Chapter 282: Chapter 268: Starry Sky 2
Lin Hui was a little surprised, but after a moment’s thought, he understood.
If killing a Fog Person granted the Weapon Evil Soldier Insect Manual, then the Fog People would have surely gathered under the most powerful unified factions. They wouldn’t be scattered about as they were now, their tribes dispersed and completely random.
Because the major factions with the upper hand would have consolidated their power, snatching up Evil Soldier Insect Scriptures everywhere and devouring the true evil fog of other Fog People tribes.
But now, the Evil Soldier had vanished, along with the true evil fog.
In essence, what he had actually killed was the human individual named Tuyue, not the Fog Person entity fused with the Wheel of Longevity.
The Star Breath Sword Manual seemed to possess a special effect that could sever a Fog Person from their true evil fog.
This part surprised Lin Hui.
He had originally planned to severely wound Tuyue and then use Nine Eyes to forcibly seal him.
He hadn’t expected to achieve his goal in an even more fitting manner.
’There’s still one more.’
Lin Hui looked in the direction Xie Jun had fled, his figure flashing as he gave chase at extreme speed.
With his current physique and speed, and by manipulating the surrounding air to reduce drag, he was now significantly faster than before.
Breaking through the waters of the Jade Sea, Lin Hui flew at a low altitude, becoming a black streak as he pursued Xie Jun for about ten minutes.
But he still found no sign of him; clearly, the man hadn’t fled in a straight line.
Seeing that he was approaching the border of the Crystal Sea, Lin Hui had no choice but to return to Black Cloud.
’It’s a shame Tuyue didn’t grant me a Pulse of Annihilation... It seems that unless I completely destroy the Wheel of Longevity, I’ll only be considered to have killed a normal human... It makes sense that I didn’t get a Pulse of Annihilation.’
Lin Hui quickly returned to the vicinity of the Third Mountain. On the way, he launched some sneak attacks and killed a few divine descendants.
He was gathering the last bit needed for the Annihilation Sacred Form.
It had to be said, the Fog Spirit truly wasn’t picky. The physical traits of the divine descendants included not only oxen, horses, sheep, dragons, and tigers, but even pigs, snails, rats, and some crustaceans...
After gathering what he needed, he returned to the summit of the Third Mountain. Only twenty minutes had passed, and Li Hanzhang and Hong Lingxiao were staring at him with looks of utter shock, as if they’d seen a ghost.
"You’re okay!?" Li Hanzhang had personally seen Lin Hui get ambushed and taken away by two assassins. He never expected the man to fly back as if nothing had happened.
"What could happen? It was just a couple of old enemies who used a relic to ambush me, catching me off guard. But they underestimated my new breakthrough in Cultivation. I turned the tables on them in a few moves, and once it was over, I came back. It was a false alarm," Lin Hui explained, a sigh of relief on his face.
"As long as you’re okay... The third phase is about to begin. Are you... all right?" Hong Lingxiao wasn’t one to pry. She could tell Lin Hui didn’t want to elaborate, so she moved on.
"I’m fine. I just need a little more rest," Lin Hui said, nodding and letting out a tired breath.
"The third phase is mainly about combining our strength to resist the Fog Spirit’s divine artifact array. You should stand a bit further back then," Hong Lingxiao advised.
"Thank you for your concern," Lin Hui said gratefully.
After the three had rested a while longer, a piercing golden light suddenly flared up in the distant sky.
"It’s here!" Hong Lingxiao said gravely. "This time, we have to combine our strength and pour all of it into the mountain’s formation, or we won’t be able to block it!"
"Right!" Lin Hui and Li Hanzhang nodded solemnly in unison.
The words had barely left their mouths when, in the next instant, the golden light erupted, expanding rapidly and transforming into a colossal golden spear, its surface covered in embossed patterns of countless sea monsters.
SWOOSH!
The spear streaked across the entire sky, shooting straight toward Black Cloud City.
Its light dyed everything between heaven and earth a brilliant gold.
All the monsters and Black Army soldiers it passed over, regardless of their level, were instantly turned into rigid, unmoving golden statues by the spear’s radiant light.
At that moment, Hong Lingxiao and the others, along with the Blood Progenitors on the other mountain peaks, all aimed their hands at the floating mountains and poured in their power.
Lin Hui also raised his hand and pretended to release his power, but he was only going through the motions.
The Disaster Energy within him was too unique; he didn’t dare mix it into the grand formation, fearing it would cause trouble that would be difficult to handle later.
A second later, the colossal golden spear plummeted down, smashing viciously against the transparent, hemispherical formation above Black Cloud City.
The formation had previously taken on a net-like structure to disperse pressure. Now, infused with a massive influx of various powers, it faintly glowed gray and met the golden spear’s downward thrust head-on.
With a deafening BOOM, everyone was instantly deafened, unable to hear a single sound.
Fortunately, the grand formation was tough enough. It held firm against the golden spear, bringing it to a stalemate.
Everyone inside the formation suffered some ear damage from the concussive shockwave, but they quickly recovered and continued to channel their power to maintain it.
Day by day, time passed. The power of the Fog Spirit’s divine artifact began to wane.
And this was where the Fog People’s advantage of infinite power became apparent.
Starting from the Circulation realm, the power the Fog People could absorb was limitless. Their Inner Strength and True Power were only limited by the rate at which they could be released. The only power that was truly consumed was usually Mental Power; for stronger Summoning masters, even their Void Power was nearly infinite.
Compared to the Fog Spirit’s side, which had to slowly accumulate Fog Divine Power, they were on a whole different level in terms of endurance.
As the golden spear slowly dimmed, the low sound of a horn echoed from the distant sky.
With a CRACK, the golden spear shattered and exploded into countless motes of golden light that scattered in all directions.
