Free Web NovelChapter 272: Chapter 259: Story 1
Just as Lin Hui was immersed in the joy of his breakthrough.
Outside Black Cloud, in the Jade Sea.
In the vast expanse of sea where he and Tuyue had previously fought.
At this moment, a fleet of slaver ships advanced in single file, like a school of black fish, slowly making their way across the heaving surface of the sea.
Aboard one of the merchant ships, the captain, a man with a bushy beard named Xia Xingtao, rubbed his chin in confusion as he peered out the crystal window of his cabin.
"This is my third time passing through this stretch of sea recently. I don’t know why, but I feel like the waves are much rougher than before. Have you noticed, Aina?"
He turned his head toward his first mate, Aina.
"I feel the same." Aina’s skin was dark and she had short black hair. She wore a simple purple short-sleeved top and skirt, with glittering ruby chains adorning her neck, wrists, and ankles.
With her sweet looks, delicate figure, and considerable strength, she had long been the object of admiration for many on the ship.
"That’s not all. I’ve also noticed there are far fewer monsters in these waters than before. You can barely see any fish, either," Aina added.
"Looks like something must have happened to cause such a change," Captain Xia Xingtao said thoughtfully.
"Wait!" Aina suddenly frowned. "Do you hear a faint singing?"
"Singing?" Xia Xingtao’s brow furrowed as well, and he listened intently.
And this time, he actually heard it—a faint, mournful song.
It was a woman’s voice, faint and intermittent, as if drifting from very far away.
CRACK.
Just then, a faint cracking sound suddenly came from the bottom of the ship’s hull.
"Dammit! The hull’s cracked! Something hit the bottom of the ship!" Captain Xia Xingtao was all too familiar with that sound. His expression changed drastically as he immediately dispatched men for emergency repairs.
But it was too late.
Before long, the entire ship silently sank beneath the waves and vanished without a trace.
And it wasn’t just that one. The other nearby ships also began to sink rapidly, as if giant hands were grabbing them from beneath the sea and pulling them under.
In moments, the entire fleet had vanished. In the water, only a few faint, blue-black, eerie fissures flashed for an instant before disappearing.
*
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「Several days later...」
Inside the Taixu Martial Academy.
With his hands clasped behind his back, Lin Hui watched the rows of students diligently practicing their swordsmanship and nodded slightly.
The aptitude of these students was visibly improving.
The old students were continuously transferring out, and students with better aptitude were transferring in to replace them. That was the source of the improvement.
However, one thing caught him by surprise: Fan Lingxi, one of the three students he had accepted as part of a larger scheme.
He finally had a moment to check on her progress. He hadn’t paid her much mind before, but what he saw now gave him a shock.
The girl had actually managed to achieve something remarkable.
In the academy courtyard, Lin Hui watched Fan Lingxi among the other students. He kept his expression impassive, but inwardly he felt a strange, inexplicable unease.
It was still the same Qingfeng Swordsmanship, but the way Fan Lingxi performed it had a faintly bizarre, twisted quality to it.
Standing before the ranks of students, Lin Hui watched Fan Lingxi as she meticulously went through the motions with her Longsword.
But in his mind’s eye, he wasn’t watching the girl practice her swordsmanship. He was seeing the swirling, distorted, blue-purple vortex floating in mid-air less than a meter behind her.
The vortex faintly emanated a familiar sensation.
’Extreme Cold Heaven...’ Lin Hui instantly recalled the Pollution Power he had encountered before.
’How could Fan Lingxi be connected to Extreme Cold Heaven?’
He had no way of knowing, but judging by the reactions of the people around him, no one else could sense the thing she was hiding.
’Lin Hui didn’t believe Tuyue was the only one with a portal to Extreme Cold Heaven. Black Cloud surely had one as well.’
’Whatever. I no longer need the connections from Fan Lingxi’s background anyway. I’ll just teach her like a normal disciple. Whatever secrets she’s hiding have nothing to do with me.’
Reining in his thoughts, Lin Hui continued to instruct the students while mentally organizing his approach to cultivating the second level, the Annihilation Sacred Form.
The Annihilation Sacred Form was the result of cultivating Ming Two, the second level of the Star Breath Sword Manual.
To cultivate it, one must first kill ninety-nine different species of life.
In theory, this requirement should be easy to fulfill; one just had to kill any ninety-nine types of creatures.
One could probably go out into the wilderness, bombard a large area at random, and collect all ninety-nine species that way.
But Lin Hui had to consider the same problem he’d had with the Birth Sacred Form. ’Would the power of the lives I kill affect the final strength of the Annihilation Sacred Form?’
According to the memories that had been infused into him, the answer seemed to be yes.
’It looks like I’ll have to choose each life I kill carefully...’
Lin Hui unconsciously made a grasping motion with his hand, and a ball of invisible airflow coalesced in his palm.
This was no ordinary airflow, but pure oxygen that he had extracted and isolated from the air.
Ever since successfully condensing the Birth Sacred Form, he could now freely manipulate all airflow within a one-kilometer radius.
To hone this ability for use in high-speed combat against the Fog People, Lin Hui had begun to practice extracting individual gases from the air each day.
Pure oxygen could greatly increase the speed and power of combustion, as well as accelerate the reaction of dust explosions.
It could definitely be used to add to his tactical options in certain situations.
Just as he was pondering where to begin his cultivation of the Annihilation Sacred Form, a pale blue Wind Chime slowly materialized by his shoulder.
The palm-sized Wind Chime swayed with a crisp chime, and then a voice that only Lin Hui could hear emerged from it.
