The Decaying World

"I know... but I..." Yuanhe gritted his teeth, looking at the bodies of Copper God and Zhang Feng lying on the ground in the distance.

An old man was squatting beside Zhang Feng’s body, his eyes red and rimmed with grief. He was silent.

Nearby, a long-haired woman, clad in the tattered remains of a yellow robe, was reduced to just her upper body. She leaned against Copper God’s corpse, gasping for breath.

He recognized them.

Du Qiankun and Qi Jue. They were the strongest emperors of the Divine Alliance and Wanhe, but alas... here, their power was no different from that of a mortal, completely insignificant.

Yuanhe stood at the edge of the tunnel’s entrance, hesitating for a long time before taking a step inside.

On the other side.

Bai Lu and the Green Leaf Girl were currently hidden in another dimension of space, observing the rapidly changing scenes within the Court of the Abyss.

"How... How is this possible!? Didn’t we exile him!? Why is he back!?"

Bai Lu’s old face trembled. He hadn’t lost his composure like this even during the first "Limitation."

During the first Limitation, at least, he had used his methods to preserve himself, retaining over ninety percent of his strength.

Everything had still been within his calculations.

But this time, Lin Hui had clearly been exiled, yet he had returned on his own...

"Could it be? Has the relic failed!?" The Green Leaf Girl’s face was also pale. She knew very well that if Lin Hui and the Court of the Abyss were to fight, it would spell immense danger regardless of who won.

"No... It hasn’t failed..." Bai Lu looked at the massive black fissure above, faintly guessing what lay behind it.

"He returned through the Sea of Consciousness! That Daoist Master Qingfeng... to think he has already delved into the realm of the collective consciousness of all living beings!!"

The Sea of Consciousness!

The Green Leaf Girl shuddered.

She knew how dangerous that damned place was. It wasn’t a sea formed from the consciousness of beings from a single world, but a convergence of consciousness from countless worlds.

All sorts of strange and bizarre troubles could arise there.

In that place, physical strength and the like were useless. The only thing that mattered was Mental Power.

In other words, the strength of one’s own consciousness.

And now, Lin Hui could already reach such a plane. One could only imagine how stunning his Talent and aptitude were!

"If he used the Sea of Consciousness to locate this realm’s position and orientation, then it would make sense..." Bai Lu sighed.

If it were anyone else, he might have thought that Lin Hui wouldn’t be able to fully utilize the Sea of Consciousness due to the influence of Magic Techniques and Secret Techniques.

But Lin Hui...

"Now that it has come to this, what should we do?" the Green Leaf Girl asked.

"Sending him away is useless now. If he can come back once, he can certainly come back a second time," Bai Lu said grimly. "The only thing to do now is to do everything in our power to stop the situation from spiraling into the worst-case scenario!"

After a pause, he continued.

"Whether it’s the outbreak of the Wind Calamity or the corruption reaping again with another Limitation, neither is something we can withstand."

"We alone may no longer be enough. We might have to borrow the power of the Yang Star and the Mother of Dusk..." the Green Leaf Girl said, troubled. "But they are already on the verge of dissipating... If we borrow their residual power one last time, in the future..."

"Let’s just get through this crisis first..." Bai Lu sighed.

He was about to say more when his expression suddenly changed.

"It’s here! Be careful! Hide!"

Amidst a great RUMBLE.

The entire Court of the Abyss, at this very moment, actually began to shake and tremble.

This vast space, large enough to contain the entire Royal City, was spontaneously starting to quake and shudder.

At the edge of the cliff in the Court of the Abyss.

Lin Hui stood quietly by the precipice, gazing at the rapidly churning black vortex below.

"So you’ve finally decided to stop hiding?" He stared at the center of the vortex, where a thin, black-robed figure was slowly rising from its depths.

On the surface, the figure looked like an ordinary tall, thin, pale, white-haired old man.

But the golden halo floating behind him left no doubt as to his identity.

On that halo, countless dense, strange silver characters flickered.

At the center of the halo, a translucent purple flame floated and burned.

Within the flame, the phantoms of countless mountains, oceans, cities, and living beings constantly flickered.

In addition, the black robe worn by the white-haired old man also bore the four-winged black dragon emblem of the former Taixu Empire.

"I also never expected an anomaly like you to appear in this world." The white-haired old man’s voice was slightly hoarse. He rose from below, seemingly slowly, yet he bizarrely crossed a great distance as if teleporting, in a manner reminiscent of the distance-perception control of the Divine Decision.

However, Lin Hui could now clearly sense that this was not merely an effect on his perceptual nerves like the Divine Decision.

The man was genuinely shortening the spatial distance between the bottom of the abyss and the cliff’s edge.

This effortless mastery over spatial distance made his eyes narrow involuntarily.

But before he could speak, the other man spoke again.

"In truth, there is no reason we must come into conflict."

"The Limitation shortened the lives of my friends and family, causing them to be corrupted and die unjustly. Now your subordinate is about to kill my personal disciple... Do you think I need any more reason?" Lin Hui said flatly.

"So it was just because of such a trivial matter." The old man, who was the former Mist Emperor, burst out laughing.

"If it’s only about that, you can rest assured. There is absolutely no reason for us to clash. Because... decay and rebirth have always been two sides of the same coin. The beings who decay in this realm are naturally reborn in the positive realm on the other side. The cycle turns, endlessly repeating."

