Time passed. At the end of every day, Hui woke up in his room, whether he returned to it, went to Jie Xinlei’s house, or not. As the days wound on, he developed a routine. Wake up, greet Jie Xinlei, refuse her offer, and walk to the barrier. Day after day, he studied the power of time.

I still haven’t grasped time. I can’t absorb it. I barely comprehend any more about it than when I started.

How long will it take to absorb time? To comprehend it?

This is too hard, too hard!

Ugh. At least let me spawn here. It’s annoying to have to walk here every day.

Haa… no. It’s good that I have to walk here. If I really just sat here for this long, I’d probably get bored and wander away. I know myself.

If it wasn’t for Zhubi, I’d take this opportunity to invest years into my studies, and focus on nothing but attempting to gain insight into time. As it is, I need to comprehend the bare minimum as fast as possible, break out, and make sure no one has captured my adorable little dragon. He’s too cute for his own good, he really is. So cute he’s a danger to himself. If he wasn’t on par with that white tiger cub, after all, Tseng Caihong would never have captured him! And tiger cubs are top-tier cute, which puts Zhubi at top-tier, as well!

Hui shook his head. Joking aside, I do need to hurry and comprehend time. But what should I do? No matter how hard, I can’t grasp it. I can’t grab a scrap of time and bring it into my dantian to study it, and I don’t really have the time to sit here forever and figure it out.

He gazed up at the wavering power of time. Come to think of it, even Chen Wuya didn’t grasp time. Or rather, he didn’t grab onto it. Can he not? Is time, fundamentally, something that cannot be grasped? Grasped, in this case, to mean held.

Maybe that’s the lesson of time. Time cannot be held or manipulated. It must simply be observed.

Something tingled in his mind. Hui flinched. He tried to focus on it, but it slipped away before he could comprehend it fully. The concept lingered in his mind, just out of reach.

Hui gritted his teeth, frustrated. It’s right there. I’m so close.

Close, at least, to beginning to grasp it. I don’t think I can fully comprehend time from one insight alone.

Can’t be grasped. Has to be observed. Passivity. Waiting. Watching. Hui put a hand on his chin, then toppled over, dead. I can do all these things! Maybe if I alter my state to be closer to that of time, I can comprehend it more easily. In other words, play dead! Others must observe me for playing dead to work. I enter a passive state, waiting and watching. The world flows around me.

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The world flows…

As he lay there, dead, the world shimmered. The barrier cracked open, and two men dressed in gold appeared from the far side of the plane of reality, hands on their hips, authority in every inch of their body. Walking astride, they strode boldly into the village’s barrier.

Their boots squished down. Startled, the two of them looked down in sync.

At a dead body.

Lying there dead, Hui resisted the urge to sigh. Dangerous, dangerous. I can’t allow Mamian to see me like this. She’ll get all the wrong ideas.

A moment later, his eyes widened. Ah! I could jump out! If I ran right now—

Behind the men, the barrier rapidly closed.

Internally, Hui sighed. No, no. better to play the long game. If I jump up now, I give my game away. Who knows how powerful they are? They might be able to kill me long before I can escape. If I wait, well, these men still need to leave the barrier. I can escape when they leave!

The first one jumped to the side, shaking his boot. “Disgusting. The way these playthings live… it’s filthy.”

Stepping delicately over Hui, the second shook off his robes. “It isn’t their fault, Cho Haoli. His Eminence demands they live like mortals. If they don’t…” He trailed off, shaking his head.

“Even so, can’t they live a bit more… elegantly? Xi Muchen, you agree, don’t you?” Cho Haoli kicked Hui.

There’s no need for that. I’m already dead, Elder Brother, Hui thought, shaking his head internally.

“It’s tasteless to mention it, since they have no ability to adjust their way of life,” Xi Muchen commented.

“I don’t care if it’s tasteless. It’s disgusting. Let’s hurry and complete this, so we can return to Heart Lotus City.” Cho Haoli sniffed haughtily and hurried away, scraping his boots on the leaves every so often, as if a bit of poop clung to his heel. “Oh, thank everything. There’s a road.”

Xi Muchen paused. He turned back, then clasped his hands to Hui. He flicked his sleeve, and the earth opened up, swallowing Hui into its depths. Darkness fell over him, and he sunk down.

Well, this is a first, Hui thought. I’ve never been buried before. I entered the mausoleum I built for myself, and I even lay in a coffin, but buried in the raw earth? This is the first time.

Hmm, no wonder there’s powerful bodies lying around all over the place in cultivation worlds. No one bothers to bury anyone! Tsk, tsk. It’s basic sanitation, basic sanitation! Even if you disrespect your enemy, at least respect the viruses and filth that can spread into your water supply, okay? Practice safe corpse disposal!

The earth muffled his ears and blinded him. Hui laid there for a few minutes to be sure, then tentatively extended his divine sense, peering around him. When he found nothing but a bare forest, he sat up, throwing the dirt up as he sat up. Spitting a mouthful of dirt, he shook his head, batting earth out of his hair.

“Yuck. I’d rather not be buried next time, Elder Brother,” Hui muttered to himself. Even if it’s good corpse disposal, please don’t bury this small cultivator. It’s filthy, it really is.

Climbing all the way out of the shallow grave, he cleansed himself with qi. Dirt flew all around him, splattering the nearby trees. Hui adjusted his robes, brushed off the last of the dirt, and strode back toward the town. Casually running a hand over his face, he put on Zhang Ming’s face with the snakeskin technique.

After all, it wouldn’t do to show up as the man they nicely buried.

Speaking of… He turned back. Waving his sleeve, he closed up the grave behind him.

There. Good as new.

Nodding to himself, he strode boldly back toward town, putting his hands behind his back as he went.