33. You Startled The Ghoul!

The ghoul grabbed his shoulders and went for his throat. Hui backstepped. His heels hit the stone block, and he tripped backward out of the screeching ghoul’s grasp and into the waiting ghouls. They clawed and bit at him. He let his weight carry him past their clumsy grip and plopped down onto the crawler. The crawler groaned.

“Thanks for the assist,” Hui muttered, rolling off the crawler. He jumped back to his feet and faced the screeching ghoul.

The screeching ghoul leaped over the threshold block and rushed at him. Long black nails grew from his fingertips, and he slashed at Hui.

“Oh, hey! You can’t cross that. You’re cheating,” Hui complained. He blocked the screeching ghoul’s claws and backed away, toward the rear of the chamber.

Cold hands closed around his throat from behind. Dammit, the girl ghoul in the back! Frustrated, Hui swept the sword blindly behind him. The lower half of the girl’s body went flying, and the weight on his neck grew heavier.

The screeching ghoul clawed at his chest. Lines of blood soaked into his white robes. It shoved him against the wall with superhuman strength, squishing him against the girl ghoul from behind, and lapped at the blood.

“Get—off!” Hui hammered the ghoul’s head with his sword. It ignored him, greedily licking the blood off his robes. Where its tongue touched, a cold, numb sensation spread into his body. Shit, their saliva has venom!

He drew the wind talisman out of his robe and pointed it at the ghoul. “Activate!”

A blade of wind sliced through the ghouls and bit into the wall, cutting a diagonal slash across either side of the doorway. The ordinary ghouls crumpled, robes slashed through.

The wind brushed the hairs on the shrieking ghoul’s head as if the Boulder-Cutting Wind was a gentle breeze.

It’s an undead cultivator? Shit!

It’s an undead cultivator! Hot damn! Isn’t this my chance to find out about death qi?

Hui lifted a leg and kicked the shrieking ghoul away. It stumbled back, lips painted red with blood. It rushed at him again, but before it could reach, he ducked, flipping the girl ghoul over his head and into the shrieking ghoul’s face.

Thrown off his neck, she flailed randomly and caught onto the shrieking ghoul’s shoulder. Her white eyes locked onto the blood on the shrieking ghoul’s mouth, and she lunged.

Oh. Oh dear. That’s a bit spicy for this poor disciple’s delicate eyes.

The shrieking ghoul shrieked and slashed the girl ghoul to ribbons with its black claws. It wiped its mouth and approached Hui again, slowly, eyes narrowed.

Hui hesitated. He lowered his sword. If it’s an undead cultivator, it might have intelligence. “Elder brother, kindly listen to me. This poor disciple only wants to study death qi. We have no quarrel. In fact, this disciple is even willing to offer his blood in return for the opportunity to—”

The shrieking ghoul launched at him, darting across the room.

So much for that. He parried its blows, barely able to keep up with the ghoul’s speed. With a forceful slash, he parried the ghoul’s hand upward and managed to land a blow on its body, only for the sword to bounce off its skin. Hard! Is it a body-cultivating undead? Or… maybe it was before it died?

The cold in his chest spread deeper into his body with every motion. The longer he fought, the faster the ghoul moved.

They parted. Hui wiped sweat off his brow and shook his head. Two copies of the shrieking ghoul wavered before him, two images overlapping, separating, overlapping again. He’s not moving faster. I’m poisoned and tired, and he’s an inexhaustible monster.

Zhubi hissed in his ear, concerned.

“I’m fine,” Hui replied. He pressed a hand against his chest. The blood wouldn’t stop flowing. His limbs felt heavy. The world shifted around him, wobbling gently off its axis. Seems like… a depressant, an anti-coagulant, and… some kind of mild hallucinogenic? Fuck. I need to cleanse my blood. If I could sit still and meditate for a minute, I’d be fine, but… elder brother here isn’t going to let me, is he?

He reached into his robes and drew out the second talisman, the one that felt like fire. Xixing said they’re weak to fire. I want to copy this one like I did the wind talisman, but—it’s my poor little life at stake here! Faking my death will do me no good. Elder brother ghoul won’t stop trying to eat me just because I died!

Dammit. I’m throwing away my best chance to study death qi… but there’s no use studying it if I die in the process!

He pointed the talisman at the ghoul, then hesitated. The ghoul slashed with its claws. He darted to the side, thinking. Its claws grazed his arm, drawing fresh blood.

The other attack washed off him without hurting him. My sword bounced off his skin. He’s an undead, so qi is weak against him, and his skin poses as a natural armor on top of that. This talisman represents my only fire attack and my only chance at victory. I don’t know what the final talisman does, and there’s no guarantee it’ll effect the ghoul. My swordplay is… lacking, not to mention my fatigue and the ghoul’s poison. I have to make sure this hits home!

Hui glanced at his bleeding arm. He sheathed his sword. Smearing the knuckles of his bleeding arm with the blood on his chest, he held out his fist to the ghoul. “Here! You want blood? Take it!”

The ghoul lunged. It grabbed his arm with both hands and stuffed his hand into its mouth. Sharp teeth bit into Hui’s flesh.

Hui winced. He opened his hand and pointed the talisman at the back of the ghoul’s throat. “Activate!”

Fire blasted through the ghoul. Its chest and neck glowed with light from the inside out. The fire hit the bottom and bounced back, roaring past Hui’s hand and into the ghoul’s skull. He yanked his hand out, a second too late. Red, seared skin blistered before his eyes.

The ghoul reached for him. Eyes burned out from the inside, bones rattling in its skin, it lurched a step forward, then let out a black, sooty breath and collapsed.

Hui drew the blood-red pills from his sleeve and tossed back two of them. The cuts sealed over, and his blistered hand began to heal. The remains of the other ghouls clawed toward him, the ones that hadn’t died in the blast of wind. Exhausted, Hui drew his sword. As they came for him, he sliced their heads from their necks, one at a time. One at a time, the ghouls’ eyes went dark, and they fell still.

Wobbling, Hui backed up until his back hit the wall, then slid down it. Slumped over, he made a halfhearted attempt to circulate his qi. The ghoul’s venom lulled him down toward sleep.

I’m… on the right side of the threshold stone. I should be… okay.

Unless another undead cultivator…

…I’d be screwed anyways.

Hui shut his eyes and gave in to sleep.