Decaying World Chapter 273

A crimson teor streaked across the sky, tearing through the dense Mist and trailing rolling surges of red ripples in its wake.

Space shuddered and split open behind it.

Even from over ten kiloters away, the ground had already begun to tremble. Dust drifted upward, and small stones skipped across the earth.

A tangible, oppressive weight silently smothered every living thing within a radius of several kiloters.

It was not mind-spirit pressure, but true, physical force.

"A major figure from Purgatory has arrived!"

The other two Super-Adapters, having already fled quite a distance, abruptly turned back. Both of them faltered involuntarily, their thoughts on the team leader they had left behind.

"Isn't it just death? If the team leader can risk it all, why can't I!?"

The Lizard-man wheeled around. The spikes on her back trembled violently, betraying her body's instinctive fear.

"How many tis... how many tis has the team leader saved !?" Her hands shook. "This ti... the worst that can happen is giving my life back to her!"

She lurched forward and charged back toward Han Xiaoyue.

She left the other one standing frozen in place.

"Idiot...!" The remaining adapter's body was also trembling. "I sure as hell won't be as stupid as you and throw my life away!"

Bang! She bolted, fleeing into the distance.

Yet in the very next second, she reversed course at an even greater speed, rushing straight back toward Han Xiaoyue.

"I just rembered—you two still owe fifty Feather Blood!" She wiped away her tears as she ran faster and faster. "Until you pay back, neither of you is allowed to die!"

…

"Is that... Father?"

At that mont, Lanxi—currently lurking within the group alongside Yun Xiazi, Huang Shan, and the others—abruptly raised her head and looked toward the horizon.

That massive, terrifying pressure—like an oncoming force of nature—was palpable even from tens of kiloters away.

It was the unmistakable, overwhelming aura of her father—the Purgatory Duke.

Soone significant has arrived. A flicker of interest crossed Lanxi's mind.

She glanced at the fleeing group ahead of her and hesitated for a mont. Ultimately, she stayed her hand, deciding to spare them for now and co back to play later.

She turned and abruptly transford into a red thread, streaking toward her father's position.

She wanted to see exactly who could compel her father to act in person. In all her life, she had never once encountered anyone capable of contending with him. Even the Extre Cold Queen could only manage a mont or two by drawing on the source power of extre cold.

In her mind, aside from the elusive and ethereal Chaos Emperor, her father was the strongest being in existence.

Only after she vanished did Yun Xiazi exhale quietly in relief. At the head of the group, she had felt the crushing weight of that red teor as well.

She looked back, gritted her teeth, and fixed her gaze on it.

"Quickly! Speed up! This is our best chance to evacuate!"

She sent her voice out in a loud transmission.

The group obeyed—heads down, pace pushed to the limit.

But in the next mont, the teor released an even more massive ring of red ripples. They expanded at a speed approaching the speed of light, blanketing a radius of thousands of kiloters in the blink of an eye.

Beneath a low, rolling rumble, the earth began to smoke and heat.

Withered trees ignited, bursting into flas. Rocks scorched yellow, then blackened. Streams of water and fresh blood rapidly evaporated and dried.

The corpses began to burn—and then, shockingly, they lurched upright, one by one.

Those who had fallen on this land during the recent battles numbered well over tens of thousands.

Now, these densely packed corpses rebuilt themselves and rose from the roaring flas, clawing free of the soil and closing in from every direction, surrounding Yun Xiazi and the others just as they were about to resu their escape.

A light drizzle continued to fall from the sky, yet it failed to extinguish the earth's flas in the slightest.

"What is this!?" Huang Shan slamd to a halt, staring grimly at the army of flaming corpses blocking their path.

In the blink of an eye, the previously empty path ahead was filled with a dense crowd of at least several thousand burning dead.

So of those corpses even radiated a mind-spirit oppression stronger than her own.

"This is the domain ability of a Purgatory Duke—recorded in the old legends!" Palace Master Jiang Zhixia transmitted his voice. As the Rain Palace's liaison to Yun Xiazi and the others, he rapidly relayed the intelligence compiled by the Palace's upper echelons.

"Within Purgatory's hierarchy, nobles can consu lower-ranking entities and re-summon them, transforming them into servants to fight on their behalf. The higher their title, the stronger and more nurous the resulting Purgatory servants. Moreover, they are undying and indestructible. The only way to break this is to defeat the Purgatory Duke himself!"

"Are you kidding !?" Yun Xiazi gritted her teeth. Defeat a duke? The last ti they had joined forces in a full siege, it had taken a full day of fighting just to corner and kill a baron barely on par with a vanguard officer. And that had only been possible because her strength had greatly increased after returning from the Clear Wind Dao.

Even so, that slaughter had forced three of the besieging Blood Ancestors to detonate themselves repeatedly. Their bodily tissues were corrupted by Purgatory, and the losses were catastrophic.

And now they were supposed to defeat a Purgatory Duke?

Above Baron: Viscount. Earl. Marquis. And then Duke.

What were they supposed to fight with? Their bare hands?

She looked around. Burning corpses continued to claw free of the soil from every direction.