"...Are you saying that my friends and family didn’t vanish, but were reborn on the other side of the world!?" Lin Hui’s eyes widened slightly as he asked doubtfully.

"Correct. The only difference is that they no longer have their memories from this side. Fortunately, we have ways to restore their past-life memories, for a certain price," the Mist Emperor said with a smile. "So, with that being the case, is there any longer a need for conflict between us?"

Lin Hui fell silent.

He was trying to determine the truth of this claim.

"If you don’t believe me, you can come with me and see for yourself," the Mist Emperor said with a smile. He pointed a finger at the giant black vortex below.

"Lead the way," Lin Hui said coldly.

The Mist Emperor nodded and turned, flying toward the vortex.

Lin Hui followed close behind.

One after the other, they plunged into the deep channel at the center of the vortex in the blink of an eye.

Inside the narrow channel, the two flew forward at extreme speed for several minutes.

SHIINK!

There was a sudden, soft sound.

It was as if they had burst through some invisible membrane, leaving the channel behind.

Before them was a blurry, purple-black sky where nothing could be seen clearly.

Beneath the sky, a massive, viscous purple river flowed across a barren land.

A giant, earth-yellow planet was half-submerged in the river, struggling to rotate as it tried to pull itself free.

"This is the ’positive realm’ you spoke of?" Lin Hui looked up at the Mist Emperor before him.

"Heh heh... I didn’t think you’d actually follow me in here just because I mentioned it..." the Mist Emperor let out a strange, shrill laugh.

"So it was all a lie..." Lin Hui’s gaze turned icy. He had actually suspected it might be fake, but... that sliver of hope in his heart had still made him choose to take the chance...

A pity...

"A pity, indeed. But by the time you’ve realized it, it’s already too late... That other fellow was the same. He knew the hope was infinitesimally small, yet he still chose to believe... and as a result, I dealt with him easily and took over his body," the Mist Emperor said with a smile.

"Next, you will remain here forever, waiting for your entire body to be corroded to death. There is no escape from this place, nor any way to connect to other powers of corruption. Not even the Wind Calamity can break the core isolation field here and invade... Your only fate is to become nutrients for this realm... and perish completely!!" As the Mist Emperor laughed, his body gradually grew transparent and faded away.

Lin Hui didn’t move, because he had already realized the figure was just an illusion, not a physical entity.

Turning back, he saw that the vortex tunnel he had come through had also long since vanished.

The way back was gone.

Lin Hui silently drew his sword and closed his eyes.

He activated the Demon Fragrance.

But he did not enter the Sea of Consciousness. There wasn’t even the slightest stir around him.

He opened his eyes and tried several more times, but it was useless. He couldn’t return to the Heart Source Demon Palace at all.

Lifting his head, he gazed at the strange purple sky.

In the depths of that sky, he could faintly see planets covered in rotten spots, drifting and bobbing in a slight breeze.

’Since life and death cycle endlessly... then everything in this realm, after it vanishes, must also be reborn on another side, right?’

He slowly raised his sword.

Ruyi in hand, he gently traced a semicircle and raised it high above his head.

"Lin Hui, disciple of the Jiuxiao Sect... respectfully welcomes the advent of the Forefather, True Monarch of Seven Destructions, Yan Jinping!"

KACHA.

The moment his voice, accompanied by a tremor of his Heart and Spirit, spread out...

the Void behind Lin Hui suddenly fractured like a turtle’s shell.

Lin Hui’s expression remained unchanged as he shouted again.

"Disciple Lin Hui! Respectfully welcomes the advent of the True Monarch!!"

He did not use the Star Breath Sword Manual, but instead reverted to channeling his Typhoon Swordsmanship, using the Swordsmanship to summon the Wind Calamity and resonate with the impact from the other side.

KACHA!!

Another thunderous crack.

The cracks in the Void behind him expanded once more...

The thousand-meter stretch of the Void, above and below, resembled a mirror about to shatter, covered in a dense web of fractures.

"My good disciple!!"

"My good disciple!! HAHAHAHA!!" Qimei’s strange, wild laughter echoed through the cracks.

"I knew it!! The hope of rebuilding our sect rests with you!! You believe me! I, your master, have long since taken a great vow of non-killing! I won’t harm anyone! I won’t harm..."

"None of them believed me, only you!! You believe me! In all these years, you are the only disciple to have actively called for me... As expected, I wasn’t wrong about you!!"

CRASH!!

A tremendous sound.

The Void finally gave way, shattering completely and tearing open a huge, irregular, deep blue hole.

A blue gale howled out from within.

A colossal amount of the Wind Calamity’s Disaster Power rushed into this world like a tsunami.

The gale whipped at Lin Hui’s long hair and robes.

He lowered his sword, turned, and bowed deeply to the blue-robed old man who floated out of the hole.

"The world is filled with filth. I implore you, Forefather, to restore a clear and bright universe for all living beings!"

"Good! Good! Good!" Qimei’s eyes shone with a multicolored light. Behind him, countless blue threads connected him to the depths of the hole.

He reached out, grasped the long, narrow blade flashing with colorful light on his back, and slowly drew it.

In that instant, the entire world began to tremble... A faint sound, like weeping, arose from the horizon.

The heavens were weeping!

Countless blood-red raindrops began to fall, gradually staining the earth. Accompanying them were frenzied air currents carrying the stench of blood.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!