Decaying World

Chapter 23 023 Missing
Rest stop and tea stall.

The autumn wind is bleak, and the air is dry and chilly.

In the crudely constructed teahouse made of gray cloth and rough wooden stakes, Lin Hui casually found a stool to sit on and asked the waiter to bring him a pot of hot tea.

After waiting for quite a while without seeing Chen Chong appear, it was clear that the guy was genuinely frightened. After all, the injury to his waist was just bleeding, which could be bandaged up. But the emotional wound was something else entirely.

Lin Hui poured himself a cup of hot tea while idly observing the passersby and vehicles coming and going on the street.

"Ya'er yo yi~~ Ba niang feng oh~ blows so cold my heart~ Whose fields are full of bitter flowers~~" An old man driving an oxcart slowly passed by the tea stall, cracking his whip and singing a folk song with an unknown tune.

"Brother Wenxin! What brings you here? It's been so long!" In front of a silver shop not far away, a tall man wearing a white square scarf quickly caught up with a burly man in front of him and greeted him with a smile.

"Mommy, I want to eat this! I want to buy it with my own pocket money!" On the other side, a little boy with his hair tied in a bun stood in front of a mobile candy stall and couldn't move.

As Lin Hui watched the people walk by, the immense sense of estrangement that had arisen in his heart before surged up again.

'The night was so dangerous, and they only had a jade talisman to protect them from the outside dangers. The people in the outer city were constantly under threat. Why were these people so calm? Why weren't they afraid or flustered? Why could they even laugh like that?'

'What if the jade talisman fails?' Lin Hui unconsciously tightened his grip on the sword hilt.

His mind was filled with thoughts, so he simply closed his eyes and rested.

Before long, the tea cooled down, and people sat down to rest at the other tables. They were traveling merchants who, taking advantage of the daytime fog, carried jade tokens issued by the inner city and traveled back and forth between the inner and outer cities.

Every day, you could see them transporting goods in and out of the inner and outer city.

Lin Hui was about to get up after sitting for a while when he vaguely heard snippets of conversation from the group.

"...Have they gone missing too?"

"It's true. I stopped by the Wang family's house before I came here. There was no one there. It looks like no one has lived there for a long time. The jade talisman is missing a large piece."

"Isn't this exactly the same as the Zhou family?"

"Yes, the gate-breaking ghost just left a while ago, and now it's mysteriously disappearing again. This outer city is never peaceful all year round."

"Forget it, what do you mean by 'no peace'? Haven't you seen that all the missing and ill-fated people are from impoverished families? Have any of the wealthy and powerful families ever had any trouble? Do you really think it's an accident?"

"Keep your voice down!"

"Sigh, it would be better to move to the inner city. There won't be any fog at night, it'll be safe, bustling, and the girls on the street will be pretty and don't seem to care about their clothes."

The group seemed to notice the eavesdropping around them, so they lowered their voices and changed the subject to romance and poetry.

Lin Hui frowned slightly and secretly noted the matter down. His parents lived in the town, and this kind of thing concerned the safety of his family, so he had to be vigilant at all times.

After sitting for a while, Huang Shan and Qiu Yiren returned together, sat down, and asked for hot tea, letting out a long sigh of relief.

"The weather is dry and cold, and the wind is so strong that it's giving me a headache," Huang Shan said with a pained expression, holding up his teacup to absorb the warmth of the tea.

"You've worked hard. Would you like some tea or snacks?" Lin Hui waved to the waiter who was rubbing a towel.

"So attentive? Is something the matter?" Qiu Yiren looked up at Lin Hui. Having been partners for so long, she had come to understand his thoughts to some extent.

Don't bother me unless it's important. I'll only contact you when I need something.

Lin Hui smiled and waited for the waiter to approach before saying, "Can't you please greet your patron if you have nothing else to do? If Junior Sister Huang is willing, you can continue to switch shifts with me for the next few days. Waiter, some melon seeds and salted peanuts, please."

"Okay," the waiter replied and turned to leave.

"Are you sure?" Huang Shan's eyes lit up. "You and Senior Brother Chen get along well?"

"Of course, no problem. Senior Brother Chen is a good person. As long as you get along well with him, patrolling together will be quite worry-free," Lin Hui said with a smile.

"..." Huang Shan looked at the other party's strange smile and immediately realized that Chen Chong must have suffered a loss at Lin Hui's hands, and immediately felt great.

She pointed at Lin Hui and smiled as well, everything was understood without words.

"The same price as always!"

"Junior Sister Huang is so generous!" Lin Hui picked up his teacup but didn't drink it. Instead, he changed the subject. "Speaking of which, I just heard someone mention that there's been some trouble in the outer city recently. I wonder if either of you junior sisters has heard about it?"

"A missing persons case? I've heard about it." Huang Shan nodded. "There are indeed some suspicious points about this. I have a feeling that the missing persons were specifically selected."

"Aren't the Zhong brothers your suitors? Do they have any inside information?" Qiu Yiren asked softly from the side.

"News." Huang Shan pondered for a moment, "Speaking of which, there was some veiled mention of the inner city's attitude towards people from the outer city."

She paused, then continued, "I heard that over 90% of Tu Yue's population lives in the inner city, and the vast majority of its production is self-sufficient there. The outer city is essentially an abandoned buffer zone. The inner city doesn't really care about the safety of the people in the outer city. The resources transported daily, such as vegetables and meat, are not very useful to the inner city."

"Do you have your own land in the inner city?" Lin Hui asked, frowning.

“Of course, and the yield is very high. Because there is no fog there, people can work at night. In addition, there is Wanfu meat, so no one will go hungry. The service and entertainment industries are extremely developed. It’s a completely different world from outside the city,” Huang Shan said softly.

