Swooping in, Bai Xue led the way directly to the base of the crystal. Twice as tall as Bai Xue and three times as wide, the crystal towered over them. A thick gold wire wound thrice around its base, easily as wide as Hui’s index finger at its thickest, though it tapered to a hair’s width at its ends. “Here.”

“That’s the right material, I think. Xixing, take a look?” Hui asked, still distracted. He turned his head away, searching the geode. Something keeps moving. Those flashes of light aren’t from nothing. But what?

Xixing leaned in and rested a hand on the wire. A second later, her eyes widened. “This wire… third stage, eighty-three percent purity! It’s far stronger than the amber you found.”

I don’t see anything. Maybe it’s all in my head. Hui bent down and yanked the wire.

The entire crystal shifted, leaning toward him. Startled, Hui slammed a hand up and braced the crystal.

The crystal shivered. Six spindly, transparent legs separated from its sides. It pressed against the smaller crystals of the geode and pulled back. A dark purple cicada head emerged from the stone. Two shockingly violet eyes blinked at them. Translucent wings fluttered, peeling off from its crystalline body. The huge cicada stared at them, mouthparts wiggling hungrily. The gold wire wound around its abdomen, just above its wing joints.

Hui stared, eyes wide. He crumpled on instinct, playing dead.

“Hui, no! I’ll avenge you!” Bai Xue declared, catching him before he could fall off the fan. He flicked his other fan at the cicada, sending a wave of fire at it.

The cicada fluttered its wings. A rush of wind slammed into the fire. A bang rang out as the two attacks met. The fire went out, blown out like a candle. Hot smoke rushed back over the three of them. Bai Xue retreated rapidly, descending toward the floor.

Overcoming his instinct, Hui shook his head and straightened back up. “What is that?”

“A crystal cicada, and an amethyst crystal cicada at that. They’re incredibly rare! These cicadas… you can use their eyes, their wings, their bodies, even their internal organs…” Xixing stared at it, almost salivating, then turned to Hui. “Catch it!”

“Catch it? How?” It took an attack from Bai Xue without flinching! What is a mere third-realm cultivator like myself supposed to do?

“Catch it, kill it, I don’t care. I need it! Ah, amethyst crystal cicadas… even the shed is valuable. Reduce it to powder, and it becomes a powerful defensive component, perfect for magic pills or body-bolstering pills,” Xixing replied, excited. She vibrated in place, her eyes fixed on the giant cicada.

Hui hesitated. A monster like that? All for some measly pills?

Pills… body-bolstering pills… Heavenly Tribulation…

Hui cleared his throat. “Elder Sister, can these body-bolstering pills… help defend against the Heavenly Tribulation?”

“Of course!” Xixing replied.

He hesitated one more breath. “And… and no one… keeps them as pets?”

Xixing furrowed her brows at him. “Are you insane? They’re vicious, uncontrollable magical beasts!”

Resolve glittered in Hui’s eyes. He flicked his fingers and drew the black dagger from his storage ring. “Bai Xue!”

Bai Xue snorted. “Already ahead of you.”

The fan descended to the ground. Hui dismounted, racing toward the cicada, while Bai Xue swooped back into the air. Xixing backed behind some crystals, unable to fight with the curse suppressing her cultivation base and no weapons.

Soaring above the cicada, Bai Xue flicked his fan once, twice, sending waves of fire down at it. It climbed downward, fluttering its wings at Bai Xue. Again, fire and wind met with a bang.

Pulling talismans from his storage ring, Hui pointed them at the cicada. “Activate!”

Ice rushed at the cicada and encased its head. It shook its head, annoyed more than anything, and charged at Hui.

Bai Xue tossed his fan at the cicada’s retreating back. The seemingly casual toss grew heavier as it flew, weighing down on the cicada. Sensing danger, the cicada whirled just as the fan reached it. It bit at the fan, catching it in its mouthpieces. Sharp force rushed down from the fan’s edge, biting into the cicada’s mouth and cutting a thin line down the cicada’s body.

Hui drew a wood talisman and pointed it down. A platform formed beneath him, lifting him into the air. He circulated his death qi. Without his needing to guide it, the dagger hungrily sucked in his death qi. Hui struck at the cicada’s exposed, blunt rear, slicing upward and through one of its transparent wings. Death qi rushed out from the dagger. The crystalline body turned dark and dull, and the wing crumpled, withering up from the point of the cut upward. The insignificant wounds Hui scored became serious injuries thanks to the death qi. In a few short breaths, nearly a quarter of its body darkened and a human-sized portion of the wing withered away.

The cicada let out a fearsome, trilling cry and rounded on Hui again, eyes maddened. He leaped off the platform and darted back, escaping between two larger crystals. Crashing through the platform, the cicada bounded after him and clawed through the crystals. Hooked feet scraped through the crystal like a hot knife through butter. Hui backed away, putting himself well out of its reach. If one of those gets me, this small cultivator is done for!

His back bumped into a smaller crystal. The crystal shuddered, then pulled itself out of the geode as well. A Hui-sized cicada stared at him with bright purple eyes, then let out a loud, rumbling cry.

Hui raised his dagger and rushed in. I can’t let it attack! If I get pincered between two cicadas…

Before he could reach the cicada, a crystal beside it shuddered. Another, then another, until all the crystals began to shudder. The entire geode shivered, waves of motion rippling through it as the cicadas awoke. One after another, the crystals yanked their heads out of the geode and turned toward him, round cicada eyes brilliant shades of violet. Crystalline bodies refracted the light, shimmering across the geode. Ten, twenty, a hundred, two hundred, too many for Hui to count. As far as he could see, every other crystal began to move and shift, revealing itself as a cicada.

Hui sucked a breath, his eyes the size of dinner plates. He backed away, keeping the dagger between himself and the cicadas.

The huge cicada behind him let out a brutal scream and clawed at him again. Hui jumped forward, but the cicada’s hooked foot still caught him in the small of the back. He stumbled, robes torn. The ghoul-skin held, but his flesh beneath bruised.

Hui shivered, looking between the sea of cicadas and the massive cicada behind him. His heart raced. He tightened his grip on the dagger and forcibly suppressed a shiver. Master… this poor disciple is about to die again today!