The Decaying World

In this entire courtyard, the most striking feature was the black hole in the very center.

The ground around the hole was inlaid with a conspicuous metallic formation, which shimmered with minuscule silver specks.

The silver was obscured by the firelight; one couldn’t make it out at all without looking closely.

"You can wait for me here," Lin Hui said coolly.

Pang Jiu nodded.

"Please, be extremely careful," he urged in a low voice.

The dangers of the deep core had been put on full display during the previous battle with Haiming.

"It’s fine... If I want to leave, no one can stop me," Lin Hui replied, taking a step forward.

His figure vanished without a sound.

He instantly passed through the hole and entered. The guarding Black Army of the Undead Race didn’t notice a thing, only feeling as if the cold wind had grown a tiny bit stronger for a moment. That was all.

He passed through a dark, deep tunnel.

Lin Hui flew swiftly, feeling the surrounding air of decay grow thicker and thicker.

It was an aura that was only emitted by living things as they approached decay.

Lin Hui was already very familiar with it.

He slowed and flew downward for just over thirty seconds.

Ahead, the tunnel gradually curved, leveling out to extend forward.

After flying for another ten-odd seconds, an opening appeared ahead. As he shot out of it, the view opened up before him.

It was a vast, gray, subterranean plain.

A massive fissure cut through the plain.

A great cloud of black, mist-like sand and dust rose from the fissure, howling and spinning.

Lin Hui landed slowly and looked up.

Above was a gray-black fog, looking like a real sky rather than an underground ceiling.

With a flicker, he crossed a vast distance in an instant, appearing directly at the edge of the fissure and peering down.

Standing on the edge of the sheer, knife-cut cliff, the abyss before him was bottomless, endlessly spewing forth an immense chill.

Lin Hui’s lips tightened slightly as his hand gently gripped the Ruyi Sword Handle.

"Daoist Master Lin. I would advise you against this."

Suddenly, a man’s voice—gentle in tone but strangely sharp and piercing—sounded from behind him.

Lin Hui glanced sideways, looking behind him.

Somehow, a chubby, round-faced man with a friendly expression had appeared there.

The chubby man wore a set of exquisite, opulent yellow robes with a religious flair. On his head was a golden forehead ornament shaped like a third eye. At the moment, his hands were tucked into his opposite sleeves as he watched Lin Hui with a smile.

"Are you the guardian here?" Lin Hui asked softly.

"Not exactly," the chubby man replied with a smile. "This humble one is Huang Weijun, a Tomb Guardian personally appointed by His Majesty to watch over the entire Imperial City."

"And?" Lin Hui’s expression remained unchanged.

"Don’t be hasty, Daoist Master Lin. I am aware of your intentions. That Han Xiaoyue is a Super Adaptable who was cast in here previously; there is absolutely no chance she survived. If you go down there directly, the only thing you will accomplish is triggering a violent outburst of the decaying aura. When that happens, we will have to find even more Super Adaptables to throw in and suppress it. Otherwise, the lives of the tens of millions in the Imperial City will be at stake."

"..." Lin Hui was silent.

His gaze returned to the bottomless abyss below.

"Daoist Master, you are now a transcendent existence. In today’s world, there are very, very few things that can threaten you, but this Court Abyss is one of them. Why must you place yourself in peril for such a faint, uncertain possibility?" the chubby man continued.

"What if I insist on going down?" Lin Hui said slowly.

If a few words from some random person who popped out of nowhere could scare him off, he wouldn’t have carved out the reputation he had today.

The chubby man smiled and gestured with his hand, as if to say, "Be my guest."

He said no more, simply retracting his hand and watching with a smile.

WHOOSH!

The next instant.

Lin Hui leaped and flew directly into the abyss, plummeting downward.

He flew cautiously. The Disaster Energy filling his body empowered the Wind of Surrounding, forcibly isolating him from the decaying aura around him.

The further down he went, the blacker and darker it became.

The concentration of the decaying aura skyrocketed, reaching at least a hundred times that of the surface.

Suddenly, he halted in midair and looked toward the cliff wall to his right.

Hanging on the cliff face was the desiccated carcass of a black monster.

Even though it was dried out, the carcass was still continuously absorbing the surrounding aura of decay. Its body was like a bottomless pit, and there was no telling what became of the aura it absorbed.

Lin Hui examined the carcass, confirmed it wasn’t Han Xiaoyue, and continued his descent.

Before long, more and more monster carcasses began appearing on the cliff walls on both sides.

They resembled the dried husks of spiders, swaying and trembling in the decaying wind.

But none of these monsters were Han Xiaoyue.

Lin Hui continued flying downward for another thirty-plus seconds.

Finally.

A giant vortex of black energy appeared at the bottom of the chasm.

The center of the vortex was a deep depression, forming a pitch-black, lightless channel that led to an unknown destination.

Lin Hui hovered above the vortex and paused.

From within the vortex, he sensed an immeasurably vast and immense aura of decay.

If the decaying aura on a person on the verge of death had a value of 1, then the aura in this environment would be over 1,000.

And the decaying aura within the vortex below was at least in the hundreds of thousands or millions—it was simply immeasurable, and he could only make a rough estimate.

The aura had condensed from a thin gas into a viscous liquid.

Lin Hui stared at the vortex. He could clearly sense that its center gave him the same strange, alien feeling he’d had when he sensed the outside world from within the Heart Source Demon Palace.

