The Decaying World

"..." Lin Hui stared blankly at the familiar eyes and brows before him, and at the peculiar texture of her voice.

"Master Yunxia...? You don’t actually believe that shrinking your height and dressing as a woman would change your identity so much I wouldn’t recognize you?"

He was at a loss for words. Her bizarre, black-hole-like aura, combined with her distinctly androgynous voice and her stunningly youthful features and temperament, were simply impossible to disguise.

He had recognized her the moment she walked in the door.

"...You’ve misunderstood. I’m not Master Yunxia, I’m Mingxia." The woman in the black veil smiled. "Didn’t you offer to let a junior from our side come and study under you? After Master Yunxia returned, he channeled his energy to alter his body and used the Primordial Embryo Secret Technique to give birth to me. So, I’m technically his daughter," she explained.

"Then where is he?" Lin Hui asked.

"He’s very busy right now and can’t come see you. However, as a condition of my entry, you may propose one thing in exchange," Mingxia said solemnly.

"..." Lin Hui stared at her eyes and brows, which were a perfect match for Master Yunxia’s, but the feminine characteristics of her body were also very pronounced and didn’t seem artificial. He found himself hesitating.

"Never mind. Just go sign up yourself. As for conditions, my sect’s rules are clear. If you can abide by them, I will naturally impart our techniques. If you cannot, then go back where you came from. And if you one day break those rules, don’t blame me for showing no mercy when I personally clean house," he reminded her coolly.

"I have no problem with that. I’ll accept any and all rules!" Mingxia declared with a calm expression.

"Then go find the registration area," Lin Hui said with a wave of his hand.

"Alright. By the way, someone in your backyard is undergoing corruption. You should handle it promptly. If the transformation suddenly completes in the middle of the night and they go on a rampage... a lot of people could die," Mingxia reminded him.

"What?!" Lin Hui was horrified. ’She’s right, I hadn’t even considered that. What if Xue Meng’s transformation suddenly completes, and he smashes out of his containment from the inside during the night...?’

"Thank you for the warning." He nodded, his voice heavy. "You understand this corruption? Can you tell me how the Inner City handles it?"

"Isn’t it obvious?" Mingxia raised an eyebrow. "You just offload the corruption. Make others corrupt in your place, and you’re guaranteed to live a long life."

"...Wanfu Meat!?" Lin Hui whispered, testing the waters.

"That’s right. Wanfu Meat comes in many types and grades. The inferior portions are mostly used by the Original Blood and the upper echelons of The Three Greats and the Three Sects and Six Gangs to slow their corruption," Mingxia said casually. "Many Martial Artists and Summoners believe that just by entering the Inner City, they’ll live out their natural lifespan. They think that by the time they finally have to face corruption, they’ll be at death’s door anyway. But in reality, their corruption is offloaded onto vast numbers of ordinary people through Wanfu Meat and other methods."

She revealed the Inner City’s greatest and most brutal truth with a smile.

"That’s just how the world works. The strong offload all their pain, danger, hardship, and corruption onto the weak. That’s the only reason they allow the weak to exist at all."

"...Are you saying... all the Summoners and Martial Artists in the Inner City...!!?" Lin Hui understood her meaning, and it was precisely this understanding that made the shock in his heart far greater than his calm exterior suggested.

"All of the Summoners, yes. As for Martial Artists, only those at the Circulation Realm or higher who have joined a major power are qualified to receive a share. Otherwise, why do you think it’s named ’Wanfu’?" Mingxia chuckled, completely unfazed.

Seeing Lin Hui’s expression grow darker, she twisted the knife.

"It’s the same everywhere, be it the Taixu Federation or any other country. The Fog People offload their own corruption onto everyone else, which condenses into so-called High-Level Wanfu Meat. While eating this meat means you’ll eventually have to face corruption, it does offer considerable benefits.

Then the Original Blood use their own special methods to offload the corruption they would have faced onto the common folk of the Inner City.

Further down the chain, the Summoners and high-end Martial Artists who have joined a faction can only use an even lower-grade Wanfu Meat to offload their corruption. But nobody in the Inner City wants this inferior meat. So, what’s the solution? Simple. Just create a population of Outer City People with no other choice. They are forced to eat the worst of the Wanfu Meat, and just like that, everyone’s happy."

