The Decaying World

"Every grievance has a source, every debt a debtor. I’m burning these silver coins for you today, so don’t come looking for me anymore... Please, I’m begging you."

At the gate of a desolate courtyard, a slender, short-haired man was burning special joss paper with a miserable look on his face.

The man was dressed in fine clothes, and behind him waited a small, one-person sedan chair. Two chair carriers, with sweat towels around their necks, sat on a large stone, waiting for him to finish.

In addition, two burly, saber-wielding guards stood by, vigilantly scanning the surroundings to ensure his safety.

While the man was burning joss paper, on the other side of the abandoned courtyard, a group of people burst aggressively through a gate.

BAM!

The dilapidated wooden door crashed to the ground.

Two powerful monks in red robes led the way, striding into the courtyard and scanning their surroundings.

"This is the place?" one of the monks asked, turning his head to look at their client behind them.

"That’s right. Some time ago, my family’s merchant caravan was passing through and took shelter here for a night to avoid a heavy storm. But after they returned, my men started falling gravely ill and dying, one after another, for weeks. Now even my younger brother, who was on that trade run, is bedridden with the same sickness. After a thorough investigation, we traced it all back to the night they spent here. I must ask you two masters to perform your arts!"

The client was a tall, handsome young man. Standing beside him was a beautiful young woman who bore a slight resemblance to him.

Both were from the Mingye District of Xidong City, the children of the main branch of the prominent Chen Family.

With their family members falling gravely ill one after another because of that one night’s lodging, they had been left with no choice but to investigate every possibility, which eventually led them here.

The man was named Chen Yunshi, the woman Chen Yunlan. To resolve this matter once and for all, they had scraped together a thousand silver coins to hire two masters from the Red Sand Temple.

When faced with this kind of trouble, spending money to hire a Mage to handle it was the primary solution for most people.

It usually didn’t cost an exorbitant sum of over a thousand silver coins, but this case involved far too many people. The price was so high because even one of their own blood relatives had fallen victim.

The two monks from the Red Sand Temple circled the central courtyard but found nothing. They then approached the dark inner rooms of the abandoned residence.

BOOM!

The next moment, the door to the inner room exploded, and a deathly pale figure lunged out at the two monks.

Both monks roared. Flanking the figure, they attacked from the left and right, each raising a monk’s staff in one hand while forming a hand seal with the other, and smashed them down on the creature.

The white figure and golden light exploded in a flash, engulfing everyone’s vision in a cloud of mist.

The sounds of a fierce battle rang out, continuing for about two minutes before coming to an abrupt halt.

"It’s done. It’s over. You can come take a look now. Is this the one?" the voice of one of the monks called out from within the mist.

Hearing this, the Chen Family siblings let out a long sigh of relief.

They weren’t usually at home, as the main branch’s business was typically managed by their younger brother. With him now gravely ill, the two had no choice but to rush back from out of town, only to discover the situation was so dire it could collapse at any moment.

That was why they had gambled everything, spending a fortune to eliminate the problem for good.

Now, hearing that it was all over, they felt a great weight lift from their hearts. They quickly led their men forward into the courtyard, walking toward where the monks’ voices had come from.

But they had only taken a few steps into the courtyard when the mist before them began to slowly dissipate.

And within the dissipating mist, there was no one there at all.

No monks, no white figure. There was only a weedy courtyard, without even a single trace of a fight.

"The two masters... where are they?" the sister, Chen Yunlan, asked, a vague sense of unease creeping over her.

She quickly turned to look back at the courtyard gate they had entered through. To her horror, she discovered the gate was gone.

Where the gate had been, there was now only an old, mottled, mold-stained wall.

It wasn’t just her; her older brother Chen Yunshi saw it too, as did the few caravan guards who had followed them in. The color drained from all their faces.

"Masters?!"

"Masters!!"

The group grew agitated. ’This is bad.’ They weren’t rookies new to the caravan business; they were all more or less familiar with this type of situation.

They spread out and began to shout.

But they searched the entire courtyard. Besides the inner rooms, the rest of the area was visible at a glance, and there was no trace of the two masters in the weeds or anywhere else.

’This can’t be good!’

Everyone’s hearts leaped into their throats. They immediately rushed toward the surrounding wall, intending to climb over it and escape.

But as the two fastest men reached the wall, their figures blurred, flickered a few times, and mysteriously vanished.

"Fall back!"

Chen Yunshi bellowed, skidding to a halt.

But it was too late. Two others couldn’t stop in time, and their figures flickered and vanished as well.

*

*

*

In the mountain forest, Lin Hui walked steadily forward, rapidly approaching the dilapidated garden estate in the mountains.

But after just a few steps, he suddenly paused and turned his head to the left.

From the woods to his left, the sound of casual humming drifted over, slowly growing closer.

As the sound grew nearer, an old man with white hair and eyebrows emerged from the forest. Dressed in coarse gray linen, he ambled along unhurriedly, leaning on a Wooden Staff and following a mountain path through the dense woods toward Lin Hui.

There was indeed a mountain path here.

Lin Hui glanced down. The path was ancient and had long been unmaintained, now so overgrown with weeds that it was difficult to discern.

