Fang Hua’s eyes faded, from black to gray, from gray to white. Her shoulders relaxed, and her expression turned blank once more. The green lines faded from her fingers, and the black blood vanished as well. She stepped toward Hui silently.

Hui took another step back, then stood, waiting. Casually, he tucked his hands into his sleeves. Though he looked relaxed, internally, he tensed. Inside his sleeves, he touched a few talismans, ready to throw them at the slightest provocation.

Jin Xian walked to his side. Blankly, she stared up at him, waiting.

Hui stared at her for the space of a few breaths, still tensed. At last, he huffed out a breath. “So you can only surface sometimes, Elder Sister. Don’t worry. I’ll care for you.”

“Mmm, that’s good,” Jin Xian said. Black swirled in her eyes, temporarily banishing the milky white.

Hui jumped back.

Jin Xian stood there as blankly as ever, no hint of color in her eyes.

Wrinkling his nose, Hui reached out and gestured, recalling her into his storage ring. Don’t play pranks on this small cultivator, okay, Elder Sister? You’ll give me a heart attack!

Across the field, Bai Xue and Liu Baozhai stared at each other warily. Both their snakes had shrunk greatly. Liu Baozhai’s was smaller than Bai Xue’s, though it still appeared greatly more real than Bai Xue’s.

Bai Xue broke first, lowering his fans. “I think this is enough, don’t you? I truly don’t wish to injure such beauty. That snake behind you has been wilting for a while. Much longer, and you won’t be able to keep up with my snake’s stamina, isn’t that right?”

Hui narrowed his eyes at Bai Xue. Elder Sister, that phrasing is suspicious…

“You’re a formidable foe. Your bodily strength and fortitude can’t match up to my White Jade body cultivation technique, but your magic techniques far surpass mine,” Liu Baozhai replied. She lowered her fists, also unwilling to fight further.

“Come by my vertebra any night, and we’ll find out if I can match your bodily fortitude,” Bai Xue said, winking.

Liu Baozhai’s brows furrowed faintly, her stiff face emanating disapproval.

Hui cleared his throat. “I… don’t wish to fight either Elder Sister, if that’s alright.”

Bai Xue glanced at him, then grinned. “Oh, how interesting. Xie Hao, so you are a small cultivator when it comes to your… snake!”

Hui glanced at the small shadow snake coiled in his hand. It laid there, withered and pale, barely hanging on. In the middle of battle, I forgot about it. Frowning, he stretched out his hand. The snake grew darker and larger, though still no longer than his hand.

“I see! I see. Your snake might be small, but you have the stamina to last!” Bai Xue said, eyes glittering.

“Bai Xue… er, Hong Xue,” Hui complained. He tucked his hands around his snake, suddenly self-conscious about it. I don’t want that licentious furnace staring at my snake! The hunger in those eyes isn’t natural!

“I’m glad you’ve grasped a truth of this world. It isn’t the size of the snake alone, but the dedication in grasping the technique of how to wield the snake! Those with large snakes might have an advantage,” Bai Xue said, leaning on his own rather large shadow snake, “but in the end, even small snakes can prove mighty, as long as one knows how to use theirs. Ah, you just destroyed that hideous puppeteer with ease, and did you see the size of his snake? When those with big snakes rest on their laurels and don’t learn technique, the size is merely a waste!”

Liu Baozhai emanated even more disapproval, though her stiff expression suggested that she didn’t quite understand why.

Hui put his face in his hands. “Hong Xue, please… your phrasing is all wrong!”

Bai Xue smirked. “Is it?”

Atop the stone throne, the snake ancestor began to clap. She laughed aloud. “Interesting, interesting! I haven’t seen something so amusing in centuries. I think I’ll let all three of you live.”

“Many thanks to senior!” Hui said, bowing deeply.

Bai Xue stepped forward. “And our reward?”

“Oh right, right.” Flippantly, she waved her sleeve. Three beams of light shot out which landed in the hands of the three cultivators before her.

Hui glanced out of the corner of his eye at the other two, but he couldn’t see anything but a glow of light in their hands. He turned to his own offering.

A single snake scale floated in his palm, about as big as a thumbnail. It glimmered as it turned. He frowned, peering closer. A… scale?

Images rushed into his brain. Hui blinked, staggering back. In his mind’s eye, he watched his body and appearance transform. He shed his skin and transformed again, then shed his skin to reveal yet another face and shape.

Hui’s eyes went wide. This… this is the other half of my skin-sloughing technique! If I use this technique and my current technique, I can create skins that look exactly like me, including the eyes and hair!

I can disguise myself and still shed my skin, too! With this, I can shed my skin to escape even with the ghoul skin! And after I shed my skin… what a wonderful ability! His eyes shone with the possibilities.

Abruptly, he frowned, focusing harder on the scale. There’s another skill in this scale… no! I’m not sure what it is, but if I deepen my comprehension of the skin shedding technique… there’s more depth to it than it first appears! Once I leave this realm, I’ll have to study the technique to understand it fully.

“Now that that’s settled, go on.” The snake ancestor waved her hand. Bai Xue and Liu Baozhai dissolved into bloody motes that vanished into thin air. Their snakes faded a second later, seeping back into the realm. Hui stared around, startled.

“As for you…” The ancestor narrowed her eyes. “You aren’t the true inheritor, and yet you tore your way through my realm, anyways. What is your purpose?”

Hui swallowed, nervous. He backed away. “Er… Would senior believe me if I said I have no purpose?”

