Zhi Ahn froze in midair. He turned and looked at the mysterious senior’s body. Was… he not actually a senior? For him to die in one blow…

He hesitated, then dropped down to the ground and squatted there, examining the man’s small body. Maybe he was a lower-realm cultivator trying to bluff me. But then, why charge at me? No… most likely he’s a clone of some sort, and his real body is elsewhere!

Zhi Ahn stood and looked around. He licked his lips, then stepped back.

Sword light flew through the sky. Ding Qinwen appeared over him, brows furrowed. “Zhi Ahn, What happened?”

A second later, Lu Lintei appeared beside him, yawning. She looked around, found the small body, and frowned. “Does that guy look familiar to anyone else?”

“I… think it’s someone’s clone. I couldn't sense his cultivation, but then I killed him in one stroke... it's too strange for this to be his real body. Let’s split up and patrol the border. The real cultivator… may have been waiting for us to come here and let our guard down to break in!” Zhi Ahn said earnestly. He knelt and picked up the head by its ponytail.

Green blood streamed down. Splatters fell over the grass and earth.

Hui laid there quietly, limp and still. Internally, he beamed. This body is so convenient! I don’t have to breathe, I don’t have a heartbeat to slow… I can lose my head, and it’s the same as losing any other limb.

I need to protect my core… my lotus seed. But as long as I do that, they can maim me to pieces, and it’s nothing! How convenient.

And with the size-changing feature, it’s versatile, too! I can masquerade as a normal cultivator, a child, a doll… I can shrink down and use it to sneak into small places. Hmm, and I wonder… could I grow extra-large as well?

The most important part, though, is that when it comes to death faking, this body is unrivaled. Limbs, huge wounds… As long as I suppress my cultivation and bleed the right color…

It’s a bit too late for that now, but it was a spur of the moment situation. In the future, I’ll have to fix that. Anyways, for this time, they’ve already decided I’m a clone.

Me, a clone? It’s not wrong, but… it’s not exactly right, either.

“You shrunk his head? How savage,” Lu Lintei said, frowning.

Zhi Ahn looked at her. “He was small to begin with! Actually, he got bigger during our battle.”

Lu Lintei widened her eyes and glanced over at the corpse’s crotch. “Huh.”

“That’s… an interesting hobby he has,” Ding Qinwei muttered under his breath.

Hui’s headless body regarded Zhi Ahn. What did I do to insult Elder Brother, that you impugn me this way?

“I thought so, as well. He was doll-sized at first. I could hardly see him,” Zhi Ahn explained, ignoring the strange glances of the other two.

Lu Lintei glanced at the head, then nodded at Zhi Ahn. “Take that back to the sect. I’ve seen that face before. Ding Qinwen and I will look around, see if we can find the real body that created this clone.”

Zhi Ahn hesitated, glancing at the head in his hand. “You will? You won’t get bored and slack off instead?”

Lu Lintei gave him a shocked look. “Me? Slack off?”

“You do have a reputation,” Ding Qinwen remarked, looking at her from the corner of his eyes.

Putting her hands to her chest, Lu Lintei stared at them with jaw agape. “What has this junior done? I’m a hard worker, I…” She paused, lifting a hand to cover her yawn.

Zhi Ahn looked at Ding Qinwen, raising his eyebrows at him.

Ding Qinwen gave a small smile. “I’ll look. Don’t worry.”

“If Senior says so, then I’ll go ahead and take my leave first,” Zhi Ahn said. He looked at the head in his hand one last time, then turned and ran, hopping onto his sword mid-stride.

Go on, everyone go! Hui cried silently. His life qi continued to dwindle as green blood seeped out of his neck. If I start shrinking again, they might go investigate my body, and then…!

Ding Qinwen wandered over to Hui’s body. He kicked it lightly. Hui rolled with the kick, falling onto his back. Ding Qinwen scanned over his body, searching for something.

What? What’s he looking for? Hui wondered.

Lu Lintei yawned again and nodded at Ding Qinwen. She gestured behind her and in front of her. “I’ll take that half, you go that way?”

“Junior Sister, be sure to actually check, okay?” Ding Qinwen said gently.

Lu Lintei waved her hand, wandering off. She scratched her head and yawned again , then hopped onto her sword and flew off.

Ding Qinwen shook his head at her retreating figure and turned himself, heading off toward the boundary of the sect where Sis Mei had been lying.

Thank goodness I moved her, Hui thought, internally sighing with relief.

Hui waited for another few minutes before sitting up. He stretched, then surged his life qi toward his severed head. A green bud pushed through his neck, then grew into a new head. Hui grew slightly smaller. He cracked his neck and patted his cheeks, looking around. “Not having a head was weird.”

Especially since I could still sense my surroundings with my mental energy… I don’t always feel that I’m in a cultivation world, but I definitely do right now.

He glanced ahead and backward, where Lu Lintei and Ding Qinwen had vanished off to, then turned and ran toward his Master’s peak. The familiar paths and forests of the sect passed him by. The bodies of cultivators laid here and there along the path, stuck in the state of playing dead. He tried not to look at them too hard, biting his lip. I’m going to fix this. Starbound Sect will rise again. Sis Mei, Xixing… I’ll bring you back.

I’ll cultivate some life qi from Mount Mu, then head off. Sis Mei and Xixing will be safer on the peak than anywhere else. They’ll stay safe there… until I can bring everyone back.