The Decaying World-Chapter 107 - 102: Calm 2

CLICK. Liu Xiao had already opened the door and rushed out. "She can’t find her way. I’ll go get her!" she called back before running off.

Lin Hui sighed in resignation. He had no choice but to sit and wait, so he closed his eyes and began circulating his Inner Strength to cultivate.

But time trickled by. He waited and waited, yet not only did the person fail to show up, but even Liu Xiao had vanished.

After waiting for about another ten minutes with no sign of anyone, a speechless Lin Hui stood up. He walked to the window to look down, wondering where on earth Liu Xiao had run off to. Bringing someone back shouldn’t be taking this long.

’Is she trying to mess with me during the New Year’s festivities?’

Walking to the window, Lin Hui looked down at the street below.

He spotted Liu Xiao standing in front of a sweet soup shop at a distant street corner.

Another girl stood before her, head lowered with a guilty expression, her hand tightly clasped with that of a slender, refined-looking man.

Liu Xiao’s expression was furious. Her pretty face was ice-cold, her lips were bitten tight, and one hand was slightly raised as if she wanted to strike someone.

But she never brought her hand down on the girl.

As if sensing Lin Hui’s gaze from a hundred meters away, Liu Xiao glanced back and waved her hand impatiently.

"Don’t wait! Her childhood sweetheart came along. It’s a bust!"

The message traveled across the distance and entered Lin Hui’s ears.

"..." Lin Hui was speechless once more. Seeing the determined expressions on the faces of the girl and her boyfriend from afar, he suddenly felt like a third wheel trying to break up a happy couple. At least Liu Xiao hadn’t resorted to dragging the girl here by force.

Suddenly, he recalled where he’d heard the name Yan Wanqiu before.

Some time ago, a supremely talented Summoning genius had emerged from a nearby town. It was said she had later joined the Chen Family, and it seemed she was doing quite well for herself. Now, loyal and sentimental, she had come back for her childhood sweetheart.

He waved to Liu Xiao, then turned from the window, preparing to leave the private room. But as he did, his peripheral vision caught a familiar figure on the street below.

The person seemed to sense his gaze and turned to look up in his direction.

It was a slender woman with long, slightly blondish hair, dressed in dark brown hunting attire. Her face was beautiful, her posture alluring.

’It’s her?’ Lin Hui’s eyes narrowed as he recalled her name.

Meng Xiao.

One of the friends his cousin, Lin Hongzhen, had introduced when she was trying to help him build connections.

As it turned out, of the three friends that night—Xiaoqin, Fei Wen Yi, and Meng Xiao—only Meng Xiao had been disrespectful.

They had parted on bad terms that night, and the very next day, his cousin had been attacked.

’Come to think of it, Meng Xiao might have been involved in what happened to my cousin. I couldn’t find her before. What a coincidence to run into her now.’

Although Lin Hongzhen was said to have been targeted because of her association with Lin Hongyu, he still hadn’t found out who the actual attacker was.

His network in the Inner City was still too sparse. He had been planning to ask the Liu Family for help, but only after he got to know them a bit better.

He never expected to run right into her like this.

He recognized her, but Meng Xiao didn’t recognize him.

The difference between the Lin Hui of today and the man she had met that night was simply too vast.

Back then, his build had been nowhere near as toned and powerful as it was now. His presence had been far less imposing, too.

’Perfect. I can settle all of this today.’

Lin Hui placed a hand on his sword hilt and stepped out of the private room. An instant later, he vanished like the wind.

The nearby waiters scrambled to get out of his way, fearing they’d be slapped to death for blocking his path.

It wasn’t as if something like that had never happened before.

He went downstairs and followed Meng Xiao from a distance. He didn’t attack immediately, worried that the trail of clues would die with her. It would be much harder to trace things back to the source.

He saw that Meng Xiao seemed to have a destination in mind as she hurried down the street, so he kept following.

Half a street later, Meng Xiao quickened her pace and entered a private clubhouse.

