Falling. Falling. Falling infinitely. Hui hurtled along, watching the small realm fade away above him.

The sensation of being watched grew stronger and stronger. He shivered, every hair standing on end. A sense of doom rolled through him.

There you are. Come to me.

Hui’s eyes widened. This presence… I’ve felt it before. This—this is the hand that reached for me! That pushed aside the Heavenly Net! The voice that even Master couldn’t surpass!

Oh fuck. Fuck fuck fuck. I need to escape. I need to get into another realm. Any realm. It doesn’t matter what kind of realm it is, as long as I can get there! Right now… right now, I might be outside the Heavenly Net. In other words, fucked! He looked around desperately, searching with all this senses. Instinctively, he reached out to the Underworld.

The ominous voice chuckled. I’ve blocked that realm. Didn’t you think it was odd you hadn’t fallen in lately? Or maybe you thought you’d ‘fixed’ it?

Hui blocked out the voice and searched harder. It’s still taunting me. It’s buying time. I don’t know what, but something is keeping it from grabbing me where I stand. I have to find another realm. Quickly!

A familiar voice sounded in his head. Weiheng Hui, open your eyes.

Master? Wait, open my eyes? Aren’t my eyes open? Hui touched his face.

His eyes were closed.

Huh? I know I widened my eyes. My eyes should be open. How… why… Confused, Hui opened his eyes, putting his hands on the corners to ensure they opened. Nothing happened. Frustrated, Hui pried his eyelids open on his own.

Below him, dozens of realms spun, spiraling in the darkness. From outside, all he could see was the realms’ walls and composition. He hesitated half a second, then plunged toward the realms. It doesn’t matter which one. I need to enter a realm, any realm!

As he sped closer, one of the realms caught his eye, a soft, fluid realm with walls not unlike the ones he’d just pierced. Hui aimed toward that one, speeding up. If it’s a realm by the same Senior as before, it might have a path back to Eight Tiers Palace… or better, it might be the sky-sea realm with the gold palace I failed to loot!

Enraged, the ominous voice growled. I didn’t permit you to open your eyes!

Everything went black once more.

Hui didn’t hesitate a beat. He continued plummeting toward the world he’d seen without hesitation. Even if I can’t see, I can still find that world. It’s rather large, after all.

Weiheng Hui, open your eyes.

Hui startled. He paused and pried his eyes open once more. If Master says it, it must be important!

His eyes opened. He plunged in a slightly-wrong direction, off by just enough to miss the realm.

Fingers at the corners of his eyes, Hui adjusted his aim and hurtled down. He plunged into the surface of the world. Reaching out, he cleared a hole in the wall with a blast of death qi and tumbled in.

No! As the hole closed in, Hui distantly made out an enormous golden hand, reaching for him. Then the wall closed, and the arm was replaced with a blue sky.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

Hui breathed out, relieved. Scary, scary, scary! If not for Master’s help, this poor disciple would have died, for real! That voice can shut off my connection to the Underworld… it has authority that exceeds that of the owner of the Underworld! Terrifying, truly terrifying!

Even if my low realm is weakening my authority, I’m still the owner of the Underworld. That voice… it’s an Immortal, but… might it be… even more powerful than an Immortal? Something akin to a god, perhaps? Perhaps even the Heavenly Em—

The reaper coughed, interrupting Hui’s thoughts. “Better not to think that aloud.”

“Ah,” Hui said, falling silent. He looked at her, then reached out to the Underworld. A faint ping of darkness replied to his request.

Strange how I didn’t notice my connection to the Underworld was cut off. Ah, for that matter, it’s strange that I didn’t notice my eyes were closed. Hui licked his lips, then shook his head and clapped his cheeks. Dangerous, dangerous, dangerous! Wherever I am, I should lay low for a while.

The reaper snorted. “You sure about that?”

“Eh? Why wouldn’t I be—”

“Surrender or die!”

Hui turned slowly. A mass of cultivators riding huge spiritual beasts loomed behind him, weapons bared. The beasts brandished teeth and claws, glowing eyes narrowed with hatred.

“How did you get in here? Tell us!” the leader demanded, pointing his spear at Hui.

“Ah… well. This is…” Hui cautiously put his hands up, an embarrassed smile on his face. Somehow, I don’t think ‘I stumbled into the void by breaking out of an inheritance space that refused to recognize me, attracted the attention of a Senior so great they could kill me with a thought, yet for some reason decided they’d rather inconvenience me such that I escaped with my little life, and fled blindly into your realm’ is going to work.

He paused. Hold on. Why doesn’t that Senior kill me? Unless… no. That has to be it, though, right? What else could it—

The spear jabbed forward. Hui jolted back, eyes wide. “Er, many apologies. Er, would you believe it’s a mistake?”

“I think I’ll see myself out.” With a laugh, the reaper vanished.

The savage-looking beast cultivator narrowed his eyes at Hui and bared his teeth. “You mistakenly entered our secret realm? The sole hiding spot that remains out of Tseng Caihong’s eyes?”

“Eh?” Hui asked. I noticed it was similar to the pill sect’s secret inheritance realm. Don’t tell me… this realm belongs to the beast tier? In other words… the first tier?

Ah, wait. If the Senior from the pill tier built two nearly identical secret realms, one for her sect’s inheritance and one for the beast sect to secretly rebel in, she may have done a better job at hiding her inheritance than I thought. This truly is what I was talking about—hiding a poisoned dagger behind a thrust sword! It’s just that I saw the poisoned dagger—the pill garden—first, and assumed it was the sword, when truly it’s the beast sect’s practice realm that’s the actual feint!

Though… Senior… I hate to say it, but… you didn’t exactly pick the most subtle of allies, did you? Greeting me with “the sole hiding spot beyond Tseng Caihong’s eyes,” haaaa. Why don’t they just greet me with “hello, we’re the rebels!”

It is good to know that the Eight Tiers Palace isn’t as cohesive as I thought, however.

Wait. The pill tier secretly rebelled, and they’re the second tier. The beast tier is all but openly rebelling, and they’re the first tier. Hui sighed. I bet Tseng Caihong deliberately put the least trusted tiers furthest from her, and the most trusted tiers at the top of the palace. After all, if the beast tier attacks, it’ll have to fight its way all the way through tiers two through seven to get to Tseng Caihong. Even if the pill tier also revolts, that’s still three through seven.

He shook his head. I’m starting to feel like the most hopeless place to rebel against Tseng Caihong, is from directly beneath her gaze. Did she unify the Eight Sects because she wanted a solid, single, powerful sect? Or did she do it because it was obnoxious to keep her eyes on so many different places at once?

…That second one sounds terrifyingly likely.

Come to think of it, wasn’t I wondering if her eyes have a distance limit earlier? Could it be… could it be that’s why she unified the Eastern Alliance, and the distance limit is much shorter than I thought?

He put a hand on his chin. Hmm. It’s worth investigating. But… how?

The spear jabbed again, narrowly missing Hui’s throat. He flinched back. The beast cultivator smiled in savage pleasure. “Speak now or die!”

Behind him, the beasts roared, and all the beast cultivators cheered.

Hmm, should I tell him that I’m tempted to choose ‘die?’ Hui put a hand to his chin, considering his choices for the second time in as many minutes.

The beast cultivator furrowed his brows, all his pleasure gone. Is… is he seriously thinking about this? Huh? Does he actually… seek death?

--