Liu Xiao's flight had rely been a temporary emotional outburst; by the next morning, everyone had gone back to behaving as if nothing had happened.
Lin Hui headed out early to cultivate. These days, he almost exclusively practiced his sword techniques out at sea, as the disturbance it caused was far too great.
Only after finishing his foundational practice of the Typhoon Sword Technique did he return to town to continue cultivating the Star Breath Sword Canon.
His accumulation of the pulsation of life progressed at an agonizing crawl. After experinting with various subjects, Lin Hui discovered that creatures with the strongest vitality yielded the greatest amount of the pulsation of life.
However, such robust creatures were inherently rare and difficult to track down, let alone stumble upon when naturally injured. Given their trendous vitality, they healed themselves, leaving no room for his intervention. And if he were to personally cripple them, he would violate the very conditions under which the pulsation of life could be obtained.
Thus, Lin Hui had no choice but to rely on the sheer variety of creatures to slowly grind out his progress. According to the hints provided by the Blood Seal, as long as he successfully saved ninety-nine different species, he would acquire enough of the pulsation of life to comprehend the first layer of the Star Breath Sword Canon.
Ti slipped by.
The residual drama from Lin Hui and Liu Xiao's marriage gradually subsided. With his deliberate adjustnts, his days settled back into an ideal peace and ease.
There was no oppression, no restraint.
The mbers of the Clear Wind Dao each had their own promising futures, and Lin Xiaoliu had smoothly entered the Inner City martial academy to begin her education.
Furthermore, Xie Chang'an, the City Lord of Black Cloud, proved to be a man of his word. Two weeks later, Lin Hui's eldest brother, Liu Wujun, appeared at the main gates of the Lin Manor wearing a bewildered expression. He was promptly welcod inside by the eagerly waiting Liu Shenglan, Lin Shunhe, and the rest of the family.
Black Cloud had arranged a lateral transfer for Liu Wujun within the Rain Palace, giving him a comfortable sinecure so he could be properly looked after. Because Black Cloud's resources were vastly superior to Tuyue's, the cultivation resources Liu Wujun enjoyed—even in a sinecure—far surpassed what he had back ho. This allowed him to adapt to his new life quickly after a brief period of confusion.
In the blink of an eye, over a month passed.
Inside the Clear Wind Dao Academy, Lin Hui sat cross-legged opposite his eldest brother, Liu Wujun. The two brewed tea and chatted beneath the pear tree in the courtyard. Both had just finished their daily cultivation, making this a rare mont of respite.
"I never would have imagined..." Liu Wujun said, tucking his hands into his sleeves and looking helplessly at Lin Hui. "One day, I just blinked, and everything in front of
had changed. Then soone told
I was no longer in Tuyue, but Black Cloud. The whole thing felt like a dream. Then soone else told
my younger brother had grown so powerful that the Black Cloud City Lord personally arranged my passage across the two great seas."
"Eldest brother, now that things are as they are, how about so shrimp?" Lin Hui picked up a dried shrimp. With a subtle pulse of his Internal Force, the shell neatly split apart, leaving only the pale red at in his hand.
"All right... I'll let it go. I still don't know how you do it." He sighed. "Never mind. What are your plans? Are you completely settling down here in Black Cloud?"
"What else would I do? It's stable and peaceful here, and supplies are abundant. With the three City Lords looking after us, life is good. Even at this distance from Tuyue, news still finds us occasionally, so you can still check in on your friends and masters. With so many of my needs t, where else would I run off to?" Lin Hui asked, tossing the shrimp into his mouth.
"True. However, before I was brought over, I was actually participating in a secret Rain Palace operation. Speaking of which, this matter has so connection to you, Ah Hui," Liu Wujun said.
"Oh?" Lin Hui raised an eyebrow. He couldn't imagine how an honest Outer City Dao Master like himself could possibly be tied to a secret Rain Palace operation.
"Do you still rember Han Xiaoyue?" Liu Wujun asked.
"...Her? What about her?" Lin Hui paused, his hand stopping in mid-air with a second shrimp.
When he left Tuyue, his parting with Han Xiaoyue had marked a shift in their relationship. Moving past their prior ambiguity, they had settled into being quiet, peaceful friends and fellow Daoists. Whether their initial twenty-year agreent could still be fulfilled, Lin Hui didn't know, and neither did Han Xiaoyue. Therefore, during their farewell, both had treated it as a final parting.
He hadn't expected to hear news of her again from his eldest brother.
"Ah Hui, you... should have encountered situations involving Corruption and mutation by now, right?" Liu Wujun asked in a deep voice.
"I have." Lin Hui's eyes turned cold as he recalled Xue ng's death back in the Clear Wind Dao.
"Then let
tell you—Corruption has been accelerating this entire ti. It's constantly getting faster," Liu Wujun continued.
"Getting faster? What do you an?" Possibilities raced through Lin Hui's mind. His gaze sharpened, fixed intently on his brother as he waited for the answer.
"Exactly what it sounds like. Corruption has existed since ancient tis, but our Shayue Sect found a thod to temporarily delay its spread within a specific area. You should also be aware of this thod, and that is..."
"Distribution?" Lin Hui guessed.
