Decaying World

Chapter 177 177 Future One
The note that Long Ji gave her recorded the exact location of the stone cave.

After seeing the person off, Lin Hui quickly wrote down a request on a piece of paper, crumpled it into a ball, and headed to the scene according to the address.

After dropping a crumpled piece of paper in front of a stone cave in the foggy area.

After returning home and waiting for three days, I couldn't resist going to check again. According to Long Ji, messages left in these stone caves usually take a week to a month to appear.

But after only three days, he actually got a response.

In the foggy area, Lin Hui slowly sheathed his sword and stepped over the enormous monster corpse in front of him.

Returning to the cave entrance, he glanced at a piece of white paper lying on the ground inside.

There was a reply written on the paper.

'The Illusionary Dragon Lotus is unavailable, but the Spirit-Nourishing Mushroom and the Purple Cloud Mushroom are available, priced at ten per one blood level and one per blood level respectively.'

The price was about the same as what Lin Hui had figured out, not much different from the market price, the main thing was that they had the goods here. That was the key, since Lin Hui had basically bought up all the goods in the nearby market.

After replenishing the required amount, he threw the paper ball into the stone cave.

This cave is also very strange. The surrounding area is bare, with flat gray mountain walls, and suddenly a cave appears in this place.

It looks incredibly strange.

After tossing the paper ball, Lin Hui took out the exchanged Feather Blood from his waist pouch, counted out ten strands, tied them together with a thin thread, and gently placed them into the stone cave.

Payment must be made before goods are received; this is the rule of transactions in this cave.

After doing all this, he turned and left, noting that he would come back to check on the situation three days later.

Having just emerged from the fog and returned to Qingfeng Temple, Lin Hui saw a somewhat familiar figure sitting in the courtyard of the back mansion, slowly swinging on a swing.

"Old Han?" He paused for a moment, then blurted out instinctively.

嘎。

The swing stopped abruptly.

Han Xiaoyue looked at him with a helpless expression, her face covered by a veil.

"Although I am indeed not young, could you please not add the word 'old' to it?"

She wore a long white gauze dress with silver trim, and tassels hung down from her elbows, swaying in the wind. Her graceful figure and excellent waist-to-hip ratio made her quite eye-catching.

Although half of her face resembled a skull, the good parts were indistinguishable from those of a young woman in her late teens or early twenties, making it impossible to guess her real age.

Or rather, Lin Hui has never seen a single person from the inner city with an excessively ugly face.

The people he met were either young, like little girls, or old people; there was no middle ground.

"Okay, I'll be more careful next time." Lin Hui nodded. "When did you get back? Why didn't you send a message beforehand so I could pick you up?"

"Why pick me up? I'm back now. Picking me up and dropping me off is too much trouble. If you want to see me, just come to my place," Han Xiaoyue said calmly.

“Okay.” Lin Hui nodded and sat down on the stone bench.

"Are you aware of the Wang family's affairs?"

"Yes, it has nothing to do with you or me. Wang Yueheng can't tell what's important, so it was only a matter of time before something happened to her." Han Xiaoyue nodded.

She glanced at Lin Hui. All along, she had only maintained a calm attitude towards Lin Hui, this fake fiancé.

After all, she didn't have much time left, and being able to experience feelings she had never experienced before in her last moments was quite novel for her.

Although she had lived for so many years, she had never had time to get married due to the many things that kept her busy, and she had never had close contact with a man. The feeling she had now was hazy and beautiful, and it did bring a touch of tenderness to her long-standing depressed heart.

Upon returning from this trip, hearing the advice of her former friend, a strange idea once again arose in her mind.

"Hey, Lin Hui."

"What's wrong?" Lin Hui was already preparing to sit cross-legged and cultivate his internal energy.

Hearing this, he turned to look at her.

"Didn't people say before that they were urging us to get married? Now that we're engaged, no one's urging us to get married anymore, but instead they're urging us to have a baby. I have no experience with having children, so how am I supposed to handle this?" She looked at him earnestly.

"I don't know. Should we go and get one?" Lin Hui asked hesitantly.

"There's no way around it, it's very easy to tell. My bloodline is different." Han Xiaoyue slowly shook her head.

She looked at Lin Hui carefully for the first time, examining him from the perspective of a spouse.

She wasn't ugly, and she didn't care about that, since she herself was unattractive and had nothing to complain about.

His physique, due to his martial arts training, is well-proportioned and powerful, not excessively muscular, but also not appearing thin.

Although he was born in the outer city, he worked his way up step by step to build the Qingfeng Temple into what it is today.

His strength and talent are top-notch in the outer city.

Looking at it this way, he could actually be considered a pretty good partner.

Although Lin Hui is known as the "Invisible Sword of Great Male Enhancement" by outsiders, she knows very well from their close relationship that Lin Hui is very disciplined in his private life. There are women around him who like him, but he doesn't care at all.

Putting aside his reputation, he is simply a highly talented, single martial artist.

"So what do you think?" Lin Hui asked, frowning as he looked at her after pondering for a moment.

"Here's the thing, I want to have one myself and experience that feeling. I wanted to discuss this with you, and considering the age gap, you'd be at a disadvantage, so I'm willing to compensate you." Han Xiaoyue spoke very seriously, as if she were discussing a deal to be settled.

"Uh..." Lin Hui was momentarily speechless.