A sign outside the clubhouse read: Mingyan Residence.

These kinds of private clubhouses were typically invitation-only and didn’t serve anyone but regulars and established patrons.

Lin Hui stared at the clubhouse, momentarily unsure of what to do.

After a second’s hesitation, his figure blurred. He shot past the main gate and into the clubhouse’s inner courtyard.

He moved so quickly that the gate guards noticed nothing but a sudden gust of wind.

Inside the courtyard stood an array of white stone pillars of varying heights. He had no idea what they were for. Each was as thick as a thigh, with the shortest being just over a meter tall and the tallest over three, arranged in an uneven pattern.

As he walked further in, Lin Hui faintly heard voices.

"We still have to cancel the operation. You were too reckless this time. The disciples of the Rain Palace’s Spiritual Birth Hall are not to be trifled with. You’ve alerted the enemy, which has already affected the sect’s plans in this area. If you hadn’t escaped quickly enough, we would have lost this branch hall." It was the deep voice of a middle-aged man.

"I’m just not ready to give up," a woman’s voice replied softly. "Xingdiao has been ravaged by the conflict, suffering numerous casualties. With so many experts flocking here, it’s a chaotic mix of friend and foe—the perfect cover. Isn’t this the best opportunity for our sect to make a move?"

"And why do you think Xingdiao is in this state?" the man said gravely. "The aftershocks from the battle between those two Fog People alone obliterated a third of Xingdiao’s Outer City District, with casualties in the hundreds of thousands. And that’s not even the worst part. The real trouble is that the Inner City’s blockade was breached and the fog got inside. That’s what forced so many of Xingdiao’s experts to flee."

"But this is only the periphery. Xingdiao’s core—the Fog People and the Pure-blood Nobility—are still intact. As long as they’re fine, everything will soon return to normal."

"So the so-called chaos is confined to the outer areas?" the woman asked.

"Correct. In the eyes of the upper echelons, everything remains stable. Xingdiao’s Inner City may be smaller than ours, but the Moon Tower, from top to bottom, holds a massive population. They are the foundation of the Pure-blood Nobility’s power," the man replied.

Lin Hui was completely engrossed. He never imagined that following Meng Xiao on a whim would lead him to overhear such critical intelligence.

He couldn’t be sure if the information was genuine, but judging from their conversation, they had no reason to lie to each other.

But just then, he realized the voices had stopped.

"My friend outside, eavesdropping isn’t a very good habit," the man’s voice called out from within.

Lin Hui instantly knew he’d been discovered.

He simply walked in openly through the doorway.

The first thing he saw upon entering the clubhouse was a giant water tank, over four meters high and seven or eight meters long.

Inside the tank, amidst clear water, aquatic plants, and colorful fish, stood a green-haired man in a shining silver robe.

The man stood in the water, the sides of his face covered in tiny pores from which small bubbles occasionally escaped.

The man’s gaze was fixed on Lin Hui, his expression unreadable.

And standing beside the tank, on the other side of the glass, was none other than Meng Xiao.

Meng Xiao looked completely shocked. She opened her mouth to speak, but the man stopped her with a raised hand.

"Not a Summoner, just a Martial Artist... and you dare to walk in here so openly. You’ve got some nerve."

"Meng Xiao, were you the one who injured my cousin, Lin Hongzhen?" Lin Hui knew the man was some mysterious figure, so he didn’t bother with pleasantries, cutting straight to the point to avoid unnecessary complications.

"Lin Hongzhen?" Meng Xiao blinked, as if recalling something. "Don’t tell me you’re... Lin Hongzhen’s cousin?"

"I am. I’ve answered your question. Now you answer mine," Lin Hui said seriously.

"I didn’t do it myself, but I was involved," Meng Xiao said with a laugh.

"That’s enough." Lin Hui drew his sword and tossed the scabbard aside. "Who did it?"

