Hui watched the reaper go and let out a quiet sigh of relief. I didnt get stepped on. Good! What happens once can be taken as happenstance, but what happens twice must happen a third ti, and what happens a third ti is a habit. My step counter is already at one, which ans were on the very brink of being stepped on as a habit!
Wait, no. Im on the brink. Right, right. Im not a set of clones anymore. Just . Just this one .
He glanced up. I could probably grow those seeds into clones, but first off, that fragnted my soul the first ti, so I shouldnt do it again. Secondly, that was with life qi, instead of death qi. Although I can connect to one seed with death qi, Im not a hundred precent sure I can recreate that network with death qi.
And I shouldnt. sneaking out is one thing. Whether the reaper and Zhu Diyu are overlooking it or unaware, Ive successfully escaped to the mortal realm. Pushing it further risks discovery, and risking discovery risks my entire mortal realm escape plan. Although Im not fully escaping death yet, I still want to et my children. Im not willing to risk that for anything.
Once I et my children, though, I can start cautiously exploring the boundaries. But well cross those bridges as we reach them! For now, I need to focus on reaching my children and, of nearly equal importance, not getting stepped on.
Hui started back for his quarters, only to stop dead. His eyes widened. Hold up. Im unsupervised in the Underworld for the first ti! If I gave up on this, Id never forgive myself. Ill have ti to reach the surface using my known thod later, but to assu that I will forever be able to use the sa technique to pierce through to the mortal realm this small Hui isnt that bold! No, no. To ensure that I can continue to wiggle my way out of the Underworld, its ti for this small Hui to explore this hidden realm ahem, the Underworld!
He took off, flying through the low-slung sky of the Underworld. In the space of a few hours, he reached the edge. Turning back, he reached the other edge. By the end of the day, hed circled the space.
Returning to the town, Hui landed, putting a hand on his chin. Yes, I can wiggle out of the Underworld, but but the real question is, why hasnt everyone else? The Underworld is full of cracks. Even if I directly walked out of the Underworld, it wouldnt be surprising. I suppose the reaper walked to the mortal realm by rely walking, but its like a sieve! He looked up, angling his head just right, and caught a glimpse of the mortal realms sky far overhead.
I wonder are they suppressing my Dao not out of aggression or protecting themselves, but perhaps to protect what little remains of the integrity of the Underworld?
Hui bit his lip. He shook his head. I wont give up my Dao. Not for the sake of the Underworld. But I will keep it in mind. After all, I dont want to shatter the Underworld. Its true that every cultivator protagonist must defy the heavens, butbut Im no protagonist! That, and the Underworld doesnt need to be shattered and defied. Its doing its best. Theres already enough ghouls and ghosts in the mortal realm, what with demonic cultivators running wild!
He looked over at the lifeless souls wandering the stony wasteland. Did Zhu Diyu move them here to keep them away from the cracks, instead of to get them to move on to reincarnation?
Hmm. No, I think I think I cant ignore this. Im good at breaking hidden realms, not fixing them, but after Fen Long, Im probably the realms top top er, at least in the top ten best hidden realm experts! I dont want to destroy the Underworld. But right now, I dont know why its riddled with cracks. The first thing I need to do is figure out whats causing it.
And to figure out whats causing it obviously, the first step, is to use those cracks as much as possible, to figure out how they work!
Yes, yes, thats right. Im breaking out of the Underworld to figure out how to fix it! Thats why Im heading to the surface. Thats right, Zhu Diyu. So dont stop . Im doing it for your sake!
Clenching his fist, Hui nodded earnestly to himself. Im escaping the Underworld for the sake of the Underworld!
He glanced around. Did anyone hear that? I want that to get back to Zhu Diyu. He should know! But not not know too much. I dont want him to find out that Im escaping the Underworld if he doesnt know. An unconfird rumor is exactly the amount of knowing it that I want him to have!
A few clerks wandered around, none of them paying any particular attention to Hui. He nodded to himself. Good, good. Alright. Ti to make my way topside.
I could physically leave this space, but Hui shook his head. I dont want to break those cracks wider open. This body is sothing Zhu Diyu created, deeply tied to the Underworld. My soul, being sothing nonphysical and more or less equivalent to a ghost, likely creates less damage to the Underworlds structure. Ill go back to my quarters and ditate.
Besides, its only a small detail, but I dont know how to leave the Underworld with this body yet. I really have to ask Elder Sister Reaper how to do that!
Hui walked back to his quarters and sat down to ditate. He settled his breathing and closed his eyes, calling out to the seeds on the surface. The furthest one, the one closest to the Southern Sect Conference. Thats the one I want to reach!
In his minds eye, the seeds materialized one after another, each one a perfect black. Their distances from one another stretched in his mind, miniaturized to a scale he could comprehend. One stood far, far apart from the others, almost as far apart from the nearest seed to it as the furthest of the rest of the seeds was to the any other but that far-flung seed.
That must be the seed I dropped at the border of the North and East regions. So if I assu thats northeast, then the furthest southern seed must be
He narrowed his eyes at the seed furthest from the far-flung seed. That one!
His soul burst from his body and flew across the void, hurtling toward the seed hed chosen. A dark tunnel swirled around him, faint streaks of light visible in its walls. Hui watched them closely. Are those the cracks in the Underworld? I wonder
Abruptly, Huis direction jolted to the side. He blinked, startled. Huh? Why am I going off-course? I picked the seed, I dont want to go sowhere else! Ill be days behind!
