Decaying World

Chapter 101

"Getting married and the like would only affect the speed at which I draw my sword."

Lin Hui decisively rejected his half-sister Liu Xiao's matchmaking plans. He insisted that his private life was chaotic and that his heavy consumption of yang-strengthening drugs might have a detrimental influence on the young lady.

Liu Xiao was left speechless. After nagging him about various matters to attend to upon his return, she reluctantly let him leave.

Judging by her expression, she seemed to rather enjoy the novelty of having a younger brother to look after.

Her face was cold, but her mouth kept rambling incessantly.

When he finally managed to leave the Rain Palace, Liu Xiao sent a red-haired girl to escort him and draped a large bag of Rain Palace souvenirs over him.

"My Lady says that for future visits, you shouldn't use permits from other families. The permits here at the Rain Palace are of better quality;

a single one lasts for two shichen (4 hours)." The red-haired girl was also a Called One, but her attitude toward Lin Hui was extremely polite.

"Many thanks. Noted." Lin Hui stood before the gate of the Rain Palace, looking up past her at the complex behind her.

It was a complex palace tower resembling a small mountain, looking like a spired church piled up from countless white building blocks.

But upon closer inspection, one could see that each "building block" had glass windows.That meant these blocks were actually individual rooms of varying sizes.

This cluster-like, modular housing structure, with its multitude of linked rooms, made Lin Hui suspect that the structural materials of the Inner City might be even more advanced than those of Earth in his previous life.

Hefting the sturdy, large pigskin bag, he glanced at the sky. It was pitch black.

There was no moon, nor any starlight;

just boundless darkness.

Waving his hand, he bid farewell to the red-haired girl and walked several blocks down the street outside the palace.

Coming out of the Rain Palace without a map or navigation, Lin Hui looked at the white buildings that all appeared identical and felt somewhat bewildered.

These buildings were all roughly the same in shape and color;

their functions could only be judged by the signboards hanging outside.

Tap… tap…

Fine raindrops began to fall, hitting the ground and kicking up a shallow layer of dust.

The rain dampened the signs on the crossbars outside the buildings. As the wooden signs darkened, the red characters on brown backgrounds looked particularly striking in the rain.

Lin Hui walked briskly forward along the eaves of the houses.

Overhead, illumination stones flashed past one by one. These pale yellow and white stones hanging under the eaves of shops were meant to illuminate the signboards, but at this moment, they bathed the street in a faint glimmer.

Few pedestrians or carriages were passing by at this time. Only the occasional person like Lin Hui hurried past, dodging the rain.

Boom.

Thunder exploded, and the rain grew heavier.

Lin Hui sighed. Glancing at his robe, which was already soaking wet, he simply took it off and tied it around his waist, charging headlong into the rain in just his pants.

Braving the cold downpour, he circled the streets for a while but failed to find the direction of the South Ninth Gate.

After careful observation, Lin Hui discovered that at the street intersections, there were black metal poles in the corners with detachable wooden direction signs mounted on them.

After searching two intersections, he finally found the sign for the South Ninth Gate.

Standing at the crossroads, Lin Hui looked up at the cross-shaped sign on the black pole.

On the white-painted wooden board, different destinations were written in black ink.

'East — South Ninth Gate, South Ninth Street'

'South — Rain Palace, Flower Street'

'North — Agricultural Market, Jade Lake Fort'

'West — Jinxiu Farmstead, Cemetery No. 1'

He exhaled;

he had finally found the way. Lin Hui took a last look at the road he came from. On the deep, dark street, a few scattered pedestrians were jogging, quickly disappearing from view.

Occasionally, blurred human figures flashed across the rooftops, moving extremely fast. Their forms seemed to be invisible, appearing only semi-transparent.

"A strange place..." To be honest, after entering the Inner City alone for the second time, the strong impulse to move here that he had felt previously had faded.

To him, this place felt like another world, a place far, far larger than the Outer City.

Strange, mysterious, novel... yet not something he yearned for.

Perhaps I haven't yet touched upon what makes the Inner City truly desirable, or perhaps my status in the Outer City is such that I no longer need to enter the Inner City to avoid danger.

After clarifying this point, Lin Hui hesitated no longer. His figure suddenly accelerated, speeding away in the direction of the signpost.

…

Half a month later.

Clear Wind Temple Headquarters.

Lin Hui's brows were locked tight. Holding two long swords, he occasionally ran through the moves of the Wild Wind Sword Technique. Under the surge of Internal Force, subtle air currents would occasionally be stirred up around him.

But these air currents faded quickly, vanishing.

In the inner courtyard of the residence, he once again looked at the Blood Seal progress bar at the bottom of his vision.

[Typhoon Sword Technique — Time Remaining: 9 years, 3 months.]

By consuming a large amount of medicine recently to reduce the time, he had finally shortened the Typhoon Sword Technique to just nine years.

His success rate in pill refining had also improved significantly compared to the beginning—purely built up through frequent practice.

The Clear Wind Temple was now on the right track and did not need him to maintain it;

Xue Meng and the two newly joined Internal Force martial artists were enough to stabilize the entire martial hall.

Thus, Lin Hui threw himself wholeheartedly into researching the mechanics of Body Tempering.

In the early morning, a breeze blew, scattering leaves from a large locust tree in the courtyard like flying rain.

Many leaves swept past Lin Hui, only to be blown tumbling away by the air currents occasionally surging from his side.

