The Decaying World-Chapter 122 - 115: Implicated 1

Hearing the sound, Lin Hui immediately froze. If he tried to flee now, the crime would surely be pinned on him.

It was only then that he noticed the faces on the two corpses seemed completely different from the two men he had just seen.

Aside from their clothes and leather armor, which were more or less the same, everything else was different: their height, weapons, skin, and even the fine details of their accessories.

Soon, four figures from the edge of the stone bridge leaped forward like lightning, landing in an instant to surround Lin Hui.

They were four guards armed with long spears, clad in black metal armor. A golden eagle, wings spread as if about to take flight, was engraved on their breastplates.

"Leave one man behind to confirm the guards’ casualties! Seize this person and detain him for now. He’ll be interrogated later! The rest of you, with me! We’re giving chase!" one of the men in Black Armor commanded sharply.

"Wait! I’m not the killer! I have a permit from the Rain Palace, and a member of my family holds the position of Priest in the Rain Palace! I wouldn’t just kill people for no reason!" Lin Hui said quickly.

"It’s not up to you to decide if you’re the killer. You’re now a suspect. Regardless of your actual involvement, you must prove your innocence! Otherwise, I don’t care who you are—this is the Golden Eagle Fortress, and you will cooperate with the investigation and pursuit! For a period of twenty days!"

Hearing the word "Priest," the man in Black Armor’s tone softened slightly, but it remained cold.

"I was just passing by... There’s no way you’ll find any trace of me on the bodies, so..." Lin Hui said with a frown.

"Make no mistake. Whether you’re innocent or just happened upon the killer and got framed, you’re not going anywhere. Cooperating with the investigation is your only option. Understand, outsider?" The man in Black Armor’s attitude turned hostile again.

"...." Lin Hui was speechless. This was a complete and utter disaster.

He sized up the four men’s gear and recalled the speed of their earlier movements.

’Cooperating with an investigation for twenty days is out of the question. I can’t just let them lock me up for twenty days of interrogation on a whim. So...’

A dangerous glint slowly appeared in Lin Hui’s eyes.

He was considering whether he should just make a run for it, or simply kill them.

’There’s no one else around, anyway.’

’As long as I’m clean about it...’

"Hold on. He probably is just passing through. The aura from his permit is definitely from the Rain Palace," another guard in Black Armor suddenly said.

The leader of the group paused. After a moment of silence, he waved his hand.

"Forget it. Get out of here. Count yourself lucky."

"...." Lin Hui shot a glance at the man who had spoken up for him. In a flash, he vanished from where he stood.

He followed the cliff’s edge, but after running only a few hundred meters, Lin Hui suddenly heard a tremendous crash from behind.

He stopped dead in his tracks and looked back.

In the direction of the stone bridge he had just left, a cloud of shattered rock mixed with splinters of wood and grass was blasted into the air by some immense force, flying dozens of meters high.

THUMP.

The debris crashed down.

His eyes narrowed. He had a bad feeling about this.

Glancing around, he quickly found a dead tree over ten meters tall. With a few bounds and a light push off a branch, he landed effortlessly at its very top.

From there, he looked back toward the bridge.

In the distance, he could make out two blurry, blue-clad figures standing by the stone bridge.

The ground near the bridge was littered with the bodies of the men in Black Armor.

Blood spread freely, forming a grotesque pattern on the ground.

The four men in Black Armor he had just met... were now all dead.

A chill ran down Lin Hui’s spine. He knew he’d stumbled into something serious. He immediately leaped down and took off, heading far away from the scene.

But in the instant he turned to leave...

By the stone bridge, one of the two blue-robed men glanced up in his direction.

"A little guy from the Outer City. He’s a fast runner."

"Should we deal with him?"

"He’s a bit too fast. It would take too much time to chase him down. Too much trouble. Forget it."

"Very well. What’s our next move?"

"With so many from the Black Eagle Army dead, plus two whole battalions from the Peacekeeping Army, Chen Zhihuan will have to show his face and give an explanation. The moment he appears is when our plan begins..." The other blue-robed man held out his hand. A wisp of blue lightning flickered in his palm before vanishing.

"Three hundred years ago, they wronged my father. This time, I’ll make the Chen Family pay it all back, with interest!"

Meanwhile, Lin Hui sprinted nonstop, covering at least ten kilometers in one go before he finally allowed himself to slow down and catch his breath.

He knew from one look that the situation was a huge mess. Getting even slightly involved in that kind of trouble would be a nightmare, let alone having been near the victims.

He never expected to run into this kind of trouble right after entering the Inner City.

Fortunately, after putting the stone bridge far behind him, Lin Hui didn’t encounter any other incidents. He followed a river and soon found a suspension bridge. Across the river lay a stretch of somewhat desolate, rolling hills.

The hills were mostly gray, fading to brown in some areas, and covered with sparse weeds.

Lin Hui followed a cart track between the hills. After walking for about an hour, he began to see mushroom fields enclosed by stone fences along the road.

The square plots weren’t planted with vegetables, but with patches of dark brown mushrooms.

He walked up to one of the fences, reached through, and touched a mushroom.

The mushrooms stood more than half as tall as a person, with caps as large as an adult’s fist.

