Chapter 167

After the wind, rain fell.

A drizzle drifted down, scattering some of the mist.

White Saber’s headless corpse slowly toppled over. The wound flushed red, then blackened, showing early signs of Purgatory-ization as clusters of blisters swelled across it. But in the next instant, the loss of vital organs cut the infection short. With a whoosh, the corpse ignited and quickly burned to black ash.

Lin Hui stood in the rear, watching Black Saber slowly rise.

Black Saber was now completely transformed. Dense black-and-red horns jutted from the back of his head, spilling outward like a mane of wild hair.

Beneath his eyes, a mass of black bone had erupted, forming a hard, jagged half-mask that completely encased his jaw.

His eyes burned blood-red, gleaming with an eerie fluorescence. Rings of scorching aura pulsed outward from him as the center, seeping into the wind and rain, and evaporating even more of the lingering mist.

"Are you still conscious?" Lin Hui raised his longsword, flashed to the right, and looked at Black Saber.

Black Saber did not reply; he just stood there blankly, seemingly adapting to his brand-new body.

Roar!

Suddenly, he threw his head back and let out a roar, lunging at Lin Hui like a wild beast.

But in the next instant, silver light flashed.

Lin Hui’s figure vanished like a bubble and appeared behind Black Saber, slowly sheathing his sword.

The fierce wind howled, whipping his long black hair into the air.

He turned his head to look at Black Saber behind him.

A ball of black-red flame surged from the bottom up, abruptly enveloping Black Saber and turning him into a violently burning black-red torch.

A second later, the black-red flame lunged at Lin Hui, rushing into his chest with lightning speed before vanishing.

An indescribably massive warm current brazenly charged into Lin Hui’s body, beginning to evenly strengthen every corner of his physique.

His strength and recovery ability began to rise again. A layer of fine keratin began to emerge on his neck.

However, he timely controlled his Internal Force to adjust his skin condition and retracted the Purgatory aura, preventing himself from transforming into something resembling Black Saber.

But it’s still too much amplification... I can’t absorb any more, or I might not be able to maintain a normal appearance.

Lin Hui estimated his limits silently. He glanced at the pile of black ash that was Black Saber. He used his sword to poke through it, finding that even the clothes had burned to ash. A few items remained, but they were miscellaneous objects of unknown use.

Lin Hui didn't dare take them. He buried them directly in a dirt pit to avoid triggering any traps left by the Clear River Sect.

On the other side, White Saber didn't have many items either, but a green object resembling a cup caught Lin Hui’s attention.

He picked it up with the tip of his sword, turned, and vanished abruptly, rushing out of the Demarcation Zone and heading toward the wall of Mist.

Before long, entering the mist, he found a random Barbarian monster and stuffed the object into its mouth.

The Barbarian was just raising its head to roar, mouth wide open, when a mass flew into its maw. Before it could spit it out, a figure slapped it with the flat of a sword, smashing against its mouth and forcing it to swallow the object with a gulp.

Lin Hui hid in the dark and observed for a while. Confirming that nothing happened, he killed the Barbarian, retrieved the object, buried it in the soil, and memorized the location.

Whether there were any issues with it, he wasn't in a hurry to know; time would tell.

Returning to the Clear Wind Temple, he acted as if nothing had happened and resumed his previous state of single-minded cultivation.

But for this session, he did not go to the Wild Wind Plains. Instead, he guarded outside Xue Meng's room.

Black Saber and White Saber were High Divine Officers. Experts of this level would be rare, no matter how strong the Clear River Sect was.

Losing two High Divine Officers would be a crippling blow to the Clear River Sect, and their subsequent investigation would inevitably intensify.

What he needed to do next was hide his light and bide his time—to not expose himself.

He would wait until the Clear River Sect revealed more, then strike at the critical moment to kill with a single blow.

Time passed day by day.

Xue Meng’s condition grew worse. Sometimes, he wouldn't even be lucid for a few minutes a day before falling into a deep sleep again. During his lucid moments, he was driven by immense hunger, eating and drinking frantically.

This state persisted for over three weeks.

Until...

Ding.

At the stone table, Lin Hui set down the teacup in his hand, placed his hand on the sword hilt on the table, and stood up.

He turned to look at Xue Meng’s room.

It was silent, like a black hole swallowing all surrounding noise.

Tea in place of wine. Brother Xue, have a safe journey.

Lin Hui unsheathed his longsword. The tip of the sword picked up the teacup and gently tossed it, sending it flying into the room through the window.

Pu.

The teacup was firmly caught by a large black hand.

A burly, blood-colored humanoid figure appeared at the main door, crushing the teacup in one hand as it looked up at Lin Hui.

It was a grotesque humanoid with blood-red skin, its back covered in sword-shaped black crystal spikes.

Aside from the blood-red skin and the black crystal spikes on its back, the figure was almost identical to Xue Meng’s former appearance, only much taller.

The humanoid’s pitch-black eyes looked at Lin Hui, and it opened its mouth abruptly to let out a roar.

Shua!

But in the next instant, everything came to an abrupt halt.

Silver light flashed.

Lin Hui’s figure appeared behind it. He stepped into the room and gently picked up a piece of yellow paper lying on the table.

The paper was weighed down by an inkstone. The faint ink traces seemed to have dried only recently, the handwriting twisted and struggling—just like the state of Brother Xue Meng as he arduously fought against Corruption.

Lin Hui picked up the yellow paper. Only then did the humanoid figure behind him crash to the ground, its head slowly separating from its body. A deep, penetrating wound had also appeared in its heart.

