Decaying World

Chapter 44, Encounter 044 (Thanks to Alliance Leader AuroraLin)

Thrust, then withdraw.

Thrust, then withdraw.

The swift feint infuriated Wan'er, but she was powerless to stop it.

She had run out of cards to play, but the other party clearly didn't believe her and was still cautiously testing her.

As she repeatedly missed with each strike, her anger grew stronger.

"Don't run away if you dare!!" she finally roared.

puff!
In an instant, blood exploded.

Wan'er froze, completely still.

She slowly reached out, trying to grab the long sword piercing her heart, but the sudden loss of pressure caused by the opening in her heart made it impossible for her to exert any force.

With a soft "plop," the sword tip was pulled out, leaving a trail of bright red blood.

Wan'er collapsed weakly to the back, the scene just now replaying in her mind.

What just happened?

'I was ambushed by another person??'

She was still fighting that person when, in the next instant, a sword suddenly pierced through all her defenses and plunged into her heart.

She didn't even know how it all happened before the battle was over.

In the end, Wan'er's eyes went completely dark, and she lost consciousness. She didn't know how she lost. Perhaps she didn't even think she had lost, but was just ambushed by another treacherous guy hiding in the shadows.

Lin Hui's figure solidified, appearing beside the corpse.

Seeing the woman lying motionless on the ground, he bent down and picked up the material bag.

'The special effects of the feathering transformation are indeed powerful. Activating it only takes a moment, and the speed increases threefold, with almost no noticeable energy consumption.'

To be honest, he felt that the woman on the ground was no less powerful than his senior brother, and perhaps even stronger.

Even such skilled fighters, when faced with an opponent whose sword speed suddenly triples during combat, are caught off guard and vanish in the blink of an eye.

In a fight involving external martial arts, without internal energy to protect the body, a single misstep can be fatal.

Life and death are separated by only a moment.

"Wan'er!!" A sharp shout rang out.

In the next instant, Lin Hui's figure flashed, and he took several steps back to avoid a white palm shadow that suddenly attacked from behind.

Although the white light was much dimmer than before, it still gave him a strong sense of threat.

Then he saw the old woman rush to the woman's body, bend down to help the woman up, and check on her condition.

Clang!
Lin Hui suddenly drew his sword.

He wasn't stupid. He didn't insist on waiting for the other party to finish examining the body before making his move. If he had the opportunity but didn't seize it, what would that be if not foolishness?

The nine-section swift sword strike left no trace, suddenly creating a series of afterimages as it rushed towards its opponent.

"You deserve to die!!" Grandma put down the corpse, interrupted from checking it, and had no choice but to get up and strike the longsword head-on with her palm.

Under the shimmering white light, tiny, petal-like points of light even faintly emanated from his palm.

Furthermore, this palm strike even faintly possessed an exaggerated power that could cover a radius of five meters around it.

Lin Hui felt a chill run down his spine. He turned the tip of his sword, attempting to retract it again to avoid a direct confrontation.

He wasn't at the Inner Strength Realm, but his master was, and knew the consequences of a clash of Inner Strength.

He had tested Mingde in combat. He had used all the weapons he could find, including his own Qinghe Sword, against a master of internal energy without using internal force. As long as the opponent was fully prepared and used internal force, he would lose his grip on the weapon and be disarmed and defeated instantly.

In the instant of clash, internal force is transmitted through the weapon like lightning, like an electric current, forcibly numbing the hand and making it unable to grip the weapon.

Therefore, once you actually engage in combat with someone at the Inner Force Realm, you must avoid using their Inner Force.

But as he shrank back, the opponent's palm shadow suddenly swelled up.

In an instant, a large fan-shaped white palm light seemed to appear before Lin Hui's eyes.

One after another, countless hands radiating white petal-like light pressed down on him, like a white wall!
A white wall, five meters high and five meters long!
There was simply no time to change tactics.

Although he was fast, he wasn't fast enough to change his move once and then do it again.

