The Decaying World-Chapter 125 - 117: Acquired, Part 1

Qingfeng Temple.

Lin Hui sat cross-legged alone in the apothecary. The pill furnace before him was still burning with bright yellow flames, while the pile of wooden boxes beside him, which had held the Yun Lingzhi, were now all completely empty.

Likewise, the progress displayed by his Blood Seal had undergone a huge change.

’One Yun Lingzhi reduces evolution time by three months. Twenty-three stalks make sixty-nine months, which is five years and nine months...’

Lin Hui gazed at the remaining time displayed at the bottom of his vision, his heart filled with anticipation.

’Typhoon Swordsmanship—Remaining Time: 1 year, 9 months.’

’As I thought, just waiting around is a waste of time and life. Only by constantly expanding my search area and obtaining more resources can I rapidly accelerate the Blood Seal’s evolution time! Otherwise, at the original pace, even with crazily consuming medicine, I would’ve needed over a year to complete the evolution. Now, with medicine, I can solve this nearly two-year process in just half a year!’

His face was a bit sallow, a side effect of consuming too much medicine in a short period. But compared to his gains, this bit of damage was nothing.

’There’s still the Purple Cloud Ganoderma worth half a million... I wonder how potent it is...’

Lin Hui picked up the last treasure medicine. The Purple Cloud Ganoderma was dark purple with fine brown spots on its surface. It was about the size of his palm, and its stem was covered in a layer of fine, white fuzz.

Without hesitation, Lin Hui raised it and gently bit off a piece.

The wood-like texture was awful, and it had a strong, bitter taste. He managed to chew and swallow it, then sat and waited.

SWISH.

Sure enough, the Blood Seal’s progress bar, which he was constantly monitoring, changed again.

Just a moment ago, it was 1 year and 9 months. Now, it was decreasing rapidly.

After a little over ten seconds, the time stopped at 1 year and 5 months.

It had dropped by four months!

’Just a small piece shaved off four months! Again!’

Feeling hopeful that he could complete the Typhoon Swordsmanship today, Lin Hui was overjoyed and continued to gnaw on it.

Before long, he had chewed through most of the Purple Cloud Ganoderma. The remaining time on his Blood Seal, under his intense gaze, finally hit zero.

His vision trembled slightly. The Blood Seal on the back of his hand underwent a special change he had never seen before. The original rhombus and circle vanished, scattering into a network of root-like, dark-red patterns that covered the back of his hand and even his forearm.

The text for Typhoon Swordsmanship at the bottom of his vision blurred, then reappeared with new words.

’Typhoon Swordsmanship: An Attack and Defense Integrated Swordsmanship evolved from Gale Swordsmanship. Can create a limited-range home-field advantage, is not afraid of being surrounded by Low Energy Level opponents, and has a certain suppressive and weakening effect on High Energy Level opponents. The complete set of swordsmanship consists of three forms and twelve moves. Mastering all moves allows for perfect Body Tempering up to the Ninth Grade. Upon completion, acquires Special Effect: Micro-flash.’

"..." As soon as he opened the description, Lin Hui clutched his head and groaned.

A massive torrent of memories—the enlightenment of the Typhoon Swordsmanship—flooded his mind. For countless days and nights, he had not slept, eaten, or drunk, madly comprehending and deducing the Gale Swordsmanship. In the end, combining it with various memories from his past life and spending over a hundred years, he finally deduced the powerful, ultimate technique known as Typhoon Swordsmanship.

Instantly absorbing a hundred years of cultivation memories made Lin Hui’s physical body feel like his head was about to split open.

After enduring it for more than ten minutes, he slowly rubbed his temples and recovered.

’The Gale Swordsmanship’s Body Tempering isn’t even finished, and now the Typhoon Swordsmanship has arrived... I’ve got my work cut out for me...’ He let out a heavy breath.

Fortunately, completing the evolution meant he had perfectly mastered it by default. Otherwise, given the difficulty of this swordsmanship, a quick review of the memories made his scalp tingle.

The complexity of this new swordsmanship far exceeded the Gale Sword. It required using perception to judge and calculate the details of the surrounding environment, using Inner Strength to simulate the planet’s rotation, and forming over a thousand reinforcing cyclones within his body to work in concert and unleash its power.

’From the cultivation memories, this Typhoon Swordsmanship is powerful enough, but to practice the Body Tempering... it might take a very long time...’

