Decaying World

Chapter 138

Chapter 138

"You understand nothing," Mu Shanqing laughed.

He had been willing to become the Inner City Branch Hall Master of the nearby Clear River Sect for one reason only: to acquire the resources and treasures necessary to charge toward greater heights.

And now, he had succeeded.

"Once one steps into the Grandmaster realm, a martial artist's physical constitution rivals that of a High-Tier Called One. Speed, strength, physique, and recovery—all receive a comprehensive enhancement. The magnitude can reach up to three times the original! At minimum, it doubles."

Mu Shanqing was ostensibly responding to Lin Hui, but he was broadcasting this explanation to Ding Chengying and Zhao Dong behind him, as well as to the surrounding martial artists. He clearly viewed this battle as the stage for his rise to fame.

Only by elevating his reputation and achieving a sufficient battle record could he secure more benefits and status.

And how does one achieve such a record? Naturally, one needs a weighty opponent.

The guy standing before him carried enough weight.

No one else could handle him; even the two Deputy Ministers would likely have been heavily injured in a single encounter had Mu Shanqing not intervened in time.

Facing such a thorny opponent, he would break through on the spot, turn the tide, and ultimately repel or kill this person. Such an arduous and outstanding achievement, witnessed by a large audience, would be enough to broadcast his new power.

Momentum—this was momentum!

Only with enough voices could momentum be formed!

Otherwise, if someone simply rushed over and killed them in just a few moves, what meaning would there be? The onlookers would only hear the commotion and see him dispatch the intruder; everything would end quietly, without so much as a ripple.

But now it was different. He had already declared that he needed to unleash his Grandmaster-level strength to defeat this opponent, and he had deliberately drawn the battle out. Two old colleagues had been defeated head-on, and the crowd continued to swell. The momentum was surging.

Now, by defeating this person, he could harvest the final fruit!

"Since you are so confident," Lin Hui, standing opposite him, finally spoke, "then let me feel it."

"Fool!" Mu Shanqing shouted in a low voice. He looked down at his majestic physique, which had expanded to two and a half meters tall.

Lifting his sword, he swung it casually a few times. The specks of white light splashing from the blade spontaneously transformed into white butterflies, flying out several meters before dissipating.

"Since you insist on seeking death, I will let you witness... this old man's fame-making sword art!"

Chi!

In an instant, his figure vanished, and the floor tiles behind him exploded into a deep pit.

In the next second, he was already in front of Lin Hui, chopping down head-on with a sword strike!

This speed far surpassed that of anyone Lin Hui had ever seen, approaching even his own level. Even though his speed was currently reduced by half, its intensity was still utterly beyond the imagination of an ordinary martial artist.

Immediately, Lin Hui also circulated his Internal Force, covering the Ruyi Sword as the killing moves of the Clear Wind Sword Technique exploded with full speed.

Dang! Dang!

Two loud clashes rang out.

As soon as his blade made contact, he felt the opponent's strength was surprisingly massive.

If Wang Yueheng was used as the standard for comparison, Mu Shanqing's strike at this moment was more than twice that of Wang Yueheng's combined Internal Force and Called cultivation!

This is exaggerated, isn't it?!

Lin Hui was shaken to his core. He was in a state of fully completed Body Tempering, and after undergoing two rounds of refinement through the Clear Wind Sword Technique and the Wild Wind Sword Technique, his current physical strength far surpassed what it had been when he first fought Wang Yueheng.

Yet even so, he was actually inferior to his opponent’s raw power.

The tremendous force sent the steel sword in Lin Hui’s hand flying high into the air.

Originally, he thought the martial artist system was extremely weak compared to Called Ones, so he had always been more concerned about the Divine Officers and High Divine Officers of the Call, preparing offensive and defensive means specifically against them.

But looking at it now, the Inner City Grandmasters of the martial path were no pushovers...

Special Effect: Featherweight Ascension.

With a shift of thought, Lin Hui directly activated the special effect. His body speed soared instantly.

Chi chi chi!

Three continuous sword strikes cut into the side of the caught-off-guard Mu Shanqing's neck.

