Chapter 167: Chapter 157: Accumulation 3
’If it’s caused by killing monsters, then why didn’t this happen when I was killing them before?’
Lin Hui’s interest was piqued. Strengthening the Spirit-Sealing Array was a way to increase his power, so of course he was intrigued.
’Let’s test it out.’
Glancing at the Blood Rhinoceros on the ground, he simply began to circle the nearby area.
Before long, he found two more monsters from the Fog Area—a pair of Mist Barbarians. He finished each one with a single strike.
But the azure eyes showed no change.
Lin Hui decided to venture deeper into the Fog Area and soon encountered another Danger Level monster: a Wandering Barbarian.
This type of Barbarian was much larger than a Mist Barbarian. With a burly frame standing over five meters tall, it was like a small hill. Its defenses were even stronger than a Blood Rhinoceros’s, making it a Danger Level monster on the verge of becoming high-risk.
It took Lin Hui three strikes to sever its head, but the Nine Eyes still showed no reaction.
’What’s going on?’ His brow furrowed as he carefully recalled the differences between his kills.
Suddenly, a flash of insight struck him.
’Wait!’
He held Ruyi, gazing at the still-twitching corpse of the Wandering Barbarian on the ground.
PTHUNK.
All at once, he plunged his sword into the Barbarian’s head, the tip sinking deep into its brain.
Hiss.
The next moment, Lin Hui was pleasantly surprised to see one of the crystals of the Nine Eyes on his shoulder light up once more. This was the third crystal!
’So that’s how it works! This Spirit-Sealing Array must feed on brain matter to recharge... No, it’s not necessarily that disgusting. The head is likely the seat of a creature’s life spirit. It’s not feeding on the brain, but on the spirit of life itself!’
A series of conjectures flashed through Lin Hui’s mind.
He cut open the head to inspect the brain inside and quickly confirmed his theory. The brain was still intact, which meant the Spirit-Sealing Array was likely absorbing something ethereal, like consciousness or a spirit.
He immediately activated his Body Technique and quickly found a new Blood Rhinoceros. This time, he again beheaded the massive monster with a single sword strike.
THUD!
The Blood Rhinoceros collapsed, blood gushing endlessly from its severed neck, but the Nine Eyes remained inert, showing no sign of charging.
Not until Lin Hui walked up to the severed head and stabbed his sword into it.
Shhh.
The fourth crystal of the Nine Eyes lit up with a soft glow.
"Just as I thought!" Lin Hui’s eyes lit up. His previous tests had all been instant-kill decapitations, so he hadn’t absorbed any spirit energy. But now, by chance, he had finally figured out how to recharge the Nine Eyes!
Now that he knew the trick, he swiftly hunted down five more Danger Level monsters in the Fog Area, easily filling the Nine Eyes’ charge.
’Looks like I’ll have to be more thorough when testing new abilities next time. If I’d been more careful before, the Nine Eyes would have reached full charge long ago.’
Satisfied, Lin Hui stroked the nine azure-green, eye-shaped crystals on his shoulder and pulled his robe closed.
’Next, I’ll go check out the area with monsters corrupted by Purgatory. After that, I’ll head to the resource points recorded in the bestiary. I’m likely to run into experts from other factions gathering resources there, so it would be safer to go after absorbing power from the Purgatory monsters.’
Having set his priorities, he planned to spend a good while training in the Fog Area on this trip.
The trip to the Moon Tower had stirred a deep sense of crisis in his usually calm heart. This was especially true after seeing the Original Bloods kill indiscriminately and watching people like Ah Zhe have their lifespans drained away.
If you didn’t eat Wanfu Meat, you’d be targeted. Something could happen at any moment. But if you did eat Wanfu Meat, it would inevitably leave a hidden danger within your body.
He let out a long sigh.
He sped forward, and the hollow space formed by the Ning Xiang around him was stretched into a long, flat oval.
And this was without him even moving at full speed.
MOOOO~~~
Just then, the faint, muffled sound of something like a cow’s bellow drifted from up ahead.
