Decaying World

Chapter 115

Hearing the noise, Lin Hui froze. If he ran now, his guilt would be confirmed.

Only then did he notice that the two corpses had faces completely different from the people he had seen earlier. Aside from similar clothing and leather armor, everything else—height, weapons, skin tone, and jewelry—was different.

Suddenly, four figures leaped from the side of the stone bridge, approaching like lightning. They landed with extreme speed, surrounding Lin Hui.

These were four spear-wielding guards clad in black metal armor. A golden eagle spreading its wings was engraved on their chest plates.

"One of you stay to confirm the casualties among the guards! Arrest this person for temporary detention and interrogation! The rest, follow me in pursuit!" one of the black-armored figures shouted sternly.

"Wait! I'm not the murderer! I have a Rain Palace permit, and my family holds a Rain Palace Divine Officer position! It's impossible for me to kill people at random!" Lin Hui said quickly.

"It is not for you to decide whether you are the murderer. You are now in the chain of suspicion. Regardless of innocence, you must prove it! This is the Golden Eagle Fortress, and you must cooperate with the investigation and pursuit! You will be detained for twenty days!"

Hearing "Divine Officer," the black-armored figure's tone softened slightly, but it remained cold.

"I was just passing by... there couldn't possibly be any traces of me on the corpses, so..." Lin Hui frowned.

"Undoubtedly. But whether you are innocent or just happened to encounter the murderer and get framed, you cannot leave. Cooperating with the investigation is the only choice you have, understand? Outsider!" The black-armored figure’s attitude turned nasty again."..." Lin Hui was speechless. This was simply a disaster dropping from the sky.

He sized up the four men's attire and recalled the speed of their movements.

Cooperating with an investigation for twenty days was out of the question;

he couldn't just obediently submit to interrogation because of a single sentence from the other party. So...

A strange glint gradually rose in Lin Hui's eyes.

He was considering whether to run or simply kill them.

After all, there were no other outsiders around.

As long as he handled it cleanly...

"Wait. He was likely just passing by. The aura of the permit on him is genuinely from the Rain Palace," another black-armored guard suddenly spoke up.

The leading black-armored figure paused slightly, fell silent for a moment, then waved his hand.

"Forget it, go. Consider yourself lucky!"

"..." Lin Hui glanced at the person who spoke last. His figure flashed, and he instantly vanished from the spot.

He sprinted forward along the cliff. He had only run a few hundred meters when suddenly, a loud noise erupted behind him.

He paused abruptly, stopped his steps, and looked back.

In the direction of the stone bridge he had just left, a mass of crushed rock mixed with trees and grass clippings had been blasted up by some immense force, flying dozens of meters into the air.

Thud.

The debris rained down.

His eyes narrowed.

Looking left and right, he quickly found a withered tree over ten meters tall. With a few vertical leaps, tapping lightly on the branches with one hand, he easily stood atop the tree crown.

He gazed toward the source of the noise.

In the distance, he saw two blurry blue figures standing by the stone bridge.

On the ground nearby, several black-armored figures lay scattered in disorder.

Blood spread wildly, outlining a bizarre pattern on the ground.

The four black-armored figures he had just met were gone...

Lin Hui's heart shivered, knowing he had encountered a troublesome event. He immediately leaped down, landed, and sped away into the distance.

But the moment he left, one of the two men in blue by the stone bridge looked up toward his location.

"A little guy from the Outer City. He runs pretty fast."

"Should we dispose of him?"

"His speed is decent;

catching up would take time and be too troublesome. No need."

"Alright then. What should we do next?"

"With so many from the Black Eagle Army dead, and two battalions of the Pacification Corps wiped out, Chen Zhihuan must come forward to give an explanation. The moment he steps forward will be the time our plan begins..." The other man in blue extended his hand, a wisp of blue electric arc flashing and vanishing in his palm. "For the enmity of my father from three hundred years ago, I will make the Chen family pay it all back this time—principal and interest!"

…

On the other side.

Lin Hui sprinted swiftly. He only let out a sigh of relief after running for at least a dozen kilometers in one breath.

Witnessing that scene, he knew there was a massive problem. With such serious matters, even getting slightly involved would attract a mess of trouble—let alone having close contact with the deceased.

He hadn't expected to encounter such a disaster just after entering the Inner City.

Fortunately, after leaving the stone bridge area, Lin Hui encountered no further incidents. Following the river, he soon found another suspension bridge. Crossing it, he saw a stretch of somewhat desolate, rolling hills.

The hills were generally gray, transitioning to brown in some places, and grew sparse weeds.

Lin Hui followed the carriage track between the hills and continued forward. After walking for about an hour, mushroom fields enclosed by stone fences gradually appeared by the roadside.

Planted in the square fields were not vegetables, but patches of dark brown mushrooms.

He walked to the fence, reached through, and touched a mushroom.

These mushrooms were over half a person tall, and the caps at the top were as large as an adult's fist. The texture was slightly soft, the surface cool and slippery, coated with a layer of slime.

Retracting his hand, Lin Hui sniffed it;

there was a sour smell of fermented flour.

He looked left and right and discovered a stone forest in the deepest part of the mushroom fields.

