The Decaying World

CRUNCH.

After crunching through the last of the Golden Coral, Lin Hui chewed and swallowed it in a few bites. Watching the evolution timer on the Blood Seal in his vision rapidly decrease, the anxiety in his heart eased a bit.

The reappearance of the True Monarch of Seven Destructions meant that the Jiuxiao Sect was drawing ever closer through the rift.

Otherwise, there was no explaining why he hadn’t appeared for the past five years, only to show up again not long after the rift had opened.

According to the information about the Jiuxiao Sect in his mind, the True Monarch of Seven Destructions should have long ago merged with the Wind Calamity and perished. Within the Sect, his name was little more than a legend. So why had he now crossed worlds to find him?

Something about this was deeply wrong.

HISS.

Just as his mind began to wander, a flash of text from the Blood Seal interrupted his thoughts.

Snapping back to his senses, Lin Hui focused on the new change appearing on the Blood Seal.

’Evolution of Life’s Eye complete. One of your eyes can now be modified. Please choose within ten seconds.’ The Blood Seal’s prompt flashed in his vision.

Lin Hui didn’t hesitate, immediately choosing his left eye.

As a right-handed person, he habitually favored his left side for non-dominant tasks.

After confirming the command in his mind, a tingly, itching sensation washed over his left eye.

It lasted for over ten seconds, then the tingling itch faded.

It seemed as if nothing had happened, but Lin Hui’s figure flickered, and in the blink of an eye, he was standing before the full-length mirror in his room.

Opening his eyes to observe, he discovered that his left eye now held a faint reddish tint that his right eye lacked.

He thought for a moment, then with a wave of his hand, all the curtains in the room drew themselves shut, dimming the light considerably.

Now, in his reflection, he could clearly see an extremely fine, glowing red thread swimming slowly within the depths of his left pupil.

He called up the Blood Seal in his mind to check the information on this new feature.

’Life’s Eye: Currently gathering natural radiation. At the current rate, a second Life Regeneration Special Effect can be obtained in three years. Current Life Regeneration charges: 1.

Life Regeneration Special Effect: Upon active triggering, completely restores the body, Heart and Spirit within one second. No side effects. Consumes one charge of Life’s Eye upon use. Can be granted to other disciples of the Cleansing Wind Dao. Automatically becomes ineffective if recognition from the Cleansing Wind Dao is lost.’

’So it comes with one regeneration charge by default?’ Lin Hui nodded in satisfaction.

The biggest gap between him and the Fog People was their regenerative ability; the Fog People were basically impossible to kill. Even he could only seal them away. Therefore, he could not afford to lose even once.

The other Fog People could die and be injured countless times, but for him, a single defeat would put him at an absolute disadvantage.

That was why this compensatory ability of the Life’s Eye was critically important to him, and to the entire Cleansing Wind Dao.

’Next, I should find a chance to pass this on to the core disciples, and it’s also time to persuade my family to join the sect...’

Gathering his Heart and Spirit, Lin Hui’s expression turned grave as he began the next, most important evolution.

’Since even concepts can be evolved out of thin air, then... what if I use myself as the vessel for evolution?’

He raised his hand—no, a hand has too many uses. If it got injured...

Instead, he gently pinched a strand of his hair.

Narrowing the scope in his mind, he designated the hair as the target vessel and had the Blood Seal initiate the evolution.

HISS...

A second later, the Blood Seal presented the evolution information.

’1. Iron Hair: Long hair as tough as metal.’

’2. Soft Hair: Exceptionally smooth and beautiful long hair with no split ends.’

’3. Gel Hair: Gelatinous long hair that will never lose its shape and always maintains a single form.’

"..." Lin Hui was speechless. ’I should have known. The Blood Seal’s evolutions aren’t decided by me, but are extensions or enhancements of the object’s inherent properties.’

And the properties of hair...

Resigned, he tried to create a Secret Technique, just as he had with the Life’s Eye, and then use that as the vessel for evolution.

But after tinkering for a long while, he couldn’t come up with a Secret Technique capable of sealing the Wind Calamity rift. Although he could just evolve the relic he’d used to seal the rift before, he was unwilling to settle for that.

A relic, after all, was a one-time use item, but a Secret Technique could be used infinitely and repeatedly.

After some thought, he quickly found a way to save himself a great deal of effort.

’Since I can’t create one myself, I should seek the help of collective intelligence. The Federation has been sealing all sorts of fortresses for thousands, even tens of thousands of years. I should be able to find some Secret Techniques for sealing Purgatory and the Extreme Cold Heaven.’

Without hesitation, he informed Li Yuanyuan and Wind Chime, then headed straight for the Moon Tower. It housed Black Cloud’s internal rare book repository, which contained a massive collection of books and materials gathered by the three City Lords and numerous Blood Ancestors.

Among these, various Martial Arts and Secret Techniques were naturally of paramount importance. The old Lin Hui would never have been qualified to enter, and didn’t even know its location. But now, he was a Deputy City Lord, and naturally possessed free access.

The position of Honorary Vice City Lord, while holding no real power, offered truly impeccable benefits.

This library even contained various Divine Decisions passed down from Tuyue, all of which were completely free for Lin Hui. Only a few exclusive Divine Decisions and Secret Techniques passed down within the Rain Palace Federation were kept secret.

*

*

*

Gales howled, buffeting the buildings on Wither-Glory Islet until they seemed on the verge of collapse, groaning and creaking.

Even some of the stone houses were constantly emitting the faint sounds of stone being crushed and cracking.

In the center of the town, Xia Si was surrounded by Su Yaping and Master Yunxia. The terrifying pressure from their combined Heart and Spirit sent the nearby crowd fleeing as if for their lives.

