Decaying World

Chapter 41 041 Strength One
Three choices.

Lin Hui rarely hesitated like this, but at this moment, he truly paused, his eyes fixed on the words that appeared in the bloodstain.

Let's check how long it will take first.

He clicked on the detailed information of each of the three evolutionary branches.

'1——The Perfect Version of Qingfeng Swordplay'

Required resources: a steel sword and a year's worth of energy reserves.

Time required: One year.

'2 - Breath of Purgatory version of Qingfeng Sword Technique.

Required resources: a steel sword and five years of preparation.

Time required: Five years.

'3——The Extreme Cold Version of the Qingfeng Sword Technique.'

Required resources: a steel sword and five years of preparation.

Time required: Five years.

"As expected." Lin Hui sighed inwardly. Looking at it this way, he basically had no choice but to choose the first option.

The rest of the timeframes are too long. Five years is too long. Aside from the perfect version, the other two routes are too inefficient.

Without hesitation, he immediately began to analyze the moves, starting with the first move, the Qingfeng Sword Technique, and began to evolve.

Since the final version is the perfect version of the Qingfeng Sword Technique, it's more worthwhile to evolve it separately.

'Wind Direction Unseen: Gentle Breeze's first move, with one evolutionary branch.'

'1——Boundless wind direction: The wind direction is formless, a perfect form.'

Required resources: one steel sword, five days' worth of stamina.

Time required: Five days.

Following the newly appeared prompts from the bloodstain, Lin Hui felt much more at ease.

Compared to when he first strengthened his Seven-Section Quick Sword Technique, he can now master the Gentle Breeze Sword Technique in just five days, which is a huge improvement.

This is likely due to an increase in the total daily energy expenditure, coupled with a decrease in the difficulty of comprehending and learning the Qingfeng Sword Technique, which is why it only takes five days.

Moreover, in such a short time, one can flexibly pause the Blood Seal midway and temporarily evolve other things, which is much more convenient than evolving the entire Qingfeng Sword Technique.

Without hesitation, he immediately decided to begin the evolution.

The blood-stained writing slowly blurred, then transformed into an invisible countdown message for the first wind direction.

Once he was sure, Lin Hui stopped looking and closed his eyes to rest.

He had barely closed his eyes when he heard his master practicing swordsmanship in the outer hall.

"Dad, aren't you going to sleep? Practicing so late at night?!"

Senior Sister Weiwei's voice drifted in from outside, tinged with helplessness and a hint of anger.

"Almost there, very soon, almost done!" Mingde Daoist's somewhat excited voice could be faintly heard.

Lin Hui was speechless.

He hadn't expected that his perfect swordsmanship would have such a profound impact on his teacher, something that the previous seven-section fast sword technique hadn't done.

He closed his eyes, pondering the reason, and gradually drifted off to sleep.

I slept until dawn.

The next morning, the fog had just lifted.

Lin Hui got up and quickly ate breakfast: a meat and vegetable pancake made by Senior Sister Weiwei. Then, carrying his water bag and other preparations, he left his teacher's house and went to the back field of Qingfeng Temple for morning practice.

Xiao Hu and Xiao Pang also arrived at the backstage area at the same time and were already waiting there. When they saw Lin Hui coming over, they quickly bowed.

"Good morning, Senior Brother!"

"Morning, Uncle Lin!"

"Good morning, you too. Today we'll continue practicing the seven-section fast sword technique from before." Lin Hui patiently began to instruct the two on the basic training method again. After correcting their mistakes slightly, he began to temper his body ten times on his own. Then he sheathed his sword and left the backstage area before Weiwei and the other students arrived.

Today was the day he had already arranged to go to the foggy area for his spiritual practice.

Carrying his sword and packing all the prepared items into a cloth backpack, Lin Hui strode towards the path behind the Taoist temple.

He walked straight along the path through the grove of trees and soon arrived at the spot where he had been before and left his "I was here" inscription.

Ahead lies one of the entrances into the fog zone.

Just as Lin Hui was about to enter, he suddenly saw two figures, one tall and one short, standing in front of the mist in the woods not far to his right, whispering to each other.

The two individuals, one older and one younger, appeared to be a teacher leading his disciple on a training expedition into the foggy region.

This combination is actually quite common in fog areas, and since this is one of the relatively safe entrances to the fog area in the surrounding area, many people come here to enter.

Lin Hui had encountered similar groups before when he came to pick up things, so he wasn't surprised to see them again.

Both women were older than the older one, who was hunched over with a face full of wrinkles and held a black iron cane in her hand, exuding an imposing aura.

The younger man had a cold and stern face, delicate features, and held a short knife in each hand. He wore brown leather armor, his legs encased in tight black leather pants, and a silver-gray diamond-patterned skirt armor protecting his lower abdomen. His equipment was quite complete, much more formal than Lin Hui's light and agile attire. Lin Hui saw the two, and they naturally noticed him as well, their eyes flickering as they looked in their direction.

Their eyes met briefly, then retreated immediately, neither showing any intention of exchanging words.

"Teacher, that person entered the fog zone without even preparing armor. Such confidence must mean he is quite powerful."

“They might just be poor,” the old man said abruptly. “There are actually quite a few ordinary martial artists like this who come to the fog-shrouded areas to make their fortune. Especially recently, after our Xingdao martial artists came to seize the market.”

