The Decaying World

After realizing this, Lin Hui knew he had stumbled upon the edge of this world's true treasures for enhancing one's own vital energy.

So he wandered around the shopping mall for a while. After absorbing three wisps of the aura in succession, he noticed a problem.

The aura seemed to dissipate over time. Judging by its rate of decay, he determined it must have been left behind within the last hour.

Instead of absorbing more, he used the aura's residual time and approximate location to quickly lock onto a little girl in a short white skirt who was currently shopping.

The girl was wearing a slightly dirty, form-fitting black athletic top and pants. Over the pants, she had on a short white skirt. She wore a white baseball cap and black sneakers, and she kept her head down as she walked, making it impossible for anyone to get a clear look at her.

But there was one thing Lin Hui was sure of: the golden aura was absolutely connected to this girl.

Because the color and luster of the golden aura were a near-perfect match for the long, golden hair peeking out from under the girl's cap!

There were plenty of people with golden hair on the street, but she was the only one whose hair color and luster were identical to the aura's.

But even though he had found his target, he didn't act rashly.

It wasn't because he didn't want to. The girl was clearly hiding something extremely precious, and Lin Hui had already confirmed that whatever it was had a miraculous effect on the evolution of his Blood Seal.

Just the residual aura could shorten the Blood Seal's evolution by a year, so absorbing the source itself might allow him to instantly leapfrog a huge chunk of the required time.

The key was, he could sense pairs of invisible eyes constantly watching the little golden-haired girl.

This little girl, no older than fourteen, was clearly entangled with some special power or faction.

He didn't make a move. Before his spar with his master, Qimei, he might have risked trying to seize it, but at this moment, he was far more cautious.

There were many powerful experts in a world of this Energy Level. Having absorbed Fusheng's experiences, he knew that probing, and probing again, was the key.

So he simply followed her from a distance, as if he were just out for a stroll.

But it wasn't long before the little girl slipped out of the building through a side door.

He didn't dare to follow her openly. By the time he slowly walked out of the side door himself, she had already disappeared.

But Lin Hui hadn't lost her trail. He identified a wisp of residual golden aura not far away,

and quickly locked onto the girl's position again.

He followed the building's outer wall, sticking to the shadows.

Suddenly, a muffled groan reached his ears.

Lin Hui paused. After waiting for two minutes, he continued forward, rounded a bend, and came upon a dead-end.

In this triangular dead end, the little golden-haired girl who had just been so full of life now lay on the ground.

It was the very same little girl in the white skirt who had been leaving behind wisps of golden aura.

The girl was dying, collapsed on the ground. Her brilliant golden hair was mostly stained red with fresh blood.

Her golden eyes were wide, but her pupils were already losing focus. The aura on her body was rapidly fading, dissipating.

Her life was coming to an end.

Lin Hui stood before the girl, watching her approach the end of her life. But the golden aura he could sense was still seeping steadily from her body.

But as the girl's own life force waned, the golden aura also began to emanate more and more slowly...

"Father's... heirloom... the heirloom..." Though she was about to die, the girl was still muttering about some possession.

There was a large bloodstain on the skirt over her abdomen, where it looked as if a huge hole had been gouged in her flesh, faintly revealing her squirming internal organs.

In fact, Lin Hui could also sense that the other gazes that had been fixed on the girl had already completely withdrawn after she was attacked.

It seemed they had only been focused on her because of some other item she carried. Once that item was gone, their gazes departed as well.

Only the dying girl was left, drawing no one's attention.

But Lin Hui was different.

He quickly determined that the golden aura he needed was emanating from the girl herself, not from some other object.

"You look like you could use some help?"

He stood before the girl and lowered his head. His lips barely moved, and the surrounding air currents precisely carried his voice into her ears.

"Save... save me..." The girl extended a hand, struggling to reach for Lin Hui.

'I don't want to die. My father's, my brothers' and sisters' deaths haven't been avenged... How can I die here? How can I possibly die here!?'

"Please... please..."

Lin Hui took a step closer and squatted down.

"I ask you, are you willing to follow the rules of my school, become a member of my Qingfei Mountain, and become my true disciple?"

"I... am... willing..." The girl could barely make a sound.

Her internal organs were ruptured, and more than half of her brain tissue was damaged. The only reason she maintained any consciousness at all was due to her exceptionally special soul and bloodline.

'Even though I don't know why he's asking these irrelevant questions, at a time like this, I'll agree to anything, as long as I can live!'

"Poor child... From now on, you need to forget everything that came before and start a new life." Lin Hui extended his index finger and gently, precisely, touched the center of the girl's brow.

In that instant, a small, intricate blue pattern flashed and vanished.

At the same time, the gold in the girl's eyes began to transform rapidly, soon turning into a pale blue tinged with gold.

Her golden hair also faded quickly, gradually turning a pale white.

Lifting the girl into his arms, Lin Hui glanced behind him, then flickered and vanished into the nearby shadows.

「Several days later...」

In the afternoon, in the small courtyard of a farmhouse on the outskirts of the city.

Lin Hui, carrying a nutritious meal he'd bought after getting out of class, opened the gate and entered the yard.

