Decaying World

Chapter 197 Risk 197

Walk along the boundary wall to one side.

Lin Hui first went to the left and ran for a while before arriving at the edge of Yuhai.

The black boundary wall actually extended all the way into the sea.

After hesitating for a moment by the green sea, Lin Hui decided not to test his swimming skills and turned to run in another direction.

But after running for a while without seeing the door, he stopped again.

He simply pressed one hand against the boundary wall, easily leaped up, and used his internal energy to propel himself lightly into the air.

After leaping over the boundary wall, he plummeted downwards at high speed.

But the moment he broke through the boundary wall, Lin Hui felt a chill on his skin, as if he had entered an unfamiliar environment with a large temperature difference from before.

'They're both by the Jade Sea, so why is there such a big temperature difference just because there's a wall separating them?'

Snapped.

Lin Hui landed steadily and looked around.

Inside the cavity formed by Ningxiang, it is clear that the soil underfoot is black.

It was pitch black, devoid of weeds and insects, as if it were a dead land.

He looked around.

Apart from the grayish-white fog, nothing could be seen around.

After thinking for a moment, he turned around and made a simple mark on the boundary wall to mark his entrance and exit.

This boundary wall gives the impression that it's all the same, no matter where you go.

So I simply went straight forward, perpendicular to the wall.

The fog was churning, and slowly, Lin Hui noticed that the fog outside the surrounding cavity was beginning to turn gray.

It's that kind of hazy, grayish-white color, as if it's mixed with dust.

Time passed little by little.

Just as he was wondering why there was still nothing in front of him.

A broken stone wall, grayish-white, with deep scars on its surface, appeared before him.

The stone wall is about three meters high and very thick, with faint traces of colored paintings still visible on the outside.

As Lin Hui approached, he discovered that the stone wall was part of a stone house that had lost its roof.

The entire stone house stood alone in the mist, about three or four meters high, with the walls on all four sides, some high and some low, showing deep signs of damage.

Lin Hui reached out and touched the wall.

It's very cold.

It's not just cool anymore, it's icy.

He sniffed, and for some reason, he inexplicably smelled a faint stench of decay, like the smell of meat protein that has been left out for too long and is now rotting.

He squeezed through the gap into the stone house, which contained tables and chairs, bookshelves, wardrobes, and a bed, all made of stone.

Moreover, there was a woman's skeleton lying next to the bed, which had long since dried up and turned black.

She was wearing a white cloth dress and a gray-brown headscarf, her hands gripping tightly to a spot on the bed, as if she were enduring immense pain.

Lin Hui approached and poked at the bones with his sword, but there was no movement. He then searched the house again, but unfortunately found nothing. All the drawers and cabinets looked like they had been ransacked; nothing was left.

After leaving the house, Lin Hui had only taken a few steps when he suddenly saw another similar stone house in front of him.

He stepped forward. This time, the door to the stone house was intact. He walked in through the doorway. The house was empty except for a rough stone statue placed in the middle. It seemed to be unfinished. The owner of the stone house had left in a hurry and never returned.

There were carving hammers and chisels covered in dust on the ground next to them.

He then continued walking out of the stone house, and as he moved forward, more and more stone houses gradually came into view.

This area appears to be a small village made up of stone houses.

But for some reason, no one was there.

Just as he was about to leave the village of stone houses, he suddenly heard a very faint inhalation sound coming from the mist behind him.

The sound was extremely faint; most monsters in the fog zone would probably not notice it. But for a master like Lin Hui, whose five senses were extraordinary, the sound was as clear and unobstructed as if it were speaking right next to his ear.

Swish!
Lin Hui's figure vanished from his original spot in an instant, and the next second he appeared at the location where the sound came from—a corner of the floor inside a stone house.

He stirred his inner strength, creating a gentle breeze that blew away the dust on the ground, revealing a dark brown, round wooden door underneath.

"Who's inside? Come out," he transmitted his voice into the room.

There was a pause at the bottom of the wooden door, followed by a quick response.

"Are you human?" It was a very unaccustomed, thick-sounding accent, and the person seemed to be a young boy.

“Of course. You come out and speak first,” Lin Hui replied.

The other end didn't reply; they just remained silent.

He didn't speak, and Lin Hui didn't urge him either; he could sense the other's inner turmoil.

Several minutes later.

Under Lin Hui's watchful gaze, the wooden door was slowly pushed open upwards.

A small child, wrapped in a thick gray-black cotton coat, with a messy, disheveled hairstyle, stared at Lin Hui with highly vigilant eyes.

"Are you really human?"

“Of course, now that things have come to this, I have no reason to lie to you,” Lin Hui said. “I’m new to this area and don’t know anything about this place. Are you a local? Could you tell me about it?”

"!!??" The child stared at Lin Hui for a long time with the look of someone looking at a god.

Then he said...

"This is the ruins of Miyin Village. How dare you come here when you know nothing?!" The child's shocked tone made Lin Hui feel as if he had done something extremely serious. "Why do you say that?" he asked.

