The Decaying World

He acted on the idea at once.

Lin Hui brought Xie Chang’an back to Black Cloud. Without attending the evening banquet held to welcome Xie Chang’an’s return, he immediately ordered his adjutant, Ouyang Yining, to compile information on the many recent incidents in the surrounding area where Evil Soldiers and Insect Scriptures were choosing masters.

The recent chaos had led to heavy casualties. Even the Fog People, who had long stood at the apex of mortals, suffered deaths and injuries in the repeated, brutal battles.

However, the overall statistics showed that the casualties were still primarily Fog People with weaker Evil Energy. Most of them were Wild Fog People. Very few City Lord-level Fog People died, as their hidden reserves were vast and their methods plentiful. The only deaths in their ranks were due to corruption—a burst of high-level corruption that erupted after their cities were breached, leaving them with no commoners to dilute its effects.

While the banquet for Xie Chang’an was being held on the floating island, Lin Hui was holed up on Qingfei Mountain, studying the various materials on Evil Energy that had been sent to him.

"According to current intelligence, there are a total of four masterless Evil Soldiers and two Insect Scriptures still being fought over in the surrounding area. However, due to the outbreak of the Haiming contamination, the intensity of these six battlegrounds has greatly decreased. Many have given up, especially after it was confirmed that even Fog People cannot resist the Sea Roaring Transformation," Ouyang Yining summarized in a low voice.

She was standing beside Lin Hui, dressed in a black, cinched-waist leather outfit. Her ample chest was ready to burst forth, threatening to break free from the constraints of just a few black cords at any moment.

As his assistant, she was also receiving intelligence reports from the surveillance Moon Towers.

In fact, she had a good relationship with Liu Xiao, because Liu Xiao herself was constantly trying to push her and Lin Hui together. Therefore, she was also quite proactive in the effort to treat Liu Xiao.

"Have you compiled the Evil Energy profiles?" Lin Hui asked.

"Yes. The four Evil Soldiers are: the Separation Blade, the Jade Emperor Roc Lance, the Eternal Union Ring, and the Shadow-Stab Sword. The two Insect Scriptures are: Golden Scale and Instant-Voice."

"And the Evil Energies?" Lin Hui continued to ask.

"This is speculation based on our investigation; the exact Evil Energies aren’t clear. An Evil Soldier’s energy can manifest in different ways, emphasizing certain aspects depending on the host’s behavior and tendencies. As a result, even the same type of Evil Energy can produce completely different abilities."

Ouyang Yining handed over a list.

Lin Hui took it and scanned it quickly.

Six Evil Energies in total: 1. Permanent Separation. 2. Gigantification. 3. Permanent Adhesion. 4. Complete immobilization by attacking an enemy’s shadow. 5. Sprouting high-strength, protective golden scales all over the body. 6. Instantaneous, maximum amplification of one’s own voice.

The more Lin Hui read, the more he frowned.

These Evil Energies were strange and bizarre, but to say they might have an effect on a state of corruption was completely off the mark.

"Is there no other information?" Lin Hui asked.

"There isn’t." Ouyang Yining shook her head. "In fact, so many have only appeared because of the recent drastic change in the situation, the constant warfare, and the successive fall of Fog People. Normally, it would be considered frequent if even one appeared every few years."

"..." Lin Hui stared at the six Evil Energies, contemplating the possible evolutionary paths they could take.

No matter how he looked at it, perhaps only the first one, permanent separation, offered a sliver of hope.

"Locate the first Evil Soldier, the Separation Blade. You lead the team. I’ll order some people from the sect to go with you," Lin Hui said softly.

"Understood!" Ouyang Yining bowed and disappeared out the door.

Lin Hui put down the list. After relaying a few orders via the Wind Chime, his figure flickered and vanished. In the next instant, he appeared directly above Qingfei Mountain, at the edge of the giant tornado.

From high above, he gazed down at the entire floating island below.

The final layer of the Star Breath Sword Manual, the Earth Sacred Form, had now been applied to this land.

The key to this final layer was to manage and stabilize a territory of one million square meters. Since it was also part of a wind-based Martial Art, this management was essentially focused on the interweaving and stable flow of aura within this territory.

But according to his careful study of the infused cultivation memories, he discovered that the primary governance and adjustment of this final layer was actually aimed at the aura within the land itself—that is, the aura underground.

The aura above the ground, on the other hand, was part of the cultivation of the Celestial Sacred Form.

’Underground aura...’

Lin Hui stared at the floating island. Ever since he began cultivating the fourth layer some time ago, he had felt that something was off. Now, observing it again, he finally understood. He seemed to have misunderstood something...

He suddenly seemed to understand.

’I see... This final layer doesn’t just refer to this small floating island... It also includes all the earth-qi directly beneath it, deep underground!’

He had always felt that the area of the fourth layer’s Earth Sacred Form seemed a bit too small. But looking at it this way... the area wasn’t small at all, but incredibly vast.

After all, from the surface to the underground, the source of the earth-qi must extend all the way to the very bottom.

Lin Hui carefully compared this with the cultivation memories infused from the Blood Seal. He became more and more certain that the cultivation sequence for this fourth layer was indeed to dig deeper and deeper, all the way to the planet’s core.

’No wonder cultivating this fourth layer was so troublesome and difficult in the memories...’

He sighed inwardly. His figure flashed and reappeared on the shadowed ground directly beneath the Qingfei Mountain floating island.

Because this area was shielded by Qingfei Mountain’s formation, many Inner City People had relocated here.

Skyscrapers rose from the ground, densely packed together. If not for the fact that these tall buildings were all a uniform gray-white without a hint of other colors, the scene might have reminded Lin Hui of the modern metropolises from his past life.

