Hui leaped back, instantly flying to her side. He slammed his hand on her chest and called out the array. The second it appeared, he applied death qi to its runes. The energized runes blackened, and the array began to tremble and break apart.

“NO!” Han Qin’s eyes widened. He charged forward, flicking his hand even as he did so. A pulse of qi raced toward the knife in Hui's chest.

Hui pulled the knife out of his chest and held it up. It crumbled from the inside out, rotted by his death qi. "My apologies, Senior."

“Don’t forget me,” Bai Xue said, glancing up at Han Qin seductively. He threw his fans out one after another.

Han Qin turned seconds before the two fans intersected at his neck. He jabbed a knife upward in each hand and jammed them into the fans, falling backward and releasing the knives. The knives exploded, bursting Bai Xue’s fans into tatters.

Bai Xue flared his fingers, and a new pair of fans materialized in his hands. He waved them at Han Qin, sending a blast of fire toward the man.

Han Qin reached out his hand and closed it into a fist, absorbing the fire into a ball. He flicked his hand and sent the ball back toward Bai Xue.

Eyes wide, Bai Xue ducked, raising his fans to block the fire. The fireball burst and washed over him like a wave, scorching the wall on either side of him.

Hui gnashed his teeth. “Bai Xue!”

Two giant fans pressed outward, forcing the smoke and flame back. Bai Xue stepped out of the inferno, untouched. His eyes landed on Hui, and he shot a winning smile in his direction.

Hui rolled his eyes. I don’t know why I worried.

“Not swapping forms? Your ice would be so much more powerful against me. Or can you not, after you siphoned Mo Gonglu’s energy?” Han Qin mocked.

“Hmm, I couldn’t, but then a friend helped me hook up with a ton of girls, and now…” Bai Xue closed his eyes for a moment, and his body softened, turning feminine once more. She flicked her hands, and the fans became small once more. A small chuckle escaped her mouth as she waved them, summoning an icy blast of wind that carried a thousand tiny ice needles toward Han Qin.

Han Qin tensed. He waved his finger, drawing up a fire wall between them. It exploded where the ice needles hit it, melting them away. Frustrated, he demanded, “How?”

The last of Fu Liyu’s array began to disintegrate. Hui suddenly surrounded it with life qi instead and yanked it out of her body. Turning his hand over, he summoned a pill bottle to him. One pure-white curse sat within, slowly circulating. In the space of a moment, he uncapped the bottle, scooped up the life-qi-encased soul array, and captured it in the pill bottle as well. Now I can study it at leisure. Both the soul-array portions, as well as to figure out Han Qin’s true plans!

“You—no! I won’t allow it!” Han Qin howled. He turned and charged at Hui.

Bai Xue clicked her tongue. “Turning tail? It’s very un-cute.” She delicately wafted her fan back and forth, and an ice pillar slammed at him from the sky.

Han Qin ignored her attack, instead racing at Hui. He reached for the pill bottle, extending his qi beyond his hand to reach further.

Hui flicked his hand again, sending the bottle back to the tree-node. Han Qin’s qi looped around his hand a second later and yanked. Rather than resist, Hui swapped to his plant mode and let Han Qin rip his hand away. Han Qin arrived seconds later, his eyes wide with rage.

“You don’t get to stop me!” he snarled, reaching for Hui’s throat.

Hui gave Han Qin an apologetic look. “Senior, er, are you sure you want to reach there?”

Han Qin’s brows furrowed. He looked down.

As his hand closed in on Hui’s throat, a pearlescent white body appeared, two dark, slit eyes staring at him, a silly, upturned nose above a pair of bared fangs. Zhubi lashed out, biting into his hand. Poison flowed through his veins, so corrosive that it blackened his flesh with its passing. His qi fluxed, suddenly out of his control. Han Qin retracted his hand and jumped back, quickly pressing pressure points to block his meridians.

Han Qin snarled. “A bit of poison won’t—”

Hui glanced downward, at his chest.

Han Qin followed his eyes and found a talisman pasted to his robes. He reached to tear it off, but before he could, Hui made a handsign and activated it. Vibrations buzzed through his bones and his flesh, opening voids inside him. He screamed wordlessly and fell backward.

Bai Xue caught him, hand closing around the back of his skull. His flesh began to wither, the same as Mo Gonglu’s did, and she smiled. “Thanks for the meal.”

Han Qin’s eyes widened. He struggled, but then he abruptly went still. His eyes grew wider, and wider…

“Bai Xue, get back!” Hui shouted, throwing up a barrier talisman in front of himself.

Bai Xue threw Han Qin away and dropped back, raising her fans and summoning an ice wall between herself and Han Qin. Barely a second later, Han Qin exploded. Hui’s barrier popped, and Bai Xue’s ice melted. Both fell back. Hui’s body withered from the heat, skin browning and limbs weakening. Bai Xue waved her fans and dissipated the remnant heat, instead summoning an icy wind that coursed through the room.

The array’s pressure vanished. All around the room, the girls who were still awake sat up, then turned and ran, escaping as quickly as they could. Ying Lin glanced around, then ran to Hui’s side. “Master, did you win?”

Hui turned, looking at Fu Renyi and Jin Xian. Putrid blood poured down Fu Renyi’s body. Every step he took appeared heavy, and he gasped for breath, his qi knotted and twisted.

Jin Xian bounced around, more invigorated than ever. Blood smeared over her lips and face. She lashed her arm out, and five green strings flew from her fingers and cut into Fu Renyi like whips. Blood spurted. She darted in, mouth open, like a kid trying to catch snowflakes on her tongue.

