Decaying World Chapter 272

Lin Hui stood outside the cave, sensing the increasingly weak auras of the five Truebloods inside. Ultimately, he turned and walked away without entering.

One plants the cause; one must reap what follows.

The Truebloods were only suffering what they had inflicted upon ordinary people for so long. He had no right to grant forgiveness on behalf of the ordinary martial artists and Called Ones. He only wanted to find the person he sought and bring them to safety.

Taking to the air once more, Lin Hui pressed on.

He gradually encountered more hidden caves. In nearly half of them, the ordinary populace had turned the tables, besieging and abusing Truebloods—even the Trueblood Nobles. Because Trueblood Nobles typically possessed striking appearances, they suffered even greater tornts in these environnts. Most were humiliated to death; a few were beaten, bound, and imprisoned. So had even been broken like beautiful pets, completely stripped of their will.

Lin Hui did not interfere; he rely accelerated in silence.

Thunder gradually rolled across the sky, and a fine rain began to fall. Lin Hui soon arrived at the forr site of Xinyu Town.

A sea of ruins and rubble stretched in every direction. Not a single structure remained standing. Raindrops struck the dust-covered ground, kicking up a faint, earthy mist.

Lin Hui walked slowly through the ruins, expanding his mind-spirit to scan for any signs of life.

Hiss! A bloody shadow suddenly lunged from the rubble to his right, snapping at his neck.

An instant later, the bloody shadow went rigid in midair, floating motionless. With a wet splat, it shattered into dozens of pieces that scattered across the ground.

Lin Hui kept his hand resting lightly on the hilt of his Ruyi sword and continued his slow advance, entirely unfazed by the ambush.

Suddenly, he paused and turned his gaze to the left. The faint sound of clashing weapons drifted through the air.

"That's—?" Lin Hui sent out a brief probe, and his indifferent gaze sharpened. "Found her!"

Swish. In the next mont, he vanished from his spot.

Traversing several kiloters in an instant...

Clang!

Black smoke and flas billowed across the scorching, crimson plains. The Purgatory pollution had stained the land entirely red. Waves of heat swept the area, driving out anything untouched by Purgatory's nature.

Three massive black silhouettes were hemd in by a vast horde of red Purgatory creatures, swinging bone sabers as they were driven into a steady retreat.

One resembled a hybrid of rhinoceros and elephant—a rhino's head mounted on a hulking, five-ter-tall elephantine body over ten ters long. It stood upright like a humanoid, gripping a giant, grayish-white bone saber with both hands in a frenzied, whirling slash.

The second resembled a giant Lizard-man, though its back was covered in tallic, dark-gleaming spikes. It looked much like a monster that had undergone Corruption, yet its eyes were not the chaotic red of the Corrupted—they were a pure, pitch-black.

The third was a tall, long-haired humanoid figure with massive black, fleshy wings sprouting from her back. Though she stood three or four ters tall, the wings stretched over ten ters on each side. She was the main force holding back the Purgatory siege; the vast majority of incoming attacks were deflected and swept away by her broad, lightning-fast wings.

Her features were feminine—half ravaged by age, half strikingly beautiful. Grayish-white bone armor had naturally grown over her body, barely covering her chest and lower half.

"Han Xiaoyue, struggling is pointless. Tuyue is finished, and your mission is over. Why not surrender to our Holy Prison? With your strength, you will surely rise to a Commander-level figure upon conversion!"

On the periphery of the Purgatory horde, a muscular man with three black scorpion tails sprouting from his back hung in the air with arms crossed. His dark-red face had no eyes; his entire visage was dominated by a massive, serrated maw that consud ninety percent of his head.

This was the vanguard officer who had led the initial charge of the Purgatory army—Aurora the Monopolizer. Along the way, several Blood Ancestors who had fought to the death had perished by his hands, torn apart and devoured alive.

"Not pointless. There are obligations I cannot abandon. And infection brings no real strength—it only degrades the mind and spirit."

