Hui backed away from the milky mass of strange gelatin as it wobbled faster and faster, its sides trembling like a struck drum. Is it a slime? I don’t remember slimes showing up a lot in cultivation novels, but… it sure looks like a slime!

No, the better question is, what is this slime thing doing alone in Tseng Caihong’s tier? Is it a slime? Why is it the only thing on the Eighth Tier? So many questions!

The gel trembled one last time, then began to settle down. It stilled, but the contents inside it had shifted. A lump raised toward the surface, distorting the surface of the gel.

Hui flew over to the lump, the golden songbird circling around his head. He hovered just above it, squinting at it. Dense qi filled the gel, blocking his senses from piercing through. He reached out a hand to inject some of his qi, then drew his hand back. Last time it started trembling like crazy. Will that happen again?

The lump in the gel twisted, trying to break free. Hui jumped back, then leaned in. Should I help it? Is that something trapped inside that needs to be rescued, or is it about to attack me?

He bit his lip, then dropped down, reaching out for it. I—I can always fake death if it attacks! If I stand here and watch while something dies in the gel, I’ll never forgive myself.

His hand landed on the gelatin again. The gel trembled, waves propagating through the mass. Curling his hand into a claw, he dug through the gel until his fingers met something solid. In an instant, the solid thing curled around his wrist, hugging on with all its might. Cool scales brushed against his skin.

Hui’s eyes widened. He yanked his arm back.

The gel clung to him, sticking to the thing inside of it. With Hui’s fourth-stage strength, he couldn’t pull it free.

Glancing around, he called a mote of death qi to his fingertips and circulated it through the gel. The gel flinched back, not decayed but afraid of it. It’s alive. And far higher than fourth stage, too. Seizing the moment, Hui yanked his hand free.

A small white snake curled around his wrist, balled up in his palm. Zhubi hissed weakly and laid back against Hui’s arm, exhausted. His eyes shut.

“Zhubi? Zhubi!” Hui dismissed the death qi and called life qi to his hand instead, forcibly sending it into Zhubi’s cold body. Zhubi stirred, half waking, only to fall asleep again. A strange, yet familiar energy emanated from the snake’s small, oh-so-pale body. Not sure what else to do, Hui cradled the snake to his chest. He looked around desperately, searching for someone, something, anything. Zhubi’s hurt, he’s dying… how do I fix him?

“I thought I heard a mouse.”

Out of the darkness, Tseng Caihong stepped. Her seven-colored side ponytail breezed behind her, out of place with those untouchable eyes of hers half-shut. Nothing exuded from her, not malice, not anger, not fury or pleasure. She stood before Hui as a void, without any aura at all.

Still hugging Zhubi close, he stepped back. “What did you do to him? Why did you hurt him?”

“Hurt him?” Tseng Caihong chuckled. “I’m simply refining him.”

Hui’s heart ran cold. Refining him? Refining him into what? A pill? A treasure? Whatever you did, is it still reversable? It has to be. It has to be! I won’t allow it to not be reversible. I won’t! “What did you do to him?”

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

She spread her hands. Her eyes shot wide open, and she smiled. “Improved him. The beast cultivators told you, did they not? When I tire of pets, I throw them away and use them for better purposes.”

He didn’t see her move, but suddenly, her hand landed atop his head. It clenched, threatening strength far beyond what he could oppose, even at seventh realm. “And when I tire of little mice…”

Hui darted away, flying back across the eighth tier, out of her hand.

She let him go, eyes half-closed once more in bored amusement.

Halfway across, he stopped, panting heavily. Not from the strain, but from fear. I can’t play dead. She’ll just steal Zhubi back and continue refining him. I don’t know what she’s doing. I don’t know how far she’s gone. Can it still be undone? Can I fix him?

I must be able to. Please.

Foolish, foolish, foolish. I shouldn’t have let her take Zhubi. Even if I had to reveal everything, even if I had to use my full strength and give up on it all, I shouldn’t have!

She never meant to give him back. Telling me to become the number one disciple was just the on-the-spot bullshit it sounded like. She never thought I’d be able to. Even if I got the approval of all the tiers, she never would have given Zhubi back to me.

Foolish! Foolish Hui! So foolish, and you dare to call yourself Hui? Not clever, not clever at all!

Tseng Caihong didn’t seem to move, and yet, she vanished. From the shadows, her voice spoke to him. “Little mouse. You’ve poked around for long enough, haven’t you? What do you think of my palace? This place you’ve been scouting out for your friends back in the Southern Sect Conference. How does it size up?”

Hui trembled. “What do you mean? I don’t understand what you’re saying. I’m your hostage, Senior.”

“Ha. Quit the act. I see everything, you know? And I’ve been watching you.”

“Oh? Does Senior enjoy that kind of thing?” Hui asked. He took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down. Panicking does me no good. I have Zhubi now, and she can’t hurt him any more as long as I’m here. I’ll take him back to Xixing, and everything will be fine. All I need to do is defeat Tseng Caihong… all I need to do is, is—

He took another deep breath. Panicking is useless. Breathe. Stay steady. I can do this. I’m sure I can. I don’t have to defeat her. I just need to escape with Zhubi.

“Answer my question,” Tseng Caihong intoned, her voice echoing from everywhere at once.

“How does it size up?” Hui shivered one more moment, then stood upright. Facing the darkness, he laughed. What do I have left to lose? As long as I can escape with Zhubi, everything goes. So why hold back? “How does it size up? What do you want to hear? Eight Tiers Palace is a thousand times more powerful, a thousand times more competent, a thousand times stronger. But you know what?”

“What?” Tseng Caihong asked unwillingly, bored.

He jabbed his finger at the darkness. “But it’s nothing. This whole Eight Tiers Palace is worth less than the weakest sect of the Southern Sect Conference. At least those sects are alive. They walk their own path, and face down their own destiny. Even if they’re a demonic sect pretending to be righteous, even if they’re a righteous sect that’s become demonic, they face down this world and walk their path with their own two feet.

“This? This Eight Tiers Palace of yours? It isn’t unified. It isn’t a single sect nor is it eight sects. It’s a conglomeration of nothing, a pile of toys stacked on top of one another for your convenience, so that you can watch them more closely. None of these sects walk their own path, and therefore, your Eight Tiers Palace is unable to move forward.

“All it can do is waver where it stands, each sect afraid to move forward for fear of doing something that appears ugly in those all-seeing eyes of yours.”

Tseng Caihong laughed darkly. “Is that how you see it?”

“Is that not how it is, Senior?” Hui challenged her.

“I think you’re merely a weakling convincing yourself you can stand up to a tiger.”

A hand thrust out of the darkness, moving faster than Hui could comprehend. In the same instant, it struck his head and the back of his head struck the wall, the hand propelling him across that distance in less time than blinking. The world flickered in Hui’s vision, but still he held Zhubi tight.

Slammed against the wall, blood dripping down his head and pooling in his collar, Hui laughed. “Sincerely, Senior, if you think that about me, you haven’t learned a single thing about me.”

“No?” She quirked a brow, her face looming out of the dark.

“No,” Hui agreed, and burst out with the full power of his cultivation base.