Chapter 190

Lin Hui asked a few more detailed questions about how to wake up voluntarily.

Hong Ling answered them one by one.

Inside Extreme Bliss Time, the environment remained identical to the outside world; only the people were different—they were manifestations of whoever one wished to see.

"By the way, Brother Hong, do you know Sha Ye? That somewhat short, kind-hearted Trueblood Noble?" Seeing that Hong Ling was in a hurry to leave, Lin Hui quickly asked one last thing.

"Her? Sha Ye counts as the youngest newcomer among the nobles. She indeed has a very kind heart and likes to meddle in other people's business; she's helped quite a few people. However... her family is quite dissatisfied with her because of this. They believe her thinking isn't orthodox enough and that she doesn't view problems from the perspective of family interests," Hong Ling said simply. "Did you just run into her? Then your luck is pretty good. Alright, I have something to do, so I'm heading back first. We'll talk tomorrow morning. You have this building to yourself tonight. Good night!"

Hong Ling turned and hurried away, acting as if he were terrified Lin Hui would detain him with more questions.

Thud. The main door of the small building closed automatically.

The entire ground-floor lobby was empty; not a single person remained, leaving only Lin Hui standing alone in the center.

He looked around and found a high-backed chair against the wall to sit on.

He hadn't even been sitting for half a minute.

Suddenly, the clear, resonant sound of a bell penetrated from outside the building.

The bell tolled three times, then fell silent.

There were no changes in the surroundings. Ever since Hong Ling left, Lin Hui had been maintaining a state of high vigilance, yet he hadn't discovered anything at all.

He wanted to observe how one entered Extreme Bliss Time.

But looking at it now, not a single trace of change had occurred.

He sat in the chair, looking at the spacious hall paved with black stone slabs.

The landscape paintings hanging on the white walls on both sides still emitted a faint yellow light, illuminating the surroundings in place of lamps.

On the ceiling was a massive relief sculpture of a white Dragon Turtle. The Dragon Turtle's huge, ferocious eyes served as golden lamps, emitting a yellow light brighter than that of the landscape paintings.

Aside from this, there were no people and no sounds—only himself.

Didn't he say whatever I want will appear? Lin Hui was slightly surprised.

He remained in his seat, his mind conjuring images of women he had seen before and countless delicacies, but the surroundings remained completely silent.

Nothing happened.

Finding it strange, Lin Hui stood up and slowly walked to the main door.

As he got closer, he paused; he could faintly hear a subtle sound penetrating from outside.

The black wooden door was close at hand. Through the window above it, past the grille and white paper, he could vaguely see bright red light flashing outside.

He hesitated for a moment.

A vague sense of foreboding rose in his heart. He reached out, grabbed the handle, and pushed outward.

Hiss.

Amidst a subtle sound of friction, the door opened.

Outside was a boundless white ice plain.

In the center of the ice plain, at an indeterminate distance, stood a massive trapezoidal red stone gate.

The frame of the stone gate was carved with the ferocious faces of unknown monsters. The body of the gate itself was made of black stone, but the rock now looked as if it had been heated red-hot, continuously radiating searing heat into the surroundings.

In the center of the stone gate, between the two doors, a tiny crack had opened, revealing a piercing red light inside.

That pure red light induced an extremely uncomfortable feeling of nausea. Just looking at it for a few moments, Lin Hui felt dizzy, and the urge to vomit was welling up in his heart.

"Do you want to obtain immortality? Come... come closer and pull it open... pull open this gate that can bring hope to the world..."

A thunderous voice rang out slowly beside his ears.

"Pull it open, and you shall obtain the divinity of immortality... You shall become one of the Purgatory Commanders. As long as Purgatory is undying, you shall be undying!"

The voice continued to seduce him, vibrating Lin Hui's eardrums until they went numb.

He couldn't help but take two steps back, trying to put some distance between them. But while that deep voice continued, a new voice quietly rang out.

"All things will eventually freeze. Burning is consumption, while stillness is the final eternity... Do you want to obtain final peace? Come... come here..."

This time, it was a cold, husky female voice.

Lin Hui looked in the direction of the sound but couldn't see any source.

It wasn't until the voice came again that he noticed something.

Directly in front of the burning gate, upon the pristine white ice plain, the entire vast surface of the earth was actually a gigantic female face, at least several hundred meters in diameter.

At this moment, the mouth of that giant face was the source of the sound.

"Pull out the Sword of Origin... You shall end all tragedies and open a new era... a new hope..." Although the female voice was cold, it was clearer than the thunderous voice from before, overpowering it.

Is this... aren't these Purgatory and the Extreme Cold Heaven!? Lin Hui recognized the roots of these two voices, and his scalp went numb.

He saw that a giant sword composed of deep blue crystals was inserted into the forehead of that giant female ice face.

The sword looked like a work of art, crystal clear throughout. The hilt and guard possessed layers of flame-like patterns, all glowing with a faint blue light, pulsing as if a heart were beating.

Boom.

A clap of thunder exploded, jolting Lin Hui from his shock.

He subconsciously looked toward the sky.

The entire sky was gray-white.

There were no stars, no night—only boundless gray clouds forming a massive gray vortex that rotated slowly.

Faint black electric arcs occasionally flashed across the surface of the great vortex, its center deep and dark, leading to who knew where.

But none of these were the key to shaking Lin Hui.

The key was...

He lowered his head and inexplicably looked behind him.

