Master, This Poor Disciple Died Again Today

Chapter 565: Mental Disarray

The second Hui emerged from the space where he spoke with Qian Liqiu, Huo Fenghuang leaped on him. Fire raged around him, burning bright. “You! What are you trying to do? I should have burned you up the second you arrived.”

“Senior, what have I done? I’m a small cultivator, a mere small cultivator!” Hui cried out pitifully.

She narrowed her eyes at him. “What were you talking about with her? Hmm? Are you going to force me? Hmm….?”

“Ah, but Senior, I’ve also taken on your pain. Senior, am I not helping you? Everything I’m doing is for your benefit. Even if I have to do it against your will,” Hui said seriously, looking into her eyes as best he could from her dantian. The fact that she hasn’t outright attacked or destroyed me yet indicates that I hold something against her. I’m betting it’s the pain! After all, she wasn’t able to be conscious for a long time due to the pain. If I let go, we both know she’s going to go under again. She can’t afford to push me too far.

“How can it be for my benefit if it’s against my will?” she growled.

“Senior, have you never encountered a small child?” Hui asked.

“Comparing me to a small child?” she asked, exasperated.

Hui waved his hand. “My apologies, Senior. I’ve seen Senior’s fetal self several times now, so naturally, I began to think of Senior as a child, although Senior is of course many times my age.”

“Disrespectful,” Huo Fenghuang grumbled. She raised her hand.

The phoenixes called out to Hui. Their qi emanations radiated through him, beating against the circulation of his own qi. He altered his own qi, circulating his death qi and what little life qi he had in time with the emanations. Slowly, they synced up. The two pulses grew closer and closer.

Come on… come on!

Huo Fenghuang’s hand dropped. Fire burned around her palm.

Hui’s qi matched the phoenixes’. Their qi became his, and his became theirs. They swirled freely, perfectly in sync.

Phew. Good thing I have so much practice with dual cultivation. All the other cultivators in this world see it as something strange, but it’s really just cultivating in sync with someone else! There’s nothing lewd about it at all.

Well, it can be lewd, but… that’s a matter of setting, and… but the point is, just because something can be lewd, doesn’t mean it always has to be lewd!

The phoenixes’ screams changed in timber. Suddenly, there was a certain softness to them, a strange joy. Sweetness suffused their voices.

Hui swallowed. Uh… Elder Sisters and Brothers, could you… not?

No, no! It must simply be because they’re finally connected with someone that isn’t Huo Fenghuang after all this time. Yes, yes, that must be it.

Huo Fenghuang stopped. She looked around. “What are you doing? Stop it!”

She reached out to the phoenixes, forcibly clawing them back. Their cries turned back to screams. They struggled, unwilling.

Hui released his hold on her pain. It all crashed down onto Huo Fenghuang. Her focus wavered. In that instant, Hui reached out to the phoenixes again. Once more, they synced up. The phoenixes swirled around him, circulating in and out of his dantian.

We can’t escape this easily. No. As they said, I must fully become one with them.

I must… die.

No. Not die. Experience reincarnation!

The flame qi reached out to Hui’s death qi. Carefully, Hui reached toward it, calling out a small segment. The flame qi jumped to his death qi. Holding his breath, Hui waited for it to die.

The death qi engulfed the flame qi, and it flickered out, turning dark. Hui pressed his lips together. So death qi is still—

The death qi sparked, then leaped back to life.

Hui raised his eyebrows. Curious, he fed life qi into the flame qi.josei

Again, the flame qi consumed it. It burned brighter, leaping directly into life qi. For a while, it glowed as brilliant life qi. The life qi burned hotter and hotter, then set alight once more, turning into flame qi.

Ah! Life qi and death qi can both become flame qi. Putting it another way… flame qi is the intermediary step between death qi and life qi. The intermediary step between life and death! Rather than dying and coming back to life… I’m merely transmuting one type of energy into another!

Energy can be neither created nor destroyed. This… this is eminently logical! And so simple. To rely upon physical laws… no! In cultivation terms, a technique that reveals the truths of the world is a high-level technique indeed! To touch upon the laws of the world… a laws-level technique! Relying upon a simple, basic truth of the world is one of the most powerful things a cultivator can do!

I understand. I can do this!

Hui’s eyes lit up. He nodded. “Your Majesty, Senior, you said that I would have to die? I’m ready.”

Qian Liqiu looked at him, then nodded. She closed her eyes.

The flames began burning hotter. Once more, Huo Fenghuang’s age increased rapidly, as did the phoenixes’. This time, so did Hui’s, all their lives linked together as one.

“What are you doing? Stop it!” Huo Fenghuang howled.

As he grew older, Hui fed his life qi and death qi both into flame qi. He circulated more and more flame qi, until his entire self became one with the flame qi, until his death-qi body instead burned. Little by little, his death qi transmuted to flame qi. Everyone twined together, dying as one.

No. Not as one.

Hui searched through the souls, picking through them one by one. At last, he found one with a different qi signature, a human signature. Huo Fenghuang. With the last remaining bit of death qi, he encircled her and carved her out, singling her away from the mass.

Huo Fenghuang’s eyes widened. She closed her eyes and began to cultivate as well. While Hui matched the phoenixes’ signature, Huo Fenghuang instead forcibly pushed her qi emanations onto them. She broke through Hui’s encirclement and dragged at the phoenixes, calling them to her.

Hui gritted his teeth. Hair flecked with white, his face and hands wrinkled, he shook his head. Not now. I almost—I nearly—

His eyes widened. He lifted his hand and scribbled a talisman on the air. Pressing his palm out, he activated it.

A powerful attack burst out. Vibrations rang through the air, opening voids where they passed. Before the void talisman, both Hui and Huo Fenghuang’s influence vanished. Only the void talisman’s vibrations remained.

Huo Fenghuang furrowed her brows. She changed the speed of her circulation, searching for the frequency to match the void talisman.

Hui instantly jumped to the right frequency, used to the void talisman. The phoenixes followed his lead, all of them syncing together. Only Hui and the phoenixes remained on the same vibration, while Huo Fenghuang struggled on her own.

“Now!” Hui shouted.

Qian Liqiu nodded. Now an ancient, wrinkled old lady with white hair and a body more wrinkles and bones than flesh, she closed her eyes and peacefully passed away.

Hui looked down at his aged, skeletal hands. The flame qi flickered, growing cold, then went dark. He, too, closed his eyes, falling into darkness.

His body fell to ash, falling to the bottom of the barrier with the phoenixes.

“No!” Huo Fenghuag howled. She chased the ash, reaching after it, her own body aged.

The ashes slipped through her fingers. She stared at them, hands shaking. “No. No. No! It can’t be! I won’t allow it!”

The ashes had nothing to say. Inert, they laid there, cold and dead.

Huo Fenghuang stepped back. She waited, watching. Nothing changed.

Abruptly, she threw her head back and laughed. “Failed. He failed! Ha! No one but me can handle the phoenixes. No one but me can absorb the primordial flame!”