Hui froze in midair. His dantian shuddered, trembling in fear. “E…elder sister?”

“Following me all the way here… you’re a suspicious one, aren’t you?”

“Sus…suspicious?” Hui stuttered. No, no. She means I’m being suspicious of her, not that she’s suspicious of me. Probably.

She advanced toward him, shaking her finger at him. “Did you think I wouldn’t notice? The ghouls, the death qi following me… it’s all quite obvious to a superior corpse refiner. I think most demonic cultivators wouldn’t be able to sense you, but… you’ve chosen the one person who can sense you the most easily of all.”

“Ah… aha,” Hui said, backing away. His back hit the invisible wall.

Fa Chuyou nodded, her eyes narrowed. “It explains so much! Your intelligence, your strange true form. Ah, isn’t it true? This Xie Hao is actually…”

“Actually…?” Hui said, dreading the next word. I thought no one could sense me—I was too arrogant! This small cultivator has made a huge misstep! Ah, and I have no talismans, and I’m so weak right now… so many mistakes! I shouldn’t have bribed the reaper, I should’ve listened to my elders and stayed in my body!

“Actually… a ghost inhabiting a ghoul! Fantastic, fantastic! I’ve never seen it accomplished before! Many people have attempted ghoul-ghost fusion, but both ghouls and ghosts require a powerful desire to return to life! When the two wills clash, the fusion fails, and they always clash! But you, Xie Hao… you’ve succeeded. This is a breakthrough, a fantastic breakthrough! Ahhh, I want to study you so much!” Fa Chuyou reached out to hug Hui, realized she couldn’t, and hugged herself instead.

“Ah… th, that’s right,” Hui mumbled, managing a smile. Thank goodness! If she didn’t come up with an excuse, this small cultivator would have been dead!

“Mmm, it’s dangerous for a lone ghost to float around this area. The Yellow Springs River is particularly dangerous for your kind. Come, I’ve almost finished the refining process. It isn’t nearly as strong as it could be, but it should be stronger than it was.”

Another pang of pain bit into Hui’s chest. He dug his fingers into his robes, but forced himself not to grimace, putting a smile on his face instead. “Thank you, Elder sister. I appreciate it greatly.”

She nodded. She gestured, and the ghoul skin flew out of the fluid. The second the fluid streamed off it, it dried, as if it had never been submerged. Its grayish skin had paled, drawing toward white. The flint stood out stronger against the paler skin, almost like ornaments. The one in the skin’s forehead glistened particularly brightly, as if the corpse refining fluid had transformed it into a gemstone.

Fa Chuyou beamed, proud of her work. “Go ahead, try it out!”

“Then, I won’t hold back.” Hui swept down toward the ghoul skin.

A second before he entered the skin, he hesitated. He looked over at Fa Chuyou. “Elder Sister… this small cultivator has a question that only you can answer.”

“Go on,” she said, smiling.

“In this form… what do I look like to you?”

After all, this is my soul. I ought to look like Xiao Hui. It’ll be no surprise if she isn’t startled by that—Xiao Hui isn’t well known, and she’s decided I’m a ghost-ghoul fusion, in which case my ghost shouldn’t look like my ghoul.

But Zhu Diyu seemed to find my soul-form remarkable. If Fa Chuyou can see it too, isn’t this an excellent chance to see what it was about my soul that he thought was interesting? Is it possible that—

“A black smudge,” Fa Chuyou said immediately, breaking into his speculations.

“Eh,” Hui said.

“Though I should properly explain myself… I can’t so much see you, as sense your death qi. So to explain fully, I can’t see you at all, but merely sense your death aura. If you fully suppressed your death aura, I would be unable to sense you at all. In fact, I’m quite impressed! Few ghosts cultivate such a high level of concealment. It’s as if you’re on a separate plane, almost.”

“Ah,” Hui sighed. No, no. It was to be expected. If Fa Chuyou could see me easily, after all, I couldn’t possibly escape the sights of higher-level cultivators like Erlan or Yunxu…

Yunxu! Erlan called him “Your Excellence.” Then, this must be… Yunxu’s sect! He gazed upward, out of the valley, at the snake skeleton coiling so far above them. With the fog, he couldn’t make out the skull, but he already knew who stood atop it!

Hmm… that explains why he was called “Your Excellence.” The Sect Leader of a demonic cult took interest in me! How incredible.

