Chapter 289: Chapter 275: Future 1
"Sha Ye! Watch out!!"
On the scorching, barren ground in the distance, An Ling and Sha Ye stood before the Fog Wall. They had intentionally fallen to the rear to completely separate themselves from that disgusting group.
Their Original Blood had degraded, and their bodies were gradually reverting to the physical state of ordinary young girls.
They grew weaker and weaker, their stamina dwindled, and their minds became increasingly exhausted.
An Ling caught Sha Ye, who had nearly stumbled, and looked back at the chaotic sky flashing with red and blue light in the distance.
"Where... where do we go from here?" she asked, lost. Tuyue was gone, their Original Blood had faded, and now they were just ordinary people. They could only live on as such.
But they were thousands of miles from any settlement. Could two young girls really survive with just the few heirlooms they had on them?
She didn’t know, and she had no confidence they could.
"Don’t be afraid. If we just try to travel, we’ll surely die. Those people took all our food and water. Our priority right now is to find a source of water and food, not to rush ahead!" Sha Ye’s mind was perfectly clear. The nearest settlement, Xingdiao City District, was at least ten thousand miles away. With their current strength and pace, they would probably be killed by leftover rioters or devoured by monsters in the Fog Area halfway there.
Therefore, the best course of action was to find a place to hide first and plan carefully from there.
This was the fundamental reason they hadn’t recklessly charged into the Fog Wall together.
The ability to maintain a calm and rational mind even under extreme pressure—this was what An Ling admired most about Sha Ye.
"In that case..." An Ling was about to reply when a sudden gale surged toward them from behind.
The immense wind was like a solid wall crashing into them, flinging them into the air. They tumbled and spun before being thrown hard into the Fog Wall, slamming onto the ground in agony.
It was only because of their once-noble status, the many body-strengthening medicines they had taken, and the cushioning protection from their heirlooms’ abilities that they weren’t instantly turned into meat paste.
Even so, the two girls struggled to their feet from the muddy ground. One rubbed her behind while the other clutched her shoulder, both their faces pale.
"Are you all right?"
Sha Ye was about to ask An Ling how she was when she suddenly heard a gentle male voice from behind them.
She spun around. Before her stood a gentle-looking man with waist-length black hair and harmonious features.
The man wore a white robe with a silver longsword at his waist. Even in the dense fog, he appeared immaculate, his robes without a single wrinkle.
But the most crucial thing was his face!
"It’s you!?" Memories flashed through Sha Ye’s mind as she pointed at the man, suddenly recalling his identity.
The weirdo who used to wander aimlessly between the Deep Domain and the Moon Tower!
She remembered helping him out of a jam in the Moon Tower. She never expected to run into him here.
"It is. I’m Lin Hui. Back in the Moon Tower, Lady Sha Ye even gave me your address. Unfortunately, I never had the chance to send any local specialties your way. In the blink of an eye, we’ve arrived at the present... The world is truly unpredictable," Lin Hui sighed.
"That’s true..." Sha Ye sighed in agreement.
The pair’s completely unhurried demeanor made An Ling’s skin crawl as she nervously scanned their surroundings.
"Hey, shouldn’t we get out of here?! This place is ridiculously dangerous right now! Do you two have any sense of urgency at all!?" she couldn’t help but shout.
"A good point. Lady Sha Ye, if you have nowhere to go, you can come with me to Black Cloud City. It’s bustling and prosperous, much larger than Tuyue, and safer than here. I happen to have a fleet of ships heading to Black Cloud," Lin Hui said with a smile.
"Really? Also, I’m not an Original Blood anymore, so you don’t have to call me ’Lady.’ Just Sha Ye is fine. I’m just an ordinary young girl now. A young girl who looks like a teen but is thirty on the inside," Sha Ye said self-deprecatingly.
"In that case, I’ll call you Sha Ye, then?"
"Yes, please do."
"Alright, then. Come with me," Lin Hui smiled and led the way deeper into the fog.
He hadn’t gone far when he suddenly paused and glanced back the way they came, as if looking at something.
The next second, he turned away without another pause and led the two young girls away, leaving the area for good.
Far behind where he had just left with the girls.
In the center of the ruins of old Tuyue.
The Purgatory Duke slowly descended, watching the direction in which Lin Hui had departed and letting out a low chuckle.
In the battle just now, neither of them had won, but neither had lost. It was a draw. Lin Hui’s burst power was stronger, but the Duke could grow even stronger by taking more damage. If they had continued to fight, the outcome would have been uncertain.
Of course, this wasn’t the most critical point. After confirming the voice transmission Lin Hui had sent earlier, the Purgatory Duke did not press the issue. Lin Hui, for his part, had no intention of continuing the fight either.
The two calmed down, exchanged methods of contact for the future, and swiftly departed.
"Father, why didn’t you kill that human!? He’s too dangerous... With that kind of power, if he becomes one of those unkillable Fog People..."
Suddenly, the figure of his daughter, Lan Xi, flickered into existence in the air beside him.
"If you know he’s dangerous, then you should also know that an unknown danger is far more troublesome than a known target," the Purgatory Duke said calmly.
"Father, you mean... we can determine the speed of the Source Calamity’s corrosion of this world by observing him?" Lan Xi understood at once.
"I am hesitating," the Purgatory Duke said, not answering directly. Instead, he turned to look toward the region occupied by Extreme Cold Heaven.
"The power of a true Source Calamity has appeared in this world. Continuing to enter and plunder it has become a major affair fraught with potential threats... Whether to continue expanding the sealing gate here is something that needs to be reconsidered."
