The Decaying World

At this moment, Xue Shi’s body had grown even larger than the Rongjing, reaching a height of over a thousand kilometers!

"Demon! Die!"

He thrust out a palm, shattering the starlight. Although his own palm was mangled in the process, it quickly recovered as he reached straight for Lin Hui.

Lin Hui could not dodge this grab, because behind him was the gate to the Wind Calamity rift.

If he dodged, the gate would be smashed on the spot, and the transmission would be cut off.

’I didn’t think I’d have to use the new sword technique so soon.’ Lin Hui’s speed far surpassed his opponent’s. He watched the massive, yellow, wooden hand descend, crushing all the Wind Calamity monsters in its path.

He even had the leisure to consider how to resolve the situation, and what method to use.

The Ruyi in his hand slowly rose.

He closed his eyes.

"Yin and yang reverse, a thousand become one."

An formless wind swept through the surrounding torrent of the Wind Calamity, dancing around him.

It was not a physical wind, but the fading wind of flowing time.

DING!

In an instant, Xue Shi’s vision blurred. He suddenly found himself separated from his Jianmu Magic Body, standing in a dark and gloomy space.

Floating opposite him was a person—it was Qing Fei.

’What’s happening!?’ His heart skipped a beat, a sense of foreboding creeping over him.

Just then, an immense, golden-red string, like that of a zither, materialized behind Qing Fei. It vibrated gently, emitting a clear, resonant sound.

In that moment, he saw Qing Fei raise his longsword and sheathe it.

HSSS...

As the silver longsword slid slowly into its black sheath, some unknown change seemed to be taking place along with it.

He couldn’t perceive what it was, but... the ominous feeling in his heart grew stronger and stronger.

"No!! You...!?" Suddenly, Xue Shi seemed to realize something, his expression twisting into a savage grimace.

In what looked like the simple act of sheathing his sword, his opponent had, in a single instant, unleashed at least tens of millions of strikes.

Each slash was so fast that it looked as if he hadn’t moved at all.

Such terrifying speed... a speed so extreme that even he hadn’t noticed it! In an incredibly short time, it had created a strange illusion that obscured all of his surroundings.

It made Xue Shi mistakenly believe he had been pulled into a strange, dark space.

But in truth, it was merely an immense density of sword-shadows obscuring everything around him, forming a special sword domain.

No...

Perhaps it was more like a prison built from sword-shadows.

A Sword Prison!

CHIII!!

The next instant, Xue Shi’s entire body trembled violently, pierced from all directions by invisible, sharp blades.

His body began to inexplicably erupt with fine, bloody holes.

The body of the Jianmu Magic Body was incredibly tough. A single sword strike couldn’t pierce it; it often took hundreds of strikes aimed at the same point to break through its defenses.

But for the current Lin Hui...

The first killing move of the Great Yin Yang Time Reversal Sword Technique’s First Layer—Sword Prison—was enough to unleash tens of millions of sword-shadows in just one-ten-thousandth of a second.

The sword-shadows became wind, sweeping over all.

The sword-shadows became a prison, confining all.

This was the terrifying power produced by strengthening his body to the absolute limit with star energy, supplemented by a temporary explosive burst from the sword technique’s Secret Technique.

Every single strike here was comparable to a slash made with half his normal strength.

Stacked together, they formed a terrifying, avalanche-like pressure that crushed everything.

WHOOSH...

The darkness receded, the space dispersed, and the surroundings returned to the normal environment encircled by the Wind Calamity.

Lin Hui and Xue Shi floated opposite each other.

PUFF!!

In the next moment, both of their bodies simultaneously disintegrated, shattering into countless fine points of light that scattered on the wind.

Both Lin Hui, the one who had unleashed the move, and Xue Shi’s massive Jianmu Magic Body began to rapidly pulverize and dissipate.

"You... you lunatic...! To actually use a mutual destruction..." A sardonic sneer appeared on Xue Shi’s enormous face.

But before he could finish, he saw Lin Hui’s body suddenly halt its disintegration.

