The Decaying World

"Don’t worry. There are police on the train; they should handle it." Liu Xuezhen shot a look at her bodyguard in the adjacent row of seats. The man immediately got up, hand on his holster, and crept toward the source of the commotion.

Liu Xuezhen was both worried and intrigued. She had begged her father for a long time to get permission for this trip and had even secretly brought four bodyguards along. They were all martial monks from the Great Golden Cloud Temple.

The four men were currently in disguise, wearing wigs and pretending to be ordinary passengers.

Tie Niu hadn’t returned, and Wu Anning felt a little tense. But having seen her fair share of guns over the years, she wasn’t overly stressed. Still, her body remained on high alert, ready to spring into action at a moment’s notice.

Lin Hui sat upright, extending his Heart and Spirit. His brow furrowed slightly as he became aware of the trouble in the car ahead.

"Maybe it was the train police who fired," he said softly, taking a breath.

"...?" Liu Xuezhen didn’t understand at first.

She stood up, and after a moment’s hesitation, walked toward the source of the sound.

A moment later, she saw the small, breathless corpse of a child lying on the floor in the middle of the car ahead.

The child had been shot between the eyes, and blood was pooling on the floor. He looked to be only seven or eight years old, his body as thin as a reed.

The shooter, a man in a black train police officer’s uniform, still had the gun in his hand, its muzzle smoking.

The officer was bowing and scraping as he explained something to a blond foreign man sitting in one of the seats.

Liu Xuezhen froze on the spot.

"He just accidentally got his shoes dirty. Did they have to be so ruthless?..."

"What a world we live in... Sigh."

"There were two of them. The other one was lucky and got away, otherwise they would’ve..."

The surrounding passengers who had just witnessed the event whispered amongst themselves.

Liu Xuezhen returned with her bodyguard, her expression grim.

"Master, did you know from the start?" she asked softly, sitting back down.

"More or less," Lin Hui said calmly. "In times of turmoil, it’s the common people who suffer the most. The territory your father governs is actually quite well-off by comparison. In other regions, they’re collecting taxes that aren’t due for decades."

"..." Liu Xuezhen said no more, simply sitting silently in her seat, motionless.

Seeing she had lost her desire to speak, the others fell silent as well.

Only the scenery flashing past the train window remained.

「A little over three hours later」

The train slowly decelerated, pulling into Liujiang City Station.

The crowd disembarked, surging along the platform toward the exit.

The blond foreign man, the cause of the incident, also rose and was escorted by the train police off the train through a separate door.

"Yi Ge, can you cripple him for me!?" Liu Xuezhen whispered to her head bodyguard.

"Well..." The martial monk known as Yi Ge looked troubled. "Miss, most larger cities are monitored by the Holy Spirit Mage Association. If we were to attack one of their ordinary citizens, it could create huge problems for your father."

"My father wouldn’t be afraid!" Liu Xuezhen said coldly.

"No... The Commander... much of his resources and military funding comes from loans provided by a coalition of these foreign banks..." Yi Ge replied helplessly.

Defeated, Liu Xuezhen could only watch as the blond man swaggered arrogantly out of the station.

Lin Hui, standing nearby, overheard their conversation, and a flicker of curiosity appeared in his eyes.

His fingers unconsciously toyed with the Sword Hilt at his waist.

THUD!

The next moment, just as the blond man walked out of the station and was about to get into a car, he was struck from behind with a heavy club. His eyes rolled back into his head, and he collapsed, unconscious.

Two figures, clearly prepared, rushed forward. One snapped his fingers, and a pre-cast Magic spell spread out, temporarily wiping the memories of all witnesses for the past few minutes.

The blond man was quickly stuffed into a large, gray burlap sack, tossed into an oxcart hauling bricks, and transported to a large mansion under construction in the city’s outskirts.

SPLASH.

A basin of cold water was thrown over the blond man, drenching him. The shock of the cold jolted him awake.

"Who are you people!? What are you doing to me!? I’m an Ethiopian! You... AHHH!!"

The next instant, a sharp claw sank brutally into his thigh.

The gray, bear-like claw belonged to a tall, burly man wearing a red mask.

"Why’d we grab a regular person?" he asked the leader, confused.

"The master’s orders. Maybe he’s here to ’improve our rations’?" The leader, wearing a twisted white ghost-face mask and dressed in a scholar’s robes, was Yin Lang—the man leading the Jadeite Squad that Lin Hui had assembled.

This man was from the Yin Yang Pavilion. Fortunately for him, he had been away the day the Pavilion Master decided to purge the organization of its troublemakers.

Unfortunately, upon his return, he had the bad luck of running into Lin Hui.

And so, a new, freshly brainwashed subordinate was made.

Nearly all the elite members of the squad had been recruited in this fashion.

Their loyalty was, for a time, absolute.

RIP.

The next moment, the blond man’s body was neatly carved into five pieces.

Each piece flew on its own to one of the five corners of the courtyard.

In each corner, a squad member was either standing or sitting.

"Our target has changed. The master wants us to go to Jue Shui first and dispose of the warlord there," Yin Lang said coolly.

"So we’re ignoring Red Sand Temple?" someone asked casually.

"It’s on hold for now. We’ll handle it when we return."

"Count me in, then. It’s too boring sitting around here all day."

"I’ll go too! Me too!"

