The triplets charged at him from the left and the right. Hui glanced at them. “Xue, defend me.”

Xue jumped up and lunged at the nearer triplet. The second one danced back. The first’s sword met Xue’s claws. The second gestured, and a blast of fire burst through the air. Xue narrowly ducked it and diverted, charging toward the second triplet.

As I thought, they’re disregarding me. Whether they’ve noticed me giving orders to Xue or not, they’ve decided I’m less of a threat than him. Good.

Hui pressed a hand to his chin, taking a few moments to think. I have limited authority over this realm. What kind of things can I do?

A triplet vaulted over the altar and crouched next to him. Hui startled and almost ran, but the triplet ignored him, slapping the altar instead. He turned his head and poked at it, then leaned down and pressed his ear against it, listening for something. His brows furrowed, and he stood again, giving the altar a kick.

His eyes turned to Hui, and he scowled.

“Eh, stupid ghoul. Stop touching the treasure,” the triplet muttered, waving him away.

Ah, it’s the third one. I’m safe. Hui turned back to the altar. “Altar, can you make it day?”

Changing realm’s time to daylight hours, the female voice responded.

“Huh? You can talk?” the triplet asked, tilting his head. He reached out and turned Hui’s face toward him.

Hui yanked his chin out of the triplet’s hand. “Xue! Break the ceiling!”

In the middle of a swordfight, Xue stopped. The triplet’s sword cut through his side, but he didn’t react. He knelt, then leapt with all his might. Trapped in his flesh, the triplet’s sword went with him. Up in the depths of the darkness, Xue bounded off the walls once, twice, then drew back a claw and punched.

The ceiling shattered. Shards of flint rained down on them, sharp as knives. From high above, the thin, pale light that passed as day streamed down on them.

“Wait… are you him? The other intruder?” the third triplet guessed, frowning at Hui.

Hui continued to ignore him. He stared upward, watching Xue. It sets in at midnight. It must be dispelled by daylight, right?

Xue stared up, almost startled by the light. Dangling from the edge of the broken ceiling, he raised his free hand and stared at it. Black claws receded. Gray flesh turned rosy once more. He yanked the sword out of his gut, and it fell through the air, trailing ghoul-Xue’s thick, dark blood after it.

As he turned human, another transformation took place. His body grew slighter, smaller. His black robes turned to white. The blackened flesh along his side turned red and tender, an offset to his rapidly-softening skin. His long hair grew longer, and his skirts grew fuller.

Yin-form Xue smiled down at the triplets. She released the ledge and hurtled from the heavens, drawing her fans as she fell. Her pure-white hair and pure-white robes streamed behind her, trailing like a comet’s tail. “Ancient Glacier Strike!”

Three massive mounds of ice appeared around her. With a slash of her fans, she sent the glaciers hurtling at the triplets.

Staring up at the huge lump of ice, Hui swallowed. Elder sister… don’t forget about little me, okay?

He turned and bolted, leaving the third triplet behind. The third triplet ran in the opposite direction. Midair, the ice turned and gave chase, shooting after the triplet. He hit the wall, then turned and raised his sword.

The blocks of ice slammed into him and his brothers in one great thump!, pinning the three of them in place.

“Chill Frost Formation.” As she fell, Xue crossed her fans in front of her, then snapped them closed. The three blocks of ice grew stronger, larger. Their foundations froze into the floor below, and frost spread from their feet, freezing anything it touched. The frost spread rapidly over the floor, sealing off the entire area.

Hui ran back the other way, fleeing the frost. He reached the altar and leapt onto it, huddling on its narrow flint expanse. Frost encroached the base of the altar, slowly climbing up it. Freezing air crept ahead of it. Even through the ghoul’s skin, Hui felt the bite of the cold. He shivered, retracting into as small a ball as he could.

“Venerable Bai Xue, please, this small cultivator requests your mercy!”

Xue blinked. Her eyes grew wide, and she snapped her fans wide again. The frost stopped.