Though, I suppose, not that incredible, when the King of Hell himself has also taken an interest in me…

Ah! This small Hui is just too interesting!

Shaking his head, Hui darted into the ghoul skin. Oddly, it was easier to control in his soul-form than before. The flints reached out to one another through the skin, creating a network for his death qi to flow through. Although the skin still moved jerkily, like a puppet, it didn’t take all his effort to simply lift a hand or stand before Fa Chuyou.

“Beautiful,” Fa Chuyou breathed. She lifted a hand and touched his face, entranced.

I feel like the vampire from a vampire romance, except—except this small cultivator isn’t into necrophilia! Hui took a step back and laughed lightly, covering up his unease. “Ah, Elder Sister, could you please allow this small ghoul out of your sealing array?”

“Of course, of course!” Fa Chuyou closed her eyes. Her hand flickered into a few hand signs. She placed her palm on the ghoul skin’s chest. For a second, a black mark appeared there, dimly glowing, but quickly faded away. “There. You can enter and exit any of my ghoul-sealing arrays whenever you like, now!”

Er… Elder Sister, why do I feel like… you have an ulterior motivation here?

“Any time… you like…” she repeated. Her breathing got a little ragged, and she smiled at Hui, a strange light in her eyes.

Bowing deeply, Hui retreated. “Thank you, Elder Sister! This small cultivator will never forget your kindness! Ah, look at the time, I have to—” Pain stabbed into his chest, stronger than all the pangs before combined. Hui grabbed at ghoul-skin’s chest, desperately repressing the pain. “—have to, er, to go!”

“Are you okay? It shouldn’t hurt. No… a ghoul shouldn’t be able to feel pain. Is it because of the ghoul-ghost fusion?” Fu Chuyou put a hand on her chin, thoughtful.

Before she could ask any more questions, Hui zoomed off, running at top speed. With his cultivation repressed and only death qi, he ran more slowly than usual. His chest panged again, and Hui sped up, pushing his speed to its absolute limit. Is it the reaper? Has my body started to die? What’s happening?

The sun began to rise, breaking the fog apart. As Hui approached the snake skeleton, a crowd became visible, all standing around his 108th vertebra.

“Come out and fight!” a tall man shouted, easily over three meters tall. He stood at the front of the crowd, looming over the other cultivators. His limbs stretched uncomfortably, bone twisted and lengthened through some unnatural process. He lifted a massive hammer, the haft of the hammer as tall as Hui, the head as large as Hui’s head, and slammed it into the ground.

The pain smashed into Hui’s chest again. He grit his teeth. Dammit, you bloodthirsty demonic cultivators! Don’t you know the meaning of patience?

“Coward! Quaking in your cave. I bet you’re too afraid to come out and fight me!” the man roared.

“I’ve said it once, I’ll say it again. Get creative with your insults!” Hui muttered under his breath.

He reached the back of the crowd. Tapping the cultivators in the crowd, Hui worked his way through the crowd toward the front. The cultivators parted hesitantly, then stared after his back.

“Wait, isn’t that…”

“Don’t tell me, he wasn’t home the whole time?”

“No way! Ah, this is hilarious! When he finds out, Dai Dagao will have no face left at all!”

The tall man lifted his hammer again. “Xie Hao! This vertebra is mine!”

“Excuse me, sir, please?” Hui asked, tapping the man’s hip.

He turned. “Huh?”

Using the flexibility of the empty skin to his advantage, Hui slipped past Dai Dagao and into his cave.

The crowd fell silent. Dai Dagao stared, his eyes wide.

A breath passed. Another.

Dai Dagao howled at the heavens, loud enough to make the air tremble. “YOU!”

Internally, Dai Dagao floundered. I used a secret technique to check the cave. Although the cave blocks ordinary fluctuations, I was able to confirm that someone was inside with my secret bone resonance hammer technique! How… how is he not inside? Is it someone else in there? If so… why didn’t they come out?

Inside the cave, Hui abandoned the skin and dove back into his body. Quickly, he checked his qi passages, dantian, and flesh, and when he confirmed everything was in its proper place, he pulled the skin back on. There’s some bruising around my heart. It seems the vibrations of the hammer can cause internal injuries. Dai Dagao, how dare you attack this small cultivator while I was away! How cowardly!

