"Why must we face your enemies together?" Lin Hui retorted. "You ca to us carrying grudges we knew nothing about. You made those enemies—deal with them yourself. If you die on the road, that's your own karma. Of course, if you can convince your fellow disciples to help, that's entirely up to you."
When he founded the Clear Wind Dao, his original purpose had been simple: build a faction to protect his people and expand his avenues for inco and intelligence.
As his strength grew rapidly, however, that need had largely faded.
Beyond that, so long as the law seal accepted them, the disciples naturally developed a deep sense of belonging and loyalty—an instinctive drive to protect the sect and him, their Bestowal Seal Sect Master. It gave him little reason to police minor grievances.
After Song Feishi accepted the Bestowal Seal, she quietly slipped into a self-induced hypnosis, assuming the identity of a Clear Wind Dao disciple.
At her level of cultivation, temporarily reshaping her surface cognition was trivial.
Slipping past such a shallow cognitive check should have been nothing.
Yet when the seal settled, Song Feishi simply stood there—unchanged. Not even a flicker.
"It is a pity. Step down; next, please," Lin Hui said gently. "Those who didn't pass need not be discouraged. You may still serve as outer disciples of the Clear Wind Dao, study ordinary martial arts, and wait for the next evaluation. After all, the human heart can change."
He paused a mont, then continued.
"Those who passed shouldn't grow complacent. Should your heart shift and you cease to truly identify as a Clear Wind Dao disciple, the law seal will vanish at once. Therefore, I—your Dao Master—will periodically gather you all to verify that your seals remain in full effect."
The mont he finished, a stir moved through the assembled crowd.
Song Feishi narrowed her eyes and stepped back, deciding to linger a while longer and observe this Clear Wind Dao.
After the two surprises she had just witnessed, her curiosity about this mysterious sect had only deepened.
…
Ti slipped by.
As Lin Hui settled into life in Black Cloud, the Clear Wind Dao quietly drew in mbers from the three great Trueblood Noble families and swiftly grew into a rising force within the city.
Alongside his cultivation, he visited the Moon Tower and acquired large quantities of Purple Cloud Reishi and Spirit-Enriching Reishi, cutting the remaining evolution ti for the Grand Yin-Yang Ti Reversal Sword Art down to a re twenty years.
He had originally intended to eliminate the remaining ti in one sitting, but the further he pushed, the weaker the herbs' effects seed to beco.
No—it wasn't that the herbs had weakened. It was that the sheer quantity of evolutionary resources he now required had exploded.
After all, the Blood Seal asured ti reduction against the energy and mind-spirit he could supply each day.
At his current level, both exceeded what he had once possessed by a vast margin.
So while the evolution ti had been shortened to just over a hundred years on paper, compared with what his past self could sustain, that century likely amounted to over a millennium.
Lin Hui had only uncovered this underlying dynamic after consuming hundreds of stalks of Purple Cloud Reishi at once.
In theory, a single stalk of Purple Cloud Reishi had once granted two years of Blood Seal evolution-ti reduction.
Now, the more he consud, the steeper the diminishing returns.
The Purple Cloud Reishi wasn't alone in this—the Black Emperor Pill had also lost much of its potency. To such a degree that daily pill consumption, supplented by every manner of aphrodisiac he could source through the Vice City Lord's connections, could barely sustain a rate of one month of real ti equating to eight.
Fortunately, only twenty years remained. At that rate, he would need to wait no more than two or three years to complete the evolution.
Lin Hui was no longer in a hurry. He settled into his daily rhythm and turned his focus to testing the cultivation thod for the Sacred Form of Destruction.
He began by testing ants.
Killing an ant yielded a pulsation of destruction—a bone-chillingly cold, barely perceptible sliver of energy so faint it was nearly negligible. Lin Hui moved on to ordinary animals and Mist Zone monsters, working his way up by strength.
He found that, just as with the Sacred Form of Life, the more powerful the lifeform killed, the greater and more potent the destruction pulsations he received.
At the fifty-fourth species, he suspended his testing. Setting aside the weakest entries, he intended to reserve the remaining slots for far more powerful lifeforms.
…
In the blink of an eye, four months passed.
The upheavals his arrival had caused gradually subsided, and Lin Hui’s wariness slowly eased. As long as he didn’t repeat the sa mistake, the situation would not deteriorate further.
It was then that Tao Xuehai's son, Tao Changsheng, arrived safely in Black Cloud District. Clear Wind Dao mbers welcod him and escorted him to the academy. Inside, the pear tree's blossoms had long since fallen, its branches now bowing under the weight of plump, pale pears.
Li Yuanyuan was directing two kitchen won to harvest the pears with long tongs carefully.
Lin Hui and his master Mingde sat on either side of a nearby stone table, playing chess over a small, low stove where tea was quietly brewing.
Wisps of white steam curled from beneath the transparent lid, carrying a faint, refreshing tea fragrance.
"Couldn't you just knock all the pears down at once using an Internal Force technique? Why go to so much trouble?" After half a year of recuperation, Mingde had recovered his forr ruddy complexion and vibrant spirit.
