Chapter 233 |
After identifying his three targets, Lin Hui kept to his usual routine. He attended classes on time, helped Teacher Song Xinyan supervise martial arts training, and occasionally disciplined students who broke the rules.
The Body Tempering phase of his Typhoon Sword Technique remained incomplete. He had also begun attempting to cultivate the Star Breath Sword Canon, but its difficulty proved far more daunting.
Even though he had absorbed all the foundational knowledge and cultivation experience necessary to create the technique, practice revealed just how thoroughly idealistic the martial art's design was.
Only after feeling the planet's breathing and entering that state can one truly begin cultivating this method... On the drill grounds, Lin Hui stood watch over several students running punishment drills, turning his bottleneck over in his mind.
The Star Breath Sword Canon demanded entry into that wondrous state before cultivation could even begin.
During the memory infusion, Lin Hui had slipped into the state with ease. Achieving it independently, however, proved exceptionally difficult. He had tried for a month without a single success.
Is the planet's breathing the pulse of the earth? The flow of the air? Or the rise and fall of the atmosphere? Lin Hui sifted through the infused memories again and again.
The question had nagged at him for a long time, yet he remained utterly at a loss.
"The weather's been getting colder lately," one of the punished students muttered between reps. "When I went back yesterday, the roads were frosted over. Even fetching water at night is a hassle."
"The Skywatch Tower gets it wrong sometimes. Wouldn't be the first time."
Skywatch Tower?
Lin Hui's attention stirred.
Compared to Tuyue, Black Cloud City held far too many novelties.
The Skywatch Tower was one of them—an institution unique to Black Cloud, dedicated solely to weather forecasting. For a massive city built around maritime trade, accurate prediction was undoubtedly crucial, and the Skywatch Tower had risen to answer that need.
The words weather phenomena and seasons inexplicably resonated with the bottleneck Lin Hui had long agonized over. The wondrous state from the Blood Seal's memory infusion suddenly connected with the changing of the seasons, flashing through his mind like lightning.
Seasons?
An epiphany struck. His vision blurred, and his whole self sank noiselessly into the state he had known only through memory.
In that state, Lin Hui's presence dwindled to almost nothing.
He was standing right there on the drill grounds, beside the three students still chatting through their punishment—yet the trio gradually ceased to notice him, as though he had simply ceased to exist.
"Hey... have you heard about the White Bamboo Letter Carving Art that's been spreading lately?"
"Is that the one where you find a white bamboo tube, carve words on it, and your wish comes true?"
"I tried it. Useless—a complete fake."
"My cousin tried it not long ago, and it actually worked. She botched a small task and got an earful from the workshop supervisor. But the very next day, that same supervisor came and apologized to her—incredibly sincere. He even invited her out to the Source of the Sea..."
"Ah? The Source of the Sea!? Isn't that the place full of beautiful men? All types of handsome guys!?"
"You know about it, too? I heard that a single night there costs tens of thousands. Outrageously expensive!"
The fifteen- and sixteen-year-olds swapped adult gossip that was clearly well above their years.
Lin Hui slowly surfaced from the strange state, feeling his mind-spirit swell significantly once more. Catching the tail end of the trio's chatter, he coughed twice, feeling rather helpless.
The three instantly fell silent, abruptly remembering they were still being supervised.
Lin Hui smiled with satisfaction and glanced at the large clock on the tower nearby.
"That's about time. You're dismissed. Next time, don't break Teacher Song's rules in class."
"Yes, sir." The three snapped to a respectful stance, bowed, then scattered with laughter.
Watching their easy, youthful energy, Lin Hui felt oddly lightened—as if some of it had rubbed off on him.
He turned to head back to the office. He had barely taken a few steps when hurried footsteps sounded behind him.
"Teacher Lin."
A young woman's voice called out to stop him.
Lin Hui paused by the flowerbed near the martial academy's main building and looked back.
Under the pale morning light, a girl with her hair in a ponytail stood watching him with eager anticipation. She wore a light gray, slim-fitting academy skirt, and one of her eyes was an unsettling, opaque white.
"Fan Lingxi? Is something the matter?" Lin Hui studied her calmly.
"Teacher Lin..." Fan Lingxi's features weren't ugly, but compared to the people of the Inner City, they were exceedingly plain. Her complexion was sallow, and one arm hung slightly longer than the other—the result, it seemed, of old breaks that had never healed correctly. "What you mentioned before... about testing a new martial arts cultivation method. Is it true?"
Lin Hui's eyes narrowed.
The self-testing method he had deliberately leaked to fish for candidates was tailored specifically to his three targets. In the entire academy, perhaps only those three met the requirements.
The Fifth Martial Academy housed far more than three scions of the wealthy and powerful, but these three suited Lin Hui's purposes best.
"It is true," Lin Hui answered.
He had considered disguising himself to approach them in secret, but had ultimately abandoned the idea. Stealth was inferior to an open, natural approach—let his reputation spread of its own accord, leak the secret art quietly, and let anyone self-test. Let the three come to him of their own initiative.
He would neither initiate nor refuse. He would let nature take its course.
And now, the first to take the bait was Fan Lingxi—the one among the three whose hunger for power had never needed kindling.
"Teacher Lin, I self-tested according to the method you provided, and it seems... I actually meet the highest standard you mentioned!" Fan Lingxi looked at him with barely restrained hope.