The first thing he saw upon entering was the little girl sitting cross-legged in the yard, using a stick to draw in the dirt.

Hearing the sound, she hastily scrambled to erase her scribbles before standing up.

"Master... you're back?"

She bowed obediently to Lin Hui.

The familiar scene couldn't help but remind Lin Hui of his life back in the Fog People World.

"Yes, I brought you something to eat. How's your recovery coming along?" Lin Hui placed the food container on the stone table in the yard, observing the little girl.

Xia Mingjuan. That was the name the girl had told him. To prevent her past troubles from catching up to her, Lin Hui had suggested she pick a new name, especially now that her appearance had changed so drastically.

"Have you thought of a new name yet?" he asked.

"Yes... I've thought about it a lot. In the end, I was thinking... what if I took your surname?" the girl asked cautiously.

"Lin?" Lin Hui asked.

"Would Lin Yuexiu be alright?" the girl asked.

"Suit yourself." Lin Hui surveyed their surroundings. The girl had only accepted him as her master as a matter of expediency to save her life. In reality, his own motives were hardly pure; he was only interested in the golden aura the girl periodically produced.

A single wisp of that aura could shorten his progress by a year, which was far more efficient than the medicines he'd taken before.

He kept the girl alive because he also wanted to study her closely and figure out what exactly produced those wisps of golden aura.

"Can you tell me what happened before? Why were you attacked?" He had waited several days, giving the girl time to organize her thoughts and understand her new situation and condition, before finally asking this question.

"This disciple... was caught in a conflict over a family heirloom. It was robbed, and in the end, the treasure was taken. This disciple was mortally wounded in the struggle and was saved only by Master's pity..." Xia Mingjuan, or rather, the now-named Lin Yuexiu, was not telling the whole truth.

She didn't want to drag her master into this chaotic and deep-seated conflict. She had done a lot of thinking over the past few days.

For a fourteen-year-old to have such mature thoughts was, on one hand, due to the special bloodline in her body. On the other hand, and more importantly, the endless ordeals and near-death experiences had forced her to mature with incredible speed.

"Since you're unwilling to speak about the specifics, let's look to the future," Lin Hui said with a nod. "With your current strength, it would be impossible to get revenge for your past anyway. So, you need to focus on your training and grow stronger."

He didn't care what her story was. He only knew that she had something he needed. Until he found a replacement, the golden aura the girl periodically produced was a very stable, miniature source of Treasure Medicine.

"Grow stronger..." The girl gave a bitter smile. This was one of the reasons she didn't dare reveal her true situation.

She knew that if she were to truthfully reveal the immense trouble she was carrying, this kind master before her might also turn and run in fear, abandoning her.

The Endless Divine Race, the Dragon Court, and Yanwu. These three great powers—The Three Greats—ruled humanity's true, hidden world.

And this hidden world was the true substance of their reality.

The mundane world was nothing more than an illusion, a decorative facade.

Her own situation directly involved two of these great powers: the Endless Divine Race and the Dragon Court.

Filled with extreme pessimism, Lin Yuexiu spoke slowly.

"It's useless... No matter how strong I become, it's impossible... I could never be a match for those enemies..."

"How will you know if you don't try?" Lin Hui said calmly.

Despite his words, all he really wanted was for her to be able to protect herself and not get killed easily. He didn't care about anything else.

As for the Martial Arts he would teach her, he chose the most fundamental one he knew: the Basic Seven-Section Quick Sword.

As he taught, he corrected the girl's movements and posture.

The power of the Destruction Eye was formidable. Just a few days ago, the girl had been at death's door, with no hope of survival.

Yet now, she seemed perfectly fine, with no hidden complications remaining.

One taught casually, and the other learned just as casually.

An hour passed without them realizing it.

After absorbing two wisps of golden aura and shortening his progress by two years, Lin Hui left the small courtyard feeling content.

Discovering Lin Yuexiu had opened his eyes to the possibility of cultivating and harvesting this golden aura.

If he could find others like Lin Yuexiu, he could establish an entirely new, self-sufficient sect for evolution, with a constant, renewable resource.

Unfortunately, though he had spent the last few days searching crowded places after his classes, he couldn't find a single similar individual.

This made Lin Hui understand all the more just how special Lin Yuexiu was.

He also gradually started to pay a bit more attention to her.

Meanwhile.

As for the Ding family, ever since the last attack, Ding Luo had strengthened the various disaster warning systems in the surrounding area.

This enhancement immediately made her realize something was wrong. Before, she hadn't noticed it, but upon inspection, she found that surveillance systems in many parts of the city had been subjected to some degree of interference and sabotage.

After the systems were repaired, the number of cases involving "Youneng" monster attacks grew rapidly, and Ding Luo's daily life became increasingly busy.

That wasn't even the most troublesome part. What was most troublesome was the arrival of reinforcements from some of the more extremist Divine Race factions.

To deal with these extremist members of the Divine Race, she was forced to pay them lip service, claiming she didn't care about ordinary people. But when it came time for action, she still did everything she could to protect everyone.

But after this happened several times, the others, not being fools, gradually began to see it. She seemed to harbor certain feelings for her relatives that she shouldn't have—a special, protective attachment, similar to that of the Xia family.

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