In a light, cheerful tone, Mingxia described the world’s greatest system of oppression.

Hearing this layer-by-layer offloading sent a chill through Lin Hui’s heart.

If what she said was true, it meant that from the perspective of the Outer City People, every single Cultivator in the Inner City was their direct oppressor.

No wonder.

No wonder there was a need to maintain the population, to constantly intervene to preserve the environment, to uphold order, and to ensure the very existence of the Outer City...

"Striving to become a higher-level ’offloader’ is the lifelong goal of all the higher-ups in The Three Greats. Don’t you have a big brother in the Rain Palace? He’s almost there. Once he breaks through to the next level, he’ll be privy to the rules of this game," Mingxia said nonchalantly.

"...You’re just telling me all this. Aren’t you afraid I’ll leak it?" Lin Hui gave her a long, hard look.

"Be my guest. Leak it. If more people find out, it’ll just trigger another great purge of the Outer City. In truth, anyone who doesn’t eat Wanfu Meat isn’t sharing a common destiny with the rest of Tuyue. Sooner or later, a pretext will be found to get rid of them. After all, Tuyue didn’t work so hard to clear the surrounding areas and maintain this highly secure environment just for people to find a loophole," Mingxia said.

"Then why is it that the Martial Artists at the Circulation Realm and above, and the Summoners I’ve met, don’t seem to know anything about this?" Lin Hui asked again.

"Because someone is secretly assigning a class to everyone. Each class corresponds to a certain level of treatment. All Martial Artists at the Circulation Realm and above, and all Summoners, are meticulously documented in the shadows. They don’t need to know about it. The only effect they need to see is that after entering the Inner City and joining The Three Greats or the Moon Tower, their lifespans are genuinely and significantly extended. And that’s enough," Mingxia replied.

Lin Hui was silent.

At this moment, he finally and completely understood why the Inner City had such a contradictory attitude towards the Outer City People—both protective and somewhat indifferent.

"Oh, by the way... you haven’t eaten Wanfu Meat before, have you?" Mingxia asked, batting her eyes.

"I haven’t." Lin Hui didn’t hide the truth. "And it’s not just me. There are people close to me who haven’t either."

"But you have someone in The Three Greats backing you, so that will be taken into consideration during your evaluation. The family of a high-ranking member of The Three Greats won’t have much trouble even if they don’t eat Wanfu Meat. It’s a blessing by association, you see," Mingxia said.

"..." Lin Hui sighed internally. The more he learned about the truth of the Inner City Moon Tower, the more he felt the world’s invisible layers of oppression were like chains, binding everyone.

"You don’t need to be so worried. If you don’t eat Wanfu Meat, you’ll just encounter a bit more danger and a few more ’accidents’ than the average person. Powerless civilians are like weeds in a field. The Inner City isn’t going to go out of its way to turn off the Jade Talismans that ward off the night fog just for them. Of course, if you’re really worried or scared, then just claw your way to the top. Get into the Inner City, join The Three Greats, enter the Moon Tower. The higher you climb, the better your life will be. You might even receive the gift of life extension from the Original Blood."

Mingxia’s words were still echoing in his ears, but Lin Hui had already connected all the dots.

’No wonder Tian Long said that the Taixu Federation forbids any No-Fog Zone settlements from existing outside of their control. So that was the reason...’

Waving for Mingxia to go and register, his figure flickered and disappeared from the meeting hall.

This time, he didn’t go directly to the Gale Plain, but first went to the Edge Boundary Zone, which he hadn’t visited in a long time.

The last time he was there, he had been a disciple of Qingfeng Temple, part of the town’s containment team dealing with the "blood-eye" and "blood-body" patients.

But this time, as he returned, what he saw and what he felt were completely different.

Leaving the town and passing through the suburbs, the fields on both sides of the road gradually grew scarcer, replaced by more and more dilapidated black wooden huts.

There were very few cars on the road, and the occasional one that passed would speed by, not daring to stop for even a moment.

