"Since it was what Master Lin wanted, this man..." Wang Hongshi’s family recognized Lin Hui. They spoke with the bride’s family and quickly handed the pervert over to the people from the Qingfeng sect.

Lin Hui was in no rush. He continued to pose as a guest, leaving only after the main ceremony had concluded.

Before leaving, he met privately with Wang Hongshi and Zhao Feiyue. He gave them a small wooden carving he had made as a keepsake, then departed with the pervert, returning to the Qingfeng sect’s main courtyard.

BANG.

In the courtyard, Lin Hui looked at the pervert lying on the ground with a burlap sack over his head.

With a wave of his hand, a light breeze blew past, untying the burlap sack.

"You’re free to go. Don’t be so foolish next time. You should at least do some research before breaking into someone’s house."

The burlap sack on the pervert’s head split into pieces and fell away. Caught off guard, he was blinded by the surrounding lights. It took him a while to adjust and come to his senses.

A look of disbelief appeared on his bruised and swollen face.

"You... you’re really letting me go!?"

"Of course. It’s a virtue to spare a life. Go on. Besides, you didn’t succeed, did you?" Lin Hui said gently.

The pervert paused and stared at Lin Hui for a moment.

Suddenly, he shot up from the ground, his figure flashing as he leaped toward the courtyard gate.

BANG!

The gate was pushed open a crack, revealing a solid gray Fog Wall outside.

"....." The pervert froze on the spot.

It was fucking nighttime! The outside was completely filled with the night fog!

He turned back to look at Lin Hui, who now wore a strange expression.

’So the Pulse of Life actually triggers!?’ Lin Hui was both surprised and delighted. Surprised, because the Pulse of Life didn’t seem to care about morality; as long as he saved a life, he would receive feedback.

Delighted, because this meant the methods for obtaining the Pulse of Life could be greatly expanded.

"Sir, could I possibly stay here until morning before I leave?" The pervert forced a smile that was uglier than a crying face.

Unfortunately, the response he received was a casual wave from Lin Hui.

SWISH.

A breeze flashed past, and the pervert was sent flying out, crashing into the gray night fog and disappearing from sight.

The gate was about to close.

THUMP.

Suddenly, a large, grayish-black, scaly hand shot out from the fog, holding the gate open.

The next moment.

A black, humanoid monster resembling a lizard, with a single, massive black eye, slowly walked into the courtyard.

’What kind of new species is this?’

Lin Hui’s eyes showed surprise. Seeing the night fog continuously pouring into the courtyard, his figure flashed. He appeared by the gate and, with a push of his hand, forced it shut.

The black Lizardman was left inside the courtyard.

HISS!

It roared and lunged at Lin Hui, swiping a claw at his chest.

The speed of its attack was actually comparable to a Circulation Martial Artist, which put some pressure on Lin Hui.

Compared to the night fog monsters over in Tuyue, the ones here seemed a level stronger.

SWOOSH!

The black Lizardman’s palm slashed through the air, surprisingly leaving a trail of black energy.

Countless twisted, ghostly faces materialized within the energy stream, accompanied by a faint, mournful wailing. It was quite bizarre.

Just as the Lizardman’s attack closed in on Lin Hui, who was preparing to block it head-on with his Wind of Surrounding...

SWOOSH.

Suddenly, Lin Hui’s figure blurred for an instant.

And then, the Lizardman’s attack passed right through his body.

It was as if Lin Hui had become translucent and indistinct in that moment, causing the attack to completely miss its target.

"!?" The Lizardman stumbled forward a few steps with its momentum, then turned around in confusion, seemingly bewildered that its attack had landed yet nothing had happened.

Lin Hui, for his part, was also experiencing this new change with a sense of novelty.

In that instant, he felt as if his body had trembled slightly. Then, the opponent’s attack passed right through him.

He felt nothing, not even the slightest tactile feedback from his Wind of Surrounding.

One must understand that while Wind of Surrounding was a Special Effect, he, as its user, would always feel feedback when it made contact to block an attack, no matter how strong or weak.

But just now, he had felt nothing at all.

HISS!

The furious Lizardman refused to accept it and pounced again, this time swinging with both hands.

A black wind howled, transforming into a large cloud of mist filled with wailing, black, human-faced specters that enveloped Lin Hui.

But...

PFFT.

The entire black wind passed right through Lin Hui’s body as if he were just an illusion, completely non-corporeal.

Lin Hui now saw the entire process clearly.

’So this is Micro-flash? A subtle dodge? Then what is the limit of this dodge? If it can only evade weak, ordinary attacks, then it’s meaningless to me.’

Lin Hui began to ponder.

He simply stood in place, allowing the black Lizardman to attack him as it pleased.

Time slowly passed...

「Two hours later...」

The black Lizardman’s chest heaved violently, and black sweat dripped continuously from its body.

It stared at Lin Hui as if it had seen a ghost, backing away step by step toward the courtyard gate.

After fighting for so long, it had used every move in its arsenal, but its opponent was like a phantom, impossible to touch.

Fortunately, Lin Hui made no move as it opened the gate, retreated into the night fog, and disappeared completely.

Because by now, he had more or less figured out the specific effects of the Micro-flash Special Effect.

’Absolute evasion from Micro-flash? As long as an attack’s speed is less than half of my own, I can automatically evade it with Micro-flash. The cost of this evasion is minuscule, and because the dodge is so fast, it looks like I haven’t moved at all.’

’The range and activation conditions have been tested. Next, I need to test its limits.’