"No, it's hedging," Liu Wujun shook his head. "Distribution is rely pooling new lives together to help powerful individuals delay Corruption. It's a thod only the elite can enjoy; it sacrifices the bottom tier to benefit the middle and upper tiers. However, this thod relies heavily on newborn vitality. That's why Tuyue has the Longevity Wheel, and why Xingdao starts wars everywhere to snatch people. Black Cloud uses prosperity, stability, and abundant resources to attract them."
"I can understand that," Lin Hui nodded.
"But have you ever thought about the people truly at the bottom? What becos of them?" Liu Wujun asked.
"...Waiting for Corruption," Lin Hui said softly.
"Yes. They can only watch helplessly as they march toward it. Publicly, many claim the Myriad Blessings at is the cause. But after participating in this operation and exchanging information with fellow Daoists from other urban districts, I discovered a secret." Liu Wujun picked up his teacup and drained it in one gulp. "I found that in many other cities, bottom-tier people suffer the exact sa fate—they undergo Blood-Eyed Afflicted and Blood-Body Afflicted transformations all the sa. So of those cities don't even have Myriad Blessings at, yet their people still end up like this. Why?"
"...Are you saying the claim that Myriad Blessings at causes Corruption and mutation is false?" Lin Hui frowned.
"Not necessarily. It might indeed have that effect, but the true root cause of Corruption isn't the Myriad Blessings at. The at rely acts as an accelerant," Liu Wujun said solemnly.
Lin Hui fell silent.
"You might think I'm making a mountain out of a molehill. Humans are born to eventually die, and there isn't much difference between dying of Corruption and dying of natural old age. Look at the elderly in the urban districts; so are in their seventies and eighties. Evading Corruption at such an advanced age proves that the threshold for Corruption and mutation must be close to a normal human's natural lifespan. We really shouldn't care whether we die of old age or Corruption," Liu Wujun lanted.
"So, eldest brother, what exactly are you trying to say?" Lin Hui put down the dried shrimp, his expression turning solemn. He was beginning to catch on.
"I want to ask... Ah Hui, have you ever thought about..." Liu Wujun paused, struggling to find the right words. "Have you ever thought about changing this seemingly normal, yet deeply abnormal status quo?"
"Why should it be changed?" Lin Hui asked. "As long as my family and friends are unhard, nothing else matters. All things in this world have their own natural progression and balance. I don't have the capability, nor the resolve, to alter the grand trend."
"But we've discovered that Corruption is accelerating," Liu Wujun quickly countered.
"Accelerating?"
"Yes. The warning signs appeared early on, prompting many idealists in the middle and upper tiers to monitor the situation. A thousand years ago, predecessors from the Shayue Sect collected data from various regions, compiled a report, and submitted it to the Federation. The Federation took it seriously and established a joint executive agency with the Shayue Sect—the Blood Tide Society." Liu Wujun stopped and looked at Lin Hui.
"Eldest brother, you... joined this Blood Tide Society?" Lin Hui finally understood. His brother was here to recruit him.
"I've been a mber of the Blood Tide Society from the very beginning, ever since I entered my master's tutelage," Liu Wujun replied. "The Blood Tide Society is responsible for cultivating Super-Adapters. By utilizing a Super-Adapter's terrifying regenerative abilities and imnse vitality, they hedge against the acceleration of Corruption within a specific range at fixed intervals. That is the entire purpose behind the Blood Tide Society's establishnt."
"And then?" Lin Hui wasn't entirely convinced by this rhetoric. Claiming credit for holding back a grand, world-spanning trend—did they even have proof?
"And then, a few years ago, a Super-Adapter scheduled to hedge against the Corruption near Tuyue was killed by a single palm strike from the Tuyue City Lord during a riot. Consequently... the Corruption in that region was left unchecked. Before I left, seniors in the society calculated that the maximum lifespan before Corruption hits has rapidly dropped from eighty-five to eighty in just the past year or two, and it's still plumting," Liu Wujun said.
Without waiting for Lin Hui to ask, he continued.
"To curb this, Han Xiaoyue, the leader of this team of Super-Adapters, decided to push the next Super-Adapter ahead of schedule to fill the Corruption deep core in the Tuyue district. The original arrangent called for one person every ten years, but because of that prior death, all Super-Adapters had no choice but to step up in sequence."
"What does this have to do with Han Xiaoyue?" Lin Hui asked. Even though he had already faintly guessed the answer, he still had to hear it said.
"It was originally scheduled to be Han Xiaoyue's turn to fill the deep core thirty years from now. But since they are short one Super-Adapter, her turn has been moved up to twenty years from now. She is last only because she leads the team and holds supervisory duties," Liu Wujun sighed. "Filling the deep core reduces a person to a re consumable. They battle against the boundless erosion of Corruption alone, deep underground, until their regenerative abilities are completely overwheld. They don't beco Blood-Eyed Afflicted or Blood-Body Afflicted monsters down there—they simply burn out and turn to ash, disappearing entirely."
Lin Hui said nothing.
Stopping the regional Corruption by filling the deep core?
He had never imagined that Han Xiaoyue was a leader specifically dispatched by the Federation to execute a suicide mission.
No wonder her status back then had always felt so bizarre. Despite being so powerful, she was treated like a ghost by the Tuyue Inner City, completely overlooked. No matter what she did, it was ignored or forgiven, as if she were just an uninvolved passerby.
Now that he had learned the truth from his eldest brother, everything finally made sense.
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