The snake ancestor narrowed her eyes.

“That is… I only wanted to try the trials. I heard they’d be opening, and I happened to be here during the trials’ opening, and… one thing led to another?” Hui tried.

Zhubi uncoiled from his neck and slithered down his arm. Hui grabbed him distractedly, trying to hold him back. Zhubi, not now!

Ignoring him, Zhubi kept slithering, sliding through his hand toward his other hand. He sniffed at the shadow snake, which shied away.

She scoffed. Lifting a finger, she pointed at the snake in his hand. “Regardless of your being the inheritor or not, you have created ripples in my realm unlike any I’ve seen, in my many long years in this place. It’ll take centuries to replace that sea you absorbed. Even so… at least I have something to do, now. I’ll give you a small reward.

“You can take that snake out of here. If you have karma with my techniques, then that snake contains a copy of a powerful magical technique suitable to be used up to the sixth stage.”

Hui bowed. “This small disciple thanks senior!”

Bored, the snake ancestor waved her hand. “Of course, if you don’t have karma…”

Before she could finish her sentence, Zhubi struck with lightning speed. Hui yanked him back, but too late. Zhubi swallowed up the shadow snake and let out a satisfied sigh.

Hui stared at Zhubi. “Zhubi… why?”

The snake ancestor laughed aloud, slapping the arm of her throne. “Amazing, too amazing! Ah, I haven’t had a laugh like that in centuries. That audacious youngster… Oh! It’s too much.”

Hui hesitated, but only a moment. His eyes flashed with determination. Now’s the time, Hui! While she’s amused! “Senior, I… please understand, I don’t mean to be disrespectful…”

Wiping her eyes, she raised her eyebrows at him. A silent pressure emanated from her.

Hui swallowed and pressed on. “You… aren’t actually the snake ancestor, are you?”

The pressure grew stronger. Even so, the snake ancestor waited silently, eyebrows arched.

“Or rather, to be precise… you aren’t her remains, or her ghost, or even a scrap of her will. To be most accurate, you’re a shed skin that gained sentience, aren’t you? A precious treasure she refined long ago!” I’m pretty sure I’m right. Of everyone… of any cultivator in Black Asp Sect, I might be the only one qualified to notice! When it comes to shedding one’s skin… aside from a snake cultivator or a snake spirit beast like Zhubi, there’s no one better positioned to recognize shed skins aside from me!

The snake ancestor sat forward in her throne. Her eyes widened, and the pressure grew even stronger. Hui quailed under the pressure, sweat dripping down his back. I shouldn’t have pointed it out. I shouldn’t have—

“How interesting! You, who are not the inheritor I’ve been waiting for, has so much karma with myself! You are correct. I am the ancestor’s shed skin.”

“Then… are these bones… truly your originator’s bones? Or is the true ancestor still out there, somewhere?” Hui asked. After all, this isn’t her ghost or a scrap of will inhabiting her remains, but instead, a shed skin hiding inside the realm inside the snake bones! The true ancestor could be anywhere!

The snake ancestor smiled mysteriously. “Who can say? Though, truly, even I don’t know. I was shed a great many ages ago, and when I awoke as a conscious being, I was already inside this realm hidden in the interior of Black Asp Sect. As to whether or not my originator still exists, that’s a question I cannot answer.”

She flicked her hand. A scrap of skin flew off and rushed to Hui’s side. He accepted it carefully. Although the dry filament seemed on the verge of breaking into dust, he could sense a great power inside it, far beyond his own strength.

“Refine that into the skin you’re wearing. It should help you understand that art I bestowed upon you in that scale, if nothing else. That… and one last thing will I give you, false inheritor.”

The snake ancestor stood and strode forward. Her robes shifted as she walked, always seemingly on the verge of revealing something, yet never revealing an inch more than it already did. She drew to the edge of the platform that held the throne and pointed at him. “I was once a part of something Immortal, an eternal being that comprehended the very laws of this world. You should not have any karma with this world, trespasser, soul from another place! Your very existence is a contradiction. That you are able to cultivate is an impossibility.”

Hui blinked. He nodded. “I… I know, Senior.”

“So tell me, visitor from afar. What are you? What kind of godly being are you, that you were able to pierce the void between worlds and arrive here?”

Hui scratched the back of his head, embarrassed. “Er… I was an ordinary guy in my world. To tell the truth… I spent most of my time getting beaten up and spat on. Rather than a godly being, I might have been the lowest of lowly beings.”

“That shouldn’t be possible,” the snake ancestor said.

Hui bowed apologetically. “I’m sorry, ancestor.”

She waved her hand. “In the end, I’m only a skin that Immortal being shed. It’s no surprise if my comprehension is lacking.”

I know a certain Master who would certainly agree with that! Hui cried silently in his heart.

Wait. Master. Is… is it possible Master knows how, or why, I transmigrated?

No, no. The snake ancestor only knows because she’s a scrap of an Immortal being. Once Master ascends to immortality, he’ll certainly be able to comprehend it, but until then, I probably shouldn’t ask.

The snake ancestor narrowed her eyes. “I feel as though I was insulted just now.”

“N-never! Not this small cultivator,” Hui said, shaking his head furiously.

She snorted and waved her hand. “Then go. I’m growing tired. I think it’s time to take another nap.”

Hui’s body dissolved. He felt a strange, whirling sensation, and he hurtled upward, toward the top of the skeleton.