The Decaying World

"You mean, a living person entering the Underworld?" Zhu Shanguo asked, puzzled.

"Yes."

"That... is extremely difficult. The Underworld, by its very nature, cannot accommodate a mortal body. The physical form is too heavy; it would just sink like a stone to the very bottom, unable to see or touch anything. Only by separating your Heart and Spirit—your soul—from your body can you truly perceive and interact with that mysterious Realm," Zhu Shanguo explained. "So, if you wish to go to the Underworld, there are only two ways. First, abandon your physical body and practice the Dharma Gates of the ghost path. Second, after you die."

"What about someone who can communicate directly with the Underworld? I have some matters I want to investigate thoroughly," Lin Hui said.

"For that, you could find a ’ghost granny’—what foreigners call a spirit medium. They are a type of person born with the ability to communicate with spirits," Zhu Shanguo replied.

"Can’t you do it?"

"Yes, we can! I am a ghost granny," the middle-aged woman at the side finally found a chance to speak up.

Although she looked to be only middle-aged, the moment she spoke, her voice was incredibly old and hoarse.

"I wonder what Master wishes to ask? When one consults the Underworld, it’s usually to ask about friends and family, to seek the truth, or to learn of one’s fortune. Which is it you’re interested in?"

"Just show me you can make contact," Lin Hui said, frowning.

"Yes!"

The ghost granny immediately sat cross-legged on the ground, closed her eyes, and took out a small, exquisite black bell, which she shook once every ten seconds or so.

"Oh, right. What was that you were saying earlier about who’s backing you?" Lin Hui suddenly remembered that the Pavilion Master had been cut off mid-sentence. He now turned and asked Zhu Shanguo directly.

While the ghost granny was communicating with the Underworld, Zhu Shanguo lowered his voice and answered.

"The Yin Yang Pavilion is actually affiliated with the Renyi Court. If something were to happen to us, the Renyi Court would send experts to investigate, because we offer them our exclusive cultivation Treasure Medicine, Light Soul Water, as tribute every year."

"Light Soul Water... Let me see it," Lin Hui said.

Soon, Zhu Shanguo took a small glass vial from his waist pouch. It was about the size of an egg, similar to a perfume bottle, and contained a clear, light purple liquid.

"What does this do?"

"It’s a Treasure Medicine that is only useful for Mages who practice yin-soul type Cultivation Techniques, or for yin-souls themselves. Consuming a single drop ensures one isn’t swayed by external interference during cultivation, and it can increase cultivation speed by more than half," Zhu Shanguo answered honestly.

Lin Hui directly uncorked the vial and took a sniff.

"Hmm?" He suddenly felt a surge of energy.

The substance had an incredibly potent scent, even more overwhelming than the spiciest chili pepper, instantly flooding his entire sense of smell.

Vaguely, he could feel more energy within his body being stimulated, beginning to well up like a spring.

’Good stuff!’

Lin Hui’s first thought was of the Blood Seal. He immediately called it up to check.

’Just as I thought!’

Just from that one sniff, the Blood Seal’s timer had actually shortened by a full year.

To Zhu Shanguo and the other middle-aged Mage watching from the side, his action was startling.

For yin-soul Mages like them, that Light Soul Water was a highly concentrated, potent poison. They could only take a quick sniff before immediately sealing it again. Otherwise, a light case would result in total paralysis, and a severe one would tear their Divine Soul apart. Instead of being nourishing, it would cause grievous harm.

The small vial didn’t look like much, but it was actually the entire Yin Yang Pavilion’s refined output for a whole year. And now Lin Hui had casually uncorked it and taken a deep breath...

The two of them wanted to say something but stopped themselves, their eyelids twitching as they watched, but it was already too late to stop him.

And so, they watched as Lin Hui’s eyes narrowed slightly, as if he had fallen into a state of ecstasy.

A few seconds later, Lin Hui returned to normal and casually put away the Light Soul Water as if nothing had happened.

"How much more of this do you have?"

