The Decaying World-Chapter 100 - 95: Idea 1

Snowflakes drifted down, quietly settling in the small courtyard of the Lin Mansion, on Lin Shunhe’s shoulders.

He stood with his hands behind his back, gazing up at the sky.

"This weather... it’s started snowing again just like that. Elder Du, what’s the situation with Qingfeng Temple?"

"It’s a bit troublesome. Young Master Hui was too fast. He rushed to Fu’an Town the moment he got the news. However, we reported it to Lord Black Face in time, and he’s already sent someone to provide support from the shadows. It shouldn’t be a big problem," Elder Du said in a low voice.

"Is that so? Good. Ah Hui is just like that, always impulsive. I thought his personality had changed since he’s been training so hard in his Martial Arts lately, but it seems he’s still the same as ever," Lin Shunhe sighed.

"Young Master Hui is still quite remarkable. His comprehension is extremely high. To bring Qingfeng Temple to where it is today is something no ordinary person could achieve," Elder Du said with admiration.

"Li Chi... Circulation..." Lin Shunhe fell silent.

He had originally planned to wait until he had fused with the replica Evil Soldier, formed his own hall, and grasped greater power before bringing his son along.

But he never expected Qingfeng Temple to stir up trouble so quickly.

The thought gave him a bit of a headache.

’Maybe after getting his head bashed in this time, he’ll finally give up...’

For someone in the Inner Power Realm to stubbornly charge at a Circulation expert... he truly didn’t know his own limits.

As his son stirred up more and more trouble at an ever-increasing pace, Lin Shunhe was starting to feel like he could no longer clean up the mess.

This made him yearn even more for the replica Evil Soldier that was on its way.

"By the way, which envoy did Lord Black Face send?" he suddenly asked.

"It was Cold Hook Zhe Tianjue Zhe Envoy," Elder Du replied.

"That’s good. Among the envoys, Elder Zhuo’s strength is near the top. Stopping Li Chi shouldn’t be a problem." Lin Shunhe had worked with him before and knew a thing or two about his capabilities. He breathed a sigh of relief.

"When the time comes, if Ah Hui can be a bit more silver-tongued and observant, he might even be able to form a connection with Elder Zhuo. If he could get a pointer or two and get closer to the Circulation Realm, that would be even better." Lin Shunhe calculated in his mind, and the tension on his face eased.

*

*

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「Flying Stone Gate Mountain Gate.」

The strange-weapon martial artist was currently crouched on the roof of a two-story wooden building inside the gate, staring dumbfounded at the intense battle between Lin Hui and Li Chi.

"Brother Zhuo... is this the guy you said you were coming to save...?"

Behind him, a woman in white with a bamboo hat was also watching the distant battlefield, utterly speechless.

"To be honest, in a situation like this, I don’t think we’re qualified to intervene and save anyone."

"The problem is, Lord Black Face told me to come, but he never specified who to save. Could it be... we’re supposed to save Li Chi?" The strange-weapon martial artist helplessly stroked his chin, suppressing the shock in his eyes.

"Let’s just watch and see how things develop for now. It’s really not clear who’s going to win," the hatted woman replied.

"The problem is, I don’t think I can beat either of them," the strange-weapon martial artist sighed.

"That’s normal. I feel the same way. Let’s just keep watching..." The hatted woman nodded, her gaze piercing through her veil as she continued to stare at the distant battle.

CLANG!!

Just then, the two hemispheres finally connected in an instant.

The white line transformed into a torrent, surging forward like countless steel needles piercing out. It was like an avalanche of infinite threads, crushing and submerging everything in its path.

Meanwhile, the opposing Invisible Sword had already vanished. It was so fast that its mere passage through the air instantly stirred the wind currents.

A massive, sword-shaped torrent of air violently followed the blade, forming what looked like a transparent greatsword that cleaved straight down into the torrent of white lines.

HUMMM!

The Invisible Sword and the white torrent were locked in a stalemate for a moment.

In the next moment, SHING! The torrent of white threads was abruptly split in two, cleaved apart by the enormous Invisible Sword.

The invisible, transparent greatsword tore through the white lines, cleaving a path straight to Li Chi and slashing down at his opponent’s forehead.

BOOM!!

A sword shattered, and a figure appeared.

Lin Hui’s figure materialized in front of Li Chi, the Qinghe Sword in his hand completely shattered into countless fragments.

Some of the silver fragments shot forward, while others ricocheted backward.

Lin Hui’s figure blurred as he dodged the fragments, then flickered again in the next instant, reappearing on the snow five meters away.

THUNK.

The hilt of the broken sword fell from his hand and plunged into the snow.

In the next second, an unfamiliar longsword appeared in his hand.

It was the weapon from the hands of a Flying Stone Sect disciple not far away.

"A pity. If only I had a good sword..."

"There’s no pity. Without being coated in Inner Strength, even the best sword couldn’t break through my Protective Inner Strength," Li Chi said calmly.

The blade had shattered upon impact with his body, like striking a steel plate, before its fragments were sent flying.

He lifted his foot and started walking toward Lin Hui again, step by step, treading on the black, muddy ground that had been swept clear by the fierce winds.

"Then let’s try again," Lin Hui said, raising the longsword. "Good thing there are plenty of weapons here."

Powerful gales once again began to radiate from his body, as if he were the eye of a storm.

If before he had been relying purely on the extreme speed of his swings, now, he was about to unleash the true killing moves of his Gale Swordsmanship.

A wind even more immense than before began to form a giant sphere around him, blowing the snow and wind away so that they could only drift around the perimeter.

WHOOSH!!

In the next second, both charged forward at the same time.

