Chapter 166: Chapter 156: Accumulation, Part 2
This reality left Lin Wuhai stunned. He found it difficult to accept.
He could accept being unable to match his master’s Inner Strength in the past. After all, his master was a peerless genius, a sect-founding powerhouse brilliant enough to comprehend the Perfect Clear Wind Sword and Gale Sword on his own.
But now he had broken through to the Circulation Realm, yet his Inner Strength was still utterly crushed before his master.
His master hadn’t even broken through to the Circulation Realm. There was an entire realm separating them, and yet...
At that moment, Lin Wuhai’s estimation of Lin Hui was once again shrouded in a new layer of mystery.
"Master... your Inner Strength... what on earth is going on?! Have you increased and compressed its volume?" he couldn’t help but ask.
"I didn’t use any extra force. This is a natural change that occurs when Body Tempering with the Qingfeng Sword and Gale Sword reaches its limit." Lin Hui was inwardly satisfied. He had confirmed his Inner Strength far surpassed the Circulation Realm. ’Now I understand why I can kill Circulation Martial Artists as easily as slaughtering chickens, effortlessly breaking through their Inner Strength barriers. It seems my weapon is one factor, but my Inner Strength also plays a huge role.’
"Body Tempering...!?" Lin Wuhai’s pupils shrank. "Just Body Tempering alone can reach such a level!?"
"We practice the same school of Martial Arts. If I can do it, you will be able to as well, sooner or later. Keep working hard." Lin Hui withdrew his Inner Strength and patted his disciple’s shoulder encouragingly.
He held Lin Wuhai, the only Circulation Martial Artist under his tutelage, in high regard.
The young man was hardworking and talented; he was bound to achieve great things eventually.
"Disciple understands!" Lin Wuhai seemed to have gone through some sort of mental recalibration. His expression suddenly became even more resolute as he nodded firmly and cupped his fist in a salute.
"I will go and continue my training at once!"
He bid farewell, then turned and vanished with a SWISH.
Lin Hui let out a breath and picked up the consolidated bestiary for the Fog Area, flipping through it gently.
Yes, he planned to go to the Fog Area to improve himself. The idea had come to him after he realized the Purgatory Aura’s corruption was spreading. Besides simply tempering his body and taking medicine, he could also devour other Purgatory creatures to strengthen his physical form. This was another path to advancement.
At the same time, it would allow him to test the true limits of his strength more clearly.
By fighting the monsters in the Fog Area, he could also indirectly compare himself to the other Martial Artist and Summoning Systems to determine his own level. This would help him know himself and know his enemies.
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Inner City, Nine Dreams Sect.
Amidst cyan mountains, a straight, grayish-black stone tower, much like the Moon Tower, stood silently in the howling wind.
The stone tower jutted out abruptly from the mountains, standing head and shoulders above the rest, almost piercing the gray-white mist of the sky.
Atop the square tower was a cluster of resplendent, golden-roofed pavilions and sharp-spired palaces.
The surfaces of all these buildings were covered in a layer of gold plating.
Under the hazy daylight, a golden glow permeated the air, exuding an ethereal and opulent aura.
At the tower’s summit, inside the tallest and most spacious Golden Hall.
The vast chamber was empty. Upon golden stone tiles as smooth and bright as a mirror, a man in a white robe with waist-long black hair was strolling slowly, admiring the vast, distant sea of pure white mist below the platform at the hall’s edge.
From the ceiling of the entire hall hung countless densely packed, rod-shaped purple Jade Talismans. The wind blew them against each other, creating a crisp, clear sound like wind chimes.
The man possessed delicate features, like a maiden’s, and his aura was one of purity. His face was so androgynous it was impossible to tell his gender. Were it not for his robe hanging casually open, revealing the fair skin of his chest, one would mistake him for a pure and exquisitely beautiful woman rather than a man.
His white robe was also embroidered with exquisite designs in Golden Thread.
Some were of a Phoenix, others of a dragon-headed, human-bodied monster, and some were simple patterns of flames or lotuses.
