Sunlight. Hui blinked, slowly sitting up. A grassy field stretched in all directions. In the distance, a small town sent a gentle pillar of smoke into the sky. He rubbed his forehead, frowning. What happened? Why was I sleeping? Where am I?

I remember… the Immortal Realm, and then…

The Immortal Realm! Am I Immortal now? Hui looked at his palms. He flexed his fingers and turned his hands over again. Black soot marked his body, and burn wounds slowly sealed over here and there where the lightning had struck. Calling his phoenix fire, he sent it forth over his body.

Nothing happened. Fire flickered in his hands, but none spread over his body. The burns remained. Underneath it, his cultivation shuddered, barely holding on.

Hui put a hand to his dantian. Did I fail the ascension? Am I still in the mortal realm? Zhubi… He touched his neck. No snake.

The town. Let’s… I’ll get to the town, and from there, I’ll figure it out. That’s what I need. The town.

He staggered forward. Aches rattled through his body with every step. His breath shuddered through exhausted lungs, burning in his throat. Rather than Immortal, I feel… mortal. More mortal than I’ve felt in decades.

Hui checked internally again. My cultivation is more powerful than ever before. I did reach the Immortal stage. Is it just that the pressure here is so immense that I end up repressed to almost the mortal stage?

He took a deep breath. Slowly, he circulated his qi again. It spun, fighting against the weight of the world’s pressure.

Impressive. That’s a lot of pressure. Could I fly, if I tried? Hui looked up at the sky, his eyes darkening. This realm is terrifying. I can’t underestimate it. I thought Immortality was the end, but it’s only the beginning. Right now, I’m the weakest person in the realm. I need to grow stronger, faster, and more importantly, figure out what qualifies as playing dead in this realm, if I want to survive!

Though, if everyone is being pressurized to this extent, doesn’t that mean that everyone is reduced to near-mortal? In which case, I’ll barely need any of my tricks to play dead! Excellent!

Wait, not excellent. If I’m locked to near-mortal, I can’t use any of my post-playing-dead tricks! Lotus form, life qi, phoenix fire, nothing!

Hold on. Lotus form? That’s passive healing, based on the makeup of my lotus body, not my cultivation. That might actually work.

Hui sat down, folding his legs for a moment and assuming the lotus pose. With effort, he circulated his qi. Qi moved sluggishly, resisting his command. He focused deeply and spread the qi through his body, slowly spreading it through his entire form. When it permeated every part of him, he suffused it with life qi and forced his body into lotus form.

His skin took on a dewy, ever-so-faintly green shade. The wounds on his body finally began to heal.

Letting out a breath of relief, Hui climbed to his feet and walked on. Thank goodness. I can still rely on my lotus form. If this world denied me even that, I don’t know what I would have done. Probably figured out some new way to heal, but still. Luckily, I don’t have to worry about that right now!

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The town grew close. A river stretched between him and the town. Hui limped on. Even with lotus form, the wounds healed slowly. They are tribulation wounds, after all. Tribulation wounds never heal easy.

Argh. I need to find Zhubi. After the last time I left him be for a while, I can’t help but be paranoid. Besides, he’s wounded too! I can’t let him be. I need to find that little snake.

Or, no. He’s a large dragon now. All the more odd that I can’t find him.

At least he’s a dragon. Dragons are pretty resilient.

Unless some weirdo snatched him up, and is doing horrible things again! Hui bit his lip. “Zhubi!”

No response. He turned his gaze to the town ahead, stepping atop the water to cross the river. They ought to have remembered seeing a dragon. Even in the Immortal Realm, dragons should be relatively rare. They’re no qilin, but they aren’t snakes. If Zhubi flew nearby, they’d have seen him.

“Zhubi!”

As he reached the opposite bank, a shimmer of light passed through Hui’s body. He looked around, frowning. That energy… it felt familiar. Why… what…?

“Who are you?”

Startled, Hui blinked. A woman in peasant clothes stood in front of him, a robe in her hands, a bucket of dirty laundry by her. Two of the other women continued scrubbing clothes downriver, only to look up as the girl spoke.

I swear she wasn’t there moments ago. What happened? Hui looked over his shoulder. He reached out toward the riverbank.

The girl caught his hand. Hui turned. Her eyes bored into his. “Don’t.”

“My—my apologies, Elder Sister,” Hui said. Eh? Why not?

Ignoring him, the girl put the clothes down in her bucket and beamed at him. “A new visitor. The chief will be delighted!”

Hui ran a hand over the back of his neck as his hair stood on end. This place isn’t right. Something is extraordinarily wrong. It reminds me of a secret realm of sorts… something Fen Long would build.

A secret realm? Hui’s eyes glittered. Excellent! Even in the Immortal Realm, I’m still confident in my ability to handle secret realms. If there’s anywhere I feel safest, it’s inside secret realms!

Eh? Destroy the secret realm? Me? I wouldn’t, I would never!

The girl held her hand out. “Come with me. I’ll take you to the chief.”

“Ah? For someone as unimportant as myself? No need, no need, Elder Sister. Please, continue with your work. I’m no more than a small bug, crawling along,” Hui said, quickly bowing to her. No matter who you are, you’ve been living in the Immortal Realm under this pressure! Even if you’re someone who was born in the Immortal Realm, you’re still vastly more powerful than the buglike me!

She laughed, the sound melodic, like a song, and shook her head. “Come along now. We have to visit the chief.”

“No, no. Please. Small cultivator will be fine on my own,” Hui insisted.

“We’re going to see the chief,” the girl insisted, her smile gone.

Behind her, the other two laundry-women turned, their eyes emotionless, no smiles on their faces. Their hands paused, whole bodies tensing.

“I’d love to see the chief!” Hui said, nodding enthusiastically. Haha. I don’t like this one bit. This chief of theirs is dangerous, I just know it. Careful, be careful, Hui! This might be the difference between life and death!

But for now, let’s play along. Better to know than not know. I can always play dead!

The girl beamed. The other laundry-ladies turned back to their work, instantly resuming their conversation where they’d left off. The girl offered her hand to Hui again. “Let’s go!”

“Yes, yes.” Hui nodded, tucking his hands behind him as he followed. I’m too scared to take her hand. If she holds mine, who knows if she’ll let go? It’ll be much harder to play dead if someone’s holding onto me the whole time!

The chief, huh? The way she tried to lead me there immediately… I can’t help but be concerned about it. There’s got to be something about him. Something nefarious.

Hui swallowed. Already plunging into the thick of it, while I haven’t even mastered death-faking in the Immortal Realm yet. I’m in trouble, big trouble for sure!