35. Artificing and Moving

Light filtered in, the gray glow that passed for dawn in this strange realm fading up the passageway and into Hui’s cavern. He focused on the skin, absorbed in his work. His qi spiraled across it, from one point to the next. Every surface of the skin stood alive with his qi. The spell shimmered, a thousand glowing lines and nodes spiraling across the skin.

He focused, pushing deeper. The qi pulsed, filling the skin from the head to the toes.

Now!

Hui pulled his consciousness out of the skin.

The spell faded. His qi bled from the skin, dissipating faster as it met the remnants of the ghoul’s death qi. Without him to provide constant power, it collapsed in on itself, bleeding qi into the world until there was none left in the skin.

Frustrated, Hui threw the skin on the ground and stood. He paced around the cavern, thinking.

It’s not sticking. Why isn’t it sticking?

There’s something I’m missing. I can’t sense anything else in the pig-skin, but maybe the pig-skin didn’t need it. The pig-skin doesn’t have any death qi, and it’s much smaller than the ghoul’s skin. No… there’s something else. A conduit, maybe, or an anchor… but what could I use for that?

A yawn interrupted his thoughts. Xue sat up, wiping her eyes with her sleeves. Her hood fell back, revealing snow-pale skin and long white hair. She blinked slowly, long lashes fluttering in the low light. “Is it morning?”

The fire moth descended toward her. She held out a hand, and it vanished into her palm, leaving a small reddish mark behind at the base of her thumb.

“Good morning, Xue,” Hui greeted her. He picked up the ghoul’s skin and tied it around himself. For now, I’ll bring it with me. If nothing else, it’s a tough material that naturally sloughs qi. It’ll make for good armor until I can turn it into a proper disguise.

“Are you… wearing that?” Xue asked, mildly disgusted.

Hui glanced down. An arm knotted around an ankle, the ghoul draped bonelessly over him, its floppy, skull-less scalp dangling across his chest. Tattered robes stained from years in the secret realm made his own robes look dingy. Bits of blood still stained its fingernails and lips. A macabre version of a tiger-skin slung over one’s robes, it leant him a demonic air, somewhat horrifying and completely at odds with his handsome face and polite demeanor.

“I don’t have any better armor,” Hui replied, shrugging.

Xue stared at it one more second, then shrugged. “I never thought I’d team up with a demonic cultivator…”

“I’m not a demonic cultivator!” Hui insisted, though it came out a little weaker than before. I am wearing a ghoul’s skin… but, but it’s a ghoul! Not a human skin. It’s fine. It’s like wearing a zombie’s skin. Right?

“As you say,” Xue said lightly, unconvinced. She stretched and headed down the tunnel out of the slate cave.

Hui followed behind her. Despite her bound feet, she moved with grace and speed. The rope gave her steps an odd shuffling sound, and forced her into a strange, almost lurching gait, but for all that, she remained well ahead of Hui.

They came out into the realm. Hui patted his ghoul skin, thoughtful. I have two objectives now: figure out how to refine this ghoul skin, and study death qi. I could try gathering more ghouls, but what if that attracts another undead cultivator? One was enough, thanks.

So… what next?

Temporarily stymied, he turned to Xue. “What did you come to this realm for?”

“You… don’t know?” Xue asked.

“Er, should I?” Hui said.

She shook her head and lifted a hand. Red-painted fingernails pointed dead ahead. “In the heart of this realm is a rare artifact that’s said to allow one a full revival after death up to the fifth realm, so long as the soul is not destroyed. This realm was formed by an ancient master to hide the artifact. The bodies of cultivators who have gone before us, searching for the artifact, populate this realm. Or… so the legend goes.”

Wait, hold up! Revival? I need that artifact! Hui turned toward the center of the realm, suddenly eager. What was I wasting my time on up until now?

“The Mysterious Heavenly Forest Sct has been searching for it for centuries, to no avail. The secret realm only opens once every two hundred years, and it only permits cultivators at the third stage and below inside, or else their higher-realm cultivators would have retrieved it already.”

Hui blinked at Xue. “You’re third realm?” I could have sworn she was fourth realm. I guess I haven’t seen her ride a sword, but… to suppress two cultivators at the third realm as easily as she did… she has to be peak third realm.

Xue’s face twisted. She looked away. “Yes.”

Huh. Hui waited a few more moments, hoping she’d explain, but Xue tossed her hair and pressed on. “We’ve a long way to go, if we’re to catch up with the Mysterious Heavenly Forest cultivators.”

“Right,” Hui agreed, adjusting the ghoul skin around his shoulders. I can study death qi later. First, the revival artifact!

