Decaying World

Lin Hui had expected the Lin siblings wouldn't stay long, but he hadn't anticipated they would plan their departure so soon.

Over the past year, he had been gathering intelligence on the Clear River Sect. Unfortunately, ever since their two branch halls were annihilated, the sect had vanished without a trace, going completely silent.

This stirred a desire in Lin Hui to construct his own intelligence network. However, lacking trustworthy personnel meant that even with money, he couldn't leverage his advantages.

Aside from this, everything else was proceeding smoothly.

Body Tempering via the Typhoon Sword Technique had successfully reached the Third Rank. The False Enactment Art had also broken through the introductory stage, successfully condensing the so-called Void Terror Spirit, and his consciousness had been drastically strengthened.

The evolution timeline for the Star Breath Sword Canon had been successfully shortened from February of the 35th year to January of the 24th year.

This was because, in addition to the methodical consumption of medicine to accelerate progress, Lin Hui had continuously consumed resources like Spirit-Enriching Reishi and Purple Cloud Reishi whenever he found them.

Furthermore, his constitution, strengthened by Purgatory, had changed, increasing his tolerance limit. The monthly limit of medicine he could consume rose to an amount capable of offsetting eight months of Blood Seal time.

These were all positive changes, indicating that Lin Hui’s strength was steadily and significantly advancing.

But there was always a downside... Sighing again, Lin Hui’s figure flickered as he left the banquet hall, passed through the corridor and garden, and arrived outside a bedroom that emitted a thick scent of medicine.

"Where is Brother Xue?"

He looked at the disciple Chen Xiangzhi guarding the door. As Xue Meng’s Eldest Disciple, he shared the deepest bond with his master.

"Master just had his medicinal meal..." Chen Xiangzhi’s eyes were swollen; he had obviously been crying.

"I'll go in and take a look," Lin Hui said.

"En." Chen Xiangzhi stepped forward to help open the door, letting Lin Hui inside.

Xue Meng lay on the bed, haggard and withered. Compared to his vigorous, muscular appearance from over a year ago, he was now frailer than an ordinary elderly person.

This condition had appeared suddenly half a year ago. At first, he hadn't paid it any mind, thinking it was just a common illness, so he found a pharmacy to prescribe medicine and took it for a while.

But the medicine had no effect, and he watched helplessly as his essence, energy, and spirit rapidly declined day by day.

Xue Meng had panicked. He sought Lin Hui and inquired about medicine in the Inner City, but even after spending tens of millions of qian, there was no effect whatsoever.

Consequently, Lin Hui had sought out his connections at the Rain Palace, but the answer he received was grim.

"Is this Corruption?" Xue Meng barely opened his eyes, looking at Lin Hui entering the door. "I still thought that with my strength, I could hold on for a few more years... Fortunately, I found homes for the few children beforehand... With you here, I am at peace..."

"Why has it come to this? Why is it that the greater one's strength, the faster the Corruption, and the shorter the lifespan?" Lin Hui walked forward and sat by Xue Meng’s bed, his heart filled with helplessness.

He had once heard Tian Long of the Benevolent Heart Sect say that to resist Corruption, the Mistborn divided themselves infinitely, turning into Myriad Blessings Meat for the populace to consume, sharing the burden.

But he hadn't expected that this legendary Corruption was actually so close... close enough that in just a short year or so, it was going to take the life of a good friend beside him.

"I don't know either... I just... saw elder brothers who were stronger in my era back then. They were the same... suddenly, one day, they began to fail and age rapidly... Hearing the intelligence you collected... I learned this is called Corruption..." Xue Meng said softly.

"There are people in the Inner City who have lived for a very, very long time. They definitely have a way to solve this," Lin Hui said in a deep voice.

"It's useless... too late..." Xue Meng smiled weakly. "I asked around. Breaking through a major realm can extend life for a long time, but actually, the ending is the same... In the end, one will still turn into those... those wandering monsters outside."