It was cool and slick to the touch, slightly soft and covered in a layer of slime.

He pulled his hand back and sniffed his fingers. They smelled sour, like fermented dough.

He glanced around and spotted a forest of stone pillars in the distance, at the far end of the mushroom fields.

This "forest" was composed of thick, gray stone pillars. Windows had been carved into the exterior of each one, and through the square panes of glass, he could see lights and silhouettes of people inside.

He followed a small path along the edge of the mushroom fields until he reached the stone pillars.

Lin Hui noticed that some of the pillars had horizontal poles attached, from which small linen flags with writing on them fluttered in the wind.

He picked a pillar with a flag that read "General Store," walked up, and knocked gently on the door.

"Come in, it’s not locked," a voice called from inside.

Lin Hui pulled the door open and stepped inside the pillar.

The interior was like a two-story loft. The ground floor was circular, with a spiral wooden staircase in the corner leading up.

On the ground floor, a short-haired, green-eyed man set down a wet towel and came down the wooden stairs.

"Here to buy something or to stay the night?" The man’s eyes lit up with pleasure when he saw Lin Hui, and he asked quickly.

"What are you selling?" Lin Hui asked, glancing around. He noticed some sealed wooden barrels in a corner of the first floor.

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

"I’ll take some mushroom flour. And could I ask you about the situation around here?" Lin Hui asked casually.

"Ask away." The man hurried over to the space under the stairs and started shifting barrels.

"Are you aware of the Peacekeeping Army investigating a case nearby?"

"I am. They’re investigating the disappearances of several merchant caravans a little while back. I heard the caravans were just passing through our area on their way from the Core Area of the Inner Ring, but they vanished," the man replied.

"Do you know anything about the culprits? Have any wanted posters been put up?" Lin Hui asked.

"That, I don’t know. Why? Did you run into them on the road?" the man asked, glancing at the two swords on Lin Hui’s back.

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

"Then you’d better stay far away from them. They have a terrible attitude, and they’re really harsh. Not long ago, a few travelers from Redstone Fortress got nabbed as suspects. They were interrogated for ages and had to pay a huge bribe just to be let go," the man grumbled in a low voice. He quickly found the right barrel, opened the lid, and pulled out a heavy, bulging gray cloth sack.

"How about a ten-pound bag of mushroom flour to try? My stock is the finest in the area, I guarantee you won’t be disappointed!" The man gave a mysterious smile and held the sack out to Lin Hui.

"How much?"

"For you, five thousand."

"Oh, right. One more question. Do you sell raw medicinal herbs here? Or even formulas?"

"That... this is just the countryside. You’ll have to follow the road further up to the city and ask around. You should be able to find what you need there. A chain apothecary like Bailin Residence will probably have it."

"Thank you. Here’s the money."

Leaving the stone pillar general store, Lin Hui hefted the cloth sack and opened a corner to peek inside.

Inside was a fine, gray powder that had the same sour smell as the mushroom fields. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

But nestled in the center of the powder was a square, black card.

He took it out for a closer look.

’Treasure Well Club - Admittance Card’

The front of the card bore neat handwriting. The back was solid black, with the faint silhouette of a naked woman dancing on tiptoe, arms outstretched. Below it was a line of small text: No. 127 Purple Mountain Forest, diagonally across from the Patrol Hunting Caravan.

"...."

’No wonder this flour was so expensive. He must’ve included the price of the admission ticket.’

He had no need for something like this. He tossed the card, picked up the flour, and was about to head back to the main road.

Suddenly, a shiver ran through him, and a prickling sensation, like a sharp needle, jabbed his back.

He whipped his head around just in time to see a man in a blue robe walk up to the door of another stone pillar, open it, and go inside.

Lin Hui only caught a glimpse of the man’s back as he disappeared, so he couldn’t be certain that the man had been looking at him.

But his senses told him he wasn’t mistaken. That gaze, that terrifying, needle-like sensation... it was definitely not something an ordinary Martial Artist or Summoner could produce.

After all, even the gaze of an Upper-Tier Summoner like Wang Yueheng had only made him feel slightly uneasy, nothing more.

But this person’s gaze had produced a sharp, stinging pain. It was clear how dangerous they were.

’Another person in blue... Could he be with those two killers from the bridge?’ Lin Hui speculated. This place was already rife with trouble; it wasn’t safe.

’I’m just here looking for herbs and formulas, not to get into trouble.’

Without hesitation, he lowered his head, and his figure blurred. He shot down the main road, vanishing in the blink of an eye.

He ran for another ten-plus kilometers without stopping. Ahead, the road began to branch off into more and more side paths.

Stone houses began to appear along the roadside as well.

Before long, a gray-white blur finally materialized in the distance.

The gray-white mass grew larger, gradually resolving into a dense forest of massive stone pillars. All of them were residential buildings.

A dense stream of people and vehicles flowed between the pillars.

Some of the pillars here were over ten meters in diameter, with countless stories of windows stretching upward, dozens of them at a glance.

Others were only three or four meters in diameter—cramped and narrow, standing only seven or eight stories tall.

All the stone pillars were accessed through square wooden doors at their base.