Decaying World

Chapter 176, Mission 176

"Huh?" A strange look flashed in the white-haired young master's eyes. "I clearly used a slight divine technique to alter the perceptions of everyone around me. Although the effect wasn't strong, no one should have been able to detect it."

"Perhaps it's because the distance is too far?" the page boy guessed from behind, his voice strangely old, like that of an eighty or ninety-year-old man.

"That's not right either. Even if the divine power is a bit far away, it shouldn't be able to notice us so easily." The white-haired young master showed a hint of curiosity on his face.

"Forget about these trivial matters for now. Dealing with these two enemies from the Good Heart Sect is the priority. If we don't take action soon, those two kids will go back and say that I'm deliberately delaying and wasting their time."

Shaking his head helplessly, the white-haired young master withdrew his gaze and continued forward, heading straight towards the center of the battle.

As he took a step, he raised his right hand and casually swung it forward.

puff!

The fox, who was fighting a golden-faced man in white robes not far away, suddenly lost his footing and was hit in the abdomen by his opponent's palm.

He immediately spat out a mouthful of blood and flew backward.

"Good aptitude, strong mind, and seems to be of original blood. If we were on different sides, he would be a good disciple of mine. What a pity." The white-haired young master raised his hand again, aiming at the fox.

"Forget it, let's just kill him." He smirked. "The sooner we finish, the better, so we can catch Old Wu's hot Qingxue wine when we get back."

呼.
Suddenly a gentle breeze blew.

The white-haired young master paused, his gaze narrowing slightly, his previous relaxed demeanor turning into a slightly solemn expression.

He sensed someone behind him.

Fifteen meters away, the other person's gaze was fixed on him, on his back, behind his heart.

That gaze was as sharp as a sword. It even caused a slight stinging sensation on his back.

"When?" the white-haired young master asked in a low voice.

"Just as you were about to make your second move," Lin Hui's voice came from behind. "You weren't paying attention to me, which naturally gave me an opportunity."

"Is that so?" The white-haired young master remained noncommittal. "I don't think my divine technique coverage will have any flaws."

“Anyone can make mistakes. You were just a moment too careless. And I was just a moment too fast,” Lin Hui said calmly.

"Interesting." The white-haired young master slowly turned around and looked at the other party. "I am Su Yaping, the deputy palace master of the Rain Palace on Xingdao's side. Where do you come from, my friend? And why did you take action?"

“Teach with kindness, in all directions,” Lin Hui replied.

His hand was already on the hilt of the Ruyi sword at his waist.

The aura emanating from the other party was extremely unstable. One moment it was like a black hole, devouring everything around it; the next it suddenly transformed into an ordinary person; and then it became like a high priest, its body a mixture of ethereal energy and internal force. However, the ethereal energy and internal force emanating from this person were far stronger than those of the fox and the ox—at least ten times stronger.

This bizarre and enormous disparity prevented him from making any rash moves.

Deputy Palace Master?
He didn't know what level of strength this person possessed. Even if he had actually fought against the deputy palace master from Tu Yue's side, it didn't mean he was at the same level as the deputy palace master here.

Having reached this position, these old monsters have all lived for hundreds of years. Their positions are just that—positions—but only they themselves know their true level of strength and power.

Only then did I realize how much was hidden.

At this moment, Su Yaping, the white-haired woman opposite, also remained silent, staring at the strange man wearing four masks in front of her.

The other person gave him a strange feeling; their aura was intermittent, as if he were looking through a thick layer of frosted glass, making it impossible to pinpoint their exact location.

Even the faint, intermittent breath was blurred by the inexplicable wind blowing around them.

Although he didn't sense any illusory power from this person, his consistently accurate combat intuition was constantly warning him not to make contact with this person lightly.

Yes, try to avoid even contact!

Su Yaping didn't know why her intuition was like this. She knew that even when facing the Palace Master of Xingdao Palace, her teacher, she wouldn't have such a strange intuition.

In addition, he also sensed a faint, overwhelming sense of oppression from the other person, similar to that felt when facing a natural disaster.

Although it was faint, after repeatedly checking, he was certain that this sense of oppression was not an illusion.

For a moment, both of them hesitated to look at each other, and stood still in silence.

Lin Hui's goal was simply to ensure that this person would not interfere in the battle again.

Su Yaping's goal was to take down the High Priest of the Benevolent Sect, but this goal was not important. As long as his two disciples on the battlefield were safe, he didn't care about the so-called capture.

Zhu Chengqiu was a pawn he deliberately threw out for outsiders to deal with. Now that his goal has been achieved, nothing else matters.

Before you know it, several minutes have passed.

The ox and the fox fought further and further apart, finally managing to escape the pursuit of the two high priests and head towards the outskirts.

Lin Hui glanced at Su Yaping one last time before disappearing without a trace. He then followed her away.

"Interesting. A guardian? That little girl's? No, that little girl's original blood concentration wasn't high. It's been a long time since I've encountered something so interesting." Su Yaping smiled.

"Young master, everyone has run away," the pageboy reminded him helplessly from behind.

"It's alright, the objective has been achieved." Su Yaping looked at the two high priest disciples running towards him.

The two of them clearly hesitated a bit when they made their move. It seemed they had sensed something was amiss with their master's actions.

Hesitation in his heart led to hesitation in his actions, which gave the ox and the fox a chance to escape.

"Teacher, I'm sorry we let them escape." One of them stepped forward, clasped his hands in a fist and bowed his head.

"It's alright, let's go. There will be another chance soon," Su Yaping said nonchalantly.

