The Decaying World-Chapter 49 - 44: Clash, Part 2

Thrust. Retract.

Thrust. Retract.

The rapid feints made Wan’Er furious, but there was nothing she could do.

She had no trump cards left, but her opponent clearly didn’t believe her and was still cautiously probing.

Her palm strikes hit nothing but air, one after another, and the anger in her heart grew with each miss.

"Stop running if you have any guts!" she finally roared in frustration.

PFFT!

In that instant, blood sprayed into the air.

Wan’Er’s figure froze. She stood rigid on the spot, completely still.

She slowly reached out, trying to grab the Longsword plunged into her heart, but the sudden depressurization from her pierced heart cavity left her with no strength at all.

With a wet squelch, the sword tip was pulled out, trailing a stream of fresh red blood.

Wan’Er fell backward limply, her mind replaying the last few moments over and over.

’What... what just happened?’

’Was I... ambushed by someone else?’

One moment, she was still fighting him. The next, a sword had abruptly bypassed all her defenses and pierced her heart.

She didn’t even know how it all happened before the battle was over.

Even as her vision faded to black and she lost consciousness, Wan’Er never understood how she had lost. Perhaps she never believed she had lost at all, but was simply ambushed by some treacherous lurker hiding in the shadows.

Lin Hui’s figure solidified, appearing beside the corpse.

Looking at the motionless woman on the ground, he bent down and picked up the bag of materials.

’Special Effect Feathering is truly formidable. Activating it for just a moment triples my speed, and the consumption is barely noticeable.’

To be honest, he felt the woman on the ground was no weaker than his First Senior Brother—perhaps even a bit stronger. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

But even an expert like her couldn’t react when her opponent’s Sword Speed suddenly tripled mid-fight. She was gone in the blink of an eye.

In a clash of Outer Strength, without the protection of Inner Strength covering the body, a single mistake meant fatal danger.

The line between life and death was decided in an instant.

"Wan’Er!!" a sharp cry echoed.

In the next moment, Lin Hui’s figure flickered, and he retreated several steps, dodging a white flash of a Palm Seal that had shot toward his back.

Although the white light was much dimmer than before, it still gave him a strong sense of threat.

Then he saw the old woman rush to the girl’s corpse, kneel down, and lift her up to check her condition.

CLANG!

Lin Hui struck without hesitation.

He wasn’t an idiot. He wasn’t going to wait for her to finish examining the body and prepare herself. To not seize an opportunity—what was that, if not foolishness?

The killing move of the Nine-Section Swift Sword, Wind Passes Without Trace, instantly created a series of afterimages as he rushed his target.

"You deserve to die!" The old woman put down the corpse. Interrupted, she was forced to stand and meet his Longsword head-on with a palm strike.

As the white light flickered, her palm even faintly emitted tiny, petal-like motes of light.

Moreover, this palm strike seemed to carry an exaggerated power, covering a five-meter radius around her.

Lin Hui’s heart tightened. He twisted his blade, trying to pull back again to avoid a direct clash.

He wasn’t in the Inner Power Realm, but his master was. He knew the consequences of clashing directly with Inner Strength.

He had tested this against Mingde before. Every weapon he could find, including his own Qinghe Sword, would be instantly knocked from his grasp if it collided with an Inner Strength master who was prepared and channeling their power. He would be disarmed and defeated in an instant.

At the moment of impact, the Inner Strength would conduct through the weapon like lightning, like an electric current, forcibly numbing his hand and making him unable to grip his blade.

Therefore, when truly fighting someone from the Inner Power Realm, he had to avoid their Inner Strength.

But as he flinched back, the old woman’s palm image suddenly expanded.

In an instant, a massive, fan-shaped image of a white palm lit up before Lin Hui’s eyes.

Countless palms, each emitting petal-like motes of white light, pressed down on him like a solid white wall!

A white wall five meters high and five meters wide!

There was no time to change his move.

He was fast, but not so fast that he could change his technique twice in a row.

His opponent was an Inner Power Realm master, not a slow-moving snail.

’Too late.’

Lin Hui had wanted to exchange a few more blows using the perfected Nine-Section Swift Sword, but now it seemed he couldn’t even survive a single move without activating his Special Effects.

The gap between Outer Strength and the Inner Power Realm was just too vast.

’Forget it.’

The thought flashed through Lin Hui’s mind as he rapidly retreated, dodging a white Palm Seal that was about to strike him.

He looked up, his eyes fixed on the Palm Seal.

In that moment, everything around him seemed to slow to a crawl, to freeze.

’Special Effect—’

’Feathering.’

BOOM!!

In that instant, everything around Lin Hui blurred.

The white Palm Seal before him instantly froze, receded, and vanished.

He held the sword in his right hand, his body feeling as light as a feather.

’Qingfeng Sword.’

’Single-Handed Cloud Brushing...’

In a flash, his blade swept sideways, creating a trail of afterimages, as if lightly brushing past formless clouds.

Layers upon layers of silver sword-shadows formed a fan of silver light, which then froze in place.

WHOOSH.

Lin Hui vanished.

Along with his disappearance was the faint, formless sound of a scattering wind.

The next instant, he appeared silently behind the old woman, the tip of his sword already resting on the right side of her neck.

CLANG!!!

A terrifying impact sound suddenly erupted.

The white light of Inner Strength around the old woman’s neck rapidly caved in, forming a deep dent.

Her attention was still fixed on Lin Hui’s afterimage in front of her. She hadn’t realized her real enemy had already moved behind her.

In his state of terrifying speed, her reactions seemed like a slow-motion movie.

