Yi Ping kept a tight hold on Xixing. Hui walked ahead with Fa Chuyou, pretending not to care. This is a step in the right direction. Once we get her back to the Corpse Refinement Valley, I can figure out how to get her away from these demonic cultivators!
For them to give her to us so easily… I wonder if she’s cursed or marked, somehow? He scanned her briefly, but nothing stood out. Hui turned away. I’ll have to separate her from Yi Ping once we get to Fa Chu...
2022-02-24 02:31:09 +0000 UTC
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Three cultivators stood in the black plains before Vertebra 108, an exhausted Xixing tied up before them. Their leader, Han Ziguo, narrowed his eyes at the approaching duo. A cold snort emerged from him as he caught sight of Fa Chuyou. The soft woman looked delicate, a lily in the sun, skin so soft it seemed it would emit dew if he squeezed it. Even a short walk brought spots of color to her pale cheeks.
Beside her strode a strange figure, taller than the small Fa Chuyou. Skin grayish, ...
2022-02-24 02:30:29 +0000 UTC
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Leaving the corpse in the coffin to soak up the fluids, Fa Chuyou led the way deeper into the valley. Outside the cave Gu Tian had vanished into, she paused and drew a breath. “Gu Tian! Time!”
A pause. Hui stared into the cave, trying to pierce the darkness within. At last, a form appeared. Gu Tian stepped out of the shadows and blinked around, pushing his hair back from his face. He looked half-asleep, as if Fa Chuyou had woken him from a deep slumber. Half-closed eyes scanned over...
2022-02-21 23:54:01 +0000 UTC
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The second Hui’s qi passed through the coffin walls, it faded away. Startled, Hui yanked back his tendril of qi and found it dying, as if infected with death qi. He severed the tendril, leaving it to shrivel up into darkness.
Right! That water’s dangerous. If I want to examine it, I’ll have to use death qi.
Actually… as a death cultivator, shouldn’t I only have death qi? He peeked open an eye to see if Fa Chuyou had noticed, but she stood in the corner,...
2022-02-21 23:53:02 +0000 UTC
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Hui looked down at the black-blooded girl’s corpse. She laid there quietly, eyes shut. Aside from the garish slash at her neck and the bloodless tone of her skin, she seemed almost ready to sit up and take a breath. A pang of regret sparked through his heart, and his eyes drooped subtly.
It’s okay, Hui. You and Bai Xue released her. She couldn’t live on like that. Being that man’s puppet… was a fate worse than death.
He drew a breath. “I… want to… I don’...
2022-02-20 03:59:39 +0000 UTC
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“Er, right now? Elder Sister, Gu Tian is…” Hui smiled gently and nodded after the forgotten Gu Tian.
“Oh, right!” She looked at Hui, then glanced reluctantly over her shoulder at the cave Gu Tian had disappeared into. Chewing her lip, she hesitated, then nodded. “You go ahead to my corpse-cultivation circle. I’ll be right there. Be careful not to wake anyone up, but if you do, be friendly, okay?”
Smiling one last time, she turned and ran after Gu Tian.
Hui wa...
2022-02-20 03:59:09 +0000 UTC
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Weeks passed. At last, Hui opened his eyes. The death qi fully assimilated with his death qi dantian, which rotated quickly, so quickly it began to hollow in the center. Checking his ordinary dantian, Hui smiled. They’re almost identical now. I’m in a much better place than I was when I entered the demonic sect.
He swept his awareness through his storage ring. The black-blooded girl laid there, eyes shut, almost asleep. The red gem grabbed at his consciousness, trying to dr...
2022-02-18 22:19:58 +0000 UTC
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The three of them tore through the inheritance realm, looting every scrap they came across. At last, they stepped out into the sunset. Hui pushed his hair back from his forehead and stared up the sky, heaving a sigh. I almost died, but I gained great benefits. Is this—is this what it means to be a cultivator?
A second later, his eyes widened. No, absolutely no! Being a cultivator is about not dying! Everything else is secondary. My goal is to become immortal, not to becom...
2022-02-18 22:19:03 +0000 UTC
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Bai Xue frowned. “Happily, but right here? Right now?”
Hui stared at him. A second later, his cheeks burned. “B-Hong Xue!”
“What? How else am I supposed to interpret that?”
Hui rolled his eyes. “Literally! I mean—ugh. I mean, if you carry me on your back, I think I can transmit what I see to you! My attacks are too weak to counter his strings, but you should be strong enough.”
“Hop on,” Bai Xue said, gesturing.
“You… how are the two of y...
2022-02-15 00:39:39 +0000 UTC
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Hui glanced back. “We’ve got company.”
Bai Xue snorted. He slammed his foot down, stopped dead and whirled. Waving his fan, he shot a blast of flame up the passage, roaring at the four cultivators.
Hui threw out a pair of talismans after them, and a wooden and shimmering golden barrier filled the passage behind them. His heart quavered. “They’re all third realm, and one of them is at least fourth realm…”
“I’m fourth realm. We have nothing to fear,” Bai Xu...
