Decaying World

Chapter 119

Tao Xuehai lost, but he didn't leave. Unlike the other challengers who lowered their heads in shame and turned to walk away after losing, he was instead extremely interested in Lin Hui's sword technique. After repeatedly asking and confirming that he could possibly learn that kind of powerful sword technique through ordinary enrollment, he decisively stayed and paid the registration fee.

Afterward came a frenzy of snatching missions to complete and joining the exploration teams to rapidly accumulate Contribution Scores.

Especially the exploration team—after suffering heavy losses previously, they no longer went to the Purple Crystal ruins. Instead, they dutifully continued mapping the surrounding areas.

Tao Xuehai's impressive contribution lay in the fact that he went home once and directly returned with a map detailing the most comprehensive distribution of the surrounding Mist Zones.

This saved the exploration team a massive amount of time and energy. Some disciples were very dissatisfied with him snatching missions, but he easily settled them by throwing money around.

Just three days after entering the sect, the top ten disciples had all been gifted heavy presents by him, completely pacifying them.

Even Xue Meng was gifted a precious healing medicine capable of saving lives, silencing any objections.

This wasn't even the strongest part. What was truly impressive was that this guy had mastered the free Seven-Section Swift Sword and Nine-Section Swift Sword just two days after starting. He was proficient, with not a single error in any Force Node.

Although he still needed to slowly switch his cultivation for Body Tempering and accumulate over time, this speed had already far exceeded everyone's imagination.

One had to know that even Lin Hui had spent a year back then to thoroughly master the Seven-Section and Nine-Section Swift Swords.Although Tao Xuehai was already Internal Force Perfected with a solid foundation, Xue Meng, who was also Internal Force Perfected, had still taken two weeks to master the two sets of sword techniques completely.

From this, one could see his talent and aptitude.

….

Just as Lin Hui was bitterly cultivating Body Tempering, about to complete the Ninth Rank and master the special effect, a team of people hurried out from the Inner City. This team was all clad in black armor, with a pale golden eagle engraved on their chests.

The person in the lead had white hair, white eyebrows, and white armor, standing out incomparably among all the black armor.

It was none other than the Major Case Inspector, Hong Ling, who had investigated all the way here.

He led the team out of the South Ninth Gate and looked around. His powerful pomp made the surrounding people self-consciously keep their distance from him;

they didn't even dare to look up and meet his gaze.

Everyone knew clearly that anyone acting this way coming out of the Inner City must have an incomparably powerful background—at the very least, they were not someone the passersby could afford to provoke.

"This is Xinyu Town? Where that Lin Hui is located? Can we find where he is now?" Hong Ling turned his head to look at a black-armored soldier to the side.

This person was the only one among them not wearing a helmet. A head of brilliant golden hair fluttered in the wind. Her features were soft and beautiful, her skin slightly dark, and her eyes carried a faint green hue—she was a Green-Eyed Clansman woman.

"According to the Authorization Jade Talisman provided by the Chen family, we can trace the specific location to within a range of less than ten li nearby," the golden-haired, green-eyed woman answered solemnly.

"Can it be any more specific?" Hong Ling frowned.

"It's very difficult. The data information given by the Jade Talisman has already been erased in advance. Clearly, this Lin Hui also has connections with the Rain Palace behind him," the woman answered.

"This is very normal. To be able to enter the Inner City and dare to run alone to the Mystic Fang District, Lin Hui must have a significant background. But regardless of his background, no one dares not to cooperate with my Inspectorate Division in handling a case. Otherwise, I have the right to directly shut down the Night Mist isolation function of the Jade Talisman he uses!" Hong Ling said coldly.

"Then should we now...?" the woman hesitated.

"Split up to inquire. The Outer City is only this big, just this one town. Go directly to the government yamen to get the registered population files," Hong Ling snorted coldly.

