Decaying World Novel Chapter 220:

Chapter 220:

"You won't lure

away that easily, old man. The bounty on the Lin family is substantial this ti—the sect put up a reward worth three full missions. Drawing out this many experts at once? You should feel honored."

The blurred figure shot through the crowd and touched down lightly before Lin Shunhe's horse, cutting off its path. Startled, the animal half-reared and nearly lost its footing.

"This old man..." Elder Du muttered, already moving to dismount.

But the opponent lunged forward without warning—bypassing Elder Du entirely, sweeping past Lin Shunhe and Lin Hui, and driving straight for the Lin Manor carriages ahead.

Their target wasn't the n at all—it was Liu Shenglan inside the carriage!

Elder Du cursed and gave chase, already a half-step behind.

"Hahaha! First kill is mine!" The blurred figure drew dual sabers, sweeping twin arcs of silver-white light toward the carriage from both flanks at once.

Void Force pulsed; Internal Force surged outward in waves. The saber-light hadn't even reached the carriage before cracks were splintering across its wooden fra.

Fwip!

In the next instant, a figure appeared before the carriage—eyes burning with purple light, a purplish-black tal glove sheathing his right hand—and swept it wide in a single motion.

Crash! Both streaks of saber-light deflected without effort, gouging deep twin fissures into the ground to the right.

"Friend." Lin Shunhe's face still wore the mild smile of a rchant, but sothing new had entered his eyes—a killing intent he had never let show before. "Striking at my wife and daughter right in front of . Isn't that a bit much?"

"Huh?" The blurred figure stumbled back several paces on the recoil, staring at Lin Shunhe with naked suspicion. "You—?!"

He wasn't alone in his shock. Through the half-open carriage window, Liu Shenglan had her hand pressed to her mouth, her eyes fixed on her husband, equally stunned by the strength he had suddenly revealed.

"Husband... you're also...!?"

"I simply like to keep one card hidden," Lin Shunhe said with a smile. "Go on ahead. I'll catch up shortly."

"But—" Liu Shenglan began. Lin Shunhe cut her off with a backward wave, sending a pulse of formless force into the hindquarters of the carriage horses.

The animals whinnied sharply and broke into a full gallop.

"Xiaoliu, don't be afraid—Mother is here, and your father is protecting us. Don't be afraid." Liu Shenglan pulled her youngest daughter close, her own face drained of color.

Across from her, Lin Hui's mother Yao Shan was equally ashen, lips moving in a broken, half-audible stream of prayers.

A pendant at her neck pulsed with a faint blue light—an amulet bestowed on her personally by the sect master of a new faith she had recently joined, a gift in recognition of her exceptional contributions.

But just as the horses surged ahead and the Wanhua Sect mbers found themselves each pinned down by their opponents—

Whoosh!

All the Mist hanging in the air was swept away at once.

A crushing, transparent, wholly unclassifiable pressure—spanning hundreds of ters in every direction—ca crashing down on everyone present.

Screams rang out. Horses shrieked. Commoners, martial artists, and Lin Manor servants alike crumpled to the ground, pinned and unable to rise, thrown into chaos.

The Clear Wind Temple disciples were sowhat hardier—but even they were driven to their knees, fighting just to hold on.

Only the combatants in the thick of battle—the Divine Officers and High Divine Officers of the Wanhua Sect, the blurred figure, the burly man with the black saber, and Xia Si and Liu Xiao—could barely resist the oppression well enough to raise their heads toward the sky.

Suspended in midair was a slender figure with waist-length white hair.

He wore a pure white mask and pristine white tal gloves. His armor was black shot through with gold, its surface embroidered with intricate dragon and phoenix patterns.

His face was hidden, but the rings of formless, radiating pressure pulsing outward from him told their own story.

"Airborne—and projecting Void Force across an area this wide!" Liu Xiao's own strength was nowhere near that level, but her eye for cultivation far outstripped everyone else present, sharpened by years in her older brother's shadow.

And precisely because she could read the newcor's level, a wave of cold dread and despair rose within her before she could stop it.

"...A Palace Master. It's the Palace Master realm!"

Why would soone at the Palace Master level appear here? Why would a powerhouse of that caliber target an ordinary family's convoy? What could they possibly have done to draw such enmity?

Could it be... because of Big Brother? The thought surfaced in Liu Xiao's mind with a shudder—the only answer that held.

Nearby, Lin Shunhe's blood had run cold. As a hall master of the Benevolent Heart Sect, his intelligence networks were extensive. He could identify an expert of this caliber at a glance.

Sustained flight and wide-area Void Force projection—the unmistakable hallmarks of the Palace Master realm. Flight, in particular, was a feat no one below that level could perform.

Yet no matter how he searched his mory, he couldn't identify whose enmity he had earned.

An enemy of the sect, settling scores while passing through? Or did soone uncover my tampering? Did the Inner City send soone to silence ? No—I frad the Wanhua Sect perfectly. Testimony and physical evidence both point their way. It can't be... Disaster. Absolute disaster. Is the Lin family truly this cursed? Are we going to be wiped out here?

His mind raced through every escape and survival thod he knew. Not one could guarantee anything against an expert of this tier.

He knew it plainly: without Black Face intervening in person, no one here would walk away.