"That's great. Just the fact that there's no fog at night is enough to drive countless people from the outer city crazy, wanting to get in," Qiu Yiren sighed.

“Yes. And I’ve also heard some rumors.” Huang Shan looked around and lowered his voice again.

"It is said that the inner city has a hidden assessment level for all residents of the outer city."

"Assessment level? What's that?" Lin Hui squinted.

"It's said to be a system used to screen residents to see if they're useful. If someone is deemed useless, they'll be mysteriously consumed by various accidents." Huang Shan's voice lowered. "Rumor has it that the people of the outer city are just test subjects for many organizations and forces in the inner city. Every year, many people mysteriously disappear from the outer city, but because everyone has a lot of children, and many people in the inner city are driven out and eliminated to replenish this population, no one notices."

As he listened, Lin Hui inexplicably thought of the hanging jade talisman, and a chill ran through him. He suddenly realized that if the force that made the jade talisman really wanted to screen the population, they only needed to tamper with the talisman to make the people in the outer city disappear mysteriously in an instant.

Those jade talismans were actually nooses hanging around the necks of every person in the outer city, which could be tightened at any time.

"Alright, let's not talk about these tense and dangerous things anymore. Shanshan, your family should be moving into the inner city soon, right?" Qiu Yiren changed the subject.

“Yes, I borrowed some money from the Zhong family and bought a very small house in the inner city, just big enough for people to squeeze into.” Huang Shan nodded.

"So you're still spending money extravagantly these days?"

"I naturally have my own ways of making money," Huang Shan said with a mysterious smile.

As the three chatted, it soon came time for the afternoon patrol. Since Chen Chong had not returned, the two women were a little puzzled, but they did not ask any further questions and got up to continue their patrol.

Lin Hui continued working alone along the previous route.

Time passes day by day.

Chen Chong returned to patrolling, but he always seemed absent-minded and had a grim expression.

Senior Brother Chen Sui also returned, with a bloody gash on the back of his hand; no one knew how he had gotten injured. He didn't say, and no one dared to ask.

Soon, the last two days of patrols ended, and after the five of them went to town to hand over their shifts, they returned to Qingfeng Temple together.

Aside from Chen Chong, Lin Hui gained three more acquaintances within the temple through their interactions during this period.

Huang Shan, Qiu Yiren, and their senior brother Chen Sui all held a slight liking for Lin Hui, who was honest, hardworking, and reliable. They would occasionally greet each other and chat for a few minutes when they bumped into each other.

This greatly expanded Lin Hui's social circle at Qingfeng Temple. Perhaps this was also what Daoist Mingde hoped to see.

People need to form groups to gain strength and be safer.

Upon returning to Qingfeng Temple, Lin Hui first sent a message home to let his family know he was safe before he began to confirm the results of the blood seal's evolution.

After a month, the Blood Mark finally completed its evolution of the insect egg's natural pattern.

Outside Qingfeng Temple, under a large old locust tree, the shade is dim and the autumn wind is blowing.

Lin Hui, dressed in a gray and white outfit, sat cross-legged on the ground with a thin gray cloth under his buttocks to prevent the mud from getting on his bottom.

Not far away, Taoist disciples were practicing swordsmanship, making faint sounds as they cut through the air.

This is a commonly used outdoor training area for the disciples of the temple. Because of its flat terrain and ample light, many disciples and students often come here to reserve space for sword practice.

Lin Hui is considered one of the older folks here.

Sitting cross-legged on the ground, his mind was entirely focused on the bloodstained writing below his line of sight.

'Sealing Array: Originating from the unique three-dimensional structural patterns within the sealed insect egg, it can seal the basic consciousness of a living being. The sealing duration is one second, with a two-second cooldown. The sealing method is through contact with toxins. Evolutionary branch: 0.'

This is the evolutionary ability he just acquired.

'Sealing array.' Lin Hui stretched out his hand and looked at the tip of his index finger.

The translucent nail tips were slightly pointed and long, with pink nail bed underneath, showing no signs of any toxins.

'This sealing formation's poison only lasts for one second, no wonder it only takes a month to evolve. But even if it's only one second, if used properly, it should still be quite effective. The question now is, how do I use this ability?'

Lin Hui flexed his fingers, scanned the surrounding muddy ground, and quickly locked onto a black ant struggling to climb a dark green blade of grass.

He stretched out his fingers, pinched the black ant, and gently placed it in his palm.

'Seal it!' he silently chanted to the ant.

The ants crawled around aimlessly, without any reaction.

After thinking for a moment, Lin Hui recalled the sealed insect egg.

'The sealing method for the sealed insect eggs should involve enveloping the target, which is a form of contact. Therefore, the sealing ability I've acquired should also have similar activation requirements.'

Thinking of this, he extended his other index finger and gently tapped the ant, while concentrating his mental energy on the seal, imagining that he wanted to seal the little ant in front of him.

hum.

In an instant, an extremely fine, transparent stream of air seeped out from Lin Hui's fingertip and precisely adhered to the black ant.

The airflow vanished the instant it came into contact with the black ant.

At the same time, the black ant also froze instantly, completely still.

It's like a still, black printed model, lying motionless on the skin of your palm.

A second later, the ants quickly regained their movement and began scurrying around in a panic.

"It's done. The trigger condition is that the intention is activated simultaneously upon contact." Lin Hui tossed the ant aside, his brow furrowing slightly. "This ability is a bit of a double-edged sword; it's more suitable for surprise attacks in hand-to-hand combat. Its practicality is limited."

He stood up and drew the sword from his waist. The sword was a gift from the Taoist Mingde, which he named Qinghe, meaning that the sword's blade was like a clear river, pure and straight.

laugh.

He suddenly drew his sword, the tip thrusting straight forward, precisely striking the small black ant that had just been released.

(End of this chapter)