The Decaying World

The shaking of the entire Heart Source Demon Palace grew more and more violent as the massive hand continued to emerge.

Blood surged through the veins covering the surrounding walls. The insect eggs floating within stirred restlessly, their eyes opening to gaze in this direction from within their shells.

A demon peered out from the stairwell, eyeing Lin Hui warily, looking poised to turn and flee at a moment’s notice.

"Disciple... my dear disciple... How could you have the heart to keep your master trapped in the Outer Realm for so many years...?"

Qimei’s voice echoed unceasingly from the eye-shaped rift.

The voice was deep and ancient. It sounded exceedingly benevolent, yet it held the inexplicable quality of a suppressed volcano, as if it could erupt into a cataclysm of violent destruction at any moment.

CRACK.

As Qimei’s second hand reached out, twisted cracks began to spiderweb across the walls of the Demon Palace’s first floor.

Three bizarre fragrances spread wildly, their concentrations growing ever thicker.

The slowing effect of the chilling Demon Fragrance washed over Qimei inside the rift, layer after layer.

"Oh? You actually have other means to slow me down... I truly underestimated you, my dear disciple..."

Qimei was clearly surprised. He extended both hands and began to pull his body out.

Fusheng watched from the side, trembling uncontrollably. ’It’s over... It’s all over...’

’What tragedy in this world could possibly be worse than encountering the most troublesome menace imaginable at my weakest moment?’

Lin Hui didn’t reply. He simply grasped his two swords, Ruyi in one hand and Tai Chi in the other, and slowly drew them from their scabbards.

HSSS.

He took a deep breath and snapped his eyes shut.

’Four Forms Unification!’

WHOOSH!

The next moment, the four Sacred Forms behind him instantly plunged into his body, fusing with him.

Immediately after, a dense darkness spread out from beneath his feet.

The darkness stained the very floor, turning it the same deep hue. Innumerable stars flickered within its mysterious depths.

At that moment, outside the Heart Source Demon Palace, countless stars in the purple-black, misty sky flared with brilliant light, as if in answer to Lin Hui.

The starlight pierced the mist, illuminating the sky above the Heart Source Demon Palace as it slowly began to rotate.

"Interesting! This Dharma Gate!?" Half of Qimei’s face had already pushed its way into the Demon Palace’s first floor. He roared with laughter at the sight.

"Yes... this Dharma Gate is indeed impressive... To think that in this era, someone could still devise such a magnificent Sword technique..."

Suddenly, a voice spoke from behind Qimei.

He froze, his head swiveling a full one hundred and eighty degrees to look behind him.

Behind the Wind Calamity rift stood a dark, cloaked figure, its face obscured. It was impossible to tell when it had appeared.

The figure’s cloak and long hair billowed as if it were nothing more than a pure shadow.

It floated silently in the air, looking down upon the rift and Qimei from on high.

"A mere faded remnant dares to block me from re-establishing my orthodoxy!?" The piercing blue light in Qimei’s eyes blazed, as dazzling as the sun.

"And what gave you the illusion that I am a mere remnant?"

The dark figure raised its hand and gently pointed its index finger forward.

TSS!

The next instant, a brilliant, multicolored light erupted from its fingertip. Countless hues flickered and swirled wildly at the tip of its finger.

"You!?" Qimei’s expression shifted. He raised a hand, attempting to catch the fingertip in his palm.

Countless streams of Wind Disaster Power, like flowing ribbons, converged from the rift into his palm, dying it a pure, crystalline blue.

Just as the two were about to collide...

A soft, pearlescent white light shone up from beneath them.

Translucent, shimmering crystals spread rapidly upward from their feet.

Both the dark figure and Qimei shuddered. Sensing something, they hastily looked up.

Their gazes pierced through the many layers of the Heart Source Demon Palace, shooting straight into the star-filled, purple-misted sky.

In the sky, a gigantic, translucent, pearlescent hand reached down, piercing the mist to gently cup the Heart Source Demon Palace in its palm.

Behind the massive hand, the mist parted to reveal the figure of a handsome man, his eyes filled with infinite compassion.

His form was like a phantom, and he was immeasurably larger than the entire Heart Source Demon Palace.

Amidst the vast purple mist, he raised his hand and carefully cradled the entire Demon Palace. The palace, along with a large swath of the surrounding area, was but a tiny grain of rice in his palm.

Through the palace walls, the man’s gaze fell upon Qimei and the dark figure.

But it was only a passing glance; his eyes ultimately settled on Lin Hui, who sat unmoving in meditation.

"By Heaven’s will, I deliver Heaven’s punishment..."

He gently closed his hands around the entire Heart Source Demon Palace, and in the next instant, his own form began to rapidly dissipate.

Inside the Demon Palace, Qimei and the dark figure were both frozen into pillars of pearlescent white crystal. Even the Wind Calamity rift between them was sealed shut, frozen solid.

As the giant figure slowly faded, the two combatants and the rift shattered in unison, dissolving into countless white particles that vanished into nothing.

Only then did tranquility return.

On the first floor of the Demon Palace, only the quietly meditating Lin Hui and a dumbstruck, jaw-agape Fusheng remained.

The situation had changed too quickly.

From Qimei’s appearance to the arrival of the mysterious dark figure, Fusheng had recognized it at once. It was the Heart Source Demon Ancestor, a being he thought had vanished long ago.

The Demon Ancestor had immediately overpowered Qimei. That was a relief; no matter how chaotic the Demon Ancestor was, he was still better than the descending lunatics of the Wind Calamity.

