Decaying World

Chapter 99 099 Exploration 1
Under the gray sky.

On the brown plain, a figure was running wildly in a direction away from the town buildings.

The figure's body was slightly hunched, surrounded by a whirlwind, and his white robes fluttered as if he were flying close to the ground. In an instant, he covered more than thirty meters before touching the ground once and continuing on the next leap.

Lin Hui had been down the cliff for ten minutes.

This time, instead of following the planned driveway into the residential area, he chose another deserted direction and sped off at full speed.

Large swathes of buildings were quickly left behind, and the dense houses soon began to thin out until they disappeared completely.

All that remained was a barren, brown plain.

Occasionally, one can see some strangely shaped, sprawling, leafless vines emerging from the ground and spreading and growing wildly.

Lin Hui didn't know how far he had run until it was almost dark when he slowly slowed down and took out the mobile enclosed cloak he had prepared in advance.

He had never stayed in the inner city until night, so he brought all his equipment with him, intending to use it when he actually encountered darkness after entering.

After running wildly for another ten minutes or so, gusts of air gradually filled the surrounding air.

The turbulent air currents created strong natural winds, causing the leafless vines on the surrounding ground to sway continuously.

Lin Hui checked the direction and slowly slowed down.

The wind around us grew stronger, and the plain in front of us gradually turned into an upward slope.

Lin Hui glanced over.

Directly ahead in the distance, a long, black city wall completely blocked out all directions.

The surface of the black city wall is covered with hard scars and scratches, resembling a slender black caterpillar crawling on the ground on this plain.

As Lin Hui drew closer, he could gradually see clearly the black-armored guards patrolling back and forth on the black city wall.

They wore heavy black full-body armor and carried double-edged steel swords, or short guns and spears, pacing back and forth along the five- or six-meter-high black city wall.

At the foot of the city wall, several scantily clad young women were bending over, searching for something.

Lin Hui slowed down, reducing his speed to a normal walking pace, before slowly moving forward.

woo~~~
As they drew closer, a clear whistling sound began to emanate from the surrounding air. It was the strong wind that naturally blew here.

Lin Hui's robes also began to be pulled and shaken.

He narrowed his eyes, restrained his inner strength from controlling the airflow around him, and walked to the left along the black city wall.

The city wall blocked his way, and it was clearly guarded. He decided to take a detour to see if he could avoid the area before continuing on.

But soon, five minutes later.

Beneath the black city wall, Lin Hui looked at the few white-haired old men picking something up in front of him, and his expression was rather unpleasant.

The city wall was much longer than he had imagined.

He looked up and saw a group of black-armored guards carrying torches walking past on the city wall. He calmed himself down, then found two of the nearest scavengers, approached them, and intended to ask them what was going on.

The two scavengers we met recently were a gaunt old man with gray hair, wearing only a pair of gray boxer shorts, his emaciated body completely exposed, wearing tattered brown leather boots, and carrying a large snakeskin cloth bag on his back.

The other was a middle-aged woman in her forties. She looked haggard, with deep-set eyes and an unsettlingly bright blood red pupil.

The woman followed behind the old man, her expression blank, muttering unintelligible words.

"Hello, may I ask where this place is?" Lin Hui braved the strong wind, approached, and stopped five meters away from the two of them, asking loudly.

“*@&#*!” The old man heard the noise, looked up warily in his direction, stopped picking up things, and started uttering a strange, incoherent language.

"Hello, can you speak Tu Yue language?" Lin Hui was taken aback. In Tu Yue inner city, he actually encountered someone who didn't speak the official language?

The old man paused, then spoke again, uttering a few difficult phrases.

"Strangers, stay away from me! Keep your distance!"

"Okay, can you tell me where this place is?" Lin Hui repeated the question again, word by word.

"I'm warning you! Get out of the way! This kind of tactic will attract the guards!!"

The old man's voice gradually rose in pitch and became shrill.

He became agitated, gesturing wildly with his hands and gesturing excitedly.

Despite his slightly incorrect word order, Lin Hui still understood what the other person meant.

He noticed that as the old man's voice rose, the black-armored guards on the city wall not far away also stopped and looked in their direction.

The guards began to take down the powerful metal bows from their backs and aim them in this direction.

"Get away! Get away!!" The old man's shouts grew increasingly shrill.

"I meant no harm," Lin Hui tried to convey that he was kind and would not hurt the other person.

But the old man had already begun gesturing as if he was about to attack, making communication impossible. This forced him to retreat helplessly, creating distance between them.

“Stranger, scavengers can’t communicate. Don’t waste your energy.” At this moment, a clear male voice came from behind, the voice carrying a slight hissing sound, which sounded a bit strange. But regardless of the tone, this was at least the first truly standard Tu Yue language that Lin Hui had heard here.

He took a few steps back and looked back in the direction of the sound.

On the brown plain, a tall man with equally blood-red eyes, shirtless, carrying a scimitar and a round shield, was approaching.

The man had his hair tied in a high ponytail, a rough gold ring hanging from one ear, pierced lips and nose, wearing a smaller size gold ring, and an unidentified bluish-black tattoo on his forehead.

In addition, there was the outline of his strong, gray-black muscles, and the various scars scattered all over his upper body.

