’Huh?’ A strange look flashed in the white-haired young master’s eyes. ’I clearly activated my Divine Decision, altering the perception of everyone around . It wasn’t at full strength, but no one should have been able to notice...’
"Perhaps it’s because of the distance?" the page guessed from behind. His voice was bizarrely ancient, like that of a man in his eighties or nineties.
"That’s not right, either." A hint of curiosity appeared on the white-haired young master’s face. "Even with the distance, the power of my Divine Decision shouldn’t be so easily noticed."
’Forget it. I’ll ignore these trivial matters for now. Dealing with these two enemies from the Good Heart Sect is more important. If I don’t make a move soon, those two brats will go back and complain that I’m deliberately dragging my feet and wasting their energy.’
Shaking his head helplessly, the white-haired young master retracted his gaze and continued forward, walking straight toward the center of the battle.
As he walked, he raised his right hand and made a casual swipe forward.
PFFT!
Not far away, Fox, who was fighting a white-robed man with a golden mask, suddenly felt her aura waver. Her movents slowed by a beat, and her opponent slamd a palm into her abdon.
She imdiately spat out a mouthful of blood and was sent flying backward.
’Her aptitude is good, and her Heart and Spirit is strong. It seems she’s even an Original Blood. If our circumstances were different, she would be worthy of being my disciple... A pity...’ The white-haired young master raised his hand again, aiming at Fox.
’Forget it, I’ll just kill her.’ The corner of his mouth curved up. ’The sooner I finish this, the sooner I can get back for so of Old Wu’s ward Clear Snow wine.’
WHOOSH...
Suddenly, a gentle breeze swept by.
The white-haired young master’s movents froze. His eyes narrowed, his previously casual and relaxed deanor instantly turning serious.
He felt soone behind him.
Fifteen ters away, their gaze was fixed on him—on the spot on his back directly over his heart.
That gaze... was as sharp as a sword. It actually caused a faint stinging sensation on his back.
"When?" the white-haired young master asked, his voice low and focused.
"The mont you were about to strike a second ti," Lin Hui’s voice ca from behind. "You weren’t paying attention to , which naturally gave an opening."
"Is that so?" The white-haired young master was noncommittal. "I don’t believe my Divine Decision’s coverage would have such a flaw."
"Anyone can make a mistake. You were only negligent for an instant. And I was only faster by that sa instant," Lin Hui said calmly.
"Interesting..." The white-haired young master slowly turned to face him. "I am Su Yaping, Vice Palace Master of the Rain Palace, under Palace Master Xingdiao. Where do you co from, friend? And why have you interfered?"
"Good Heart Sect. Four-Face," Lin Hui replied.
His hand was already resting on the Ruyi Sword Handle at his waist.
The aura his opponent gave off was highly unstable. One mont, it was like a black hole devouring everything around it; the next, he seed like an ordinary person. Then, he would feel like a High Priest, a weave of Void Power and Inner Strength. However, the aura of Void Power and Inner Strength emanating from this man was incomparably stronger than that of Fox or Huang Niu—at least a tenfold difference.
This strange, imnse disparity kept him from acting rashly.
’Vice Palace Master?’
’What was the true strength of soone at this level? He didn’t know. Even if he had fought a Vice Palace Master from Tuyue’s side, that didn’t an this one was at the sa level.’
’At this level, these old monsters had all lived for hundreds of years. A title was just a title; only they themselves knew their true realm and strength.’
’Only they knew how much they were hiding.’
anwhile, the white-haired Su Yaping also fell silent, staring at the strange, four-masked man before him.
’The feeling this man gave him was odd. His aura flickered in and out of existence, as if viewed through a thick sheet of frosted glass, making it impossible to pinpoint his exact location.’
’Even that intermittent aura was being stirred and obscured by the strange winds blowing around them.’
’Although he couldn’t sense any Void Power from this person, his unerring combat intuition was screaming at him, warning him not to engage this man rashly.’
