The Decaying World-Chapter 83 - 78: Gale 2

At that very moment, as Lin Hui saw the line of text, a massive torrent of information on how to cultivate the Gale Swordsmanship surged into his mind.

In his mind’s eye, he seemed to have practiced the Qingfeng Sword for countless days and nights. Through this arduous training, on a day of raging winds, he had an epiphany about the essence of wind. He learned to form a special web of traction through the flow of his Inner Strength, transforming it into a gale and mastering the Gale Three Techniques, which constituted the Gale Swordsmanship.

PUFF.

He shot to his feet, his hand gripping the hilt of the sword on his back. The experience of having practiced the Gale Swordsmanship over a million times instantly flowed from his mind into the muscles of his hand the moment he grasped the hilt.

His muscles made minute adjustments, naturally adopting the most familiar grip on the sword.

He drew the sword, pointing it diagonally toward the ground.

Lin Hui closed his eyes and began to brandish the blade. As if performing a dance, he began practicing this brand-new Gale Swordsmanship with extremely slow movements.

This Swordsmanship consisted of three stances, comprising a total of nine techniques: the Mountain Rubbing Technique, the Stacking Clouds Technique, and the Clear Sound Technique.

The three stances and nine techniques seemed unremarkable, mostly consisting of the most basic slicing motions, as if he were simply drawing circles.

One circle after another was continuously drawn by Lin Hui’s hand.

At first, he was very slow, as if his body had not yet fully adapted to this change.

He was still constantly adjusting.

But as his memories continued to calibrate, the muscles and joints of his body gradually seemed to recall the arduous training of the past.

The circular motions of his Sword Technique grew faster and faster.

Soon.

The blade began to blur, turning into a phantom image.

The faint sound of the blade cutting through the air could be heard.

After another minute.

The sword’s image vanished completely. Not even a phantom could be seen. Only the whooshing sounds grew more frequent and dense.

Another minute passed.

The whooshing sounds also began to diminish, replaced by a continuous, soft sound, like the whisper of a real wind.

At this point, Lin Hui’s right hand appeared almost motionless, held out in front of him. But a great wind had already begun to swirl before him.

A strong airflow blew against the yellow cloth on the incense table in front of the Divine Statue in the main hall.

The current of air was shattered by the incense table and scattered in all directions, causing the curtains hanging elsewhere in the hall to flutter incessantly.

Finally.

WHOOSH!

Suddenly, a tangible, distorted ring of air expanded outward with Lin Hui at its center.

This ring of air was far more powerful than the previous gusts. In a single blast, it made the entire incense table shake violently.

’Incredible!’ Lin Hui was shaken to his core.

He had never before seen any Martial Arts capable of producing such an exaggerated display.

Ever since he had awakened the memories of his past life and arrived at Qingfeng Temple, the Seven-Section Quick Sword he first learned was quite normal—just a slow method for Body Tempering.

After that, the Nine-Section Swift Sword was somewhat more impressive, far stronger than those fencers from his past life. His strikes even left afterimages.

Then came the Qingfeng Swordsmanship, which was a bit over the top—so fast that people couldn’t react. It was like the wind.

And now, this Gale Swordsmanship was creating such a commotion when he had only just begun practicing it.

If he completed the Body Tempering for these three stances and nine techniques, wouldn’t he be powerful enough to ascend to the heavens?!

Lin Hui now carefully recalled the information that had flooded his mind.

The Third-Time Body Tempering for the Gale Swordsmanship corresponded exactly to the Ninth Grade, just like before.

Because he had directly mastered all the Sword Technique realms upon evolution, he now needed to train repeatedly to achieve Body Tempering, just as he had with the Perfect Clear Wind Sword.

He was itching to find out more about that "Wind of Surrounding"—he had no idea what kind of Special Effects it had.

Special Effect Feathering had already become his trump card for instantly boosting his combat power. This Wind of Surrounding felt like some kind of defensive or sensory ability.

Lin Hui carefully savored the feel of the Gale Swordsmanship. After his excitement cooled slightly, he turned his attention to the three new evolution branches that had appeared below it.

There were three branches this time, which piqued his curiosity.

As he focused his attention, information on the three branches quickly emerged.

’1—Hell Shocking Wind Swordsmanship.’

’2—Aurora Wind Energy Elemental Sword.’

’3—Typhoon Swordsmanship.’

"..."

Lin Hui had once thought that the Blood Seal’s evolutions would primarily follow the paths of Purgatory, Ice, and Reality. But now, these two new branches told him: you were thinking too simply.

Not only was the Blood Seal truly random, but it had even randomized something like the Aurora Wind Energy Elemental Sword. Was this even the right genre anymore!?

Speechless, he examined the detailed descriptions and requirements one by one.

’1—Hell Shocking Wind Sword: Legend has it that in the long history of Hell, there once appeared a powerful swordsman skilled in using the airflow of the Breath of Hell. Although he ultimately died in a violent eruption of Hell’s Breath, his Swordsmanship was successfully passed down on a certain stone wall.

This Swordsmanship excels at single-target lethality and possesses a certain degree of hellish contamination. Combined with the Gale Sword, it forms a special Swordsmanship perfectly adapted to the user.

Required Resources: Nine Evil Soul Paths, five years of reserved energy, five years of reserved Heart and Spirit.

Required Time: Nine years (additional time to gestate the Hell Sword Embryo after reserves are completed).’

"...This..." Just from the description, Lin Hui knew this Swordsmanship had to be strong. Very strong. Super strong!

But then he saw the nine-year time requirement...

He decisively looked at the second option.

