Tap.

The child stopped and raised a hand, pointing forward.

"See? That’s the wooden door. Once we deal with it, this will all be over."

Lin Hui followed his finger and looked ahead.

There, amidst the gray-white fog, stood a solitary white wooden door.

The door had a black handle and a rectangular pattern in the center.

The wooden door was already ajar, opened by some unknown person.

Through the gap, a ceaseless stream of blood-red liquid was slowly seeping out from the ground.

"How do we deal with it?"

Lin Hui looked at the child, Xia Si.

"We have to find a way to close the door," the child replied in a low voice.

"Can I just destroy it?" Lin Hui asked.

"You can try. I’ve just never heard of anyone succeeding. Not since the day I was born," Xia Si shrugged.

Lin Hui nodded, drew his sword, and slowly walked toward the wooden door.

He circled the door once and found that it was completely isolated, with nothing connecting it to its surroundings.

It wasn’t attached to any walls, nor did it have corners touching the ground. The entire door was suspended in mid-air, hovering a centimeter or two above the ground.

He walked behind the door and saw its front side; he walked to the front and saw its front side again.

This bizarre, unsettling feeling made Lin Hui’s expression grow even more cautious.

’I’ll try and see if I can destroy it directly.’

He raised his sword, and his figure suddenly blurred.

CLANG!

A piercing crash exploded outward.

Though it was a wooden doorframe, it rang with the sound of striking extremely hard metal under the slash of Ruyi.

The wooden door was completely unscathed, but the impact sent a numbing shock through Lin Hui’s hands and threw him back.

’It’s that hard!?’ He was shocked.

To put it in perspective, with his current speed and strength, that single strike could have instantly demolished a stone house.

Yet this wooden door didn’t even have a scratch on it.

"You’d better save your energy. Just close the door," Xia Si’s voice called out from a short distance away.

In all his life, Xia Si had never heard of anyone being able to destroy these bizarre things that could appear at any moment in the wild.

The major humanoid races living in the Fog Area all referred to such objects as "Indestructible Things."

The wooden door was one of them.

When Xia Si was very young, he had heard from his parents, who had fled the city, that even the top-tier adults from there had tried to destroy the Indestructible Things by various means, but to no avail.

It was said they had even tried using the strongest powers, like the Evil Soldier Insect Scripture, but it was still useless.

In the end, their only option was to expel all the Indestructible Things from the safe Fog Area and build a Boundary Wall to isolate them.

"I’ll try again..." Unconvinced, Lin Hui secretly activated his Wind Disaster Affinity Special Effects.

Instantly, invisible currents of wind around his body began to carry a terrifying, decomposing force that was both brutal and destructive.

CHH!

He swung his sword once more.

Lin Hui watched Ruyi land on the doorframe, but this time, even the ever-effective power of his Wind Disaster Affinity lost its effect.

’Wait, I think there’s a mark.’ Lin Hui looked closely and discovered an incredibly, infinitesimally fine, hair-thin scratch where the sword had struck the door.

If you didn’t look closely, rubbing it with your thumb might just obscure it with a fingerprint.

Speechless, Lin Hui could only approach and try to hook the handle with Ruyi, pulling it toward himself.

The seemingly small gap in the wooden door felt as heavy as a massive block of metal when he tried to close it. Even Lin Hui found it strenuous. He was slightly out of breath by the time he finally managed to shut the door completely.

CLICK.

As the wooden door shut completely, a cold wind howled and swept through the area.

From top to bottom, the wooden door began to silently crumble into countless white particles and vanish.

"Alright. It’s finally over!" Xia Si let out a long sigh and clapped his hands. "Boss, your strength is insane," he said, looking at Lin Hui.

"It’s nothing special. As long as you train diligently every day, people with my level of strength are a dime a dozen in the city," Lin Hui said modestly.

"Do all adults like to humor kids like this?" Xia Si said, resigned.

"Maybe so. Keep talking. Tell me about the situation out here in the Fog Area. This is my first time out, so I don’t know anything," Lin Hui said sincerely.

"You don’t know anything, yet you dare to ask me directly? Aren’t you afraid I’ll screw you over?!" Xia Si said, speechless.

"It’s fine. I’m very fast. If you try to screw me over, I’ll kill you," Lin Hui said with a smile.

".....What a terrifying adult." Resigned, Xia Si shivered.

"Let’s go. Back to my burrow. There’s nowhere else safe enough around here." He turned and started walking back.

Curious, Lin Hui followed him.

The two of them entered the burrow.

Inside was a rectangular room, nine meters long and wide, and three meters high. It was filled with wooden barrels of all sizes.

Some of the barrels were open, revealing rice and flour, while others contained dried meat.

"Sorry, it’s a bit messy. Please bear with me," Xia Si said.

"It’s fine. Go on. What’s the situation around here?" Lin Hui found a random spot, crossed his legs, and used the wind to support his body, simply sitting cross-legged in mid-air, suspended and motionless.

The sight made Xia Si’s eyes go wide, a thick glimmer of envy flashing within them.

