The Decaying World

Jadeite Valley.

Leaving Black Cloud Outer City, he passed through the fringe towns and villages, crossed the wilderness, and entered the Fog Wall. A short distance further, and he arrived at the small valley that produced rough jadeite.

When Lin Hui arrived, Ouyang Yining was already waiting for him with her personal guards. Holding a relic array disk, she bowed to Lin Hui and reported.

"My Lord, this is the Fog-Dispelling Array Disk gifted by the Great City Lord. It’s generally used to establish new cities. One disk can create a No-Fog Zone of about one hundred li in radius. Once deployed, it consumes approximately one hundred thousand units of Feather Blood per year."

"...No wonder so few people build cities in the wilds... This consumption rate is just burning money..." Lin Hui lamented.

"Indeed. Only the great clans of the Blood Ancestor Level have the financial resources to establish private territories in the wilderness. The expense is terrifying. The larger the No-Fog Zone, the greater the consumption," Ouyang Yining agreed with a nod.

"Alright, you are dismissed. Give me the item," Lin Hui nodded.

"Yes, My Lord."

Taking the array disk, Lin Hui leaped into the air, soaring high above the valley.

The core principle of governing with the Celestial Sacred Form was the atmosphere above a region, so he first needed to understand the atmospheric conditions here.

Passing through the fog, he quickly ascended over ten thousand meters, broke through the cloud layer, and entered the No-Fog Zone at the very top.

Golden sunlight shone down from above, landing on his outer robes and on the churning, roiling layer of fog below.

Lin Hui gently tossed the array disk downward.

HISS.

The array disk suddenly flared with golden light, pierced through the fog, and hovered high above Jadeite Valley.

In an instant, the golden light channeled the sunlight from above, transforming it into countless Golden Threads that shot down toward the ground.

Thousands of densely packed Golden Threads landed. With each one that touched the ground, the fog in the area thinned a little more.

A few minutes later, a circular No-Fog Zone, one hundred li in diameter, appeared before Lin Hui’s eyes below.

The next moment, he extended his right hand, palm facing down.

He activated the Star Breath Sword Manual.

A golden-blue halo lit up in his palm.

The halo shot downward, transforming into a pillar of light that pierced the fog, stabbed into the earth, and delved deep underground.

Soon, Lin Hui retracted his hand. An atmospheric image map of the entire Jadeite Valley had already formed in his mind.

This was the most crucial step of the Star Breath Sword Manual: to separate a sliver of his Heart and Spirit and merge it with the atmosphere above the region.

It was an ability that could only be achieved after completing the first two steps of ’Life and Death’.

At this very moment, Lin Hui could sense the countless auras of life and death swirling and mixing in the atmosphere.

They were strong and weak, fast and slow, intertwining and battling one another.

Following one of the auras of life, Lin Hui was surprised to find it belonged to a Black Armor lizard that had just burrowed out of the ground.

It seemed to have just been born; the aura of life around it was incredibly dense, while the aura of death was but a tiny trace.

But at the same time, Lin Hui also discovered that besides the auras of life and death, a faint gray wisp of air was coiled around the palm-sized Black Armor lizard.

The gray wisp acted like a living thing, constantly sucking something from the lizard’s body, clinging tightly to its surface in pulses.

’An aura of decay...’

Lin Hui focused his senses and quickly identified the type of gray air.

That unique smell of rot was very similar to what he had sensed on the corrupted, mutated Blood Eyes and Blood Bodies back then.

Looking at the aura of decay, Lin Hui seemed to understand how he should approach and comprehend the third layer of the Star Breath Sword Manual.

*

*

*

The news that a new No-Fog Zone had been established in Jadeite Valley attracted the Dian refugees to settle there. Having traveled from afar with nothing to their names, they now had a new place to live without having to compete with local factions. Naturally, they all flocked to the area.

In just one short month, a sparse town was erected in Jadeite Valley.

Houses shot up across the town, and various public facilities were rapidly completed thanks to the influx of resources from Black Cloud City.

Land was also set aside for the Lin Mansion and the Qingfeng Daoist Court to build new courtyards.

Adjacent to Jadeite Valley, vast new fields were cleared, and some Fog Area monsters, raised specifically for meat, were penned up in herds.

In Black Cloud, the combination of the three City Lords’ Evil Energy was a rare special ability that allowed Fog Area monsters to be consumed as food.

No matter how the outside world changed, Black Cloud remained as stable as ever.

In the blink of an eye, another three months passed...

After consuming all his medicine and Treasure Medicine, Lin Hui finally completed another evolution of the Blood Seal’s sealing power.

The sealing of the Wind Calamity fissure could finally be completed.

「Inside the Qingfeng Daoist Court courtyard.」

He stood alone in his room, looking at the faint blue fissure floating in mid-air.

The relic blocking the seal was beginning to fail again. He estimated that disaster would strike in another six months. Fortunately, he had finally completed the sealing Secret Technique, sparing no expense.

This Secret Technique specifically targeted the Wind Calamity and should be able to solve the problem for good.

Lin Hui reached out his hand, aiming it at the fissure.

"Are you sure you want to do this? My dear disciple whom I’ve never met..."

The voice of the True Monarch of Seven Destructions once again echoed in his ears.

"This world is so corrupt, muddled by the powers of countless inferior species. Life is incredibly difficult for the living. If you were to fully release the wind, perhaps you could change this rotten status quo and reopen a clear, bright sky!"