He just wanted to fake a marriage to avoid trouble; he didn't really want to have a child and be set up for life.
Having a baby brings so many worries, and he's not mentally prepared to face them yet.

There are too many things to do and too little stable environment.

He felt that he should wait until his envisioned safe base was established before he could think about things like having children.

"It's alright, if you don't want to, I won't bring it up again. Just pretend I never said anything." Han Xiaoyue noticed his hesitation. "How about this, I'll go to the inner city and find a few men."

“That won’t do.” Lin Hui frowned.

Although the two were only pretending to be close, he still felt uncomfortable hearing this. "Why?" Han Xiaoyue asked, puzzled. She didn't think it was a problem; since Lin Hui was unwilling, she would find a few other people to let her experience the life she wanted.

What does it matter?
"That's too casual," Lin Hui said.

“But you didn’t want to, did you? If I want to experience it, I can only find someone else,” Han Xiaoyue said seriously.

Lin Hui was speechless. He really didn't want to start having a baby so casually. It disrupted all his previous plans.

"It seems I've caused you trouble." Han Xiaoyue sighed and stood up. "Then, how about we part ways from now on? Let's call off the marriage proposal. Because our needs are no longer aligned."

Lin Hui was incredibly conflicted. "Why so suddenly? Making such a request?"

“Because I don’t have time,” Han Xiaoyue said softly. “I want to experience things I’ve never experienced before in the shortest amount of time possible. To see scenery I’ve never seen before.”

"You mean decay?" Lin Hui suddenly realized this.

"? You found out too?" Han Xiaoyue looked at him in surprise.

She seems to have experienced a lot since she came back this time, and she has changed a lot since then.

It was no longer so deserted and quiet; instead, it exuded a faint sense of restlessness.

"It seems my request has caused you some hesitation. I don't know why you're hesitant, so let's just forget about it."

Han Xiaoyue stood up, her expression calm.

Lin Hui was speechless.

But to get him to give in would be irresponsible towards the future.

He watched as Han Xiaoyue turned and walked towards the courtyard exit.

They disappeared around the corner shortly afterward.

Ultimately, their relationship was just a temporary, fabricated partnership. Initially, it was a mutually beneficial arrangement, but now Han Xiaoyue's needs have changed, and the current state of their relationship can no longer satisfy them.
They've broken up now.

He stood up, his hand unconsciously resting on the hilt of the Ruyi sword at his waist.

As he stepped out of the courtyard, he suddenly stopped.

I turned my head and looked at a person squatting on the ground by the door.

"Didn't you leave?" He looked speechlessly at Han Xiaoyue, whose back was to him.

"Hmm, when I got here, I found a bug I'd never seen before, so I was going to squat down and take a look." Han Xiaoyue stood up and turned to look at him.

Lin Hui remained silent once again.

"This time he's really leaving." Seeing that he still wouldn't budge, Han Xiaoyue knew that the tricks her old friend had taught her were useless, so she stopped worrying about it.

This time, she didn't linger and calmly left along the corridor.

Lin Hui did not try to stop him.

Although Han Xiaoyue met his expectations for future life in every way and was a very suitable partner, but...
As for her claim about finding several men to actually have a child, he wasn't sure if it was true or not. If it were true...
Swish.

The next second, he found himself outside the gate of Qingfeng Temple without even realizing it.

Looking at Han Xiaoyue, who had just stepped out of the door.

They both froze for a moment. Their eyes met, and they stared at each other.

"Although it may seem selfish, I've thought it through. If you go looking for someone else, I'll feel uncomfortable," Lin Hui said frankly.

"I have some too, so I'm waiting for you," Han Xiaoyue nodded, equally candid. If she really wanted to leave, she would have vanished long ago…

“I need some time,” Lin Hui said.

"After thinking about it, I'm not in a huge rush, but I need to do it right now," Han Xiaoyue said.

"How much longer exactly?" Lin Hui asked again.

"Within twenty years."

Lin Hui felt that there might be a slight discrepancy between his and Han Xiaoyue's definitions of whether a period of time was long or not.

"Is twenty years a short time?" he asked.

"Is it very long?" Han Xiaoyue asked back.

The two looked at each other and both sensed that something was wrong.

"I understand, I'll wait for you." Han Xiaoyue spoke first, nodding slowly. "Perfect timing, I also need to take care of my body. This body is a bit burdened, it's time to loosen the burden."

“Okay.” Lin Hui nodded.

So, after three rounds of back and forth, the matter of having a child was settled after a serious and formal discussion between the two.

Twenty years.

They watched as Han walked out the gate and got into the carriage he had come in.

Lin Hui turned around and saw Mingxia standing by the door, staring at him with wide eyes.

"Tsk tsk. You're planning to have a child with Han Xiaoyue? Don't deny it, I heard everything!" she said, raising her hand.

"She's my future wife, is there a problem?" Lin Hui retorted.

"No problem, of course no problem." A strange look and admiration flashed in Mingxia's eyes.

"Then you can step aside," Lin Hui said calmly.

Mingxia didn't dare to confront him directly; she could tell Lin Hui was genuinely angry. For the sake of the future Gale Sword Technique, she decisively backed down and stepped aside.

After Lin Hui entered the room, he vanished as if by teleportation.

Mingxia shook her head silently.

"Indeed, only patients can understand the world of patients. A normal person like me can't even begin to comprehend it, let alone someone like Han Xiaoyue...tsk tsk."

(End of this chapter)