What was truly astonishing was that these three strikes, each imbued with Internal Force, only carved shallow grooves into his body—they still failed to break through his defense.

This martial artist clearly walked the path of turning himself into a walking tortoise shell.

While Lin Hui was already stunned, he had no idea that Mu Shanqing, standing opposite him, was even more shocked.

What is going on with this guy!? How did his speed suddenly increase so much!? The three swords just now had hit the same spot consecutively, nearly scaring him into a cold sweat. Fortunately, the opponent's Internal Force realm was much lower and failed to break his defense.

But even so, Mu Shanqing attacked with increasing caution, daring not to expose any vitals.

Luckily, he was also a speed-type swordsman. Boosted by the Grandmaster realm, his sword speed was much faster, so he could still barely cope with the opponent's extreme speed.

However, continuing like this, wanting to take him down was no different from a fool talking about dreams.

He had never imagined that even after revealing his Grandmaster realm, he still wouldn’t be able to bring his opponent down. This was truly beyond reason.

Since it's like this... then I can only use that move. Mu Shanqing gritted his teeth; the arrow was on the string and had to be fired.

The Grandmaster Realm was naturally far more than a simple elevation of physical attributes; it possessed one crucial trait.

He could unleash all the Internal Force within his body in an instant, creating a devastating ranged airburst.

Only those in the Grandmaster Realm could withstand such high-intensity compression of immense Internal Force to execute this destructive technique.

Therefore, this airburst was commonly known as the “Grandmaster’s Extinction.”

Just as he steeled his resolve, he suddenly sensed that Four Faces’ speed opposite him had actually become a shade faster than before.

Chi!

Not only that, another sword scraped past the outside of his arm. This time, the power actually made him feel a trace of subtle stinging heat.

This meant his skin had been grazed...

This guy still has trump cards?!

A surge of urgency flooded Mu Shanqing’s heart. Without further hesitation, he began frantically compressing and condensing the Internal Force throughout his body.

Hum...!

A subtle tremor rippled outward from him as the center, surging frantically in all directions. In an instant, everything within a hundred-meter radius was shrouded in this vibration.

Ding Chengying and Zhao Dong had already sensed that things were turning dire and were the first to bolt into the distance. The other martial artists, also realizing something was wrong, had long since leaped back to escape.

By this time, Lin Hui had already employed the Wild Wind Sword Technique, using Soothing Mountain—its strongest armor-piercing form—to continuously stack speed and lethality.

The advantage of the Wild Wind Sword Technique now began to reveal itself: by manipulating airflow, he grew faster and stronger the longer the battle dragged on.

In Mu Shanqing’s eyes, his figure had already become a string of afterimages, gradually blurring beyond recognition.

Only the chi chi chi sounds of breaking air could be heard. Mu Shanqing could only make a slight reaction just as the blade edge was about to hit him.

But this was too late. This scant reaction time was insufficient for him to launch a counterattack or defend. Thus, he could only watch helplessly as he was gradually forced to endure the hits.

Under such a speed disparity, any move was meaningless. His Butterfly Shadow Sword could not be used at all.

When a speed-type sword technique encountered an opponent faster than itself, all advantages turned into disadvantages.

"Die!"

At that moment, Mu Shanqing’s accumulation finally reached its limit.

The ultimate killing move of a Grandmaster—Grandmaster’s Extinction—erupted in an instant.

Centered on his body, a ring of semi-transparent, jade-colored Internal Force burst outward. Its speed was so great that it far surpassed the speed of sound. Before Lin Hui could even react, it had already swept past him, expanding into a vast, pale ring with a radius of a hundred meters.

Silently and soundlessly, the white circle slowly dissipated.

The terrace was long destroyed, and the small building it sat upon was also severely damaged in the fierce battle.

With the two combatants at the center, a disc-shaped deep pit a hundred meters in diameter had thoroughly taken shape in the span of a single moment.

The white circle sliced cleanly through the surrounding buildings. Only then did they seem to react—slowly tilting, collapsing, and crashing into the forest, shredding countless branches and leaves.