He lowered his gaze to the characters on the paper.

Xiao Ningmei.

The jagged, chaotic strokes laid bare the regret and agony in Xue Meng’s heart in the final moments before his consciousness was annihilated.

She might have been someone he once loved, or someone to whom he owed a debt.

Only at the brink of death did he remember her—and leave behind nothing but her name.

At this moment, the sounds of disciples tidying up the corpse came from behind.

Lin Hui turned around and watched Xue Meng's four disciples personally piece together Xue Meng's head and body, then lift him onto a stretcher.

With tears in their eyes and reddened rims, the four bowed in his direction before leaving the courtyard.

Left alone, Lin Hui walked out of the room, gazing at the traces of life Xue Meng had once left in this courtyard.

He once again recalled the many descriptions of Corruption.

"Is this your first time experiencing such a thing?"

At some point, the newly inducted Mingxia walked through the courtyard gate. Looking at the silent Lin Hui, she spoke up.

"Perhaps because many people don't even live long enough to become Corrupted before they disappear. Looking at it that way, this is indeed my first experience," Lin Hui answered calmly.

"You're right. Corruption is exactly like that," Mingxia said with a nod. "This world is just like this. Why do we cultivate and grow stronger at any cost? Isn't it simple to protect ourselves in such a dangerous environment? Stronger and stronger, no matter the price—and from that came The Call and Extreme Martial Arts. The more one cultivates, the shorter one’s life becomes."

"...The Mist Zone... compared to the Inner City, where does the real danger lie?" Lin Hui asked. Based on his own experience, he felt that even the highest-tier Destructive-level monsters in the Mist Zone could be handled by the Inner City’s Palace Masters, Truebloods, or even Mistborn. If that was the case, why had people in the beginning needed to cultivate so desperately just to survive?

"I don't know the answer to that question," Mingxia spread her hands frankly. "Perhaps the surrounding area is merely a safe zone. Further out in the Mist Zone, the monsters get stronger and stronger. Have you ever considered that Evil Weapons and Insect Canons were not created by humans, but existed in this world from the very beginning? That they were treasures found, taken, and merged with after slight adjustments?"

She paused.

"In fact, rather than calling them weapons, it’s more accurate to say they were disasters at first… Our human ancestors, generation after generation, threw their lives into the fire just to barely defeat the first Evil Weapon or Insect Canon. Only after that did things start to snowball—using the power of that first Evil Weapon to suppress new calamities and seize more Evil Weapons, until the number of Mistborn slowly grew."

"So in truth, at the very beginning, all we had to rely on was martial arts."

As Mingxia spoke, an undisguised solemnity surfaced in her eyes.

"Martial arts… Is that how Extreme Martial Arts came into being?" Lin Hui asked.

"Perhaps," Mingxia replied.

"Perhaps… Then why didn’t a Martial Dao capable of countering all dangers continue to develop?" Lin Hui pressed.

"Naturally, because of despair," Mingxia answered. "There are some things whose scale you simply cannot fathom until you’ve seen them with your own eyes."

Lin Hui knew she was talking about the Mistborn. He said no more, simply walking slowly out of the courtyard to head to the Wild Wind Plains to practice swordplay and temper his body.

Xue Meng’s funeral lasted for three days. Because the Clear Wind Temple’s reputation was significant, and the guests were numerous, the occasion gave Xue Meng plenty of face—though he had no descendants and didn't need it.

After the body was cremated, it was placed in a funerary urn and buried in a corner of the courtyard where he had lived.

In this environment, if a body wasn’t cremated, something would almost certainly go wrong. And if the ashes weren’t kept at home, they would likely be dug up and desecrated by monsters roaming the wild Mist Zone.

So, many chose to bury their dead in their own courtyards and erect a spirit tablet there.

After Xue Meng passed away, Lin Hui discovered that the only person in the sect he could talk to was Mingxia.

When the others faced him, it was with worship, respect, or awe.

The only thing missing was equality.

Only Mingxia achieved that.

Time elapsed. Xue Meng’s death slowly faded within the Clear Wind Temple. Meanwhile, in the Lin Manor, Lin Xiaoliu was growing. From only being able to babble, she slowly learned to call out the names of all her relatives.

Among them, the one she was closest to was Lin Hui’s mother, Yao Shan, who took care of her the most—her 'First Mother'.

Then it was her dad, Lin Shunhe. As for her brother Liu Wujun and sister Liu Xiao, they were somewhat strange to her. And Lin Hui, because he only visited occasionally, could only be considered familiar.

But for some reason, even though the Liu siblings also visited from time to time, Lin Xiaoliu’s attitude toward them and toward Lin Hui was markedly different.

Toward Lin Hui, she always seemed a little afraid.

Whenever he was present or tried to hold her, she became very obedient and quiet, not fussing at all, her small face drawn tight.

For a child barely two years old to show such expressions and behavior was abnormal in itself—it meant she was never truly at ease around him.

After realizing this, Lin Hui stopped trying to get too close to her. He simply ensured that she was safe and free from illness or disaster.

Just as Lin Hui was concentrating on cultivation and ignoring worldly affairs, the mysterious disappearance of the Clear River Sect’s two High Divine Officers caused quite a stir in the intelligence networks of the major powers.

The Black and White Sabers had taken part in the Tao family’s interception, only to vanish without a trace a year later. This inevitably led many to suspect that an expert from a faction friendly to the Tao family had moved in secret to hunt them down.

After all, High Divine Officers—experts of their caliber—were considered solid upper-middle leadership in any faction.

To suddenly lose two at once…