The Decaying World-Chapter 64 - 59: Identity 3

With his Inner Strength breakthrough and the dramatic increase in his Sword Speed, Lin Hui didn’t waste any time. Since he had made the rare trip, he decided to hunt two more Tree Scorpions. This time, he didn’t kill them outright, only severing their Scorpion Tails to take back with him.

For one, the Scorpion Tail had a weak point that was easy to sever. For another, killing the creatures completely would cause too much damage to his Qinghe Sword.

He wasn’t short on money these days, what with his father’s support and his health and wellness class for seniors booming, but the Qinghe Sword had been with him for a long time. He’d grown attached to it.

It had witnessed his journey, step by step, from his weakest moments.

As evening approached, he dragged the Scorpion Tails into a pile, rented a small cabin in Shiqiao Town for the time being, and hung up a Jade Talisman to ward off the fog, waiting for the next day to arrive.

Night fell, and a gray fog filled the air outside. From time to time, he could hear whispers that sounded like human voices.

Lin Hui sat cross-legged on the bed, watching the hanging Jade Talisman sway gently. He couldn’t help but recall a conversation he once had with his teacher in the Inner City.

’This Jade Talisman... It can actually be turned on and off remotely... What in the world do the people of the Inner City think the Outer City is...?’

It had been fine when he didn’t know, but now that he knew the truth, he couldn’t stop himself from staring at the Jade Talisman whenever his gaze fell upon it, terrified it would suddenly fail at any moment.

After an unknown amount of time, his sleepiness became too much to suppress. He slowly closed his eyes, drifting into a light doze.

Alone out in the wilds, with the three Scorpion Tails he’d dragged back lying beside him, he didn’t dare to fall into a deep sleep. He simply sat there until dawn.

After daybreak, the apothecary he’d made a deal with would come to pick them up.

And just as he was resting peacefully...

At the crack of dawn, a makeshift three-person hunting party entered the Shiqiao Town Fog Area. Fully equipped, they cautiously advanced into the part of the Fog Area inhabited by Tree Scorpions.

All three wore light armor of brown and black leather, carrying large waist pouches and backpacks. The person in the middle held a stick of Ning Xiang, its wisps of fragrance creating a spherical clearing in the fog around them.

As they ventured deeper, the trio passed the warning signs with practiced ease and entered the Tree Scorpions’ territory.

Usually, this area was teeming with Tree Scorpions, but today, they walked for quite a while before finally spotting one.

All three were at the Inner Power Realm. One handled defense, one drew the creature’s attention as a distraction, and the last was the main attacker. They worked by repeatedly striking the weakest point: the joint connecting the Tree Scorpion’s tail to its body.

After a good ten minutes, a Tree Scorpion finally crashed to the ground.

"This one’s carapace is mostly intact, so it should fetch a good price. The Scorpion Tail is in good shape, too—not too damaged. The whole thing should go for three hundred thousand, right?" the burly, flat-topped man leading the team asked, exhausted.

He was the one on defense. Against a behemoth like the Tree Scorpion, even with his innate Divine Power augmented by his Inner Strength, he couldn’t take two hits in a row. He needed someone to run interference so he could have a moment to recover.

"Should be. One more kill, and we can head back and take a nice long rest," said the woman who had been the distraction. She had long, red hair, a pretty face, and a thin scar on her forehead.

"But have you guys noticed? I think some other Hunters have been going after Tree Scorpions recently," the third man said. He crouched down, inspecting the ground with a puzzled look. "Besides the specialists from the Baihua Sect, are there any other masters around here who can break a Tree Scorpion’s carapace?" He pointed to deep tracks on the ground that they hadn’t made.

"Tree Scorpions are pretty much the most valuable monsters you can find in the Fog Areas outside the ruins," the flat-topped man said dismissively. "Sure, they’re tough to kill, but the next level up are pack monsters, which are even more of a hassle. It’s perfectly normal for other expert teams to be hunting here."

"No... this hunting ’party’... it’s probably just one person..." the last man said grimly.

"One person?!" The burly man and the red-haired woman both paled slightly. "Don’t tell me it’s You Ying?" They knew that You Ying, from the Inner City, had recently been in the area investigating the disappearance of an expedition team.

With a Tree Scorpion’s defenses, who besides a Summoner could possibly take one on head-to-head?