Some martial artists who couldn't dodge in time were cut in half at the waist, while others had their heads split in two—a gruesome sight.

Cough, cough, cough...

Mu Shanqing coughed violently, climbing up from the center of the disc.

He was drenched in blood, as if he had just crawled out of a pool of it. Only a pair of tattered shorts covered his lower body—he had forced his Internal Force to stop short of detonating his lower vitals.

"Dead, right?" Mu Shanqing took a deep breath, feeling terribly weak all over. Fortunately, a Grandmaster-level body had already begun to rapidly draw massive amounts of power from the void through the Web to replenish itself.

He only needed a few minutes to quickly recover his state.

"What a pity. I've disappointed you."

Suddenly, a voice came softly from behind Mu Shanqing.

Mu Shanqing turned abruptly, wanting to strike with his sword, but everything was already too late.

In his current weakened state, he couldn't keep up with the opponent's terrifying sword speed at all.

Shua shua shua shua!!

In an instant, a mass of sword light enveloped him. Over a hundred consecutive swords stacked together, chopping down on the center of his chest, from shoulder to waist, slicing through the heart.

Pu!

Blood spray flew.

After a hundred swords, Mu Shanqing's skin, flesh, and heart bone were finally cut open.

He stared, tongue-tied, gripping his sword with both hands. He wanted to resist, but no matter what he did, he couldn’t summon a shred of strength.

The world before his eyes darkened rapidly, fading into black.

"You... exactly... are...?"

He had never imagined that even a Grandmaster’s final strike would fail to kill his opponent.

One had to understand that a Grandmaster possessed a level of strength comparable to a Divine Officer Called One. However, while Divine Officers were known for their terrifying and bizarre killing techniques, Grandmasters were more well-rounded, emphasizing defense and overall safety.

But even so... still...

As his final thought vanished, Mu Shanqing crashed heavily to the ground.

Lifeless.

Lin Hui stood straight, sword in hand, wiping the bloody water from his face. That last blast had felt like a high-pressure water jet—it actually hurt when it struck his body.

His internal condition was also troublesome; there was no way he had escaped that strike without injury.

The power of that strike was overwhelming and far too fast, leaving him no choice but to rely on the Surrounding Wind effect and his physical resilience to withstand it head-on.

Fortunately, the strength of Surrounding Wind rose with the intensity of the airflow he controlled. Combined with his full-force retreat to avoid a prolonged clash with that white circle, he had escaped with only minor injuries.

“As expected of a Grandmaster. Even in the New Martial Alliance, I’d guess only the Alliance Leader and Vice Alliance Leader are true Grandmasters… From what we’ve gathered, the other Elders are just top experts in the Circulation Realm. Did I just pick up a treasure?”

Lin Hui didn't know whether to be happy or speechless; his luck recently seemed to be consistently poor.

He hurried forward to loot the corpse, but unfortunately, everything the old man had been carrying had been shredded and blown away in the earlier explosion.

When Lin Hui looked up, he noticed that Ding Chengying and Zhao Dong had already fled a great distance, and the remaining martial artists had scattered like startled birds.

In front of a mysterious expert capable of killing a Grandmaster, numbers meant nothing—they would only be offering themselves up as sacrifices.

Lin Hui thought for a moment and decided not to pursue and kill. After all, all these people couldn't be members of the Clear River Sect. The key now was to find where the divine statue was.

Unfolding his movement technique, he used the method of circling to determine the center point and quickly pinpointed the statue's location.

It was underground, beneath a martial arts training field in the middle of this complex of buildings.

He had no time to waste. He directly swung his sword, exploding with Internal Force, and chopped downwards.

Like cutting tofu, two consecutive strikes dug out a massive underground cavity.

Sure enough, inside was an identical multi-eyed seated female divine statue.

He chopped the statue into pieces with a few strikes, then turned and left.

From killing Mu Shanqing to finding the statue and finishing the job, it took no more than three minutes in total.

It wasn't until more than ten minutes after he left that a squad of black giant horses came galloping over from the distance. The hulking figures of the Pacification Corps finally arrived and began to investigate the situation.