Li Xiang stretched and walked off her square. As most of the other duels drew to an end, Hui hopped down. It’ll be my turn next.

He landed beside Li Xiang as she stepped off and nodded at her. She smiled back. “Good luck, Hui!”

“Thank you, elder sister. Congratulations on your victory!”

Her brows furrowed faintly. “Do you think I was too hard on him? I didn’t mean to bruise him so badly.”

Li Xiang, please don’t say that around Su Yan. I think he’d go berserk to know you were holding back. “I think it’s fine, it’s fine. Su Yan has his pride as well.”

“Do you know him? You seemed friendly with him,” she said, tilting her head.

Hui shrugged. “I met him coincidentally in the plaza a few days back. He has a cute little sister I’ve been helping look after.”

“Ah! That cute little girl next to you? She was adorable!” Li Xiang said, nodding.

“I think she’s a third-tier cultivator, the same as us. And if she looks that young, she’s got to be a genius of some sort,” Hui evaluated. “We probably shouldn’t call her cute.”

“Eh? But she is cute. If she didn’t want to be cute, she could use a body-modification technique,” Li Xiang said.

Hui considered. “That’s true.”

“It’s also possible… that she’s naturally a very small person, and she’s our age but looks small,” Li Xiang said, narrowing her eyes after the retreating Su siblings. “I should ask her.”

Ask her how? ‘Hello, elder sister, did you know that you’re cute?’ You’re going to come off like you’re flirting with her!

Hui paused. Now that I think of it, that would be a very harmonious scene. The purehearted white lily beauty, Li Xiang, and the small, adorable cultivator Su Caiyi, chatting together under the falling plum blossoms…

In his mind’s eye, Bai Xue joined the other two. At first, she fit right in, but then she smirked and put an arm on either of the other two’s shoulder. Her smirk turned devious, and she led them away from the plum blossoms, giving Hui a knowing wink.

Hui waved away the image, enraged. Bai Xue! Don’t haunt my pure fantasies, you evil furnace!

“Eh? Hui, are you okay?” Li Xiang asked.

“My inner demon came back,” Hui grumbled. Argh, if Bai Xue actually ends up as an inner demon, I think I’ll give up, fake my death, and restart as a wandering cultivator. If she found out—and she would—I’d never hear the end of it.

“I’ll cheer you on from the stands,” Li Xiang said, hopping up into the stadium.

“Ah, this small cultivator appreciates it, but you don’t have to,” Hui said, bowing. The Starbound Peak cultivators would outright murder me, I think.

Li Xiang smiled and patted his shoulder. “No, no! Let me, let me. I’m here to cheer on my friends!”

Hui straightened up, excited. “You—you consider me a friend?”

She tipped her head, then nodded. “Mhm! Of course.”

“I… I’m honored,” Hui said, touched.

Li Xiang laughed. “Haven’t we been friends for a while? Sometimes you’re very strange, Hui!”

Hui laughed. “I’ve heard that before.”

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Ah, of course I’d rather she saw me as more than a friend—but, but! This is a start! And besides, friends are precious. I had none in my first life. I mean to treasure all the friends I can make in this life. Even if this is as far as we go, I’ll still treasure Li Xiang.

But that doesn’t mean I’m giving up!

Opposite him, a green blur descended. A young man a little older than him in scholarly, long robes stood opposite him, holding a wooden sword. Rather than an elegant, scholarly look, though, he had a very practical, plain face for a cultivator, and even the billowing scholar’s robes had been reined in and shortened to be easier to move in.

So he’s not someone who worries about aesthetics. Hmm… if he’s as practical as he looks, it’ll be difficult to draw him into my pace. This could be a difficult fight.

Oh well. Now that I have my talismans, I can fight back. Even if I can’t draw him into my pace, there’s a route to victory.

As he thought, Hui summoned a stack of each of the types of talismans from his ring. He stored each stack in a distinct place in his robes, so he could use them without searching in his ring first. At higher levels, the delay will be negligible, but at the third stage, it still requires some of my focus to choose the right talisman from the ring in the middle of battle. Better to prepare ahead of time.