He paused.

"Actually, if you look at it differently... think of it as a destined death, it feels much better."

Lin Hui fell silent.

He still didn't believe it, because he had seen with his own eyes that those martial artists in the Inner City included elderly people who had lived for over a hundred years. Since they were fine, there had to be a method.

"If I hadn't practiced martial arts, I definitely wouldn't have lived to this age. All things considered... this life... was worth it..."

Xue Meng spoke a few more sentences, but his energy waned further, and his spirit flagged.

Lin Hui stood up, looking at his dry and thin appearance, his heart full of incomprehension.

He quietly extended his hand, a bit of Internal Force carrying a faint red color flowing at his fingertip, but he never poked it forward.

Purgatory-ization might be able to save Xue Meng, but he wasn't sure. He wasn't sure if the Xue Meng who came back would still be the person he once was.

After accompanying him for a while longer, Lin Hui finally withdrew from the room.

Instructing Chen Xiangzhi to take good care of Old Xue, Lin Hui didn't go to the pharmacy. Instead, he left the Clear Wind Temple, sat down in a nearby restaurant, booked a private room, ordered a pot of good tea, and drank slowly alone.

He didn't like alcohol, but tea was fine; it had the atmosphere of wine but clarified the mind.

Not long after.

With a creak, the private room door was gently pushed open.

A tall man wearing a silver evil dragon mask quietly entered and closed the door behind him with a backhanded motion.

The man walked to the table, placed the black bundle in his hand under the table, and sat cross-legged on the cushion opposite Lin Hui.

Huu...

He exhaled, and a thick smell of garlic surged from his mouth.

"Sorry, just ate sliced pork with garlic paste. The smell is a bit heavy."

"Can't you use Internal Force to clear it?" Lin Hui looked up and said.

"This is coming up from my stomach, not my mouth. I can't suppress it—it's a continuous flow." Long Ji (Dragon Lady) shrugged helplessly.

"Fine. Regarding Corruption, did you find any method?" Lin Hui asked in a deep voice.

"No." Long Ji shook his head. "The Inner City might have its ways. Martial artists can alter their constitution and delay the onset of Corruption by taking Feather Blood over a long period and being exposed to radiation from the Core Zone. But this kind of thing can at best buy a little time. When the moment truly arrives, what must come will still come."

[TN: Long Ji (Dragon Lady) — Pronouns have been adjusted from “she” to “he.” Because Chinese often omits explicit subjects, earlier scenes were ambiguous. Now that the narrative has made it clear that Long Ji is male and consistently uses male pronouns in the original.]

Lin Hui picked up the teapot and poured a cup of tea for the other party.

Long Ji picked up the tea and took a gentle sip.

"Breaking through Circulation can extend your lifespan. Taking a Longevity Pill can do the same. Then there's entering the Moon Tower... which grants another twenty years. Those last two are the only ways to extend life without breaking through to a higher realm. But the person you're talking about can't use them.

"I observed him from afar—he's already taken a Longevity Pill once. Otherwise, he would have died ten years ago. The only explanation is that severe injuries overdrewhis body and cut his lifespan short.

"As for the second method... the Moon Tower... to extend life, you must find a Trueblood and pass through the Bliss Platform to reach Extreme Desire Heaven. With how difficult that is, given his current condition, you already know the answer..."

"...Yes. You're right. But Corruption—what exactly is it? Why are those seventy or eighty-year-old men in my sect fine, but Old Xue is..." The source of Lin Hui's confusion remained.

"Lifespan is just like this; the more you cultivate, the shorter it gets. If you break through a major realm and undergo a qualitative change, you can renew your life for a time. But being only at the Internal Force Realm, one can't renew life yet; he hasn't reached that level," Long Ji answered.

Pausing, he continued.