Some who were caught off guard and got too close had no time to escape and were forced to their knees, pinned to the ground and unable to move.

It was purely the crushing weight of their Heart and Spirit. The immense gap in spiritual power made it impossible for ordinary Martial Artists to even look at the three of them.

Merely hearing them speak was like being struck by a sledgehammer; just a few words were enough to knock them unconscious on the spot.

As a result, just by releasing a fraction of their Cultivation, the pressure they emitted had suppressed every living creature within a radius of several hundred meters, rendering them immobile.

The bustling, noisy town fell silent in an instant.

Only the sea wind remained, circling and howling overhead.

"Are you doing this on purpose?" Su Yaping frowned. For experts of their level, this kind of indiscriminate release of spiritual pressure was meaningless.

Normally, against an opponent of the same level, or even a stronger one, releasing one’s Heart and Spirit in such a diluted way would feel like little more than a gentle breeze.

Only by compressing and concentrating one’s Heart and Spirit for a focused, point-to-point attack could one achieve any meaningful suppression.

Right now, facing the two of them, Xia Si had deliberately provoked their Heart and Spirit, guiding them to release this area-of-effect pressure alongside her. She had to have a purpose.

"Senior Sister Xia is an unprecedented genius in our sect. Who’s to say she doesn’t have her own calculations for everything she does," Master Yunxia chuckled from across the way. "But now the Daoist Master wants you to return. If you’re unwilling, then there’s no need to hesitate. We should just get on with it."

Xia Si’s expression was frosty. Sensing the powerful, undisguised auras of the two, she wondered where their confidence came from.

"A pair of defeated foes. You think ganging up on me will be enough to suppress me? Don’t tell me the Daoist Master gave you some kind of ace up your sleeve?"

"There’s no point in talking further." Su Yaping asked one last time, "Senior Sister Xia, are you truly unwilling to come with us to see the Daoist Master?"

"The Daoist Master? Heh, that position will be mine sooner or later!" Xia Si sneered.

Her heart was a maelstrom of conflict and indecision.

Ever since regaining her memories, she had been intensely hostile toward Lin Hui and burned with a desire for revenge.

But if her enmity toward Lin Hui extended to the Cleansing Wind Dao itself, she would instantly lose the massive boost from her Dharma Seal. Her power would plummet by several Realms, and she would forfeit her terrifying comprehension bonus.

This was an outcome she could not accept.

So, after much hard thought, she had arrived at a roundabout solution. As long as she remained loyal only to the Cleansing Wind Dao and affirmed her identity as one of its members, she could seize the position of Sect Leader from Lin Hui. Then, she could conquer the fear in her heart and avenge her former people.

In truth, a part of her deep down approved of this path, because Martial Arts were Martial Arts, and people were people.

Hating a person didn’t mean you had to hate all the Martial Arts they had learned.

Thus, she had long ago adopted this as her guiding principle, fighting, killing, comprehending, and growing stronger with a frenzied desperation.

She was terrified that one day she might lose the empowerment of the Cleansing Wind Dao’s Dharma Seal. That was why she had to seize the present moment, to recklessly use the Dharma Seal to improve herself and gain as much as she could.

But as time went on, as her understanding of the Gale Swordsmanship deepened and her power grew, her fear of Daoist Master Lin Hui only intensified.

The more she practiced these Martial Arts, the more she could sense the terrifying foundation underpinning them, the Secret Techniques, and the Dharma Seals.

"Senior Sister Xia, what’s past is past. You shouldn’t cling to old hatreds," Master Yunxia said softly. "With your beauty, you might be just the Daoist Master’s type. Why don’t we team up, go back and serve the Daoist Master together, and bear him a few dozen descendants? With your constitution, in a few decades, you could have a whole new tribe. Your people would be reborn, with a bloodline even stronger than before. And with the Daoist Master’s favor, you’d have a stable backer. It wouldn’t be impossible for you to grow strong, expand, and maybe even build your own city and rule it."

"..." Even though Su Yaping had long known Master Yunxia was crazy, she was still completely floored by this suggestion.

Xia Si was also so stunned by Master Yunxia’s wild idea that for a moment, she didn’t know how to respond.

"Are you... Are you insane!?" she managed to force out after several seconds of silence.

"You don’t understand. Ever since I got my revenge, the more I follow the Daoist Master, the more I can feel that absolute power radiating from him, from the inside out! It’s just like the natural world—survival of the fittest. If we can just obtain such a powerful bloodline..." Master Yunxia was about to continue pitching her theory on bloodline continuation.

But Xia Si, who couldn’t stand to hear any more, cut her off with a roar.

"Enough!" Without a moment’s hesitation, she shot into the air and streaked toward the distant sea to the left.

Su Yaping and Master Yunxia had been watching her every move. They, too, launched themselves into the air and gave chase.

There was no hesitation. The three knew each other inside and out, having sparred for many years. Now, three Dharma Seals simultaneously transformed into golden talismans that materialized and hovered behind them. Their bodies rapidly expanded, and their every move carried highly condensed and compressed Void Power and True Power.

In an instant, the three of them collided at incredible speed, their figures overlapping at a single point.

BOOM!!!

"Wind!" x3.

Three terrifying, thousand-meter-tall tornadoes erupted from the sea’s surface, sweeping up seawater as they surged toward the sky.

The tornado in the middle was pale gold, while the two flanking it were a pale, grayish-blue.

The three tornadoes ground against each other at high speed, colliding and pressing together.

If anyone could get close enough to observe, they would see that the boundaries where the three tornadoes scraped together were erupting with a dense shower of electric arcs and sparks.

Those were the terrifying sparks created by the clash of their three sword blades at super-high speeds.