By the time her face showed shock and anger, and she turned and raised a hand to grab at Lin Hui’s true body,

...that true body had already disintegrated in the blink of an eye, once again becoming an afterimage.

The next instant, a crisp crack echoed from her left waist as a spark of golden-yellow light scattered.

Inner Strength and sword tip had clashed again.

Before she could recover, in the very next instant, a new spark flared on her back.

TSS TSS TSS TSS!!

A continuous stream of sparks erupted from vital points all over her body, scattering in every direction.

Under this rapid consumption, her Inner Strength swiftly grew fainter and dimmer.

"Who in the world are—!"

PFFT!

A sword tip suddenly broke through the white light and pierced her abdomen.

The old woman opened her mouth to shout, her palms shooting out to grab the blade.

But it was too late.

The blade sliced violently upward, from her abdomen to her chest, carving a terrifyingly straight and sharp gash.

Blood gushed out like a fountain, taking all the strength from her body with it.

The massive, clean, bloody wound ran from the old woman’s abdomen up to her chin, nearly splitting her in two.

Her last sight was of the sword rising, flicking aside the blood, and slowly returning to its sheath.

"You..."

A light breeze brushed past. Only then did the white light on the old woman’s body completely disappear. She had been killed by having her final defenses of Inner Strength forcibly shattered and being sliced open.

THUD.

The corpse fell backward onto the ground, eyes wide open in death, its blood staining the earth red.

The surrounding fog swirled, and all was silent again.

Lin Hui stood his ground, closing his eyes to savor the feeling of using Qingfeng Sword with Feathering. The wonderful sensation of becoming one with the wind in that extreme speed was almost intoxicatingly satisfying.

That feeling completely suppressed the tightness in his chest from killing for the first time. All that remained was the exhilarating freedom of wielding his sword at will, like a calligrapher splashing ink on paper.

After a long moment, the faint screeching of monsters from within the fog jolted him from that wonderful sensation.

Only then did he bend down and quickly loot the bodies.

Each of the two corpses had a money pouch and a pair of gloves. He didn’t take any of the other obviously custom-made accessories; such items were too distinctive and would be difficult to sell.

After emptying the silver notes and gold from the pouches into his own bag, Lin Hui even discarded the pouches themselves. He turned and left, then lured two Unihorn Spiders over. Only after hearing from a distance as the spiders wrapped the corpses in silk and dragged them away did he leave for good.

The Unihorn Spider’s characteristic was to wrap its prey in a silken ball, carry it back to its nest, and slowly feed on it.

Finally, carrying the bag of materials, he returned to the No-Fog Zone and leisurely walked toward Qingfeng Temple.

Lin Hui didn’t let his guard down until he was safely back in his own room.

With his master Mingde and the martial uncles from the other two branches nearby, three Inner Power Realm masters were stationed here, making it far safer than the outside world.

Only then did he relax and review the recent battle.

Sitting cross-legged on his mat, Lin Hui calmed the surging qi and blood in his chest and replayed the fight in his mind, bit by bit.

’That Wan’Er’s combat prowess was probably a sliver stronger than First Senior Brother’s. She was at the Peak of External Martial Arts Body Tempering Realm, and I dealt with her easily by activating Feathering for a moment. But that old hag in the Inner Power Realm was much more troublesome. Her Inner Strength could travel through my weapon to paralyze my hand. During the finishing blows, it slowed down my Sword Speed every time. Thankfully, only a tiny sliver of Inner Strength got through each time, so the slowdown was very brief.’

’It was only because I was too fast and she wasn’t a speed-focused Inner Strength master. Otherwise, the outcome of this fight would have been uncertain.’

An Inner Power Realm master!

At this thought, Lin Hui suddenly felt a wave of relief. He had actually killed an Inner Power Realm master!

Even if it was just a non-speed type who had been worn down by numerous monsters, an Inner Power Realm master was still an Inner Power Realm master. No matter how he did it, he had truly managed to completely eliminate her all by himself.

’The effect of Feathering is truly terrifying. In that state, I’m afraid even Master would have a hard time keeping up with my Body Technique.’

His master, Mingde, was a speed-type Inner Power Realm master. Lin Hui had seen the speed he could display with the Qingfeng Sword, and it was only about twice his own normal speed.

A far cry from the terrifying effect of a three-times speed boost.

’By that logic, can I almost be considered an Inner Power Realm master myself?’ Lin Hui estimated in his mind.

The consumption of Feathering was now minimal; he could probably use it continuously for a whole day without issue. And if he used it intermittently, he could basically use it indefinitely.

Not to mention he still had the even more covert Sealed Poison he hadn’t used.

Standing up, Lin Hui gently drew his Qinghe Sword, took out some Sword Oil, and began polishing the blade with a silk cloth.

’But that paralysis and super-strong defense of the Inner Power Realm are too tricky. If I’m careless and get paralyzed and disarmed, I’ll be practically no threat to an Inner Power Realm master.’

’And when their Inner Strength is abundant, my attacks would probably have to wear them down for a long time before I could do any real damage. That’s a problem.’

Lin Hui had also asked his master if there was any Divine Weapon that could break through Inner Strength defenses, but the answer was no.

The protection of Inner Strength was more like a force field, preventing weapons from making contact. It would slow them down out of thin air, make them hover, and block their penetration from all directions.

This method rendered a weapon’s sharpness completely useless.

’Breaking through to the Inner Power Realm is the only true way... As I am now, I’m still too vulnerable.’

At that final thought, Lin Hui let out a long sigh and quietly worked on recovering his stamina. He prepared to take the materials to exchange for money the next day.

He now realized that his efficiency at hunting monsters for profit far surpassed other methods. He had no need to take on missions or jobs.