She was, after all, a naive girl of sixteen. Against an old operator like Lin Hui—who had lived through the Information Age—she had no experience with this kind of long game.
"The highest standard? Do you even know what you're saying?" Lin Hui chuckled in disbelief.
"It's true! Teacher, I can tell you're different from the others. You must be hiding tremendous strength. To stay in the martial academy as a mere teacher despite that—you must have your own purpose. Could it be that your true goal is to find suitable testers for a new martial art?" Fan Lingxi pressed.
Lin Hui's expression remained unchanged as he studied her for a long moment. Then he gave three slow, deliberate claps.
"Alright, I won't waste your time. I have matters at the indoor martial arts hall this afternoon. I'm just an ordinary martial academy teacher—nowhere near as complicated as you imagine. As for the new martial art, the standards I've set are exceptionally high. For you to claim you meet them all..." He gave a short, skeptical sound. "Heh."
He said no more, only shaking his head and turning to leave.
"Teacher Lin! Just watch!" Fan Lingxi's voice rang out.
She drew the longsword from her back in one fierce motion and launched into a strange set of sword forms. The moves bore traces of the Clear Wind Sword Technique but also echoed the Nine-Section Swift Sword, with elements of palm technique folded in. The transitions between certain variations were extraordinarily awkward—even seasoned disciples of the Clear Wind Dao would have struggled to execute them cleanly.
Yet Fan Lingxi executed every single one without fault.
She had clearly gone back after Lin Hui's casual demonstration and drilled herself relentlessly. All to seize this small, uncertain thread of hope.
Among the three targets, the fire in Fan Lingxi's heart had never needed igniting. It had long been burning at full intensity.
Lin Hui turned to watch her sword dance to its end. He hadn't expected one of the three to come to him so directly—before he had even deployed his follow-up gambits.
It was clear that Fan Lingxi had never stopped searching for hope. The moment any chance to reverse her fate appeared—real or fabricated—she would throw herself at it without hesitation.
Turning this over in his mind, Lin Hui set the other two targets aside for now. One had taken the bait; the other two were secondary.
When Fan Lingxi finished, Lin Hui closed his eyes for a moment of silence.
"I didn’t expect this… I honestly thought no one would ever meet the requirements for the path I created. If you’ve got the nerve, come to Red Stone Beach this afternoon."
He said nothing more, quickened his pace, and disappeared into the academy's main building.
Fan Lingxi stood alone, a flicker of anticipation in her eyes as she sheathed her sword.
For three years, there had not been a single moment when she didn't want to tear the bastard who ruined her life into ten thousand pieces. Everything she had was destroyed in a single night.
Her aptitude was ruined, one eye permanently blinded, both hands broken. Even the medicine meant to heal them had been swapped out, leaving her arms uneven. A future that had once seemed brilliant was obliterated by one person.
If her aunt hadn't returned from overseas in time, she would have lost her life as well. And yet, despite her aunt's furious protests, all that devastation had earned the culprit was a slap on the wrist—a mere three years of confinement.
Let this be my turning point. Fan Lingxi steadied herself, tore her gaze from the doorway where Lin Hui had vanished, and headed back to the student dormitory pavilion.
…
Meanwhile, Lin Hui gathered his teaching materials and headed straight back to his current residence, Clear Wind Courtyard.
Over the past year, his people had dispersed and quietly woven themselves into Black Cloud City.
Xia Si's strength had grown again, reaching a level Lin Hui could no longer accurately gauge. According to her, her Wild Wind Sword Technique had entered the second Body Tempering stage—though because she had forged her own path with the technique, its output differed drastically from Lin Hui's version.
Su Yaping had obtained the Righteous Body Law Seal of the Clear Wind Dao and treated it as a supreme treasure. His strength had grown enormously, and he had become the most fanatical defender of the Clear Wind Dao.
As for the rest...
Lin Hui returned to the large, quiet courtyard. Li Yuanyuan, princess of the Shadowhound Clan, stepped forward and presented a card with both hands.
"Dao Master, this is a wedding invitation delivered personally by Senior Brother Wang Hongshi. You weren't here when he arrived, so he waited a while before leaving."
Lin Hui took it. The bright red card opened to a short inscription in neat text:
Wang Hongshi and Zhao Feiyue respectfully invite Teacher Lin Hui to attend our wedding banquet at Myriad Feathers Manor on the seventeenth of January. To have you as our witness is the greatest blessing of our lives.
Beneath the words rested the personal red seals of both Wang Hongshi and Zhao Feiyue.
He didn't go back to his hometown to marry—he settled here... Lin Hui still remembered when Wang Hongshi was exposed for succumbing to temptation and getting entangled in scandalous affairs back in Tuyue. He hadn't expected the man to settle down so thoroughly after arriving in Black Cloud.
I won't attend openly. Tell him I've received the invitation—I'll meet them privately after the banquet, he transmitted via Wind Chime.
Understood. Thank you for the honor, Master! Wang Hongshi's jubilant reply came from the other side.
"Anything else?" Lin Hui asked, turning to Li Yuanyuan.
These days, Li Yuanyuan had largely taken Wang Hongshi's place as his chief steward.
"One more piece of notable news. A merchant fleet that docked recently brought word of a severe pollution riot in Tuyue. The sealing fortresses of Purgatory and Extreme Cold both lost control, and many dangerous prisoners escaped. Disaster relief operations are still ongoing," Li Yuanyuan said gravely.