Lin Hui considered it and decided to use the Blood Seal to evolve other abilities first.

For example, the Yun Lingzhi, or other branch skills. And he could also try evolving that "Stone People Chopstick People" he discovered at the very beginning to see what it was.

Standing up, Lin Hui felt as if his entire body had been reborn. The moment he mastered the Typhoon Swordsmanship, he felt a sense of being cleansed from the inside out.

Closing his eyes, he tried to directly circulate his Inner Strength along the cyclone paths of the Typhoon Swordsmanship, but as soon as he started, he felt a sharp, tearing pain inside his body.

His mind instantly provided the reason for this phenomenon.

’My constitution is too weak... After finishing the Gale Swordsmanship’s Body Tempering, I still need to strengthen my body for a period before I can start practicing the Typhoon Swordsmanship’s Body Tempering. Otherwise, my body won’t be able to withstand the rotation of numerous cyclones and will tear, causing internal injuries.’

He sighed. The feeling of having mastered a top-tier martial art but being unable to cultivate it was extremely frustrating for Lin Hui.

But seeing that his Gale Swordsmanship’s Body Tempering had already reached the Seventh Grade, and Ninth Grade wasn’t far off, he could only endure for a while longer.

’So, what should I evolve with the Blood Seal next?’

The most important thing now was how to best utilize the idle Blood Seal.

’Since elixirs and treasure medicines are a huge help in accelerating my progress, strengthening this aspect as a support should be the top priority...’

He pulled open a drawer and took out the two elixir recipes he had purchased from the Wang Family: Spirit Emperor Pill and Cloud Gathering Pill.

He had spent a fortune to acquire both of these elixir recipes from Wang Yueheng.

Now that the Blood Seal was free, Lin Hui carefully committed the two elixir recipes to memory again.

He had naturally been unwilling to give up after buying them. He had already tried, but both elixir recipes were extremely difficult. The process was incredibly complex, with numerous details to pay attention to. He had attempted to refine them dozens of times each, failing every single time.

But now...

’The key to my failed refinement attempts is that my Alchemy skill is too weak. Although the Special Effect Heart Union can increase the success rate of alchemy, if I can’t even complete the correct refinement steps once, that success rate is useless.’

’So, I might as well just evolve the elixir recipe directly, simplify its difficulty, and improve its efficacy...’

As Lin Hui adjusted his thoughts, information about the Spirit Emperor Pill’s recipe appeared at the bottom of his vision.

’Spirit Emperor Pill: A premium aphrodisiac created by an ancestor of the Wang Family. It has the effects of greatly increasing vigor, stamina, etc. Evolvable Branches: 2.’

’1—Jade Emperor Pill.’

’2—Black Emperor Pill.’

Lin Hui opened each of these branches to check their descriptions.

’1. Jade Emperor Pill: Enhances the medicinal effects and potency, reduces the cooldown period between doses, refinement difficulty unchanged. Resource Cost: 1 year of stored energy. Time Cost: 1 year.’

’2. Black Emperor Pill: Medicinal effect unchanged, cooldown period unchanged, lowers refinement difficulty by increasing the variety and quantity of ingredients to reduce reliance on rare ones. Resource Cost: 2 years of stored energy, Time Cost: 3 years.’

This is the one!

Without a second thought, Lin Hui chose the second option.

These two elixir recipes only represented that he had barely grasped them. Although he had never succeeded in refining them, he had memorized all the details of the recipes. This was the initial, entry-level state.

Soon, after confirming the evolution to the Black Emperor Pill, the Blood Seal on the back of his hand began to converge, forming a rhombus.

Not wanting to waste anything, Lin Hui stuffed the remaining Purple Cloud Ganoderma into his mouth, chewed it up, and swallowed.

Half an hour later, the remaining evolution time for the Black Emperor Pill had shortened from three years to 1 year and 6 months.

Having decided on the Blood Seal’s purpose, Lin Hui stretched comfortably, stood up, took two longswords from the wall, and pushed open the door.

The Typhoon Swordsmanship evolution was completed today, which called for a celebration. And how should he celebrate? He’d reward himself by practicing the Body Tempering Sword Technique fifty more times!

Lin Hui mused to himself that after the Black Emperor Pill’s evolution was complete, he planned to try evolving a Yun Lingzhi or a Purple Cloud Ganoderma. The one he’d just chewed was now less than half its original size and incomplete. He’d wait for the next one...

