The Decaying World-Chapter 61 - 56: Exploration 4

"Go back to what? The trouble with my clan can’t be solved. There’s no point in me going back." The black-furred lion-man released him with a sigh.

He was over two meters tall, and standing next to the 1.8-meter-tall Mingde, the difference in their build was so vast they looked like an adult and a child.

"I thought you’d gone back already. The last time I ran into Dong Hao and the others at Qingle Square Market, they said they hadn’t seen you in a while."

Mingde and the black-furred lion-man seemed to be good friends. They stood together and began chatting endlessly in hushed tones.

Lin Hui stood to the side. Mingde had only given a simple introduction of his name, and that was it.

He decided to just eat the chilled white fungus soup the stall owner served, waiting for his teacher and his friend to finish their conversation.

As he ate, he observed the man who was still kowtowing repeatedly on the ground.

"That guy’s been here for two days," the cold drink stall owner explained casually while wiping down a table and stool.

"Careful, sir. Don’t get too close. Be careful he doesn’t have an episode."

"Are people like this common?" Lin Hui struck up a conversation.

"Pretty much. We get one every few days." The owner nodded. "Times are tough for everyone these days. When you’re poor as dirt and can’t afford Feather Blood, you’d rather die in the Inner City than get kicked out to the black district outside. There are too many people like that."

"Black district?" Lin Hui was taken aback. "You mean the Outer City?"

"That’s right. Once you’re there, your life or death is just a dish on someone else’s plate. It’s not up to you anymore," the owner sighed.

"So, can you save up enough for Feather Blood just by running a small business like this?" Lin Hui asked, confused.

"This little bit? Nowhere near enough." The owner laughed at his words. The middle-aged man, who looked to be in his forties with a full, bushy beard, sized Lin Hui up. "My ancestor was a Summoner, so the bloodline is strong enough to let me and my son—two generations—keep living in the Inner City. We don’t need Feather Blood for now, but my grandson’s generation will have to fight for it themselves. The money I’m making now, aside from my own expenses, is also to start saving up Feather Blood money for my grandson."

He paused for a moment before continuing.

"You must be from another city district, young brother. Here in Tuyue, it’s like this: the vast majority of people are just ordinary folks like me. We honestly earn money, honestly support our families, and buy Feather Blood."

Lin Hui fell silent. He glanced at his teacher, who was deep in conversation, and then continued to chat idly with the owner.

From the owner’s words, he gradually came to understand a bit about the lives of Inner City People.

"Usually, it’s just wanted criminals, vagrants, and trash people who get driven to the black district," the owner said in a low voice. "The black district is extremely dangerous, dark, and savage. They say giant monsters come out at night to hunt the living, and you can’t survive without a Jade Talisman. On top of that, it’s full of trash people and bad guys. If an ordinary person like one of us went in, we’d probably be eaten alive and die there right away."

"But aren’t there also people here who might have an episode? Isn’t it dangerous here, too?" Lin Hui could hear the thick stereotypes and prejudice in the man’s words.

Although the Outer City was indeed dangerous, it wasn’t as dangerous as the man imagined.

So, he couldn’t help but retort, "How can that be the same?"

The owner shook his head. "This here is just the very edge of the Inner City. Go further in... you’ve never been to the Moon Tower District, have you? That’s where the real nobles live. Moon Towers, each over a thousand stories high, stand on the ground like giant, sky-piercing trees. They’re connected by wide passageways that have shops, streets, gardens, and homes inside. The nobles live up there and almost never come down to the ground. They travel by flying back and forth in huge Moth Cars."

"Those of us in the Outer Ring, same as those in the Central Ring, can only live on the ground. We can never dream of going up to the top of a Moon Tower to see what it’s like." The owner’s words were filled with a deep sense of longing.

This made Lin Hui understand that the Inner City was also divided into the Outer Ring, the Central Ring, and the central Moon Tower District.

And the Original Blood Nobility who lived a thousand stories high... their feet would never touch the ground their entire lives. He couldn’t imagine what such people would be like.

Next, he asked about the owner’s family and was stunned to learn that the man had ten children, both boys and girls.

According to the owner, resources here were very cheap. No one starved to death. You could just scatter some seeds in a field and they would grow into an abundant harvest on their own. On top of that, everyone here received twenty jin of high-quality Wanfu Meat every month.

It was a highly nutritious type of meat with no side effects. A piece the size of a fist was enough to keep you from feeling hungry for an entire day.

So, people here really only earned money for two purposes: to buy Feather Blood, and for pleasure.

After they finished their cold drinks, Mingde said goodbye to his friend. The master and disciple duo stood up, left the small stall, and started walking back the way they came.

"So? What do you think of this place?" Mingde asked, walking ahead with his hands behind his back.

"It’s great. It’s really great," Lin Hui sighed. "There’s no fog at night, food and drink are cheap, and you can support a large family with just a little money. You don’t have to worry about people disappearing, or about monsters charging in from the Fog Area outside."

"Yes... That’s why so many people would risk their lives just to move into the Inner City," Mingde lamented.

For a moment, both were silent, simply walking on quietly.

It would have been fine if one had never witnessed true peace. But after seeing the Inner City, a living environment so far superior to one’s own, the sense of injustice and craving in one’s heart was simply uncontrollable.

Before long, the two returned to the exit of the South Nine Gates.

They gazed at the tall, wide, arched gate.

Lin Hui turned his head and, standing at the edge of the high cliff, once again looked out over the vast plain of pavilions below.

By now, yellow-white lights had begun to flicker on in some of the pavilions, and wisps of cooking smoke were rising into the air.