The True Monarch of Seven Destructions’ voice continued to ring out, but its tone was completely unlike the Qimei in Lin Hui’s memories. Instead, it was as if something was using Qimei’s shell to try and tempt him into opening the fissure and unleashing the Wind Calamity.

"I don’t recall ever accepting you as my master," Lin Hui said flatly, pressing his hand against the fissure.

HSSS.

The next moment, a brilliant blue light flared wildly. Countless silver array symbols materialized and spun around him.

The faint roar of some unknown giant beast echoed in the air.

It was ancient and shrill.

"It’s useless... You have inherited my Nine Heavens legacy. You are destined to reopen everything. A seal like this won’t hold for long..." Qimei’s voice slowly grew weaker and fainter, fading away until it vanished completely.

The fissure before Lin Hui’s eyes also faded rapidly with the rotation of the silver array symbols, then disappeared.

A moment later, sensing the fissure was completely gone, he finally withdrew his hand.

’A product of the Blood Seal. The effect is perfect, as expected!’

This fissure of the Wind Calamity had appeared out of nowhere and had been the greatest hidden danger weighing on his mind. Now that it was resolved, it felt as if a great weight had been lifted from his heart.

’Next, I should continue cultivating the third layer of the Celestial Sacred Form... The next two layers of the Star Breath Sword Manual are a perfect fit for my need to build a safe territory. Now that the Blood Seal is free, it’s the perfect time to establish the foundation for the entire safe zone.’

Lin Hui had been thinking about this foundation for a long time.

And that was... an isolated spirit land!

The best model for a spirit land was, in fact, the three floating mountain peaks occupied by the three Great City Lords.

These peaks were mobile and could be outfitted with arrays; they were essentially three self-contained, mobile war fortresses.

When it came to building his own spirit land, Lin Hui naturally planned to develop it in this direction.

He immediately left the courtyard and quickly returned to the sky above Jadeite Valley.

By now, several thousand refugees had settled in Jadeite Valley. Large quantities of food and supplies were constantly being transported in. Artisans had begun to produce goods, and processing workshops had started operating.

Aside from its heavy reliance on the outside, the place was already starting to look like a proper town.

The town was a long strip, stretching from one end of Jadeite Valley to the other.

Lin Hui hovered high in the sky, looking down at the whole of Jadeite Valley.

The barren mountains on either side of the valley below looked like two slices of gray bread sandwiching a slice of white cheese.

The cheese was the town itself.

Without hesitation, he designated the entirety of Jadeite Valley, including the soil down to a depth of about fifty meters, as his primary target and summoned the Blood Seal.

’Evolve Jadeite Land.’

’Jadeite Land: A wild land in the Fog Area south of Black Cloud City, capable of producing some low-quality jadeite. Available evolution paths: 5.’

Without hesitation, Lin Hui quickly opened the evolution path options. He was also very curious to see what kind of spirit land he could evolve with his current vast reserves of energy and Heart and Spirit.

’1—Domain of Absolute Limits.’

’2—Desperate Tundra.’

’3—Hell Valley.’

’4—Fae Garden.’

’5—God-Kingdom of Vile Shadows.’

’...Are there any normal ones?’

Lin Hui stared speechlessly at the five options. He was clearly such an upstanding person, yet all the evolution paths had a decidedly wicked style.

He closed and reopened the evolution options again.

The result was the same...

Apparently, there weren’t many alternatives this time. These were the only suitable ones.

He had no choice but to open them one by one.

’1—Domain of Absolute Limits: Designate any one of an intruder’s abilities to be suppressed to its absolute limit. The suppression can weaken the ability by up to half its original strength. This suppression is ineffective if the intruder’s own energy exceeds the total energy of the territory.’

’2—Desperate Tundra: A prison of eternal permafrost used to incarcerate the most heinous criminals. Intruders will be frozen and plunged into an eternal nightmare of torment and pain. Ineffective if the captive’s energy is higher than the territory’s total energy.’

’3—Hell Valley: All living beings in this land will gradually undergo infernalization. The valley’s owner automatically obtains the authority of a Hell Lord and can control all infernalized creatures.’

’4—Fae Garden: A garden of fate created by fifteen great fae in concert. Intruders may be blessed or cursed. The effect is unrelated to their Energy Level.’

’5—God-Kingdom of Vile Shadows: Once completed, it will randomly link to an unknown powerful existence once every year. This is the exclusive territory meticulously crafted by the great traveling merchant Hao Ding. He relied on this place to build his clan’s glory, but an accidental link also led to the complete destruction of his space-time continuum...’

Looking at the five options, especially the last one—which was purely a matter of character and luck—he ignored it completely.

Lin Hui’s main focus remained on Hell Valley and the Domain of Absolute Limits.

’Hell Valley forcibly transforms creatures into infernal beings. It’s not as good as the Domain of Absolute Limits.’

He immediately decided on the first option.

Then, he began the evolution.

As long as he continuously increased the rank and number of powerful experts living within the spirit land, its suppressive advantage over outsiders would always be maintained.

It was a perfect match for his current Qingfeng Dao.

’After the spirit land, there’s the Protective Array, the production workshops, and so on. Now that I have the means, it’s time to officially begin what I envisioned before...’

He had long ago conceived of the idea of truly establishing the Qingfeng Dao Sect.

As long as he could finish building a self-sufficient Sect spirit land, he would have a true rear base in this world—a place that could protect and defend, a place from which to escape and fight.

In this increasingly dangerous world... safety was undoubtedly the most precious commodity.