The Decaying World

Chapter 232: Chapter 221: The War Begins 3

Fog Area, Yanshan Mountain Range ruins.

WHOOSH!

A piercing shriek tore through the air. As the sound wave spread, a white meteor blasted through the fog and crashed into the remains of what was once Tianzhan Cliff.

BOOM!

The ground shuddered, caving in to form a bowl-shaped crater dozens of meters in diameter.

Cracks radiated outward like a spiderweb.

At the center of the crater, Lin Hui drew Ruyi with a sharp SWISH.

Most of the blood had already been drained away in mid-air.

At that moment, Su Yaping’s face was twisted in pain as he clutched a gaping, bloody hole in his waist, his sky-blue eyes filled with a frenzied fervor.

"This... is your true power... isn’t it?!?!"

"Are those your last words?" Lin Hui retorted in the same tone. He raised Ruyi and gently wiped the bloodstains from its surface with one hand.

A blade fast enough could remain unstained, but having been steeped in the other man’s blood, it had ultimately been tainted.

"Don’t misunderstand! I’ve defected from Xingdiao City and only temporarily joined the Wanhua Sect. My purpose was to find you!" Su Yaping flinched, sensing that if he didn’t state his purpose quickly, he was about to get cut down.

His big mouth had already given him a taste of being on the receiving end of a blade.

Of course, this had been part of his plan. Only by confirming that this man was truly the path forward he had long sought could he proceed with the next step.

But if he was too slow and annoyed this powerhouse before him, it would be a truly unjust death to be hacked to pieces.

"Find me? Why?" Lin Hui was taken aback.

"I... want to trade a piece of intelligence for you to teach me the future path of the Martial Dao!" Su Yaping said in a low voice.

Before Lin Hui could reply, he continued to explain.

"I’ve toiled in Xingdiao for a century and have now reached the pure pinnacle of martial arts—a Bright Extreme Grandmaster. You see, I didn’t even activate my Final Martial Form just now. That is my sincerity!"

"Oh?" Lin Hui paused. "How did you know I’ve reached a higher level?"

"You haven’t merged with a replica of the Evil Soldier Insect Scripture—I can sense that. Nor are you Original Blood or a Summoner. The highest a Summoner can go is the Palace Master realm, and the highest the Martial Dao can go is Bright Extreme. Those are the pinnacles of the two paths," Su Yaping said seriously.

"Summoning and the Martial Dao are the two major systems. The former requires some aptitude, while anyone can practice the latter. But at their peaks, both Palace Masters and Bright Extreme Grandmasters have reached a dead end, with no path forward. After that, only the Original Blood... after awakening Evil Energy, can step into the higher realm of the Blood Progenitors."

"So you think because I’m not an Original Blood Noble, haven’t merged with the Evil Soldier Insect Scripture, yet can easily suppress you... you’ve concluded I’ve reached a new height?" Lin Hui smiled.

"Isn’t that the case? Otherwise, no other Palace Master or Bright Extreme Grandmaster could so easily defeat an opponent of the same level. In theory, at our realm, we must probe each other, find our opponent’s weakness, and then look for the right moment to decide the battle in a single strike. That whole process would take hours, at the very least," Su Yaping said earnestly.

"I understand what you mean," Lin Hui chuckled. "But how can you be sure that I’ll take you in and teach you the path forward, instead of just killing you?"

"Because I bring you intelligence of utmost importance! News that will be of immense help to you," Su Yaping’s expression turned solemn.

"What news?"

"Someone is coming after you. It’s a Taixu Original Disc Elder from the Tu Yue Moon Tower!" Su Yaping said quickly.

"...An Elder? Who!?" Although Lin Hui had anticipated this, his heart still jolted upon hearing the news.

"The Tuyue Adjudicator—Han Sanmian!!"

*

*

*

Tuyue Inner City, high up on a pure white Moon Tower that pierced the clouds.

An endless sea of fog stretched out, the sunlight dazzling.

