The Decaying World-Chapter 46 - 41: Strength 1

Three choices.

Lin Hui rarely hesitated like this, but at this very moment, he found himself pausing, his eyes fixed on the characters appearing on the Blood Seal.

’I should probably check the time requirement for each one first.’

He opened the detailed information for each of the three evolution branches one by one.

’1—Perfected Qingfeng Swordsmanship.

Resources Required: One steel sword, one year of stored energy.

Time Required: One year.’

’2—Qingfeng Swordsmanship: Breath of Purgatory Edition.

Resources Required: One steel sword, five years of stored energy.

Time Required: Five years.’

’3—Qingfeng Swordsmanship: Language of Extreme Cold Edition.

Resources Required: One steel sword, five years of stored energy. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

Time Required: Five years.’

"As expected..." Lin Hui sighed internally. ’Looks like I don’t really have a choice. I can only pick the first one.’

The others took far too long. Five years was an eternity. Aside from the Perfected version, the other two paths had a terrible cost-benefit ratio.

Without further hesitation, he decided to break down the moves and start by evolving the first stance of the Qingfeng Swordsmanship.

Since the end result was the Perfected Qingfeng Swordsmanship anyway, evolving it piece by piece was much more efficient.

’Wind Formless: The opening stance of Qingfeng, available evolution branches: 1.’

’1—Boundless Wind Direction: The perfected form of Wind Formless.

Resources Required: One steel sword, five days of stored energy.

Time Required: Five days.’

Seeing the new information from the Blood Seal, Lin Hui felt a sense of relief.

Compared to when he first enhanced a single move of the Seven-Section Quick Sword, evolving one stance of the Qingfeng Swordsmanship now only took five days. This was a massive improvement.

This was likely because his total daily energy had increased, and at the same time, the difficulty of comprehending and learning the Qingfeng Swordsmanship had decreased, bringing the required time down to just five days.

Moreover, with such a short duration, he could flexibly pause the Blood Seal midway to temporarily evolve other things. It was far more convenient than evolving the entire Qingfeng Swordsmanship at once.

Without delay, he confirmed the evolution process.

The characters on the Blood Seal slowly blurred, then transformed into a countdown timer for the evolution of the first stance, Wind Formless.

Once it was set, Lin Hui looked away and closed his eyes to rest.

But as soon as he closed his eyes, he heard the SWISH-SWISH of his master practicing with his sword in the main hall outside.

"Dad, are you ever going to sleep? It’s the middle of the night and you’re still practicing?!"

Senior Sister Weiwei’s voice drifted in from outside, tinged with helplessness and a hint of irritation.

"Almost done! Just a moment, I’ll be right there!" Daoist Mingde’s excited voice could be faintly heard in reply.

"..." Lin Hui was speechless.

He hadn’t expected his perfected Swordsmanship to have such a profound impact on his master—something his previous Seven-Section Quick Sword had failed to do.

He closed his eyes, pondering the reason as he slowly drifted off to sleep.

He slept until dawn.

Early the next morning, just as the fog began to dissipate, Lin Hui rose. He quickly ate breakfast—a large vegetable and meat flatbread made by Senior Sister Weiwei—then took his waterskin and other prepared items, left his master’s house, and headed to the back training grounds of Qingfeng Temple for his morning practice.

Xiaohu and Xiaopang had also arrived at the back grounds and were already waiting. Seeing Lin Hui approach, they hurriedly bowed.

"Good morning, Senior Brother!"

"Good morning, Uncle Lin!"

"Good morning to you both. Today, we’ll continue practicing the Seven-Section Quick Sword." Lin Hui patiently began instructing the two in the basic forms again. After offering a few corrections, he started his own routine of ten rounds of Body Tempering. He then sheathed his sword and left the back grounds before Weiwei and the other students arrived.

Today was the day he had already announced he would be heading into the Fog Area to train.

Carrying his sword and with his prepared supplies packed in a cloth backpack, Lin Hui strode toward the small path behind the Daoist Temple.

Following the path straight through a small wood, he soon reached the spot where he had previously visited and carved a memento.

Just ahead was one of the entrances to the Fog Area.

Just as Lin Hui was about to enter, he suddenly noticed two figures, one tall and one short, in the woods not far to his right. They were standing before the fog, whispering to each other.

It was an old and a young person, seemingly a master-disciple pair heading into the Fog Area for training.

This kind of pairing was quite common in the Fog Area. Coupled with the fact that this was one of the relatively safer entrances in the vicinity, many people used it to enter.

Lin Hui had encountered similar pairs before when he came here to scavenge, so he wasn’t surprised to see them now.

Both were women. The older one was stooped with a wrinkled face, and she held a black cane of refined iron, exuding an extraordinary aura.

The younger one had a cold, stern expression and delicate features. She held a short blade in each hand and was dressed in brown leather armor. Her legs were encased in tight, jet-black leather pants, and her lower abdomen was protected by a silver-gray, diamond-patterned skirt of armor. Her equipment was quite complete—at least, she was far more seriously outfitted than the lightly-dressed Lin Hui.

As Lin Hui saw them, they naturally noticed him as well. Their gazes shifted and they looked his way.

Their eyes met for a moment before they both looked away, neither showing any intention of communicating.

"Master, that man is entering the Fog Area without even preparing armor. With that kind of confidence, his strength must be extraordinary."

"Or he could just be poor," the old woman said flatly. "There are quite a few ordinary Martial Artists like him who enter the Fog Area to try and strike it rich. Especially recently, after the Martial Artists from our Xingdiao came over to take over the market."