The opponent is an expert in the Inner Strength Realm, not a slow-moving snail.

It's too late.

Lin Hui originally wanted to use the perfect version of the Nine-Section Quick Sword to exchange a few more blows with his opponent, but now it seems that without special effects, he probably wouldn't be able to win even one move.

The gap between external martial arts and internal strength is too great.

'never mind. '

A thought flashed through Lin Hui's mind, and he retreated rapidly, avoiding a white palm print that was about to hit him from directly in front of him.

He looked up and stared intently at the palm print.

Everything around seemed to slow down and freeze at that moment.

'Special effects—'

'Feathering. '

Boom! !
Everything around Lin Hui blurred in an instant.

The white palm print in front of them froze instantly, then retreated and disappeared.

He held the sword in his right hand, his body as light as a feather.

'The Gentle Breeze Sword.'

'Single-handed brushing away the clouds.'

In an instant, the blade in his hand swept to the side, leaving afterimages as if gently brushing against invisible clouds.

Layers upon layers of silver sword shadows formed a fan-shaped expanse of silver light, then came to a standstill.

call.

Lin Hui disappeared.

Along with his disappearance came the faint, invisible sound of wind dissipating. The next instant, he reappeared silently behind Grandma, the tip of his sword already resting on the right side of her neck.

clang! ! !
A terrifying impact suddenly erupted.

The white light of internal force on Grandma's neck rapidly sank downwards, creating a dent.

Her attention was still focused on the afterimage of Lin Hui directly in front of her. She was completely unaware that the real enemy had already arrived at her side and behind her.

In that terrifyingly fast state, her reactions were like a slow-motion movie.

When her face showed surprise and anger, she turned to the side, raised her hand, and grabbed at Lin Hui's true form.

That true form disintegrated in the blink of an eye, turning back into a mere afterimage.

The next instant, a crisp sound also erupted from her left side, and a golden spark scattered out.

The internal force clashed with the sword tip once again.

Before she could react, a new spark ignited from her vest in the next instant.

Hiss hiss hiss hiss!
Sparks kept exploding from all her vital points, scattering in all directions.

Her internal energy was also rapidly depleted and dimmed under such extreme consumption.

"Who exactly are you?!"

puff!
A sword tip suddenly pierced through the white light and plunged into his abdomen.

Grandma opened her mouth as if to shout, but her hands swiftly reached for the sword blade.

pity.

The sword blade suddenly slashed upwards, cutting open her chest from the abdomen, leaving a straight, sharp, and terrifying gash.

Blood gushed out like a fountain, drawing out all her strength.

A huge, clear, bloody wound ran from Grandma's abdomen to her chest and chin, almost splitting her body in two.

Her last gaze fell upon the sword as it was raised, swung diagonally, the blood wiped away, and slowly sheathed.

"you"

A gentle breeze caressed her, and the white light on her body finally disappeared completely. She had been forced to commit seppuku by having her last bit of internal energy forcibly broken.

puff.

The body lay face up on the ground, its eyes wide open in death, blood flowing out and staining the ground red.

The surroundings were shrouded in mist, and all was silent.

Lin Hui stood still, closing his eyes to feel the sensation of using the Qingfeng Sword with the Feather Transformation technique. The wonderful feeling of turning into the wind at high speed was almost like being possessed by a demon.

That feeling completely overwhelmed the unease he felt after killing someone for the first time; all he felt was the exhilaration of freely wielding his sword, as if writing words with ink.

After a long while, the faint hissing of monsters coming from the surrounding mist startled him from that strange feeling.

He then bent down and quickly collected the body and belongings.

Each of the two corpses had a money pouch and a pair of gloves. As for the other obviously custom-made accessories, he didn't take them; such items were too distinctive and would make it inconvenient to sell them.

After stuffing all the silver notes and gold from the money bag into his own bag, Lin Hui threw away the money bag, turned around and left the original spot. He then lured two unicorn spiders closer, and only left after he heard the unicorn spiders spinning silk to entangle the corpse and leave.