A second later, Xue extended her tiptoes and delicately landed on the floor. She tapped over to Hui, staccato steps surefooted despite the frost. “Is this the artifact?”

“Mmm. It’s broken.”

“Broken?” Xue asked, frowning.

“More accurately… it never worked. It’s the source of the undead in this realm, but it won’t revive anyone. It’s also the control node for this realm, though, so it’s not entirely useless,” Hui explained.

Xue frowned. “That’s no good.”

Hui glanced at Xue. “If you don’t mind me asking… why did you want it?”

Xue twisted her lips. “I wanted to dispel the curse on me. My clan has tried everything, poured so many resources into it… nothing worked. I thought maybe, if this realm’s artifact truly works, maybe I could kill myself and revive myself to escape the curse.”

“Whoa,” Hui muttered. That’s pretty extreme.

“If the altar doesn’t work, though, that’s useless. I don’t want to become an undead. Honestly, that’s exactly what I’m trying to avoid.” She sighed and shook her head.

“I guess it explains why no big-shot has ever tried to break in and get the artifact,” Hui muttered, slapping the altar. There’s easier ways to make undead, I’m sure.

Though on the other hand, if I can comprehend the secret and figure out how to fix the altar…

What am I thinking? A genius from ancient times couldn’t complete this altar. How could a small cultivator like me finish his work?

Razor sharp steel fans appeared at his neck. Hui swallowed and put his hands up slowly.

"If you're lying..." Xue warned.

"We've already agreed, elder sister, the artifact goes to you, this little cultivator wants to live a long, peaceful life, okay? I don't want the artifact, I'm more than happy to give it to elder sister, please don't blame me because it doesn't work!" Hui babbled, eyes on the blade's edge.

"Mmm, understood," Xue allowed. She lowered her fans.

Hui wiped the sweat from his brow. Even when I don't court death, death lurks in every turn!

Xue fished a pill out of her sleeve and swallowed it, then stretched. She cast a side-eyed glance at Hui. “What did you do while I was unconscious?”

“H-huh?” Hui asked.

She frowned at him. “I wake up all achy and torn up, I feel horrible, my hair is an absolute mess, half my body is on fire… what did you do to me?”

“Please don’t phrase it like that, Xue, people might get the wrong idea,” Hui replied hurriedly.

“Hmm? Are you ashamed of what you did?” Xue asked, her eyes sparkling.

“Not at all, elder sister. But without context, other people might think…”

“Then what did you do?” she asked, tilting her head.

Is it safe to admit that I used her ghoul-self like an attack dog? Hui wondered. He looked at her eyes and shifted toward the rear of the altar. Er… maybe if I let her pet my hair?

She leaned in. “Why are you so reluctant? Did you do something naughty with my yang-self?”

“Xue, your phrasing…” Hui muttered.

“C’mon, tell me!”

He breathed out. “I, er… I worked together with the ghoul and we, we fought together! That’s it.”

“That’s all?” Xue asked.

“That’s all! Really,” Hui said.

She narrowed her eyes. “Why wouldn’t you tell me, if that was all?”

“No reason,” Hui replied, shrugging.

She stared at him another beat, then stood. “You look disgusting.”

Huh? Oh, right—the ghoul skin. Hui mentally released the spells on the skin and began to take it off.

Xue leaned against the altar, watching him strip out of the ghoul’s skin. “You’d get no patrons in the entertainment district.”

“I don’t want any entertainment district patrons,” Hui muttered, kicking out of the skin. He tied it around his chest again.

The death qi… I can’t generate it, but it’s too dangerous to keep circulating it. If I pass out with that inside me, I’ll probably die.

He drew the death qi out of himself and balled it in his fist. Black smoke coiled gently in his palm, hovering over his skin. It’s such a waste. Where am I going to find more?

Wait. The altar had the laws of life and death in it. This whole place is built out of flint, even the altar, and didn’t the voice say this entire realm was a spell array? Maybe I can store this qi in flint. Or if not any flint, then at least this flint. He knelt and picked up a piece of flint from the shattered ceiling in his free hand. Slowly, he fed the qi from his other hand into the piece of flint.