The stone forest was composed of thick gray stone pillars. Every pillar had windows opened on the outside. Through the square glass, lights and silhouettes could be seen inside.

Following a small path along the edge of the mushroom fields, he walked in and arrived in front of the stone forest.

Lin Hui noticed that horizontal poles hung on the sides of some stone pillars, with small linen flags bearing written characters fluttering in the wind.

He picked a stone pillar hanging a general store flag, went up, and knocked gently on the door.

"Please come in, the door is unlocked," a voice came from inside.

Lin Hui pulled the door open and entered the stone pillar.

The interior was styled like a loft with upper and lower floors. The ground floor was circular, with a spiral wooden staircase in the corner leading up.

In the living room on the first floor, a short-haired man with green eyes put down a wet towel and came down the wooden stairs.

"Buying something or staying?" Seeing Lin Hui, a flash of joy crossed his eyes, and he asked quickly.

"What do you sell?" Lin Hui sized up the surroundings and found some sealed wooden barrels for storing goods in the corner.

"Mushroom flour, earthworm meat, black iron ore raw stones. And some snacks brought in from the Middle Ring," the man said quickly.

"Give me some mushroom flour. Can I ask about the situation in this vicinity?" Lin Hui asked casually.

"Ask away." The man quickly ran under the stairs and moved the wooden barrels one by one.

"Do you know about the Pacification Corps investigating a case around here?"

"I know. They are investigating the case of several merchant caravans that went missing not long ago. I heard the caravans were all passing through here, coming out from the Core Zone of the Inner Ring, and ended up disappearing," the man replied.

"Then do you know the situation with the murderer? Was a wanted notice issued?" Lin Hui asked again.

"That, I'm not clear about. Why? Did you encounter them on the way?" The man glanced at the two swords on Lin Hui's back.

"Mm, saw them investigating from a distance," Lin Hui nodded.

"Then you absolutely must not get close. Those people have very poor attitudes and are extremely harsh. Not long ago, several guests coming from the Red Stone Fortress were caught by them as suspects, interrogated and investigated for a long time, and were forcibly extorted of a large sum of money before being let go," the man lowered his voice to complain. Soon, he found a wooden barrel, opened the lid, and took out a gray cloth bag. The bag was heavy and bulged into a large pack.

"Ten jin of mushroom flour for a taste? My goods here are the top grade in the area;

they absolutely won't disappoint you!" The man smiled mysteriously and handed the bag to Lin Hui.

"How much?"

"Thanks for your patronage—five thousand."

"Right, one more question. Do you sell raw medicinal herbs here? Prescriptions work too."

"This... my place is the countryside. You have to follow the road further ahead. Ask in the city;

you should be able to find them. Chain apothecaries like Bailing Residence should have them."

"Many thanks. Here are the cash notes."

Walking out of the stone pillar general store, Lin Hui carried the cloth bag, opened a small slit, and took a look.

Inside was a fine gray powder, smelling of the same sourness as the mushroom fields outside.

But aside from this powder, a square black card was placed in the center.

He took it out and looked.

Baojing Club Entry Card.

Neat handwriting was written on the front of the card. The back was pitch black, with a faint image of a naked woman standing on tiptoe with arms spread, dancing. Below was a line of small print for the address: No. 127 Purple Mountain Forest, diagonally opposite the Patrol-Hunt Convoy.

"..."

No wonder this bag of flour was so expensive;

the cost of this admission ticket was included.

He naturally didn't need this thing. Throwing away the card and carrying the flour, he was just about to return to the main road when, suddenly, his body trembled, as if his back had been pricked by a sharp thorn.

Turning his head, he happened to see a man wearing a blue robe walking amidst the stone forest toward the main door of a stone pillar, reaching out to twist open the wooden door and enter.

Looking back, Lin Hui could only see the lingering view of the other party's back and couldn't be sure if the man had looked at him.

But with his perception, he didn't feel he could be mistaken. That gaze just now, that terrible pricking sensation, was absolutely not something an ordinary martial artist or Called One could produce.

One had to know that even under the gaze of a High-Tier Called One like Wang Yueheng, he only felt slightly strange—that was all.

Yet that person's gaze just now could actually produce a needle-pricking pain;

it was evident how great the danger was.

Another man in blue... could he be with the two who killed people just now? Lin Hui guessed in his heart, feeling that this place was already a troublesome area and unsafe.

He just came to find medicine and prescriptions, not to provoke trouble.

Immediately, he lowered his head, his figure flashed, and he instantly sprinted forward along the main road, disappearing in the blink of an eye.

Running for over ten kilometers in one breath, forks in the road gradually became more numerous.

Stone houses also began to appear by the roadside.

Not long after, a patch of gray-white finally emerged vaguely ahead.

The gray-white grew larger and larger, gradually resolving into a dense patch of thick stone pillars. These were all residential houses.

Between the stone pillars was a dense flow of people and vehicles coming and going.

Some stone pillars here were over ten meters thick, full of windows layer upon layer going up;

at a glance, they were no less than dozens of stories high.

Some were only three or four meters in diameter, cramped and narrow, only seven or eight stories high.

All stone pillars were accessed through square wooden doors at the very bottom.

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