Fu Renyi fell back and staggered, barely able to stay on his feet. Poison coursed through him, ravaging his body beyond his control. He rubbed his face and fell, catching himself against the wall. “You… you… everything, my wife…”

“You were never going to get your wife back,” Hui said. He circulated his plant technique, but even so, his body healed slowly. Frowning, he gripped his robe and yanked, using the snakeskin technique instead, but even then, his rejuvenation remained slow. Damn. Fire is a critical weakness, huh?

“Han Qin isn’t dead,” Bai Xue murmured, coming up behind Hui. She wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her head on his shoulder, to better whisper in his ear. “That explosion was an escape technique of some sort. Expect to see him again.”

And I’ve just pissed off a fire-elemental expert.

Ah, oh well! Such is life!

I wonder if that was a clone, the same way I’m a clone? Hui looked at his hands and clenched them, then looked back at Fu Renyi. I struggled against Fu Renyi, but look at Jin Xian. She’s handling him easily.

In the end, I’m still a clone. I don’t have my full strength. I have to be careful—I can’t consider myself a full fifth-stage cultivator. Especially with my stock of talismans depleted, and very few fifth-stage or better talisman formulas to draw from. Once I build those back up, maybe, but… I’ll still have to be careful.

Hui cleared his throat. “Elder Sister.”

Jin Xian twitched. She continued toward Fu Renyi, ignoring Hui.

He furrowed his brows. “Elder Sister!”

Jin Xian hesitated, but only a moment. She grabbed Fu Renyi by the neck and drew him closer, licking the blood that ran down her arm.

“Jin Xian!” Hui insisted.

At last, reluctantly, Jin Xian dropped Fu Renyi. The man fell to the ground, coughing and rubbing his neck. Jin Xian backed up a step, but still hesitated, staring at Fu Renyi. She glanced at Hui, then back at Fu Renyi, licking her lips hungrily.

I somehow have the urge to shout ‘no, drop it!’ Hui thought to himself, shaking his head. He twisted his lips. More proof that I’m weaker than I should be: Jin Xian doesn’t want to listen to me.

Hui walked over to Fu Renyi. Bai Xue came with him, refusing to release him. He tried to shake her off, but when she tightened her grip instead, he gave up.

Fu Renyi slumped against the wall, Jin Xian’s poison coursing through him, bleeding from a thousand cuts. Fu Renyi glanced up as Hui approached, his eyes dull.

“You took her from me. Again. What’s left to live for?” he rasped.

“Han Qin lied to you. I don’t know what he was bringing back, but I doubt it was your wife,” Hui told him.

“He, he wouldn’t have… Han Qin, he and I… since childhood…”

Hui shook his head. “That Han Qin wasn’t Han Qin… someone replaced him. That fake Han Qin likely… even killed your wife, all so you would rely on him and attempt to summon… whatever it is, back.”

Fu Renyi stared at Hui. “Why? Why me?”

Hui shook his head again. “My best guess is that there’s something special about Fu Liyu. I don’t know.”

“No. It can’t be. It can’t be true. I won’t, I won’t believe it,” Fu Renyi raved. He clawed his way back to his feet. “Han Qin… Han Qin wouldn’t… my wife… Why are you allowed to have love, while we—”

“Love?” Hui glanced around, confused.

“He means us,” Bai Xue said, snuggling.

“Don’t be ridiculous, Elder Sister,” Hui said, shaking his head. Me and Bai Xue? I’ve seen her techniques. Those hands are dangerous! She sucks men dry with a touch!

Er… I seem to have been infected by her language, but… but the sentiment remains!

She hummed in his ear. “I wouldn’t use my offensive techniques against you. Don’t be silly.”

There’s multiple offensive techniques? Wait… no, I don’t want to go there. Let’s just… pretend we heard nothing, Hui decided, nodding.

“Father…” Fu Liyu limped over, carrying Fu Yinfei in one arm. “Father, that array… it was you?”

Fu Renyi’s expression turned mad. “You! You whore! You ruined everything! It’s all your fault, all your—”

Bai Xue flicked her hand. A fan appeared between Fu Renyi’s brows, severing the man’s forehead. He slumped, the life leaving him.

“Oops, my hand slipped,” she said, smiling.

“You… my father…” Fu Liyu wobbled on her feet. She pressed her free hand against her face. “I… why? Father, I thought I was… I thought I was your favorite! I…”

“Oh, shit,” Bai Xue muttered.

Hui looked at her. “What?”

She sighed and hopped back, suddenly putting some distance between them. “I absorbed a lot of energy that fight. I was using your pressure to repress my fifth-stage tribulation, but it looks like I can’t hold it back any longer. Xiao Hui, you should get out of here. My clan will find me when I call down my tribulation, and not everyone holds the same viewpoint myself and my father do. There are plenty who believe you’re no more than a base criminal.”

Hui nodded. “Ying Lin!”

“Right!” Ying Lin ran to his side.

He threw Gu Tian’s sword under his feet and drew Ying Lin onto the sword with him. He started to leave, then stopped and turned back. “Bai Xue… here!”

Bai Xue held her hands out and caught a leaf. She turned it over, frowning. “This is…?”

“I’ll contact you through that later! Hold onto it!” Hui called.

Bai Xue’s eyes widened. She nodded, quickly tucking the leaf into her robes. “Got it!”