*

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*

Lin Mansion.

Lin Shunhe frowned as he listened to his subordinate’s report on the woman his son was seeing.

"According to investigations from multiple channels, this woman, named Han Xiaoyue, is likely from the Inner City’s Central Ring. She is sixty-four years old. In her early years, she joined the Inner City Government Office’s ’Timely Rain Project’ but later retired due to injury. Her cultivation is suspected to be at the Upper-level Summoning Level, close to that of a Priest," the subordinate reported in a low voice.

"What about her family? Did you find any details about her background?" Lin Shunhe asked.

"According to our investigation, she comes from a declining Original Blood family in the Central Ring. Han Xiaoyue is of the seventh generation, so the Original Blood in her veins is already extremely thin. She requires continuous injections of Feather Blood to maintain her life in the Inner City. Fortunately, Han Xiaoyue was quite promising and was successfully Summoned, activating her innate aptitude and thereby extending her Feather Blood concentration. If Young Master Hui were to have children with her, their offspring should be able to pass down the lineage for two generations without worrying about the Inner City’s radiation hazards." The subordinate had clearly done his homework.

"So, her other qualifications are acceptable, just slightly lacking in background compared to the person I found for Ah Hui," Lin Shunhe said.

"Yes."

"Alright, then. We’ll wait for Ah Hui to find some time to bring her home for a meeting. Sigh... He’s my only son. I hope he can successfully continue the family line... Mm... By the way, how is Ah Hui doing now? I heard earlier that he had a conflict with the Chi Mi Bang of the Three Sects and Six Gangs?"

"Yes, the Purple Crystals obtained by Young Master Hui’s exploration team were coveted by the Chi Mi Bang. The two sides came to blows, and in the end, Young Master Hui personally forced the Chi Mi Bang’s Yuan Peak to retreat and completely eliminated all members of their exploration team," the subordinate replied swiftly.

"Yuan Peak? What’s his strength within the Chi Mi Bang? Ah Hui can actually go up against the Three Sects and Six Gangs? Just what level has his training reached?" Lin Shunhe grew genuinely curious as he brought this up.

He only knew that his son practiced the very safe and extremely fast Qingfeng Swordsmanship. As for what level his strength had reached, he was unclear. Now, hearing that Lin Hui could single-handedly force back the Chi Mi Bang’s Yuan Peak made him curious. After all, the Three Sects and Six Gangs had a reputation. Even the Six Gangs, who relied more on connections, influence, and numbers, would not send a nobody as a support expert for an exploration team. The fact that Ah Hui could repel such a person spoke volumes about his strength.

"Based on the previous duel between Young Master Lin Hui and Li Chi of the Flying Stone Sect, we can preliminarily judge that his actual combat ability is already comparable to a Circulation Martial Artist. The Chi Mi Bang’s Yuan Peak, who was repelled this time, has a track record that places his strength somewhere below the Circulation level but above Inner Power Perfection. His defeat is to be expected," the subordinate said quickly.

"Circulation... That kid, relying on the speed of his Body Technique to reach such a level, is quite a surprise..." Lin Shunhe stroked the beard on his chin and chuckled.

"But to have reached this stage, his Inner Strength must have reached Perfection. Otherwise, it would be impossible to stand against a Circulation Martial Artist." He had recently been cramming, studying various comparative materials on the Martial Artist System, the Summoner system, and the Fusion System.

"Looking at it this way, my son can basically be considered a Circulation Martial Artist. As expected, the rise of my Lin Family is in sight!" He couldn’t help but let out a soft laugh.

"The next priority is to have Ah Hui have more children soon. Our first two generations will pave the way, using massive resources to let the next generation be Summoned and cultivate Inner Strength simultaneously from a young age. In twenty or thirty years, our Lin Family might even produce a Priest or a Triple Harmony Grandmaster!" Lin Shunhe was already starting to fantasize about the incomparably glorious state of the Lin Mansion decades in the future.

With him, a person who had fused with a replica Evil Soldier, holding down the fort, his life essence, comparable to a Priest’s, would allow him to live for at least one hundred and fifty years. In thirty years, he would still be in his prime. He could absolutely afford to wait!

At this thought, the corners of Lin Shunhe’s mouth curled up in a smile he couldn’t quite suppress.