"Father... is the Source Calamity really that terrifying?" Lan Xi hesitated for a moment but couldn’t stop herself from asking.
"Terrifying? It’s far worse than just terrifying..." The Purgatory Duke sighed and said no more.
After a moment of silence, he suddenly turned his head to look at his daughter.
"Lan Xi, I have a mission for you."
*
*
*
「Inside the medicinal garden.」
Lin Hui led the two young girls through the winding passages of the labyrinth and finally entered the garden area within.
The medicinal garden was already packed with a crowd of survivors seeking refuge.
Lin Hui quickly handed Sha Ye and her companion over to Huang Shan’s care, then entered a stone house with Master Yunxia, Han Xiaoyue, and the others to finalize the arrangements for everyone.
The members of Qingfeng Dao spontaneously took on the role of guards.
Inside the stone house, Master Yunxia followed behind Lin Hui. Unable to hold back, she finally voiced the question on her mind.
"Daoist Master, about you and the Purgatory... the Purgatory Duke, what exactly..."
"We didn’t continue the fight." Lin Hui shook his head and gestured for them to find seats.
He himself sat down on a high-backed chair in the very center and let out a soft breath.
"No victor has been decided for now. Neither side suffered a loss, but neither won. We both knew that if we kept fighting, Extreme Cold Heaven would be the only one to benefit, so we both stopped and called a truce."
In the end, he had actually used the Star Breath Sword Manual, yet it had only been enough to fight the Duke to a draw. He had been shaken by this at the time, and had almost mobilized Nine Eyes to seal him away.
Theoretically, the power of Nine Eyes was a perfect counter to his opponent’s fighting style, which relied on getting injured to grow progressively stronger.
But at the critical moment, he had restrained himself.
Nine Eyes had now sealed a host of Fog People and Scions, making its sealing power much, much stronger than before. There was indeed a high probability it could have sealed his opponent completely.
The problem was that after being used once, Nine Eyes needed to gather all its eyes again and kill souls for energy.
So, if he sealed the Purgatory Duke, and then the Extreme Cold Queen showed up, he would be in real trouble.
Besides, he had no intention of being the first line of defense against the Fog People. The Purgatory Duke was powerful, but that was a problem for the Taixu Federation to deal with. He was just here temporarily to save people. ’Was it really worth going all out?’
His opponent seemed to have similar reservations, so after exchanging a final, inconclusive blow, they both retreated.
"So, what’s next? Xiaoyue, what are your plans? If you don’t have any, why not come with me to Black Cloud?" Lin Hui looked at Han Xiaoyue and her two companions.
"No... We have our own duties," Han Xiaoyue said lightly.
"You still plan to continue the Federation’s mission? To delay the ’Decay’ with your own bodies?" Lin Hui frowned.
"This is the very meaning of our existence," Han Xiaoyue said with a small smile.
"Daoist Master Lin, there’s something you don’t know. From the moment we were cultivated, we have carried a ’Destruction Key’ from the Federation’s high command. Our mission is to enter the ’Deep Core’ and delay the ’Decay’. In exchange, we were each granted one wish," the small, green-haired girl on the side explained.
"What’s a Destruction Key? What happens if you don’t go?" Lin Hui asked.
"If we don’t go, our granted wishes will be nullified, and the Destruction Key will activate, instantly annihilating our bodies. The core of a Super Adaptable is the Destruction Key. Once the core vanishes, we will too," the third woman, who was curvaceous and had a cool demeanor, said in a low voice.
"And your names are?"
"Qin Shishi," the small girl replied quickly.
"Xue Yan," the curvaceous woman said gravely.
Looking at the three of them, Lin Hui fell silent for a moment. He had actually hoped Han Xiaoyue would return to Black Cloud with him, but the matter of the Destruction Key made it impossible for them to escape the Federation’s control. They could only continue down their predetermined path.
"There’s no need for that," Han Xiaoyue comforted him calmly. "With Tuyue gone, we will return and await our new assignment. This gives us a bit of a buffer. In the future, by moving to other city districts, we can extend our lives by several decades. Everyone has to die sooner or later. To be able to live for a few more decades is enough for me."
She looked at Lin Hui.
"As for you, the fact that you repelled the Purgatory Duke can’t be hidden for long. Many people saw it. You’d best be prepared."
"I know." Lin Hui nodded. The Purgatory Duke was the type who grew stronger the more powerful his opponent was. In truth, as long as one retreated in time before he could power up to a higher level, it wasn’t a huge problem even if word got out.
The other onlookers were mostly ordinary people, too weak to distinguish the power levels involved, so there was no danger of the details being leaked.
The key now was to wait for the ships to arrive to pick everyone up.
Before he came, he had arranged for ships to come and retrieve them. After all, the journey was long and would pass through all sorts of extremely harsh maritime environments. Without specially made vessels, only a few of these people would survive, at best.
"Daoist Master, what about this place?" Master Yunxia suddenly asked.
"As for the medicinal garden, we’ll shelve it for now. Harvest all the Purple Cloud Ganoderma and take it with us. Don’t leave anyone here," Lin Hui instructed. "It will be useful in the future."
This place was a retreat, a potential base. The labyrinth ruins served as a natural buffer zone. With proper management, the medicinal garden hidden inside could allow a small number of people to be self-sufficient, growing their own food. If they stockpiled enough food and water, it wouldn’t even be a problem to live here for several years.
"Yes, sir!" Master Yunxia nodded emphatically.
It just went to show that when danger arrived, even a psychopath knew how to pursue advantages and avoid harm.
At least in this rescue mission, she had performed quite well.
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