The Decaying World

The doctrinal debates lasted for a full week. What began as mere verbal sparring between the various Buddhist temples escalated to minor scuffles, and then quickly to "light" sparring matches.

Of course, these matches weren’t held in the city, but out in the wilderness.

After several inconclusive bouts, the situation escalated when a high-ranking monk from Iron Buddha Temple was injured after being ganged up on. After he returned, what was clearly only a minor injury began to rapidly worsen, and he eventually died.

With that, it was like a hornet’s nest had been poked, and the entire situation heated up dramatically.

Lin Hui had originally planned to intervene from the shadows and add some fuel to the fire, but he hadn’t expected events to develop so much faster than he imagined.

He was leading his disciples back to Xidong and was still on the road when he received a message from Wind Chime. Juehui, the Abbot of Red Sand Temple whom he had brainwashed, reported that the fighting between Iron Buddha Temple and Yongning Temple had gotten serious. It was said that Human Immortals and Earth Immortals had made their move!

He immediately had the others return on their own while he went ahead alone.

He had been planning to visit the Women’s Sports University first to gather Treasure Medicine, but now it seemed this situation might allow him to achieve his goal sooner.

One thousand li east of Liujiang City.

Amidst the mountain forests, above a sea of trees, figures flashed like lightning, trading blows.

These were a completely different type of expert from Faming. Their terrifying, ultra-high speed allowed both sides to attack and move with extreme velocity.

Without relying on any special energy, just by using their physical bodies, Martial Arts, and Magical Treasures, they could achieve the terrifying speed of a thousand strikes in a single instant, focusing primarily on physical attacks.

This was no different from the tens of thousands of strikes per instant seen in the Fog People World.

Normally, such a terrifying exchange of blows should have created massive shockwaves. However, the ripples of disturbance generated by their clash were absorbed layer by layer by a network of purple tendrils that naturally appeared in the air. They dissipated completely before they could even spread a hundred meters.

Lin Hui stood on an ancient tree far away, hidden within its crown. He peered through the gaps in the leaves, watching the top-tier experts clash in the distance.

He had arrived in the morning, and two hours had already passed. The number of Human Immortal experts who had rushed over from the two factions had reached double digits, while each side had sent three Earth Immortal experts.

These were the ones currently fighting above the sea of trees.

Of the six, two of them had an offensive style and presence somewhat similar to Faming’s; they both followed the path of the indestructible golden body.

The other four all utilized the Buddhist divine foot movement, making them incredibly fast. But every advantage has its disadvantage. While the divine foot movement increased their speed, their destructive power was far inferior to that of the Earth Immortals who followed the golden body path.

The two sides were now locked in a frustrating stalemate where one side couldn’t be hurt, and the other couldn’t be hit.

Lin Hui carefully scanned the area. The ground here showed no reaction, which meant the land these high-ranking monks had merged with was all quite far away.

Seeing the fight between the two sides gradually stabilize, Lin Hui was just about to make a move from the shadows to stir things up...

Suddenly, his expression froze. He looked into the distance behind him.

There, in mid-air, two figures were quietly observing the battle, just as he was. And they were slowly approaching.

If they hadn’t gotten close enough, even Lin Hui might not have noticed their presence.

He immediately concealed his figure, hiding in the shadows.

With his Indestructible Holy Pupil organs that devoured all his own emissions, his aura and other traces had long since been consumed. As long as he hid his physical form, he could remain completely silent and maintain an extremely low presence.

Half a minute after he vanished into hiding...

The two figures from behind slowly flew past overhead.

They were two blond-haired, blue-eyed foreigners. It was unclear what country they were from, but they were definitely not from the Republic in this era.

It was a man and a woman, neither of whom looked very old—perhaps not even thirty. The man wore a light gray formal suit, while the woman wore a long black dress with a silver butterfly pinned to its hem, its wings still faintly fluttering.

"They’ve already fought to this extent... It seems we need to add some fuel to the fire," the man said leisurely, watching the muffled thunderclaps continuously erupting in the distant sky.

"You or me?" the woman asked, her tone cold.

"You do it. I’m going to take a nice rest," the man said with a smile.

"What exactly is the higher-ups’ goal? Why are we still keeping these old-timers around? Wouldn’t it be better to just send them to their deaths?" the woman asked with a frown.

"It’s not that simple. This group holds special tokens related to this place’s Celestial Court. Those kinds of items are extremely powerful. It’s safer to let them use them up internally," the man replied with a smile.

"Is the plan to eliminate these Cultivators and then turn this land into our own sovereign territory?"

"More or less. From what I can gather of the higher-ups’ intentions, they’re continuously shipping Redstone Grass over here. I estimate they plan to get rid of the Cultivators and the common people here all at once. Then they’ll bring in immigrants from our own country," the man said casually.

"Why the rush?" The woman frowned. "Don’t we still have a lot of time?"

"No... I’ve heard the timeline has been shortened again. The Holy Spirits are already feeling uneasy," the man sighed. "If we don’t want a repeat of what happened to the Eastern Celestial Court, we must prepare as quickly as possible."

Hidden nearby, Lin Hui fell into thought upon hearing this.

It was obvious that these foreign Cultivators had also sensed the impending danger and were preparing for it as best they could.

After a moment of thought, he flickered and appeared directly behind the man and woman, then flicked his finger.

HISS.

Two points of white light shot accurately into the backs of their heads.

Before they could react, an overwhelming wave of dizziness flooded their consciousness.

Just as Lin Hui thought the brainwashing would be a success, a terrifyingly powerful surge of Mental Power erupted from the two and rushed back towards him.

