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Chapter 378: Snake Wine
Oh? Dont you worry. Youll distill into a fine wine, too. A giant hand closed around Hui and lifted him into the air.
Hui struggled, desperately fighting against the hand, but it held him tight. His fists bounced off its flesh like stone. He dragged out a void talisman and pointed it directly at the hand, but the hand didnt flinch. Eyes still sealed shut, Hui couldnt tell if hed done any damage to the hand, but when he patted it, the skin remained intact.
Dammit! How high-realm is this senior? Is she at Chen Wuyas level? Or maybe higher?
He struggled harder. The hand shook him. Enough of that.
As soon as it shook him, Hui stopped struggling. Killing his qi, he retracted his awareness to his core. His body stopped moving, and his heart stopped beating. Introducing a tiny scrap of his soul to his death qi, he exuded an aura of death alongside an aura of soul death.
The hand stopped. Eh? Hes dead?
After a moment, the entire world lurched as the giant shrugged. Oh well. As long as hes freshly dead, the wine should still taste fine. A pity about his cultivation level, though. Fifth-realm cultivator wine isnt a delicacy you come across every day, after all.
The hand released him. Hui tumbled through the air and splashed down into thick, sweet liquid. At last, whatever force had held his eyes shut vanished, though, committed to playing dead, Hui didnt open them or exert any force whatsoever over his body. He drifted down into the wine, pretending to be no more than a corpse.
You know, Im starting to feel like maybe Fen Long locked these people up for a reason, Hui mused as he floated in alcohol. Honestly, compared to Chen Wuya, this woman might be worse. At least Chen Wuya just wants to beat people up, and mostly Fen Long, at that. This womans brewing people into alcohol!
The sound of heavy footsteps echoed off into the distance. Hui floated there for another few seconds, then opened his eyes and released his hold on his qi.
The second he released his qi, his qi began pouring out of him. The alcohol leached it out of him, sucking it hungrily out of his body. In a bare moment, all the excess energy hed gathered vanished, devoured by the alcohol.
Whoa! Hui pulled his qi back, killing it down again. His qi stopped pouring out of him. The alcohol kept lapping at his body, searching for his qi, but Hui kept a tight hold on it, desperately holding back. He stared around, searching through the alcohol. Zhubi, is Zhubi okay
Calm down, Hui. Zhubi is the master of playing dead! You are but the student! Hell also be able to kill his qi. Hell be fine, as long as I retrieve him before that crazy senior drinks him up!
Hui carefully adopted a lotus pose, mindful not to exude any extra qi. Even moving his body as a mortal would mobilized his qi enough for the liquor to sap it away. Horrified, he tightened his grip on his qi, only allowing the absolute minimum out. Even then, the liquor remained at the verge of his consciousness, desperately sucking at every drop it could reach. Hui kept drawing his qi back until it finally stopped stealing his qi, but at that point, he couldnt extend anything out of his core. He hesitated, then reached enough qi out of his dantian to circulate it to his eyes. At the very least, I need to see. Even if the alcohol is going to devour my qi, I can handle it at the level of being able to see.
So. Where am I?
A thin golden tinge colored the liquor Hui hung in, the same exact color as his life qi. Hui frowned. Is that because of my life qi that its gold? This liquor is terrifying!
If I could steal it, it would make an excellent weapon! Imagine splashing this liquor on someone in the middle of battle. It would essentially be an instantaneous cancel!
I mean I need to remove this dangerous liquor from the hands of this malicious senior before she throws someone else in here. Like Li Xiang! How terrible would it be if she tried to bottle Li Xiang?
Actually... wait. Is this giant the mysterious senior I was dealing with earlier? The cute voice is the same, but well, that mysterious senior had normal-sized legs, and her voice didnt reverberate like this ones does. Besides, Li Xiang and her vigilantes have been living in this space for a long time, and no one mentioned disappearances in the village. Maybe this is an echo of the senior, trapped in this infinite space?
An echo or a heart-demon?
Hus heart jolted. He licked his lips, then regretted it as a bit of the alcohol flowed in and sapped his qi from inside him. If its a heart-demon, its enormous. Many times the size of the actual senior. Could it be that this senior was overcome by her heart-demon after whatever fighting happened, and lost herself to liquor? Then, perhaps the reason why she wants to stay in this realm is because the space traps her heart-demon, and allows her to continue living as herself, even if only in a limited form, unable to ever leave this secret realm again.