Then, the points of light that had just scattered from Lin Hui’s body actually flew back and re-formed into his brand-new body.

"!!?"

What’s going on!?

What the hell!??

What am I seeing!?

Xue Shi’s mind was completely reeling.

He had never seen anything like this. Someone had clearly used a terrifying Secret Technique, erupting with power that far exceeded their usual exaggerated strength. This should have been the moment of backlash, the time to pay the price.

But... his opponent... it was as if there was no price to pay. His condition was even completely refreshed, as if he had fully recovered to his pre-battle state!?

Suddenly, a specific term flashed through his mind.

’Could it be... a time-based Cultivation Technique!?’

But at this moment, his consciousness was also sinking into chaos along with the collapse of his Magic Body.

This wasn’t death, but extreme weakness caused by excessive consumption of power. Because his surroundings had become an environment of pure Wind Disaster Energy, he couldn’t absorb any Desolate Power to replenish himself, and thus had temporarily fallen into this desperate situation.

This was the situation that Calamity Fusionists feared most.

That was why they usually advanced with the grand army of their own Calamity, fighting in legion-style battles to ensure they never ended up in such a predicament.

Without an infinite supply of energy, they could easily be besieged by a foreign power and find themselves in a hopeless situation.

But now, it was too late for Xue Shi to regret his earlier decision.

"I’ve lost this time... but next time... next time, it won’t be like this again!!" Xue Shi stared fixedly at Lin Hui, his tone savage.

"I won’t kill you. But for your crimes, how about a sentence of ten thousand years’ imprisonment?" Lin Hui said calmly.

"You can’t hold me with those transformation crystals!" Xue Shi laughed loudly. His body rapidly disintegrated, leaving only his normal-sized human form.

Before his voice had even faded, his human form also began to glow with a brilliant golden light.

BOOM!!

In the next instant, a massive explosion erupted into a golden ball of light, engulfing Lin Hui and a large swath of the surrounding Void Black Domain.

Even a part of the Human Realm’s barrier was affected, dented inward by the impact and covered in a web of cracks.

"I’ll let you hold on to my gains for now. Just wait, I’ll be back to collect!" Xue Shi’s final thought transmitted into Lin Hui’s Heart and Spirit.

Immediately after, his consciousness dissipated, and he vanished completely within the Black Domain Void.

"..." Lin Hui silently scanned his surroundings for any trace of Xue Shi’s aura, but found nothing.

’He’d rather self-destruct than be captured by me?’

Judging from Xue Shi’s parting words, he clearly possessed some kind of revival Secret Technique and could be resurrected within his own Calamity’s main camp.

He just didn’t know how long it would be until they met again.

’This is a bit troublesome... If he could find this world’s location once, he can definitely find it a second time...’ Lin Hui turned and looked back at the massive, multicolored sphere of the Human Realm.

But there was nothing he could do about it. Although his fight with Xue Shi had easily damaged the world’s outer wall, from the perspective of the entire world...

...the damage from their battle was merely a sesame seed on a soccer ball—utterly insignificant.

Besides, a world that had existed for so long must have a self-healing mechanism. Otherwise, the cumulative damage would have caused it to collapse sooner or later.

So...

...Lin Hui’s idea of simply pushing the entire world away was not realistic.

Floating in the torrent of the Wind Calamity, Lin Hui cast his gaze toward the towering, withered-yellow gate of the Celestial Realm in the distance.

Following Xue Shi’s self-destruction, the gate also began to emit a strange screech as it slowly faded and disappeared.

Passing through where the gate had been, the massive torrent of the Wind Calamity slammed into the Celestial Realm’s outer wall, instantly punching a huge hole through it.

Immediately, countless Wind Calamity monsters surged excitedly through the breach and into the Celestial Realm.

And the sphere of the Celestial Realm began to take on a faint blue tint at a rate visible to the naked eye...

The outcome was decided.

Lin Hui didn’t spare the Celestial Realm another glance, instead turning back toward the rift.

