Far beyond Black Cloud, a rchant fleet trafficking human slaves advanced across the heaving surface of the Jade Sea. Like a school of black fish swimming in formation, the ships moved slowly through the vast waters where Lin Hui and Tuyue had once battled.
Aboard one of the vessels, the bearded captain, Xia Xingtao, stroked his chin and peered through the crystal window at the front of his cabin. "This is my third ti through this stretch recently. I don't know why, but the wind and waves seem much rougher than before. Do you feel it, Aina?"
He glanced back at Vice Captain Aina.
"I do," Aina said. She had dark skin and short black hair, dressed simply in a purple short-sleeved top and skirt. Ruby chains glittered at her neck, wrists, and ankles.
Her pleasant looks and exquisite figure, combined with her decent strength, had made her the object of admiration for many aboard the ship.
"Not only that—there are far fewer monsters in these waters than before. Even ordinary sea fish are practically nowhere to be seen," she added.
"Sothing must have happened to cause a change this drastic," Captain Xia mused.
"Wait." Aina suddenly frowned. "Do you hear that? It sounds like faint singing."
"Singing?" Xia Xingtao furrowed his brows and listened.
Sure enough—the faint, sorrowful voice of a woman drifted in and out, wafting over the waves as if from a great distance.
Crack.
A faint splintering sound echoed from the bottom of the hull.
"Not good—the hull is breached! What hit us?!" Captain Xia's expression changed drastically. Intimately familiar with the sound of breaking timber, he bellowed for his n below to make ergency repairs.
But it was already too late.
Within monts, the entire ship silently plunged beneath the surface and vanished. The surrounding ships followed in rapid succession, as though dragged down by giant hands lurking beneath the waves. Before long, the entire fleet had disappeared without a trace. Only a few bizarre blue-black fissures flickered through the water before fading away.
…
Several days later. Inside the Taisu Martial Academy.
Lin Hui stood with his hands clasped behind his back, nodding slightly as he watched rows of students earnestly drilling their swordsmanship.
The aptitude of the student body was visibly improving. Older students were constantly transferring out to make way for recruits with better potential—an undeniable sign of progress.
There was, however, one unexpected variable: Fan Lingxi, one of the three students he had taken in to lay the groundwork for his plans.
He had finally found a mont to check on her personally. The instant he did, he was startled.
She had actually produced results from her training.
Lin Hui watched Fan Lingxi among the crowd with an outwardly composed expression, but a nagging sense of strangeness gnawed at him. She was practicing the standard Clear Wind Sword Technique, yet her execution radiated a bizarre, distorted aura.
Standing at the front of the formation, he watched her work through the longsword form with ticulous care. Through his mind-spirit, however, he wasn't looking at the girl herself—he was looking at a twisted blue-purple vortex floating less than a ter behind her.
A faint, familiar sensation emanated from it.
Extre Cold Heaven. Lin Hui recognized the contaminating power instantly—the sa one he had encountered before.
How was Fan Lingxi connected to Extre Cold Heaven?
He had no way of knowing. But judging by the other students' behavior, none of them could sense the hidden anomaly clinging to her. Lin Hui wasn't na??ve enough to assu Tuyue City held the only portal to Extre Cold Heaven; Black Cloud undoubtedly had one as well.
Forget it. I no longer need the social connections and background that Fan Lingxi was supposed to provide. I'll just teach her like a normal disciple. Whatever secrets she's carrying have nothing to do with .
Withdrawing his mind-spirit, Lin Hui offered pointers to the students as he ntally organized his approach to cultivating the Sacred Form of Destruction.
The Sacred Form of Destruction was the culmination of Luminous Two, the second layer of the Star Breath Sword Canon. To cultivate it, one first had to extinguish ninety-nine lives drawn from different races.
In theory, this requirent should have been trivially easy to fulfill—he could casually slaughter ninety-nine different types of creatures. Simply heading into the wilderness and carpet-bombing a large area would probably yield enough variety.
But Lin Hui had to account for the sa variable he had encountered with the Sacred Form of Life: would the strength of the lives he took determine the final power of the Sacred Form of Destruction? Judging from his infused mories, the answer was a resounding yes.
It seems every life I take must be carefully chosen...
Lin Hui unconsciously reached out, his fingers closing around a formless mass of air. This was no ordinary air—it was pure oxygen, ticulously isolated and extracted from the atmosphere.
Ever since successfully condensing the Sacred Form of Life, he could freely manipulate all air within a one-kiloter radius. To train this ability for the extre speeds of Mistborn combat, Lin Hui had begun daily exercises in isolating single-component gases. Pure oxygen could massively amplify combustion speed and firepower, drastically increasing the volatility of dust explosions—a perfect supplentary tool for his arsenal.
Just as he pondered where to begin cultivating the Sacred Form of Destruction, a light blue Wind Chi slowly condensed and hovered near his shoulder. The palm-sized chi swayed, emitting a crisp note before transmitting a voice only he could hear.
"Dao Master," Su Yaping said. "Word of the Righteous Body's effects has spread, and a good number of people have arrived seeking to join the Clear Wind Dao. We managed to decline the others politely, but one visitor recently arrived whom we're uncertain how to handle. Would you like to see for yourself before making a decision?"
"Who?" Lin Hui's brow furrowed slightly.
"A Mistborn who calls himself Pang Jiu."