I really have to revise my view of Fen Long. Doesnt it seem like hes trying to rehabiliate these mysterious seniors? In Chen Wuyas case, he wanted Chen Wuya to pick something other than the sword. Metaphorically speaking, was he asking Chen Wuya to consider peace rather than bloodshed? Ah I feel kind of guilty about breaking Chen Wuya out, in that case. He certainly refused to learn that lesson.
Then, in this case, is it rehabilitation? Is there something the senior can do to eliminate her heart-demon something she is, perhaps, unwilling to do? But what would that be? She doesnt seem stubborn like Chen Wuya, unwilling to learn her lesson. If anything, she seems grateful to have this space, since shes happy to live here and keep her heart-demon locked up. In that case, whats so horrible about this situation that she refuses to rehabilitate herself and instead chooses to keep her heart demon alive, if locked up, rather than remove it and exit this space?
Maybe Im wrong, and she cant be rehabilitated. Maybe it isnt that she doesnt want to, but that she simply cant. Still I think its a theory worth exploring.
But first, I need to find Zhubi!
He peered through the alcohol, carefully examining the outside world. He hung in a glass liquor bottle, and all around him, strange things hung suspended in other bottles of liquor. Precious herbs, strange treasures, the corpses of various spirit beasts and cultivators, all hung in clear liquor. The cultivators wore ancient robes, torn and tattered, and the spirit beasts corpses had degraded heavily, bits of flesh peeling off to reveal the bones beneath.
Hui widened his eyes. All those treasures
No, Hui, dont be stupid. The liquor will have sapped all their qi away long, long ago. By now, theyll be nothing but mortal items, with nothing special about them but their appearance. The only prize here is the liquor.
Hmm, aside from us, it seems like no ones stumbled in here in a long time. But wheres Zhubi? Zhubi Zhubi
A huge snake caught his eye, half-coiled in a huge bottle of liquor across the room from Hui. He squinted through the liquor. Pale scales belly up Hes resumed his true form for some reason, but otherwise thats got to be Zhubi, right?
Alright. So Zhubis over there, and Im over here. First, Ive got to get out of this liquor. He kicked his legs, swimming upward. Qi sapped out of his body, sinking into the liquor around him. Hui wrinkled his nose, annoyed. Cut me a break, senior! Come on! Cant it stop trying to kill me for ten seconds?
Floating around, he stared above him. Thats a long way up, and it looks like theres a cork. Should I break the glass instead?
Rogues voice sounded in his mind. Eh, maybe now isnt the right time to say it, but youd make a great weapon right now. Imagine! All we have to do is put our hand on an enemy and send them to your side, and the liquor takes care of the rest.
What about Zhubi, though? Mortal pointed out, concerned.
Okay, modification. Sectgoer rescues Zhubi, then hangs out in Zhubis liquor, Rogue suggested.
I am slowly losing qi, you know, Hui pointed out, annoyed.
We can send you qi. Like we do with First! Rogue said, excited.
Hui rolled his eyes. I have better things to do than hang in liquor all day.
Like what? Hold hands with Li Xiang? Rogue asked.
Rogue, calm down. Sectgoer, youll be more use to us outside of the liquor than inside it. But I dont suppose you could take some of that liquor with you? Healer asked.
Id love to. But where should I put it? Hui asked.
Healer paused. We could drain it into our dimensional ring.
What if it negates the enchantment, though? Peak Lord pointed out.
What about the blood qi gem? What happened to that? Healer asked.
Hui considered. What if we need blood qi for Jin Xian, though? The liquor will destroy any qi we put it in. Or absorb it.
There was silence as they all considered it.
Im generally against drunken jiangshi, Healer said.
I think were all in agreement there. But does she need the blood qi anymore? Rogue argued.
Actually, if we put the liquor in the blood qi, theres a good chance well just end up with blood-qi-flavored liquor, and no one wants that. Besides, didnt we lock someone in that gem? Hui said.
Did we?
We might have.
Uh maybe they were already inside when we got the gem?
No, we definitely put someone in there. A ghost of some sort.
Oh well. I guess he lives there now.
In any case, we should probably leave the blood qi gem alone. Can anyone buy a new spatial treasure that we can put the liquor into? Hui asked.
Give me a moment Healer said.
Hui floated in the liquor. Any second now.
