644. Absorbing Ghosts (Patreon)

The yin-elemental woman impacted Hui’s chest. He jolted backward, his eyes half-closing. Icy cold shocked through his body, freezing him to the core. A shiver ran through him from head to toe, freezing his entire body.

The second she entered him, she began infiltrating him. Icy cold yin, colder than anything he’d felt so far, filled up his qi passages, his meridians, his dantian. His body temperature dropped yet again. Ice began coating his body, creating a hard, transparent shell around him.

“Gui Hui!” Freed from the woman’s hand now that she’d entered Hui, Meimei raced to Hui’s side. She reached for his hand, but ice already covered him entirely. Sobbing, she threw her arms around him. “Gui Hui, why? Why sacrifice yourself for me?”

Eyelids twitching under the ice shell, Hui gave no response.

“Gui Hui…” She sniffled and settled down beside him, putting her hand on his.

Yin fully permeated Hui’s body. No trace of yang remained. His eyelids shot open, and he went to stand, cackling in the woman’s voice. “Yes… yes! A youthful and powerful body! I’ve—”

A soft cough interrupted her, coming from Hui’s throat the same as her voice.

She blinked. “What?”

“Er, Elder Sister, you may have taken my body, but—but, damn, thank goodness Bai Xue isn’t here…”

“But… what?” the woman asked. She turned her qi inward, searching for the last traces of the disciple she’d taken over. I failed to replace a mere fourth stage cultivator? Impossible!

“I’m sorry, but it is possible.” Hui drew his phoenix fire from his soul and introduced it to her yin qi. It’s time to use phoenix fire to change all her yin to yang!

The woman screamed. She struggled, fighting to escape Hui. A ghastly transparent version of the woman pulled away from Hui, no longer beautiful but monstrous, her body ruined by frostbite and years of desiccation under the ice. “You won’t defeat me so easily! I’m much more powerful than you.”

Hui’s body closed its eyes once again. The transparent woman pulled out halfway from his chest, her lower half still stuck inside him. The ice built up more thickly over his body, but now, it caught the woman as well.

“Are you?” Hui asked gently, using his mental energy to speak directly to her. Quietly, oh so quietly, he revealed his true cultivation level to the woman. At the same time, he flicked his fingers. She appears to be a ghost of some sort, so let’s ensnare her with life qi. An arc of golden light swirled around the woman’s transparent body, calling it back to him.

The woman trembled. She stared at Hui in fear. “Why…? Why?”

“Er, Elder Sister, we all have goals of our own,” Hui said. Pulling her back into his body, he once more introduced his phoenix fire to her yin.

The woman pulled her qi away from his. “I might be weak, but I still have a few tricks!”

“Oh? I thought you were strong?” Hui asked, tilting his head. Hmm, I should destroy her mind first and effectively kill her through destroying her soul. Once I do that, I can treat what remains as a repository of yin qi and freely experiment with yin and yang.

Ah… not that I’m as villainous as that made me sound like! No, no. She attacked Meimei first and attempted to take over her body. This is just retribution for her foolish actions! If she hadn’t attempted to take over Meimei, she wouldn’t be in danger now.

As for retribution for killing her… well, I basically can ignore that! After all, it’s Tseng Caihong who locked her here. If anyone is to blame for her death, is it this small, cute disciple who couldn’t hurt a fly, or the fearsome and formidable Tseng Caihong? Obviously, it’s Tseng Caihong! Wouldn’t it be insulting to blame this mysterious Senior’s death on a weak bug like myself?

Although… I can’t overlook people choosing to blame the weak cultivator for their friend’s death, assuming this Senior still has living friends. But since it’s only myself and Meimei who know of this Senior’s death, I think I shouldn’t be in too much danger if I destroy her!

So decided, Hui turned his attention to the yin-elemental woman. Wielding life qi in one hand and phoenix fire in the other, he slashed out at her.

“No! Stop! Wait. There’s so much I can teach you!” the yin-elemental woman shouted.

Hui hesitated. “Like what?”

Squeezing away from him in the bounds of the life qi net he drew around them, she gave him a look. “You’re still young, but soon, you will become an adult. I can teach you in the bedroom arts. You’ll be able to conquer every woman you—”

Hui sighed. He lifted the life qi and the phoenix fire again.

“Wait wait wait! It might not sound interesting now, but when you’re older—!”

Glancing aside to make sure Meimei couldn’t hear—thank goodness, we’re in my thoughts— Hui sighed. “Elder Sister, how many people have you slept with?”

“How rude!”

“You’re offering me bedroom arts, but you won’t tell me how many people you’ve slept with? Is that not the ideal way to practice bedroom arts? Am I meant to learn bedroom arts from someone who’s never experienced the bedroom?” Hui asked, crossing his arms.

She pursed her lips, then shook her head. “I’ve slept with hundreds. Kings, emperors, sect masters, all manner of powerful men and—”

Hui shook his head disappointedly. “Elder Sister, one of my wives has a harem in the thousands and the ability to swap genders to know what it feels like, so they can perfectly pleasure anyone they so desire. I’ve already experienced bedroom arts beyond your wildest dreams. If you wish to offer me techniques, please use more creativity.”

The yin-elemental woman gaped at him for a moment, then regathered herself. “Yin techniques! You—you’re secretly a man, right?”

“It’s only a secret from you,” Hui admitted, shrugging.

“Well, well, you still don’t know how to wield yin! I can teach you. I can teach you!” she offered.