2022-02-15 00:38:15 +0000 UTC
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“A—after all that?” Hui asked, startled.
Bai Xue shrugged. “We can only enter this inheritance space once in our lives. We might as well take what we can.”
Hui hesitated. “That’s true. You can keep going?”
“I wouldn’t suggest it if I didn’t.” Bai Xue bent and slapped Huang Muwen. He startled and blinked, hazily taking in the scene.
He’s got a point. I want to know more about these red gems, about the ancestor, and about that blood mist boy...
2022-02-15 00:37:16 +0000 UTC
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He burst out into another chamber. Identical to the first, but larger, it sported three full pillars rather than one with two stumps. Red light bathed the chamber. In the rear, the shelf with the gems and the basins let off a shocking red light. Bai Xue approached it, glowing eyes blank. He moved jerkily, his joints stiff. He lifted a leg to climb onto the shelf.
“Bai Xue!” Hui shouted.
Bai Xue turned. Black marks crawled over his face like ants, climbing out from the red glow...
2022-02-12 18:47:07 +0000 UTC
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Hui climbed to his feet and brushed down his robes. He glanced around, then stepped forward toward the stone eye. It stretched two meters tall, wide enough for a man to squeeze through at the narrowest points. Following a strange instinct, he poked the eye in the pupil. The pupil separated from the iris and sank into the stone, then the iris, then the sclera, the three telescoping inward. A heavy thunk rang out, and the three stone slabs rolled to the side, revealing a narrow passage...
2022-02-12 18:46:26 +0000 UTC
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The blood mist’s howling cut off abruptly. Utter silence replaced it, so sudden Hui’s ears rang. His feet echoed hollowly as he stumbled forward a few steps, kicking up dust.
He stood in a vast stone chamber. Torches lit ahead of him, illuminating the center of the chamber. Its walls vanished into the darkness, torches unable to cast their light to the edges. Understated and simple, no decoration nor strange apparitions spread around. If not for the self-lighting torches and his met...
2022-02-10 03:27:28 +0000 UTC
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Chasing after Huang Muwen, Hui and Bai Xue leaped into the valley. Bai Xue brought up the rear, leaving Hui safely encapsulated between the two. For his part, Hui transferred a few talismans into his robes. The high-level talisman he left in his storage ring, unwilling to risk losing it in the inheritance realm.
Howling red mists closed in around them. Strange shapes flickered through the mists. Large shadows loomed, only to dissipate into harmless waves of mist. Sharp edges rushed at t...
2022-02-10 03:26:14 +0000 UTC
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Thump. Thump.
Hui startled awake. His hair stuck to his face, eyes hazy. He yawned and rubbed his face, then stretched.
Ah. I had a good night’s sleep.
…Wait. I slept? I shouldn’t need to sleep anymore. What happened?
He blinked around, and his eyes fell upon the talisman, sitting on the bone floor in front of him. He picked it up. Though inert, the power contained within squirmed at his touch, barely contained between his blood and the...
2022-02-10 03:23:58 +0000 UTC
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Vertebra 60 was a distance up the skeleton. Hui climbed up the bones. They slipped under his feet, the surface smooth and polished. Hui operated his movement technique to maintain his balance, hopping up the bones. I wish I could fly! It would be so convenient to zoom directly to the 60thvertebra, over having to climb forty-odd vertebra to get there!
Ah, oh well. It’s worth it to get away from that Vertebra 108. Up at Vertebra 60, there should be fewer who qualify to chal...
2022-02-06 22:11:59 +0000 UTC
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Running down the skeleton, Hui ducked into his cave. Breath still ragged, he leaned against the cave wall. The bone cooled his heated forehead. He pressed a hand against his forehead and released the ghoul skin, gulping a breath. Grabbing at his robes, he wiped his face. Damn, I’m such a virgin.
“You.”
Hui startled, eyes wide. He stared around the cave.
The reaper girl faded into view. She tossed the red gem at him. “It still has karmic ties to you.”
2022-02-06 22:11:26 +0000 UTC
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Out of the Valley of Beasts. Bai Xue hurtled through the air, toward a higher point on the snake skeleton than Hui had hoped to reach. He flew into his cave and released Hui, stepping back.
“It’s good to see a familiar face,” he sighed, stretching. As he did so, he swapped back to his female form. Red hair turned white, as did red robes.
“I could say the same. How did you end up here?” Hui asked.
“You first,” Bai Xue said, smirking slightly.
Sighing, Hui ...
2022-02-04 23:36:19 +0000 UTC
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Hui raced toward the death qi. As he drew close, he suppressed his qi, hiding his presence. He raced through the forest, ducking branches and leaves, and in no time, came to the edge of a clearing.
In the clearing, a pair of demonic cultivators battled a half-dozen five-meter-tall red gorillas with snake tails and horse manes. Two of them laid on the ground, already dead. Their death qi coiled through the air, slowly dissipating.
Hui’s eyes glimmered. Aha! I don’t have to ...
