Chapter 191

Early on the morning of the twelfth, Lin Hui returned to the Food Layer with Hong Ling. After they had settled in, Wang Yue arrived, bringing along a young man named Xie Shengsheng to join them.

This was to be Lin Hui’s final meal before departing the Inner City.

They had chosen a different restaurant this time, seated around a large, round table of polished red wood. In the center of the table, a small pine tree was visibly sprouting and growing. As the trunk thickened and branches spread, vibrant green needles unfurled. From the tips of these needles, white fruits of varying sizes emerged and ripened before their eyes.

"These fruits are the staple for today's meal. Eat up; don't worry. They are essentially pastries formed from flour and pine nuts. The taste is quite good," Hong Ling said warmly, playing the role of the gracious host.

"Scrounging a meal from Director Hong isn't easy," Wang Yue remarked. The black substance that usually coated her had receded, revealing her true appearance—a short-haired woman with a dashing, almost boyish beauty. In truth, few who dwelt in the Moon Tower of the Inner City were anything less than beautiful.

Xie Shengsheng, who had come as her guest, appeared to be her romantic partner. They sat close together, hands clasped beneath the table, displaying an intimacy that was almost cloying to behold.

"What are you saying? With our relationship, can't you come and mooch a meal whenever you like?" Hong Ling laughed.

"I wouldn't dare. Your mother, Elder Hong, has far too imposing a presence. I don't even dare approach your house. The last time Elder Hong merely glanced at me from a distance, I was nearly dragged into participating in one of her activities," Wang Yue said, a lingering fear evident on her face.

Beside them, Hong Lingxiang whispered a sound transmission to Lin Hui, explaining exactly why Wang Yue was so apprehensive.

It turned out that their mother, Elder Hong, was a key official in the Extreme Desire Heaven with a voracious appetite for both men and women. Once someone was ensnared in an activity she organized, she wouldn't release them until they were thoroughly played out and exhausted.

"Moreover, as Elders, Mother and her peers have a monthly Extreme Bliss Death Quota. This quota applies to people within the Core Zone of the Moon Tower," Hong Lingxiang sighed.

"The Inner City?" Lin Hui was stunned. "Then what about the Outer City?"

"The Outer City... the Outer City only has basic order maintenance; hasn't it always been effectively ungoverned? If they want to seize people there, they just grab them," Hong Lingxiang paused for a moment, then retorted gently.

"...Is the life of someone from the Outer City not a life?" Lin Hui frowned, transmitting his reply.

"Little Hui, there is a problem with your thinking. The Outer City is just a district. The people inside are mostly expelled Inner City residents and drifters from other urban districts; their composition was flawed to begin with. Besides, flowers growing from the mire can still be beautiful. You are no longer a mud person of the Outer City. Don't sell yourself short," Hong Lingxiang said seriously.

"..." Lin Hui was left speechless.

"From the moment you stepped into the Internal Force Realm, you ceased to be an ordinary person. You and they simply happened to reside in the same area. There is a natural, massive chasm between you. You belong to our class now, not theirs," Hong Lingxiang reiterated earnestly.

"I understand what you mean." Lin Hui sighed, composing himself. He had no desire to debate class philosophy here.

At that moment, Hong Ling was discussing the strength of the Blood Ancestor they had recently witnessed with Wang Yue and Xie Shengsheng.

"From what I saw with my own eyes, after the Blood Ancestor used the Blood Heart Devouring, the intermediate consumption should have been around thirty percent. This ratio is likely realistic. It’s not far off from the twenty percent that has always been rumored. In other words, the limit of the power a Blood Ancestor can devour and assimilate annually is roughly double their own mass," Hong Ling said seriously.

"That's already terrifying. The key is, where does a Blood Ancestor find so many enemies capable of supplementing the Blood Heart? The Mist Zone? And surely this kind of growth is constrained by the limits of their own will?" Wang Yue asked softly.

"That is the case, which is why the higher-ups place such importance on mind-spirit and will. Especially for us Truebloods—as long as our will and mind-spirit can keep pace, once we reach the level of a Blood Ancestor, the power we can obtain is almost limitless," Hong Ling exclaimed in admiration.

"Resisting Corruption, growing oneself—which part of it doesn't require mind-spirit and will... This is normal. So, how strong do you think the limit of that Fourteenth Blood Ancestor was?" Xie Shengsheng asked curiously.

"The limit is hard to say. After all, no one at that level would expose their full power without reason. They always keep a few cards up their sleeves. But in terms of conventional performance, Blood Ancestors aren't known for large-scale slaughter. Area-of-effect damage is meaningless to them. They follow the path of extreme speed, super strength, and an absolute fortress constitution clad in Void Force Divine Armor. If you can't breach the Void Force, you aren't even qualified to graze their skin," Hong Ling said, analyzing the scenes he had witnessed.

"Then where did that crater several hundred meters deep come from?" Xie Shengsheng pressed.

"That was accidental damage caused by the leaking aftershocks of the clash. In fact, even watching from a high-altitude Moth Carriage, we had to stay at least dozens of kilometers away just to be safe. Otherwise, the aftershocks alone would have left us without whole corpses," Hong Ling said helplessly.

"What are you chatting about? The power level of the Blood Ancestor?" Lin Hui asked, his interest piqued. He was always attentive to matters of strength and realms, primarily because he had absolutely no reference for what level his own path corresponded to.

"Yes," Wang Yue nodded.

"Don't you Moon Tower people know clearly? Haven't you seen them act before?" Lin Hui asked in surprise.

"We've seen them, of course. The issue is that the strength of a Blood Ancestor isn't fixed," Wang Yue explained.

