The Decaying World-Chapter 102 - 97: Thought 3

Lin Hui left the Lin Mansion. As the dim mist began to roll in, he walked out of a side gate alone, preparing to head back.

His Body Technique was too fast now, so he had dispensed with the entourage befitting an Observatory Master that Wang Hongshi and the others had originally suggested. He preferred to come and go quickly; it was convenient, fast, and saved him a lot of trouble.

It only took him half an hour to get from the Black Dragon Headquarters in the next town to the Lin Mansion.

Bringing people along would have slowed him down considerably.

He had just said goodbye to his mother and stepped over the threshold. Hearing the sounds of celebration for his little sister, Lin Xiaoliu, from within the mansion behind him, he was about to leave.

Suddenly, a figure emerged from the shadows behind him.

"Lin Hui... brother. Is now a good time to talk?"

The voice was clear. It was a man.

Lin Hui turned to look at the speaker.

The man wore a light blue, belted long robe, with a pair of metallic, purplish-black gloves hanging from his waist. His long hair was tied in a ponytail, and his features were handsome and serene. It was none other than his stepmother’s eldest son, Liu Wu Jun, who was now his older step-brother.

"Brother Liu, it’s getting dark. If you have something to discuss, maybe we could talk next time?"

Lin Hui replied.

"It will only take a moment. With your Body Technique, it shouldn’t be a problem, right?" Liu Wu Jun said with a smile.

"I heard about your fight with the Circulation Martial Artist, Li Chi. A very impressive performance."

His tone carried a note of admiration.

"As for the New Martial Alliance, I have martial brothers who hold high-level advisory positions there. If you’re interested in developing your career in that direction, you can let me know. I can put in a good word for you beforehand."

"Develop my career there?" Lin Hui raised an eyebrow, wondering why he would ask such a thing.

"You might not feel it yet, but you will soon. Judging by the speed of your Inner Strength cultivation, it probably won’t be more than a few years before you reach the Perfection Sixth Layer. Once you hit that limit, it’ll be time to shift your focus to developing your influence and cultivating a peaceful life. This is basically the standard path for all Outer Martial practitioners," Liu Wu Jun said gently.

"Yesterday, my mother mentioned your situation to me, and I thought that since we’re brothers now, we should support each other a little, don’t you think? The Liu and Lin families are getting along harmoniously now, and my sister and I both hold positions in the Rain Palace. If you ever need help with anything, you can send a message to the Rain Palace’s Yuanming Hall in the Inner City. Just mention your name, Lin Hui."

"..." Lin Hui had never had much interaction with him, so he hadn’t expected him to be the first to extend an olive branch. This was a bit of a surprise, and it warmed his heart.

He had always been the type to respond to kindness, not coercion, so his attitude softened immediately.

"Thank you, brother. If I ever need anything, I’ll be sure to trouble you." He paused, then added another sentence.

"I know you two probably look down on the affairs of the Outer City, but if you ever need anything around here, you can also send someone to Qingfeng Temple."

This was a proper exchange of courtesies.

"Mm," Liu Wu Jun nodded with a smile.

Watching Lin Hui cup his fist, turn, and vanish from the doorway in a flash, as if skipping a frame of film, Liu Wu Jun’s eyelid twitched.

’Such a fast Body Technique... My little brother is quite capable after all. In the Outer City, he’s a dragon among men, even for a Martial Artist,’ he murmured to himself.

"Do you think he noticed me?" Another slender figure stepped out of the shadows. It was his sister, Liu Xiao.

"Probably not. But his Body Technique is so strong, it’s quite impressive. That flash just now was almost eighty percent of your speed," Liu Wu Jun said, shaking his head.

"I’m different. I rely purely on power to generate speed. He’s taking another kind of shortcut," Liu Xiao retorted.

"That’s still very good. I originally thought he’d be a burden on the family, but I didn’t expect our little brother to have so much backbone. After all this time, facing such a huge problem, he never said a single word to me about it. He just picked up his sword and went to challenge a Circulation-level master one-on-one... Based on that character and temperament alone, he’s solid."

Liu Wu Jun himself had a similar personality and greatly admired such strong, independent people.

"That’s true. Looking at it that way, this little brother of ours is actually a good person. If he has trouble in the future, we can definitely help him out more," Liu Xiao agreed with a nod.