"Master may not be familiar with this tree," Lin Hui said. "It's no ordinary pear tree—this variety is called the Iron Pear Tree. Its branches and leaves are extraordinarily hard. The pears can only be harvested using heavy-duty tongs forged from special materials, worked in a slow, grinding motion like shears."
"Ah, I see." Mingde nodded. He set down a chess piece, surveyed his seventh consecutive loss, and shook his head. "I suppose I really am getting old. I used to be quite the chess player."
"What are you saying, Master? With my current mind-spirit, letting you win would be a bit too transparent, wouldn't it?" Lin Hui chuckled. "It's only chess. Don't take it to heart."
"Of course you don't," Mingde said, jabbing a finger at him, half-exasperated.
After a short laugh, he changed the subject.
"I've also caught wind of things these past few days. The Minglan pantheon seems to be stirring again—too many monsters appearing at once. Must be their purge cycle. War looks imminent."
"Indeed... The Black Army is already mobilizing. There are three conventional combat zones in total—each one built around one of the three City Lords as its core," Lin Hui said with a nod.
"And what do you plan to do with Tao Changsheng?" Mingde asked suddenly.
"I promised Xuehai that I would raise him. He is the sole bloodline of the Tao Clan." Lin Hui sighed.
"Good... If you're too occupied to handle it yourself, why not leave him in my care?" Mingde said. "He is so young, after all. Weiwei has gotten on wonderfully with the boy these past few days—she wishes to take him on as her godson."
Senior Sister Weiwei?
Lin Hui closed his eyes, recalling how Tao Changsheng had looked when he first arrived in Black Cloud. He was a child of barely two years, standing unsteadily on the deck, his face still streaked with tears. His eyes were as red as peaches, his fra slight and small—only his round head seed outsized on his little body.
At the sight of him, the child burst into wailing, words slurred through his sobs, and dropped to his knees on the deck, calling Lin Hui Grandmaster.
Hearing it, Lin Hui had wanted to set off right then and there to butcher Tuyue. Only the mounting tensions in Black Cloud—war on the verge of breaking out—had kept him from quietly boarding a ship bound for Tuyue.
"If Changsheng is willing, I have no objections," Lin Hui said softly, opening his eyes.
"Then it's settled. Changsheng agreed long ago; we were just waiting for your nod." Mingde smiled.
"That works well." Lin Hui nodded.
After seeing Mingde off, he stood a mont gazing at the now-bare pear tree, let out a slow breath, and returned to his room to cultivate.
Comprehending the Sacred Form of Life's manipulation of air currents had beco one of his daily cultivation practices.
The more he comprehended it, the deeper his understanding of Disaster Energy grew. In wielding this air manipulation, he beca both more powerful and more instinctive. Through sustained contemplation, the Disaster Energy sank deeper still, weaving itself further into his body and mind-spirit.
As the afternoon hour crept past four, the sky began to dim.
A familiar voice reached his ears through the Wind Chi's vibrations.
"Master, your disciple has failed the Typhoon Sword Technique once again. But... my Wild Wind Sword Technique seems to have achieved a new breakthrough." It was Xia Si's voice.
Lin Hui's heart stirred. His figure flickered, and in an instant, he was out of the Clear Wind Dao Academy, crossing in a series of rapid flashes to a spacious seaside pavilion half-subrged in the water. This was Xia Si's residence.
She now held the rank of Deputy Commander in the Black Cloud Black Army, commanding thousands of soldiers—a respectable, mid-level post. At that mont, Xia Si sat cross-legged at the center of a vast, circular drill grounds, a pitch-black longsword resting in her hands, dressed in black robes and black outer armor.
The mont he saw Xia Si, Lin Hui was taken aback.
The Disaster Energy aura radiating from the girl was at least ten tis stronger than the last ti he had seen her—if not more.
Moreover, he was surprised to find that Xia Si's mind-spirit was continuously radiating tendrils outward in all directions. A light probe revealed that its intensity had reached the sa level he'd experienced when his own Typhoon Sword Technique was at the mid-stage.
It seed shot through with a vast, unfamiliar power.
This feeling...
Lin Hui studied her carefully, sensing that sothing fundantal in her personality had shifted.
"Master..." Xia Si opened her eyes, rose, and bowed. "Your disciple has spent every day working to grasp the Typhoon Sword Technique you imparted. But the threshold is simply too high... To this day, it remains out of reach."
"Think nothing of it," Lin Hui said gently. "The Typhoon Sword Technique is extraordinarily difficult. To this day, I have yet to see anyone truly succeed in cultivating it."
"However—" Xia Si's voice dropped. Her eyes had taken on a faint, iron-gray cast.
"For so reason, every ti I fail, an unfamiliar power surges through my body after each session. It seems to co from nowhere. I expected it to cause a backlash—to destabilize my foundation. Instead, not only did it cause no harm, it integrated seamlessly into my body and mind-spirit. As though... it had always been a part of ..."
Lin Hui remained silent.
The Blood Seal had long since confird Xia Si's true origins. Her current state rely verified it.
The Ghost Face leader of the pseudo-human race was simply recovering her original mories...
"Master... what troubles your disciple is this: each ti that power surges forth, a growing, maddening hunger for destruction rises with it..." Xia Si lowered her head, her voice barely above a murmur.
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