The Decaying World

The moment he sensed it, Lin Hui’s eyebrows rose slightly.

’Great Success in the Qingfeng Sword? And he’s already achieved entry-level mastery of the Gale Sword?’

Upon sensing this, he realized the boy was truly remarkable. How long had it been since he’d started? And yet, he’d already grasped the basics of the Gale Sword.

Back then, Tao Xuehai had struggled for so long just to barely master the Gale Swordsmanship. How long had this boy been training?

The greatest sign of achieving entry-level mastery of the Gale Sword was Disaster Energy entering the body. And this boy, Yuanhe, already had a trace of Wind Disaster Energy circulating within him.

"Indeed. This boy’s aptitude is far greater than my own. He has an incredibly powerful pair of eyes that can see through the vast majority of Martial Arts. His cultivation progress is twice the result for half the effort," Su Yaping explained. "With such Talent, this disciple can no longer guide him. Only the Daoist Master..."

"I am not taking on any disciples," Lin Hui said coolly.

His life was now peaceful and stable. He had enough disciples already; taking on another served no purpose. People of supreme talent appeared every so often. If he accepted this one today, would he have to accept more in the future?

"But..." Su Yaping tried to speak again. A single glance from Lin Hui, however, instantly froze the aura around him. His blood and Disaster Energy felt as if they had turned to ice, rendering him completely unable to speak.

Although Lin Hui had not yet fully mastered the fourth level of the Star Breath Sword Manual, the third level was still continuously strengthening his Heart and Spirit and his physique, albeit more slowly.

As a result, the current strength of his Heart and Spirit, combined with his aura, formed an absurdly powerful pressure. A mere release of it was enough to pin Su Yaping in place.

Yuanhe, standing to the side, noticed nothing at all.

At this stage, Lin Hui felt that while he had not yet reached the realm-breaking level, he could faintly sense a subtle pressure from the natural world on his body and mind.

Hearing the refusal, Yuanhe’s expression became one of extreme disappointment and dismay.

His entire purpose in coming here was to learn Martial Arts, gain power, and return to take his revenge.

Becoming a disciple of Daoist Master Qingfeng would undoubtedly shorten his path to vengeance by many, many years.

Unfortunately...

"Daoist Master..." he began, mustering his courage.

"Go back," Lin Hui said flatly. "Don’t bother me with such trivial matters again."

He glanced at Yuanhe, then suddenly raised his hand and pointed forward.

Despite being over ten meters apart, a strand of invisible energy gently struck Yuanhe’s forehead.

A faint blue mark flashed on his forehead for an instant before quickly vanishing.

Seeing this, Lin Hui frowned, and his figure slowly faded from where he stood.

He had intended to give the boy a gift before leaving, but unfortunately... the Dharma Seal could not be transmitted.

This meant the boy did not sincerely and genuinely see himself as a follower of Qingfeng Dao.

Su Yaping noticed this as well, and his expression turned grim.

He bowed once more in the direction where Lin Hui had vanished, then turned and left with Yuanhe.

This small interlude did not affect Lin Hui’s life. He continued to live quietly with Liu Xiao in their small courtyard in the Outer City, just as before.

Time flowed by, unnoticed.

「One year later...」

Black-Face Rot was killed, Yuanhe defected, and Su Yaping’s personal pursuit of him was fruitless, as he had been tricked into chasing in the wrong direction. By the time he realized it, Yuanhe had vanished completely.

Furious, he issued a kill order, but there was still no news of Yuanhe.

Lin Hui was completely unconcerned by this. He had seen it coming from the start.

The boy harbored immense arrogance and ambition in his heart. A person like that could never feel genuine loyalty to any sect or faction. He would only absorb all the nutrients that could help him grow, and once the source was depleted, he would cast it aside without a second thought.

But none of that mattered to him. He had taken the two of them in simply to resolve his karmic ties with the Good Heart Sect.

Although the Martial Arts he practiced didn’t concern itself with the cycle of karma, his personal code of conduct did.

Although Yuanhe had learned the Gale Swordsmanship, he had only learned the first half. This was because throughout all of Qingfeng Dao, the highest-level technique permitted to be taught was the Gale Swordsmanship.

This swordsmanship had an extremely high ceiling, capable of directly raising one to the level of a Fog Person.

For the current environment, that was more than enough.

Life went on.

The days passed one by one. The years flew by, and time faded away...

Lin Hui gradually noticed that Liu Xiao’s body was beginning to age with the passage of time.

Slowly, fine lines appeared at the corners of her eyes, while his own face remained unchanged. So, he secretly altered his appearance, allowing himself to age alongside her.

Slowly, Liu Xiao grew more and more silent, and the amount of rest she needed each day gradually increased.

Year after year, the new pear tree planted in the courtyard grew large, its green canopy shading most of the yard.

Finally...

One day, just as Lin Hui was organizing the recorded geomantic energy after his cultivation as usual, an urgent message arrived from the Lin Mansion: his father, Lin Shunhe, was critically ill.

Lin Hui wasn’t surprised. His father had been critically ill once last year, and he had forcibly pulled him back from the brink using the Tai Chi Sword.

The price of the backlash was a slight increase in the concentration of Disaster Energy within his body.

And this year...

He immediately took Liu Xiao and rushed to the Lin Mansion.

Inside the Lin Mansion, a crowd of relatives had already gathered, waiting outside Lin Shunhe’s bedchamber.

The Pharmacist had just walked out of the room. He sighed, looked down, and shook his head at Yao Shan, who was now also gray-haired.

Yao Shan closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She didn’t speak, but instead turned to look at her son, Lin Hui.