Behind him, wisps of gray vapor descended endlessly from the sky, merging silently into his back.

It was a very strange sight.

From a distance, it would look like his body was evaporating vast amounts of gray vapor that drifted up to join the giant vortex in the sky.

But looking closely, one would discover that everything was in reverse.

The voices of Purgatory and the Extreme Cold Heaven were still echoing in his mind.

But at this moment, in Lin Hui's vision, compared to that massive gray vortex occupying the entire sky, the Purgatory Gate and the Extreme Cold Heaven face were like ants—insignificant and unremarkable.

Is this... the Wind Disaster? Lin Hui inexplicably recalled the results from when he had used the Blood Seal to appraise himself.

In the results, the words "Wind Disaster" had been explicitly mentioned for the first time.

There was no seduction. The power of the Wind Disaster was like everything, pressing down upon him, the Purgatory Gate, and the Extreme Cold Heaven face.

That massive vortex sat high above, ancient and heavy, as if it had been rotating like this since the infinitely distant beginning of origins.

Gazing at that massive gray cloud vortex, Lin Hui unknowingly forgot his distracting thoughts and naturally fell into a state of comprehension regarding the Body Tempering of the Typhoon Sword Technique.

Just by looking at that massive vortex, countless hazy insights emerged in his heart.

Is that the Wind Disaster? A thread of enlightenment rose in his mind.

If I attract Purgatory... I might obtain immortal divinity. If I pull out that sword of the Extreme Cold Heaven, I might obtain the power to end everything. Then what about the Wind Disaster? If I induce the Wind Disaster to descend into reality...?

As soon as this thought appeared, a mysterious message naturally flooded into his mind.

It will destroy everything...

Gasp.

Abruptly, Lin Hui opened his eyes. He was sitting in the high-backed chair, exhaling a long breath.

Blood Seal information emerged in his vision.

[You have obtained the special effect: Wind Disaster Affinity. Cultivating related martial arts will gain a destructive power boost from the Wind Disaster Force.]

[Once the Wind Disaster is triggered, it will be extremely difficult to stop. It can dismantle all stable structural orders, reducing everything to a particle state that remains in endless, ever-shifting flux.]

Looking at the blood-red warning characters of the Blood Seal, Lin Hui took a deep breath, finally understanding what the Wind Disaster he saw earlier represented.

He closed his eyes to sense his condition. The Body Tempering of the Typhoon Sword Technique had strangely reached a state of saturation, on the verge of entering the next grade—the Sixth Rank.

Clearly, observing it for those few moments had saved him at least several months of Body Tempering.

More than that, Lin Hui raised his head. His gaze strangely developed X-ray vision, penetrating through the countless layers of the Moon Tower to the night sky, seeing that massive gray vortex slowly rotating above the heavens.

Although I don't know what happened, it seems... there's a major problem with my body...

He sighed at length.

Three terrifying powers were converging within him. And the Wind Disaster, which he had thought was the most unremarkable, turned out to be the strongest force...

"What happened to the promised Extreme Bliss? Wasn't I supposed to experience Extreme Bliss??"

Lin Hui looked at his hands and tried to close his eyes again to enter that state from before, but no matter how he tried, he couldn't get back in.

He carefully sensed his own condition and was surprised to find that the Purgatory power and the Extreme Cold Heaven frost within him were now being firmly suppressed by an invisible breath, leaking not a shred of aura.

To be precise, this breath wasn't suppressing them; it was decomposing them. It was continuously decomposing and absorbing the Purgatory and Extreme Cold Heaven auras the moment they emerged, strengthening itself.

Thus, the problem Lin Hui had been worried about all along had inexplicably been resolved in this moment.

Opening his eyes again, the sky outside was already bright.

Lin Hui extended his hand, and a few points of white Internal Force lit up on his fingertips.

Unlike before, the Purgatory power and the Extreme Cold Heaven frost within the Internal Force had now completely disappeared. Replacing them was a layer of invisible, transparent power mixed within.

And that power was exactly the power of the Wind Disaster that Lin Hui had just intuitively perceived.

It was continuously decomposing and devouring the powers of Purgatory and the Extreme Cold Heaven, fusing them into a part of itself, driving Lin Hui's Body Tempering progress constantly forward.

…

Xinyu Town.

Lin Shunhe stood with his hands behind his back, looking at an investigation document placed on the table.

"The Black Mist season only just started this year, yet so many mysterious disappearance cases have already occurred. Has the government still not given an explanation? I don't care about others, but family members of our branch hall's fellow brethren have also suddenly vanished overnight. This matter must be investigated clearly!" His voice was low but firm.

"This matter... I'm afraid it will be very difficult," Elder Du said helplessly.

"No matter how difficult, it must be done. This is Xinyu Town; it is the core territory of my Lin family. No losses are allowed!" Lin Shunhe stated firmly.

"Based on preliminary investigations, we suspect... it might be some great clans from the Inner City using people for testing again," Elder Du whispered.

"I can't control other places, nor do I want to. But in Xinyu Town, this kind of situation is not permitted!"

Elder Du looked like he wanted to say something, but stopped. In the end, he said nothing.

"Let's go. We'll go see the scene of this latest case with the Zhang family. Zhang Jihua was an old supervisor of my caravan; no matter what, I don't believe he would commit suicide. The government's investigation conclusion is absolute bullshit!"

"Alright. Should we report to the higher-ups before setting off?" Elder Du probed.

"Isn't that nonsense?!"