And yet, the old man skillfully trod a path through the weeds, revealing a clear flagstone trail beneath.

Expressionless, Lin Hui continued forward toward the abandoned garden.

"Oh? Young friend up ahead, are you planning to go to that Garden of Gathering Yin?"

Lin Hui didn’t speak, but that didn’t mean the other man was ready to let it go.

The old man looked up, smiled, waved toward Lin Hui, and actually called out his greeting loudly.

The man’s tone was so natural that for a moment, Lin Hui wondered if he was dressed as he normally was, and not in his current attire of a mask, long black shirt, and pants.

After a brief pause, he turned to look at the old man.

He saw that the man, as if not noticing the glance, was walking straight toward him.

"Are you asking me?" Lin Hui said in a low voice.

"Is there anyone else here?" the old man retorted. "Young man, that Garden of Gathering Yin is no place to be. In recent years, not a single person who has gone in has come out without regrets."

He sighed.

"Three months ago, I tried to warn a gentleman who came here with his concubine, looking for an ancestral grave. About a month ago, I tried to warn a merchant caravan that was just passing through and looking for a place to stay the night."

"But no one would listen. Now... they all regret it."

"Garden of Gathering Yin? Is that its original name?" Lin Hui asked calmly.

"That’s right. The place is incredibly sinister. If you don’t have to, it’s best not to even go near it," the old man said with a nod.

"But I do have a reason for wanting to go in," Lin Hui said indifferently.

"Heh, others might, but you, young man? Unlikely," the old man said with a sudden laugh.

"Oh? And what do you mean by that?" Lin Hui sensed there was something more to his words. He stopped completely, turned around, and faced the man. "Or are you saying you know who I am?"

"Don’t be nervous." The old man shook his head. "This old man is no saint, but I’m not a bad person either. Just a poor fortune-teller. A person’s fate, their very essence... even with a mask on, it’s constantly revealed in your every action, your every word. If I dare to say this, it means I’ve already seen a part of your essence."

’Interesting... Seeing my essence? Even I’m not sure I’ve seen my own true self. And you, old man, dare to make such an arrogant claim?’ Hearing this, Lin Hui already had a good idea of the man’s likely routine.

It was the typical shtick of a roadside charlatan. If they weren’t in the middle of a remote mountain forest, a wild place where someone without real skills would struggle to survive alone, he would have already lost the patience to waste any more words on him.

"Does a young man like you not know that all things in this world leave a trace?" the old man said with a smile.

"Then I must ask, old man, what exactly is my essence?" Lin Hui’s tone was growing impatient.

The old man heard the change in his tone, and his heart skipped a beat.

In truth, he was a hermit who lived nearby in these mountains. He had repeatedly tried to warn travelers about the dangers of the Garden of Gathering Yin.

The result was that some listened and took a detour. But a few refused to believe the warnings or were perhaps simply too confident in their own abilities. They entered the Garden of Gathering Yin on their own and fell into its trap. Now, with disaster upon them, their deaths were all but certain.

Filled with regret, he often wandered the area, hoping to save anyone he could, one person at a time.

Now he had run into Lin Hui. Seeing his bear-like build and black mask, he looked like someone up to no good.

’But isn’t every life precious?’

Feeling conflicted, the old man had still stepped forward to offer his counsel.

Now, hearing the impatience in Lin Hui’s voice, he knew he had a chance. As long as the man was willing to stop and talk for a bit, it was very likely he could be persuaded to turn back.

Upon hearing the question about his essence, the old man immediately drew upon his knowledge and observed Lin Hui intently.

He hadn’t expected to find much, but as he looked closer and made his calculations, a look of confusion and pity appeared on his face.

"In you, this old man sees a strange kind of nothingness."

"Nothingness? What do you mean?" Lin Hui was stunned.

"Young man... no, I should say, sir. The path you’ve walked to get to where you are now... it was mostly because you were forced by external circumstances, wasn’t it?" the old man sighed.

"...I suppose so..." Lin Hui fell silent for a moment before affirming.

"Logically, an essence like yours shouldn’t exist in this day and age, and yet here you are," the old man lamented. "Your heart is a void of nothingness. When you act, it is mostly to set a goal for yourself, and then you just mechanically advance toward it. You don’t know if it’s what you truly want, nor do you feel anything from the journey or the achievement... You are just numbly, habitually, taking one step after another..."

"..." Lin Hui fell completely silent.

’He was right. That was exactly how it was...’

’It had been like that in the Fog People World, training hard and gathering resources just to ensure his own safety.’

’And it was the same now, coming here to investigate the mutation of the Core of Decay to ensure the Fog People World wouldn’t be destroyed.’

’But was any of this what he truly wanted to do?’

’He didn’t know.’

’He was just mechanically and numbly moving forward.’

’The frightening part was, even as friends and family from his past life passed away one by one, only a very select few had managed to stir even the slightest emotional ripple within him.’

’For the rest, he simply felt that he ought to act a certain way, that he should play the part that was assigned to him.’

’And that was all.’

’He had thought no one could ever understand him.’

’But now... in another world, an old man he had randomly encountered in a forest had exposed his true self with just a few words.’

"Why? Why am I like this?" Lin Hui asked in a low voice.

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