The Decaying World

Lin Hui floated before the great fissure, a dense swarm of countless Dissolving Whales pouring out from behind him and charging toward the other side.

The fissure, which hadn’t been large before, had now been forcibly widened by the ever-increasing number of Dissolving Whales.

A torrent of countless Dissolving Whales and other Wind Calamity monsters formed a river of blue light in the Black Domain, leading straight to the Celestial Realm.

The massive, densely packed Dissolving Whales swam within it, their tails swaying, their bodies wreathed in the Wind Disaster Energy that surged out along with them.

As this river of blue light crashed into him, Xue Shi, who had long been unable to hold his ground, finally began to retreat.

Behind him, the Gate of Desolation was now covered in more and more cracks.

Even the Gate of Desolation, currently the strongest source of power fluctuations, couldn’t withstand the impact of this bizarre river, let alone the ordinary barriers of the Celestial Realm.

The Celestial Realm’s original spherical structure was dimming rapidly under the massive assault. Pits and craters began to appear all over the sphere’s surface.

Although Xue Shi fought with reckless abandon, frantically slaughtering the Dissolving Whale clones around him, their numbers were simply too great... so great that for every whale he killed, he had to face at least ten thousand of their offspring.

The Wind Calamity’s power was on an extremely high level, completely on par with his Desolate Power. This placed a heavy strain on his own energy consumption.

Under normal circumstances, a neutral environment wouldn’t be an issue, but Disaster Energy excelled at transforming the surroundings into its own image.

As a result, he couldn’t draw on even a shred of Desolate Power now. He was completely surrounded by the Wind Calamity’s Disaster Power, and his own Desolate Power had long been neutralized and dissipated without a trace.

As the Disaster Energy within him was rapidly depleted, Xue Shi knew that if this continued, all his previous preparations would be for nothing.

He had gone to great lengths to devour so much. If he died here, as a Fusionist, the loss of his sanity would be a massive cost.

At that point... all his efforts would have been for someone else’s benefit.

’That guy... He’s the source of all this! A demon!!’ Countless withered-yellow roots shot out from behind Xue Shi, instantly piercing thousands of the surrounding Dissolving Whale offspring.

Seizing the opportunity before the other Dissolving Whales could close in, he let out a sharp cry and shot through the gap, rocketing straight toward the distant Lin Hui.

"You think you’ve won!? I’ve made so many preparations in this Realm! How could I possibly yield it to you so easily!?"

It was clear that he not only saw Lin Hui as an ideological demon, but also as just another Fusionist bandit who had come specifically to steal these adjacent worlds.

He had finally managed to deal with the stronger local resistance and was just about to reap the fruits of his victory when Lin Hui showed up.

The moment this guy arrived, he opened a gate—and faster than Xue Shi himself could. He was clearly prepared.

If this wasn’t robbery, what was?

Xue Shi was beyond furious, yet the emotions in his heart suddenly cooled.

He fully activated the Wither and Flourish Divine Art, a Cultivation Technique from the Withered Wood Divine Sect that he had already cultivated to Perfection, to its peak.

The Wither and Flourish Divine Art’s strongest Secret Technique—Nine Lives and Nine Deaths—rapidly activated within his body.

This Secret Technique could only be used once every hundred years, and using it would leave him severely drained of Primordial Energy.

But its function and its effect naturally far surpassed any ordinary Mystical Techniques or Secret Techniques.

After entering the Nine Lives and Nine Deaths state, wisps of pale yellow smoke began to drift from the pores of his skin.

His skin took on the color and texture of a yellow wax figure, seemingly wreathed in invisible incense smoke.

In the Nine Lives and Nine Deaths state, every time he was killed, his opponent would be afflicted with a permanent seal on their power.

To break the seal and completely destroy his true body, one had to kill him nine consecutive times, each with a different type of attack. Only then would the seals be removed. Moreover, if there was any break in the sequence, the entire process would have to start over.

In other words, to kill him in this state, one had to use nine different attack methods in a row. If an enemy, unaware of the reason, used the same attack method to kill him twice, the count would reset.

This was an advantage based on asymmetrical information.

As long as his opponent didn’t understand the mechanics of this Secret Technique, it was virtually impossible to kill him for good.

This had nothing to do with the amount of power one had; it was purely a matter of different operational mechanics.

At the level of Disaster Energy, everyone’s power level was more or less the same. The real competition came down to other factors, like instantaneous power output or special mechanics.

Among Fusionists, even those with the same level of power could have vastly different capabilities.

It was like fire. A primitive man in the wild might only use it to boil water, but a more advanced civilization could use it to create steam engines, generate electricity, and build even larger and more complex machines.

In that instant, Xue Shi’s speed increased, leaving a pale yellow trail behind him as he charged straight for Lin Hui.

Under the effect of this Secret Technique, all the Disaster Energy in his body was temporarily condensed into a special, high-density form. He became like a steel needle, piercing through the Dissolving Whales in his path.

"A final act of defiance?" Lin Hui calmly watched the charge and slowly drew his sword.

’He’s pretending to charge at me, but he actually wants to destroy the Calamity Gate behind me. He wants to drag us both back to the same starting point. Interesting...’

SWISH!

In the next instant, he too shot up from his position, his form becoming a white phantom as he met Xue Shi’s charge.

SWOOSH!

The two of them crossed paths in a flash.

