Chapter 198

Patter.

The sound of dripping liquid broke the silence.

The child stopped, raising a hand to point ahead. "Look. That is the Wooden Door. As long as we deal with that, everything ends."

Lin Hui followed the child’s finger.

In the grayish-white Mist, a white wooden door stood solitary and upright. It featured a black handle and a rectangular pattern carved into its center. Currently, the door was cracked open, and a steady stream of blood-colored liquid oozed from the gap, pooling on the ground.

"How do we handle it?" Lin Hui looked down at the child, Xia Si.

"Find a way to close it," the child replied in a low voice.

"Can I just destroy it?"

"You can try. However, I’ve never heard of anyone succeeding. Not since I was born," Xia Si shrugged.

Lin Hui nodded, drew his sword, and walked slowly toward the Wooden Door.

He circled it. The door stood alone, unconnected to any structure. There were no walls, and it didn't even touch the ground; it hovered in mid-air, suspended an inch or so above the earth. When he walked behind it, he saw the front; when he walked to the front, he still saw the front.

This eerie spatial dislocation made Lin Hui’s expression turn grave.

"I'll see if I can destroy it first."

He raised his sword, his figure blurring into motion.

Clang!

An ear-piercing impact exploded outward. It was unmistakably a wooden frame, yet under the edge of Ruyi, it rang with the sound of hardened metal. The Wooden Door remained completely unmarked, while the shockwave bounced Lin Hui back, leaving his hands numb.

It’s that hard? He was shocked. With his current speed and strength, that single strike should have reduced a stone house to rubble. Yet this wooden door didn't even bear a scratch.

"You'd better not waste your energy. Just hurry up and close it," Xia Si’s voice came from nearby. "Since I was little, I've never heard of anyone destroying these bizarre things that appear in the wild. The humanoid races in the Mist Zone call them 'Indestructible Objects.'"

The Wooden Door was one of them.

When Xia Si was very young, he had heard from his parents—refugees from the city—that the top figures there had tried various means to destroy Indestructible Objects, to no avail. Rumor had it they had even employed their strongest powers, like Evil Weapons and Insect Canons, without effect.

In the end, they could only choose to drive all Indestructible Objects out of the safe Mist-Free Zone and establish the Boundary Wall to isolate them.

"One more try..." Lin Hui didn't believe in absolutes. This time, he secretly activated the Wind Disaster Affinity.

Instantly, streams of invisible Wind Force began to swirl around him, carrying traces of terrifying, savage decomposing power.

Chi.

He swung his sword again.

Lin Hui watched Ruyi strike the frame, but even the usually all-conquering Wind Disaster Force seemed to lose its edge.

Wait. Is that a mark?

Lin Hui looked closely. Where the sword had slashed the wood, an extremely minute trace, no thicker than a hair, had appeared. If one didn't look carefully, a single wipe of the hand might obscure it with fingerprints.

Lin Hui was speechless. He stepped forward, hooked Ruyi around the door handle, and pulled it toward himself.

The small gap in the Wooden Door felt as heavy as a massive block of metal. Even Lin Hui found it strenuous, panting slightly before he finally managed to pull it shut.

Click.

As the Wooden Door locked, a cold wind whistled through the clearing. From top to bottom, the door silently disintegrated into countless white particles and vanished.

"It's finally over!" Xia Si let out a long sigh of relief and clapped his hands. He looked up at Lin Hui. "Your strength is a bit freakish."

"It's nothing special. If you practice diligently every day, strength like mine is a dime a dozen in the city," Lin Hui said modestly.

"Do all adults like to patronize kids like this?" Xia Si asked helplessly.

"Perhaps. Tell me more about the situation in the Mist Zone. It's my first time out here," Lin Hui said sincerely.

"You’re asking me even though you don’t understand anything? Aren’t you afraid I’ll scam you?"

"It's fine. I'm very fast. If you scam me, I'll just kill you," Lin Hui smiled.

"...Scary guy." Xia Si shivered. "Let's go. Back to my burrow. I can't find any other place safe enough around here."

He turned and walked back. Lin Hui followed curiously.

They entered an underground burrow—a rectangular room about nine meters long and wide, and three meters high. It was filled with wooden barrels of various sizes. Some lids were wide open, revealing rice and flour, while others contained dried meat.

"Sorry, it's a bit dirty. Please understand," Xia Si said.

"It doesn't matter. Tell me. What is the situation around here?" Lin Hui found a spot and sat cross-legged. Manipulating his Wind Force to support his weight, he hovered in mid-air, sitting motionless.