Thinking of this, Lin Hui’s gaze fell upon the courtyard gate that led to the night fog.

In all the time since his memories had awakened, he had never truly ventured into the night fog to explore.

The most troublesome part of the night fog wasn’t actually the monsters. The monsters were indeed dangerous—after all, a certain type might possess a toxin that could even fell a Palace Master.

There was precedent for this.

Lin Hui had heard his elder brother mention in passing that a Palace Master in Tuyue’s history had died from poison while exploring the night fog.

But now, he considered himself just a tiny bit stronger than a Palace Master. Plus, the level of his Wind Calamity seemed to be extremely high, which gave him a lot more confidence.

’Just hanging around the entrance shouldn’t be a problem,’ Lin Hui thought to himself.

The biggest problem with the night fog was actually how easy it was to get lost inside. The fog was filled with all sorts of strange things, and those who entered could be teleported anywhere at any moment. That was why most who went in simply went missing.

But as long as one stuck to the entrance, it was generally not a big issue.

This was the experience Lin Hui had gathered from his elder brother and Su Yaping.

In fact, every powerful expert in this world had explored the night fog out of curiosity at some point.

The amount of experience they had varied.

After all, no one could ignore such a mysterious threat that changed every single day.

He walked out of the courtyard gate, step by step.

Lin Hui stood at the entrance, gazing out at the familiar yet somewhat alien wasteland.

The Qingfeng sect’s courtyard was surrounded by a stretch of untamed wasteland. Normally, it was overgrown with wild grass, with insects and small animals occasionally appearing.

Since no one tended to it, the wild grass here had now grown half as tall as a person. It was a mix of yellow and green, old and new. Some of the yellowed, aging stalks were so old they were about to peel, and some had even been snapped by the wind, left to hang limply on the edge of the thicket.

The moment Lin Hui stepped out, he saw blurry black humanoid figures rising from the patch of wild grass directly opposite the gate.

Each of these figures was two meters tall, dragging long, black, root-like things behind them.

’I might as well start recording the types of monsters that appear in the night fog, starting today. I’ll keep my own records and search for similar notes to compile. I’m sure I can’t be the only one with this idea.’

The thought arose in Lin Hui’s mind as he watched these two-meter-tall black figures.

The next second.

The black humanoid figures in the grass swarmed toward him in silence.

SWISH SWISH SWISH SWISH!!

Dozens of black shadows passed through his body in a dense wave.

Their speed was already faster than a Circulation Martial Artist, reaching a level somewhere between a Priest and a High Priest.

Leaving aside their power and destructive force, this surprise attack speed alone was not something an ordinary person could react to.

It was basically a situation where seeing them meant you were already hit.

But the next moment.

Lin Hui’s figure automatically blurred and flickered.

In that instant, it was as if his entire being had detached from the real world and entered another unknown, mysterious plane.

Only a blurry, translucent shadow remained in his place.

The black shadows passed through his body one after another, yet touched nothing.

’Interesting...’ Lin Hui mentally raised his evaluation of Micro-flash’s effectiveness.

’Just testing like this won’t give me a direct read on its limits. I can test it later when I’m sparring with Su Yaping and teaching him the Swordsmanship.’

*

*

*

At this very moment, Su Yaping, who had just left Wang Hongshi’s home, was at his own residence contemplating the perfect version of the Qingfeng Swordsmanship.

Just like Master Yunxia before him, after receiving the perfect version of the Qingfeng Swordsmanship, he became utterly fascinated by the strangely perfect feeling it naturally produced. Now that he had obtained the True Body Seal, he spent almost every day carefully pondering the unique qualities of this Swordsmanship.

As a result, his own Martial Dao had been greatly optimized and enhanced. In terms of pure Martial Dao, his physical constitution as a Bright Extreme Grandmaster was now forty percent stronger than it had been before, even without activating his Dharma Seal. Such was the power of the perfect Qingfeng Swordsmanship.

Even a supreme expert of the Martial Dao like himself could benefit from this Swordsmanship. It was laughable that the ordinary disciples of the Qingfeng sect were sitting on a priceless treasure without realizing it.

Every time he thought of this, Su Yaping lamented his misfortune. If only he had met Daoist Master Lin Hui sooner, his strength would likely be several times greater by now!

Outside, the sky was just beginning to lighten. Through the night canopy made of fish skin, one could faintly make out the conditions outside.

Having been up all night, Su Yaping sheathed his sword, wiped the fine sweat from his brow, and prepared to wash up before heading to his room to rest.

He had now officially joined the Black Cloud Shipyard Association, serving as its vice president.

As a powerful outsider, he continued the management style he had used back in Xingdiao, maintaining a peaceful and approachable demeanor. Being adept at handling affairs, he quickly integrated into the local power structure of Black Cloud.

The Black Cloud Shipyard was the largest local organization bridging the gap between the officials and the independent fleets. It was backed by one of the three great families from the Inner City’s Moon Tower.

Black Cloud’s Three Greats referred to the families directly descended from the three great Fog People. Two of these Fog People were male, while the third was a female who had her husband marry into her clan. As a result, the family surnames weren’t as varied as those in Tuyue.

With some official backing, Su Yaping was like a fish in water. His status continually rose, and he had now subtly established himself as a significant power in the Outer City. Many small and medium-sized factions that were struggling to survive had come to seek refuge with him.

Just as he was pondering the important matters he needed to handle at the Black Cloud Shipyard the next day...

CLICK.

Suddenly, the latch on the heavy main gate of his mansion lifted on its own.