2022-02-04 23:35:15 +0000 UTC
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Sitting inside his cave, Hui circulated his qi and investigated his new ghoul skin more closely. His qi flowed easily from one shard of flint to the next, confirming his first glance. I already used the flint as a sort of network, but now they’re definitely even more connected.
He held up his hand, clad in ghoul skin, and drew his sword. Lightly, he slashed at the skin.
Nothing.
Eyebrows raised, Hui pushed harder, harder, harder. At last, at the peak of his streng...
2022-02-03 01:35:41 +0000 UTC
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Hui froze in midair. His dantian shuddered, trembling in fear. “E…elder sister?”
“Following me all the way here… you’re a suspicious one, aren’t you?”
“Sus…suspicious?” Hui stuttered. No, no. She means I’m being suspicious of her, not that she’s suspicious of me. Probably.
She advanced toward him, shaking her finger at him. “Did you think I wouldn’t notice? The ghouls, the death qi following me… it’s all quite obvious to a superior ...
2022-01-30 22:16:26 +0000 UTC
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They passed another two coffins. One had a shut lid, and the other laid open and empty, only the sticky remnants of a purple fluid clinging to its corners. Hui kept a healthy distance from both, in case something mysterious and ferocious dwelled in their depths, as well.
At last, Fa Chuyou diverted her course. A light appeared in her eyes, and she hummed to herself, skipping over to a coffin tucked into a nook by the wall. A half-dozen ghouls stood around it, stumbling around. Drawing c...
2022-01-30 22:15:34 +0000 UTC
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Night settled over the demonic sect. A low fog curled around the base of the snake skeleton, casting it in a yet more mysterious air. Shadows moved in the fog, indistinct and faint. Some flitted over the snake’s bones. Others darted in and out of the valleys.
From out of the fog, a soft, gentle woman stepped out of the fog. She glanced around, then knocked on the lowest bone on the snake skeleton. With one last glance around, she hissed, “Xie Hao!”
The bone cave opened abrup...
2022-01-29 15:33:07 +0000 UTC
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Hui stopped dead. “Eh.”
She stepped forward and took his hand. “A death cultivator like yourself, with unprecedented intelligence at such a low realm? If I refined your corpse, I wonder… to what heights could you soar? Please, I’m begging you, Xie Hao. Let me refine your corpse! It’ll be beneficial to both of us!”
“I…” Hui hesitated. Forgive me, I’m not depraved!
She saw the look on his face and shook her head, blushing deeper. “What are you ...
2022-01-29 15:30:02 +0000 UTC
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Chang Bolin’s ghoul leaned toward him, stumbling over his own feet. He stared dully, eyes glazed and white, coated with thick cataracts. His jaw worked slowly. Faintly, his brows furrowed.
“Eh? You already know him?” Fa Chuyou asked, covering her mouth with her hand.
“Ah—ah. Of course. I, ah, death cultivators… you know,” he said, nodding.
She nodded as well. “Naturally, naturally. You’re right. There’s so few death cultivators, it isn’t surprising the ...
2022-01-28 01:03:27 +0000 UTC
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With a friendly wave, Gu Tian left Hui alone on the vertebra. Immediately, Hui felt a hundred predatory gazes land on his shoulders. He glanced left and right, then darted into the immortal’s cave carved into the side of the bone.
The cave only extended about ten meters, the length of the bone. Barren, it sported no decoration or additions. In a few places, mysterious stains marked the walls and floor, and in one place, a deep rift cut into the ceiling. Taking it all in, Hui shivered....
2022-01-28 01:02:38 +0000 UTC
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They zoomed out of the forest, and the demonic sect appeared, laid out before them. A huge snake skeleton curved up from the earth, ferocious and bizarre, hundreds of meters long. Its bones were as white as jade. The smallest of its vertebrae stood as large as a house, the larger ones bigger than the main square of Starbound Peak. The snake’s bones curled in on itself, reared up and ready to strike. Three coils overlapped, looping back over one another. The snake’s skull stood high above ...
2022-01-24 00:34:26 +0000 UTC
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Hui sped through the forest. The two strongest of the life qi cultivators chased after him, both in the third stage. One, the same as him, had cultivation of the low third stage, while the other emanated an aura of mid-third stage. The stronger of the two surged ahead, then waited for the weaker of the two to catch up to him and matched his pace rather than chase ahead.
Clearly, they’re taking me seriously! Are death cultivators that scary? Ah, if only I was a… no, no, no, it’...
2022-01-24 00:33:35 +0000 UTC
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The scene came back into motion. The father stared, looking at the boy, the bloodstained sword, then at his own hands. He screamed in horror and stumbled away.
Halfway through the father’s stumbling, the scene froze. The illusion tore at the corners, breaking apart in black cuts and jags. It distorted, the whole image dragging, then broke all at once with a pop.
Hui climbed to his feet, looking around. As I thought, they didn’t prepare for the illusion to continue after th...
2022-01-22 20:38:23 +0000 UTC
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