The Decaying World

Having decided to venture out and consolidate his forces, Lin Hui began to arrange security measures for his absence.

With the full cooperation of Gongsun Xinlian and Zhang Yao, vast resources were mobilized to erect over a dozen temporary Protective Arrays around Qingfei Mountain. Combined with the mountain’s existing defensive formations, the entire perimeter was fortified like an iron fortress in just a few short days.

But just then, another piece of terrible news arrived.

「The inner court of the Lin Mansion.」

By the time Lin Hui arrived, everyone in the Lin Mansion was already there.

Liu Xiao and Liu Wu Jun stood together, their faces ashen. They kept their heads bowed, not saying a word.

"She clearly took the Life-extending Medicine... So why?!" Lin Shunhe cried, grabbing an old Pharmacist’s hand. His eyes were shot with blood, a clear sign he hadn’t rested in a long time.

For someone with his constitution to look so utterly drained, it was clearly more than simple exhaustion.

"This old man... I can do no more... The Second Lady was corrupted by the Sea Roar Power from outside... and her own constitution was weak..." the old man sighed.

Nearby, Yao Shan was muttering to herself, holding a string of some kind of brown beads and seemingly in prayer.

Ever since joining the Bai Tong cult, she had often acted strangely spiritual, giving her an air of mystery.

The rest of the Lin Mansion’s household stood in a wider circle, their faces grim and the atmosphere oppressive.

"..." Lin Hui scanned with his Heart and Spirit, focusing on Liu Shenglan inside the room.

The Sea Roar Power was merely a trigger. Liu Shenglan’s body seemed to have suffered a past injury that had left her severely weakened. Now... the corruption and deep-sea transformation were flaring up at once, almost exactly like what happened to his teacher, Mingde.

He had once tried to get all his family members to join the Qingfeng Dao, but it was ineffective without genuine devotion. The Dharma Seal could not be bestowed, and the same was true for the Eye of Life. Furthermore, his relatives had their own beliefs and allegiances, so only a few had joined.

He stood outside the courtyard. A few people noticed him, but Lin Hui waved them off, signaling for them not to cause a disturbance.

He nodded to Liu Wu Jun and Liu Xiao, then leaned against a wall by himself, tilting his head back to gaze at the enormous Sea Roar fissure in the sky.

The fissure didn’t look very large from this distance, but in reality, it was nearly as long as Black Cloud City below. It was immense.

He remained leaning there, sensing his Second Mother’s life force growing more and more chaotic. As it gradually began to shift toward corruption, he finally lowered his head and closed his eyes.

"If only... Mother had listened to us back then and practiced martial arts like we did..." Liu Xiao’s voice sounded from beside him.

Lin Hui said nothing. He had once used the Blood Seal to try and evolve a relic or a Secret Technique that could halt the corruption, but it had been completely useless.

The evolutions from the Blood Seal simply couldn’t produce a solution applicable to anyone else.

He could counteract his own corruption with the Wind Calamity, but that brought its own hidden dangers.

’It seems now that corruption is simply one side of the coin of this world’s life force. Where there is life, there must be death. This corruption... it’s the prelude to death in this world.’

"Everyone’s fate is predetermined... Second Mother’s life was not long, but perhaps she will be compensated for it in the next," Lin Hui said softly.

Liu Xiao leaned gently against him, tears already streaming down her face.

Just then, Lin Shunhe and Liu Wu Jun slowly walked out of the room. A moment later, a wave of suppressed sobs spread through the courtyard.

DONG...

The great bell, newly installed at the Qingfeng Dao, was struck again and again.

Soothed by her son, Liu Wu Jun, Liu Shenglan walked the final steps of her journey.

Spared from corruption and deep-sea transformation, her body was cremated. Her ashes were sealed within a memorial tablet and placed in the Lin Family’s ancestral hall.

Lin Hui’s departure was consequently postponed, as he was required to observe a three-day mourning period at home.

But just then, another piece of shockingly unexpected news arrived from Li Yuanyuan.

"What did you just say?!" Lin Hui’s expression hardened as he looked at Li Yuanyuan, who had come to report. He slowly rose from his cross-legged cultivation posture.

"Daoist Master, because of the privacy-isolating array, we never expected this to happen... By the time we got there, it was already too late..." Li Yuanyuan said in a low voice.

"...Grandmaster..."

Just then, Tao Changsheng stumbled in from outside the courtyard, his face streaked with tears. His eyes were red, swollen, and shot with blood.

"Why... why did she leave me? Why does everyone... everyone have to leave me?" he sobbed, collapsing to his knees before Lin Hui. He pressed his forehead to the ground, his body trembling uncontrollably.

"..." Lin Hui was silent for a long moment. Looking at the prostrate Tao Changsheng, he felt a strange sense of oppression welling up inside him.

He didn’t know the cause, and though he wanted to dispel it, the feeling lingered like a dense cloud, making it hard for him to breathe.

"Let’s go and see," he said in a low voice.

In an instant, a gale surged. The group flashed out of existence and reappeared a moment later outside the courtyard where Weiwei and Mingde had lived.

Many Qingfeng Daoist Disciples had already gathered outside the courtyard, but they all remained outside, not daring to enter.

Seeing Lin Hui arrive, the crowd bowed silently and cleared a path for him.

Lin Hui extended his Heart and Spirit, and immediately saw it all.

Inside the courtyard.

Weiwei was slumped over a guqin, her body twisted to one side. A pool of blood had long since spread out on the floor beneath her, already starting to darken and congeal.

Her life force was long gone.

Lin Hui walked closer and saw a letter tucked into the strings near the tailpiece of the guqin.

He reached out, took it, and unfolded it.

’Life is like a dream. The journey is over; it’s time to wake up...’