An unknown, exotic aura rushed towards us.

Well.
Lin Hui subconsciously held his breath.

The exotic smell was quite strong; as the other person drew closer, a pungent body odor, like rotten eggs mixed with onions, wafted on the wind.

"Hello, stranger, would you like a fat green bean?"

The unfamiliar martial artist stopped three meters away, gave a friendly smile, took out a shiny, translucent green bean from his pouch, and waved it around.

"It's delicious and refreshing."

"Who are you? Where is this place? Thanks, but we're not close enough to exchange food, so no thanks," Lin Hui said bluntly.

“I am a wandering martial artist. You can call me Anbo. This is the name I gave myself,” the red-eyed martial artist replied with a smile.

"Besides, this is the Purgatory Gate, a fortress in the outer ring, an important sealed place. Why would you come here? This is not a good place."

"The Gates of Purgatory?" Lin Hui's heart skipped a beat, and he instantly recalled the word "Purgatory" that had appeared on his blood seal before.

"The Sealed Land? What does that mean?"

"You didn't know?" The red-eyed warrior exclaimed in surprise. "Legend has it that this land was originally the location of the gate to Purgatory. Every moment, endless purgatory energy would emanate from this place and pollute the surrounding area. Later, the Fog People came here, sealed the gate to Purgatory, built the Sealed Fortress, and established the Fog-Free Zone. The vast inner city of the Fog-Free Zone was created in this way."

"The seal actually has a place like this?" Lin Hui couldn't hide his surprise.

“That’s normal. There are many of these unknown rift fortresses in the inner city, and you can see one in the outer ring every so often. There are dozens of them, big and small. It’s not just the Gate of Purgatory, but also the Gate of Extreme Cold, the Gate of Destruction, the Sin Domain Fortress, etc., all of which have been guarded and suppressed by a large number of black troops dispatched by the Mist People,” the red-eyed warrior explained. “Ordinary people don’t go near these places, because you might accidentally encounter those crazy scavengers. They’re not really scavenging, but they’re affected by the escaping polluted aura, constantly wandering around in a daze, instinctively trying to find and absorb the subtle polluted aura that’s escaping.”

“Anbo, right? Thank you for your explanation. You mean this is a fortress that seals some kind of dangerous gate?” Lin Hui repeated.

"Yes, where are you from? How come you don't even know basic common sense here?" Anbo asked in confusion.

"I'm from the outer city, this is my first time entering the inner city," Lin Hui replied truthfully.

"Outer city?! It must be at least several hundred kilometers away from here, right? How did you get here?" Anbo asked in surprise.

"I'm pretty fast, so I just ran and ran and I got here."

"Your speed is really impressive." Anbo popped a piece of green bean into his mouth and chewed it with satisfaction.

This thing seems like chewing gum; you can chew it repeatedly and it emits a refreshing, minty scent.

"Let's go. Don't linger in one place for too long, or you'll attract the attention of the Black Army. Are you a Summoner or a Warrior?" Anbo led the way in another direction.

"And you?" Lin Hui asked in return.

“I am a martial artist. Your classification here is based on the level of internal strength, but our race is not. We are born with the power to awaken a powerful physical body. This power is our talent and can resist all kinds of dangers and injuries,” Anbo replied.

"I'm just a newbie who just broke through to the Inner Strength Realm, I'm very weak," Lin Hui replied.

What does "newbie" mean?

"It's like a bird that you can catch and use to cook, a metaphor for something very weak or very new."

"That's quite a good analogy."

The two walked along the city wall, and soon, led by Amber, they came to see a series of simple, thatched wooden huts right next to the wall.

These wooden houses are arranged in a circle, and there are many people sitting on the ground in the open space inside, with vendors selling their wares.

"This is a temporary black market where good stuff from inside the fortress flows out, which is also the main reason why we've come all this way," Anbo explained.

"black market?"

“Yes, there are at least a thousand Black Army soldiers stationed in the fortress. These Black Army soldiers are all people, and they all have needs. There are always people who kill the strange creatures that have emerged and then secretly process the materials to sell for money. Although the law stipulates that the sale of polluting materials is not allowed in principle, the profits are too great,” Anbo said in a low voice.

"It seems like everywhere is pretty much the same." Lin Hui felt quite novel. He had thought about what the inner city would be like and what he might encounter, but he never expected that a place like a sealed fortress would appear.

The two walked over one after the other, and someone immediately came up to talk to Anbo in a low voice. It was clear that he was a regular here. After exchanging a few casual words, Anbo patted the man on the shoulder and led Lin Hui inside.

On the tattered cloths, some round and some square, lay all sorts of random materials.

These materials are mostly the carapaces, limbs, hair, and equipment of certain creatures.

"Huh?" Lin Hui suddenly stopped and saw a sky-blue short sword that looked like crystal on a stall.

The hilt of the short sword is designed with intertwined black vines, and the blade is clear and smooth, glowing with a faint fluorescence.

"Want it? Fifteen blood for one, the personal sword of a malevolent cavalryman. These are hard to find. Usually, when a malevolent cavalryman dies, all his belongings turn to ashes. This one can only be preserved using special methods." The stall owner was a short man wearing a heavy gray cloak, his voice hoarse.

(End of this chapter)