The three City Lords still hadn't made up their minds to join the Clear Wind Dao. They claid to be considering it, but the prolonged silence likely ant they had quietly declined. For a Mistborn to surface now, asking to join—no matter how he looked at it, it felt like the City Lords had found a test subject to probe the waters.
"Arrange a eting in the waters off Red Stone Beach."
Mistborn were the highest-tier entities in this world. Having one join the Clear Wind Dao was undeniably a boon, but if this particular Mistborn harbored ulterior motives, the situation could sour fast.
"Understood. Also—this Mistborn is injured," Su Yaping continued. "He claims his Evil Mist was largely devoured in the past. With only a fraction remaining, he can barely sustain basic existence. His strength is far below that of an ordinary Mistborn; that desperation is likely why he's willing to try this at all."
"There's no rush. I'll assess him myself before deciding," Lin Hui said.
"There is one more piece of news—regarding Tuyue City," Su Yaping added.
"Go on."
"Large-scale unrest has erupted there. The Purgatory Gate saw massive slaughter break out on multiple occasions, and the attempt to seal it was ultimately declared a failure. The two Mistborn, Tuyue and Xie Jun, had no choice but to fall back and defend the Xingdao District. The vast majority of Tuyue City's population has evacuated there as well. All three Mistborn are now holding the line against the contaminating mutation spreading from the Purgatory Gate."
Purgatory.
The first gate to fall, and it had to be Purgatory's...
Lin Hui sighed inwardly. If a Mistborn City Lord like Tuyue had been forced to abandon his own urban district and retreat to Xingdao, the situation over there had to be dire beyond reckoning.
"Is there any news of our people?"
"Yes—the Clear Wind Dao mbers stationed there have already boarded the Hundred Seas rchant Alliance's fleet and are en route. Additionally..." Su Yaping hesitated.
"Just say it," Lin Hui said.
"Yes. Your disciple, Tao Xuehai... died in battle after being encircled by the Tuyue Black Army. His son, Tao Changsheng, is currently aboard a ship bound for Black Cloud."
Lin Hui went still for a mont.
Tao Xuehai was dead?
A surge of hollow bewildernt washed over him. Another familiar face—gone, just like Old Brother Xue ng.
Dead, just like that.
He rembered the last ti they had spoken. He had promised to look after Tao Changsheng if anything went wrong. It hadn't felt like that long ago.
And now...
"Dao Master, are you... alright?" Su Yaping asked carefully.
"It's nothing. Just... a little regrettable." Lin Hui's right hand unconsciously tightened around the hilt of the Ruyi sword at his waist.
Tuyue. He filed this debt away where he would not forget it.
"We do have so good news, at least," Su Yaping said, shifting the topic. "Senior Sister Xia Si is on the verge of breaking through the Wild Wind Sword Technique. What are your thoughts?"
The sect mbers had all heard the reputation of the Typhoon Sword Technique that followed the Wild Wind. Still, no one had yet earned the right to cultivate it—none of them had even finished mastering the Wild Wind, and in truth, the vast majority lacked the baseline qualifications to attempt it at all.
Typhoon was another matter entirely.
But Xia Si was an exception.
After receiving the Righteous Virtue Law Seal from Lin Hui, her already exceptional cultivation speed reached an entirely new level. The Righteous Virtue Law Seal boosted comprehension and cultivation efficiency by fifty percent, instantly propelling Xia Si into a period of explosive growth.
And now, she had already mastered the Wild Wind Sword Technique.
"Tell her to co see
when she has ti." Lin Hui was not stingy with his sword arts, but the Typhoon Sword Technique's difficulty far exceeded Wild Wind. Honestly, he wasn't sure whether Xia Si could successfully cultivate it—she didn't have a Blood Seal to imprint the necessary martial mories directly.
"Yes, Dao Master," Xia Si's voice ca through the Wind Chi unexpectedly.
For so reason, her voice sounded different than usual—flat, and incredibly downcast.
Lin Hui didn't press her for a reason. He would find out soon enough when he saw her in person.
…
High above Black Cloud City.
Above the sea of mist, the Ghost-Faced Flood Dragon pulled its carriage through the clouds, the hull bathed in a warm patch of golden sunlight. Rather than flying directly toward the three floating mountain peaks, the carriage stopped several kiloters short.
The pearl curtains parted on their own.
Song Feishi set down her smoking pipe, rose gracefully, and stepped out into the open air.
"Sisi, wait for
here. Once I've caught my target, we return imdiately," she ordered, unhurried.
"As you command." Sisi, the driver, bowed her head in assent.
Song Feishi gathered her flowing black hair with one hand and leaned over the railing to survey the Mist below. Her eyes ignited with a pure golden fluorescence, cutting through the thick clouds as though the landscape beneath lay bare before her.
A mont later, her gaze locked, and she moved to descend.
Swish!
A burly figure flashed before her, blocking her path.
The man had an ordinary square face and short, unkempt hair. He wore black one-piece armor that protected only his vitals, leaving robust brown muscles exposed—muscles laced with crawling black markings.
What drew the eye most, however, was the wide, burning black saber strapped across his back. It barely resembled a physical weapon at all; it looked more like a blade forged entirely from pitch-black flas, the surrounding void warping and twisting around it constantly.
"Fourth Princess, this isn't Shenying City." The burly man wore a lazy smile, his tone thick with indolence. "Have you thought about the consequences of touching my people?"
The veiled threat in his words made Song Feishi's eyes narrow.
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