"This is what we’ve accumulated so far this year. It’s not the end of the year yet, but we can usually fill one of these custom vials in about a year," Zhu Shanguo answered quickly.

As he spoke, he was still carefully observing Lin Hui’s condition.

But the result was... no effect whatsoever...

After reaching this conclusion, both of them were utterly horrified and lost any remaining will to resist.

Before the two could react, they saw Lin Hui tilt his head back and down the Light Soul Water in one go.

TSSSSS...

The purple liquid in the vial was gone in a single gulp.

Lin Hui only felt a line of fire travel from his mouth, down his throat, and into his stomach.

Soon, on the Blood Seal below his field of vision, the timer for the Destruction Eye began to shorten frantically.

Ten years.

Twenty years.

Fifty years.

Seventy years!!

A full seventy years vanished in an instant.

It went from over one thousand four hundred years to just over one thousand three hundred.

"Give me a copy of the recipe for this later." Lin Hui wasn’t satisfied yet; the stuff even tasted good, like a fragrant, mellow medicinal wine.

"...Yes..."

Zhu Shanguo nodded hastily.

Just then, there was a reaction from the ghost granny.

A cold, sinister breeze began to swirl around them.

A few seconds later, a hazy gray humanoid figure slowly coalesced about two meters in front of the ghost granny.

"It is done, Master. You may ask whatever you wish. This is just a wandering, lonely spirit I randomly summoned. After you question it, it will proceed to the Underworld on its own," the ghost granny said in a deep voice, opening her eyes.

Lin Hui nodded and casually asked its name.

The yin-soul blankly gave a name, Yan Shuangshuang, then its form dissipated and quickly vanished.

At that exact moment, Lin Hui’s Heart and Spirit stirred, and he closely followed the dissipating aura of the yin-soul.

Once the yin-soul dispersed, it transformed into threads of energy that frantically burrowed into the ground beneath their feet.

Then they began to plunge deeper at an incredible speed.

Fifty meters.

One hundred meters.

Three hundred meters...

One thousand meters...

Even when Lin Hui had extended his Heart and Spirit to their absolute limit, the threads still hadn’t stopped and were continuing downward.

Only then did Lin Hui reluctantly withdraw his Heart and Spirit, no longer tailing them.

He had originally planned to find the gates to the Underworld and see if he could get in, but now...

With no other choice, he ordered the group to start collecting the aphrodisiacs he needed. He also demanded that all future production of the Light Soul Water must be given to him.

Only then did he walk out of the Yin Yang Pavilion.

"Are there any other factions around here?"

"This whole area belongs to our sect. Beyond two mountain passes is the territory of a Mountain Lord."

Lin Hui gave a few more instructions and prohibitions before finally leaving the mountain forest.

Before he left, he took a copy of the Dharma Gate for communicating with the Underworld and the refinement method for Light Soul Water.

Although that Dharma Gate required a natural-born psychic to use, who was to say he couldn’t do it himself? And even if he couldn’t, he could always find a few psychics and train them himself.

*

*

*

After the kidnapping incident, life seemed to return to the stability, peace, and quiet of his time on Qingfei Mountain.

Under Liu Chang’s administration, public safety in the city steadily improved. More police officers were on patrol, and while some injustices still occurred, it was a vast improvement over before.

Meanwhile, at the sword dojo, ever since Lin Hui had selected the Core Disciples, the chosen few seemed to have sensed the benefits. The change in their comprehension was soon noticed in other areas as well.

Liu Xiu, Du Changjun, Liu Xuezhen, Ouyang Shan.

After these four received the Zhengde Seal, the speed at which they cultivated their Swordsmanship skyrocketed.

Soon, after noticing the four’s rapid transformation, others were tempted and wanted to become Core Disciples as well.

Lin Hui didn’t shut them down completely, only saying that he would consider it again when the time was right.

Time slowly passed.

After integrating and confirming the intelligence from the Yin Yang Pavilion, Lin Hui decided to secretly move against the other surrounding factions.