Although he now had medicine that could speed things up, even a shortened nine years would be a very long time. It was better to look at all the options first.

’2—Aurora Wind Energy Elemental Sword: From a Great Arcanist who was skilled in Swordsmanship. In his leisure, because his grandson loved Swordsmanship but lacked arcane talent, the Arcanist created this Swordsmanship especially for him.

This Swordsmanship can manipulate the wind elements within all things to increase Sword Speed and grant various wind-elemental arcane abilities. It boasts powerful area-of-effect damage and astonishing destructive power, but its consumption is enormous, focusing on manifesting the destructive power of wind.

Required Resources: Meditate in a land of great winds for thirteen days, eight years of reserved energy, eight years of reserved Heart and Spirit.

Required Time: Ten years (additional time to build a miniature wind elemental pool in the body after absorbing the reserves).’

"...This one’s even more ruthless, ten years! And the style is just as I guessed, straight out of a Mage’s arcane playbook."

Speechless again, Lin Hui finally looked at the third option.

’3—Typhoon Swordsmanship: A completely new Swordsmanship evolved from the Gale Swordsmanship. It enhances the effects of Sword Wind in both Body Tempering and actual combat, fundamentally changing the nature of Inner Strength to form a cyclone-type Inner Strength that primarily borrows the planet’s rotational force. Using this Inner Strength to perform special sword techniques allows one to borrow all external forces to accelerate the Sword Wind and form a high-speed rotating airflow.

This Swordsmanship integrates offense and defense, can create a home-field advantage within a certain range, and is immune to low-energy-level group attacks. It has a weakening effect on opponents of both equal and high energy levels.

Required Resources: Seven years of reserved energy, seven years of reserved Heart and Spirit.

Required Time: Seven years (additional time to gestate the cyclone-type Inner Strength after absorbing the reserves).’

’This one is also very strong... Wait!’ Suddenly, Lin Hui noticed the word "additional" in the required time column.

’Could it be that this time is on top of the time it takes to gather the reserved energy?!’

Lin Hui’s heart skipped a beat.

The more he looked, the more it seemed to be the case.

Before he could guess any further, the Blood Seal gave him a flicker of feedback.

It was indeed additional time that had to be waited...

’This... In that case, the first one is five plus nine, for a total of fourteen years...’

’The second one is eight plus ten, eighteen years.’

’The third one is seven plus seven, fourteen years.’

The time was just too long... If he couldn’t use medicine to accelerate it, Lin Hui had no idea how he could wait that long.

At his current cultivation speed, reaching the Sixth Layer of Inner Strength would probably take less than two years. The problem was what came after—he didn’t know how to break through to Circulation.

It could be said that starting from the Third-Time Body Tempering of the Gale Swordsmanship, he was already walking a path completely different from traditional Martial Artists.

Here, when Martial Artists reached the Sixth Layer of Inner Strength, they began to pursue the Circulation Realm. That was a higher realm of Inner Strength, an evolution and sublimation of life. To a certain extent, they had already abandoned Body Tempering through external techniques and turned completely toward Inner Strength.

But the Gale Swordsmanship still followed a path combining the internal and external. Not only did it involve changes in Inner Strength, but it also had an unheard-of third stage of continuous Body Tempering. It even mixed in other inexplicable elements.

Standing in the main hall, Lin Hui was unable to make a choice for a long time.

He wanted all three of the follow-up branches for the Gale Swordsmanship.

But the time required was truly too long.

’If I take a full dose of energy medicine every month to shorten the time, then with the various formulas I have now, using the optimal combination, I wonder how many days I can shorten it by in a month without the Yun Lingzhi...? I can test it first!’

Lin Hui made up his mind. He wouldn’t rush to make a choice with the Blood Seal. The time frames were so long that a few more days wouldn’t matter. He planned to wait until he had brewed the medicine, then personally test the various formulas he had obtained from the Baihua Sect to determine how much time he could cut per month before deciding which path to choose.

After collecting his Heart and Spirit, he let out a long breath and continued to practice the new Gale Swordsmanship with his sword in hand. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

This Swordsmanship could be used for the Third-Time Body Tempering.

If the purpose of the Second-Time Body Tempering was to stimulate the generation of Inner Strength, he didn’t know what effect this Third-Time Body Tempering would have.

However, the commotion caused by practicing the Gale Swordsmanship was simply too great. After practicing it just twice, Lin Hui had to leave the main hall to avoid making a complete mess of everything inside.

He left the Daoist Temple and followed the edge of the Fog Area, searching for a suitable location.

He walked further and further away, and soon, after passing through forests and fields, he arrived at a barren wasteland filled with boulders and hills.

The boulders here were all shaped like pebbles, each more than a man’s length long and over half a meter high, scattered randomly on the ground.

The soil was hard and dark yellow, with not even a few weeds in sight.

In the distance, a few withered trees stood, leafless and clawing at the sky, making the surroundings feel even more desolate and lonely.

Lin Hui looked around, found a large hill to block the view from behind, and then set a marker to find his way back before he resumed his sword practice.

After practicing only a few times, he discovered the advantages of this place.

The wind was already strong here, so the wind he generated himself was unnoticeable unless one looked closely.

Moreover, the soil was damp, and the stones were large, numerous, and heavy; a normal wind couldn’t kick them up.

Furthermore, with no flowers or grass, it was impossible to tell which direction the airflow was coming from. It was the perfect place for him to train.

’From now on, this place will be my main training ground. I’ll call it the Gale Plain.’ Lin Hui was quite satisfied with the place. He had gone and given it a new name himself.