Atop one of the Moon Towers.

Within a luxurious platinum-colored flat, a slender, white-haired figure gradually materialized in mid-air, shifting from ethereal to solid.

The figure landed softly. His feet, clad in white boots with gold patterns, stood firm on the mirror-like stone floor, making a soft CLACK.

The floor reflected the person’s form and appearance.

It was none other than the handsome, white-haired man who had previously stopped the fox from submitting the Good Heart Sect’s list in the Extreme Desire Heaven.

His face was flawless, every inch of his skin seemingly arranged in the most perfect proportions and positions.

His hair was also a pure, immaculate white, like fresh snow, without a single blemish or stray color.

In his slightly dark eyes, specks of platinum-gold light burned at the center of his pupils.

A multicolored crystal, a mark all Elders possessed, glowed between his brows. It was the sign of a materialized Heart and Spirit.

"My lord, the fighting has begun in the Outer Ring. The attackers are primarily from the Hongyin Empire, generals belonging to the Celestial Goose Army. We’ve also found assisting forces from the Wanhua Sect, Good Heart Sect, Profound Eagle Sect, and Bai Tong Sect."

A burly, humanoid figure clad head-to-toe in Black Armor, who had been waiting in the flat, stepped forward, knelt, and reported.

"What are the Prefect’s arrangements?" Adjudicator Han Sanmian asked casually, showing no sign of alarm or distress.

"The Prefect has gone to the Extreme Desire Heaven to inquire about the situation there. Both the Peacekeeping Army and the Black Army are under their control, so how to respond depends on them," the burly figure said in a low voice.

"True. Most of us here are just administrators assigned from the outside. The real local power is the Extreme Desire Heaven," Han Sanmian nodded.

"Then what is your intention, my lord? Please be clear, so that this subordinate may report back to the Prefect," the burly figure asked.

"I’m just an adjudicator. You can come to me for imprisonment and trials, but head-on combat isn’t my jurisdiction," Han Sanmian said with a smile.

His meaning was obvious. This whole affair looked suspicious. Since the Extreme Desire Heaven could surely handle it, there was no need to drag a non-combatant like him into the fray.

"Understood. This subordinate takes his leave." The burly, Black-Armored figure nodded, then vanished in a flash.

In the empty flat, Han Sanmian was once again left alone.

He was long accustomed to being alone.

No attendants, no handmaidens; he was so austere he hardly seemed like a Blood Progenitor, a top-tier powerhouse living in the Moon Tower.

With a wave of his hand, a vast expanse of white Inner Strength radiated out, cleansing the entire surrounding space.

After the massive amount of Inner Strength swept away the impurities in the air, it transformed into motes of light that scattered to the ground, turning the entire flat—spanning tens of thousands of square meters—into a field of white light.

Thus, only his own Inner Strength remained within the flat, eliminating any possibility of surveillance by other powers.

After doing all this, Han Sanmian took a golden orb-like object from his sleeve and tossed it forward.

The golden orb actually floated in mid-air, its surface cracking open with fissures of white light.

Gazing at the fissures, the calm smile on Han Sanmian’s face slowly faded, replaced by a slight frown.

"Xiao De," he called out softly.

"Here," an aged voice transmitted from some unknown place, echoing beside him.

"Old Ancestor, what are your orders?" Xiao De asked respectfully.

As the only descendant of his bloodline brought from the family, Han De was also the core link through which he controlled numerous subordinate forces in Tuyue.

"What is the current situation in Xinyu Town outside the city? And what of Qingfeng Temple?"

"Reporting to the Old Ancestor, Xinyu Town has mostly fallen. Qingfeng Temple, along with the Lin Mansion you were observing, has retreated toward the Fog Area."

"Are there pursuers?"

"Yes, several experts from the Wanhua Sect have gone in pursuit. But there are no Palace Masters among them," Han De replied.

Evidently, his intelligence was lagging, as he hadn’t yet reported the matter concerning Su Yaping.