He looked one last time in the direction Lin Hui had just left. For some reason, he had a feeling that the man might stand before him again in the near future.

They will meet again someday.

Perhaps during one of his future overseas visits.
*
*
*
On the moth carriage.

The ox helped the fox up and gently laid her flat on the wooden floor.

Then he quickly took out a small, exquisite jade box from his waist pouch, opened it, took out a green jade-like pill, and stuffed it into the small mouth under the fox mask.

"Stabilize your strength, don't ruin the moth cart!" he warned in a deep voice.

"You'll be in charge of keeping watch around the four sides. Thank you for your help." He then turned to look at Lin Hui.

"Okay." Lin Hui nodded.

Although he didn't think that any vigilance was needed after the moth caravan took flight, he still had to put on a show.

"Is the fox alright?" He saw the fox vomiting large amounts of blood and coughing violently, as if it were about to cough up its lungs.

"It's alright, don't worry. It's just that she has the original bloodline, so her recovery might be a bit slower," the ox sighed.

"Tu Yueyuan's blood?" Lin Hui was taken aback.

"Yes. They have mastered the power of evil energy to steal people's lives, but they also pay a corresponding price. Their regenerative abilities are even worse than ordinary people, and they need external assistance, which is one of the reasons," Huang Niu explained.

"Fel energy... what kind of ability is it?" Lin Hui felt a chill run down his spine. Hearing about this strange ability again made him a little uneasy.

"It's the derivative ability of the Longevity Wheel." The fox opened its eyes at this moment and slowed its cough.

"But this ability can't be activated at any time. It requires taking the target back to the Moon Tower and using the ritual formation of the Wheel of Life. Moreover, the process of seizing it is not something that can be done overnight, cough cough, it requires a relatively long period of erosion."

"I see." Lin Hui immediately made contact with those young-looking but incredibly aged-looking guys at the foot of the Moon Tower.

"Speaking of which, I don't know why, but those two suddenly slowed down a bit. Otherwise, it would have been much more troublesome for us to escape," Huang Niu sighed. "I was almost prepared to use my secret technique to fight to the death."

"If you really fight, you'll suffer huge losses," the fox said with a smile, wiping the blood from the corner of its mouth.

This laugh aggravated her abdominal injury, causing her to wince in pain and her smile to twist into a wry smile.

"We were lucky this time. Otherwise, if we had dragged it out any longer, the experts from the inner city might have come out to help, and we wouldn't have been able to leave," Huang Niu sighed.

"Yes, it seems that my daily prayers to the Mist God do bring me good luck," the fox echoed, wincing in pain.

Lin Hui stood there speechless.

In fact, the expert reinforcements from the inner city had been watching the show from the sidelines for a while, and it was only because he stepped in to stop the other side that things turned out this way.
Those two should be dust by now.

However, to avoid revealing his strength, he simply remained silent.

However, as a creature of the original bloodline, the fox seemed to have vaguely seen Lin Hui standing nearby, rather than at the more distant location they had initially agreed upon.

She wanted to ask, but seeing Lin Hui focused on looking ahead, and feeling waves of intense pain surging through her body, she had no choice but to give up.

Before long, she fell into a deep sleep again.

The ox also sat down cross-legged to take medicine and recover.

Only Lin Hui stood alone, watching the moth-cart break through layers of mist and fly back towards Tu Yue.

After spending half a day, we successfully arrived at Yunbian Town just before dark.

Lin Hui parted ways with the two men. Before leaving, he felt that the fox was looking at him strangely.

They seemed to have sensed something.

But he didn't take it seriously. Anyway, he didn't make a move this time, he just released his aura to stop Su Yaping at the end.

If we really went to investigate, we probably wouldn't find anything.

The mission was successfully completed, and the evaluation of him by the Good Heart Sect completely changed, making him a formal believer.

Long Ji quickly brought him the precious medicine trading channel he had been looking forward to.

10 month 27 day.

Kuangfeng Plain, 9:00 AM.

Long Ji handed Lin Hui a slip of paper with a detailed address written in coded language.

"Write down the resources you need on a piece of paper using the code rules, then send it to the address on the paper and drop it into the hole."

You should have a result within about a month. Check back then; there will be a reply note inside the cave.

"So well hidden?" Lin Hui took the note.

“The Moon Tower is heavily guarded; you’ll get into trouble if you’re not discreet. You’ve never actually been inside the Moon Tower, have you? That place is practically inhuman. Once you’re inside, you’ll never want to come out,” Long Ji said helplessly. “What we do is secretly skim a little bit from the Moon Tower’s resources for our own use. These resources are the foundation for maintaining the Moon Tower’s incredibly luxurious lifestyle. So, you understand.”

"What's it like inside the Moon Tower?" Lin Hui asked with slight curiosity.

“Everyone living in the Moon Tower experiences two distinct periods each day: work time and bliss time,” Dragon Princess explained. “Work time involves being busy with one’s tasks, which is easy to understand. Bliss time, however, is provided by a massive array that envelops the Moon Tower. This is an extremely ancient array, its origins unknown. Its sole purpose is to provide ultimate pleasure. You simply lie down anywhere, and you can enter a dream world that only you can freely control. That dream world is incredibly realistic; you can do whatever you want within it, and the pleasure you experience is far, far greater than in reality.”

"No wonder you rarely see people from the Moon Tower going out; they're either on missions or working." Lin Hui said speechlessly.

"You understand, that's good. Once you've been inside that place, you'll never forget it, you'll constantly reminisce. It's almost impossible to let go." A hint of helplessness flashed in Long Ji's voice. "Because you can't distinguish between reality and illusion, which is more real..."

(End of this chapter)