"Wait!" Lin Hui suddenly noticed something was wrong.

"I clearly didn't channel energy in that direction just now... why did the leaves fly over there?"

A flash of inspiration struck Lin Hui's mind. He surged his Internal Force again, staring intently at the falling leaves around him.

It was clearer this time;

the leaves indeed skewed somewhat, flying in a direction where he had not channeled energy to generate wind.

Is this the dissipation of the sword technique? Or is there a problem with the control of my Internal Force?

Lin Hui began to carefully sense the flow of his Internal Force and his sword-swinging movements.

He was surprised to discover that the falling leaves could clearly outline the external shape of his Internal Force.

Originally, he thought his Internal Force coverage was spherical. But now, surrounded by the falling leaves, Lin Hui realized that his Internal Force was not a sphere, but an unknown, irregular shape.

I remember the essential formula of the Wild Wind Sword Technique stating that the sword should be like the wind, and the external air current should form a spindle shape.

But the external air current of Internal Force changes at any moment and is transparent, making it impossible to observe.

Pondering for a moment, Lin Hui soon found a way.

His figure flashed. He did not go to the Wild Wind Plains, but instead rushed toward the original site of the Clear Wind Temple.

Before long, in a bamboo forest behind the original site of the Clear Wind Temple, Lin Hui raised his sword, assuming the opening stance of the Wild Wind Sword Technique.

"Wind!"

He gave a clear shout.

Instantly, a wild wind whipped up, blowing and crashing into the surrounding bamboo forest, knocking down large swathes of loose bamboo leaves.

Countless yellow-green leaves scattered, falling like raindrops.

At this moment, Lin Hui clearly saw the position and direction of the air currents stirred by his continuously leaking Internal Force.

Since wind is formless and phaseless, wouldn't it be fine if I just gave it a form?

He began to carefully adjust his Internal Force. Based on the state of the airflow on his body surface, he used his Internal Force to rhythmically counteract it.

This was a long, grinding task.

The fact that Internal Force would spontaneously stir up air currents meant that Lin Hui had defects in the control of his Internal Force and needed to strengthen it.

Again and again, bit by bit, constantly countering the spontaneous pulse of his Internal Force, Lin Hui focused his entire attention. Gradually, he felt the Body Tempering bottleneck of the Wild Wind Sword Technique loosen...

The standard for Wild Wind Body Tempering was the ability to perform an additional surge of Internal Force after the Internal Force had already stirred up air currents.

Being able to surge it one extra time meant Second Rank. Three extra times meant Fourth Rank, and so on.

This was a very difficult point, because the Wild Wind Sword Technique inherently drove the Internal Force to circulate at accelerated speeds.

To command ultra-high-speed circulating Internal Force as easily as one's own arm, allowing for continuous surges, required extremely strong control.

Gradually, with constant practice, Lin Hui finally sensed progress. The Body Tempering of the Wild Wind Sword Technique seemed to involve tempering the mind even more than the body.

This time, he felt he had found the right path.

One week later.

The Wild Wind Sword entered the Second Rank of Body Tempering. The wind force Lin Hui could generate became even greater.

For this reason, he gradually grew accustomed to cultivating in dense forests or on rainy days.

Because at those times, the spontaneous pulsations of the Internal Force would very naturally manifest through the stirred air currents.

The Internal Force surged to weave a web, transforming external power into wind that blew outward.

This was the principle of the Wild Wind Sword Technique, but the pulsation of the Internal Force itself—pulsations similar to a heartbeat—would also influence the wind force.

Controlling this pulsation that occurred at every moment was the key to strengthening the Body Tempering of the Wild Wind Sword.

This body tempering not only tempered the body but also the mind.

Just as Lin Hui was immersed in the joy of improved Body Tempering, another year's end arrived.

It was the New Year.

After the family banquet at the Lin Manor, Lin Shunhe joined most of the others in teasing little Lin Xiaoliu.

Lin Hui, however, was dragged out of the Lin Manor by an enthusiastic Liu Xiao to a private room in a teahouse diagonally across the street.

One could tell Liu Xiao had dressed up with care.

She wore a light green long dress and a black wide belt edged with silver thread;

the belt hook seemed to be the polished white fang of some creature.

She wore no veil on her face, fully revealing her cold and glamorous features, accented with light makeup.

Her attire was fine, similar to the style of the Outer City. The only thing carrying a touch of Inner City style was her matching short top, which tightly accentuated her chest. Although nothing was exposed, the curves suggesting she wore nothing underneath were clearly outlined.

"Why did we have to come here for the New Year?" Lin Hui looked helplessly at the cold-faced but warm-hearted Liu Xiao. He had wanted to go back to headquarters to continue Body Tempering right after the family banquet, but before he could leave, he was grabbed by this sister of his.

"I'm introducing you to a fellow townie this time. You'll definitely like her. Her aptitude is good. Although her appearance is ordinary—just like yours—she is very suitable in other aspects," Liu Xiao said seriously.

"..." So she really brought him here for a blind date?

Lin Hui was left speechless.

"Sigh, so what is her name? Since she's a fellow townie, I should at least know her name in advance, right?"

"Surname Yan, given name Wanqiu. She's a child I think very highly of. Here she comes, here she comes." Liu Xiao suddenly stood up and walked toward the door of the private room.

"That name... it sounds a bit familiar." Lin Hui paused;

he seemed to have heard this name somewhere before.

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