He grinned at the cultivator opposite him. “Ding Bo, I presume?”

The young man nodded back at him.

“Only a wooden sword? That’s not very impressive,” he taunted, resting a hand on Gu Tian’s sword.

Ding Bo blinked at him, his expression steady. In a familiar, even tone, he stated, “Many people have told me that, before they lost.”

Ah! That wasn’t even bragging! I’m quite familiar with that tone from hanging around so many peerless experts. No wonder he modified his scholarly robes. Despite belonging to the Mysterious Heavenly Forest Sect, which seems to value plant cultivation and magical techniques, he’s a true sword cultivator.

And then there’s me, from Starbound Sect, who’s mostly represented by its sword cultivators… and who has no more than the outer sect’s sword techniques!

Though I can’t complain. It seems I have no karma with sword techniques, but plenty of karma with talismans to make up for it.

Mmm, but, fighting a Li Xiang-like cultivator… maybe this small cultivator should give up and play dead. I don’t like pain, after all, and I don’t know if I can win.

Images of the Mysterious Heavenly Forest cultivators flashed through his head. The four cultivators standing over his Master’s wolf. The cruelty in Sect Master Mu’s eye as he tried to twist the scenario to take his Master’s hand. Long before that, the triplets repeatedly caging Bai Xue, trying to force her to be their furnace against her will.

Hui tightened his grip on Gu Tian’s sword. No. Not against Mysterious Heavenly Forest Sect. I refuse to give in to these bullies. Even if I have to act dishonorably, I’ll take this man down.

And it’s easier to rend hearts that way, too! I know I can’t strike fear into their hearts from my martial prowess, so I’ll have to do the next best thing: make them view fighting with me as worthless! If they see me playing in the mud, and know they’ll only get mud on themselves if they try to come after me, won’t this small cultivator face many fewer conflicts in the future? Playing dead now is too early. Let me show them the depths of horror first.

Hui nodded to himself, pleased with his plan. Ah, Hui, you’re too clever. You’ve out-clevered yourself this time.

Ding Bo pointed his sword at Hui. “Why don’t you leave your snake to the side? I already know that trick.”

“Ah, elder brother, I appreciate the advice, but Zhubi is a valuable companion. He fights alongside me,” Hui said, bowing. Back when he was a small snake, and I was planning on faking my death in the arena, I couldn’t risk his life. Now, I’m not planning to get stabbed in any vital places. In fact, in some ways, I can think of Zhubi as fourth-stage neck armor—not that I’d deliberately risk his life, of course, but as a four-hundred-year-level spirit beast, his scales should be too hard for a third-stage cultivator to scratch.

Besides, now that he can turn into a ten-meter-long snake, I’d be a fool to leave a valuable weapon outside of combat! Even if his qi-poison has been revealed, it’s still a poison, and I have the element of surprise on his size!

“I want to have a good, clean fight. If you bring him into battle, I will view him as an opponent,” Ding Bo said woodenly.

A good, clean fight? Is this the same Mysterious Heavenly Forest Sect who kicked my Master’s wolf while he was down? Hui snorted. “Understood, understood. A good, clean fight. Zhubi, do you want to come into battle?”

Zhubi nuzzled his neck and nodded, coiling slightly tighter. Not tight enough to choke, but closer to Hui’s warmth.

Hui chuckled. In the end, he’s still a snake. He doesn’t want to leave the warmth of my neck. “See? Zhubi wants to fight, too.”

Ding Bo blinked. He nodded.

Ah, I’m getting drawn into his pace, dammit! I need it to be the other way around! Hui shook his head. Right, right, I should open with a bluff. What can I do this time? He’s seen some of my skills, so…

All around them, the last of the other fights finished. The next round of cultivators lined up, matched with their opponents. Hui jogged in place and did a few stretches, warming up. Alright! I’ve got this!

The gong rang. Hui stepped into the ring.