Pedestrians were completely out of the question.

The sparse, gray wooden huts stood one after another on both sides. From the gaps and windows, he could faintly feel terrified and vigilant gazes shooting out from within.

Lin Hui slowed his pace. His pristine white Qingfeng Temple formal clothing was starkly conspicuous in this filthy, squalid area.

As he walked down the road, he noticed the faint scent of blood wafting from between the black wooden huts on either side.

A purge had clearly taken place here not long ago. The bloodstains on the ground hadn’t even had a chance to be washed clean by the rain.

He saw someone with a stooped body, struggling to patch a hole smashed into a wooden hut with some unknown materials.

Someone was desperately guarding a nearly-dry, rotten wooden basin, their chapped lips waiting for the next rainfall.

’I used to think these people simply lacked self-control and had fallen into the Wanfu Meat trap. But now I see... they’re just poor, pitiable victims...’

Compared to others, they had simply encountered a few more hardships in life, forcing them to rely on Wanfu Meat to tide them over. Now, the time had come to repay that debt.

He thought of Xue Meng, lying on his bed.

An indescribable impulse surged within Lin Hui’s heart.

’If I find a blood-eye and inflict Purgatory Transformation on it... could it...!?’

’Purgatory Transformation could greatly enhance a creature’s regenerative abilities. If applied to these corrupted blood-eyes and blood-bodies, the result could be an aggravation of their condition, or it could... have a healing effect!’

’It’s worth the gamble!’

Lin Hui quickly made his decision.

Before he knew it, the Fog Wall, towering into the clouds, came into view ahead of him.

With a flicker of intent, his gaze swept over the patients hiding on either side, searching.

For the first test, he needed an individual in a sufficiently terrible physical condition. This would prevent them from being lucid enough to remember any clues or information.

He didn’t want anyone to know that he was the one who released the traces of Purgatory Transformation.

After searching for a moment, a "blood-body" caught Lin Hui’s eye. It was hanging from the eaves of a wooden hut like a spider.

This thing, like other blood-bodies, was blood-red all over, like a flayed specimen. Its ten fingers were pitch-black, clearly indicating a deadly poison.

Lin Hui stopped and lightly gripped the hilt of his sword.

"See? I told you. The kid’s sharp. He walked this way on purpose. He must have spotted us!"

Suddenly, a loud, aged male voice drifted out from between the wooden huts ahead.

"Keep an eye on him, don’t let him get away. We waited a long time for this chance; it wasn’t easy to come by..." Another elderly voice drifted from a hut diagonally across the way.

"Relax. This area is already within the relic’s field of effect. He can’t get out, and he can’t go back in a hurry," the first voice said with confidence.

Lin Hui’s thoughts were interrupted. He looked up in the direction of the voices and saw two old men in gray formal clothing and masks walking out slowly from the wooden huts, one on the left and one on the right.

The two old men had similar hairstyles and builds. The only difference was the masks they wore: one was black, the other white.

On their backs, each man carried a thick-spined, silver-ringed saber as wide as a man’s thigh.

"Who are you?" Lin Hui’s brow furrowed slightly as he sized up the two who had suddenly appeared.

Now that he had reached his level of strength and status, it had been a very long time since anyone had dared to speak to him so disrespectfully. Except, that is, for the Qinghe Sect.

The two men before him were very likely from that very sect.

"Enjoyed hiding in your sect all this time, boy?" the old man in the black mask snarled, his gaze ice-cold.

"If the Inspectorate didn’t have people posted there all the time, making it inconvenient to set up a containment field, do you think you’d still be standing here talking so arrogantly to us?" the white-masked man chimed in.

Watching the two appear, Lin Hui slowly drew his sword, his gaze fixed on them.

An invisible surge, a flame that had been accumulating for a long time, roiled and roared in the depths of his heart.

"Tell me, why haven’t you corrupted?"

"Or is it that... compared to corruption... you’d rather just burn..."

He lowered his head, a faint red light flashing in his eyes.

’Faced with corruption, my sword is truly no solution. But that doesn’t mean I can’t solve other problems... like these suicidal fools.’

After all, his anger needed an outlet.