"That’s good..." Han Sanmian nodded slightly.

"Old Ancestor, look, the situation isn’t great. Should we withdraw from Tuyue?"

"Not for now. They can’t make any big waves. Not a single marshal from Hongyin has come, which means this is just a probe," Han Sanmian replied. "On the other hand, in the Outer City, that little fruit from Qingfeng Temple is ripe for the picking..."

"Understood. Xiao De will arrange it immediately."

"Just block it for a quarter of an hour."

"Yes."

Cutting off the sound transmission, Han Sanmian put away the floating golden orb, smiled faintly, and siphoned the surrounding white light of Inner Strength back into his body.

He then took a step forward and vanished into thin air.

The next second, he appeared a thousand meters away, high in the sky above the sea of fog, and plummeted straight down into the boundless mist.

In another flash, he reappeared another thousand meters away. He passed through the sea of fog and entered the sky above the Inner City.

Repeating this process, he soon crossed the Inner City and arrived in the Outer City District.

Soaring past the empty headquarters of Qingfeng Temple, he flew toward the Fog Area outside the city.

Wherever he passed, the people below who caught a glimpse of his figure simply thought he was an incredibly fast-moving large bird.

At this moment, many experts from the Peacekeeping Army and the Black Army had already been deployed within the city district, locked in duels with the invading Wanhua Sect and the generals of the Hongyin Empire’s army.

Inner Strength and Void Power clashed, setting off massive explosions. Bursts of white light and distortions from the Void Power recklessly destroyed large sections of buildings in the Outer City District.

The commoners had long since scattered and fled. Those who couldn’t escape in time hid in their cellars, awaiting the judgment of fate. If a house collapsed and crushed them underground, not a single sound would escape.

The entire Outer City District now resembled a ghost town.

On the streets below, the Black-Armored Peacekeeping Army clashed everywhere with the blue-armored Celestial Goose Army of the Hongyin Empire.

The Peacekeeping Army was clearly in retreat, suffering heavy casualties.

The dueling generals formed circular vortexes of battle, dividing the battlefield into sections.

In the sky, under Hongyin’s control, their Moth Cars dived and tore at Tuyue’s Moth Cars. Moth Powder scattered and fell, and from time to time, a heavily damaged Moth Car would plummet from the sky.

Han Sanmian swept his gaze casually from high above. Seeing no sign of the Qingfeng Temple group, he once again took out the golden orb and gave it a gentle toss.

The golden orb floated in the air and once again cracked open with fissures of white light.

Soon, Han Sanmian seemed to read something from what the fissures revealed. He immediately put the orb away, turned, and flew off in a certain direction toward the Fog Area.

PFFT.

He penetrated the Fog Area and flew straight ahead. This time, instead of blinking about, he flew straightforwardly at extreme speed.

He had flown less than ten kilometers when his gaze suddenly hardened. He halted, hovering in mid-air, and sensed an incredibly powerful aura rising from the ground below, also moving forward.

This aura was heading in the exact same direction he was.

Just as he sensed the other person, the owner of the aura sensed him as well and came to a stop.

The fog between them was rapidly swept away. Separated by a hundred meters, one above and one below, the two instantly saw each other clearly.

"You’re...!? The one from the Nine Dreams Sect?" The moment Han Sanmian saw her, he frowned slightly, recognizing her identity.

Master Yunxia, the Supreme of the Nine Dreams Sect, was publicly acknowledged as the number one expert below the Blood Progenitors.

This woman would stop at nothing in her pursuit of power. She was a minor celebrity of sorts in the Moon Tower.

Master Yunxia was currently on her way to the Qingfeng Temple group, not expecting to run into Elder Han Sanmian flying through the air.

A sense of foreboding immediately rose in her heart.

"Elder Han, shouldn’t you be at the Taixu Original Disc, helping to resist the foreign invaders? What are you doing out here in the misty wilderness?"