693. Welcome to Hell, Act 2 (Patreon)

Hui died. Fully and truly. Immediately, his soul descended to the Underworld.

As it did, he reached out to his body, and gripped Tseng Caihong’s soul through his body. Not expecting an attack directly on her soul, Tseng Caihong jolted. Eyes wide, she lifted her foot to kick his hold free. Too late. Hui descended toward the Underworld, and Tseng Caihong fell with him, tied up in the inexorable pull.

“Useless. I’m a living soul. I’ll be expelled. Even if you trap our bodies in the Underworld, my soul will escape and continue to seek my path,” Tseng Caihong harrumphed, though a note of doubt sounded in her voice.

Hui cleared his throat. “My apologies, Elder Sister, but I’ve been a dead soul in the land of the living all this time. You can remain far longer than one might expect, under the right conditions.”

“Not to mention, Weiheng Hui is the Owner of the Underworld,” the reaper reminded her.

Tseng Caihong whirled. “Who is she?”

“Ah, the reaper, merely the reaper. No need to be afraid,” Hui said quickly.

“Why would I fear a mere mortal like her?” Tseng Caihong asked.

“Is that how I look to you?” The reaper chuckled, amused more than anything. She nodded at Hui. “As you requested, everything has been prepared, my lord.”

“I’m no one’s lord,” Hui demurred quickly.

They landed in the empty space where the Night Market had once been. Between the rocky sky and rocky earth, empty booths and abandoned buildings stood, no longer populated by a single unliving thing. Hui and Tseng Caihong descended to the earth in the abandoned center square. They landed opposite each other, Hui with his back to the Black Dragon’s brothel, Tseng Caihong before a soup stand.

Hmm, they did a good job of rebuilding the place, Hui noted quietly. It’s a pity we’re going to destroy it. Ah, though I think… that might be best. It’s better to have no Night Market, than to have so many lost souls unable to reincarnate.

Tseng Caihong’s eyes glimmered with white and pastels, no longer vividly spiraling with color. Opposite her, Hui stood quietly, his hands behind his back.

She looked down at him. “For all your scheming, here we stand. You are still far, far weaker than me, and I can still destroy you with a mere thought. So. What is your master plan?”

Hui reached into his sleeve. Very deliberately, he drew out a large pill. Lifting it toward his lips with great ceremony, he opened his mouth.

“I only have one option left,” he said, dangling the pill over his lips. “To use this pill to bolster my cultivation to the next level, unlock all my potential, and push me to a high enough realm to be able to destroy you!”

Tseng Caihong’s eyes widened. She stepped forward.

Yes! Take the bait! Hui lowered the pill toward his mouth. “All my hopes ride on this pill. But fortunately, I have this pill, and I can guarantee your destruction!”

A flash of light crossed the room. Tseng Caihong snatched the pill out of his hand and swallowed it, smirking at him. “Now there’s nothing you can do.”

“No, no!” Hui said, backing away. Internally, he grinned, excited from the bottom of his heart. She fell for it! Excellent. At best, that pill burns potential. At worst, it’s some fierce poison developed by Xi Sanji. Either way, everything I said remains true! That pill was indeed the lynchpin to Tseng Caihong’s destruction!

Before his eyes, Tseng Caihong’s cultivation power hurtled upward. Her muscles swelled, and her body began to glow. She looked at her hands and flexed them. “Indeed. A miraculous pill.”

Hui’s eyes widened. Fuck. Don’t tell me, is Xi Sanji now a capable pillmaker? I know she received enlightenment, but I assumed she went right back to her old form when I saw that misshapen pill. Did I really destroy my hopes of victory with that ploy?

Er, whoops. Can I get a do-over?

In another flash, Tseng Caihong closed in on Hui. She grabbed his robes and pulled him close, gazing into his eyes. The pale colors in hers danced with joy. “I’m going to enjoy absorbing your potential. And when I’m done, I’m going to go back and absorb every person who took your side in that battle. I’m sure I’ll have enough time to live once I absorb the Southern Sect Conference and the traitorous parts of Eight Tiers Palace.”

“Er… please have mercy?” Hui tried.

Tseng Caihong lowered her hand toward his head. “No.”

The barrier on his head flickered. Her grip broke it, but it reformed a moment later. Rather than give up, she simply clenched her hand again, and again, and again. Without the chaos of battle, nothing kept her from killing the barrier over and over again until it shattered entirely. Power buffed by the pill, she burned through the layers of his barrier in no time flat.

