The sword stabbed down toward Hui’s heart. He watched it come, thinking. I shouldn’t let him know that I’m using this as an opportunity. And that includes looking accurate. My heart… let’s cycle it back to normal. It’ll hurt like shit, but it’s better that I bleed red than green. Plus, the formation might count on my blood to extract and absorb my qi. If I fail to meet the formation’s or Golden Immortal’s expectations, I’ve gained nothing and lost a lot.

Ah… it’s going to hurt, though! It’s going to hurt!

The sword slammed home. Blood ran down the altar and immediately vanished, absorbed by the dry ground. At the same time, the formation sped up, circulating at double time. The gold threads glinted with red.

“Your blood will become the ties that bind the Immortal Realm and your world!” the Golden Immortal declared.

My blood will become something, anyways. Hui exerted his will on his blood even as it flowed out. The qi in his blood responded, if weakly. He pressed his lips together. Could be better, but I’ll take it. This isn’t a great situation in the first place.

He cycled to plant form, intending to heal himself, but nothing happened. His blood continued to run out, red as ever. He frowned, confused. Alright, I guess getting stabbed might not have been the best plan in the world, but come on. What’s happening here?

“That old trick? I’ve enchanted the blade. As long as it’s inside you, it paralyzes the internal flow of your qi,” the Golden Immortal said, laughing.

“Oh.” Hui experimentally moved his soul’s qi. Still functional. I guess I never used that trick in front of him.

How troublesome. Loops are the worst! He’s learning all my tricks and countering them. Dislike, thumbs-down. I’ve got to finish this soon, before he figures out everything. Good job to all those past mes who only let a little bit of my moves out, rather than blowing them all at once!

“You’re still not giving up?” the Golden Immortal asked.

“No… I’m dying… Senior, mercy,” Hui gasped. He trembled and laid on the altar, dead.

Giving him a skeptical look, the Golden Immortal turned back to his spell. The air between the cornerstones began to tremble, and a strange, water-like pool materialized in the air, stretched between the four stones.

Hui tracked his qi through the formation. It spun around, shifting left and right, back and forth, then jetted out the other end into the Golden Immortal’s spell. It’s not going to be easy to pass a spell through the formation, but do I have to? I wonder…

In the corner of his vision, he caught a flicker of movement behind the Golden Immortal. Hui stared as hard as he could. A pale ghost with black pits for eyes watched from the void. Seeing Hui’s eyes on it, it grinned and raised a finger to its gash of a mouth, then vanished.

The Elusive Ghost? He’s here, in the primordial Immortal Realm? How?

Focus, Hui. Now isn’t the time. He grasped ahold of the qi flowing out of him and quickly scribbled a barrier talisman on it. Over and over, reshaping the qi in his blood into barrier talismans. Stepping out of his qi for a moment, he checked the blood-tinged qi in the formation, and found hints of his barrier talismans still there. Hui grinned. Excellent.

Turning his attention back to the qi flowing out of him, he kept shaping it into barrier talismans, one after another. Hundreds, thousands of barrier talismans, absorbed into the formation and circulating freely around him.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Across the way, the Golden Immortal’s portal trembled. As if a rock had been thrown into the center of the pool, the magic rippled. With each passing ripple, the image on the other side grew clearer. Hui made out the faint shape of skyscrapers, the headlights of cars. The downside of this technique is that the more I put my qi into the formation, the more powerful the formation becomes, and the closer our worlds are bound. And if I launch my attack too early, the formation will simply self-heal. I have to wait. Wait…!

The portal to his world grew clearer and clearer. From buildings and cars and the vague shapes of streets, it became fine-grained, individual street lights, the features of buildings, the windshields of cars. The portal expanded, the four stones growing wider and wider apart. The Golden Immortal laughed, throwing his arms wide. “At last. Come to me! The world I’ve longed for!”

Hui watched the portal, checking the formation nervously. A small scrap of gold behind his head remained untouched by the red of his blood. Come on. A little more. Just a little more…!

Closer. Closer. The sounds of traffic began to filter through. Individual people stood clearly out among the streets. Some looked up, squinting at Hui and the Golden Immortal, hands raised to shade their eyes.

“Just a little more!” the Golden Immortal cried.

The world grew perfectly clear. The stones spread as wide as the disk of the primordial Immortal Realm. They tipped over, lowering toward the primordial Immortal Realm.

If those two meet, it’s almost certainly the end. Hui glanced at the formation again, then grit his teeth. I can’t wait any longer. Here we go!

Using his soul alone, he threw his hand out. “Go!”

The barrier talismans worked into his own qi and blood activated, blasting out over the entire formation. Thousands of barriers cut off tiny portions of the formation, which instantly crumbled away rather than allow the barriers to continue to exist.

The formation shattered. Gold light and red blood rained down. Hui dragged the sword out of his heart and swapped to his plant form, pressing his hand to his chest. Ow. Not the best. Chest stabbings are never pleasant.

“No! No!” The Golden Immortal jumped up, flying toward the portal. “Get back here!”

Sitting wounded on the altar, surrounded by a puddle of his own blood, Hui laughed. “Did you think I would allow that?”

Four streams of energy shot from his body, energy he’d quietly siphoned off during their attack on the Immortal Realm earlier. If it worked on the realm, it’ll work on the cornerstones. Four cornerstones, four cardinal beasts! Reverse the energy, and destroy them!

“No!” The Golden Immortal burst at Hui, raising his fist.

Hui activated Phoenix Escape, and pulled on the power of time at the same time. Not for any particular effect, but simply to throw time into chaos for a moment. The Golden Immortal froze, caught in time, and Hui burst past him, so that Hui stood closer to the portal and him, further.

The cornerstones cracked, snapping and splintering. Their energy shuddered, and the aura of permanence lessened.

“Stop!” the Golden Immortal shouted. “Stop this!”

Hui turned. He looked up at the portal.

The Golden Immortal froze, holding his breath.

Asphalt. Steel and glass buildings. People in modern clothes, holding cell phones. One of the girls gasped and pointed her phone at him.

Hui laughed. He waved his hand. The power redoubled, shooting at the cornerstones, and they shattered. The portal vanished completely. The dust of the cornerstones rained down, falling into the abyss.

“No!” The Golden Immortal rushed at Hui again, sword bared.

“So? What are you going to do now? No matter how you capture me, I’ll still find a way to break out. No matter how you kill me—”

The sword slicked through Hui’s neck. His head fell away.

A lotus blossomed on his neck. The petals opened and dropped, revealing a new head. He looked at the Golden Immortal’s back. That small, childlike back heaved. The Golden Immortal’s face twisted in anger. Hui shook his head and continued. “—I will return. You thought I was the one who was hopeless? No. It’s you who is hopeless.”

“I don’t care! I’ll turn back time. I’ll start again! You won’t know anything. This time, for sure—”

Hui sighed. He shook his head. “I—”

“No.”

Both of them whirled. The Elusive Ghost stood where the portal had been, inky eyes gazing down at them.

“This ends here.”

“What are you?” the Golden Immortal yelled, exasperated. “Why can’t I ever grasp you? How—what—”

Hui stared as well, keeping his mouth shut. Hmm, yes, thank you, Senior, for yelling that out loud. You saved me some dignity! After all, I don’t know anything about him, either!

The Elusive Ghost closed his eyes. He opened them, slowly, and a different man stood before them.

“You…?”

“Eh… huh?”