"As for what Corruption exactly is? I'm not clear either. I only know that Corruption is not death. From its onset to the end, it gradually transforms the body, turning one into a special individual who has completely lost their reason, just like the monsters in the Mist Zone outside. This process is irreversible... I suggest you make a move to completely end him before a full month is up. Otherwise, a Corruption-transformed monster at the Internal Force Perfection level will be strengthened by one realm, turning into a Dangerous-level monster that only Circulation can deal with."

Lin Hui didn't speak; he just closed his eyes, recalling the appearance of Lin Hongyu when she was captured back then.

At that time, he couldn't understand, but now, he seemed to.

Lin Hongyu had actually undergone Corruption back then. She had simply been too young, so he hadn’t connected it to this phenomenon at all. Moreover, at that time, he hadn’t yet clarified the manifested traits of this concept.

"Then... those Blood-Eyed Afflicted, Blood-Body Afflicted... are they also...?" Lin Hui asked in a low voice.

"You're right, they are the same thing. It's just that eating too much Myriad Blessings Meat accelerated the onset for them... Actually, for a normal, ordinary person who doesn't eat Myriad Blessings Meat and is free of disease and disaster, living normally to eighty or ninety is very common. This is the natural limit. But if one eats too much Myriad Blessings Meat, they might start to Corrupt at twenty, thirty, or forty..." Long Ji said softly. "This is the way of the world. This is reality. Whether you are helpless or angry, it is like this, and has always been."

Hearing this, Lin Hui was no longer in the mood to speak. He just sat there, pondering silently.

His thoughts were a mess; he didn't even notice when Long Ji left.

Unknowingly, the pot of tea was finished. He got up to settle the bill and left the restaurant. A cold wind blew outside, and a trace of chill made his spirit tremble slightly.

He suddenly thought of the Longevity Wheel, of the Mistborn Tuyue who had divided his own flesh and blood for all to consume. He thought of the countless people who risked their lives to enter the Inner City, and of those in the Deep Domain who would twist their own morals just to extend their lives.

Why the Trueblood Nobles stood aloof above all others—in this moment, a new layer of understanding settled in his mind.

Returning to the Clear Wind Temple, Lin Hui cultivated while silently observing Xue Meng's changes.

In the blink of an eye, another week passed. Xue Meng’s body stopped thinning and, to Lin Hui’s surprise, began to swell.

It was as if he were being inflated like a balloon. In just a few short days, he grew fatter and more distended, his figure turning grotesquely bloated.

His consciousness also began to blur. His speech became incoherent, his eyes bloodshot, and at times he would suddenly lapse into a daze, standing or lying there stiffly for a long while without moving.

Lin Hui continued to search tirelessly for a solution, but within the channels he commanded, there was simply no method that could save Xue Meng in his current state.

By mid-September, Xue Meng’s body had grown so heavy that the bed could no longer support him, and he could only lie on the floor.

For most of each day, he remained in a coma-like sleep, waking for only an hour or two at most.

After listening to Wang Hongshi’s routine report, Lin Hui planned to head to the Wild Wind Plains to continue practicing the sword and tempering his body.

Without Xue Meng to share the burden, he now had to allocate part of his time to overseeing the operations of the Clear Wind Temple. Although he was grooming some of the former top-ten disciples to take on these responsibilities, training them would take time.

After Wang Hongshi withdrew, Lin Hui was just about to rise and leave. Before he could unleash his movement technique, a vaguely familiar voice drifted in from the main gate.

"Wait... don't go yet, I've come to apprentice!"

The voice had a very textured quality, leaving a deep impression on those who heard it; it was hard to forget.

Lin Hui was no exception. He slowed the flow of his Internal Force and raised his eyes toward the entrance.

He saw a beautiful woman wearing a black face veil at the main gate, dressed in a black skirt and carrying a long sword on her back, walking in elegantly.

"Mingxia greets Temple Master Lin. Yun Xiazi arranged for me to come and acknowledge you as my master."

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