The Decaying World
Chapter 264 - 251: Meeting Again, Part 1
Inside the pirate ship’s cabin, four people huddled together, staring out the small window. Outside, a dense black fog and clouds merged into one, making them indistinguishable.
For a moment, all four of them felt their hearts sink.
In weather like this, there was no way to wait for the right moment. Not to mention, the bizarre celestial phenomenon itself signified an unpredictable danger.
"Are we really going to die here... never to..." Mingde’s eyes grew slightly moist.
His daughter, Weiwei, stood beside him with a dazed expression. She was thinking, ’If danger really comes, what sort of pose should I be in to meet my end?’
It was a dull question, but on this ship, the endless days and nights of hard labor had gradually extinguished any hope she once had, making her life numb and mechanical.
Her only pastime was to occupy her mind with such meaningless trivialities.
The ship rocked violently, trembling.
The four of them sank deeper into despair. Just as they were on the verge of losing all hope, a faint, low cry suddenly came from the window on the opposite side.
"Quick, look! What is that!?"
"A meteor!? It looks like a meteor! But how could a meteor appear in a place like this!?"
"Such a clear meteor!"
"And it’s red! It looks like it’s burning!"
The four of them exchanged glances, and soon they too saw the so-called meteor.
From their angle, through the window, they could see streaks of crimson, burning meteors in the dark sky outside. Trailing long tails of flame, they shot through the vast fog straight toward its densest part.
"No... that’s no meteor!" a white-haired old man suddenly shouted.
"That’s a Moth Car! I’ve seen them before in Tianchong City! This is what they look like when they accelerate for long-distance flight! Exactly like this!"
"Moth Cars!? Heavens! The people on Moth Cars must be important figures, right!? They’re heading straight for the center of the black fog. Could they be planning to completely eliminate this bizarre black fog!?"
"Maybe there’s a turning point!" Mingchen’s eyes sharpened. He exchanged a look with his two fellow disciples, and the despair in their hearts began to shift once more.
*
*
*
「In the sky.」
Lin Hui stood inside the lead Moth Car, flying head-on toward the center of the black fog.
Ouyang Yining stood at his side, slightly behind him, continuously adjusting a miniature, diamond-shaped purple crystal in her hands.
With her adjustments, the direction of the entire Moth Car fleet shifted slightly.
This was the core of the isolation Relic Array that surrounded the Moth Car fleet, its purpose being to protect them from the corrosive influence of the black fog.
Before long, the flames on the wings of all the Moth Cars died down. Their speed greatly decreased, and they gradually came to a hover.
"They’ve sensed our arrival," Ouyang Yining said nervously.
She couldn’t help but be nervous. This massive, anomalous black fog had already consumed one exploration team after another. Even as a Blood Ancestor, she couldn’t help but feel her nerves tense in the face of such a colossal threat.
"My lord, what should we do now?" she asked, looking at Lin Hui with anticipation.
From the moment she decided to follow Lin Hui, she had already bound her fate to his.
It was a decision she had made after researching a great deal of information and intelligence.
And now, it was time to see if that decision was the right one.
Facing the endless black fog, Lin Hui also felt a bit at a loss for where to begin.
He had never dealt with this kind of situation before, but he had accepted the mission out of confidence in his own power.
Gazing at the sea of black fog before him, he pondered for a moment, taking stock of what abilities he had to handle it.
’Dharma Seals?’
’Those are for self-enhancement.’
’Gale Swordsmanship? The range is too small.’
’Typhoon Swordsmanship?’
’The range might be wide enough, but whether it can blow away this black fog is another question. Still, it’s worth a try.’
’Sealing?’
’I’ve never tried sealing a target this large. Besides, Nine Eyes can only seal living beings, unless this thing is one single life form.’
After thinking it over, Lin Hui concluded that his only option was to try the Typhoon Swordsmanship. If that didn’t work, he would have to resort to mobilizing his Wind Disaster Power.
’It seems my methods for dealing with complex situations are still a bit lacking... No wonder relics are so popular. These treasures can significantly broaden one’s means of handling various problems and compensate for personal shortcomings...’
He wondered if he should also acquire some relics to supplement his abilities.
Then, he reached out and slowly drew his sword.
The tip of the Ruyi Sword emerged from its sheath, pointing forward.
Soon, faint, invisible ripples began to spread out in all directions with the sword at their center.
Amidst a low rumble, countless air currents converged in the sky, forming dark clouds.
The dark clouds swirled as lightning flickered within them.
A massive cyclone vortex took shape, covering the entire sea region.
"Stand back and wait for me."
Lin Hui leaped from the Moth Car and flew out, hovering in mid-air.
He raised Ruyi high and swung it forward gently.
Typhoon Swordsmanship—Returning Wind Slash.
It was an ordinary Sword Technique, but under the enhancement of the terrifying typhoon...
A massive, grayish-black tornado erupted behind Lin Hui with a deafening BOOM.
The tornado, drawing up seawater as it rose from the ocean, resembled a gray, demonic dragon. It roared and howled as it shot out from behind Lin Hui, grazing past his side and lunging toward the sea of black fog.
As the tornado swept past, the Moth Car fleet shook and lost balance, nearly getting dragged along with it into the sea of black fog.
The giant tornado, over several thousand meters in diameter, slammed into the center of the black fog with a tremendous crash.
It was like a black stirring rod being viciously plunged into a quiet cup of black coffee.
A vast amount of black fog was churned, compressed, and blasted apart.
"Insolence!!" Just then, a majestic roar of fury echoed from deep within the black fog.