"What? You want to cut me down?" Meng Xiao’s smile widened. "It was Chen Zhaolian from the Chen Family. If you’ve got the guts, go and cut her down too."

"I’ll verify that." Lin Hui glanced at the man in the water tank, who was merely smiling with his hands behind his back, showing no intention of intervening.

HISS!

The next instant, he vanished, and his sword slashed across Meng Xiao’s neck.

CLANG!

A shower of sparks erupted from her neck. Before she could react, a second burst of sparks flew from the other side.

One second.

SQUELCH. The smile on Meng Xiao’s face froze. Her head flew from her shoulders, struck the wall, and splattered a wide patch of crimson.

"You!?" The man in the tank’s expression finally changed. He never would have thought a mere Martial Artist could instantly kill Meng Xiao, who was a Summoner!

"You’re courting death!" Enraged, the man shattered the glass with a single punch and lunged at Lin Hui in a torrent of water.

But in the next second, golden sparks erupted all over his body.

His fist, however, met only empty air, not even brushing the hem of Lin Hui’s clothes.

Feeling a faint pain coursing through his body, the man’s expression changed. He quickly retreated, smashing through the wall with his back and stumbling out into the open courtyard.

"A misunderstanding!" he yelled frantically. "Friend, your grudge is with Meng Xiao, right? I just lost my temper for a moment. I barely know her! I am Yuan San, an Incense Master of the Wanhua Sect... If you kill me, the Wanhua Sect will hunt you down! You mustn’t—"

SQUIRT!

A sword blade viciously sliced across his neck, tearing through his windpipe and arteries, spilling a torrent of blood onto the ground.

The man clutched his neck in disbelief, standing frozen in place. He opened his mouth as if to speak, but no sound came out.

With a thud, he collapsed backward onto the ground. His body twitched for a moment, and then he was still.

’That leaves Chen Zhaolian. I’ll investigate her before I deal with her.’ Lin Hui’s expression was calm as he stepped forward and expertly began to loot the bodies.

To him, the surrounding towns were his territory. No matter who came to this area, they would inevitably run into one of Qingfeng Temple’s businesses or subordinate factions.

In the Outer City, as long as you were clean about it, a few more deaths were perfectly normal in a place where people died every day.

Unfortunately, they were both dirt poor. Aside from a few thousand in silver notes, all they had were some trinkets that would be impossible to sell.

"Meng Xiao? Yuan Xiangtou? What’s going on?"

Just then, another person walked out from deeper inside the clubhouse—a tall young man in a black robe.

SQUIRT!

A sword flashed. The man’s head hit the ground, and blood sprayed into the air.

With a placid expression, Lin Hui followed the path the man had come from, heading deeper into the clubhouse.

"Husband, what’s happening? Are the sect brothers sparring?" a pale-faced, middle-aged woman asked as she emerged from the innermost corridor.

But before she could get a clear look at the scene outside, a silver light flashed before her eyes. The next moment, a sword was embedded between her brows, and she instantly lost consciousness.

THUD.

Her body collapsed.

Lin Hui stepped over her corpse and continued on.

He killed everyone he saw. After leaving more than a dozen bodies in his wake, he reached the rearmost courtyard of the clubhouse.

Liu Xiao was standing in the courtyard, waiting for him.

"Finished?"

She had obviously noticed the commotion long ago.

"Yes. Everyone who saw my face is dead," Lin Hui nodded. "Everyone here was likely part of the same rotten group. Since I made my move, I had to be thorough."

"Good. Burn it down," Liu Xiao said, gesturing toward the clubhouse wall with a raised hand.

Behind her, several strong, white-veiled women rushed inside and expertly began to set the place on fire.

Liu Xiao and Lin Hui stood in the back courtyard, watching them work.

"Yan Wanqiu is a good match for you. I couldn’t find anyone better. So... I was going to beat her childhood sweetheart to death to create an opportunity for you."

"!!?" Lin Hui froze, his expression turning into one of utter speechlessness.