Sparks burst to life deep in the heart of the flint. Fragments of the laws of life and death burst before Hui’s eyes, living and dying with the sparks. Too complex for him to understand, he could nonetheless recognize their shape, the feeling of them. The death qi coiled inside the flint, surrounded by the laws of life and death. The laws fought it, then stilled it. Suspended amidst the laws, the smoke laid still in the heart of the flint, waiting.

His eyes widened. This—this is what I needed! I can use this as an anchor for the ghoul skin!

Hui raised the flint high and smashed it on the ground. Tiny pieces of flint broke off, each one embedded with a scrap of death qi and the laws of life and death.

“What are you doing?” Xue asked. She perched on the edge of the altar and yawned, a hand over her mouth. The pink mark from the burn paled, healing over.

“I think I can finish the ghoul-skin!” Hui replied, excited. He untied the skin and laid it out on the ground. Taking the flakes of flint, he pressed one into the ghoul’s forehead, one into the back of each of its hands, and one into the tops of each of its feet. Placing his hand on the ghoul’s chest, he cast the spells from Xixing’s pig mask again. This time, however, he anchored the spell on the flakes of flint.

The ghoul’s skin absorbed his qi. The death qi embedded in it tried to neutralize his qi, eating away at it. The flint resisted its efforts, providing a firm place for the spell to hold onto. Hui focused on the flakes, feeding the spell into them. With his qi, he connected them together one at a time. The flakes lit up, responding to his qi.

The spells came together, building into the climax. His head burned with the pressure of maintaining the spell, but still he pushed, drawing more and more mental energy. Qi bled from his dantian, almost too much for him to maintain. The spell shuddered. The anchors vibrated, unstable.

There’s something missing! Wait—there! He drew a final flake and drove it into the center of the ghoul-skin’s chest. The whole skin flickered with energy, twitching, almost alive, then laid quiet again.

Did it work?

Hui pressed his hand on the ghoul’s skin. He closed his eyes and felt the skin’s qi. At first, there was nothing. The same death qi as ever.

A spark. A flicker of spells. The flints sparked to life, and the spell jolted awake.

Hui smiled. He released his hand before the skin climbed over him and stood. Triumphantly, he tied the skin around him. “I did it!”

“Congrats!” Xue replied. She patted him on the head happily, then glanced up. “So… how are we getting out of here?”

Hui licked his lips. “Er.”

“I’d rather not spend the rest of the month trapped in here while a bunch of incompetents try to make me their furnace,” Xue complained. She cast a glare at the frozen triplets, still encased in ice in the corners of the room.

“I’ll… I’ll ask the altar,” Hui offered.

“I’ll turn into my yang form and make them my furnaces,” she grumbled to herself, not listening to Hui. With a flick of her fingers, she summoned a scrap of ice and tossed it at one of the triplets. The scrap bounced off the frozen pillar, triplet unable to react, face frozen in a rictus of horror beneath.

A chill struck through Hui’s heart. I’m pretty sure that’s not how furnaces work, but er, let’s not find out! He touched the altar and reached out to the secret realm. “Altar, can we leave the realm?”

Bored, Xue hopped up onto the altar beside him.

The next opening is scheduled for twenty-seven days and five hours from now.

“But… can you open the realm early?”

There was a pause. Deep in the castle, stone ground on stone, a low rumbling reminiscent of a computer’s fans rushing to life.

Accelerating timeline. Opening the realm. Please proceed to exit point.

“It opened! We can get out!” Hui replied, excited.

He turned toward Xue and found her perching over him, a broad smile on her face. She reached out and caught him into a hug by his shoulders, locking her legs around the left side of his waist.

Unwilling, Hui struggled. Her arms felt like steel, unrelenting.

“Good job, good job,” Xue praised him. She petted his hair happily, leaning her cheek against the top of his head. “So soft…”

“Xue, let me go!” Hui complained, fighting. “Stop petting my hair!”

“Mmm, you don't want a beautiful woman to pet your hair?” she asked, shaking her head at him.