Han Xiaoyue's expression remained calm. Her wings flashed like lightning as she executed two bizarre, contrasting sword techniques—one in motion, one perfectly still. Working in tandem, they turned aside every incoming strike before it could reach the three of them.

Compared to her forr Super-Adapter combat style of frenzied devouring and transformation, she had grown significantly.

"What's so bad about becoming a Purgatory Lord? Earn enough military rit, and a title is guaranteed! When that cos, your power will be dozens of tis stronger than it is now—with that kind of strength, you could do anything, accomplish whatever you desired!" Aurora the Monopolizer spread his arms, speaking with fanatical fervor.

Infection, devouring, and further infection—through this cycle, Purgatory creatures bypassed any need for mind-spirit intensity entirely. Because they were the very incarnations of chaos, so long as they kept devouring, so long as they consud enough, they could grow infinitely stronger until they reached the absolute apex of Purgatory and beca the supre being known as the Chaos Emperor!

He couldn't fathom why anyone would abandon such a perfect path to power for the sake of sothing so illusory and ethereal.

"Power that cannot be controlled will only lead to the loss of self," Han Xiaoyue said coldly.

"Foolish!" the Monopolizer bellowed, cutting her off. "Since you are so stubbornly unrepentant, then... die!"

Suddenly, his figure burst apart like sea foam, transforming into countless red sparks. A split second later, he materialized directly at Han Xiaoyue's side, taking a vicious bite out of her right wing.

Riiip! A massive chunk of flesh and blood was torn from the giant black wing in that single bite.

The Monopolizer opened his mouth wide and sucked the flesh in with a sickening slurp. It shrank easily like jelly, disappearing into his maw.

"I gave you a chance, and you threw it away..."

In the very next instant, he appeared behind Han Xiaoyue and took another bite.

Riiip! Yet another large chunk of black wing flesh was bitten off, devoured, and gone.

There was simply no ti to adapt to this hyper-speed assault. Before her flesh could even mount a defense, it was severed from the main body and consud. Han Xiaoyue's body hadn't even registered the wound before the flesh was gone, leaving her Super-Adapter instincts no chance to build resistance.

It was too fast.

This was the ultimate thod for countering a Super-Adapter—just as Tuyue had obliterated one of their sisters with a single palm strike.

"We have to fall back, Captain. We can't keep holding the line much longer. Even a vanguard officer is on par with a top-tier Blood Ancestor. If two more Purgatory Lords arrive..." the rhino-headed Elephant-man transmitted telepathically.

"Yun Xia and the others have successfully evacuated. There's no point prolonging this, Captain," the giant Lizard-man added via voice transmission.

"Then retreat!" Han Xiaoyue gave a slight nod. Enduring the searing pain, she rapidly flickered backward.

But in the next mont, a large hand seized her right leg, and an imnse force drove her violently into the ground.

Boom!

The earth shattered and caved in, kicking up a rippling ring of dirt that surged outward like a tidal wave.

"You can't escape!" Aurora laughed uproariously, grabbing Han Xiaoyue's leg and wrenching her toward his open maw.

But in the next instant, her other foot snapped upward, striking his chin and causing his bite to veer off target. Wincing in pain, Aurora grabbed Han Xiaoyue's wings and tore at them viciously.

Blood sprayed as the giant wings were ripped apart on the spot, transforming into two streams of black liquid that swiftly funneled into his mouth.

Under the imnse agony, Han Xiaoyue rapidly retreated—but a scorpion tail whipped out from behind Aurora and pierced her waist. Her body was thrown through the air, crashing heavily into the ground.

Her two sisters were also stung by the scorpion tails, slumping weakly to the earth.

"Enjoying yourself? Just as you hyper-adapt to toxins, I can accelerate my own transmutation to match. Based on your resistances, I can rapidly generate custom-blended poisons tailored specifically against you." Aurora laughed loudly. "No matter how many tis we play this ga, against the might of the Holy Prison, there is only one outco for you: infection, and becoming our food!"