Xi Sanji! I apologize for underestimating your enlightenment! You seemed so stubborn, though. How could you betray me by actually learning to listen to people the one time I gave you some advice? Noooo! I truly made a great mistake. Ah, I’ll regret this until the end of my days—

Tseng Caihong jolted. She stumbled back. Her body withered rapidly. At the same time, brilliant seven-colored flames raged from her shoulders, and her eyes quickly grew pale.

Hui’s eyes widened. Xi Sanji! I knew I could count on you!

Frowning, Tseng Caihong put a hand to her stomach. “What did you do? What’s in that pill?”

“Elder Sister, I’m not sure the one who brewed it knows,” Hui returned. He elegantly stepped atop a sword and flew into the air, looking down on her from above. “Elder Sister, you said earlier that everything that’s been taken from you, you can regain. But I ask you, Elder Sister. Can you regain it, when there’s nothing for you to absorb?”

She laughed. Jumping up from the floor, she grabbed his head and smashed it into the rock floor. “I can absorb you.”

The Hui in her hands died. Her brows furrowed. Hui’s body paled under her hands, but the soul that escaped remained largely intact.

Floating up to the ceiling again, Hui looked down at her. “The first time I died in Eight Tiers Palace that you knew of, you didn’t bother to put my body in your gel, despite knowing I had the greatest potential of all your disciples in years. That gave me the idea, but I confirmed it with the ghouls and ghosts. When we’re dead, you can’t absorb as much of our potential. Certainly, you tossed my body into the gel that one time when I died next to your pile, but even then, I barely lost any potential until I returned to life.”

“I’ll simply absorb it from your soul,” Tseng Caihong snarled, leaping up to grab Hui.

Hui threw his hands out. The void talisman formed before his hands, and the attack slammed out, forcing Tseng Caihong back. Behind the attack, he slipped away from her, using the voids to block her sight of his motion.

“Your eyes can’t pierce the void, can they?” he guessed aloud. “You couldn’t see what I did within that space, or on the other side of it, and neither did you leap to punish the beasts or the pill cultivators. You failed in comprehending your path of vision at the piercing the void realm.”

“Shut up!” Tseng Caihong fell back, letting his attack die out before lunging again.

Absorbing the death qi in the area, Hui fired off another attack. “You can absorb no potential here, while I continuously absorb the death qi. One of us can continue forever.”

“I’ll absorb you. Then I’ll break free of this pitiful realm and race back to the mortal realm to absorb your friends and family and everyone else, and use that power to burst into the Immortal Realm!” Tseng Caihong declared. Pure white, her eyes faded, clouding over. She clawed at him.

“It’s good to have dreams, Elder Sister. It’s what separates humans from beasts,” Hui responded, flying out of her reach.

“I still have years of potential. I’ll destroy you in that time,” Tseng Caihong snarled.

“Do you?” Hui questioned, tilting his head. “Elder Sister fought hard today, and burned your potential with Xi Sanji’s pill, too. You can’t have long left.”

Rather than reply, Tseng Caihong jumped at him again.

“Shall we greet eternity together, Tseng Caihong? Ah, of course, it shall be two different kinds of eternity,” Hui mocked her, a bit of a grin on his face.

Her eyes narrowed. Tseng Caihong whirled around. Her hand landed on Hui’s foot.

Unhesitatingly, Hui launched the void attack at his foot and Tseng Caihong’s hand. Voids opened in both alike. Tseng Caihong screamed and yanked her hand back, and Hui retracted his foot. Holes opened in his foot, but he quickly healed it by circulating his death qi. He fled out of her easy reach. “Elder Sister, face death with dignity.”

“Rich, coming from you,” the reaper commented, standing overhead.

Tseng Caihong’s eyes widened. She lunged for the reaper.

Her hand passed directly through. Mildly amused, the reaper sat down in mid-air. “If you won’t let me touch you, what makes you think you can touch me?”

“I’ll get you. I’ll get you both,” Tseng Caihong snarled.

Wrapping himself in a few barriers, Hui sat down and crossed his legs. Tseng Caihong immediately attacked him, but at her weakened level, her cultivation plummeted, and she no longer could crush his barrier with each blow. Within the barriers, Hui continued to draw barrier talismans, layering the barriers over one another.

Now all I have to do is wait.