In just two short months, a total of eight small and medium-sized factions near Xidong City, with the Yin Yang Pavilion as their nominal head, were all secretly brought under his command in the name of Qingfei.

All the factions were consolidated to form an elite team of expert Mages.

Lin Hui tested them for a few days and, after confirming they could form a coordinated battle formation with some degree of power, sent the team straight to challenge a larger, more distant faction—the Iron Buddha Temple.

The Iron Buddha Temple’s power and influence were far greater than the Yin Yang Pavilion’s. The Pavilion Master, the strongest expert in the Yin Yang Pavilion, had once traveled abroad after achieving a certain level of Cultivation and challenged the masters of the Iron Buddha Temple. However, he suffered consecutive defeats and was forced to concede superiority, ordering all members of the Yin Yang Pavilion to give the high monks of the Iron Buddha Temple a wide berth in the future.

And this Iron Buddha Temple was said to be one of the three strongest Buddhist temples in the northern Mage community, aside from the Great Golden Cloud Temple.

Lin Hui carefully assessed the elite team’s strength, then sent them to court death against the experts of the Iron Buddha Temple.

His goal was to indirectly gauge his own strength against these major powers.

As for whether the factions he had gathered would suffer casualties, he didn’t care.

They were all shady, miscellaneous groups anyway. Who knows how much blood was on their hands? If they died, they died.

Just as the team was about to set out for the Iron Buddha Temple, Lin Hui was still living the life of an ordinary person in Xidong City, going to the sword dojo in the morning and returning home in the afternoon to eat and rest.

A piece of intelligence that even he found tempting reached his ears from one of the motley factions under his command.

The Red Sand Temple in the northern Mage community had discovered a peerless genius with exceptional aptitude, who was rumored to have the potential to become a Heavenly Immortal!

Now, the Iron Buddha Temple, Golden Lake Temple, and Yongning Temple—the other three major powers besides the Great Golden Cloud Temple—had all gathered in one place, vying to recruit that Heavenly Immortal-level genius.

「In the courtyard of the Lin Family home.」

Thoughts swirled in Lin Hui’s mind.

’The potential of a Heavenly Immortal... It’s been said that no one from the mortal world has ascended to the celestial realm in over a hundred years... It’s still uncertain if this "Heavenly Immortal potential" will actually pan out. But with so many Buddhist temples fighting over a genius, they’ll surely be competing to show off their strength... This could be a good opportunity to observe them.’

This world ran deep. The major powers might have connections to the Underworld or even the Celestial Court. If he wasn’t careful, who knew if he’d end up in one of those endless cycles—beat the young one, and the old one shows up; beat the old one, and an even older one appears.

Lin Hui’s plan was to befriend them openly while secretly consuming them from the shadows. This was the perfect chance—a good opportunity to showcase the Songfeng Sword Sect.

Only by making a name for himself could he establish his own territory and integrate into the orthodox path.

But before that, he had to take care of a problem.

Without its annual tribute of Light Soul Water, the Renyi Court, the power behind the Yin Yang Pavilion, would certainly send someone to investigate.

And now, with the end of the year approaching, it was about time for the Renyi Court to send someone to collect the Light Soul Water.

As Lin Hui thought of this, a voice suddenly sounded from the Wind Chime in his mind.

It was a message from that androgynous Pavilion Master of Yin Yang.

"Master, the emissary from the Renyi Court has arrived. Should you come over now, or...?"

After brainwashing him, Lin Hui had also imparted the Heart-Rectifying Seal Technique to strengthen his Heart and Spirit, preventing anyone from breaking the conditioning and restoring his memories.

As such, the Pavilion Master of Yin Yang could temporarily be considered a Disciple of Qingfei Mountain and was thus able to use the Wind Chime to send messages.

"Stall him. I’m on my way," Lin Hui transmitted his voice directly.

He had just been thinking about the Renyi Court, and now someone had arrived.

This kind of intermediate power—weaker than the Celestial Court, fearful of the Underworld—was the perfect opportunity to test just how strong the high-end powers of this world really were.

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