"I'll wait for you in this restaurant while checking intelligence. Within two hours, find the person and bring him over." Hong Ling scanned the surroundings casually, found a restaurant that looked nicely decorated, walked over, and left behind a command.

"Yes!"

…

Bamboo forest.

Fallen leaves fluttered in the air, tilting with the wind like rain.

Lin Hui held twin swords, standing still with eyes closed, sensing the extremely minute fluctuations naturally dissipating from the External Web.

This was the Body Tempering method for cultivating the Wild Wind Sword Technique: to completely master every place touched by Internal Force, including inside and outside the body and the External Web, annihilating all uncontrollable autonomous pulses and precisely canceling them out with opposing processes.

This Body Tempering method was also of great help in Mind tempering.

Because it required full concentration to observe and sense the conditions inside and outside the body.

Countless bamboo leaves danced and brushed past him from time to time.

But unlike before, now, if any bamboo leaf brushed past him, it was as if he were an ordinary person—everything was normal, without any influence.

Not long after, Lin Hui suddenly opened his eyes and looked in a certain direction.

Shua!

Three black-armored figures abruptly appeared there. The person in the middle had flowing golden hair draping over her shoulders and soft, beautiful features. It was precisely the Deputy Commander of the Inspectorate Division who had followed Hong Ling to investigate the case.

"Clear Wind Temple's Lin Hui?" The golden-haired woman stared at Lin Hui standing in the bamboo forest with a sharp gaze.

She unfolded a portrait in her hand, compared it with Lin Hui, confirmed it was him, and then tossed the portrait aside.

"We are the Tuyue Inspectorate Division Black Eagle Army, subordinate to the Inner City Government Office. We are responsible for investigating the caravan disappearance case that occurred in the Mystic Fang District not long ago. There are clues indicating that you passed through the crime scene and may have encountered the murderer. We need you to come with us and cooperate with the investigation."

"Caravan disappearance case?" Lin Hui frowned. He had an impression;

at the time, he did feel there might be trouble and feared being implicated, so he decisively ran away and left.

He didn't expect the Inner City investigation to find its way to his door so quickly.

It was evident they must possess special means he wasn't aware of to be able to find him so quickly in this era without surveillance.

"It seems you have an impression." The golden-haired woman saw Lin Hui's expression. "Come with me to see Commander Hong. He is at a restaurant near the South Ninth Gate."

"I did go to the Inner City's Mystic Fang District once, but how can you prove that you are indeed people from the Inner City Inspectorate Division?" Lin Hui said indifferently.

If a few people came and told him to cooperate and go somewhere for investigation, he naturally wouldn't just believe them on their word.

"What proof do you want?" The golden-haired woman smiled.

"Title, identification, guarantor?" Lin Hui said.

"Title? I am Deputy Commander Dai Enran of the Inspectorate Division. What is 'identification'? Because it was too slow, I didn't go to the yamen to bring anyone out. This is my Inspectorate Division token;

can you recognize it?" The woman threw out a pitch-black token.

Lin Hui caught it and took a look. The token material was cold, made of an unknown substance, carved with a dark golden eagle on top, and a large character for "Inspector" clearly visible below.

He hadn't seen an Inspectorate Division token, but since the other party gave it so readily, it presumably shouldn't be fake.

"What about a guarantor? Who can guarantee that you are indeed from the Inner City Inspectorate Division?" he asked again.

"No guarantor is needed;

strength is proof. If you don't go, we can easily take you by force." The golden-haired woman, Dai Enran, grew somewhat impatient.

"Then you can try by force." Lin Hui said calmly, throwing back the token.

Chi!

Before his voice had even faded, a black-armored soldier rushed out rapidly, pouncing to Lin Hui's side in the blink of an eye, reaching out to grab his arm.

Grab was extremely fast. The black metal glove he wore even emitted the faint white light of Internal Force Perfected. Clearly, this inconspicuous follower from the Black Eagle Army was actually also a strong expert at the Sixth Layer of Internal Force.

