Night settled over the demonic sect. A low fog curled around the base of the snake skeleton, casting it in a yet more mysterious air. Shadows moved in the fog, indistinct and faint. Some flitted over the snake’s bones. Others darted in and out of the valleys.

A soft, gentle woman stepped out of the fog. She glanced around, then knocked on the lowest bone on the snake skeleton. With one last glance around, she hissed, “Xie Hao!”

The bone cave opened abruptly. Xie Hao staggered out, head lowered.

“Xie Hao?” Fa Chuyou asked, peering up at him.

Xie Hao jerked his arm out and handed her a jade slip. Confused, she took it and pressed it to her forehead.

Fa Chuyou, do not be alarmed. My true form is that of an empty shell of skin. I practice a unique death cultivation technique where I forge my entire self into a skin shell. I usually project a more ordinary ghoulish appearance. However, if we are to refine my corpse, I thought you should know my true form.

Lowering the jade slip from her forehead, Fa Chuyou stared at him, eyes wide. “I’ve never heard of a skin-based death cultivation technique before…”

Hui tensed subtly. The talisman he’d hidden in the ghoul-skin’s palm twitched.

Her eyes lit up. “A unique ghoul, a new type of undead! You… how amazing! Can I research you? Please?”

From inside the ghoul skin, Hui’s soul struggled. He exerted all the strength in his cultivation base and managed to shake the ghoul skin’s head. Puppeteering my ghoul skin as a soul is harder than I thought. At least I can manipulate it, because I can manipulate it with death qi. After all, my soul can’t interact with ordinary things. This far from my body, I can only rely on my death qi.

He lifted his hand and offered her another jade slip.

It’s difficult to control my deadly urges in this form. I’ll restrain my cultivation now. From here on out, I’m counting on you.

Fa Chuyou nodded eagerly. “Of course, of course!”

Exhausted, Hui slowed the circulation of his death qi. His ghoul skin collapsed into Fa Chuyou’s hands.

“You’ve made the right choice. I’ll take good care of you!” She patted his ghoul skin lovingly, pressing her cheek against it.

Hovering overhead, Hui twisted his lips. I have no other option… for now. Once I watch her cultivate my ghoul skin, I can copy her techniques and refine my ghoul skin myself!

If she does anything funny, I won’t hesitate. I’ll kill her immediately.

I don’t like killing, but to defend myself, I have no option. Without the ghoul skin, I’m dead. The demonic sect won’t hesitate to kill a small righteous cultivator like me.

Ah, but… I really don’t want to kill. Especially someone like Fa Chuyou, who’s done me no wrong. I’d feel awful about it.

Only if she does something aggressive. Only then! Until then, I’ll trust her.

Tucking the ghoul skin into a bag of holding, Fa Chuyou darted away from the vertebra. In two steps, she’d nearly vanished into the fog. Hui chased after her, afraid that if he lost her, he’d never find her again. A few times, other shadows flashed past, but they never paused to examine Fa Chuyou, and she never paused to examine them.

The Fa Chuyou who dashed through the fog looked nothing like the Fa Chuyou Hui had spoken with at day. Narrowed eyes threatened murder at all who passed too close. An expressionless, cold face gazed blankly at the fog ahead. Even the dullness in her expression vanished, replaced by an intense, scholarly aura.

Hui swallowed. I hope I made the correct choice.

Before long, she stood at the mouth of the Corpse Refinement Valley. Her eyes flickered as she stared down into it, seeming to calculate something. At last, she nodded to herself and jumped in.

Following her, Hui had no choice but to jump in as well.

The second his soul passed through the opening of the valley, a shiver passed over Hui. Not a shiver from physical cold, but something deeper, more ancient. Hui ran his hands over his arms, certain that even if he possessed his body right now, his soul would have felt the same coldness.

It emanated from the narrow stream running through the bottom of the valley. Nothing stood out about the water. Although a little dark, this close, it lost its black hue and appeared more ordinary, simply a stream of dark water. It rushed along, seemingly ordinary except for the multitude of ghouls crouched by its edge.

Fa Chuyou walked along, murmuring to herself, her face occasionally twitching from excited to disappointed, confused to enlightened. Ghouls drew back where she passed respectfully, almost afraid to get too close. Used to it, Fa Chuyou paid them no mind.

Hui, drifting behind her, reached out to one of the passing ghouls. Its death qi quivered inside it at the sensation of his soul. He paused a moment, then glanced at Fa Chuyou. She can’t sense me, and she’s busy right now. I might as well gather a little death qi.

Closing his eyes, he pulled at the death qi inside the ghoul.

The ghoul let out a surprised shriek and quivered as its death qi fled its body. It wavered in place, eyes rolled back, mouth hung open. A second before Hui stole all its death qi, he cut off his stream. I don’t want to be too obvious. I’ll leave enough death qi to leave them standing.

The breath of death qi he’d gathered joined the rest in his second dantian. It barely added to the small amount he’d collected. Still, progress is progress.

Hui glanced around the valley, at all the other ghouls standing blankly around its interior. His eyes lit up. If I harvested all of them for death qi, I wonder how much I could gain?

As Fa Chuyou walked along, a strange phenomenon happened behind her. Each ghoul she passed suddenly stiffened, quaking as though caught in a nightmare. When it finally stilled once more, sometimes stumbling back, sometimes shaking its head, it no longer possessed the same strength it had. Some sported whitened hair or withered skin, while others exuded an aura of rot, suddenly no longer able to maintain their bodies’ stasis.

Floating along invisibly, Hui hummed to himself, pleased with his progress. The tiny amount of qi he took from each ghoul barely made a drop in the bucket, but many ghouls stood in the valley. Slowly, his dantian filled, growing through the stages of Qi Gathering and toward the second stage. Soon, I’ll be able to release power much closer to my true cultivation base. Then none of the Qi Gathering disciples on the ground level will dare to threaten me! It might not be my happy, easy life back in Starbound Sect, but this small cultivator will be in much less danger!

From outside the valley, the coffins that lined its floor looked to lay no more than a dozen paces inside, and clustered closely around one another. Inside the valley, it was a different story. It took Fa Chuyou the space of an incense stick burning to reach the first coffin. The next one stood easily a thousand meters away, well out of her reach. Obviously familiar with the area, Fa Chuyou cast not a single glance at the coffin, but marched on by.

Mysterious, mysterious. Cautiously, Hui drew close to the first coffin.

A black fluid bubbled slowly within. Thick like tar, it gave no hint as to what rested in its depths. An intense aura of death radiated from the coffin, thicker than any of the death qi Hui had sampled so far. Tempted, he drifted closer.

Something stirred under the surface of the tar, distorting its surface. A pale white hand reached out, grasping for Hui!

Startled, Hui jerked back. The bloodless hand passed a hair’s breadth from his skin, emanating an intense cold. Even just brushing past inflicted a deep cold into Hui’s soul. He scurried away, knowing instinctively that not only could that hand grasp his soul, but also, that hand could devour him!

The hand grasped once more. Seemingly disappointed to catch nothing, it sunk back under the tar.

Shivering, Hui darted closer to Fa Chuyou. The cold ached into him, not dissipating in the least. He stared at the coffin with fear and respect. Fiercely, he shook his head, then bowed to the coffin. This small cultivator has learned his lesson. Apologies for disturbing senior! I won’t make that same mistake again!