"What do you mean?" Lin Hui asked.

"It's like this, let me explain," Hong Ling interjected. "The Blood Ancestor, as a realm above Palace Master, is actually a level unique to Truebloods. Non-Truebloods do not possess this realm. Reaching Palace Master is their limit. Beyond that, they can only pursue methods like fusing with Imitation Evil Weapons or Insect Canons, strengthening the martial arts combinations they cultivate, or finding powerful Relics to enhance themselves. All of which require establishing a faction to search the world for resources."

He paused, then continued.

"The core of a Blood Ancestor is something called a Blood Heart. This requires a Trueblood Noble to purify and condense their entire body's bloodline. The success rate is extremely low, and failure means certain death. That’s why there have always been so few Blood Ancestors. In our Tuyue, the number probably doesn't exceed twenty. On the surface, only the Elders of the Extreme Desire Heaven and the Taisu Primal Disk are confirmed—about ten people, like my mother. In secret, there might be a few noble family heads hiding their strength, but we guess the total isn't more than twenty."

"This realm is actually known to many. Everyone researches it in hopes of breaking through. However, after a Blood Ancestor condenses a Blood Heart, it doesn't directly improve their strength at all. The Blood Heart has one and only one ability: Devouring."

"Devouring?" Lin Hui's heart went cold as a vague suspicion formed in his mind.

"Correct. After defeating an opponent, they can devour everything from the opponent’s collapsed mind-spirit—whether it is mind-spirit power or physical strength. This means a Blood Ancestor's upper limit depends entirely on how many powerful enemies they have defeated. So, exactly how strong any given Blood Ancestor is remains an unknown variable; only they know their true limits," Hong Ling explained.

"Theoretically, the Blood Ancestors' power method actually derives from the supreme City-Founding Mistborn," Wang Yue added from the side. "Blood Ancestors devour the opponent after defeating them. Mistborn, on the other hand, expands a range of Mist Rain; those who cannot persist and cannot resist the erosion of the Mist Rain will dissolve into a part of the Mistborn's power. Both operate on the same principle."

"..."

This was the first time Lin Hui had heard the specifics of the Mistborn's power. Before, he had assumed Mistborn were simply top-tier powerhouses with immense range and destructive output. But now, the people at the table were telling him that wasn't the case. Mistborn were an ultimate power of growth; their strength depended entirely on how much power they had devoured.

Suddenly, Lin Hui thought of those sealing fortresses guarded by the Black Army. Seen in this light, were these fortresses merely sealing the gates to other spaces, or were they preserving them to provide the Mistborn with a constant source of power to devour?

It was disturbingly similar to the Wind Disaster Affinity ability he had just obtained.

…

After the meal, Lin Hui went to the Moth Carriage parking area to collect the gift from Hou Xihan.

It was a giant moth, pitch-black, with patterns resembling two gray-white eyes on its back.

"Good moth!" A trace of envy flashed through Hong Ling's eyes as he looked at the creature. Compared to his own Moth Carriage nearby, this one was clearly a grade superior. "Sister Han is indeed generous; worthy of a bigshot from the Taisu Primal Disk. You're set now—a Moth Carriage like this goes for at least ten thousand Blood on the market."

"That expensive?" Lin Hui, who had been gently stroking the Moth Carriage's smooth wings, jumped in fright.

"Of course it's expensive, otherwise why would Sister Han announce it in front of so many people? For a bigshot of her level, this counts as a relatively formal gift," Hong Lingxiang also looked on with envy. At her age, she still had to share a Moth Carriage with her brother, and it was a grade lower than the one before them.

"Then I owe quite a big favor," Lin Hui said in a deep voice.

"Don't worry. For a figure of Sister Han's stature, she's just casting a wide net. She's betting on your future—or to be precise, your brother's future. If your brother takes a position of power in the Rain Palace, and if his teacher can advance a step further, he could almost enter the Taisu Primal Disk and be on the same level as Sister Han. The value of today's gift won't be a loss by a long shot," Hong Lingxiang laughed.

From these words, Lin Hui gathered that Big Brother Liu Wujun had significant potential and was highly regarded by the higher-ups. And even more highly regarded was his teacher, the Vice Palace Master of the Rain Palace, Jiang Zhixia. He was likely a Trueblood Noble holding a concurrent post with room to rise—it was entirely possible he would enter the Taisu Primal Disk, one of the supreme institutions, in the future.

Sitting atop his new Moth Carriage, under the group's guidance, Lin Hui grasped the two moth antennae with both hands for the first time, completing the recognition procedure.

"You can keep the Moth Carriage at the nearest flight stop in the Outer City. Its food requirements aren't low; it needs several hundred jin of meat, fruits, and vegetables every day. The flight stops have specialized breeders responsible for it; you just need to pay. It costs about four hundred thousand silver a month," Hong Ling said.

"Alright... Brother Hong, thank you for your warm hospitality on this trip." Lin Hui cupped his fists toward him and settled onto the carriage. He then cupped his hands to the others one by one. "Lin Hui thanks you all for the send-off. Let's gather again when there's a chance."

"Sure. Be careful on the road. You count as someone with status in the Moon Tower now. You've registered before, so just come by yourself when entering or leaving the Moon Tower in the future. The Pacification Corps won't stop you, rest assured," Hong Ling said with a smile.

"Okay, many thanks." Lin Hui nodded, patting the Moth Carriage. Holding the antennae, he visualized his direction and destination.

Immediately, the black moth began to crawl forward. Soon, with a powerful leap, it launched off the edge of the Moon Tower, spreading its wings to glide out.

Around him, as noon approached, identical Moth Carriages were taking flight, soaring above the sea of mist one after another.