He circulated his life qi, expending some of the precious gold energy to heal the bruising, then stepped out. Looking up at Dai Dagao, he offered a polite bow. “Junior greets Senior.”

“If that’s how you see it, then give me your cave!” Dai Dagao roared. He lifted his hammer, unhesitating. The instant he saw Hui, the urge to smash him into red paste roared in his heart.

Casually, Hui drew a talisman and pointed it at Dai Dagao.

A massive fire tabby at the third stage rushed out of the talisman. Hui held back its power. It roared past Dai Dagao, instantly incinerating his robes to dust. The haft of his hammer burned to cinders, and the head began to melt. Red hot and soft, the hammer’s head slammed into the ground by Dai Dagao’s feet.

Dai Dagao stared, wide-eyed.

Hui whistled. The tabby turned and rushed back to his side, standing behind him. Its flames cast strange shadows, twisting Hui’s ghoul skin’s features into something truly hideous. The tabby snarled at the assembled cultivators, its teeth white-hot.

“Excuse me, elder brothers and sisters. I must apologize, but the next time someone attacks me or my cave… I won’t hold back,” Hui promised, his voice soft. He bowed again, with the utmost respect.

Dai Dagao stumbled back. He blinked. “You… you…!”

The tabby turned to him and snarled.

“You can’t have infinite third-tier talismans! We’ll exhaust your supply!” Dai Dagao pledged.

“Oh? Should I not hold back the first time, then?” Hui asked. He scythed his gaze over the assembled cultivators, looking at them as though they were chaff. “So many, for so little effort…”

Internally, sweat dripped down his back. I don’t want to make enemies of this many people! Some of them, it’s surely fine if they die, but—but if they have connections, elder brothers and sisters, higher-level members of the sect—Masters, even, I’m screwed! I can’t fight seriously or else risk revealing my cultivation, and once that’s revealed, I’m ruined!

A third-tier cultivator like myself can face off against dozens of Qi Gathering disciples with no fear whatsoever, but it’s not as though I’m unparalleled under heavens. There’s a multitude of demonic cultivators here who could kill me with their pinky finger! If I’m revealed, that’s the end of this small cultivator!

Besides, it’s not a righteous sect. This sect surely lives by the law of the jungle. If I anger a high-level cultivator, the antlike me will be squished before I know what’s going on!

The other cultivators backed away, murmuring amongst themselves. Dai Dagao glared at them. “Do we want the 108th vertebra or not? Today was the day! The day our ascension began!”

Hui licked his lips, trying to hold back, but the words slipped past his lips anyways. Turning his eyes away, covering his lips with his sleeve, he murmured mock-softly, “Ah… Elder Brother, please, mind your… ascending sword, it’s, er, a bit bare…”

Chuckles rang out through the crowd of cultivators. Dai Dagao’s face turned bright red. “You—”

“Ah! Did Brother Dai forget to enlargen that part of himself with the rest of his body? Oh dear. This small cultivator never wanted to know about that…”

Covering his delicate bits before Hui could continue his poisonous words, Dai Dagao backed away. “I’ll be back. I—I won’t forget today’s humiliation!”

As he backed away, the other cultivators dissipated, vanishing into the fading fog. Hui gave them a bow. He gave a backhanded wave, and the flaming tabby dispersed.

Quickly, he glanced upward. I wasn’t thinking about it in the heat of the moment, but… my flame talismans are rather distinctive. It seems no one who could recognize it saw it, since no one’s rushing to kill me. In the future, I need to be more careful! I’ll only use the flame talismans if I have no other option.

Mmm, it’s fine in this case. It is the most visually impactful talisman I have. And burning Dai Dagao’s clothes was a nice side effect. Painful for my eyes, but after I humiliated him like that, surely he won’t be back for a second taste soon.

Hui knelt by the melted hammer’s head, examining it. It looked ordinary at first glance, but when he inserted a strand of qi inside, he detected a strange magic inside of it. Something almost… talisman-like.

Interesting. I think I’ll take this. Hui flicked his sleeve and collected the melted metal into his storage ring, then turned and entered the cave once more.

Half inside the door, he paused and looked up. And—now more than ever, I need to move up a vertebra! If Dai Dagao decides to hold a grudge, I don’t want to be annoyed repeatedly by him!