Lin Hui understood. He stepped forward, let go of Liu Xiao’s hand, and entered the room.

On the bed, the figure of a somewhat frail old man was illuminated by the fluorescent glow of several formation arrays.

These formations surrounded the sickbed, creating a sterile, warm, fresh, and stable environment.

Among them was a micro-formation specifically designed to vaporize Life-extending Medicine for Lin Shunhe. Such an array could only be set up by the most preeminent formation masters.

And the Lin Shunhe of today was worthy of enjoying such treatment.

Although the effects of the Life-extending Medicine had greatly diminished, later generations discovered it could still provide a faint, partial effect.

Hence, this arrangement.

Seeing Lin Hui enter, Lin Shunhe struggled to open his eyes and looked at his son.

"Hui... Ah Hui... I’m not going to make it... Your old man, I’m finally... about to kick the bucket... When... are you going to... continue the Lin Family’s... bloodline?"

"...You’re still worried about that, even now?" Lin Hui said, a hint of amusement in his exasperation.

The old man was still hung up on this matter.

"People... the older you get, the more you worry about these things..." As Lin Hui discreetly regulated his father’s internal energy, Lin Shunhe’s speech gradually became smoother.

After years of regulating geomantic energy, Lin Hui had become extremely proficient with this kind of internal human energy.

He had known for a long time that his father wasn’t sick; he had simply reached the end of his natural lifespan.

He was eighty-nine years old... All the organs in his body had reached their limit. If Lin Hui hadn’t forcibly managed his energy and used the Tai Chi Divine Sword to extend his life, his father would have passed away naturally at eighty, like everyone else.

As it was, his life had been forcibly extended by nine years.

"So what if I have a child? If a person doesn’t first live their own life well, what’s the point of worrying about what comes after?" Lin Hui said calmly.

"The bloodline... is the only thing that can continue on after a person dies... As long as the bloodline is passed down, our Lin Family can be passed down forever. My descendants... my descendants will also carry... a part of my blood... Doesn’t that mean I’ll live on forever too?" Lin Shunhe forced a smile.

"But what if I don’t die?" Lin Hui asked.

"...It’s an instinct... life’s... instinct to reproduce..."

"Dad, tell me yourself, is carrying on the bloodline really that important? Doesn’t Xiaoliu have a son?" Lin Hui reached out and gently took his hand.

The hand was withered and thin, yet still strong, and it trembled ceaselessly.

"It’s different... Xiaoliu is... a daughter. The child she bore carries the Tao Family’s blood..." Lin Shunhe took a breath, paused, and continued. "Only you... are the true continuation of the Lin Family..."

"That’s not right. Xiaoliu is also my sister. She’s one of the Lin Family Members," Lin Hui said seriously.

"It’s different, it’s not the same... It’s fine for now, but after a number of years, the ’Lin’ name will be completely forgotten by her children. Unless she... can have her children carry the double surname of Tao-Lin... By then, no one... will remember me, or us..." Lin Shunhe gripped Lin Hui’s hand tightly, his eyes filled with intense hope.

"If you don’t have a child, the Lin Family will be completely forgotten in two generations at most... I don’t want... I don’t want there to be no one left to even burn incense and paper for me many years from now..."

Lin Hui fell silent.

This was the sorrow of the short-lived.

’If I think about it,’ he thought, ’Xiaoliu’s son will certainly still worship the Lin Family’s ancestors. But her grandson, and great-grandson, would probably, just as Dad said, slowly come to remember only the Tao Family’s ancestral tablets and incense.’

Thinking of this, he suddenly understood the root of why his father, such an open-minded man, would hold such an old-fashioned idea.

The core of it all, in the final analysis, was for a single purpose: he did not want to be forgotten.

"I understand. I promise you, I will leave behind a descendant for the Lin Family," Lin Hui said. Having understood, he didn’t bother explaining that he might live for a very, very long time. At this moment, he only wanted to put his father’s heart at ease in his final moments.

"Good..." Lin Shunhe gripped his hand tightly, then slowly let go. "You, let Shanshan... come in..."

Lin Hui backed out of the room and let his mother, Yao Shan, enter.

Facing the questioning and hopeful gazes of the crowd, he slowly shook his head.

Before long, the sound of his mother Yao Shan’s suppressed sobs came from within the room.

Everyone rushed forward and entered the room. They saw that Lin Shunhe’s eyes were shut tight, as if he were asleep. His heartbeat and breath were gone.

Looking at his father’s lifeless body, Lin Hui suddenly felt an indescribable sense of desolation in his heart.

There was now one less person in this world who was closest to him...

Turning around, he saw Liu Xiao walk up and gently take his hand.

"Ah Hui... do you think... there’s an underworld in this world? Is there reincarnation?" Liu Xiao asked in a small voice.

Lin Hui sensed his father’s body. It was not decaying, because he had used his Disaster Energy to forcibly annihilate all traces of rot in advance.

And his father’s soul had not floated out to appear.

This was a law of this world.

A person’s death is like a lamp being extinguished. Only those who die unjustly have their souls fly out. For those who die of old age, the essence of it is that when their body lives to its final moment, their soul has also followed it to its limit.

The final outcome is that both completely disintegrate, turning into the world’s most fundamental particles and returning to the natural cycle.

Over the years, while regulating geomantic energy, Lin Hui had observed many, many such old people.

For others who died at their predestined time, their souls might linger. But because Lin Hui had forcibly extended his life, Lin Shunhe had truly reached the absolute limit.

"There is," Lin Hui nodded. "There is an underworld, and there is reincarnation."

Looking into Liu Xiao’s expectant eyes, he nodded seriously and replied.

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