Lin Hui looked up, peering ahead through the thick fog. He could vaguely make out a massive silhouette, over ten meters tall, walking step by step off to the right.
The figure was generally humanoid, with thick limbs and a stooped posture. It dragged many things that looked like ribbons or seaweed behind its feet.
He continued forward at a slower pace, and gradually, the giant figure ahead came into clearer view.
It was an off-white giant, more than ten meters tall.
It was hunched over, its body hairless and its head bald. On top of its head was a small, shriveled black figure, its lower body buried deep within the giant’s crown.
The small figure’s mouth was open, its head tilted back as it let out a tremendous, cow-like bellow from a mouth that looked like a black hole.
The giant trudged along its path while the small figure on its head kept roaring. The two seemed to be doing their own things, neither disturbing the other.
From this distance, Lin Hui’s eyesight was sharp enough to see that the giant’s skin looked like white interior plaster that had been warped by water. With every step, it shed a fine, white powder.
’The Wailing Giant...’ Lin Hui recalled the contents of the bestiary.
Among the dozens of monsters in the bestiary compiled by his disciple Lin Wuhai that had left a deep impression on him, the Wailing Giant was one.
’What is this thing doing here? This area should still be within the Tuyue Cleanup Team’s patrol zone, shouldn’t it? How could they let a high-risk monster like this get so close?’
The bestiary didn’t have much information on this kind of monster, just three points: highly corrosive, immense strength, and extremely tough defenses.
Comparing it to the information on other monsters of the same level in the bestiary, the simpler the description of its attributes, the harder it was to deal with.
According to the information in the bestiary, when the cleanup team encountered a monster of this level, they didn’t dare fight it head-on. They would only lure it away or, if they were lucky, wait for reinforcements of the Palace Master level to arrive and handle it.
That’s right. Only a powerhouse at the Palace Master level could guarantee a win against this thing. And in the area below the Inner City’s Moon Tower, there were only about ten such individuals... most of whom were the leaders of major factions.
Therefore, to avoid pointless casualties and exhaustion, the standard procedure for dealing with these monsters was to lure them away.
Lin Hui quietly tightened his grip on his sword hilt. After a moment of thought, he stepped forward and slowly drew his blade.
’I was looking for a high-risk monster to test my sword on anyway. I’ll give it a try first. If it’s too much, I can just use my superior speed to lose it. Although my speed test only clocked in at over a hundred meters per second, using Gale Swordsmanship to accelerate can boost that significantly. As for Typhoon Swordsmanship, that’s a different matter.’
Typhoon Swordsmanship doesn’t actually have an acceleration function; it’s more like a stationary, large-area bombing technique.
So in actual combat, for small-scale, close-quarters engagements, Gale Swordsmanship is still very useful.
He guessed that if his Typhoon Swordsmanship reached the limit of Body Tempering, it might naturally achieve an acceleration effect surpassing that of Gale Swordsmanship. That was probably why Typhoon Swordsmanship lacked any acceleration-focused Sword Techniques.
’Let’s see what it feels like to face a monster on the level of a Priest or Grand Priest... My Spirit-Sealing Array is fully charged, and according to the Blood Seal’s description, it should act as a safety net...’
Hiss.
A faint airflow began to swirl around Lin Hui, gradually growing stronger and faster.
SWOOSH!
In the next instant, he vanished from his spot. The Ning Xiang cavity was stretched into a thin line and disappeared as well.
He crossed the distance of several dozen meters in a flash.
The giant’s plaster-like skin rapidly filled his vision as he closed in.
Lin Hui raised his sword—Gale Swordsmanship, Mountain Rubbing Technique, Breaking Cone!
PTHUNK!!
Ruyi sliced deep into the giant’s skin, carving out a huge gash on its left side before the blade slid free.
’This isn’t even that tough. Is it because Ruyi is too sharp after being enhanced? Or is it that my Inner Strength has been strengthened too much by my recent Body Tempering?’