’Yes, he shouldn’t even make contact if he could help it!’
’Su Yaping didn’t know why his intuition was reacting this way. Even when facing his own teacher, Palace Master Xingdiao, he had never had such a strange feeling.’
Beyond that, he also sensed a faint, vast, and oppressive feeling from the other man, similar to the feeling of facing a natural disaster.
It was very faint, but after checking again and again, he was sure it was not an illusion.
For a mont, both n were wary of each other. They stood motionless, a silence falling between them.
Lin Hui’s goal was simply to ensure this person no longer interfered in the battle.
Su Yaping’s goal, on the other hand, was to capture the Good Heart Sect High Priests, but this objective wasn’t crucial. As long as his two disciples on the battlefield were safe, he didn’t really care about capturing anyone.
Zhu Chengqiu had been a pawn he deliberately threw out for outsiders to deal with. Now that this objective was accomplished, nothing else mattered.
Unbeknownst to them, several minutes passed.
Huang Niu and Fox fought their way further and further away, finally managing to escape the pursuit of the two High Priests and retreat toward the periter.
Lin Hui gave Su Yaping one last look before vanishing without a sound, following after them.
’Interesting... A Dao Protector? For that little lass just now? No, that’s not right. Her Original Blood concentration isn’t that high. It’s been a long ti since I’ve encountered sothing so fun.’ A smile appeared on Su Yaping’s face.
"Young Master, they’ve all run away," the page reminded him helplessly from behind.
"It doesn’t matter. The objective has been achieved." Su Yaping looked toward his two High Priest disciples, who were running toward him.
The two of them had clearly hesitated in their attacks just now. It seed they had noticed sothing was amiss with their master.
With hesitation in their hearts, their attacks also faltered, which gave Huang Niu and Fox the chance to escape.
"Teacher... I apologize... we let them escape," one of them said, stepping forward and bowing his head with a cupped fist.
"It’s fine. Let’s withdraw. We’ll have another chance soon enough," Su Yaping said, not caring in the slightest.
He cast a final glance in the direction where Lin Hui had disappeared.
For so reason, he had a feeling that the man would stand before him again in the near future.
They would et again.
Perhaps during one of his future trips abroad...
*
*
*
「On the Moth Car.」
Huang Niu supported Fox, gently laying her flat on the wooden floor.
He then quickly took out a small, exquisite jade box from his waist pouch, opened it, and took out a green, jade-like pill, which he placed into Fox’s small mouth beneath her mask.
"Stabilize your Void Power, don’t damage the Moth Car!" he reminded her in a low voice.
"Four-Face, you’re in charge of keeping watch. I’m counting on you." He then turned to Lin Hui.
"Alright," Lin Hui nodded.
Although he didn’t think the Moth Car needed a lookout once it was in the air, he still had to play the part.
"Is Fox okay?" he asked, seeing her continuously vomiting large mouthfuls of blood and coughing violently, as if she were about to cough up a lung.
"She’s fine, don’t worry. It’s just that she’s an Original Blood, so her recovery might be a bit slower," Huang Niu sighed.
"A Tuyue Original Blood?" Lin Hui was taken aback.
"Yes. They mastered the Evil Energy that can steal lifespans, but they also bear a corresponding price. One of those prices is that their recovery ability is worse than an ordinary person’s, requiring external aid," Huang Niu explained.
"Evil Energy... what kind of power is it, exactly?" Lin Hui’s heart tensed. Hearing about this bizarre ability again made his skin crawl.
"It’s a derivative ability of the Wheel of Longevity," Fox said, opening her eyes and easing her coughing.
"But this ability can’t be activated at will. You need to bring the target back to the Moon Tower and use a ritual formation with the Wheel of Longevity. The process of stealing life isn’t instantaneous, either... COUGH, COUGH... it requires... a rather long period of erosion."
"I see..." Lin Hui instantly made the connection to those people at the base of the Moon Tower who weren’t old but had incredibly aged faces.