Xia Si’s eyes widened, flashing with envy.

"It's just as you saw. The Mist Zone has always been like this, full of ancient ruins. Normal people like us can only live in crevices and tunnels. Only the Mutants dare to walk freely outside. Relying on the protection of Mist Gods and giant beasts, they have dedicated themselves to unknown existences. They've become neither human nor ghost, but they have gained power because of it."

"Mutants... what about the people in the city? Compared to these Mutants..."

"We generally call the people living in the city 'Naturalborn,'" Xia Si interrupted. "Although there are dangers there, compared to the Mist Zone, you have it too good. There is simply no place to grow food out here; we can only rely on hunting monsters. But monsters aren't easily killed. Moreover, eating too much monster meat causes strange changes. The Python Clan, Eagle Clan, Lion-men, and so on probably all came about that way," Xia Si shrugged.

"Do you have any relatives still alive? If it's not too far, I can take you there," Lin Hui offered.

"Thank you, my lord. You might not know, but my name wasn't always this. It used to be Xia Shishi."

"Why change it?"

"Because my father and mother died the year before last," Xia Si replied. "They were scared to death, so I changed my name to remember that day forever."

[TN: Xia Si means "Summer Thoughts" or "Remembrance," while the birth name Xia Shishi means "Summer Poetry."]

Lin Hui looked at the wooden barrels. Stacked up, there were more than ten large ones. It was enough food for a child to survive for a long time—assuming it didn't mold.

"What do you plan to do in the future?" he asked.

"Can I follow you?" Xia Si asked in a deep voice.

"No. You can't keep up with my pace," Lin Hui replied frankly.

"Then don't worry about me. Go busy yourself with your own affairs." Xia Si was not disappointed; he had expected the rejection and smiled faintly.

"Okay. You've lived here alone for two years?"

"En. It feels alright."

"Aren't you afraid? Is all this food inventory from the village?"

"Afraid? Not really. If I can't sleep at night, the Wall Faces keep me company. As for the food, the rice and flour are stocked, but I hunted the dried meat myself," Xia Si answered honestly.

"???" Lin Hui glanced at the child, who barely reached his thigh.

Hunted himself?

He suspected he had heard wrong.

"Don't let my height fool you; I actually have a bit of strength," Xia Si said seriously. "By studying the movement patterns of some monsters, I mastered a special way to move without being discovered."

Seeing the seriousness on Xia Si’s face, he couldn't help but ask again.

"How old did you say you were?"

"Probably eight."

"I'll teach you a set of moves. If you can learn it, from now on you are my personal disciple!" Lin Hui made a prompt decision.

Disregarding the surroundings, he stood up, gripped his sword, and performed the Perfected Seven-Section Swift Sword once.

Xia Si watched, deep in thought.

Then, the child stood up, found a chopstick to use as a sword, and methodically began to perform the Perfected Seven-Section Swift Sword he had just seen.

"!!??"

Lin Hui scrutinized the movements for mistakes, but it was futile. Every move was an almost perfect replication of his own.

I...

He had only heard of such geniuses in stories. But now, he was seeing one with his own eyes. Only eight years old, so small, yet able to learn the Perfected Seven-Section Swift Sword after watching it just once?

"Kneel and call me Master." Lin Hui closed his eyes, turned around, and spoke in a low voice.

Xia Si blinked, immediately knelt, and knocked his head against the ground several times. Thud thud thud.

"Master!!"

"From now on, you are my second personal disciple. Your senior brother is currently outside, so it's inconvenient for him to acknowledge you; we'll talk about it when there's a chance. Get up."

Lin Hui exhaled, turned, and raised his hand slightly. Internal Force instantly formed an invisible hand, lifting Xia Si up.

But as the force lifted the child, Lin Hui noticed something else.

Xia Si was actually a girl.

Amid his surprise, he suddenly recalled an earlier remark. "By the way, you said Wall Faces keep you company at night. What did you mean by that?"

"Exactly what it sounds like," Xia Si replied, puzzled by the question. "If you sleep in the same place for a long time, human faces that can speak and sing will grow on the wall beside your bed. They sing in a language I can't understand. It's very noisy and very annoying, and they can't be destroyed, because they’re also Indestructible Objects. Once it's daytime, they mysteriously disappear."

Lin Hui felt a headache coming on. This outer Mist Zone was truly indescribable.

"By the way, Master, this is a meeting gift from your disciple to honor you." Xia Si fished a long hair with a black metallic luster from her trouser pocket. "I picked it up before. A super giant left it behind when passing by."