Wherever the motes of light landed, massive explosions erupted all over the Black Cloud grand formation.
The explosions triggered another immense shockwave that didn’t fully dissipate until more than ten minutes later.
Now, in the distant sky, countless divine descendants of the Fog Spirit were retreating, leaving only a vast sea of monster carcasses and fragments covering the land and sea around Black Cloud.
A mixture of strange, foul odors permeated the air.
SHING! SHING! SHING!
Just then, three streaks of white light broke through the clouds in the distance, flying back at high speed toward the three floating mountains.
On the summit of the Third Mountain, Gongsun Xinlian, an entire arm missing, sat cross-legged in the center of the circular formation, her expression weary.
"The divine host has withdrawn. Everyone rest for now. The reserve Black Army will stand guard. If all is clear after three days, the alert will be lifted."
Her voice spread directly across the Third Mountain and the nearby areas under its jurisdiction.
Soon, the waiting Black Army reserve units poured out from the Inner City walls like a tide, replacing the sentries at their posts.
The engineering corps responsible for repairing buildings and walls followed close behind, beginning emergency repairs.
Countless sighs of relief and cries of anguish now began to spread. The expressions on the faces of the survivors and those who had lost loved ones formed a stark contrast.
Lin Hui stood at the edge of the mountaintop formation and looked for Hong Lingxiao.
But he found that she and Li Hanzhang had already vanished without a trace, leaving him alone.
"Thank you for holding back the Fog Spirit’s assault this time. Otherwise, we would have had to sacrifice the reserve inner formation just to barely handle that Vermilion Bird Flame God," Gongsun Xinlian’s voice reached his ear.
"It was my duty," Lin Hui said in a low voice.
"The rewards you’ve earned will be distributed later, don’t worry. For now, you should go check on your Qingfeng Path." Gongsun Xinlian gave Lin Hui an appreciative glance.
’The Great City Lord and I weren’t wrong about him. At the critical moment, Lin Hui alone truly had the impact of a basic Fog Person.’
"Yes!" Lin Hui nodded. He gave a salute, then turned and plunged down the mountain.
*
*
*
「Several days later.」
The reconstruction of Black Cloud was completed at a jaw-dropping speed.
A top-tier Blood Progenitor from Second City Lord Baoxin Tower’s Zhang Yao family led his engineering corps to rebuild most of the damaged structures in just three short days.
They used Void Power to lay foundations and press bricks, True Power and Inner Strength to transport heavy materials, Destruction Level bones as rebar frames, and sea monster mucus and blood mixed with sea sand as concrete...
The resulting buildings were absurdly strong, and their color was the same as before: a uniform pure white, pale white, and grayish-white.
Now Lin Hui finally understood why most of the buildings everywhere, whether in Black Cloud or Tuyue’s territory, were white...
It was because the flesh, skin, and bones of the monsters were almost all white.
After the construction was finished, they sprayed a deodorizer, and everything returned to how it was before.
After checking on the situation at Qingfeng Path and confirming there was no damage, Lin Hui went to the Inner City to bring back his wife, Liu Xiao, and the others from the Lin Mansion.
Life soon returned to normal.
The aftershocks of the sea battle had not yet completely faded. The three City Lords began to reward merits on a grand scale, distributing massive quantities of resources and creations derived from the monster divine descendants.
A large number of merchant caravans from the major city districts also flocked in, eager to purchase the vast quantities of monster materials.
These materials could be used to make equipment, weapons, medicines, clothing, and more—almost everything was useful.
Lin Hui also received a large batch of Treasure Medicine distributed by Xie Chang’an.
At this moment, in the courtyard of Qingfeng Path, he was sitting back in a chair, sipping the recently distributed Divine Blood Tea and feeling the immense energy surging through his body. His expression was one of content.
Divine Blood Tea was a new Treasure Medicine he had recently tried that could reduce the evolution time of his Blood Seal. Its effect was even stronger than Purple Cloud Ganoderma, and with the latter’s effects gradually weakening, the tea had successfully replaced it as the new key resource for shortening the Blood Seal’s evolution time.
One pound of Divine Blood Tea powder could be brewed ten to twelve times. Consuming it all could shorten the evolution time by five years.
It was incredibly potent.
But for all its power, the cost was exorbitant.
This was a special Treasure Medicine that the three City Lords had created using Evil Energy. It was a top-tier resource, and this batch had been specially made for Lin Hui, who was granted a quantity of ten pounds.
"Actually, this is a top-tier Treasure Medicine for increasing fertility, which City Lord Gongsun specifically suggested creating because she was concerned about you not having any heirs yet. In truth, very few people normally need Divine Blood Tea..." Li Yuanyuan reported earnestly from the side.
"In this world, a debt of gratitude is the hardest to repay..." Lin Hui nodded with a sigh. "I will remember this gesture from the three City Lords."
"Aside from the Divine Blood Tea, there is also a piece of top-tier equipment made from the body of the Fog Spirit that died this time—the Sea Abyss Armor. This was also made specifically for you, because apart from you, the other Blood Progenitors have little need for high-defense armor," Li Yuanyuan continued.
’That’s right. The Blood Progenitors all self-destruct in the end, so giving them armor would be a waste.’ Lin Hui understood.
"In addition, there are one hundred sets each of top-tier weapons and armor, made from high-grade leather and bone strong enough to withstand the attacks of Circulation-level Inner Strength. There is also one captured treasure-grade relic. Furthermore, there are one hundred thousand Feather Blood and one million gold notes..."
The rest were minor items, clearly intended for him to distribute among his subordinates. But when he heard "treasure-grade relic," Lin Hui’s eyes lit up.
A treasure-grade relic was a top-tier treasure capable of affecting even the Fog People. He couldn’t believe The Three Greats were willing to bestow one upon him.
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