The long robe trailed on the ground like a woman’s court dress, complementing the surrounding empty, golden hall perfectly.
After admiring the view of the misty sea for a while, the man turned around, revealing an odd face with a faint, unreadable smile, the corners of his lips seemingly permanently upturned.
"I never thought someone could sneak into my Old Dream Golden Hall, right before my very eyes, despite its nine layers of protection. Interesting..."
His gaze swept over and landed precisely on the main entrance of the Golden Hall in the distance.
There, between two massive golden pillars, a blurry, translucent humanoid figure was rapidly coalescing, taking shape, and becoming solid.
Soon, after two seconds, the figure solidified completely, revealing the slender form of a woman clad head-to-toe in a tight black bodysuit, with only her eyes exposed.
The woman’s black hair was tied in a high ponytail that swayed in the wind. Two short swords were tucked at the small of her back, their sheaths crossed. She did not draw them, but simply raised her eyes to look directly at the man in the white robe.
"Long time no see, Master Yunxia. Your obsession with gold is getting worse..." The woman stepped forward slowly. In a flash, she appeared and came to a stop ten meters away from the white-robed man.
"So it’s you..." The man in white showed a flicker of recognition and smiled again. "It’s been over a decade. Why have you taken to skulking about? Han Feng."
"It’s just a habit to stay concealed. After all, you know my current position," Han Feng said flatly.
"Speak. With your personality, you would never come looking for me for no reason." Master Yunxia smiled. His pure and pretty face, with its faintly smiling, upturned lips, possessed a strange and wondrous beauty.
"Yes, a small personal matter. I came to verify something with you." Seeing him, even Han Feng, a woman herself, couldn’t help but be momentarily dazed.
Master Yunxia’s stunning beauty was famous in their time.
Back then, his pursuers included both men and women, with men being quite numerous.
It only ended after two Original Bloods from the Moon Tower dueled to the death over him, leaving one of them dead. The incident provoked the highest authorities into issuing a ban, which finally put the matter to rest. Rumor had it that a heartbroken Master Yunxia then declared he would never seek a partner. He had lived in seclusion on the Golden Summit of the Nine Dreams Sect ever since—a full eighty years.
’Looking at him now, what’s there to be heartbroken about? He probably just found it all annoying and moved here to avoid trouble.’
"Speak," Master Yunxia said. The wind lifted his long hair, revealing glimpses of a silvery-white ribbon within and releasing a faint, elegant fragrance.
"Did you... take on a disciple outside the city?" Han Feng asked in a low voice.
"A disciple?" Master Yunxia smoothed his long hair, a sculpted brow arching. He was about to reply, but seeing the solemn, formal look in Han Feng’s eyes, a wicked impulse arose within him.
"Interesting. What do you all know?"
"That Observatory Master of Qingfeng Temple in the Outer City, the one with the unnaturally fast Body Technique... that’s your disciple, isn’t it?" Although Han Feng phrased it as a question, her tone was one of certainty.
"I don’t know anything. I’m not clear on anything," Master Yunxia said, his beautiful eyes half-lidded, his lips curved in that unreadable smile.
"If you did take him on, with your status and power, what’s there to hide? We only discovered something was amiss by tracking and monitoring Han Xiaoyue. Otherwise, you might have actually managed to hide it. She has her eyes on that kid, too, likely because of you," Han Feng said grimly.
"Han Xiaoyue...? Interesting. She is indeed a thorny opponent. But how are you so sure she’s targeting me?" Master Yunxia chuckled.
"They are unwilling to accept their fate. They want to make one last gamble before they leave. Han is one of the two strongest among them; she won’t just submit obediently. This is normal. Wasn’t it the same in the past?" Han Feng said.
"So they’ve set their sights on my one and only disciple?" Master Yunxia said, blinking.
"I can’t think of any other reason," Han Feng replied.
"What makes you think that kid is my disciple?" Master Yunxia asked again.
"Because of the sword and the Body Technique. In all of Tuyue, only you can forge a blade that sharp that isn’t a replica of an Evil Soldier. As for that extreme speed Body Technique... although I also cultivate a speed-type Divine Decision, there’s still a gap compared to that Martial Art. I saw a trace of you in it..." Han Feng stated gravely.