Moreover, his movement technique in attacking was not the slightest bit inferior to the former Daoist Baohe of Clear Wind Temple.

It seemed that apart from Internal Force, there was another faint force pushing and assisting his attack.

To Lin Hui's observation, this was extremely likely to be an Internal Force martial artist who was also a Called One!

A mere follower soldier was actually a good hand who cultivated both as a Called One and an Internal Force martial artist. Although from the skin around the eyes under this person's face armor, one could see his age wasn't young—there were even fine crow's feet—it also showed that the overall average strength of this Inspectorate Division organization was very high!

Facing this grab, Lin Hui retreated slightly, precisely dodging the opponent.

Then he gave way again, dodging this person's secondary variation follow-up attack.

Shua shua shua!

In an instant, more than ten moves were exchanged. The black-armored soldier attacked continuously but couldn't touch even a corner of Lin Hui's clothes.

"Interesting!" Deputy Commander Dai Enran's eyes showed a hint of interest. "I thought a mere Outer City Internal Force Realm martial artist, and one who switched from External to Internal at that, would have an extremely low upper limit. I didn't expect you to forcefully break through to Internal Force Perfected, and your movement technique is somewhat outstanding. It is unexpected..."

She took a step forward.

"Tang Zhong, step back. I'll do it myself!"

The black-armored soldier who attacked had unleashed moves in succession, but couldn't touch Lin Hui. He was already getting anxious and was about to use a secret art, but hearing the order, he immediately withdrew without any sloppiness.

The moment he disengaged, Dai Enran's figure brought out a string of afterimages, flashing in front of Lin Hui.

Qiang!

A lightning-fast blade left its sheath, lighting up a patch of silver white in the bamboo forest.

It was as if what lit up in her hand was a ball of blinding silver light.

Everything around was illuminated with a flash of silver in this instant.

This move of hers was several notches faster than that black-armored soldier named Tang Zhong just now.

Around the blade she attacked with, there was not only Internal Force but also an indescribable, subtle distortion. That distortion was formless and transparent, carrying a trace of extremely familiar danger.

Void Force!?

Lin Hui instantly recognized the means this person used.

He had just fought again with the High-Tier Called One, Wang Yueheng. The other party had used Void Force again out of humiliation and anger, but due to the excessive gap in speed, he was ultimately still beaten into a pig's head.

Because of the excessive use of Void Force, Lin Hui had carefully seen this power unique to High-Tier Called Ones clearly.

This thing had no form or substance;

only at the moment it touched the enemy would it directly exert force, dissolving all things.

According to what Wang Yueheng said, Void Force could dissolve many things;

even powerful artifacts could not withstand Void Force.

Only Circulation Realm experts could use massive amounts of Internal Force to forcefully wear down Void Force, but that also required quite a bit of time.

If using real-world matter as a metaphor, then Void Force was a divine weapon that cut through anything, while Internal Force was a large amount of fine sand. A small amount of fine sand indeed couldn't stop Void Force, but a large volume could be used to wash it away, forcefully stagnating the Void Force, increasing its consumption, making it extremely strenuous to use until the user also couldn't support it.

Watching this blade rapidly approaching.

A crack silently opened on the scabbard in Lin Hui's hand.

But in the next instant, he turned into an afterimage, dodging the blade without drawing his sword.

Shua!

The blade landed deep, cutting out a black blade mark several meters long and of unknown depth as easily as cutting tofu.

Dai Enran sheathed her saber, standing in place, looking at Lin Hui slowly solidifying several meters ahead. Her expression was no longer as calm as before.

"Good movement technique!"

This was the first time she had seen such speed and movement technique on an Internal Force Realm practitioner.

She had just used all her speed aside from secret arts, a full-power slash, aiming to automatically expand the Void Force around the blade the moment it touched the person to bind and capture Lin Hui.

But unexpectedly, it still didn't succeed.

Since even this speed of drawing the blade couldn't keep up with the opponent, it seemed the only way was...

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