He knew exactly what that meant.

It meant the vortex very likely didn’t lead to the mortal realm, but to another special space where only decay existed.

He proceeded no further.

He didn’t know if he would be able to return after entering. Nor did he know what kind of dangers were contained within.

Although he was extremely strong, he didn’t believe he was invincible.

Even the mysterious and powerful Fusheng from the Heart Source Demon Palace had been brought to such a state by his own recklessness.

With such a precedent before him, he wouldn’t repeat the same mistake.

After one last, deep look at the black vortex, Lin Hui turned and flew upward at full speed.

WHOOSH!

Just then, the surrounding aura of decay seemed to come alive, condensing into massive tentacles that shot out to intercept and entangle him.

The sheer concentration of that massive, violent, decaying aura even made Lin Hui tense up.

An outburst of the decaying aura from this area alone could probably rush out and destroy most of the Royal City in an instant.

This was a level of power that could now pose a slight threat to him.

He stared intently and could vaguely see countless faces of all kinds of living beings wailing and crying within the black, decaying energy.

Among those faces, he suddenly locked onto a familiar one.

Tuyue.

The man’s venomous gaze was fixed on him from amidst the countless faces, incredibly clear and conspicuous.

’Is this all formed from the gathered souls of the Fog People and the Blood Ancestor...?’ Lin Hui had a guess as to the source of the decaying aura here.

This power had likely gathered the strength of thousands upon thousands of Fog People, along with their spiritual power. All this strength had been corrupted, digested, and transformed into the purest, most primal, terrifying power...

’No wonder...’

’No wonder it’s so vast, so terrifying.’

SHING.

A slight gap appeared as the Ruyi Sword at Lin Hui’s waist was drawn just a fraction from its sheath.

In that instant, a massive, menacing, azure rift flashed into existence behind him and vanished.

A terrifyingly massive amount of Wind Disaster Energy surged into his body, then erupted wantonly into the surroundings.

The Wind Disaster Power disintegrated everything, canceled out everything, and for a single moment, forcibly blocked the incoming mass of tentacles.

Seizing that moment, Lin Hui moved with incredible speed, crossing several kilometers in an instant. He repeated this several times before finally decelerating gracefully, shooting out of the abyss, and landing back on the cliff’s edge.

After landing steadily, his gaze turned toward the bottom of the abyss.

The Ruyi Sword at his waist returned to its sheath.

Watching this scene, the smile on the mysterious, chubby Huang Weijun’s face, who stood behind, seemed to deepen slightly.

"It seems Daoist Master Lin has chosen to stop."

"Were you so sure I would come back?" Lin Hui turned to face him.

"Not at all," Huang Weijun said with a laugh. "After all, there are some people in this world who are... different from the rest."

"Has anyone ever told you that your smile is ugly?" Lin Hui said coolly.

"You..." Huang Weijun was taken aback and was about to speak.

SHING!

The next instant, he saw a flash of blue light at Lin Hui’s waist.

A second later, an intense, unbearable pain surged from his face and throughout his body.

AHHH!!

He screamed, clutching his face as blood gushed unstoppably from between his fingers.

Immediately after, a grayish-white, translucent crystallization rapidly spread upward from his feet, locking his entire body in place.

The crystals spread at extreme speed. In less than two seconds, his entire body was completely frozen at its core, forming a stalagmite-like crystal pillar.

Lin Hui walked past him indifferently, his long hair trailing specks of blue Wind Calamity light, dissipating the lingering wisps of the decaying aura.

A few breaths later, his figure vanished.

Only the gleaming white crystal pillar was left standing in his place.

CRUMBLE.

Suddenly, the chubby man inside the crystal pillar rapidly decayed, blackened, then disintegrated into countless grains of black sand that scattered and disappeared.

As he vanished, the crystal pillar also faded away and dissipated.

From within the abyss, a new Huang Weijun slowly flew out, gazing in the direction Lin Hui had departed.

’Interesting... That power... it looks delicious...’

He glanced back at the abyss, seemingly suppressing some intense desire.

’Forget it. That body is about to give out. My father’s succession is more important. Once the dust settles, I’ll go have a taste.’

"I would advise you not to act rashly."

Suddenly, an elderly figure appeared directly on the edge of the cliff not far away.

It was, surprisingly, Bai Lu, who should have still been near the Black Cloud.

He leaned on a black wooden staff, his expression grim as he looked in the direction Lin Hui had gone.

"There is great trouble behind that man. The best outcome would be for us to not cross paths."

"Are you trying to provoke me?" Huang Weijun laughed. "A bunch of cowards, hiding their heads in their shells. Trash who only dare to hide in the deepest part of the world. What would you know about ’great trouble’?"

"We will find hope," Bai Lu said in a low voice.

"Mere food," Huang Weijun said with a contemptuous smile. He turned, and his figure vanished abruptly.

"I’ll remind you one last time, the trouble behind that man is immense!" Bai Lu raised his voice urgently as he saw the other leave.

But there was no longer any sound of Huang Weijun in the vicinity.

THUD.

Bai Lu slammed his staff heavily on the ground and let out a long sigh.

’I once thought he would be our hope, but after truly seeing him... You all will regret this...’

He took one last look at the abyss, turned, and his figure dissipated into thin air.

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