"Who’s there!"

A golden halo flashed from their bodies and vanished.

The immense Mental Power, like an incomparably hard diamond, shattered Lin Hui’s mental brainwashing and rapidly healed the spiritual trauma they had suffered.

But when that vast Mental Power tried to trace Lin Hui himself, it found that he had already vanished without a trace.

At that very moment, the immense fluctuation from the two of them alerted the high-ranking monks of Iron Buddha Temple and Yongning Temple who were in the middle of their fight.

They quickly flew over, their eyes locked onto the man and woman who were trying to escape.

Meanwhile, Lin Hui had already moved to a distant spot, intending to observe the outcome of the impending clash.

Unfortunately... it wasn’t long before the man and woman managed to retreat unscathed and leave the area.

The people from Iron Buddha Temple and Yongning Temple didn’t give the two any trouble.

’These bald donkeys are really putting on a masterclass in bullying the weak and fearing the strong,’ Lin Hui thought, laughing in exasperation.

Afterward, the two sides resumed their fighting, but every time the conflict reached the level of Earth Immortals, that was the limit. Any further, and both sides would tacitly de-escalate.

No matter what, it never reached the level of Heavenly Immortals.

This went on for several days, completely exhausting Lin Hui’s patience.

However, given the unknown strength of the Heavenly Immortals, he decided to leave for now and head to the Xianyun Pavilion that Faming had mentioned. He would get his hands on enough medicine first.

*

*

*

「Year 83 of the Republic.」

Just as Lin Hui was settling things at his sword hall and preparing to head to the National Women’s Sports University in Jiu’an...

The army of the Aixin nation, which had just occupied the fortress, suddenly marched north without any warning, capturing thirteen major cities in just half a month.

At the same time, on another land border, the army of the Duoxini nation, another major power, sent a full sixty thousand troops straight across the border. Within days, they had occupied three of the Republic’s major cities and half a province.

For a time, public outcry erupted across the country, with growing demands for the armies of the great warlords Wang and Liang to reclaim the lost territories.

Because Liu Chang was located in the center-north, he was under far less pressure than the other two great warlords.

However, within his territory, there were also continuous protests and demonstrations, with instances of foreigners being beaten, robbed, and having their property vandalized.

Liu Chang issued an emergency decree, strengthened patrols and public security, and invested a great deal of manpower and resources to finally stabilize the situation under his rule.

Meanwhile, after brainwashing a series of Cultivators to probe the sports university, Lin Hui had finally pinpointed the location of the Treasure Medicine stock and decided to make his move.

The night wind blew.

In the city of Jiu’an, melodious and graceful music drifted from a three-story, Western-style house.

Pairs of guests attending the evening banquet swayed gently on the dance floor to the rhythm of the music.

BOOM!!

Suddenly, a massive explosion erupted outside.

The entire house shook violently, and the chandeliers swayed as if they were about to come crashing down.

The guests cried out in alarm, scattering to find safe places to hide.

Catherine and Laurento, like everyone else, quickly found the stairwell to hide in.

Although their true identities were far beyond what these ordinary people could imagine, they were still shaken by the mysterious person’s sneak attack when they had been tasked with instigating conflict between Iron Buddha Temple and Yongning Temple.

They were especially terrified after returning and being told that if the Holy Spirit hadn’t intervened, they would have been controlled and enslaved on the spot by that mysterious person.

Therefore, both of them had tacitly chosen to conceal themselves, first returning to the lives of ordinary people to stabilize their Heart and Spirit before resuming their mission.

They had only come to attend a banquet today, but they didn’t expect that even a party couldn’t be peaceful.

BOOM!

Soon, another explosion went off outside.

"What’s going on?!"

The two of them sensed that something was wrong. They rushed to the window and looked out.

The sight left them both stunned.

Outside, in the distance, at least a third of the city was already engulfed in crimson firelight.

Only now, closer to the window, could they hear the sounds amidst the explosions: massive amounts of gunfire, shouts of killing, and the piercing shrieks of airplanes streaking across the night sky. The cacophony was enough to make one’s scalp tingle.

But beyond all that, the two of them saw much more than any ordinary person could.

Between the city’s buildings, invisible to the naked eye, were the figures of Cultivators, flashing past at high speed, one after another.

On this same night, Lin Hui, who had just arrived at the gates of the Women’s Sports University, also turned his head to look in the direction of the firelight.

Over there, the banners of the garrisoned army were rapidly being replaced by another flag—one with a black bird on a blue field.

The change of banners happened with almost no fighting. The garrisoned soldiers simply stripped off their uniforms and immediately changed into the new ones that had been delivered, transforming in an instant into the New Revolutionary Army, participants in this operation.

The few warlord soldiers who still wanted to resist were quickly surrounded on a large scale, systematically crushed, and completely wiped out.

Lin Hui saw in the distance, atop the tallest clock tower in Jiu’an, a young man in a brown military uniform standing ramrod straight beside the bronze bell, looking down over the entire city.

The young man had a resolute expression, and his black eyes seemed to burn with an invisible flame.

"The awakening of our nation begins today! It begins with me, Zhang Yi’an!!"

His voice was as hard as iron. He drew his pistol and fired three shots into the sky.

BANG! BANG! BANG!!

Three signal flares shot into the sky, illuminating the thousands of revolutionary soldiers fighting in the city.

"KILL!!"

Everyone let out a deafening roar.

For some reason, watching this scene, Lin Hui felt an inexplicable stirring within him.

His Great Yin Yang Time Reversal Sword Technique, which had long been stagnant, could now sense with incredible clarity a single, golden-red string, floating silently above the city.

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