"The style doesn’t fit... Actually, I noticed some tracks last time, too, but I was only suspicious, not certain. This time, I’m sure," the last man said softly. "This person didn’t wear the Tree Scorpion down in a battle of attrition. They ended the fight very quickly."

The burly man and the red-haired woman exchanged a look.

"Hunting a Tree Scorpion alone? That level of power... isn’t that close to what an Advanced Summoner can do? Even the top offensive specialists from the Baihua Sect need to team up in pairs to pull that off, don’t they?"

"Regardless, if we run into this person, we need to be careful," the last man nodded. "After all, there’s at least some semblance of order in the city districts. But out here in the Fog Area, killing someone over a simple disagreement is a common occurrence."

The other two nodded, their mood growing heavy.

If that lone wolf of a Hunter decided to make this their permanent hunting ground, they might be forced to find a new spot.

An expert capable of quickly killing a Tree Scorpion single-handedly was not someone they could afford to antagonize. Against a master of that caliber, there was often no safety in numbers.

*

*

*

「Two days later, at Qingfeng Temple.」

Lin Hui strolled across the training grounds, observing how his elderly students were grasping the Seven-Section Quick Sword.

After confirming they were handling the slowed-down version without much trouble, he walked over to a separate, cordoned-off training area where Xiaohu and Weiwei were practicing their Swordsmanship.

As Lin Hui carefully observed Xiaohu’s form, his eyes suddenly lit up.

"Xiaohu, you’ve reached the Third Grade of Body Tempering?"

"Yes, Master. I was fortunate enough to break through yesterday," Xiaohu replied earnestly, sheathing his sword and standing at attention.

"Good. Very good." Lin Hui nodded in approval. "It seems my perfected version of the Seven-Section Quick Sword is indeed much better for Body Tempering."

"I’ve also reached the Eighth Grade. The perfected Seven-Section Quick Sword Body Tempering is definitely much faster than before," Weiwei added, walking over and wiping the sweat from her forehead.

At first, she couldn’t be bothered to practice it. But since she had to help teach, she ended up learning the perfected version of the Seven-Section Quick Sword. The results were unexpectedly good, so she’d kept at it ever since.

She had never actually reached the Body Tempering Limit, to say nothing of the Qingfeng Swordsmanship’s Second-Time Body Tempering.

Before, with her father—an Inner Power Realm master—to protect her, everything had been fine. But now he had run off, and she could only rely on herself. She couldn’t very well rely on Lin Hui, could she? He was no relation to her.

She was his senior sister, after all, and had too much pride for that.

"Good. Since it’s so effective, we can consider recruiting a few talented disciples to expand the Sword Sect. Just the few of us aren’t enough to handle everything," Lin Hui said in a low voice.

"Ah Hui, are you saying we should rejoin the Martial Alliance?" Weiwei asked, taken aback. She frowned. "With our current level of strength... isn’t it a bit too soon to go back?"

"There’s no need to go back." Lin Hui shook his head. "We’ve already left the martial arts hall circuit, so there’s no reason to go back to competing with them. We just need to find a few people to expand the Sword Sect’s organizational capacity. For those with good aptitude, we can even waive the tuition. That should widen our pool of candidates."

"If tuition is free, we’ll definitely get a lot of applicants," Weiwei nodded in agreement. "Come to think of it, this place is practically a senior citizen center these days. The old folks call up their friends and come by the busload. During breaks, they go to the front yard to play cards, play chess, or take naps... Don’t you think we should get it under control?"

"You can handle that as you see fit. Who’s taking care of the medicinal herb garden out back?" Lin Hui asked.

"No one. Nobody knows how, so it’s been left to go wild for a while now," Weiwei replied.

"Then hire some herb farmers to help out, and we’ll learn from them as well. We can’t be left helpless and knowing nothing once they’re gone..." Lin Hui said gravely.

"Understood."

"Also, we’ll need to hire some helping hands and a cook. Once we have more people, we can’t be doing all the menial chores ourselves."

"But that would scale up our operation significantly. We might attract unwanted attention," Weiwei frowned.

"It’ll be fine as long as we stay out of the martial arts hall circuit," Lin Hui replied. "Surely they wouldn’t try to move in on the market for senior wellness classes, right?"