"Why? Why do you ask why? It's dangerous outside, isn't that common sense? What I find most ridiculous is that you came into this place without any preparation." The child looked incredulous.

"Could you tell me? What dangers are there in this place?"

Lin Hui sized up the child.

His clothes looked like they were put together from somewhere; the clothes were too big and the pants were too short.

"The most numerous and dangerous creatures in Miyin Village are Huanyin and... are coming!" The child's expression turned terrified. He suddenly shrank his head into the ground, hid in the tunnel, and disappeared.

Lin Hui was left standing there alone, looking up at the sky for no apparent reason.

Amidst the swirling mist, a pale male face slowly emerged from the fog.

He looked to be only in his thirties, but his expression was sorrowful, and he kept muttering to himself, saying something incomprehensible.

These are all fairly normal.

The key issue is that the man's face was too large.

It was over a meter wide, with a stiff expression and dull, lifeless eyes.

"Finally here." Lin Hui breathed a sigh of relief and slowly drew his sword.

Swish!
In an instant, the Ruyi sword drew a white silver line, cleaving vertically downwards from the center of the man's face.

The sword moved with lightning speed, and before the man could even dodge, he was struck by the blade.

With a tearing motion, the man's face split in two, fell to the ground, and then quickly faded and disappeared.

This time, Lin Hui did feel a slight resistance. Clearly, this guy was stronger than the one inside the boundary wall.

However, it is still impossible to determine the extent of the comparison with oneself.

He frowned and went back to the entrance of the tunnel where the child had been.

"You can come out now. I've dealt with the monsters outside," he transmitted telepathically.

With a creak, the wooden door was pushed open, revealing the messy hair of the child from before.

"I heard you. It's not as simple as you think." The child panted and looked Lin Hui up and down.

“You must be an adult from the city?” he guessed. “Only city people dress so neatly and nicely.”

"What did you mean when you said it wasn't that simple?" Lin Hui asked.

"You'll see when you look back," the child sighed.

Lin Hui was slightly taken aback, quickly turned around, and his expression changed slightly.

Behind him, through the dilapidated windows of the house, were various chubby faces, each over a meter wide.

They all crowded at the window, staring sadly at Lin Hui.

咔.
A faint sound came from Lin Hui.

The ground beneath his feet began to rise rapidly, enveloping Lin Hui's feet and legs, continuing upwards as if to envelop his entire body.

call!
Just then, a subtle, invisible current blew through the entire room.

For no apparent reason, the child shivered and looked around. Finding nothing amiss, he turned his attention back to Lin Hui.

Then, he opened his eyes wide and was horrified to find that the huge faces that had just filled the window had completely disappeared.

Lin Hui, the adult, slowly sheathed his sword.

"!!?" The child stared at Lin Hui in astonishment.

He had personally witnessed these monsters flood and slaughter the entire village, turning it into an empty village.

Those so-called martial artists and inspirers are utterly powerless in the face of these people.

The elderly people in the village initially called this kind of face a "crying face".

They are incredibly strong, extremely fast, and their bodies are as hard as the hardest ore.

When the child saw Lin Hui's questioning gaze fall on him, he suddenly froze. It dawned on him—he could simply ask Lin Hui to take him away from this area!

"You're so powerful! But to completely get rid of these crying faces, you have to go to the center of the village and destroy a wooden door there! Otherwise, if the door isn't destroyed, these crying faces will become stronger and more numerous over time."

"Wooden door? Can you lead the way? In exchange, I can take you away from this place." Lin Hui saw through the other party's intentions.

"Deal!" The child's speech became more and more fluent.

Immediately, he crawled out of the hole and stood in front of Lin Hui.

The child was only as tall as Lin Hui's thigh and looked about seven or eight years old.

"Where to?" Lin Hui gestured for him to lead the way.

"This way, follow me." The child stepped out of the door and walked in a familiar direction, seemingly unaffected by the surrounding fog.

The two walked slowly, one in front of the other. Lin Hui also took the opportunity to ask the child about the surroundings, and what the difference was between this primitive fog area and the safe fog area.

“I’ve never been to your safe fog zone, but I’ve heard that the monsters there are regularly cleared out, so the threat is much smaller. But here, nobody bothers to clear out the monsters, because firstly, we can’t beat them, and secondly, we can’t kill them all, so it’s pointless.”

The child explained. After a pause, he suddenly asked.

"My name is Xia Si, what's your name?"

"My name is Bajiao (Octagonal)," Lin Hui replied, using a random code name.

"Okay, Octopus, you should know how to deal with wooden doors, right?" the child Xia Si asked.

"Wooden door? What do you mean?" Lin Hui blinked.

"Don't you have wooden doors over there?" Xia Si asked in surprise. "They're mysterious wooden doors that appear out of nowhere, without any pattern. And each time they appear, they either bring wealth and treasures or great disasters and dangers."

"I haven't heard of it." Lin Hui shook his head.

(End of this chapter)