"A minimum of four will stay here," Yin Lang said in a low voice. "Someone needs to stay on top of the situation."

"In that case..." one of them began to say.

BOOM!!

The next instant, the mansion’s main gate was blown apart.

The heavy, solid blackwood gate exploded into splinters, completely disintegrating.

A red shadow shot into the courtyard, its gaze immediately falling on the dismembered corpse of the blond man.

"You’re courting death!!!"

The red figure paused for a fraction of a second before letting out a furious roar and lunging at the nearest squad member.

Immediately, everyone in the courtyard activated their protective Magic. An endless barrage of sinister winds, black mists, and clouds of Blood Smoke surged toward the red figure at the gate.

None of the squad members’ Magic techniques could be considered orthodox.

But they were undeniably effective and powerful.

With a thunderous CRASH...

...the red figure that had just burst through the gate was sent flying back out, violently coughing up blood.

Meanwhile, the leader, Yin Lang, had already leaped onto the courtyard wall. He looked out at the three figures who had surrounded the mansion: three monks in red robes.

"Heh, what is the meaning of this, esteemed masters?"

"Do you have any idea what you’ve done!?" the lead monk demanded, his voice weary.

"Every one of these Ethiopians in the city bears a mark from the Holy Spirit Mage Association! The moment anything happens to them, the Association is alerted!"

"And?" Yin Lang said dismissively.

"According to the Holy Spirit Mage Association’s rules, for every one of their marked people who dies, ten of ours must pay with their lives," the monk sighed.

"That’s your problem to deal with. As for us... well, they’ll have to find us first," Yin Lang scoffed. "What, are you so-called paragons of righteousness planning to avenge this foreign friend of yours?"

"Insolence! You act with such reckless abandon, yet others must pay for your deeds with their lives! Today, I will teach you that Liujiang City is no place for secretive rats like you to scurry about!!"

The red-robed monk wasted no more words. To avoid being held accountable by the Holy Spirit Mage Association, he attacked on the spot, intending to capture this audacious band of criminals.

But the moment he made his move, a chill went down his spine.

BAM!!

With a loud crash, the two charged each other. Fist met sword, and a deep, bloody gash immediately appeared on the red-robed monk’s fist.

The gash healed rapidly, and he lunged at his opponent once more.

"Again!"

*

*

*

Having just left the train station, Lin Hui and his companions were riding in an oxcart arranged for the exchange conference, on their way to their lodgings at an inn.

Lin Hui was resting with his eyes closed when his eyelids twitched, and he opened them just a crack.

’So that’s how it is... Because of the Tianluo restriction and the changes in the world, the power of Magic is severely limited. That’s why almost all the major factions focus on cultivating their physical bodies—strength, speed, and reflexes, combined with self-enchantments using Magic, then augmented by special equipment and weapons... and those weapons are Magic Artifacts and Magical Treasures...’

By observing the Jadeite Squad’s fight with the monks from Red Sand Temple, Lin Hui quickly ascertained their combat style. At the same time, he got a general idea of what a typical battle between Mages and sorcerers looked like.

Initially, the squad held the upper hand thanks to the effects of the True Body Seal. But after the Red Sand Temple monks activated their Magic Artifacts, the tables turned in an instant.

It was the first time Lin Hui truly appreciated the immense impact a Magic Artifact could have in a fight between opponents of a similar level.

The monk fighting Yin Lang had been getting battered and bruised at first. But after he produced his Magic Artifact, his entire body became impervious to blades, shrugging off Yin Lang’s all-out attacks without yielding an inch.

After just a few counterattacks, Yin Lang was beaten so badly that he was left coughing up blood on the ground, unable to rise.

On the brink of death, Yin Lang’s original instincts flared up, overwhelming the memories implanted by his brainwashing. He struggled to his feet and tried to flee.

But the monk brought a heavy staff down on his head, crushing it instantly. He was killed on the spot.

’Too weak...’ Lin Hui couldn’t help but shake his head.

As he felt his squad members being wiped out one by one, he got a clear picture of the Red Sand Temple monks’ strength.

The Jadeite Squad had completed its mission, but in doing so, his only active combat force had been utterly annihilated.

And these squad members were no slouches; each was a skilled sorcerer or Mage, with power approaching that of the Pavilion Master of Yin Yang. Yet before these three old monks from Red Sand Temple, they were as helpless as children.

And all this, simply because they had killed a seemingly ordinary foreigner.

’The Holy Spirit Mage Association...’ From the information coming through Wind Chime, Lin Hui could tell the old monks of Red Sand Temple were terrified of this organization.

’Now that I have no one to do my bidding,’ he mused, ’and since Red Sand Temple killed my entire squad, I’ll just have the people from Red Sand Temple take their place and work for me instead.’

He decided he would risk making a move himself soon.

Coincidentally, the main Red Sand Temple was located near Liujiang. This explained why the warlord in Jue Shui was protected by experts from the temple.

The oxcart brought them to their temporary lodging. The "exchange conference" was really just a large gathering of so-called martial artists from all over the country, here to exchange pointers and spar.

Lin Hui had no intention of making an appearance himself. He would have Tie Niu and Wu Anning take Liu Xuezhen around to build a reputation for his Songfeng Sword Hall.

He went into his own room, claiming that the long journey had left him tired and in need of rest.

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