"Alright, I’ve told you everything I need to. This time, be careful of the monsters I warned you about. Remember, your goal is to gather as many materials as you can by hunting monsters. Those materials are the most important proof for your assessment when you return to the family. It will determine your ranking in the line of succession," the old woman instructed.

"Yes." The young woman nodded grimly.

SWOOSH.

Not far away, Lin Hui’s figure plunged into the fog. When the two women looked over again, he was already gone.

A short while later, they too entered the Fog Area from their position and vanished.

*

*

*

HISS!

In the gray fog, a giant eyeball with a mass of gray tentacles for legs rushed madly toward Lin Hui.

The massive eyeball was dark red, its thick outer membrane covered in a large amount of dark yellow discharge. Much of this discharge dripped down wetly, like mucus.

The eyeball itself was the size of a human head. Including the tentacles growing from its underside, the creature stood nearly two meters tall. It ran silently and was quite fast.

PFFT!

As it drew near, a slit suddenly split open on the underside of the eyeball, and a jet of black, venomous fluid shot out.

The fluid flew out like an arrow, heading straight for Lin Hui.

Even before it made contact, you could see wisps of white smoke rising from the black fluid, which reeked of a foul stench.

’Thousand-legged Eye Ball. Its main attack is spraying venomous fluid. The moment it’s killed, it self-destructs, covering a three-meter radius. The explosion splatters a highly corrosive, venomous liquid that must not be touched.’

The teachings of his master, Daoist Mingde, naturally surfaced in Lin Hui’s mind.

This monster looked fragile, but it was actually the most dangerous of the four types of monsters in the surrounding area.

’Fortunately, though it’s dangerous, the black crystal inside the core of the Thousand-legged Eye Ball is very valuable. It’s an important secondary ingredient for many restorative medicines, and a single piece is worth one thousand to fourteen hundred coins.’

In Tuyue, there were Martial Artists who, when truly broke, would come hunt monsters to supplement their income. If they were efficient enough, after accounting for the cost of Ning Xiang, a day of life-risking hunting could still earn them a decent amount.

However, for anyone below the Inner Power Realm, the risk was still very high. Other than the protection offered by Inner Strength, other defensive gear wasn’t very effective against the monsters of the Fog Area.

This was especially true for highly venomous creatures like the Thousand-legged Eye Ball.

Lin Hui watched the venomous fluid shoot toward him and, with a slight sidestep, dodged it perfectly.

The venom splattered on the ground behind him, instantly corroding a basin-sized pit in the gray-black mud and releasing a large amount of acrid, toxic smoke.

’Theoretically, given the Thousand-legged Eye Ball’s speed and attack, I would have previously needed to circle it for dozens of breaths to find an opening for a killing blow. But now...’

Lin Hui raised his hand. The Qinghe Sword slid silently from its sheath, flashing with silver light.

SHING!

His figure left a series of afterimages as he instantly passed through the Thousand-legged Eye Ball, reappearing behind it.

With a soft POP, the Thousand-legged Eye Ball’s entire body froze in mid-air and abruptly began to swell, about to explode.

But the swelling didn’t last. Like a leaking balloon, with a SPLAT, all the venomous fluid inside spilled onto the ground.

A black crystal the size of an adult’s fist rolled out from the mess.

Lin Hui flicked the tip of his sword, knocking the crystal aside and rolling it out of the venomous fluid. He then used a prepared leather pouch to pick it up, using the bag as a barrier.

Carrying the pouch, he continued deeper into the Fog Area.

’The power and speed of the perfected Nine-Section Swift Sword is so much stronger than the regular version...’ Lin Hui had used the Nine-Section Swift Sword against enemies before, but back then, the Blood Seal hadn’t finished the evolution, so he couldn’t achieve such a decisive, one-hit result.

But now, all it took was a single strike.

His Body Technique and Sword Speed were now so fast the monster couldn’t even react.

After so easily killing a Thousand-legged Eye Ball, his confidence soared. He picked up his pace and began to quickly search for more wandering monsters.

This area was filled with Thousand-legged Eye Balls. Before long, the leather pouch in Lin Hui’s hand contained nearly thirty black crystals.

This meant that a full thirty Thousand-legged Eye Balls had died by his sword. The Qinghe Sword truly lived up to its name as a high-grade weapon gifted by his master. Despite being constantly splattered with venomous fluid, it showed no signs of corrosion. A simple flick was enough to shake off the slime.

Dragging the leather pouch, which now weighed over twenty kilograms, Lin Hui first stored the contents in his master’s temporary wooden cabin, then emptied the pouch and continued hunting in the vicinity.

However, after a continuous stream of encounters with nothing but Thousand-legged Eye Balls, he was forced to expand his hunting grounds.

His purpose for coming here this time wasn’t to hunt for money, but to test his own limits.

An hour later, after continuously expanding his hunting circuit and periodically returning to the cabin to drop off his spoils, Lin Hui widened his hunting circle once more. As he neared the high-risk Yanshan Mountain Range area, he finally encountered a new type of monster—a powerful, mutated Mist Barbarian.

Within the gray fog.

Beside a dry creek bed, Lin Hui gripped his sword, his expression turning grave as he watched a tall figure slowly approach from ahead.

It was a powerful, humanoid monster standing two and a half meters tall.

Its skin was gray-black, and its body was covered in a thick, scale-like black carapace. It had four arms on its upper body, each one holding a crude, spiked wooden club.

’I haven’t encountered this type before. A four-armed Mist Barbarian... According to the classifications—Harmless, Nuisance, Dangerous, High-Risk... I wonder which level this one is. I might be able to find some decent materials from it...’

Lin Hui cautiously observed its movements.