Lin Hui was completely unscathed. A huge gash suddenly split open on Xue Shi’s chest, spraying blood, but the wound was not fatal.

"You’re... holding back!?"

Xue Shi whirled around in astonishment, staring down at the wound on his chest with a look of utter disbelief.

"No... I just don’t particularly want to kill you," Lin Hui said coolly.

He was bound by the restrictions of the Celestial Father Seal. If he broke his vow, all the crystal pillars he had previously sealed would instantly become ineffective.

Therefore, he couldn’t take a life proactively right now.

However, not being able to kill didn’t mean he couldn’t do other things.

"No... We are mortal enemies now. Kill me, and you’ll get a huge amount of Cognitive Crystals! You won’t have to worry about losing your sanity or memories for the next few thousand years!" Xue Shi said quickly, dodging a swarm of bizarre, nameless Wind Calamity monsters.

"No... We are merely competitors. Killing you is not my wish," Lin Hui retorted.

"I want to kill you right now, so you must be resolved to kill me too! Otherwise, you’re the one who will die for sure!" Xue Shi said urgently.

"Heaven has a virtue of cherishing life. If I were to kill you, it would be a betrayal of my own heart," Lin Hui said, shaking his head.

"I’m trying to kill you, and you’re still thinking about holding back, you useless piece of trash!? Are you out of your mind!?" Xue Shi was getting frantic. If his opponent simply refused to kill him, his Secret Technique was completely useless!

"I’ve suddenly realized that having one or two people like you in one’s life—annoying, but temporarily impossible to deal with—might be a good way to alleviate the boredom of existence," Lin Hui remained unmoved.

"I...!!!?" Xue Shi now felt that Lin Hui was simply impossible to reason with. He had always used this move to great success in the past.

All he had to do was make a big show of things beforehand, adopt a life-or-death posture, and then make a suicide charge. His opponents would usually grant him the same courtesy, unleashing a powerful killing blow to clash with him head-on.

And it was always at that moment, in the instant of the final clash, that he would rapidly withdraw his power and allow himself to die to his opponent’s killing move for the first time, thereby placing the first permanent seal on them.

Using this trick, he had managed to completely defeat several difficult opponents who were even slightly stronger than him.

But now...

SWOOSH!

In an instant, a flash of silver sword light shot in from his side. The sword wasn’t aimed at his vitals; it was merely trying to sever his right leg.

But Xue Shi deliberately shifted his body, moving his torso’s vital points right into the path of the sword light.

Unexpectedly, at the last moment, the sword light swerved, managing to avoid his vitals and strike his right leg once again.

Xue Shi hurriedly accelerated to meet it again.

The sword light dodged again.

He met it again.

His opponent dodged again!

After more than ten such attempts.

"FUCK!! Are you insane!?" Xue Shi finally couldn’t take it anymore. He threw a Withered Wood God Palm straight at Lin Hui’s face.

But the palm strike missed completely. His inferior speed made it impossible for him to touch his opponent.

Fortunately, the immense power of the Withered Wood God Palm, combined with his Disaster Energy, was enough to compensate for this.

BOOM!!

In that instant, a haze of yellow roots erupted from where Xue Shi had thrown his palm.

The roots spread out like living tendrils, radiating outward at nearly the speed of light. They instantly enveloped an area several miles wide, forming a yellow sphere.

Some of the Wind Calamity monsters caught within were instantly torn apart, canceling out the yellow roots and dissipating.

The power of this root explosion was so strong that even Lin Hui felt a momentary threat.

With his current Heart and Spirit and perception, he could sense any danger that posed a threat to him in advance.

But the danger from this mass of yellow roots was enough to make his heart pound with fear.

Anything that could provoke such a reaction must be a power so vastly superior that a single touch would injure him, and a direct hit would mean death.

It had been a long time since he had encountered a power that could make his heart pound with fear...

Once again, he raised the Ruyi.

The Star Breath Sword Manual unfolded once more.

’Secret Skill: Breath of the Stars!’

A vast, dark canopy of stars appeared above him again. Starlight condensed into pillars and came crashing down.

Countless Wind Calamity monsters were also brutally torn apart by the pillars of starlight.

Soon, Xue Shi was revealed deep within the chaos.

PFFT!

Xue Shi was just about to move his vitals into the path of the attack when he suddenly realized the pillar of starlight had instantly dispersed, transforming into countless threads that pierced through his entire body.

His opponent had no intention of killing him at all. He wanted to completely disable him!!

Not only that, but a familiar-looking crystallization began to spread rapidly up from his feet.

Channeling his divine art, he forcefully shattered the crystals. He immediately gave up on hoping his opponent would deliver a killing blow.

’Since trickery won’t work, I’ll just have to kill him fair and square!’

He instantly deactivated his strongest Secret Technique, Nine Lives and Nine Deaths, and instead activated another—a Secret Technique purely for combat called the Jianmu Dharma Body.

"KILL!!!"

The next instant, just as the starlight was about to touch his body, Xue Shi’s form began to rapidly expand.

This expansion was far from ordinary. His body violently detonated, exploding into countless fine, yellow motes of light.

Dense yellow lines connected the motes of light.

All the lines came together to form a withered-yellow giant, one even larger than a Dissolving Whale.

Its entire body seemed to be made of wood. It was expressionless, covered in thick yellow branches and leaves. Its two enormous green eyes shone like a pair of small suns, releasing a blinding light.

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