Decaying World

Chapter 167 Clue 167 (Thanks to the leader of the Red Horned Triple Speed ​​Galon Beast Alliance)

After the wind, raindrops began to fall.

A light drizzle dispersed some of the mist.

The headless corpse with the white knife slowly fell down, its wounds rapidly turning red and then black, beginning to undergo a hellish transformation with large blisters appearing. But the next moment, because it had lost vital organs and could not complete the transformation, the corpse was suddenly ignited and quickly burned to black ash.

Lin Hui stood behind, watching Black Knife slowly rise. Black Knife was completely different from before.

Dense black and red horns grew from the back of his head, curving like wild short hair.

Below its face, a large amount of black bone grows, completely covering the lower half of its face, as if it were wearing a half-black mask.

At this moment, Black Knife's eyes were blood red and glowed with light. Rings of scorching aura slowly spread out from him, mixing into the wind and rain, evaporating more water vapor and mist.

"Is he still conscious?" Lin Hui raised his longsword, flashed to the right, and looked at the black knife.

Black Knife didn't reply, he just stood there blankly, seemingly adapting to his new body.

Roar!
Suddenly, he raised his head and roared, pouncing on Lin Hui like a wild beast.

But the next instant, a flash of silver light appeared.

Lin Hui's figure vanished like a bubble, reappearing behind the black knife as he slowly sheathed his sword.

The wind howled, making his long black hair flutter in the wind.

He turned around and looked at the black knife behind him.

A ball of dark red flame rose from below, suddenly enveloping the black sword and transforming it into a dark red torch, which then burned fiercely.

The next second, the black and red flames suddenly rushed towards Lin Hui, piercing into his chest with lightning speed and disappearing.

An indescribable, immense warm current surged into Lin Hui's body at that moment, beginning to evenly strengthen every corner of his body.

Strength and recovery ability both began to improve again, and a fine layer of keratin began to appear on Lin Hui's neck.

However, he managed to control his internal energy in time, adjust his skin condition, and suppress the aura of purgatory, which prevented him from turning into something resembling a black blade.

'But it's still too much of amplification. I can't absorb any more, otherwise I might not even be able to maintain a basic normal appearance.' Lin Hui estimated in his mind, glanced at the black knife and black ash in front of him, and used his sword to poke at it. He found that even his clothes had been burned to ashes. He had left behind a few items he was carrying, but they were all miscellaneous items of unknown purpose.

Lin Hui didn't dare to take it and buried it directly in a pit to avoid any hidden tricks from the Qinghe Sect.

On the other side, Bai Dao didn't have much either, but a greenish-blue object shaped like a cup caught Lin Hui's attention.

He used his sword to lift it up, turned around and disappeared abruptly, rushing out of the boundary zone and heading towards the wall of fog.

Before long, he entered the fog, randomly found a barbarian monster, and stuffed the thing into its mouth.

The barbarian was roaring with his head tilted back and his mouth wide open when suddenly something flew into his mouth. Before he could spit it out, a figure slapped a sword at him, hitting his mouth and forcing him to swallow the thing whole.

Lin Hui hid in the shadows, observed for a while, and only after confirming that everything was alright did he kill the barbarian, take out the object, find a place to bury it in the ground, and then write down the address.

He's not in a hurry to find out if there's a problem; time will tell.

Returning to Qingfeng Temple, he acted as if nothing had happened, resuming his previous focused state of cultivation.

But this time, he didn't go to the Gale Plains for cultivation; instead, he stayed outside Xue Meng's room.

As a high priest, Black and White Blade is a highly skilled individual, and even the mighty Qinghe Sect would likely not have many.

Killing two high priests is a devastating blow to the Qinghe Sect, and the subsequent investigation will inevitably intensify significantly.

What he needs to do next is to keep a low profile and not expose himself.

Wait until Qinghemen reveals more of its secrets, then strike at the crucial moment and kill them with a single blow.

Time passed day by day.

Xue Meng's condition was deteriorating. Sometimes he would only be awake for a few minutes a day before falling back asleep. And the times he was awake were driven by immense hunger, during which he would eat and drink voraciously.

This situation lasted for more than three weeks.

until
Ding.

Lin Hui put down his teacup at the stone table, placed his hand on the hilt of the sword on the table, and stood up.

He turned around and looked towards Xue Meng's room.

It was completely silent there, like a black hole, swallowing up all the surrounding noise.

Let's drink tea instead of wine. Brother Xue, may you rest in peace.

Lin drew his longsword, the tip of which lifted the teacup, which he then gently tossed into the room through the window.

puff.

The teacup was firmly held in the hand of a large black hand.

A burly, blood-red figure appeared at the entrance, crushing a teacup in one hand and looking up at Lin Hui.

It was a bizarre humanoid creature, entirely blood-red, with its back covered in sword-shaped black crystal spikes.

Aside from its blood-red skin and black crystal spikes on its back, the humanoid form was almost identical to Xue Meng's original appearance, only much taller.

The humanoid figure had pitch-black eyes and looked at Lin Hui. It suddenly opened its mouth to let out a roar.

Swish!
But in the next instant, everything came to an abrupt halt. A flash of silver light.

Lin Hui appeared behind him, entered the room, and gently picked up a piece of yellow paper from the table.

The paper was held down by an inkstone, and the faint ink stains seemed to have just dried. The characters on it were twisted and struggling, just like the state of Brother Xue Meng when he was struggling against decay.

Lin Hui picked up the yellow paper, and the humanoid figure behind him collapsed with a thud, its neck slowly separating from its body. A deep penetrating wound appeared in its heart.

