Chapter 177: Chapter 167: Clue, Part 1
After the wind, rain began to fall.
A gentle, persistent rain fell, scattering some of the fog.
The headless corpse of White Blade slowly toppled over. The wound rapidly turned red, then black, and began its Purgatory Transformation as large blisters broke out. But the next moment, unable to complete the process due to the loss of a vital organ, the body burst into flames with a WHOOSH and was quickly reduced to black ash.
Lin Hui stood back, watching as Black Blade slowly got to his feet. He was completely different now.
A dense cluster of black-red horns sprouted from the back of his head, curving like a wild shock of short hair.
A black, bony substance grew to cover the lower half of his face, resembling a black half-mask.
Black Blade’s eyes were now blood-red and glowed with a fluorescent light. Waves of scorching heat radiated from him, mingling with the wind and rain to create even more steam and fog.
"Still conscious?" Lin Hui raised his Longsword, darting to the right to face Black Blade.
Black Blade didn’t answer. He just stood there, dazed, as if adapting to his new body.
ROAR!
He suddenly threw his head back and roared, pouncing at Lin Hui like a wild beast.
But the next instant, a silver light flashed.
Lin Hui’s figure vanished like a burst bubble and reappeared behind Black Blade. He slowly sheathed his sword.
The wind howled, whipping his long black hair about.
He glanced back at Black Blade.
A column of black-red fire erupted from below, engulfing Black Blade and turning him into a fiercely burning, black-red torch.
The next second, the black-red flame lunged at Lin Hui, vanishing into his chest in the blink of an eye.
An indescribably immense, warm current surged into Lin Hui’s body, beginning to uniformly strengthen every part of him.
His strength and regenerative abilities began to rise again, and a thin layer of keratin started to form on his neck.
But he quickly used his Inner Strength to adjust his skin and suppress the Purgatory Aura, preventing himself from transforming into something like Black Blade.
’The boost is too much... I can’t absorb any more, or... I might not be able to maintain even a normal appearance.’ Lin Hui estimated. He glanced at the pile of black ash that was once Black Blade and poked it with his sword. The clothes had been incinerated, but a few items remained, all miscellaneous things with no obvious purpose.
Lin Hui didn’t dare to take them. He dug a pit and buried them, wary of any hidden traps left by the Qinghe Sect.
White Blade hadn’t been carrying much either, but a jade-green, cup-like object caught Lin Hui’s eye.
He picked it up with his sword, turned and suddenly vanished, rushing out of the Boundary Zone and towards the Fog Wall.
Soon, he was inside the fog. He found a random Barbarian monster and shoved the object into its mouth.
The Barbarian was roaring with its head thrown back, its mouth wide open, when the object suddenly flew in. Before it could spit it out, a figure shot forward and slapped it across the jaw with the flat of a sword, forcing it to swallow the object with a GULP.
Lin Hui hid and observed for a while. Once he was sure it was safe, he killed the Barbarian, retrieved the object, found a spot to bury it, and memorized the location.
He wasn’t in a hurry to find out if it was dangerous; time would tell.
He returned to Qingfeng Temple as if nothing had happened and resumed his focused cultivation.
This time, however, he didn’t go to the Gale Plain. Instead, he stood guard outside Xue Meng’s room.
Black and White Blade were High Priests. Even a power as strong as the Qinghe Sect couldn’t have many experts of their caliber.
Killing two High Priests was a devastating blow to the Qinghe Sect. The subsequent investigation would undoubtedly be intensified.
His next move was to lie low and bide his time, making sure not to expose himself.
He would wait for the Qinghe Sect to reveal more of its hand, then strike a fatal blow at a critical moment.
Time passed day by day.
Xue Meng’s condition worsened. Sometimes he was only lucid for a few minutes a day before falling back into a deep sleep. His waking moments were driven by an immense hunger, causing him to eat and drink voraciously.
This state continued for more than three weeks.
Until...
DING.
At the stone table, Lin Hui set down his teacup. He placed a hand on the hilt of the sword resting on the table and rose to his feet.
He turned and looked towards Xue Meng’s room.
An unnatural silence emanated from it, as if it were a black hole swallowing all surrounding sound.
’Tea instead of wine. Brother Xue, may you have a safe journey.’
Lin Hui’s longsword left its sheath. Its tip flicked up the teacup, tossing it gently through the room’s window.
THUD.
The teacup was caught firmly by a large, black hand.
A towering, blood-colored figure appeared at the doorway. It crushed the teacup and the tea within with one hand and looked up at Lin Hui.
It was a strange humanoid, its entire body blood-red, with sword-shaped Black Crystal spikes covering its back.
Aside from the blood-red skin and the Black Crystal spikes on its back, the rest of the humanoid was almost identical to Xue Meng’s former appearance, only much taller than before.
The humanoid’s eyes were pitch black. It looked at Lin Hui and suddenly opened its mouth, about to let out a roar.
SWISH!
But the next instant, everything came to an abrupt halt.
A flash of silver light.
Lin Hui’s figure appeared behind it. He stepped into the room and gently picked up a yellow piece of paper from the table.
The paper was held down by an inkstone. The faint ink seemed to have only recently dried. The characters were twisted and contorted, reflecting Brother Xue’s desperate struggle against the corruption.
Lin Hui picked up the yellow paper. Only then did the humanoid figure behind him collapse with a crash, its neck and body slowly separating. A deep, penetrating wound had also appeared in its heart.
He looked down to read the words on the paper.
’Xiao... Ningmei...’