As the two powerhouses clashed, that little guy—Lin Hui—would surely die, and the Demon Palace itself would likely be destroyed. Perhaps, Fusheng thought, he could use the chaos as an opportunity to escape.

But just as he began to think things might be looking up, an even bigger player had suddenly appeared.

And then, he was completely flabbergasted.

With a single press of a palm, the Demon Ancestor and that Wind Calamity fellow were both sealed and crystallized, unable to offer even a hint of resistance...

Even though both were most likely not at their full strength, merely projecting a fraction of their power, still...

Fusheng looked down at the pearlescent white crystals beginning to creep up his own legs and felt like crying, but he had no tears to shed.

’So that being just grabbed everything indiscriminately...’

Looking at the Demon Palace now, its entire atmosphere had changed in an instant. Its original gloomy, bizarre style was now completely covered in pearlescent white crystal, making it shimmer with a translucent, righteous aura.

The crystal coating swept away the grotesque veins on the walls, transforming the entire Demon Palace into something like an ice cavern. Yet, this cavern held none of the biting cold.

With a deep sigh, Fusheng’s entire skeleton was encased in crystal, the seal complete.

Now, only Lin Hui remained on the first floor, sitting alone on the ground in meditation.

He slowly opened his eyes, glanced around, and then looked toward where Fusheng stood encased.

’Just as I planned... Choosing this place for my breakthrough was the right call. The Star Breath Sword Manual is a wind-based Swordsmanship, so breaking through to its final Realm was bound to attract a massive amount of Wind Calamity power.’

’That meant Qimei was certain to seize the opportunity to strike. But here, with the Heart Source Demon Palace’s suppression, it would trigger the Demon Ancestor’s failsafe, pitting him against Qimei. Two birds, one stone.’

The only thing he hadn’t anticipated was the intervention of the Celestial Father Seal.

This Secret Technique had taken him the longest to evolve, and for good reason. The power of the Eternal Life Sect Leader behind it was unfathomably deep.

With a single appearance, he had dissolved the conflict between Qimei and the Demon Ancestor’s failsafe into nothing.

And even now, Lin Hui still couldn’t discern the Eternal Life Sect Leader’s true intentions.

Whether this master was even alive or dead remained a complete mystery.

Sitting in meditation, Lin Hui felt all the Disaster Energy within him transform into a strange and vibrant new current of power.

The power was still derived from the Wind Calamity, yet it was completely different, imbued with a strange rhythm that resonated with the countless stars overhead.

It was as if the stars themselves were a filter, constantly absorbing the Wind Calamity’s Disaster Power, refining it, and transmitting the transformed result into his body.

It transmitted this power into him out of thin air, across an impossible distance.

This phenomenon, which ignored all barriers and transcended space, gave Lin Hui a new level of appreciation for the miraculous nature of the Star Breath Sword Manual.

As for its power, the instantaneous surge he’d felt upon achieving unification had been suppressed by the other three powerhouses, so he hadn’t been able to test its true effects.

Besides, this wasn’t the real world; it was his Sea of Consciousness.

He would need to test it in reality.

Carefully sensing his condition, Lin Hui could still clearly perceive the Wind Calamity’s Source Power. It was just beyond a thin barrier; if he broke through, he could form a direct connection.

On the other side of that barrier, Qimei’s aura lingered, waiting for any opportunity.

He didn’t know why Qimei had targeted him, but the Eternal Life Sect Leader’s power had only provided a temporary reprieve, ending the conflict between Qimei and the Demon Ancestor.

But such an isolation couldn’t last forever. After all, Qimei was backed by the Infinite Wind Calamity. No matter how the Demon Ancestor and the Eternal Life Sect Leader sealed it, there was no guarantee Qimei couldn’t eventually break free.

"Hey... Daoist Master Lin, finished sorting through your thoughts yet? Think you can save me?" Fusheng transmitted a message with his Heart and Spirit from inside the crystal pillar.

He and his chair were completely sealed inside, unable to move a muscle.

This was even worse than before.

Before, when the Demon Ancestor sealed him, at least he could still move about. But now, he could sense that it wouldn’t be long before he couldn’t even twitch a finger.

Lin Hui stood up and looked at Fusheng.

"I’m sorry, I can’t help either," Lin Hui said. "Aren’t you my senior? Don’t you know of a Dharma Gate that can break this seal?"

"..." Fusheng’s heart sank.

"Don’t worry, this seal won’t kill you. It just restricts your movement." Lin Hui carefully examined the crystal pillar, realizing it was made of the same material as the pillars he formed when using the Celestial Father Seal.

Only here, in this Sea of Consciousness, the pillar’s strength seemed to be far greater than in the real world.

’Evidently, the Celestial Father Seal’s passive effect—automatically scaling to the maximum possible strength in the current world—had activated...’

"Sigh...."

Fusheng looked at Lin Hui, then back at the crystals encasing his body.

’He couldn’t shake the feeling that his luck had taken a nosedive ever since this kid showed up at the Demon Palace.’

"So you’re saying you came here specifically to break through your Cultivation Realm? I just don’t get it. How do you get yourself into so much trouble?" Fusheng asked, perplexed.

"No comment," Lin Hui said with a smile, preparing to leave the Demon Palace.

"Have you ever considered that if your Cultivation only brings more and more trouble, why continue? Is there any meaning in going on?" Fusheng suddenly changed the subject.

The question gave Lin Hui pause.

He stood frozen, momentarily at a loss for words. It wasn’t that he couldn’t refute the question; rather, it reminded him of his current circumstances in the real world.

Before, what had made him want to stay were his parents, his friends, his wife, and the younger generation he was close to.

But now...

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