Hui looked at her yin energy. “I think I’ll learn from someone who isn’t trying to take over bodies, thank you.” Letting someone who’s trying to use her yin qi to destroy my body and take over my soul teach me use yin is a recipe for disaster! The only one who’d take her up on that is the braindead wife of a cultivation novel’s protagonist, the kind of pathetic wife who can’t do anything but constantly get rescued from her own bad decisions!

Hmm, I’m quite glad my wives are both competent! I would struggle to rescue anyone, let alone rescue two women at once!

Besides, at the end of the day, I’m quite used to learning on my own anyways. I’m sure I’ll figure something out!

“Wait, wait!” she shouted, backing away.

“No more waiting.” Hui flicked his hand, closing the life qi net around her. He squeezed, filtering the yin energy out of her soul and collecting it with the rest of the yin energy he’d stolen from her.

She screamed, struggling like a fish out of water. The net grew tighter and tighter “No! Let me out! I can, I can teach you, I have so much to teach you—”

“I doubt it. Unless it’s trying to take over bodies, and…” Hui snorted. “I’ve already experienced multiple bodies for long enough for this lifetime.” He clenched his hand tight, closing the net around her. Life qi sliced her into squares. Before she could so much as attempt to reform, he chased after her with the phoenix fire. Flames raged over her body, turning her yin to yang. Without yin, her power diminished to almost nothing. When naught but a bare pale ghost remained, Hui plunged it into a ball of life qi and watched until her soul dissipated.

He let out a sigh. Phew. It’s been a while since I’ve killed someone powerful enough that it required multiple steps to kill them. Thankfully, I have all kinds of ghost-killing techniques. I’m practically a perfect counter to ghosts!

But… what do I do with all this yin? There’s too much of it. I’ll never be able to revert to yang form with this much yin, and it seems wasteful to use phoenix fire to burn it all to yang, when this is rare pure yin.

Hui’s eyes turned upward, to the seal Jizhi Zhimei had set on his forehead. He quickly surged into it, investigating its structure. I see, I see. It’s actually simple. A seal is nothing more than a barrier for energy. In the end, as long as I create a double-sided talisman barrier, I can use it to seal yin energy within it.

The trouble is compressing the yin enough to fit it within the small space. Hui circulated the yin around him. He spun it faster and faster, drawing it down, down, down, looping the yin in on itself as if he was coiling a hose. The yin began circulating itself, and as it circulated itself, it tightened down into a kind of bead, perfectly ice cold.

Which qi type to use to lock it? Life qi? …no, it doesn’t seem right. Phoenix fire? Ha, I’ll ruin it. At best, the two will mix and create less pure yin qi, at worst, it’ll simply burn it to yang, exactly what I don’t want. Death qi… it’s cold and dark, like yin energy, but it’s corrosive. Rot qi is even more corrosive, so that’s out. What does that even leave? Hui frowned, a hand on his chin.

A second later, Hui rolled his eyes at himself. Ordinary qi, obviously!

Quickly, he drew a pair of barriers talismans on his forehead, just to the side of Jizhi Zhimei’s seal, then swirled the yin bead between the barriers. Snapping his fingers, he activated the barriers. They glowed for a moment, then settled into place, sealing the yin beside Jizhi Zhimei’s beauty qi.

Hmm. Beauty, yin… I need some more manly techniques! Maybe I should go see that mobile game swordsman cultivator or the body cultivator. After all, didn’t the Tier Masters all want to teach me? I might as well learn as much as I can!

Hui opened his eyes. He stood up, shattering the ice from his body.

Meimei jumped, startled. “Eh? Gui Hui?”

“Yes, that’s me,” Hui said, smiling.

“She didn’t take you over?” Meimei asked.

Hui patted his forehead. “I absorbed her yin and destroyed her soul.”

“Oh,” Meimei said. She brightened. “Can you defeat the demons now?”

Hui coughed. Er, should I say I’m already strong enough to defeat Ai Tuzi, and I have been the whole time? Ah… probably not. “I don’t know. I suppose we, er, we could find out?”

Meimei nodded. She jumped up and ran off, back up the ice caves toward the entrance. “Let’s go back and tell the others the good news!”

“Wait, wait, we can’t know if I can—Meimei, wait!” Hui chased after her, hurtling through the palace.

At last, they reached the top of the palace again. Meimei walked alongside Hui, humming quietly to herself while her fingers played an invisible zither.

Hui sighed regretfully, looking over his shoulder. Ahhh, so much loot I’m leaving behind! Loooot, I’m sorry, I’ll be back for you later! He rubbed his hands together, creating a lotus seed, and tossed it into one of the rooms.

A lotus seed in the yin valley, one in Jizhi Zhimei’s pond, now one here… I’m going to need all my clones to loot this place by the end of it!

I wonder if I could safely call them forth again? I’m seventh stage now, and I have a nascent soul. I can split off bits of my mental energy and qi safely without splitting my soul now. I even drew forth Mortal with no issues earlier. Something worth considering for later.

The light of the entrance warmed the ice palace. Meimei sprinted ahead. “Everyone! We can defeat the demons!”

“Meimei, hold on!” Hui called. Hey! Don’t sign me up for that yet! I haven’t decided if I want to be fifth stage yet!

“Listen—” Meimei abruptly fell silent, frozen in the doorway.

Hui stumbled into her. “Meimei, what—”

Ai Tuzi stood over the disciples, her sword bared and bloodstained. The disciples laid on the floor around her. Tian Mo huddled over some of the weaker ones, blood dripping down his robes. A half-awake Zhang Zhisho spread her long arms over the other disciples, toughened limbs riddled with wounds.

“Ah. There they are,” Ai Tuzi said, chuckling.

Meimei staggered back, eyes wide. Hui trembled, desperately wishing to play dead.

Oh, fuck this.