He looked down at the words on the paper.

'Xiao Ningmei'

The messy, illegible handwriting reveals the regret and pain in Xue Meng's heart before his last consciousness faded away.

This person might be someone he once liked, or someone he once owed a debt to.

Only on his deathbed did he remember and leave his name behind.

At that moment, the sound of disciples collecting corpses came from behind.

Lin Hui turned around and looked at Xue Meng's four disciples. He personally pieced Xue Meng's head back together and lifted it onto a stretcher.

With tears in their eyes and reddened rims, the four bowed in this direction before leaving the courtyard.

Lin Hui was left alone. He walked out of the room and looked at the traces of Xue Meng's life that were everywhere in the courtyard.

He recalled once again the many descriptions of decay.

"Is this your first time experiencing something like this?" Mingxia, a newcomer to the courtyard, walked in at some point and spoke up when she saw Lin Hui, who remained silent.

"Perhaps it's because many people simply don't live long enough to decay before disappearing. In that sense, this is indeed my first experience," Lin Hui replied calmly.

“You’re right, that’s how decay works.” Mingxia nodded. “That’s just how the world is. Why do we cultivate and become stronger at all costs? Isn’t it to protect ourselves in this dangerous environment? Become stronger and stronger, regardless of the cost, and that’s how the Call to Power and extreme martial arts came about. So the more you cultivate, the shorter your life gets.”

"What makes the Fog Zone more dangerous than the Inner City?" Lin Hui asked. Based on his personal experience, he felt that even the highest-level Destruction-class monsters in the Fog Zone could be dealt with by the Inner City Palace Master, the Primal Blood, or even the Fog People. If that was the case, why did people in the beginning work so hard to cultivate and protect themselves?
"I don't know the answer to that question," Mingxia said, shrugging her shoulders. "Perhaps the area around us is still a safe zone. In the foggy areas further away, the monsters will get stronger and stronger. Have you ever thought about it? The Evil Insect Codex wasn't made by humans. It was something that existed in this world from the beginning. After it was discovered, it was taken, slightly modified, and then fused together."

She paused.

"In fact, rather than calling them weapons, it would be more accurate to say that they were originally disasters caused by the ancestors of the human race who sacrificed themselves one after another, using human lives to defeat the first evil weapon, the Insect Codex. After that, like a snowball rolling downhill, they used the power of the first evil weapon to continue dealing with disasters and acquiring more evil weapons, until the number of Mist People gradually increased."

"So, in the beginning, we relied solely on martial arts."

When Mingxia spoke of this, her eyes held an undisguised solemnity.

"Is this how martial arts, the ultimate martial arts, came about?" Lin Hui asked.

“Perhaps,” Mingxia said.

"Perhaps... then why didn't they continue to develop a martial art capable of countering all dangers?" Lin Hui asked.

“It’s because of despair,” Mingxia replied. “There are some things you can’t imagine the extent of if you haven’t seen them.”

Lin Hui knew she was referring to the Fog People. He said nothing more, but slowly walked out of the courtyard to practice his swordsmanship and temper his body in the Gale Plain.

Xue Meng's funeral lasted for three days. Because Qingfeng Temple was so famous, there were many guests, and the scene gave Xue Meng a lot of face, even though he had no descendants and didn't need such face.

After his body was cremated, his ashes were placed in an urn and buried in a corner of the courtyard where he lived.

In this environment, not cremating a body could lead to serious problems. Even if the cremated body isn't brought home, it could be dug up and desecrated by monsters in the foggy wilderness.

Therefore, many people bury the spirit tablet in their own yard and set it up.

After Xue Meng's death, Lin Hui discovered that the only person he could talk to inside the house was Mingxia.

When others faced him, they either worshipped him, respected him, or felt awe.

The only thing lacking is equality.

Only Mingxia accomplished this.

As time passed, Xue Meng's death gradually faded within Qingfeng Temple, while in the Lin family mansion, Lin Xiaoliu grew taller and taller, from initially only able to babble to slowly being able to call out the names of all her relatives.

Among them, the person she was closest to was Yao Shan, Lin Hui's mother, who had taken the most care of her and was also her aunt.

Then there's her father, Lin Shunhe. As for her older brother, Liu Wujun, and older sister, Liu Xiao, they're somewhat unfamiliar. Lin Hui, on the other hand, is only somewhat acquainted with her because he visits her occasionally.

But for some reason, even though Liu Wujun and his sister only came to visit her occasionally, Lin Xiaoliu's attitude towards the Liu siblings was completely different from her attitude towards Lin Hui.

She always seemed to be somewhat afraid of Lin Hui.

Whenever Lin Hui was present, or when he tried to get close enough to hug her, she behaved very well and didn't make a fuss at all. Her little face was very tense.

It's abnormal for a two-year-old to make such expressions and gestures. It means she's not relaxed enough.

After realizing this, Lin Hui stopped getting too close to the child and only focused on ensuring the child's safety and well-being.

Just as Lin Hui was focused on his cultivation, oblivious to the world around him, the two high priests of Qinghe Sect mysteriously disappeared, a fact that had already caused quite a stir in the intelligence circles of various major powers.

Black and White Blades had only participated in the ambush of the Tao family a year before they mysteriously disappeared. This inevitably leads people to wonder if a powerful figure from a faction that was on good terms with the Tao family had intervened to kill the two.

After all, a high priest is a powerful figure of that caliber, and in the eyes of any force, he is definitely a mid-to-high-level figure.

Suddenly two disappeared.
(End of this chapter)