“Bai Xue…” Hui whined, turning a pitiful expression at her.

To conserve energy between openings, realm will collapse in one minute.

“Wait, what?” Hui asked, so startled he forgot to fight Xue.

“Huh?” Xue replied, grip loosening.

“The realm’s going to collapse! We’ve got to get out of here!” Hui said.

“Shit!” Xue let go of Hui and jumped up. She glanced left and right, then looked up at the gray sky, so far above. “Take my hand!”

Hui grabbed ahold of Xue. She clasped his hand back and drew him to her chest, holding him in a very heroic pose. Hui grabbed onto her waist, feeling faintly that something was wrong. Hold up, aren’t I supposed to strike the magnificent pose while the ladies clasp onto my waist?

Xue knelt, then leaped. She soared through the air and struck the wall, jumped again, whipped around and jumped off another wall, and bounded up to the hole she’d knocked in the ceiling as a ghoul. Sharp edges rushed at Hui. He closed his eyes and clenched tighter to Xue. The flint scraped by, a hair's breadth from his flesh, and then they were free, soaring through the empty sky.

“Where’s the exit?” Xue asked, scanning the horizon. They arced back down and landed on the castle roof. Xue caught both their weight on her tiptoes, elegantly dancing along the edge of the roof in her odd, shuffling way.

Hui squinted out from beside her, peering around the skies. A tremor in the clouds above them caught his eye. He pointed. “There!”

Xue swept her fan. A spiraling slope of ice materialized before them. She climbed up it, carrying Hui under an arm.

“Let me down, I can walk,” Hui insisted, struggling.

“No, you can’t. It’s slick ice,” Xue replied. She scruffed his head with her free hand. “Stay quiet, or I’ll pet your head again.”

At that, Hui lapsed into reluctant silence. Dammit, it’s bad enough riding on Master’s sword, but now I get carried by Xue, too? I can’t wait until I advance realms and I can walk around myself like a real cultivator.

Behind them, something shattered. Xue and Hui both glanced back.

“Ah, they broke the ice,” Xue commented.

“Hurry! We can’t waste time fighting them now!” Hui replied.

Other cultivators appeared around them, ascending to the wavering crack in the sky through their own methods. Some flew on shuttles or other magical vehicles, a few operated magical techniques to walk on air or fly, others summoned spirit beasts to carry them, and one sprouted her own wings and flew to the shimmering gap. The gap grew wider, becoming a black maw into the void, the same as it had been when Hui had entered.

“Get back here!”

“You’re our furnace!”

“Snow bunny!” the final triplet shouted, delighted.

The first one reached the ice slide and ran up it. He managed to get ten feet up the ice before he slid back down, his boots sliding comically over the ice as he ran in place.

“Hmph. As if that ruffian could climb my ice pillar,” Xue said, looking down on him. She snapped her fingers.

Ice climbed up the triplet’s ankles to his knees, binding him to the slide. Frozen abruptly in place, he swayed forward, backward, then lost his balance and toppled onto his back.

The third triplet pointed and laughed. The second rushed to the first’s assistance, only to begin sliding over the ice the same as the first.

“I wonder if they had the same intention as me,” Xue murmured, looking down at the trio.

“How do you mean?” Hui asked, looking up at her.

“I don’t know if it’s a curse or a qi deviation, but they used to be one. You can see it in their qi—everyone has a unique qi flow, even twins and triplets, but these three—their qi flow is identical. I wonder if they, too, despaired of ever finding a solution,” she replied.

“Huh,” Hui said. So it’s not a cultivation technique for triplets. Well, that would be pretty odd, wouldn’t it?

They reached the gap. A few of the green-robed cultivators turned to them, but Xue ignored them and dashed for the void. She tightened her grip on Hui. “Hold on.”

Ugh, this wasn’t pleasant the first time— Hui tensed, grabbing Xue’s robes in return.

The black void loomed. It filled his vision. The void chewed at the sky around it, wearing the world thin at its edges.

“Yin-Prison!”