"We should head back. It’s getting dark," Mingde reminded him from the side.

"Yeah." Lin Hui nodded.

"If you want to come in again, you can ask your father to buy a permit. A temporary permit isn’t expensive, you just need the right channels to apply for one," Mingde said.

"I know..." Lin Hui nodded. He finally tore his gaze away, turned, and strode through the South Nine Gates.

This one gate seemed to separate two different worlds...

*

*

*

After visiting the Inner City, Lin Hui returned to his old rhythm of daily teaching, sword practice, and Second-Time Body Tempering.

According to his teacher, going from Second-Time Body Tempering to generating Inner Strength would normally take about three years. Those who could succeed would do so within three years; those who couldn’t had a very high chance of never succeeding at all.

Many people even got stuck at this step for over a decade without making any progress.

The ratio of those who reached the Body Tempering Limit and successfully broke through to the Inner Power Realm was about one in seven or eight.

Just after Lin Hui had the Blood Seal continue evolving his Gale Swordsmanship, a major event suddenly occurred in town the following month.

A poor girl named Yan Wanqiu was found to possess the aptitude of an Upper-Tier Summoner during a qualification test. She was immediately brought into the Inner City and joined the Chen Family, one of The Three Greats.

It was rumored that even among Upper-Tier Summoners, Yan Wanqiu’s aptitude was top-notch.

It had been many years since a genius of this caliber had appeared in all of Xinyu Town.

Even when Lin Hui was instructing his wellness class, he could hear the old men and women discussing the topic.

He remained unmoved, continuing to take his medicine daily to shorten the Blood Seal’s progress, while diligently practicing his Body Tempering and swordsmanship.

And just as expected, after passing the title of Sect Leader to him, Mingde went back on his word, left without a trace, and mysteriously vanished, running off to who-knows-where.

This left Weiwei, Lin Hui, Xiaohu, and Xiaopang to support the entire Qingfeng Sword Sect on their own.

Not long after Mingde left, the other two branches, led by Mingchen and Mingxiu, also packed up and ran.

They had originally seen that the Qingfeng Sword Sect’s wellness class was managing to scrape by and had planned to start one themselves.

But as it turned out, the swordsmanship they taught was useless, no different from any other Ordinary Martial Arts. The gap between them and the Qingfeng Sword Sect was huge, and absolutely no one came.

So, with their wellness classes failing, the two branches finally couldn’t hold on any longer. They sold their territories to Lin Hui at a discount in one lump sum, then also left without a trace, disappearing from Xinyu Town.

And so, of the once-thriving, vast Qingfeng Temple, only Lin Hui’s four-person Qingfeng Sword Sect remained, moving into the entire Daoist temple with a group of senior citizens.

"I’ll slowly pay you back the money for buying out the other two branches from the tuition income."

On the training grounds of Qingfeng Temple, Weiwei explained to Lin Hui with a serious expression.

"Even though you’re the Sect Leader, business is business. You borrowed all the money for this from your father, so we can’t just lump it all together!"

"It’s fine. I’m not in a hurry for it," Lin Hui said calmly.

"I’ll remember this," Weiwei said earnestly. "By the way, how are you getting along with your father’s new second wife? Is everything okay?"

She had heard that the master of the Lin Mansion, Lin Shunhe, had married another woman from the Inner City. The rumor was that she had a profound background and her family was very powerful.

"It’s fine. Second Mother’s name is Liu Shenglan. She’s a good person. Not exceptionally beautiful, but she has a very gentle and magnanimous personality," Lin Hui answered.

He hadn’t met this Second Mother many times, but from their interactions, she lacked the arrogance typical of someone from the Inner City. She was easygoing in her speech and manner, and was very respectful to both him and his mother, Yao Shan.

His impression of her so far was quite good.

"That’s good," Weiwei nodded. "But, your Second Mother is pregnant, right? She’s an Inner City person. Do you think the child she gives birth to will be born with an Inner City bloodline?"

Lin Hui fell silent for a moment, then nodded.

In fact, it was precisely for this reason that he and his mother, Yao Shan, actually lived completely separately from the Second Mother and her people. Aside from mealtimes each day, they hardly ever saw them.

Yao Shan had privately told him that Second Mother Liu Shenglan and the child she would bear were bound to return to the Inner City sooner or later. They couldn’t possibly live in the Outer City long-term. They and people like themselves were, ultimately, from two different worlds.

All these signs, along with his mother’s reaction, made Lin Hui involuntarily think of a possibility...

’Could it be that Dad is temporarily taking the fall for some big shot from the Inner City?’

The more he thought about it, the more suspicious he became.

After his conversation with Weiwei, he took his sword and went to a corner to do some extra practice, executing the graceful moves of the perfect version of the Qingfeng Swordsmanship one after another.

Soon, he finished a set, and a familiar warm current flowed from his chest, spreading throughout his body.

Just as Lin Hui was about to end his practice, a thin, icy thread suddenly materialized out of thin air from his dantian.

The thread spun rapidly, coiling into a small vortex in his abdomen before settling into place.

Immediately after, a second icy thread appeared, converging in his abdomen in the same manner.

Then a third, and a fourth...

’This is... Inner Strength!?’ Lin Hui had already learned the characteristics and sensations of Qingfeng Internal Power in detail from his master. Noticing the change in his body now, how could he not know he had succeeded?

’But... wasn’t it supposed to take three years at the very least?!’

’And aren’t you only supposed to be able to form one thread of Inner Strength at a time?’

He stood frozen on the spot, stunned. ’It’s been less than two months, and I’ve already reached the Inner Power Realm??’