*

*

*

「Black Dragon Sect.」

On the wide, open grounds before the three-story pavilion on Four-direction Peak, hundreds of disciples stood in three dense formations, practicing a Claw Technique.

Song Zhanlong, the Sect Leader, sat unmoving in the seat of honor overlooking them, a cup of tea in hand, which he sipped from slowly.

Standing beside him were the Black Dragon Sect’s three strongest disciples.

Eldest Disciple Wang Hongshi, Second Disciple Chen Yuan, and Third Disciple Mu Qiaozhi.

Zhao Jiang’an, formerly the second disciple of Qingfeng Temple, had also joined Song Zhanlong. However, because he spent so much of his time on business affairs, his progress with the Black Dragon Claw technique eventually fell behind Mu Qiaozhi’s.

Mu Qiaozhi had now replaced Zhao Jiang’an to become the true number three disciple of the Black Dragon Sect.

"Speaking of which, Qingfeng Temple seems to be doing quite well for itself lately," Song Zhanlong said softly. "Does any of you know the situation there?"

The three remained silent for a moment before Chen Yuan, the second disciple, spoke up.

"Mu Qiaozhi and Zhao Jiang’an came from there. They would know the situation best, wouldn’t they?"

Mu Qiaozhi’s expression flickered. Since joining the Black Dragon Sect, she’d learned that Song Zhanlong’s temper was far harder to manage than Daoist Baohe’s. The slightest displeasure would earn you a backhand. He was a top master even among those in the Inner Power Realm, and with his formidable Hard Skills, a casual slap from him in a fit of anger could leave a disciple at the Body Tempering Limit like herself nursing an injury for a very long time.

This Sect Leader had come from Xingdiao, so he had far less fear of the local Summoner families than Daoist Baohe, who had been rooted in this place for years. If things ever went south, he could just pack up and leave at a moment’s notice.

As a result, all the disciples in the sect lived in fear of him.

Hearing the topic shift to her, Mu Qiaozhi lowered her head slightly and spoke.

"The three masters of the Ming Generation have all left Qingfeng Temple. Only a few of the former outer courtyard disciples remain. They’re running a so-called ’wellness class’ and no longer teach martial arts, just exercises for seniors to stay healthy."

"’So they’re still training, then? I can hear the ruckus all the way from here. Sounds like business is booming.’" Song Zhanlong lightly tapped the armrest with the sharp metal claws on his gauntlet, producing a sharp, clinking sound.

"Perhaps. But it’s just a bunch of old folks. Qingfeng Temple can’t possibly make a comeback," Mu Qiaozhi replied.

"You all came from Qingfeng Temple. If they can teach, why can’t you?" It was clear Song Zhanlong didn’t want to let even this small profit slip by. "Number Three, go kick in Qingfeng Temple’s doors one more time. Shut them down, drive everyone out, and seize the territory. The location is a bit remote, but it will make a fine branch for the Black Dragon Sect."

Mu Qiaozhi’s expression changed, but not daring to refuse, she cupped her fist.

"Yes."

"Go. The New Martial Alliance ranking tournament is fast approaching. The results will determine the future allocation of resources and positions for every major martial arts hall. It’s even a chance to establish connections with the Inner City’s Three Sects and Six Gangs. I must prepare thoroughly, and you all must work hard as well. We need to secure high ranks in both the Sect Leader and disciple competitions," Song Zhanlong said in a grave tone.

"Yes, Sect Leader!"

The three disciples replied in unison.

The New Martial Alliance, just like the old one, followed a model of internal ranking competitions and cooperation with the Inner City.

The top-ranked sects and halls gained many unspoken privileges. Privileges brought influence, and influence brought control over various industries, resources, and profits.

In other words, the higher the rank, the greater the rewards. Money, power, cultivation resources—all of it required the right connections. This was especially true for certain rare medicines useful only to those in the Inner Power Realm, which were produced exclusively in the Inner City. Without the proper channels and a designated quota, you couldn’t buy them even if you had the money.

This created a cycle where the highest-ranked powers in the Martial Alliance only grew stronger. That was why Song Zhanlong was determined to give his all and charge ahead in this first great ranking tournament of the New Martial Alliance.

After being dismissed, Mu Qiaozhi departed at once, returning to her room to prepare her weapon and equipment.