The messy, chaotic handwriting showed Xue Meng’s regret and pain before his consciousness was finally extinguished.
This person was perhaps someone he once loved, or perhaps someone he had wronged.
Only at the brink of death did he remember and leave behind her name.
Just then, he heard the sounds of the disciples behind him, come to take care of the body.
Lin Hui turned his head and watched as Xue Meng’s four disciples personally put Xue Meng’s head back in place and lifted him onto a stretcher.
Tears welled in the four disciples’ eyes, their rims red. They bowed to Lin Hui before leaving the courtyard.
Lin Hui was left alone. He walked out of the room, his gaze sweeping over the courtyard, filled with the traces of Xue Meng’s daily life.
He once again recalled the many descriptions of the corruption.
"First time seeing something like this?" The new disciple, Mingxia, had entered the courtyard at some point. She looked at the silent Lin Hui and spoke up.
"Perhaps because many people disappear long before they can be corrupted. In that sense, this is indeed my first experience," Lin Hui replied calmly.
"You’re right. That’s what corruption does," Mingxia nodded. "That’s just how this world is. Why do we train and strive to become stronger at all costs? It’s to protect ourselves in this dangerous environment. Stronger, stronger, no matter the price. That’s how we ended up with Summoning and Extreme Martial Arts. And that’s why the more you train, the shorter your life."
"...The Fog Area... What makes it so much more dangerous than the Inner City?" Lin Hui asked. Based on his own experience, even the highest-level monsters, the Destruction Level ones, could be dealt with by the Inner City’s Palace Master, the Original Blood, or even the Fog People. If that was the case, why did people at the very beginning have to train so desperately to protect themselves?
"I don’t know the answer to that." Mingxia spread her hands. "Maybe this is all just a safe zone. The farther you go into the Fog Area, the stronger the monsters get. And have you ever thought about this? The Evil Soldier Insect Scripture wasn’t created by people. It’s a treasure that has existed in this world since the beginning. We just discovered it, made some minor adjustments, and fused with it."
She paused.
"In fact, it’s more accurate to say that in the beginning, they weren’t weapons, but disasters... The ancestors of the Human Race threw themselves forward, one after another, piling up bodies until they finally defeated the first Evil Soldier Insect Scripture. After that, it was a snowball effect. They used the power of the first Evil Soldier to handle other disasters, acquire more Evil Soldiers, and so on, until the Fog People gradually grew in number."
"So, in the beginning, the only thing we ever relied on was Martial Arts."
When Mingxia said this, her eyes held an unconcealed solemnity.
"Martial Arts... Is that how Extreme Martial Arts came to be?" Lin Hui said.
"Perhaps," Mingxia said.
"Perhaps... then why didn’t the Martial Dao continue to develop to a point where it could resist all dangers?" Lin Hui asked.
"Naturally, because of despair," Mingxia answered. "There are some things that you can’t even begin to imagine the extent of until you’ve seen them for yourself."
Lin Hui knew she was talking about the Fog People. He said no more, simply walking slowly out of the courtyard to go to the Gale Plain to practice his swordsmanship and Body Tempering.
Xue Meng’s funeral lasted for three days. Thanks to Qingfeng Temple’s considerable reputation, many guests attended, giving the occasion the gravity it deserved. Not that Xue Meng, having no descendants, needed such a display.
His body was cremated, the ashes placed in an urn, and buried in a corner of the courtyard where he had lived.
In this environment, an uncremated body was likely to cause problems. And if the ashes weren’t kept at home, they would be dug up and desecrated by monsters from the Fog Area.
So, many people’s practice was to bury them in their own courtyards and set up a memorial tablet.
After Xue Meng passed away, Lin Hui found that within the sect, the only person he could really talk to was, surprisingly, Mingxia.
When others faced him, it was either with admiration, respect, or awe.
There was no sense of equality.
Only Mingxia managed this.
Time flowed on. The memory of Xue Meng’s death slowly faded at Qingfeng Temple. Meanwhile, in the Lin Mansion, Lin Xiaoliu was growing taller. She had gone from babbling to being able to slowly say the names of all her relatives.
The person she was closest to was Lin Hui’s mother, Yao Shan, who cared for her the most. To Xiaoliu, she was her aunt.
Next was her father, Lin Shunhe. Her brother, Liu Wu Jun, and sister, Liu Xiao, were more like strangers. And because Lin Hui only visited her occasionally, he was merely a familiar face.
But for some reason, even though Liu Wu Jun and his sister also only visited her occasionally, Lin Xiaoliu’s attitude toward them was completely different from her attitude toward Lin Hui.
She always seemed a little afraid of Lin Hui.
Whenever Lin Hui was near or tried to hold her, she would become very quiet and well-behaved, not making a fuss at all. Her little face would be drawn tight.
It wasn’t normal for a two-year-old toddler to have such an expression and demeanor. It meant she wasn’t relaxed.
Once he realized this, Lin Hui stopped trying to get too close to the child, contenting himself with just ensuring she was safe and well.
While Lin Hui was engrossed in his cultivation, oblivious to the outside world, the news of the two Qinghe Sect High Priests’ mysterious disappearance was already causing a stir among the major powers.
Black and White Blade had taken part in the ambush against the Tao Family, only to mysteriously disappear a year later. It was impossible not to wonder if an expert from a power on good terms with the Tao Family had retaliated and killed them.
After all, a High Priest was a powerhouse, considered a part of the upper echelon in any organization.
To suddenly lose two...