"To be honest, at first, I didn’t think much of this family. But I didn’t expect Uncle Lin and Lin Hui to be such decent people, and my mother is very kind, too. Living together hasn’t been uncomfortable at all," Liu Wu Jun said with a laugh. "Now that our little sister Lin Xiaoliu has been born, the ties between our two sides are even stronger. Maybe we can truly be like one family in the future."

"Maybe. But compared to the main Liu family, it’s certainly much more comfortable here," Liu Xiao’s voice was light, and she clearly felt the same way.

The two of them stood in the shadows by the gate, whispering for a while longer about some of the disgusting things that had happened in the main Liu family, before quietly returning to their rooms.

Meanwhile, Lin Hui was sprinting at high speed along the main road between towns.

With a single flash, his figure would cross more than twenty meters. To an ordinary person, he was like a formless specter; they would only feel a gust of wind as he brushed past and vanished.

Before long, he arrived back at the Black Dragon Headquarters, where he came upon a group of disciples roughhousing and laughing in an enclosed corridor, the foul stench of alcohol hanging in the air.

Upon seeing Lin Hui, the disciples sobered up instantly. They quickly formed two neat rows, bowed their heads without a sound, and cleared a path.

"If you want to fool around, find another place." Lin Hui circulated his Inner Strength, and a gentle breeze blew out from him, sweeping away the stench of alcohol.

"Yes...!" The disciple standing at the very front felt his scalp tingle as he answered with his head bowed.

The gentle breeze blew past a Jade Talisman hanging on the side of the corridor, causing it to sway back and forth.

Lin Hui was about to leave when he suddenly noticed out of the corner of his eye that the surface of this hanging Jade Talisman had some fine cracks.

"This Jade Talisman is cracked. How much longer can it be used?"

"Uhm... reporting to the Observatory Master, they have to be replaced when they have around five cracks. This one could be replaced, but it could also last a bit longer," another, bolder female disciple spoke up.

"Who is usually in charge of this?"

"That would be Senior Sister Qiu, Qiu Yiren. She and a dozen or so other disciples formed the Night Jade Group, which is specifically responsible for replacing and purchasing the Jade Talismans."

"Aren’t the Jade Talismans free to collect?" Lin Hui frowned.

"They are, but because it’s a long way to go and the demand is high, we still have to pay people to help us collect large quantities from the Rain Palace," the female disciple answered quickly.

Lin Hui wanted to get to the bottom of this Jade Talisman business so he could put his mind at ease and continue to focus fully on his cultivation and Body Tempering.

His Body Tempering had been stuck, unmoving at the First Grade.

This kind of stagnation was impossible before. Considering his evolved and perfected Gale Swordsmanship, there was definitely nothing wrong with the swordsmanship itself. That meant the problem had to be with his training method.

"Have Qiu Yiren come to my... no, have her meet me in the assembly hall." Lin Hui had originally intended to say his study, but considering it was dark, it wouldn’t look good for an unmarried man and woman to be alone, so he changed it to the assembly hall.

"Okay! I’ll go find Senior Sister right away! She should be supervising the replacement of the Jade Talismans right now." The female disciple immediately turned and ran, as if Lin Hui were some kind of terrifying monster.

’Am I that scary?’ Lin Hui was speechless. He glanced at the others, who all had their heads bowed as if waiting for a scolding, shook his head slightly, and walked on through the corridor to leave.

He hadn’t gotten far before he heard a series of relieved sighs from behind him.

"My god, is that the oppressive aura of an Observatory Master who’s killed over a hundred people?! It’s too intense! I could barely breathe!"

"The Observatory Master is truly the Observatory Master! When he stood there, I felt like all the air was being sucked out of the room! It was so suffocating!"

"Did you guys notice? The Observatory Master’s hand is always on the hilt of his sword, but this time, he wasn’t even wearing a sword! Does this mean something big is about to happen!?"

"Something big, my ass! Didn’t the Observatory Master’s sword break during the battle with the Flying Stone Sect?"

"Oh, right..."

The group of young people chattered away, and the atmosphere quickly became lively again.

They were all in their teens and were martial artists, so naturally, they couldn’t stay quiet for long.