One erupted in brilliant white light, while the other vanished once more.

One after another, invisible rings appeared within the gale, like transparent, trembling bubbles.

All the rings floated around Li Chi, forming an encirclement.

"Wind!"

Lin Hui’s voice cut coldly through the howling wind.

BOOM!!

In the next instant, a terrifying sword gash appeared on Li Chi’s back, forcing the white light covering his body to cave in violently.

But at the same time, the immense pressure caused the longsword to shatter once again, sending countless fragments flying.

Li Chi struck backward with his palm. The white-lit palm shadow split into nine images, which formed a single line, blasting away the sword fragments and hurtling toward Lin Hui.

But the attack still hit nothing but air.

In the next instant, a new sword gash exploded on his back.

Another longsword shattered, its fragments flying at him.

Li Chi’s expression changed slightly. He spun and struck with his palm again, but still missed.

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!!

Longsword after longsword shattered and exploded between the two.

And the position of the slash was always the same spot on his back.

No matter how Li Chi dodged or counterattacked, the sword gash always appeared on his back.

At this moment, he finally understood just how disgusting supersonic speed could be.

"Now I understand why you dared to come here alone."

He had unleashed more than ten different killing techniques in a row without being able to catch a glimpse of Lin Hui’s figure. So, he simply stopped fighting and spread his arms, allowing the sparks and fragments to keep exploding against his body.

"It seems ordinary moves are useless against you. In that case..."

Li Chi closed his eyes. In the middle of such an intense battle, he actually closed his eyes, as if he were resting and relaxing.

CRACKLE.

Suddenly, a wisp of a white electric arc appeared, dancing on the surface of his body.

"Then let me show you the Secret Technique I created myself."

The white electric arcs grew more and more numerous, more and more dense, until they covered almost every inch of his body.

"Secret Technique: Meteorite Stone!"

Li Chi’s eyes snapped open. All the white arcs detached from his body at once, coalescing into a white ball of electricity.

At the same time, he clapped his hands together, striking the electric sphere in front of him.

BANG!!

A blinding white light exploded on the spot. From within the light, countless, densely packed white palm shadows shot out, spreading in all directions.

This time, the palm shadows were clearly different from before. They each traced a bizarre arc, all of them unexpectedly converging on Lin Hui’s position.

’Gale’s Qingming.’

Lin Hui’s blurry figure appeared for an instant, then vanished again.

He stood his ground, suddenly shifting left, then right, precisely dodging every single palm shadow.

One by one, the palm shadows exploded on the ground around him, blasting craters of various sizes.

But not a single one could hit him.

After dozens of consecutive palm strikes, the ground was a pitted mess, a whole layer seemingly blasted away.

The gale howled, and white light flickered.

The two returned to their previous state of confrontation.

The only difference was that the surrounding ground and buildings had been affected. Some had collapsed, some were broken—it was a total wreck.

"You can’t break my barrier, so you can’t win," Li Chi said, his eyes narrowed.

"You’re right." Lin Hui tossed aside the new broken sword in his hand. "The strength of a Circulation Realm’s Inner Strength is higher than I imagined. But I haven’t lost, either."

As long as Li Chi couldn’t hit him, he was invincible.

He didn’t say this out loud, but Li Chi tacitly agreed.

"Interesting..." Li Chi smiled. "Very interesting."

He began to laugh, the smile on his face growing wider and deeper.

"Everyone else strives to be stronger, tougher, thicker. Only you have actually managed to raise your speed to such a degree. Fascinating. Absolutely fascinating!"

"I take back my previous disrespect. Though you are not in the Circulation Realm, you are comparable to one."

He lowered his hands, actually relaxing from his state of power circulation.

"Since neither of us can do anything to the other, there’s no point in continuing this fight. How about a truce?"

"..." Lin Hui chuckled. "You’ve lost so many men. You’re just going to let it go?"

"As I said, they were trash, not people. The only real people here are you and I," Li Chi said, his expression returning to calm.

Lin Hui was speechless. This was his first time truly witnessing the disdain a Circulation Martial Artist held for those beneath them.

Xue Meng had mentioned before that Circulation Martial Artists and those below them were practically two different species. Only now did he truly understand that gap.

From their exchange just now, he could tell that while he could break through the defense of Song Zhanlong, who was at Inner Power Perfection, he was helpless against Li Chi’s Protective Inner Power.

Even the Breaking Cone of his Gale Swordsmanship fell just short of piercing it.

But that tiny bit became an insurmountable limit.

If he had a good sword, he probably could have broken the barrier, but the world isn’t full of "what ifs."

He had asked his father to search, and the best weapons on the market were only about as strong as the Qinghe Sword.

Anything better was almost always not for sale. It depended on opportunity. If one ever appeared on the market, it would be snatched up immediately.

"You’re still young; there’s no need to fight an old man like me to the death. My goal isn’t to be held up here by you. The conflict between us originated from the pharmacy in Fu’an Town. My Flying Stone Sect can offer compensation for this matter," Li Chi said calmly.

"My sect’s disciple was gravely injured, and an Elder has gone missing. How do you plan to compensate us?" Lin Hui asked in a low voice.

"We will cover the medical expenses, and we will help search for the missing Elder. But you also killed three of my Flying Stone Sect’s Inner Power Martial Artists. How about we call it even?" Li Chi had a mission to complete; he couldn’t afford to be locked in a stalemate with Lin Hui here.

Although he was wary of his opponent’s ability to come and go without a trace, his opponent also couldn’t break through his defenses. If they were to truly have a falling out, the worst-case scenario would be both sides targeting the people around the other.

But a mutually destructive outcome was not something he wanted to see either.