He fought the pull, but the pull proved stronger than him. Hui hesitated, then gave in, playing dead. If the pull is this strong, it might be soone pulling . Better to give in and go limp than to give them signs of life! Theres no fish on the end of this line, Elder Brother! Give up on ! Go fish so other soul up from the Underworld!
A burst of light appeared at the tunnels end. He fell lifelessly toward it. His body impacted sothing, and he jolted, coming to a pale imitation of life.
Silently, Hui peered around.
He laid on the side of a cliff. Rain poured down, and a reddish mud slowly slipped down the side of the cliff. Not a single cultivator, nor mortal, was in sight.
huh. I guess it was nothing? Weird. Waiting another few monts just to be sure, Hui shrugged. Oh well. No ti to waste!
Hui again circulated death qi from the Underworld into himself in the mortal realm, using it to grow the seed into a new body. His body ford quickly, even more quickly than before. In the space of a breath, he went from a seed to a toddler-sized man, from a toddler to child-sized, and finally to full grown.
Sitting up, Hui looked around. Mud slogged down a slope around him, carrying his growing body with it. Roots spread from his body into the mud, stealing nutrients to fuel Huis regeneration. A random mountainside in the middle of a rainstorm. Im in the Eastern region, for certain.
Wait the seed is a death qi seed. How is it absorbing things from this mountain? Unless
Hui jumped up. A distinctive red tint tinged the mud on his hands. Floating in the air, he looked down at the mountain. Red-brown blood slid down the slope. Here and there, rounded white rocks poked through the mud.
Not rocks. Bones. This mountain isnt a mountain at all, but a grave mound.
He closed his eyes and reached out toward the ground. Rich death qi, thicker even than that of the Underworld, swirled into him. Unlike the Underworlds death qi, though, impurities coursed through this death qi. Resentnt, anger and rot qi, which Hui quietly separated out. If only I had the ducks, I could
Quack!
A black duck leaped up and snapped away the rot qi. It circled back into him, vanishing into his dantian again.
Oh! I do still have the ducks. Fantastic! Hui fed the rot qi into the ducks, letting them fill up on it.
But the emotions and impurities in this qi I dont know what to do with them. He regarded the resentnt from the outside, frowning at it. The emotions colored his own, leaving him twisted and uncomfortable, but there was no way to remove them.
At least its easy to separate them from my own emotions. I rarely feel intense anger, and Im careful never to accumulate resentnt! Resentnt and anger are the first steps to losing ones poor little life. Better to play dead and let others anger pass over you, than to act on your own anger!
Eh, I am already dead. So I guess that didnt work out for .
But the point remains! I didnt die because of anger. But I easily could have! And just because I made it back to the mortal realm, doesnt an Ill always be able to. Just because Im dead, doesnt an my soul cant be obliterated. I still have to protect my poor little unlife, and that ans avoiding anger and resentnt!
Ghosts resentnt. The way to resolve that its simple, isnt it? Wipe away the resentnt by resolving whatever they had issue with in life, Hui murmured to himself. He looked at the bones. What is your resentnt?
The bones said nothing.
Hui crossed his arms. He stepped back, viewing the bloodstained and bone-strewn landslide thoughtfully. Hmm, wait. This isnt my resentnt or anger. These bones and my lotus seeds. What if I create a vessel for this resentnt, instead of taking it on myself? Then it can avenge itself, and I dont have to worry about any impurities or backlashes from using this wonderfully thick death qi.
He waved his hand. The bones flew up from the ground. With another wave, he transford them into powder. Slowly, he began to circle his hand in the air, dragging the powder with it. At the sa ti, he fed the anger, resentnt, and death qi into the powder mixture, following the usual technique he used to make a lotus seed.
From out of the bone, resentnt, anger, and death qi, a pure white lotus seed ford. It trembled, shuddering in midair, then burst roots from its heart. Hui released it, letting it fall into the rich red earth below. The roots dug deep into the grave mound, devouring the resentnt and anger left behind in the bloody mound.
Hui happily absorbed the purified death qi, letting the white lotus seed handle the hard work. Wonderful, how wonderful! I shouldve thought of this a long ti ago. Using the lotus seeds to purify impure qi perfect.
Ah, usually the ducks do a good enough job, but what they cant digest, they can only store, like the rot qi. Theyve never tabolized deep resentnt before; I doubt they could.
Actually, arent they a manifestation of Fattys resentnt, originally? So its good I didnt feed it to them. It would be cannibalism, cannibalism!
The white lotus seed twitched. From its heart, a strange form began to take shape.
Hui stepped back, putting a hand on his chin. Wait, hold on. I just gave a body to an imnse amount of resentnt and anger thats been locked in a burial mound for untold centuries. Isnt that usually what B-villains do imdiately before that monster wakes up and ganks them?
The shape trembled. Spikes appeared on its surface. A single pale hand reached up from the seed, then another, then another. A thousand pure-white hands reached for the sky, their fingertips stained with blood and nails blackened and bruised.
Motherfuckoh Hui, oh Hui, you fucked up today! Hui turned and sprinted off, zooming through the sky at top speed. Haha, little resentful seed, its not you want to kill! Its not , I swear! Its whoever put you in that mound. Im just the benefactor who freed you! Leave alone! Hahaha!
A distant roar sounded from the burial mound. Hui swallowed and sped up again. See? What did I say? Resentnt and anger lead to ones death! Even if youre simply passing by, its easy to get wrapped up in soone elses resentnt! Resentnt Seed Elder Sibling, please overlook this small cultivator, okay? I never ant to disturb you! Its fine to go back to sleep!
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