"Speaking of which, I don’t know why, but those two guys suddenly slowed down back there. Otherwise, it would have been much more trouble for us to escape," Huang Niu sighed. "I was about to use a Secret Technique and go all out."
"If you had really gone all out, your losses would have been huge..." Fox wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth and smiled.
The smile pulled at her abdominal wound, and the pain instantly twisted her expression into a grimace that was half-laugh, half-cry.
"We were lucky this ti. If it had dragged on any longer, I’m afraid experts from the Inner City would have arrived as reinforcents, and we really wouldn’t have been able to leave," Huang Niu sighed.
"Yeah, it seems my daily prayers to the Fog Spirit are paying off," Fox agreed, wincing in pain.
Lin Hui was speechless at the side.
’In reality, the reinforcents from the Inner City had been watching from the sidelines the whole ti. If he hadn’t stepped in to stop that person...’
’These two would have been nothing but scattered ashes by now.’
But to avoid exposing his true strength, he decided to say nothing.
However, as an Original Blood, Fox seed to have vaguely seen Lin Hui standing much closer, not at the farther location they had initially agreed upon.
She opened her mouth to ask, but seeing Lin Hui’s focus directed forward, and with waves of sharp pain washing over her, she gave up the idea.
Before long, she fell into a deep sleep again.
Huang Niu also sat down cross-legged, took so dicine, and began to recover.
Only Lin Hui remained standing, watching as the Moth Car broke through layers of fog, flying back toward Tuyue.
After half a day, they successfully reached Yunbian Town just before dusk.
Lin Hui parted ways with the two of them. Before he left, he couldn’t shake the feeling that Fox was looking at him strangely.
It seed she had sensed sothing.
But he didn’t dwell on it. After all, he hadn’t made a move during this entire outing, rely releasing his aura at the end to block that Su Yaping.
If soone were to investigate, they probably wouldn’t find anything.
With the mission successfully completed, his evaluation from the Good Heart Sect was officially changed to that of a formal Cultist.
Dragon Maiden soon brought him the long-awaited trade channel for Treasure dicine.
「October 27th.」
「Gale Plain, 9:00 AM.」
Dragon Maiden handed Lin Hui a slip of paper with a detailed address written in code.
"Write down the resources you want on a piece of paper using the code, then go to this address and drop the paper into the hole in the ground. That’s it."
"You should have a result within a month. Go back then, and there will be a reply on a slip of paper inside the hole."
"It’s that secretive?" Lin Hui took the paper.
"The Moon Tower’s control is very strict. If we aren’t discreet, there will be trouble. You haven’t truly been inside the Moon Tower, have you? That place is no place for a person to be. Once you go in, you’ll never want to co out," Dragon Maiden said helplessly. "What we’re doing is quietly siphoning off a little from the Moon Tower’s resource channels for our own use. These resources are the foundation that sustains the incredibly luxurious lifestyle within the Moon Tower. So, you understand."
"What is it really like inside the Moon Tower?" Lin Hui asked, slightly curious.
"Everyone living in the Moon Tower experiences two different periods each day: Work Ti and Blissful Ti," Dragon Maiden said. "Work Ti is easy to understand; it’s when everyone is busy with their respective tasks. Blissful Ti, however, is provided by a vast formation that envelops the entire Moon Tower. It’s an extrely ancient formation of unknown origin, and its sole purpose is to provide people with ultimate pleasure. You just have to find a place to lie down, and you can enter a dreamscape that only you can control. That dreamscape is incredibly real. Inside, you can do whatever you want, and the pleasure you experience is many, many tis stronger than in reality..."
"...No wonder you rarely see people from the Moon Tower outside... The only ones who leave are on missions or work-related tasks." Lin Hui was speechless.
"As long as you understand. That place... once you’ve been there, you’ll never forget it. You’ll keep reliving it... it’s almost impossible to let go." A trace of helplessness flashed in Dragon Maiden’s voice. "Because you can no longer tell which is more real: reality or the dreamscape..."
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