Lin Hui didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. As he walked through the corridors, everyone he encountered immediately stepped to the side, bowed their heads, and didn’t even dare to breathe too loudly.

They acted as if he were going to eat them.

Lin Hui recalled hearing from Chen Sui a few days ago that storytellers in the towns’ taverns and tea houses had already turned his battle achievements into popular tales, spreading them far and wide to earn money from the large audiences.

It seemed to be having an effect already.

He waited in the assembly hall for about ten minutes.

There was a soft knock on the wooden door leading to the corridor.

"Observatory Master, Qiu Yiren and Huang Shan request an audience."

"Come in," Lin Hui replied.

He came out of his meditation and opened his eyes to look at the newcomers.

Qiu Yiren walked into the hall, dragging a reluctant-looking Huang Shan with her. The two of them cupped their fists and bowed to Lin Hui.

"Observatory Master, you summoned us. What are your orders?" Qiu Yiren asked cautiously.

She didn’t actually want to speak so formally, but the thing was, the feat of killing over a hundred people in one go was just too outrageous.

She had killed people herself, but only a handful. So she knew exactly what it meant to kill over a hundred people—and not just any people, but over a hundred skilled Martial Artists from the Flying Stone Sect.

To put it bluntly, if the current Lin Hui had some kind of fit, he could single-handedly wipe out the entire Qingfeng Temple within an hour.

Those were Elder Xue Meng’s exact words, spoken in private. That was why the Elder had repeatedly warned them to pay close attention to the Observatory Master’s emotional state. Last time, he suspected the Observatory Master had indeed had an episode, which was why he...

Furthermore, the reason she had dragged Huang Shan along—pulling her right out of her bath without a second thought—was because she was worried it wouldn’t be appropriate to come alone.

After all, there were rumors that the Observatory Master was fond of women. Although she had never seen him show interest in any particular woman on a daily basis, all those aphrodisiacs he accepted as gifts weren’t for nothing.

When he was accepting the gifts, she had been standing to the side and saw very clearly that the Observatory Master had looked quite happy.

’If the Observatory Master has an episode and comes on to me... at least I’ll have a sister here to help share the burden...’ Qiu Yiren’s heart was pounding with anxiety.

’To be honest, if she were to actually get together with the Observatory Master, she wasn’t entirely against the idea. It’s just that jumping straight into it from the get-go was a bit too crude, wasn’t it?’

’If they could cultivate some feelings beforehand, let things blossom a little, that would be perfect...’

"Yiren? Yiren?!"

Huang Shan’s voice pulled her back from her fantasy.

"The Observatory Master is asking you a question! Why is your face so red?"

Huang Shan’s loud voice sounded especially jarring in the quiet assembly hall.

Qiu Yiren’s pretty face froze. She saw that Lin Hui was also looking at her and instantly snapped back to her senses. Realizing she had zoned out, her face flushed an even deeper shade of red, as if she had a fever.

Ever since she was young, she had admired the powerful experts from books—those with imposing auras who came and went as they pleased.

That was why she had dedicated herself to martial arts as she grew up, trying to become one of those powerful figures from her fantasies.

Unfortunately, due to her limited aptitude, she wasn’t chosen for the Summoning, nor was she selected by the Three Sects and Six Gangs. In the end, after a series of twists and turns, she chose Qingfeng Temple. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

She had originally thought her future was more or less set, but then the new Observatory Master, Lin Hui, had suddenly burst forth with an unprecedented, brilliant radiance, taking Qingfeng Temple to a height no one had ever dared to imagine.

Now, with the three branches united and its swordsmanship dominating the surrounding area, Qingfeng Temple had become a behemoth that lorded over more than ten nearby towns, its influence radiating out to hundreds of thousands of people.

And Lin Hui, the man who had built all of this in such a short time, though he had an ordinary face, was more dazzling in Qiu Yiren’s eyes than any handsome man could ever be.

At this thought, Qiu Yiren unconsciously pressed her legs together and lowered her head, not daring to look at Lin Hui anymore.

"Yiren, what’s wrong with you? Why is your neck all red!?" Huang Shan’s loud voice rang out again, filling the entire assembly hall.

"Why are you still looking down? The Observatory Master is talking to you! What are you bowing your head for?"