The unique characteristic of the unicorn spider is that it spins silk to wrap its prey into a ball, takes it back to its nest, and slowly sucks it up.

Finally, carrying the bag of materials, he returned to the fog-free area and leisurely walked towards Qingfeng Temple.

Only after he was completely back in his own room did Lin Hui gradually lower his guard.

With Master Mingde and two other senior brothers and uncles nearby, the three experts at the Inner Strength Realm are stationed here, making the area far safer than the outside world.

He then felt relieved and looked back at the battle that had just taken place.

Sitting cross-legged on the mat, Lin Hui calmed the surging blood in his heart and slowly reviewed the battle that had just taken place.

"Wan'er's combat skills are probably slightly stronger than Senior Brother's. She's at the peak of external martial arts body tempering, and easily dealt with him with a single use of Ascension. But that old codger at the internal energy realm was much more troublesome. His internal energy could be used to paralyze my hand through my weapon, and during the final execution, it would slow down my sword speed each time. Fortunately, the amount of internal energy flowing through me each time was very small, just a tiny bit, and the slowing effect was very short."

"It's only because I was too fast, and she wasn't a speed-based internal energy master, otherwise this battle would have been very difficult to predict."

An expert in the Inner Strength Realm!
Thinking of this, Lin Hui felt a sudden sense of relief; he had actually killed an expert at the Inner Strength Realm!

Although he was a non-speed type who had been worn down by many monsters for a long time, internal energy is internal energy. No matter what he did, he did manage to completely defeat his opponent single-handedly.

'The effect of ascension is truly terrifying. In that state, even my master would probably have a hard time keeping up with my speed.'

Master Mingde is a speed-type internal force realm cultivator. He has witnessed the speed he displays when combined with the Qingfeng Sword. Compared to himself, it is about twice his normal speed.

It's far from the terrifying effect of turning on triple speed.

'So, by that logic, I could be considered an Inner Strength Realm cultivator?' Lin Hui thought to himself.

Ascension now consumes very little energy; you can use it continuously for a whole day without any problems. If you also use it intermittently, you can basically use it indefinitely.

Moreover, there are even more hidden sealed toxins that haven't been used.

Standing up, Lin Hui gently drew the Qinghe Sword, took out the sword oil, wiped it with a silk cloth, and maintained the blade.

'But the paralysis and super-strong defense of those at the Inner Force Realm are too troublesome. If I'm not careful, I'll be paralyzed and disarmed, and then I'll be basically no threat to those at the Inner Force Realm.'

'Furthermore, even with abundant internal energy, my attacks would likely take a long time to inflict any real damage on someone at the Internal Energy Realm. That's a problem.'

Lin Hui also asked his teacher if there was any divine weapon that could break through the internal force protection, but the answer was no.

The protection of internal force is more like a force field, making it impossible for weapons to make contact, slowing down and hovering in mid-air, blocking the penetration of weapons from all directions.

This method completely renders the sharpness of weapons useless.

"Breaking through to the inner strength realm is the only true path. Right now, I'm still far too insecure."

After thinking it over, Lin Hui sighed deeply and quietly calmed his exhausted body. He planned to take the materials to exchange for money the next day.

By this time, he discovered that hunting monsters was far more efficient at making money than any other method, so he didn't need to take on any quests or hire anyone.

　Thank you to everyone who donated previously. Due to the large number of donors, only those who donated over 10,000 points are listed here:

　　In my eyes, you can all eat

　　Luna Knight Hangs on the Moon

　　Old tunes and clichés
　　Orchid Butterfly Wings
　　Book Friends 150617214954387
　　Demon Fire Fox
　　Son doll naan died ga
　　A thousand years of Nanfeng chestnut
　　Do not hesitate to sit by candlelight all night

　　Violent Face
　　hellokiss
　　
　
(End of this chapter)