He cast a look at Xue. I can’t hope to beat someone nearly two realms ahead of me, and unlike with Chang Bolin, there’s little chance of goading her into publicly torturing me to give me an opening to defeat her.

Then again, I don’t need the artifact itself.

Hui cleared his throat. “Xue, er, being as we’re both after the artifact.”

She peered over her shoulder. “The artifact that you learned of just now?”

“Yes, that’s the one. Er, being as this small Foundation-Building cultivator couldn’t possibly defeat you, would you grant me the chance to study it, if you won it from this realm?”

“What are you hoping to learn from it? It’s an artifact crafted by a master, someone at a much higher realm than you or me. Even if we tried, we couldn’t possibly comprehend it.”

Hui shrugged. “I don’t need a full comprehension. Even a small insight would be worthwhile to me.”

Xue swept her eyes over him. “If you help me, if I attain the artifact, then I will let you study it. In return, promise me that if you obtain it, you will give it to me.”

“After I study it,” Hui agreed readily. I want to live a long time and enjoy this life. A revival artifact is nice, but both this mysterious Bai Xue and the Mysterious Heavenly Forest Sect want it. Poor little me couldn’t possibly keep it from them. Better to let Xue handle the Mysterious Heavenly Forest Sect, while I glimpse a few of its secrets and bound off back home, unscathed.

“Shall we swear on it? Bind our lives in a formal agreement?” Xue asked, pausing.

Bind our lives? I don’t like the sound of that. That sounds like a loan agreement all over again. Hui shook his head. “I don’t think we need to take it that far. It’s a mere agreement of the willing, right?”

Taken aback, Xue stared at him. “You’d trust a stranger you just met, with no compensation to hold against them?”

“Trust is a strong word. But there’s no reason for either of us to deny the other, right? You get assistance, and I don’t have to worry about you killing me later. There’s no need to make it a binding agreement, because neither of us are harmed by it.”

Xue nodded, slowly. “You’re a strange one.”

She took off again, odd lurching gait eating up the dusty earth. Hui struggled to follow. He fed qi into his legs to speed up, but Xue still pulled well ahead of him.

At the next outcropping, Xue waited for him to arrive. “Why aren’t you using your movement technique?”

“Movement technique?” Hui asked. You think Master taught me a—oh, right, you have no idea who my master is.

She frowned. “Even a Foundation Building disciple should know a movement technique.”

“I agree,” Hui replied, nodding.

Xue frowned at him. “What sect are you from, that you haven’t been taught a movement technique?”

Hui shrugged. “We all have our own… unique situations.”

Xue nodded. “Fair enough.”

Red eyes swept over him. Hui felt revealed to the world, and resisted the urge to cover himself with his hands. After a moment, Xue nodded. “Circulate qi through your eyes and watch my technique, Pond-Reflecting-Moon Waltz. I’ll use a simplified version of it that you ought to be able to follow. At the lower stages, it isn’t far separated from most common movement techniques.”

“Should I bind my legs?” Hui asked, nodding at her ankles.

She flinched. “Ah… no. That’s… an advanced technique. When you copy my motions, take full steps, not my shorter ones.”

Hui nodded. I don’t need Li Xiang’s ability to see through lies to tell she’s hiding something. Still, she’s not from the Mysterious Heavenly Forest Sect and she hasn’t tried to kill me—not only that, allied with me—so I’ll let it be. As I said, everyone has their own circumstances. I haven’t told her all about myself, so it’s understandable she won’t take the first steps.

“Student recognizes teacher.” He bowed formally to her, cupping his fists.

“It’s nothing worth thanking me for. The technique I’m going to teach you is something every cultivator should know. If you can copy the higher levels of the Pond-Reflecting-Moon Waltz without practicing my cultivation technique, then you’re a true genius, and there’s no point trying to keep my clan’s secrets from you in the first place,” Xue replied.

She stretched out to her full height and shook out her hair, eyes locked into the distance. With that, she strode off over the realm. Though the floor remained gritty underfoot, she kicked up no dust as she moved.

He followed after her, carefully watching as she strode away, then copying her motions. Most of the technique was simple enough. Instead of simply feeding qi into his legs, he circulated it according to a particular pattern, winding it through his muscles in a certain order, then recycling it into his body. With that, each step ate up ground, though he appeared to walk little faster than at an ordinary pace. Unlike Xue, he kicked up dust and occasionally stumbled over a block of slate half-hidden in the dirt, but he moved much faster than he had before.

Wind blasted his hair out of his face. His robes fluttered behind him. Hui raced onward, a smile plastered across his face. This—this is what it feels like to be a cultivator!