Their feet touched the ground. In the same instant, the power that held them dissipated.

Xi Guanxi charged. His sword lashed out, a blaze of silver. In his far hand, he gestured, throwing out strands of glowing green.

Hui stared, eyes wide. He jumped back.

“Too slow.” Xi Guanxi struck Hui in two. Hui staggered back. His body slid apart, then separated, falling apart at the waist. His upper half thumped to the earth.

Xi Guanxi’s brows furrowed. He turned.

Roaring, a huge tabby made of fire rushed at him. At the same time, a thrill of danger rushed through him from behind. Xi Guanxi leaped into the air, dodging both.

A thin black thread snapped at the air behind him. The tabby slammed into it and melted away, and the thread vanished.

Hui stood behind him, a bashful smile on his face. He tipped his head. “Oops.”

Xi Guanxi turned. The figure on the ground became clearer. Long black hair hung loose over her back. She laid limply on the ground, black blood dripping slowly from her severed torso.

“You’ve wasted your last chance to survive,” Xi Guanxi grumbled, lifting his sword again. The green threads lashed out from his fingers, swaying on the air like jellyfish tentacles at double speed. He raced at Hui again, stabbing out viciously.

His sword plunged into Hui’s side. Hui let out a pained cry and stumbled back. He gripped Xi Guanxi’s sword in place, a determined look on his face. “I… won’t…”

Xi Guanxi snorted. His fingers snapped out. Green threads burst at Hui. “A meaningless effort.”

Again, danger prickled at the back of his neck. A hair’s breath before the threads connected, he leaped up, yanking his sword out of Hui’s gut. Hui cried out and staggered, slumping to the ground.

Jin Xian’s green threads slashed through the ground where he’d been. Seeing her attack miss, Jin Xian’s eyes flashed. The jiangshi reached out and yanked the lower half of her body toward the upper half. Where the two met, strands of flesh began to connect. Horrible squelching sounds rang out as her body stitched itself back together.

“Cheap tricks will only work twice!” Xi Guanxi growled. He slammed his foot down and drew on the full power of his cultivation base to rush at Hui. His eyes narrowed, determined to loose Hui’s head from his neck this time.

Hui jumped back, clutching his hands to his wound. Blood trailed after him, spooling in odd shapes over the earth. He moved slowly, injured and weakened. Even as he jumped back, Xi Guanxi sped toward him, a thousand times faster. His sword blazed toward Hui’s neck, too fast to see.

There’s no other option! If that strikes me, I’m dead. As I am now, I can’t escape it fast enough! Hui’s eyes flashed decisively. Instantly, Hui activated the talisman in his forehead. Qi poured into him, and he felt his longevity burn, a cold flame that licked at his lifeforce itself. He retreated, surging faster than Xi Guanxi.

Xi Guanxi’s eyes flickered. A second later, a derisive look crossed his face. “Useless. Even if you burn lifeforce—”

“Activate,” Hui said.

The blood under Xi Guanxi’s feet glowed with fierce light. Xi Guanxi only had time to stare before waves slammed into him. The secret technique Zhu Diyu had taught him rushed up at Xi Guanxi from the blood Hui had dropped onto the ground. Caught off-guard, Xi Guanxi flew backward. His flesh tore. Blood spiraled across the air. He threw his hands out to block. Green threads knit together, then broke apart as the attack smashed directly through them. Xi Guanxi’s expression darkened. He threw out the shield again, then again. Each time, it grew smaller, and the attack bit at more of his body. He stumbled back, shuddering.

As he did, Hui killed the activation of the escape talisman he’d blazed into his body. He checked himself over internally, and his eyes widened. Even that short of an activation ate fifty years of my life? I have to be careful with this talisman, extremely careful!

Ah… at fourth stage, I can expect to live a few hundred years. But even so, dangerous, dangerous!

One of the songbirds dissolved. Gold qi flowed through his body, merging into his life qi. Warmth flowed through Hui as the gold qi replaced half of his fifty years of missing lifespan.

Hui drew a deep breath, relaxing. How nice! I…

Wait. I used one songbird to cage the red soul. Now I’ve used one to replace my lifespan. At this rate, I’m going to start falling out of my body again!

Mmm, at least now that I’m at fourth stage, that attack only takes about half of my qi. Though I feel like I don’t have a full comprehension of it. With a proper comprehension… I expect that attack will still absorb all my qi at fourth stage!

Xi Guanxi fell to the ground. Blood ran out of every inch of his body, and his snake stretched only a hundred and fifty meters; such was the price he’d had to pay to survive Hui’s attack. Spitting a mouthful of blood, he leaped back up and glared at Hui, completely unwilling to accept it. From the beginning, he hadn’t landed any more than the one attack Hui had allowed him to land. He’d been played like a fool, as if the battleground was Hui’s playground. As someone who until now had dominated the sect, and especially his peers, this was naturally something that Xi Guanxi could not comprehend. His brows furrowed. This fool? This unremarkable cultivator, whose name I don’t even know? Impossible.

His eyes burned with green light. He threw his hands out. Ten beams of green light flew from his sleeves and slammed into the ground, where they grew into ten cultivators. A green thread stretched from each cultivator to one of Xi Guanxi’s fingers. They stood before him, shoulders limp, heads bowed.

Hui’s eyes widened. He threw out a handful of talismans, and ice flew at Xi Guanxi.

Before the ice reached Xi Guanxi, he flicked his fingers. The cultivators’ heads snapped up. Green light shone in their eyes. One raised his hand. Fire beamed from his palm and slammed into the ice, melting it to nothing. The other nine leaped toward Hui, darting apart to attack from all directions. Magical attacks glimmered in all the puppets’ hands. Blazing light in all colors rushed at Hui from everywhere.

Hui threw out a handful of barrier talismans. A thick golden barrier shimmered into place around him. Even as it formed around him, the magical attacks slammed into it. The barrier shattered instantly.

Again, Hui threw out a handful of barriers, then again, then again, layering them one inside the other. The space around him grew narrower, and the light glowed so brilliantly in gold that he couldn’t see the world around him. But only for a moment. The puppets smashed into his barriers, shattering them one after another. Their magical attacks weakened with each barrier they crushed, but not by much. They’d been slowed, but only by a breath, maybe two. Barriers shattered like glass, and the attacks continued to rush at Hui.

Xi Guanxi laughed, throwing back his head. “Worthless! It’s time for trash like you… to die!” Gesturing again, he poured power into his puppets. Their eyes flashed green. Attacks growing stronger, they crushed through the barriers one after another.

The last barrier broke. Attacks slammed down on the figure inside, tearing it to scraps. Xi Guanxi laughed triumphantly, distaste flickering in his eyes. “You should have learned to respect your elders and betters. And now… it’s too late.”