A flicker of suspicion passed through Lin Hui’s mind.
But in the next moment, he sensed that something was wrong.
The giant’s leg in front of him seemed far, far thicker than it had from a distance.
Just moments ago, when he’d looked from afar, the giant had only been about ten meters tall. But now, standing up close, he felt that its thigh alone was over ten meters thick, like a colossal stone pillar filling most of his field of vision.
As a result, after the one-point-six-meter-long Ruyi had carved out a large gash, the wound looked like a tiny, insignificant scratch on the giant’s leg.
’What’s happening!?’
Lin Hui looked up at the giant’s body.
The Wailing Giant now appeared far, far taller in his eyes than it had just moments before.
It no longer looked like it was ten-odd meters tall, but dozens, even hundreds of meters...
’No! Wait! This giant... it seems to be growing taller and bigger!?’
Lin Hui’s mind snapped into focus as he realized something was wrong.
The Wailing Giant before his eyes continued to let out its cow-like bellows as its body rapidly grew taller, thicker, and larger at a visible rate.
In his perception, it had already become a small mountain, its head nearly touching the misty clouds in the sky.
MOO!
The Wailing Giant lowered its head, lifted a foot, and brought it stomping down heavily toward Lin Hui.
’Retreat!’
Lin Hui retreated at extreme speed, his body becoming a thin line, but strangely, no matter how he moved back, he couldn’t escape the range of the descending foot.
’This is a Mental Attack!? It wasn’t recorded in the bestiary! No wonder it takes a High Priest to withstand it!’ Lin Hui understood at once.
He didn’t panic. Instead, in that brief moment, he rapidly executed Breaking Cone, stacking it with the speed of his Gale Swordsmanship.
A powerful airflow howled and surged around him. Lin Hui simply closed his eyes and began to circle the giant’s foot at high speed.
BOOM!!!
Finally, the giant’s massive foot slammed into the ground, right where Lin Hui had been.
At the last possible second before impact, Lin Hui, with his eyes closed, managed to escape, barely avoiding being crushed.
But the crisis wasn’t over. He opened his eyes and saw that the Wailing Giant in his vision was still getting bigger.
It had now grown from a small mountain into something like a skyscraper. Its upper body was completely lost in the fog, leaving only two legs as thick as buildings, which took a step toward him.
And this time, because its size had increased, the speed of its stomp had also multiplied instantly.
It’s like how for an ant, crawling one meter takes quite a while.
But for a human, one meter is just a single step. A quick one takes less than a second.
It was the same for the Wailing Giant now. With one stride, it crossed a hundred meters in an instant, stomping toward Lin Hui.
Its enormous foot had already swollen to a diameter of a hundred meters, covering all the ground around Lin Hui.
’How am I supposed to fight this?!!’ Lin Hui’s brow furrowed as he watched the white powder continuously falling from the sole of the giant’s foot.
He had guessed that a Mental Attack was causing this situation, but he had no way to break free from it.
Using Gale Swordsmanship at full power, stacking its effects over and over, his speed had far surpassed the limit he’d reached during his test, but it was still useless.
The giant’s foot was actually increasing its surface area at the same rate as he was accelerating!
The white foot that blotted out the sky came crashing down.
Lin Hui barely managed to escape by skirting the very edge.
’This focuses on something completely different from a High Priest’s Mental Attack! But it’s just as difficult to deal with!’ Lin Hui’s expression was grave.
Truly facing a high-risk monster at the Grand Priest Level, he finally understood what kind of opponents the Inner City cleanup teams had to face every day.
’So, how do I break free from this attack!?’
His mind raced as his feet never stopped, continuously executing Gale Swordsmanship. This time, it wasn’t Breaking Cone, but a technique for evasion and retreat.
His figure shot backward, but the giant’s foot rose again, still rapidly expanding.
Lin Hui was shocked to find that his retreat speed couldn’t keep up with the speed at which the giant was approaching and growing larger!
No...
’It’s not that it’s getting bigger... *I’m* the one who’s getting smaller!!’