Yun Xiazi's mind-spirit sank.

She was not alone—despair spread visibly through the group.

"If I had known, I would have left with the last batch for Black Cloud..." soone muttered.

"If there were no corpses nearby when we die... would we at least be spared from becoming those things?"

"What is there to be afraid of? Even if I die, I'll take a few down with !"

So had surrendered to despair; others resolved to fight to the last. But most fixed their eyes on Yun Xiazi, the strongest among them.

The air heated with alarming speed, climbing from nearly forty degrees to fifty.

Those in the group with weaker constitutions were already sweating profusely, showing signs of dehydration. Only when they realized what was happening and quickly produced a cooling Relic from Yun Xiazi did the temperature within their hundred-ter periter stabilize—barely.

"It seems there's no escape." Huang Shan drew her longsword, moving to shield her parents.

"Senior Sister Yun Xiazi, you're the strongest and fastest among us. There's no reason for you to stay and be dragged down with us. Go—while you still can."

"That kind of talk gets us nowhere. So things you don't know until you try..." Yun Xiazi likewise drew her famous weapon—the Mingde Sword.

Hiss! Instantly, vast swaths of burning corpses charged forward, closing in from all sides.

The crackling of flas, the hollow thuds of bare bone against the ground, the whistling of brandished weapons tearing through the air—it all blurred together into a sickening, chaotic din.

A hundred ters!

Ten ters!

One ter!

Crack! Yun Xiazi surged forward first, dropping into the opening stance of the Wild Wind Sword Technique, power already gathering at the brink—

Suddenly, a flash of lightning streaked across the sky overhead.

Thunder rolled as dark clouds converged rapidly, transforming into a massive black vortex that shrouded the world.

Then, from sowhere in the far distance, a familiar voice reached her.

"Wind."

Her eyes went wide.

The massive horde of burning corpses had been seized by an invisible force. Their movents slowed a hundredfold; so could not even twitch—locked rigid as stone.

"This is—!?"

At that very mont, Yun Xiazi, everyone from the Clear Wind Dao, Hong Ling and his sister, and the refugees from Tuyue all turned toward the source of the sound.

High in the distant sky, a colossal gray tornado connected heaven and earth, howling and spinning at trendous speed.

At its center, barely visible, hovered a lone human figure—eyes blazing with brilliant blue light.

Dao Master!?

The thought struck everyone at the sa mont.

Dark clouds churned across the sky, fierce winds howled, and the ambient light abruptly dimd.

…

In midair, Lin Hui and the red teor faced each other.

One was wreathed in countless streams of churning gray airflow; the other's entire body burned with scorching crimson fla.

"I only ca here to bring my people back. I have no quarrel with Your Excellency," Lin Hui said, holding his opponent's gaze and opting to try words first.

"You killed scores of my subordinates, destroyed my vanguard officer, and now you tell you have no quarrel?" Within the red teor, a towering humanoid figure clad in black, hollow-plated armor—wreathed in streams of crimson fla—could not contain a sharp retort upon hearing this.

"Why does Your Excellency take it so seriously? I rely crushed a few insignificant ants. Is that worth getting angry over?" Lin Hui smiled.

"Ants!? Fine, then how about I stomp the people on your side to death? They're all ants anyway!" The Purgatory Duke laughed in sheer fury, his five-ter-tall fra leaning slightly forward to glare at Lin Hui.

"That's different," Lin Hui said, still smiling.

"How is it different!?"

"Because even if they are ants, they belong to ." Lin Hui raised his sword, lightly brushing a hand along the blade. "They are mine, and you may not touch them. When I say you may—that is rely courtesy."

"Good! Arrogant enough!" The Purgatory Duke burst into a roar of laughter. "Worthy of being the first person to unlock source power!"

He clapped his massive hands together, scattering a wide spray of sparks.

"How about a wager? We fight—one on one. If I win, you follow from this day forward. If you win, I withdraw and wait for the next opportunity!"

"Whether you withdraw or not is no concern of mine," Lin Hui said. "If I win, I want you to..." He did not speak the rest aloud, transmitting the words directly instead.

The Purgatory Duke stilled for a mont, then laughed loudly once more.

"Excellent! I'm starting to like you, boy. With a temper like yours, you rightfully belong in my Holy Prison!"

"Then who goes first?" Lin Hui angled his longsword to the right, pointing downward. "Never mind. Since Your Excellency has traveled from afar, it is only proper for , as the host, to entertain you first."

The instant the last word left his lips, Lin Hui raised his longsword high.

Crack— a bolt of lightning crashed down and rged into the blade.

Fierce winds surged and spun around the Ruyi sword, stretching and expanding the blade in an instant. It thrust upward, transforming into a colossal qi sword that pierced straight into the clouds.

Then the qi sword slashed downward.

For all its terrible size and magnificence, it left no trace as it fell—

As if teleporting, the entire giant qi sword vanished from the Purgatory Duke's line of sight.

In the next instant—barely a mont after he raised his hand—a sudden, sharp pain erupted in his shoulder.

Slash! A massive rift tore open from his left shoulder all the way down to his right waist.