Standing on the street between the skyscrapers, he walked along like any of the other ordinary people around him.

It was just that most of the others walked with hurried steps, while he strolled along at a leisurely pace.

SNORT!

On the roadside lanes, black-scaled oxen snorted puffs of air as they pulled cargo, quickly moving past and into the distance.

In the sky above, Moth Cars would occasionally shoot past.

Because of Qingfei Mountain’s effect of blocking the Haiming contamination, even here, only the rich and powerful could afford a residence. Being able to afford a Moth Car was commonplace.

Lin Hui’s appearance caused no stir. There were many people on the street dressed like him, and he rarely showed his face at large public events, so very few people recognized him.

As for his looks, many people had already micro-adjusted their faces to near-perfection. It was just that his style—perfectly harmonious yet not conventionally handsome—was extremely rare.

After wandering through the shadowed city district for a while, his expression shifted slightly. His figure flickered, and he arrived directly at an abandoned harbor in the Outer City.

In the harbor, Li Yuanyuan and Xia Si were already waiting for him.

Xia Si held a strangely shaped long blade with black and white patterns, its tip pointed downwards.

The blade was silvery all over, with black and white patterns intertwining across its surface like a dense network of human blood vessels.

It was also pulsing rhythmically with some kind of strange beat, which was quite bizarre.

"Daoist Master, this is the Evil Soldier Separation Blade." Xia Si raised the blade, offering it to him hilt-first.

"How did you get it?" With a thought, Lin Hui sent a breeze to take hold of the Separation Blade, causing it to float over and hover in the air before him.

He didn’t take it with his hands, instead keeping them clasped behind his back as he examined the bizarre-looking Evil Soldier.

Then again, almost no Evil Soldier had a normal appearance.

"We barely had to fight for it. When we got there, the Evil Soldier was just floating above a pile of corpses, and no one dared to get within a hundred meters of it," Li Yuanyuan answered. "It had been actively trying to choose a master, parasitizing anyone nearby, but after killing several hundred people, not a single one was successful. Everyone else was scared off... I heard that three foreign Blood Progenitors died as well."

"Blood Progenitors can also merge with other Evil Soldiers? Don’t the Evil Energies conflict?" Lin Hui asked, surprised.

"It’s possible if their bloodline’s Evil Energy doesn’t conflict. Plus, some Blood Progenitors, despite having awakened an Evil Energy Blood-Heart, still primarily rely on their own strength and Martial Arts. There aren’t many Blood Progenitors like that, but they exist," Li Yuanyuan explained.

She had clearly done her homework before coming.

Lin Hui reached out and gripped the Separation Blade.

"It’s being rather docile now."

"None of us could withstand its corrosion before. It was Senior Sister Xia Si who stepped in and forcibly suppressed this blade," Li Yuanyuan explained.

"..." Lin Hui glanced at Xia Si, who nodded in confirmation.

She seemed to have become much more feminine recently. Her current attire was a form-fitting long robe that fully accentuated her curves. Certain subtle details even made it clear that underneath her outer robe, she was wearing nothing but a single, tight black outfit.

This was clearly a tactic she had specifically gone to study and master.

"Interesting. You two may go back first. We happen to have a guest arriving. Go and receive them," Lin Hui nodded.

"Yes!" The two bowed slightly, then flickered away and vanished.

With their strength, they had naturally already sensed the special aura that was rapidly approaching the harbor from outside.

Lin Hui stood alone on the abandoned pier, raising the Separation Blade to inspect it closely.

"I don’t like blades. It would be better if it could become a sword," he said in a low voice.

HISS.

In the next instant.

The Separation Blade’s body actually extended and thinned, truly transforming into a peculiar longsword.

"..." Lin Hui was speechless. ’This Evil Soldier can actually understand a person’s intent?’

’Interesting...’ With a thought, he quickly called up the Blood Seal. It appeared at the bottom of his vision, and he began the identification process.

’Evil Soldier Separation: A spiritual object formed from the essence of heaven and earth. Each parasitization is a cycle of life and death, and also a transfer of its own accumulated corruption. By transferring its corruption to the person it merges with, it is reborn.

Evil Energy: Separation (When a living being is divided by this object, its body parts will be permanently isolated and cannot be reattached.)

Note: When facing an Evil Energy of a similar type with an opposing ability, Separation will be counteracted.

Evolvable Branches: 4.’

’A very simple and straightforward Evil Energy...’

Lin Hui nodded slightly. Holding the Evil Soldier, he didn’t sense any aggression from it at all.

"Can you speak?" he communicated directly with his Heart and Spirit.

The Separation Blade didn’t respond. It clearly possessed some intelligence, but perhaps not enough to be able to speak.

"Forget it." Lin Hui didn’t dwell on it. What he needed to do next was not to merge it with himself.

He was currently cultivating the Star Breath Sword Manual. His body was overflowing with Disaster Energy, and all his flesh, blood, bones, and organs had been converted to share the properties of Disaster Energy. He simply couldn’t allow a second power to forcibly merge with him.

If this Evil Soldier forced its way in, he was worried it would be instantly disintegrated.

After all, the ability of the Wind Calamity was to disintegrate everything.

He had originally planned to spend some time taming this Evil Soldier, but now it seemed the thing was very docile. That saved him a lot of trouble.

’I might as well just evolve it directly. For living things, the Blood Seal automatically adds an attribute of obedience to me post-evolution anyway.’

He reached out and lightly tapped the blade of the Separation Sword with his index finger.

With a single thought.

He immediately opened the evolution branches listed below the Blood Seal’s information.

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