Han Xiaoyue's body adapted to the toxin, and she climbed back to her feet, coughing up a mouthful of black blood crawling with microscopic bugs.

This was the enemy's poison.

"Go. I'll hold him off."

Her body recovered and healed once more, but the constant loss of flesh and blood had caused her strength to plumt. If it continued, her odds of survival would dwindle to nothing.

Yet she didn't seem to care. Her eyes remained calm as she stared at Aurora, assuming an attacking stance as new black wings rapidly sprouted from her back.

"If I die, please tell the First Highness that the agreent cannot be fulfilled. I'm sorry." She paused for a mont before transmitting again. "Also, tell Lin Hui of the Clear Wind Dao that I'm sorry for breaking my promise."

The Lizard-man and the rhino-headed Elephant-man trembled slightly. Gritting their teeth, they scrambled up and beat a hasty retreat.

Sensing their departure, Han Xiaoyue gently closed her eyes.

"Though I always ant to seek death, dying here... I find I'm not entirely at peace with it."

Swish!

In the next instant, a suffocating swath of darkness completely subrged her.

"Holy Emperor... bless everything. Let all be well..."

All images and sounds rapidly faded from her mind, blurring as though she were intoxicated. Her consciousness sank completely into an endless, deathly calm without a single ripple.

"Rather than begging the Holy Emperor, you might as well beg ." A familiar voice suddenly jolted her consciousness awake.

"Since Han Xiaoyue is dead, then next—"

Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh!

In a split second, strands of slender, glowing blue hair cascaded from the darkness above. They wrapped completely around Han Xiaoyue and pulled her upward.

"Now, why don't you live for yourself?"

As she was pulled upward, Han Xiaoyue's eyes widened. She saw that at the absolute zenith of the darkness, countless strands of glowing blue hair converged overhead at a single point.

There stood Lin Hui, dressed entirely in white!

White robes, blue hair, and the Ruyi sword held lightly in his right hand.

"Long ti no see."

Lin Hui gently drew near. He brushed past her side.

Flash!

The surroundings abruptly flooded with light.

Han Xiaoyue suddenly realized she was still standing in her original position. All around her remained a sea of crimson—a chaotic mixture of flas and black smoke.

She turned around.

Behind her, Lin Hui had just tapped his index finger precisely on the center of the Monopolizer's forehead and was pulling it back.

Poof!

In the next instant, the Monopolizer's entire body seed to wither. Starting from the ground up, he rapidly shattered into countless transparent specks of dust, dissipating into the wind.

"When did you... get here?" Han Xiaoyue stared at him blankly. The terrifying monster that had tangled with her for days was like a toy in his hands—utterly pulverized with a light tap.

The sheer absurdity of the disparity made her think for a mont that she was already dead, and that everything before her eyes was rely a hallucination.

"I've been here a while," Lin Hui said, turning back. "I wanted to be certain before I acted."

"..."

In truth, before Han Xiaoyue had even encountered danger, Lin Hui had already taken action, using the dark starry sky produced by his Star Breath Sword Canon to shield her temporarily. He hadn't expected her to mistake it for death, but he seized the mont to dissolve the burden she had long been carrying in her heart.

The true purpose of the Super-Adapters was to combat the Corruption within the deep core and delay its spread across massive regions. Now that she had "died" once, it was ti for her to truly live for herself.

"Do you think... you've won?!" the Monopolizer's voice suddenly interrupted them. At this mont, half of his head remained intact. "I am only a lowly vanguard officer! I will wait for you at the Heart of Purgatory! The Purgatory Duke will avenge ... Just wait! Just you wait!!"

With a final shattering sound, the Monopolizer's remnants thoroughly dissipated into heaven and earth.

"No need to wait. He is already here."

Lin Hui smiled faintly. He raised his head, gazing toward a crimson shooting star hurtling toward them from the horizon at extre speed.