The Decaying World

’Nine Serenity Demon Fragrance (Allows the user’s Heart and Spirit to naturally emit a mysterious aroma. This aroma permanently nourishes the user’s Heart and Spirit, allowing it to grow naturally over time at a rate of 1 unit per day. Note: The Heart and Spirit strength of a healthy adult of the Human Race is defined as 1.)

Frigid Palace Demon Fragrance (Allows the user’s body and mind to evenly release a special aroma. All living beings within a certain range will be affected by an indiscriminate 30% slow effect. The slow effect ignores differences in Realm, depending only on the being’s own resistance to Heart and Spirit-type effects.)

Formless Demon Fragrance (Allows the user’s body and mind to emit a subtle, faint aroma. This aroma allows the user to become formless, freely entering and exiting the Sea of Consciousness and the River of Memory.)

Note:

Sea of Consciousness (A boundless ocean formed from the confluence of all living beings’ consciousnesses.

River of Memory (The historical traces once imprinted upon the world have not vanished. They will slowly fade and shatter with the passage of time, but this fading process may take a very, very long time.))’

"Hmm..."

As a member of the righteous path, Lin Hui disliked the word "demon," but he couldn’t deny that the options from this Demon Fragrance Sect were just too practical...

From the description, the Demon Fragrance Sect’s Heart Source Demon Palace was located in the Sea of Consciousness, on the border between the real and the illusory. That meant it wasn’t a physical location in the real world at all. It was a perfect sanctuary.

Whether for taking refuge or escaping, it far surpassed the other options.

Secondly, of the three Demon Fragrance abilities, the first one, Nine Serenity, could strengthen one’s Heart and Spirit without any need for Cultivation. It was perfect for his family and loved ones.

The second, Frigid Palace, ignored Realm to forcibly slow down enemies. That was also powerful.

The third, Formless, was an escape artist’s dream. If he encountered an enemy he couldn’t defeat, he could just use Formless to escape into the Sea of Consciousness.

’In other words, if I encounter an enemy in the real world I can’t beat, I can flee to the Sea of Consciousness. If I encounter someone with a strong Heart and Spirit, I’ll have the boost from Nine Serenity to back me up. This complements my current Clear Wind Dao’s Martial Arts. The various Martial Arts of my Clear Wind Dao—from Gentle Breeze to Gale, and then to Typhoon and Star’s Breath—are all purely physical attacks. Their destructive power and range are sufficient. My speed is also extremely fast, more than enough to escape. My only weakness, really, is in the Heart and Spirit department... This last option, the Demon Fragrance Sect, also seems to have an immense background. It should be able to fend off Qimei without a problem...’

"This is it! I’m choosing this one!" Lin Hui no longer hesitated. Compared to the obscure and vaguely described "Wind Seal Sect," he had been burned before. Options that seemed ordinary and mediocre often concealed very troublesome hidden dangers.

So this time, he did the opposite and chose the option that sounded powerful and exaggerated.

He glanced at the required resources and time.

’Required Resources: 300 years of reserved energy, 300 years of reserved Heart and Spirit.

Required Time: 800 years.’

’...’ Lin Hui’s breath hitched.

This duration was fitting for a large-scale secondary evolution that could strengthen the entire Sect along with him.

If he didn’t have a large stock of Treasure Medicines to back him up, he really wouldn’t have dared to dive into this.

But now, he didn’t hesitate at all.

’Evolve the Demon Fragrance Sect?’ The Blood Seal’s query flashed.

"Yes!" Lin Hui answered decisively.

SWISH. The Blood Seal at the bottom of his vision began to rapidly display a countdown.

Lin Hui reached out and grabbed, and a new ten-thousand-year-old Yun Lingzhi flew into his hand. A normal Yun Lingzhi was worth four months at most, but one over a thousand years old was worth two years. A ten-thousand-year-old one was worth about ten years.

years seemed like a lot, but in the face of a huge pile of Treasure Medicines, it was nothing!

Lin Hui stuffed the ten-thousand-year-old Yun Lingzhi into his mouth. He had no time to refine it into an Elixir to maximize its effects; he couldn’t even finish eating them all by stuffing them directly into his mouth.

As he stuffed one Treasure Medicine after another into his mouth, his incredibly strong constitution rapidly absorbed and digested their medicinal effects. At the same time, large amounts of waste, medicinal toxins, and impurities were expelled from his pores, caught by the wind, and turned into gray vapor that drifted out of the palace.

Time passed slowly. In the blink of an eye, two days had gone by.

A faint purple light flashed through Lin Hui’s eyes for an instant.

HISS...

At the same time, three different purplish-red patterns flashed across the skin on his chest, hidden beneath his robes, before fading away one by one.

Those were the three Heart Source Demon Fragrances that only the Sect Leader of the Demon Fragrance Sect was qualified to master.

Not only that, but Lin Hui held out his hand, and a wisp of translucent flame composed of countless tiny purple light particles rose from his palm.

PUFF.

He clenched his fist abruptly, and the flame exploded, spilling out from his hand.

The next moment, his surroundings flashed, and he was no longer in the Zhenlong Divine Palace.

Instead, he was standing before a four-story, Chinese-style pavilion.

A plaque hung above the pavilion’s main gate: Heart Source Palace.

The three large characters on the plaque were in a script he didn’t recognize, yet strangely, he could understand their meaning at a single glance.

Lin Hui looked around and found himself standing on a flat, stone-paved ground covered in damage.

Behind him was a long, grayish-white staircase that sloped downward, extending into a purplish-black mist until it disappeared from sight.

To his left and right was the same boundless, purplish-black mist, obscuring everything.

CREAK.

Just as he was hesitating, the main doors of the pavilion in front of him slowly swung outward from their closed position.

