done this time?”

“Ah! Elder Wan Lu!” The pink cultivator dropped Hui and dove to the floor, kowtowing to the Tier Master.

Hui struck the floor with a thump. He barely resisted the urge to frown. Elder Sister, don’t forget you’re holding children! No one trust this woman with a baby!

Wan Lu blinked at her. He looked at Hui’s prone form, then back at Xi Sanji. Sighing, he put a hand on his forehead. “Xi Sanji… can you go ten minutes without causing trouble for me?”

“I’m so sorry! Please forgive me! I won’t do it again!” she cried, groveling.

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep. And can you please remember to turn off your furnace and close the vents when you burn another formula?”

“Ah! That’s right!” Xi Sanji jumped up and ran over to her pill furnace.

“Xi Sanji—” Wan Lu reached after her, then let his hand fall. He sighed and knelt, picking up Hui to carry him over to the rest of the sleeping cultivators. “Why am I always cleaning up this child’s messes?”

Hui sympathized silently, letting himself be carried. Truly, Senior has it hard. I certainly hope Elder Sister hasn’t repeatedly tried to make love elixirs… though what kind of pill could she safely make, with no terrifying side effects?

Hmm… in any case, I have no karma with pill cultivation. I should leave this tier quickly. There’s only one tier left to go downward, and then I can investigate the tiers above Jizhi Zhimiei’s!