"Alright, I've told you everything. This time, be careful of the monsters I warned you about. Remember, your goal is to collect as many monster hunting materials as possible. These materials are the most important credentials for your assessment after returning to the family. They are related to your ranking in the family inheritance." The old man instructed.

"Yes." The woman nodded solemnly.

brush.

Not far away, Lin Hui's figure disappeared into the mist. When the two women looked in that direction again, he was nowhere to be seen.

Before long, the two of them also entered the fog zone from their location and disappeared.

*
*
*
hiss!
Within the gray mist, a gigantic eyeball with large gray tentacles serving as legs charged wildly toward Lin Hui.

The enormous eyeballs were dark red all over, with a thick membrane on the surface covered with a large amount of dark yellow secretions, much of which were dripping wetly, like mucus.

Its entire eyeball is the size of a human head, and with the tentacles growing from below, it is nearly two meters tall. It runs silently and at a relatively fast speed.

puff!
As they got closer, a slit suddenly split open below the eyeball, from which shot out a dark, highly toxic sap.

The viscous liquid shot out like arrows, flying towards Lin Hui.

Before even touching it, you can see the black slime emitting wisps of white smoke, and it smells incredibly fishy and foul.

'The centipede's eyeball primarily attacks by spraying highly toxic slime. Upon death, it self-destructs, covering an area with a radius of three meters. The explosion spews out a highly toxic, corrosive liquid that is extremely dangerous to come into contact with.'

Lin Hui naturally recalled the teachings of his former teacher, Mingde.

This monster may appear fragile, but it is actually the most dangerous of the four types of monsters around it.

"Fortunately, although the danger is high, the black lens inside the core of the centipede's eyeball is very valuable. It is an important auxiliary ingredient in many tonics, and one piece is worth one thousand to one thousand four hundred coins."

In Tu Yue, there are also martial artists who are truly broke and come here to hunt monsters to supplement their income. If they are efficient enough, after accounting for Ning Xiang's expenses, they can still earn a considerable amount by killing monsters like crazy all day.

Even below the Inner Force Realm, the danger is still very high, because apart from the protection of Inner Force, other protective equipment is not very effective against monsters in the fog area.

Especially highly toxic monsters like the Thousand-Legged Eyeball.

Lin Hui watched the venom flying towards him from the eyeball, then gently sidestepped, perfectly dodging it.

The venom splattered onto the ground behind him, instantly corroding the gray-black mud into a deep pit the size of a washbasin, and emitting a large amount of pungent poisonous smoke.

'Theoretically, given the speed and defense of the Thousand-Legged Eyeball, I used to need at least several dozen breaths circling around to find an opening before I could kill it with a single blow. But now…'

Lin Hui raised his hand, and the Qinghe Sword silently unsheathed, flashing with silver light.

laugh!
His figure left a series of afterimages, instantly piercing through the thousand-foot eyeball and appearing behind him.

Then, with a soft "poof," the thousand-legged eyeball froze in mid-air, suddenly swelled up, and was about to explode.

But the swelling didn't last, and like a deflated balloon, all the venom inside spilled out onto the ground.

A black crystal the size of an adult's fist rolled out from it.

Lin Hui flicked the tip of his sword, parted the crystal, rolled it to one side from the venom, and then put it into a pre-prepared leather bag.

Carrying the bag, he continued walking deeper into the fog.

"The power and speed of the Nine-Section Quick Sword are so much stronger in the perfect version than in the ordinary version." Lin Hui had used the Nine-Section Quick Sword to fight before, but at that time the Blood Seal had not yet been fully evolved, so it was impossible to achieve such a decisive effect.

Now, all it takes is one sword strike.

His movements and sword speed were so fast that the monster couldn't react at all.

Now that he had easily killed a centipede with an eyeball, his confidence soared, and he quickened his pace, rapidly searching for the monsters roaming around him.

This area is full of cymbidium eyeballs, and in no time, the leather bag in Lin Hui's hand was filled with nearly thirty black lenses.

This means that a full thirty centipede eyeballs died by his sword. As expected of a superior sword given to him by his teacher, the Qinghe Sword, despite being constantly covered in highly poisonous slime, has not shown any signs of corrosion. With just a gentle shake, it can shake off the slime.

Dragging a leather bag weighing over 20 kilograms, Lin Hui first stored it in his teacher's temporary wooden hut, then emptied the bag and continued hunting in the surrounding area.

However, after encountering monsters that were still the same thousand-legged eyeballs, he had to expand his hunting range.

His purpose in coming here was not to hunt for money, but to test his own limits.

Soon, after continuously expanding the hunting area, an hour later, after repeatedly returning the spoils to the cabin, Lin Hui expanded the hunting area again. When he approached the high-risk Yanshan area, he finally encountered a monster different from the previous ones—a strong mutated Mist Barbarian.

In the gray fog.

Beside a dried-up stream, Lin Hui gripped his sword and stared at the tall figure slowly approaching from directly in front of him, his expression becoming solemn.

It was a strong, humanoid monster that was two and a half meters tall.

Its skin was grayish-black, covered with thick, scale-like black keratin. It had four arms on its upper body, each holding a rough, spiked wooden club.

'A species I've never encountered before, a four-armed Mist Barbarian. Classified by level: harmless, invasive, dangerous, and high-risk. I don't know its level, but perhaps it can provide some good materials.'

Lin Hui carefully observed the other party's movements.

(End of this chapter)