The Decaying World-Chapter 139 - 130: Anomaly 2

Lin Hui’s expression was grim. He darted to the window, his eyes fixed on any possible gaps that might have appeared around the door and window frames.

This was his study, and beyond it was an enclosed corridor. Corridors like this one, artificially sealed for the night, could easily have been damaged by the recent violent tremor, creating cracks and openings.

And it was nighttime. Once an opening appeared...

Lin Hui’s face was heavy with dread.

He quickly deactivated his Illusionary Performance Technique, took two longswords from the wall, and strapped them to his back.

"HEE HEE HEE HEE..."

Suddenly, an eerie, ethereal laugh echoed from outside.

"So many here, so many... Hurry and come..."

"Husband... where are you? I’ve brought our child back..."

"Flesh... so fresh..."

A series of strange whispers echoed continuously from outside.

Lin Hui’s heart sank. He knew his worst fears were being realized.

The sealed corridor had been breached. The monsters from the night fog were inside!!

He gripped the hilt of his sword, his expression grave.

Truth be told, he had never actually come face-to-face with the monsters of the night fog.

He had no idea what they were, if they could be killed, or if they could be driven away.

In all his life, every story he had ever heard pointed to one, single outcome.

Once the night fog breached a home, it didn’t matter what the family’s status or identity was. There was only one ending.

They all vanished without a trace.

Whether they were a great clan or common folk, this outcome had not changed in decades.

Lin Hui stared at the Jade Talisman hanging before the window. It swayed precariously, and cracks were visibly forming across its surface.

He knew the situation was dire. His own study had likely been breached during the violent tremor.

’The night fog... what in the world is it?’

He rapidly reviewed every piece of information he had ever collected on it.

’The night fog can alter anything. It’s suspected of having translocation abilities, capable of moving objects to another location in an instant. Therefore, one must never touch the fog, or risk being transported elsewhere, never to return.’

Of all his sources, a piece of information that Liu Xiao had once mentioned in a casual chat provided the most crucial clue.

Back then, while they were at the Lin Mansion playing with Lin Xiaoliu, Lin Hui had pressed her about the true nature of the night fog, and Liu Xiao had only managed to come up with that answer after racking her brain.

Lin Hui steadied himself, reached out, and gently gripped the doorknob.

SNAP.

The Jade Talisman finally shattered, its pieces falling to the floor.

Inside the study, faint wisps of grayish-white fog seeped in from an unknown source, drifting in mid-air.

Seeing this, Lin Hui swiftly circulated his Inner Strength, conjuring a faint breeze that blew the approaching gray fog into a corner of the room.

CLICK.

Steeling his resolve, he opened the door at night for the first time.

The study’s Jade Talisman had shattered, so keeping the door shut was pointless. The priority was to quickly assess the situation. ’I need to find out if I can handle the dangers in this fog!’

With a soft creak, the study door opened to reveal a person standing outside.

It was a young woman in a pale red robe, her smiling face as white as a plastered wall.

"Ding Ning!?" Lin Hui cried out, a mix of shock and fury in his voice.

He recognized her in an instant. It was his handmaiden, Ding Ning, who was supposed to be asleep in her own room!

’She should have gone back to her room to sleep!’

He suddenly remembered that Ding Ning always insisted on waiting outside his door all night, ready to answer his call at a moment’s notice.

So she must have been standing guard in the enclosed corridor right outside the study. Then the violent tremor must have caused a breach, and then...

Lin Hui looked at the smiling Ding Ning, a sliver of sorrow piercing through his shock and rage.

This was the only fate that awaited an ordinary person in the face of such danger.

’If only Ding Ning hadn’t insisted on standing guard outside my door, maybe this wouldn’t have...’

A pang of guilt shot through him as he slowly drew his sword, his eyes fixed on the Ding Ning outside his door.

"Are... you still conscious?"

"Master... I’ve always been so fond of you, Master..." Ding Ning smiled, taking a step closer.

"So fond... so very fond... So fond that... I want to... eat you!!"

Suddenly, she lunged. Her body split down the middle as if sliced by a blade from top to bottom. Her two halves hinged open, forming a massive maw of dark red flesh that snapped viciously at Lin Hui.

The maw was filled not with teeth, but with countless squirming, dark-red worms, and it exuded a pungent, choking stench that steamed faintly in the air.

SHING!

In that instant, a silver gleam of sword light flared to life.

A gale surged, its pressure coalescing into immense force that blasted into the maw, turning the creature’s forward lunge into a backward flight.

With a loud BANG, the monster that looked like Ding Ning was sent flying. It smashed violently through the corridor’s wooden paneling and tumbled out into the thick gray fog, vanishing completely.

His expression grim, Lin Hui stepped out into the corridor, maintaining the invisible current of air around his body.

He looked left and right. Faintly, from down the corridor in both directions, he could hear the distant screams and enraged shouts of other temple disciples.

’That tremor must have caused breaches in many of the corridors... I wonder how many people will die in the Outer City this time... And my family... I hope they’re all right...’

He thought of the Lin Mansion. Fortunately, his father had become increasingly reliable recently, installing layer upon layer of security measures. On top of that, Liu Wu Jun and Liu Xiao had likely provided their own protective measures, so the mansion should be fine.

He looked at the faint gray fog seeping into the corridor. Not daring to speed up, he could only move one step at a time, maintaining the invisible airflow around him to keep the fog at bay as he headed toward the sound of the disciples’ voices.

One side of the corridor was a white stone wall; the other was lined with the temporary, removable brown wooden panels used for sealing. It was these panels that had failed.