"Daoist Master, after word of the Righteous Body’s effects got out, many people have come seeking to join the sect. We’ve found excuses to turn away the previous applicants, but this time, someone has come, and we don’t know what to do... We thought perhaps you should see them yourself before making a decision?" said Su Yaping.
"Who is it?" Lin Hui’s brow furrowed slightly.
"A Fog Person who calls himself Pang Jiu."
’None of the three City Lords had committed to joining the Dao. They said they’d consider it, but there’s been no word since. They’ve probably given up on the idea.’
’So for a Fog Person to suddenly show up now, wanting to join the Qingfeng Dao? This looks more like someone sent by the three City Lords to test the waters.’
"Arrange to meet him in the sea off Redstone Beach." ’The Fog People are the highest echelon of this world. Having one join the Qingfeng Dao would be a great boon, but not if this Fog Person has ulterior motives.’
"Understood. By the way, this Fog Person is injured. He said most of his evil mist was devoured, and now he only has enough left to maintain his basic existence. His power is far less than that of an ordinary Fog Person. Perhaps that’s the real reason he’s willing to give this a try," Su Yaping analyzed.
"Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. I’ll see him first," Lin Hui said calmly.
"There’s one other piece of news. It’s about Tuyue," Su Yaping said.
"Go on."
"Yes. A massive rebellion recently broke out in Tuyue’s territory. There have been repeated massacres erupting from the Gate of Purgatory, and all attempts to close it have failed. The two Fog People, Tuyue and a certain Xie Jun, were forced to fall back to Xingdiao. Much of Tuyue’s population has also retreated to the Xingdiao City District. Three Fog People are now working together to fight the polluting mutations from the Gate of Purgatory."
’Purgatory...’
’I never thought Purgatory would be the first to fall...’
Lin Hui sighed internally. ’Even a City Lord Fog Person like Tuyue was forced to abandon his urban districts and retreat to Xingdiao to make a joint defense. The situation there must be dire.’
"Is there news of anyone else?"
"Yes, the Qingfeng Daoist Disciples from that area are already heading this way aboard the ships of the Hundred Seas Merchant Alliance. Also..." Su Yaping trailed off.
"Whatever else there is, just say it," Lin Hui said impatiently.
"Yes... Your disciple, Tao Xuehai... was killed in battle, encircled by Tuyue’s Black Army. His son, Tao Changsheng, is now on a ship headed for Black Cloud."
Lin Hui froze.
’Tao Xuehai is dead?’
For a moment, his mind went blank.
’Someone he knew, just gone so suddenly. Just like Xue Meng back then.’
’Dead, just like that.’
’He remembered the last time he saw Tao Xuehai. He had promised to look after his son, Tao Changsheng. It didn’t even seem that long ago.’
’And now...’
"Daoist Master, are you... all right?" Su Yaping asked cautiously.
"I’m fine... It’s just... a shame," Lin Hui said, his right hand unconsciously gripping the Ruyi Sword Handle at his waist.
’Tuyue. He would remember this score.’
"But aside from all that, there is some good news," Su Yaping said, changing the subject. "Xia Si is about to master Gale Swordsmanship. What are your instructions?"
After Gale Swordsmanship, the disciples in the sect had only heard of the name Typhoon Swordsmanship, but no one had actually received the training for it.
Most of them hadn’t even finished mastering Gale Swordsmanship; in fact, the vast majority weren’t even qualified to practice it.
Let alone Typhoon Swordsmanship.
But Xia Si was an exception.
After Lin Hui had impartially bestowed the Zhengde Seal upon her, her already prodigious cultivation speed rose to an even higher level. The Zhengde Seal accelerated her cultivation comprehension by fifty percent, allowing Xia Si to make a series of rapid breakthroughs in a short time.
And now, she had even completed her training in Gale Swordsmanship.
"Just have her come see me when she’s free." Lin Hui wasn’t stingy about passing on the next level of swordsmanship. ’The difficulty of Typhoon Swordsmanship far surpasses that of Gale. I’m not actually sure if Xia Si can master it. After all, she doesn’t have a Blood Seal to directly infuse the cultivation memories.’
"Yes." This time, it was Xia Si’s voice that came directly from the Wind Chime.
For some reason, Xia Si’s voice sounded different than before, her tone somewhat subdued.
Lin Hui didn’t ask why. He figured he would find out when he saw her in person.
*
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Above Black Cloud.
Above the sea of fog, a carriage pulled by a Ghost-Faced Flood Dragon arrived, riding the clouds and bathed in golden sunlight.
The carriage didn’t go directly to the three floating mountain peaks, but stopped several kilometers away.
The carriage’s beaded curtain parted automatically.
Song Feishi put down her pipe, rose gracefully, and stepped out of the carriage.
"Sisi, you wait for me here. We’ll head back as soon as I’ve caught the person I’m after," she commanded casually.
"As you command," Sisi, the driver, replied with a bow of her head.
Song Feishi tied her flowing black hair back with one hand and leaned over to look down at the sea of fog below.
Her eyes glowed with a pure golden fluorescence, as if she could pierce the thick sea of fog and see the landscape on the ground below.
Soon, her eyes lit up, and she was about to fly off in that direction.
SWOOSH!
Suddenly, a burly figure flashed into existence before her.
The figure had a plain, square face and short, messy hair. He wore a suit of black armor that covered only the vitals, revealing brawny, brown muscles covered in all sorts of black markings.
What was most eye-catching, however, was the wide, burning black blade he carried on his back.
The blade looked less like solid metal and more like a sword-shaped mass of black flame, constantly distorting the space around it.
"Fourth Prince, this isn’t your Shiying City. Have you thought about the consequences of making a move on my people?" the burly man said with a smile, his tone lazy.
But the content of his words made Song Feishi’s eyes narrow.