The open doors revealed mottled, blackened gray floor tiles inside.

In the center of the tiled floor was a high-backed, black and gold chair. Slumped in the chair was a skeleton, a corpse that had long since turned to bone.

The skeleton was massive, at least three meters tall, and the chair was proportionally large.

It had three pairs of bone wings on its back and two pairs of eye sockets—four in total—on its face. Its skull had clear signs of being shattered, which was obviously the true cause of death.

Lin Hui stood silently for a moment. After confirming he didn’t sense any danger, he finally stepped forward and entered the pavilion.

CRACK.

Suddenly, there was a soft noise.

The skeleton in the chair actually moved.

"A newcomer?" The skeleton’s head lifted slightly, its four black eye sockets staring intently at Lin Hui.

"...You can talk?" Lin Hui narrowed his eyes.

He never would have imagined that after obtaining the Blood Seal, an evolution would come with a talking companion.

"Why shouldn’t I be able to talk? I’ve been trapped in this godforsaken place for who knows how many years. Finally, a newcomer has arrived..." The skeleton grinned, forming what seemed to be a smile.

"In my youth, I was overconfident and acted rashly, daring to brave the Heart Source Demon Palace. As a result, I was locked here by that old demon Formless for countless years. Now, my physical body has been destroyed, and my Heart and Spirit is like a flickering candle. If no one else had come, I fear I would have truly been annihilated."

Lin Hui remained silent, stepping into the first floor of the Heart Source Demon Palace and looking around.

The walls were covered in dense, scripture-like characters, interspersed with numerous purplish-red veins resembling blood vessels. Inside some of the veins, through the translucent walls, he could faintly see tiny, egg-like particles and worms flowing and tumbling along with an unknown purple liquid.

"This place is sinister. I’d advise you not to wander around," the skeleton spoke again. "Hurry up and free me from this chair. Once I recover a bit of my Power, I can lead you out of this demonic den!"

"..." Lin Hui ignored him. With his hands behind his back, he circled the entire first floor.

Aside from this strange skeleton, the first floor only contained what looked like an altar. There weren’t even any tables or chairs.

The ceiling, however, was painted with colorful humanoid figures. They were all androgynous, effeminately beautiful people in long robes, depicted in a series of scenes showing them subjugating various monsters.

"This damned place... I’m telling you, stay here too long and you’ll go crazy," the skeleton said, continuing to try and persuade Lin Hui when he was ignored.

"This is the Sea of Consciousness. You know what kind of place this is. The consciousness of all living beings can stir up all sorts of bizarre and terrifying things at any moment. Plus, this Heart Source Demon Palace has a Formless Heavenly Demon that acts as its guardian. If it discovers you..."

"Formless Heavenly Demon?" Lin Hui asked, surprised. "What’s that?"

The information about the Heart Source Demon Palace infused into him by the Blood Seal didn’t mention anything of the sort.

"It’s a native monster from the Sea of Consciousness that was attracted to the Heart Source Demon Palace. It was already very strong, and then the Demon Palace’s fragrance awakened its self-awareness, so it voluntarily became this place’s guardian," the skeleton explained.

"Interesting." Lin Hui smiled. He didn’t expect this evolution to be a ’buy one, get one free’ deal. "Thank you for the warning. By the way, do you have a name?"

"You can just call me Fusheng," the skeleton replied. "And you?"

"I founded the Clear Wind Dao. You can call me Daoist Master Lin," Lin Hui said, unwilling to reveal his real name.

"Putting on airs, are we?" The skeleton, Fusheng, laughed. "Since you’re so confident, you can go up to the second floor. The Formless Heavenly Demon is stationed there. There’s a Heart Source Immortal Demon Map on the second floor that’s of immense help to Demon Dao Cultivators. It’s been there comprehending and cultivating all this time."

"How strong is the Formless Heavenly Demon?" Lin Hui asked.

"How strong?" Fusheng was suddenly taken aback. It seemed he had only just realized that he didn’t know where Lin Hui had come from.

"Where... are you from?"

"Black Cloud City," Lin Hui answered.

"Never heard of it... Which world?" Fusheng asked again.

"???" Lin Hui was stunned.

Seeing him stunned, the skeleton Fusheng actually began to show visible signs of panic...

"Wait... you’re not one of those Insect People who doesn’t even know what world they’re from, are you!?"

"Insect People? What do you mean? Explain yourself!" Lin Hui, keenly feeling the insult, calmed his expression and stared at the skeleton.

"The vast majority of living beings can never reach the spatial limits of their own world, so naturally, they don’t know their world’s name. A name is something used by others to refer to you. If there were only one world, it wouldn’t need a name; you could just call it ’the world.’ But..."

Fusheng paused.

"There are many worlds, and they developed names to distinguish themselves from one another. Therefore, only after breaking through the limits, shattering the world’s boundary, and coming into contact with other world-breaking experts can you learn your own world’s name. And... among these world-breaking experts, all beings who have not yet reached that level are collectively known as Insect People."

"..." Lin Hui fell silent, trying to process this sudden flood of information.

He didn’t know if the skeleton was telling the truth, but there was little point in fabricating such trivial details.

"That’s right. I am what you call... an Insect Person..." he replied in a low voice.

"...The Sea of Consciousness outside is incredibly dangerous... How in the world did you get here!?" Now it was the skeleton Fusheng’s turn to be baffled.

"I..." Just as Lin Hui was about to answer, the faint sound of footsteps came from the corner, at the top of the stairs leading to the second floor.

"Oh no, the Formless Heavenly Demon is here! Run, get out of here!!" Fusheng’s body trembled, and he frantically slapped the armrests of his chair, urging him on.

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