A single line of brief, elegant script appeared before him.

"MOTHER!!!" Tao Changsheng wailed from behind him, collapsing heavily to his knees.

Hearing the cries, Lin Hui set down the letter. He looked at Weiwei’s exposed, fair forearm and saw faint, blue-black scales. He said nothing, but with a slight turn of thought, he summoned a breeze to pull her sleeve down, concealing the scales.

He suddenly recalled that when his master, Mingde, had entrusted her to him, Weiwei had not responded at all.

’It seemed she was still just as proud, just as stubborn as she had always been. When she decided to go, she simply went...’

Gazing at the body, long since grown cold, Lin Hui felt as if a strange string had been plucked deep within his heart.

In that moment, his Heart and Spirit seemed to soar, ascending to the highest peak of Qingfei Mountain and looking down upon the tens of thousands of living beings below.

The vital energies of the countless creatures churned complexly in the sky above Qingfei Mountain, intersecting and weaving together.

Amidst all the swirling energies, Lin Hui suddenly reached out, as if to grasp a single wisp.

He couldn’t tell if he was truly reaching out or merely imagining it.

But when he came to his senses and lowered his head, a slender ribbon woven from seven different colors had inexplicably appeared in his hand.

One end of the ribbon was rapidly disintegrating, dissolving into gray particles.

In a matter of seconds, all that remained of the colorful ribbon was the single inch he held between his fingers.

He released his hand and watched as the final inch floated up, shattered completely in mid-air, and vanished without a sound.

’So, this is the Celestial Form...?’

Lin Hui lowered his head, gave Weiwei one last look, then turned and walked out of the courtyard.

The moment he stepped out of the courtyard.

A white, phantasmal image flashed out from behind him and vanished into the air, never to be seen again.

The third level of the Star Breath Sword Manual, the Celestial Sacred Form, was at that moment fully mastered...

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「Taixu Royal City—Biqiu, the Outer Deep-Core Region.」

Black sand swirled in the gale, dancing high above a pitch-black abyssal canyon. It was like a great, formless black monster, forever writhing and baring its fangs, letting out a constant, keening howl.

On one side of the abyssal canyon stood a cliff face as sheer as if carved by a knife.

A group of figures in simple black robes stood silently gathered at the edge of the precipice, gazing down into the bottomless dark.

"You have no fathers, no mothers. No sons, no daughters. You have no attachments, no worries. You have no thoughts, no desires," the old woman at the head of the group recited, her voice calm against the wind. Her words sounded like an incantation.

"For the Royal City, you were always meant to die. Now, it is time to return all that you are to the world."

"Yuan Jing..." The old woman looked at the person standing closest to the edge of the abyss. "Do you have any last words?"

The person pulled back her hood, revealing a strikingly beautiful face.

"I never had anything to begin with, so there’s nothing to speak of possessing. My sisters, the world is a beautiful place. I’ll go on ahead."

She gave a sweet smile, turned to face the others, and then leaned backward. Like a single, weightless leaf, she fell into the abyss, the wind catching the folds of her dress.

"Next," the old woman said softly.

The second person stepped forward, paused, and waited a moment.

The third person, who was behind her, voluntarily stepped forward as well.

The two held hands, exchanged a smile, and without a word, leaped forward. As if welcoming a new life, they were swiftly swallowed by the gloom of the abyss.

"Next..." The old woman sighed and looked to the fourth person.

The fourth person threw back her hood, revealing a strange face—one half withered, the other delicate and pretty. It was Han Xiaoyue.

She walked to the edge of the abyss and stopped.

"I wanted to leave something behind... but it’s too late."

"Captain!"

"Captain, we’ll go together!"

From behind her, Qin Shishi and Xue Yan stepped forward together.

"Her death will make the numbers sufficient. You two have other uses," the old woman said gravely.

The two stubbornly pressed forward to stand with Han Xiaoyue.

"It’s all right." Han Xiaoyue smiled gently. She reached out to pinch Qin Shishi’s cheek, then ruffled Xue Yan’s hair.

"Remember what I told you. Be like Lin Sha..."

"Captain... why don’t you let me go in your place? Your promise to him is still unfulfilled..." Qin Shishi said with a serious expression.

"It doesn’t matter... Perhaps this is just fate..." Han Xiaoyue shook her head. "After I’m gone, remember to send the letter to him. And... apologize to him for me. Tell him... I’m sorry, I broke my promise..."

As she spoke, her voice trailed off.

Standing at the edge of the abyss, she could feel at least five terrifying gazes locked onto her.

She knew she couldn’t resist. She didn’t have the strength.

It wasn’t just the external guards, but also the key of destruction inside her own body...

"It is time," the old woman urged.

Standing on the precipice, an image flashed through her mind once more: a fair, delicate hand reaching out to her in her moment of despair all those years ago...

"Sister Lin Sha... can I... can I become a hero, just like you?"

She took a step forward and tilted her head up, as if seeing a woman’s face in the air before her—a face that was both deeply familiar and one she had always looked up to.

Reaching out her hand, Han Xiaoyue thought she saw the woman extending a hand toward her in return.

Just like that day long ago, the hand was pale—dazzlingly so.

As flawless as the snow that year.

WHOOSH.

The two hands gently met in mid-air, and passed through one another.

Her body followed its own momentum, falling silently into the abyss.

Turning her head in mid-fall, she saw the tear stains on Qin Shishi’s face and the pretty, determined face of Xue Yan, her jaw clenched tight.

And behind them, she thought she saw the blurry figure of a man.

He was dressed in white, a Longsword at his waist, his long hair cascading down to his waist like seaweed, fanning out in the wind.

He, too, seemed to be watching her fall.

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