Inside the corridor, the hanging oil lamps swayed and sputtered, their light flickering erratically.

Lin Hui walked slowly over the flagstones. He got his bearings and headed toward the source of the nearest sounds.

The dim, yellow light stretched his shadow long behind him, casting a twisted, dark, monstrous silhouette upon the white wall.

He passed one brown wooden pillar after another.

Suddenly, he stopped in his tracks.

Up ahead, a large hole had been smashed through the brown paneling on his right.

The body of a Qingfeng Temple disciple lay face down on the floor near the edge of the hole.

She was clutching a longsword, her face to the floor, blood pooling out from under her head.

Lin Hui silently approached and used his sword to flip the body over.

A large hole had been gnawed into the corpse’s face by some kind of creature.

Her eyes, nose, and mouth were gone, leaving only a mangled ruin of flesh and blood.

Just then, Lin Hui noticed something strange: the corpse’s abdomen began to swell at an unnatural, rapid pace.

It inflated like a balloon, reaching the size of a human head in just two seconds.

POP!

The swollen mound of flesh suddenly burst open, and a dense swarm of innumerable white insects flew out.

But the moment the insects emerged, they were caught in a gale, their trajectory forcibly altered, sending them hurtling toward the brown paneling to one side.

CRASH!

The wooden panel shattered, creating a large hole just in time for the insects to fly through, disappearing into the gray fog outside.

The insects were gone, but the gray fog now poured into the corridor even faster.

Lin Hui picked up his pace, careful to constantly draw currents of air from fog-free areas to surround his body.

As he continued on, avoiding the foggy sections of the corridor, he saw several more bodies. All of them had died the same way, with their faces hollowed out.

The sight shattered the calm that was gradually returning to his Mental Realm, replacing it with a profound sense of crisis.

He had originally thought that with the Jade Talismans active—and with Liu Wu Jun and Liu Xiao in the Inner City to ensure they weren’t shut down—he could continue to cultivate peacefully in the Outer City and live the quiet life he desired.

But the violent tremor from that massive explosion just moments ago had utterly shattered all of his illusions.

A single accident had rendered the Jade Talismans useless, and now the night fog was invading on a massive scale.

One body after another appeared before him, and the anger in Lin Hui’s eyes grew ever more distinct.

Soon, he passed through the corridor and arrived at the dormitory area where the disciples slept.

The Elders all lived in their own private residences outside the temple. The ones who typically lodged at the Qingfeng Temple, the Black Dragon Headquarters, were disciples accustomed to ascetic training or those from poorer families. Most of the wealthier disciples would return home to rest.

In the dormitory area, bodies were strewn across the ground, and blood was spattered everywhere. Thankfully, only a third of the rooms had been breached; the rest remained sealed.

As Lin Hui walked past the sealed rooms, he could hear the sounds of suppressed, terrified breathing from within.

He didn’t knock to check on them or offer any warning. At a time like this, anything he did would make them mistake him for one of the monsters from the fog.

Soon, Lin Hui found an unoccupied bedroom. He went inside, used the wind to drive all the fog out, and then shut the door. He checked the room’s Jade Talisman; it was already in pieces.

He suddenly understood why no one had ever survived these nighttime incidents.

’Once there’s a breach at night, the invading fog destroys the Jade Talisman. Without the talisman, the fog can seep in unchecked. Even if someone finds a new, secure room, the moment they open the door, the safe, isolated environment inside is compromised. The new room’s Jade Talisman would be instantly destroyed. It’s a hopeless cycle, no matter how many safe rooms you find.’

The advance sealing and the Jade Talisman—both were essential. One couldn’t work without the other.

Inside the room, Lin Hui kept a constant watch on the fog. The instant a wisp seeped in through a crack, he would manipulate the air currents to blow it back out.

He remained vigilant like this until dawn approached and the night fog gradually began to dissipate.

A rooster crowed in the distance.

Only then did Lin Hui finally relax and push open the door.

He could hear the other temple disciples emerging from their rooms all around him.

The air filled with the sounds of weeping and retching.

"Why... Ah Xing... Ah Xing, wake up..."

"My hand... I was bitten by one of those monsters! Quick, help me stop the bleeding!"

"Observatory Master! Why did this happen? All the seals were in place! Where did that explosion come from?!"

Disciples stumbled out one by one. Some were dazed and utterly lost, while others rushed frantically outside, clearly worried about their families and friends. Still others, covered in blood, made a beeline for the infirmary.

Huang Shan was supporting a junior sister, using his Inner Strength to stanch her bleeding.

Qiu Yiren’s face was deathly pale. She leaned against a wall, staring blankly at the scene.

Wang Hongshi had already organized some of the clear-headed disciples to care for the wounded and take stock of the situation.

Lin Hui tightened his grip on his sword hilt.

"Tally the casualties," he commanded. "Use my authority to mobilize the temple’s funds and medical supplies. Spare no effort in treating everyone!"

"Yes, sir!" Wang Hongshi hurriedly nodded.

"And Tao Xuehai?!"

"He fought a monster earlier to save a junior sister. He was poisoned and passed out. The junior sister took him to the infirmary."

Lin Hui’s figure blurred as he sped toward the infirmary. Inside, Chen Meng was rushing to treat all the wounded.

There was no more room inside. Dozens of people lay on the ground outside, a dense crowd of moaning casualties.

Lin Hui spotted Tao Xuehai at a glance. The man was surrounded by two pretty junior sisters who were feeding him medicine, a pained expression on his face.

After confirming the young man was out of immediate danger, Lin Hui checked on the other wounded one by one, his heart growing heavier with each person he saw.