"Don't be afraid... it's all right... Mother is here." Inside the carriage, Liu Shenglan trembled as she stroked Lin Xiaoliu's hair.

She didn't notice that Lin Xiaoliu had her eyes wide open, fixed intently on sothing in the distance.

And in that direction—

"Young friend Lin Hui. A friend has co from afar, and things have already reached this point. Won't you co out to greet ?"

The white-haired figure suspended overhead reached up and gently removed his mask, revealing a composed and handso face.

What held everyone's attention were his eyes—pale blue pupils, the mark of the Python Clan.

Lin Hui?!

In an instant—

Lin Shunhe stared.

Liu Shenglan's breath caught.

Liu Xiao went still.

Wang Hongshi and the other Clear Wind Temple disciples gaped, looking frantically around to find Lin Hui.

Only then did everyone notice a tall figure standing in the open clearing directly below the white-haired man—seemingly having appeared there without a sound.

Waist-length black hair. A billowing white robe. A sword in one hand, blade pointed down behind his back.

Lin Hui.

Whoosh!

A gentle wind rose, swept through the surroundings, and then reversed sharply upward. It drove back against the crushing formless pressure with startling force.

The weight lifted. One by one, people straightened and regained their footing.

The white-haired man fixed his gaze on the figure below.

"Since our parting at the Moon Tower, young friend Lin still hides his true strength just as readily. Why keep the habit?"

"I hide it precisely to deal with people like you, Palace Master Su Yaping," Lin Hui replied, still smiling.

"To deal with ?" Su Yaping raised an eyebrow. "What do you an?"

"When you're certain victory is already in hand..." Lin Hui tilted his head, the smile at the corner of his mouth sharpening. "...consider the possibility that everything you've seen is exactly what I wanted you to see."

"You—" Su Yaping's expression darkened. He started to speak—and his blood turned to ice.

The Lin Hui in his field of vision was quietly dissolving, drifting apart like a soap bubble bursting in slow motion.

He reacted without hesitation, pouring his full power into a reverse palm strike aid behind him.

The killing intent ca from the left.

Squelch!

Blood erupted in every direction.

A phantom-like silhouette drove clean through Su Yaping's waist and carried him off in a single motion, shooting toward the distant Mist Zone and vanishing before anyone could blink.

"Kill!"

Below, Xia Si moved first. She let out a manic laugh, muscles swelling as her fra shot upward. Righteous Body Law Seal activated, she took her sword in both hands and swept a brutal horizontal slash at her opponent.

"You're all dead—every last one of you! Hahahaha! Master won't let a single person who knows his secret live! You fools! You've brought this on yourselves!"

Her power surged by half, and the blow sent the black-saber swordsman careening backward through the air, coughing blood.

Despair crossed the man's face.

"We hit an iron plate again... Hey, little maniac—is it too late to surrender?"

"Surrender?" Xia Si blinked.

On the other side, Lin Shunhe drew a heavy breath, steadied himself in the wake of the lifted pressure, and turned his eyes back to his own opponent.

He forced the staggering realization from his mind—his son was this powerful—and shelved it. Settle the enemy first; reckon with it later.

Then, in the very next mont, a sharp wet sound split the air from the direction of the blurred figure—like cloth being torn.

The man's body ca apart in over a dozen pieces, scattering lifeless across the ground.

A figure in a black eagle mask swept past the remains and was gone. Tao Xuehai, arriving without announcent.

The sa scene played out on Liu Xiao's side.

The mont she moved to engage, her opponent turned and fled without a word.

She seized the opening, landing a palm strike that caved in his back. He vomited blood—badly hurt—and still didn't spare a glance behind him, burning through a secret art to dissolve into the Mist and vanish.

She was left standing where she was, utterly at a loss.

She turned it all over in her mind, everything that had just happened, and felt as though the ground had grown unsteady beneath her feet.

Lin Hui...

She looked down at her own pale palms. She had once heard that you couldn't make out fine details in a dream—that studying the lines on your hands was a way to wake yourself. She stared now and found every crease exactly where it had always been. Nothing changed.

"I don't want to go to the Clear Wind Temple!"

Lin Xiaoliu's crying ca back to her—that stubborn, plaintive protest. It had been the sa since the girl first learned to talk. She had never liked the Clear Wind Temple, and when asked why, she couldn't put it into words. Only that she was afraid of Lin Hui, without being able to say what frightened her.

Liu Xiao thought she understood now.

Inside the carriage, Liu Shenglan held Lin Xiaoliu with a dazed expression and listened to the girl cry.

"I told everyone a long ti ago that Big Brother Hui is terrifying, and none of you believed ! I said that if you don't listen to him, you'll be killed—beaten to death—that you'll co apart like smoke on a breeze! None of you listened!"

Liu Shenglan's thoughts were a complete tangle.

"Xiaoliu, we believe you now." Lin Shunhe's voice ca from beside them—he had slipped into the carriage without anyone noticing, and was watching his youngest daughter with quiet attention. "So tell Daddy this: between that man just now and Big Brother Hui, which one do you think is more frightening?"

"I don't know... I don't know..." Lin Xiaoliu shrank back, still crying. "That man... all I could feel was that he was afraid. And also... very excited!"

Afraid? Excited?

What did that an?

Lin Shunhe and Liu Shenglan exchanged a glance and found no answer in each other's eyes.