"Is that so?" A flicker of curiosity crossed Master Yunxia’s eyes. "Well, that’s quite nice."
"What do you mean, ’quite nice’!? If he’s your disciple, you need to be careful! The kid has provoked the Qinghe Sect and has also been targeted by that freak from the Government Office’s underground. He has now chosen to join my Good Heart Sect, which is why I took the initiative to come and inform you," Han Feng said rapidly.
"So busy, so busy. How boring. Han Feng, you’ve become dull..." Master Yunxia smiled.
"Running around for worldly affairs... the you of today is no longer the you I remember. The you back then... your skin was so soft, so beautiful, so pure..." Master Yunxia narrowed his eyes, as if reminiscing about the beautiful memories of making love with Han Feng.
"Why are you bringing that up!?" A flash of shame and anger appeared in Han Feng’s eyes.
"Just reminiscing. Fondly recalling the past. If you had come with me back then... er, I’m hungry."
Suddenly, Master Yunxia’s words cut off, and the smile on his face vanished. He gently stroked his stomach.
His gaze swept over Han Feng’s face before quickly settling on her right leg.
"You are no longer the her I hold in my heart..."
"Wait...!" Han Feng sensed danger and retreated at high speed.
"Therefore, you are no longer worthy of the name Han Feng... no longer worthy of occupying my beautiful memories..."
HSSS.
He slowly drew his sword.
"Let your beauty remain forever in the depths of my memory..."
"Wait, Master Yunxia, don’t have an episode! I still have more to say!"
"Temporal Sense: Myriad Phenomena." Master Yunxia pointed his blade forward.
In that instant, the entire area for several kilometers around the Golden Summit of the Nine Dreams Sect distorted, blurred, and vanished in a flash.
Master Yunxia and the teleporting, retreating Han Feng vanished simultaneously. Only the wail of the howling wind remained in the vast, empty Golden Hall.
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「Fog Area.」
Lin Hui was crouched low, moving alone through the mist at high speed.
Ning Xiang pushed the mist away from him, creating a spherical cavity.
SSSK!
A crimson, rhinoceros-like monster charged at him from the front. Before it had even fully emerged from the mist, a flash of sword light split it in two down the middle. The two halves scraped past Lin Hui’s sides and collapsed to the ground with a loud THUD.
This Fog Area monster, which weighed at least two tons, was called a Blood Rhinoceros. In the bestiary, it was classified as a Danger Level creature with an extremely tough hide that was highly resistant to Inner Strength.
According to the bestiary’s records, the Inner City’s clean-up squads had once tested it. To completely kill a Blood Rhinoceros, a Martial Artist at the Circulation Perfection level would need to strike the same spot more than thirty consecutive times just to break its defense.
But a Blood Rhinoceros like this one fell to a single strike from Lin Hui’s Ruyi Sword.
’The Circulation Realm is no longer a challenge. It’s time to check out the High-Risk Level monsters and see where my own limits are.’
Lin Hui had a plan in mind. He didn’t bother processing the Blood Rhinoceros’s corpse. Although its materials were valuable, his main objective now was not gathering resources...
As he passed the Blood Rhinoceros’s corpse, he suddenly froze. His shoulder felt a bit itchy, so he stopped and pulled aside his robe to take a look.
The Nine Eyes of the Spirit-Sealing Array on his shoulder, which had been dormant for a long time, now suddenly had another cyan eye. It had gone from one to two.
’? How did another cyan eye suddenly appear?’
Lin Hui had been trying to figure out how to charge the Nine Eyes. After all, the Spirit-Sealing Array was clearly a powerful, trump-card-type ability.
But he had tried many methods, including killing Fog Area monsters before, and hadn’t found a way to increase the cyan eyes. So, he had given up and decided to let it happen naturally, waiting for his Inner Strength and Heart and Spirit to accumulate slowly.
He never expected that just killing a single Blood Rhinoceros would actually grant him another cyan eye.