A tall figure with a human torso and a fish’s tail, wielding a golden bident and clad in black scale mail, flew toward the grayish-black tornado in a rage.
He raised his bident, his body glowing with a faint golden light, and smashed it forward.
From behind him, countless wisps of black fog surged forth, taking the form of a gigantic bident that smashed toward the tornado along with his.
BOOM!
The tornado and the black fog bident collided and canceled each other out.
But in the next second, three more giant tornadoes rose from behind Lin Hui, roaring like demonic dragons as they pounced on the sea of black fog.
He slowly sheathed his sword, hovering quietly in mid-air, watching the three new tornadoes clash with the glowing, merman-like warrior.
As long as the heavens churn, he is indestructible.
This was the essence of the Typhoon Swordsmanship. Unless the massive celestial phenomenon overhead could be defeated, these tornadoes would be endless and unceasing. Even if one dispersed, another could be summoned with ease.
A few dozen seconds later, the three tornadoes were defeated. The panting merman warrior looked on in despair as ten more gray tornadoes rose from behind Lin Hui.
AHHH!!!
He let out a final, desperate roar of fury.
Then, swinging his golden bident, he was submerged by the gray tornadoes, devoured, and vanished.
"Your courage is admirable, but we stand on different sides. So, my apologies, warrior." Lin Hui hovered high in the sky, his gaze calm as he looked down at the sea of black fog being slowly blown apart and torn open by the ten grayish-black tornadoes.
"Kill!!"
"It’s a Fog Spirit from Black Cloud! Attack together! Buy more time for the ritual!"
"Don’t be afraid! Death is just the beginning of a new life! Our lord protects us! The future will be ours!"
The fog dissipated.
Innumerable merman warriors rose into the air. Some stood on Moth Cars, some flew on their own power, some were bare-fisted, and some were fully armored.
Their weapons were even more bizarre. There were sabers, swords, spears, and forks, and even projectile-based fog weapons that resembled rocket launchers.
As far as the eye could see, there were no fewer than a hundred thousand of them. Like a swarm of ants, they charged toward Lin Hui in the sky.
But in the next moment, the ten gray tornadoes howled and charged into their midst, utterly shredding any life they touched, turning it to dust and absorbing it.
’The tragedy of the weak...’ Lin Hui sighed. This was the fundamental reason why he trained so hard, never daring to slack off for even a moment.
It was all to avoid becoming such a pathetic weakling.
Freedom is the right of the strong.
The weak can only be dominated.
This was the fundamental principle of this world.
Just as he thought it was all over, a black chain suddenly shot out from the deepest part of the sea of black fog like a bolt of lightning.
The chain’s surface shimmered with golden light. In the blink of an eye, it pierced through a grayish-black tornado, shattering it.
Then came the second, the third, and the fourth.
In a flash, all ten tornadoes were pierced and destroyed.
The head of the chain was as large as a house and a hundred meters wide. And standing atop it was a person.
A long-haired man with three black horizontal stripes painted on his face.
The man wore ornate, black full-body armor, his long black hair whipping wildly in the wind. He held a golden bident, and a multi-colored eye shone from the center of his forehead.
"Human Race Blood Ancestor, I am Kachius, scion of the God of the Lost and the Homeland. Lay down your weapon, and you will be spared!"
He conveyed this through a clumsy telepathic message.
The voice was intermittent, and its meaning could only be barely understood.
Lin Hui couldn’t be bothered to respond. With a thought, twenty more grayish-black tornadoes rose behind him, blotting out the sky as they swept past him and lunged toward the long-haired, black-armored scion.
Using the Typhoon Swordsmanship for an ultra-long-range area-of-effect attack was one of the methods he had devised to avoid any potential contact with his opponent.
So far, he hadn’t even used the Typhoon Swordsmanship’s true killing moves, nor had he activated his Dharma Seals or even any Special Effects.
He was suppressing his opponent to the point of breathlessness using only practical Swordsmanship.
He was now far stronger than when he had fought Tuyue.
"A scion? Their strength should be second only to the Fog Spirits, right?" He still had the leisure to ask Ouyang Yining behind him.
"Yes. Scions and Low-Tier Fog Spirits often replace one another. The top scions are not much different from Low-Tier Fog Spirits in terms of power," Ouyang Yining quickly replied.
’He’ll do, then.’ A thought flickered in Lin Hui’s mind. Leaving behind this cryptic remark, he continued to battle the scion.
The two seemed to share a tacit understanding. They didn’t escalate the fight, but simply pushed slowly, bit by bit, toward the sea of black fog.
About two hours later, the black fog dispersed, revealing a ruined ritual island.
The island was covered in destroyed metal ritual conduits, and remnants of the black fog lingered everywhere.
The scion, Kachius, fought while retreating and eventually gave up defending the island to the death, leaving completely.
Both Lin Hui and he could sense that the other was holding back, hiding their true strength.
So they simply went along with it and put on a show.
Kachius’s side clearly knew they couldn’t stop Black Cloud City from sending a continuous stream of reinforcements, so they took the opportunity to cede this sea region.
"Since they gave up this place, what was their goal from the beginning? To spend so much manpower and so many resources, they must have had a purpose, right?" Lin Hui said, hovering over the small island.
"In any case, that’s a task for the other elders of Extreme Desire Heaven. It has nothing to do with us. We’ve completed our mission objective, and that’s enough. You’ve worked hard on this trip, my lord," Ouyang Yining transmitted earnestly from behind.
"You’re right," Lin Hui nodded.