"It’s just as you saw earlier. The Fog Area has always been like this, full of old ruins everywhere. Normal people like us can only survive in various crevices and tunnels.

"Only those Mutated People dare to walk freely outside. They rely on the protection of the Fog Spirit and giant beasts, having completely dedicated themselves to unknown existences. They’ve become neither human nor ghost. But because of this, they’ve obtained great power."

"Mutated People... What about the people from the city? Compared to these Mutated People..." Lin Hui had just started when Xia Si cut in.

"We generally call people who live in the city ’Naturals.’ Although it’s also a bit dangerous there, you’re much better off than we are in the Fog Area outside. There’s nowhere to grow food out here; we can only rely on hunting monsters. But monsters aren’t that easy to kill. Besides, if you eat too much monster meat, you’ll undergo all sorts of strange transformations. The Python Race, the Eagle Race, the Lion-men, and so on... they probably all came to be that way," Xia Si said with a shrug.

"Do you have any family still alive? If they’re nearby, I can take you to them," Lin Hui asked.

"Thank you, sir, but you probably don’t know, my name wasn’t always this. It used to be Xia Shishi," Xia Si replied.

"Then why change your name?" Lin Hui asked casually.

"Because my parents died the year before last," Xia Si replied. "They were scared to death. That’s why I changed my name—to never forget that day."

"..." Lin Hui looked at the wooden barrels. He could see more than ten large ones stacked up. It was enough to feed this child for a long time, assuming the food didn’t go moldy.

"So what are your plans for the future?" he continued to ask.

"May I follow you?" Xia Si asked in a low voice.

"I don’t need a follower. Besides, you can’t keep up with me," Lin Hui answered frankly.

"Then don’t worry about me. Go and attend to your own business." Xia Si wasn’t disappointed, smiling faintly as if having expected this.

"Alright. By the way, you’ve been living here alone for two years?" Lin Hui asked.

"Mhm, it’s been okay," Xia Si nodded.

"Aren’t you scared, being all alone? Is all this food from the village’s old stores?" Lin Hui asked again.

"Scared? Not really. If it gets too bad at night, the faces on the wall keep me company. As for the food, the rice and flour are from the stores, but I hunted the dried meat myself," Xia Si answered honestly.

"???" Lin Hui glanced at the child, who was only about as tall as his thigh.

’Hunted it yourself!?’ 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

He suspected he had misheard.

"Don’t look down on me because I’m short. I’m actually pretty capable," Xia Si said seriously. "By studying the movement patterns of some monsters, I’ve mastered a special way of moving that lets me go undetected."

"...!?" Lin Hui had always maintained a calm and composed expression, as if he had everything under control.

But at this moment, he truly couldn’t keep his composure.

Watching Xia Si explain so matter-of-factly, he couldn’t help but ask another question.

"How old did you say you were??"

"About... eight," Xia Si replied.

"I’ll teach you a set of movements. If you can learn them, you’ll be my personal disciple from now on!" Lin Hui decided on the spot.

He paid no mind to his surroundings, immediately standing up, gripping his sword, and performing the complete version of the Seven-Section Quick Sword once through.

"..." Xia Si watched, then thought for a moment.

Then she stood up, grabbed a random chopstick to use as a sword, and, move for move, actually began to practice the complete version of the Seven-Section Quick Sword she had just seen!!

"!!??" Lin Hui stood to the side, trying his best to find any mistake, but it was no use.

With every move, the child almost perfectly replicated his actions.

"I..." He had only ever heard about the existence of such geniuses in stories.

And now, he was seeing one with his own eyes.

Only eight years old, and so small, yet able to learn the complete Seven-Section Quick Sword Swordsmanship after seeing it just once!?

"Kneel. Call me Master." Lin Hui closed his eyes, turned his back, and spoke in a low voice.

Xia Si blinked, immediately knelt, and kowtowed toward him. THUD, THUD, THUD.

"Master!!"

"From now on, you are my second personal disciple. Your senior brother is currently away and can’t come back to meet you, so we’ll wait for another opportunity. Rise." Lin Hui let out a breath, turned, and made a lifting motion with his hand. His Inner Strength instantly formed an invisible hand that lifted Xia Si up.

But as he lifted her, he made another discovery.

This Xia Si... was actually a girl!?

As he was processing this, a question suddenly occurred to him.

"Right, you said something earlier about faces on the wall keeping you company at night? What did you mean?"

"It’s exactly what it sounds like?" Xia Si said, confused. "If you sleep in one place for too long, some faces that can talk and sing will grow on the wall next to your bed.

"They sing in a language I can’t understand. They’re loud, annoying, and you can’t destroy them because they’re also Indestructible Things. Then they mysteriously disappear after it’s been daytime for a while," Xia Si replied.

"...What is all this bizarre stuff!" Lin Hui was a bit flustered. This Fog Area outside was truly... indescribable.

"By the way, Master, this is your disciple’s meeting gift, to show my respect." Suddenly, Xia Si pulled a long, black hair with a metallic sheen from her pocket.

"I found it before. Some super huge guy left it behind when he passed by," Xia Si explained.