He still had some questions for his master.

But he hadn’t gone far before he felt a great, formless, cool stream of air suddenly appear in his mind, nourishing his consciousness and Heart and Spirit.

His thoughts, which had been somewhat chaotic, now rapidly regained their clarity.

The sense of listlessness that had filled his heart was also quickly dispelled by this power.

A brand-new vitality burst forth from within his body, from the depths of his mind, radiating outward.

Lin Hui paused for a moment, then suddenly looked down at his own body.

His flesh and bone, which had been obliterated by his use of the sword technique, were now being reshaped in a strange, new way.

On the surface, he still looked no different than before. But in reality, beneath his skin, his original red muscles had been replaced by a blue, translucent, flesh-like substance.

His white bones had also been replaced with new, blue-gold, metal-like ones.

Lin Hui carefully sensed his new state. It was somewhat similar to when he activated his Qingyuan Body.

’No... it should be an enhanced, evolved version of the Qingyuan Body... The energy substance that strengthens and expands the Magic Body has been densified and used to fill my current body...’

*

*

*

「Jiuxiao Sect.」

"This is the Wind Calamity remodeling you! It’s a feedback reward mechanism that we naturally enjoy. You made a contribution, and the Wind Calamity has rewarded you. It’s as simple as that."

In a peaceful little farmhouse courtyard, Qimei, dressed in a simple gray robe, was carefully snipping bunches of purple grapes from the vines with a pair of scissors.

He could have clearly completed such a meaningless chore with a single thought. Yet, he continued to perform every movement without using any power, handling each step of the grape-harvesting process like an ordinary mortal, simple and unadorned.

Lin Hui stood to the side, surveying the leisurely and gentle environment, which felt almost unsettlingly tranquil.

This was clearly the Jiuxiao Sect, located inside the Wind Calamity, with the torrent of the all-dissolving Wind Calamity right outside.

And yet, this small courtyard existed, stable and quiet, within this incredibly dangerous environment.

It was obvious this place held some special meaning for Qimei, which was why he had deliberately preserved it.

"Remodeling... With this kind of remodeling, does that mean if I die outside, I can be resurrected within the Wind Calamity?" Lin Hui couldn’t help but ask, thinking of Xue Shi’s final words.

"That’s right. As long as you have enough accumulated contribution, resurrection is perfectly normal. This is the fundamental reason we are immortal. Unless someone can completely destroy the Calamity we are hosted in... as long as the Calamity persists, we cannot die," Qimei said with a smile.

"I see. While I was dealing with matters in my home world this time, I encountered a Fusionist from the Desolate Calamity. He couldn’t win, so he self-destructed, vowing to get revenge later," Lin Hui said, nodding in understanding.

"That’s very normal. That’s just how we in the Fusion Sect are. It’s difficult for anyone to kill anyone else; it’s just a competition of attrition.

"Being completely destroyed once consumes a large amount of contribution to revive. So, in theory, as long as you have enough contribution, you can be eternal. That’s why... all forces of the Fusion Sect will madly destroy various worlds to increase their own contributions to their Calamity," Qimei sighed.

"This is what they mean by ’the strong get stronger.’ If we are too slow, we will naturally be at a disadvantage in future internal conflicts. Therefore, this also forces us to accelerate our own consumption and destruction."

He paused.

"In fact, this is also the key reason why the other two factions have always been so hostile and exclusionary toward us."

"The other two factions?"

"Mm. In the face of the endless Calamities, some among all living things made the same choice as us: to join them, to better utilize them, and to evade them to protect the people and things they value.

"But, there are also those who believe a Calamity is a Calamity. It needs to be fought, managed, and controlled, but one should never merge with it and throw their lot in!" Qimei said seriously. "And besides these two choices, there is a third: to hide from the world and escape."

"Hide from the world and escape..." Lin Hui was suddenly reminded of the Heart Source Demon Emperor. That guy had clearly found an extremely hidden place and hid there until the final Da Jimie, when all things collapsed. He failed to hide from that, and only then...

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