With a friendly wave, Gu Tian left Hui alone on the vertebra. Immediately, Hui felt a hundred predatory gazes land on his shoulders. He glanced left and right, then darted into the immortal’s cave carved into the side of the bone.

The cave only extended about ten meters, the length of the bone. Barren, it sported no decoration or additions. In a few places, mysterious stains marked the walls and floor, and in one place, a deep rift cut into the ceiling. Taking it all in, Hui shivered. This is a demonic sect!

Zhubi wriggled out from where he’d hidden in Hui’s robes and crawled to the floor. He slithered around, tongue flickering, deeply interested in the room.

“Is this some kind of great ancestor of yours, Zhubi?” Hui asked playfully. He stretched, then changed his ghoul-skin’s ragged robes for the black robes he’d been given. Adjusting them tightly to his frame, he settled down, back against a bone wall.

Extending his qi and mental energy, he examined the room more deeply. After a second, he blinked. I can’t sense anything outside of this bone. Is it the same from outside? Curious, he bolted outside and extended his energy again, this time into the cave.

His probe extended only to the surface of the bone. When the qi touched the bone, it slipped off like oil off water. The same with his mental energy.

Hui drew out a strand of death qi and pointed it toward the bone. The death qi drilled into the bone. A white mist lifted off the bone.

After a second, Hui’s eyes widened. He yanked his death qi back and stored it back in his second dantian. It’s eating my death qi! Dangerous, too dangerous! If I want to push through it, I can, but only at the price of my precious death qi! This small cultivator needs to gain death qi, not lose it!

Hui nodded to himself. This vertebra is invaluable to me. I absolutely cannot lose it. No matter who challenges me, I must stand strong. After all, inside, I can cultivate my qi and life qi with no one any the wiser, without having to worry about masking it with what little death qi I have. I’ll have to lift my original dantian to fourth tier alongside my death dantian to escape, because, after all, I want to avoid falling out of my body and pissing off Zhu Diyu. With this bone, I can do just that. If I lose this vertebra, however, I’ll be in the outer sect. I won’t be able to hide out there.

He turned and looked up the snake’s bones. From the tail bone where he stood, they spiraled up into the sky, immeasurably high above him. He clenched his fist. And if I want to reach fourth stage, I need more qi. In other words, I must climb the coils!

But first, I need to find more death qi. I’m right where I started.

Except now I’m in a demonic sect. Surely they have death qi somewhere. That, or techniques for cultivating death qi. He looked nervously at the place where the bone met the stone, then took a deep breath. Time to go outside.

“Zhubi, come here,” Hui said, jogging to the cave mouth and holding out his hand. The snake slithered up his arm, but this time Hui stopped him before he settled around his neck. “Stay in my robes. There’s some people here that might recognize you.”

Zhubi nodded, settling around his arm instead.

Grasping his sword, making sure his talismans were readily to hand, Hui stepped out into the sect.

Only a few cultivators lounged around by the snake’s tail bones. One or two cast dark looks his way, but simply watched, hesitant to attack. Hui glanced back at them, committing their faces to memory. They aren’t attacking? Isn’t this a bloodthirsty demonic sect?

Wait, but like Xixing said—no one wants to fight a death cultivator unless they’re a whole realm higher. Even though I look as weak as, even weaker than, some of these fellow disciples, they’re probably waiting to see if I live up to the rumors.

He walked along, taking in the sect. More buildings than he’d thought stood out of the dark stone, dozens and dozens of them. Everything from personal caves to shops to sect buildings, all carved from the stone. Some dipped into the earth, while others stood atop it, built from slabs of cut stone. Hands tucked behind his back, mouth shut, a glare firmly on his face, Hui stomped along.

A familiar aura caught his attention, cold, archaic, rotten. He turned toward it, then smiled. Death qi! Just what I’m looking for!

Wait, glare, glare. Collecting himself, he turned his smile upside down. A determined stare on his face, he stomped toward the death qi.

Cultivators stood in the distance, all lined up in a neat square. They swayed slightly in place, but otherwise stood motionless, not fighting or practicing, just standing.

Eh? That’s odd. Unless… Hui narrowed his eyes.

Gray skin. Puckered scars. Dull eyes, dry hair, ragged robes. Some wore limp talismans over their faces.

They’re all undead? He furrowed his brows. Then, the source of the death qi is…?

He took a breath, drawing in the surrounding qi. Less qi existed down here, off the snake skeleton, but some still drifted on the air. A faint tinge of death qi swirled in alongside the usual qi. Hui separated it and guided it to his second dantian, slowly but steadily building his cultivation back up.

The closer he drew to the undead, the thicker the death qi became. Hui hurried his steps, excited. Is this a holy land for undead? Is that why they’ve all gathered here?

A light flashed down from the sky, and black robes fluttered as a woman threw her arms out. “How many times do I have to tell you? This is Master Jing’s corpse refinement field! If you want to cultivate here, ask h—”

She blinked. Hui blinked back.

“Eh. Sorry. I thought you were someone else.”

Hui nodded, smiling. “My apologies, Elder Sister. I’m new to the sect. I had no idea an expert already owned this area.”

The woman looked him up and down, and he returned the favor, though slightly more subtly. She had a soft body and a full figure, with creamy pale skin so delicate, it seemed as if dew would come out if he touched it. Long eyelashes fluttered, and full lips pursed. She reached to her neck and slightly adjusted her robes, loosening them a bit. “How intelligent. A death cultivator like yourself is a rare thing indeed.”

“Eh,” Hui said, taken aback.

She smiled and grabbed his hand, pulling it close. “Oh! This flint, is it how you stabilized your body after death? How interesting, I’ve never seen it done before. Is that why you’re so intelligent?” Reaching up, she touched the flint embedded in the forehead of Hui’s ghoul skin. The stone pushed against his skin inside the ghoul skin, slightly cold.

He flinched back. “Elder sister?”

“Ah! I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I just love undead, you know? There’s so many of them. So many types. Did you know, among ghouls, there’s nearly two hundred types? I believe one day, ghoul cultivation will overcome pill cultivation! The two aren’t that diverged, in the first place. You refine a corpse in a coffin, but aside from that—”

“Elder sister!” Hui protested, taking a step away.

She clasped her hands over her mouth. “I’m sorry! I just get so excited when I meet a new ghoul… er, death cultivator. Fellow Daoist, could I examine you, please?”

Absolutely not! If you find out I’m actually a live human, I’m toast! He shook his head woodenly.

“O-oh.” She stared at her feet, crestfallen. A second later, she perked up. “Ah! It’s because we’re strangers, right?”

“Eh?” Hui said, startled by the mood whiplash.

She nodded. “That must be it. I’m Fa Chuyou. Would… would you like to take a stroll around? I know a lot about the sect and the lands around it.”

“I’m… Xie Hao.” Hui considered her proposal for a moment, then nodded. “Please, Elder Sister, lead the way.”

I don’t know anything about the sect. A guide is indispensable! She might even know where is best to cultivate death qi. I refuse to believe that a demonic sect has no repository of death qi!

Fa Chuyou beamed. She opened her mouth when suddenly, a stormy look fell over her face again. “You! What did I tell you?”

Hui turned, curious.

Another ghoul shambled toward the platoon of ghouls, their steps shaky and uneven. They turned their face to Hui and Fa Chuyou, and Hui gasped. Though somewhat melted, and worn by death and the elements, he couldn’t possibly forget the face that had forced him to play dead for the first time ever, the face that had led to his awakening to qi.

“Chang Bolin?” Hui breathed.