Chapter 235 |
Xinque Town, Black Cloud City.
That afternoon, Lin Hui took a leisurely stroll along Red Stone Beach, just outside of town, his feet picking over the pale red stones lining the shore.
From a distance, he spotted the young Fan Lingxi already crouching on the beach, waiting for him. There was no telling how long she had been there.
The moment she saw him, she stood, tossed aside the stone in her hand, and hurried over.
"Teacher Lin!" Her pale blue eyes burned with anticipation. "You said..."
"I meant what I said." Lin Hui nodded. "But before we begin, run through the physical testing method I taught you one more time," he instructed, his voice measured and grave.
"Yes, sir."
Fan Lingxi performed the sword dance from their earlier session with meticulous care. She was even more earnest than before, and her movements were flawless in form.
She believed she had given her absolute best. In Lin Hui's eyes, however, the girl was utterly without talent. Her forms were technically precise, yet painfully rigid—she moved like someone who had memorized a pattern rather than understood it. She had no genuine comprehension of the movements she performed.
A lack of talent was just that. But Lin Hui still had to see this through. He intended to use this earnest, talentless girl to swiftly establish a foundational network for the Clear Wind Dao and complete his grand Circulation.
When she finished, Lin Hui drew a sharp breath and broke into light, deliberate applause, his expression a mix of disbelief and admiration.
"Good... I didn't expect this. I truly didn't expect you to reach this level so quickly." He exhaled, the very picture of sincerity. "Very well. Since that's the case, I can pass down a complete set of these new testing martial arts to you. Let me be clear: I cannot predict what effects will manifest once you cultivate this art. What I can guarantee is that your existing aptitude for The Call or traditional martial arts won't constrain it. It operates by its own independent standards—and by those standards, your aptitude is undoubtedly top-tier."
Fan Lingxi's eyes lit up. Before Lin Hui had finished speaking, she dropped to her knees in a deep bow.
"Please, Teacher, instruct me!"
"Techniques cannot be passed down so lightly... but you..." Lin Hui trailed off, feigning an air of conflicted deliberation.
Just as Fan Lingxi was about to offer payment or some other sacrifice, he paused, then continued.
"It's like this. Your aptitude is simply too perfectly suited to the standards of this new art, so..."
"I am willing to pay! Would one hundred thousand a month be enough?!" Fan Lingxi blurted.
"I don't need your money. The resource demands in the early stages of this art are minimal—this isn't about money." He waved a dismissive hand.
"Teacher..." The apprehension in Fan Lingxi's chest nearly dissolved at those words.
The frauds she'd fallen for in the past had almost always involved the draining of her wealth. But Teacher Lin was a registered instructor at the Taisu Martial Academy—and here he was, refusing to collect a tuition fee. Other teachers routinely extracted exorbitant sums for private instruction, yet Teacher Lin...
"Teacher Lin, you've sacrificed your personal time to instruct me. If I offer nothing in return, I couldn't live with myself." Fan Lingxi pressed her case earnestly. "How about this: two hundred thousand a month. Please do not decline."
She bowed again.
This girl is sharper than she looks. Lin Hui's mind turned it over with quiet appreciation. On the surface, two hundred thousand a month sounded lavish. In reality, tuition was always paid at the month's end. If the new art produced no results in the first month, Fan Lingxi could walk away without having spent a single coin. But if it worked—then her offer would read as an act of profound respect, the image of a devoted disciple insisting on honoring a selfless master. Word of that would earn her an impeccable reputation.
A teacher who truly coveted wealth might have already accepted. But money had nothing to do with Lin Hui's aims. He waved the offer off.
"We can discuss payment later. Let's first see if you can actually cultivate this art. A test is just a test. Many aspects of this method remain unproven in actual combat, so we'll need to observe its effects one step at a time."
His nonchalance only deepened Fan Lingxi's reverence.
There on Red Stone Beach, Lin Hui proceeded to teach her the modified version of the Clear Wind Sword Technique with careful deliberateness.
The technique appeared thoroughly unremarkable—only marginally superior to the original Clear Wind Sword Technique. Taken at face value, it was a commonplace sword art; at its absolute peak, it would produce nothing more than an Internal Force martial artist.
"On the surface, this art looks plain and forgettable," Lin Hui said gravely when the lesson concluded. "But if you practice every day without fail, once you cross a certain threshold and undergo a qualitative shift, the improvement will be earth-shattering. Practice diligently. When you've honed this sword technique to an incomparable degree of mastery, come find me again."
"Yes, sir!" Fan Lingxi replied, her voice solemn.
She jogged away brimming with fresh energy, invigorated by her new art.
At the same moment, Lin Hui sensed the distant hidden protector who had been watching the area quietly withdraw as well.
Trueblood Nobles like Fan Lingxi, even when temporarily stripped of status and power, always had shadow guards at their heels. He had anticipated this; it fell neatly within his plans.
Once Fan Lingxi had fully mastered the technique and came to him again, he could legitimately guide her into the Clear Wind Dao and bestow a new law seal upon her.
The Righteous Body was too conspicuous—its physical transformations could not be concealed. Righteous Heart and Righteous Virtue were different. Both were remarkably easy to hide, and neither had been bestowed upon every member of the sect.
Righteous Virtue, in particular, was a special effect that broadly elevated cultivation comprehension. Slap it onto Fan Lingxi, and even a mediocrity could be forcibly buffed into a genius.
Once the effects took hold, Fan Lingxi would be wholly devoted to the Clear Wind Dao.
Lin Hui had already secretly bestowed the Righteous Virtue law seal upon the core disciples closest to him—Wang Hongshi, Li Yuanyuan, and Xia Si. Before departing the sect, he had extended it to Tao Xuehai and the others as well.
The law seal was exceedingly discreet. Its application was entirely under Lin Hui's control, and the recipients had no way of detecting it. They would simply feel that their condition had been excellent of late and that their cultivation was progressing at a remarkable pace.
Things on Fan Lingxi's end will take time to develop. For now, it's time to focus on the evolution of the Star Breath Sword Canon. Which of those paths should I choose...
Lin Hui called up the Blood Seal to review the Evolvable Branches he had examined before. He had inspected the available paths earlier and had been slow to commit. Now, with the lesson behind him, a decision had taken shape.
He selected the "Evolvable Branches: 3" prompt at the bottom of the Star Breath Sword Canon's panel.
The Star Breath Sword Canon could evolve along three distinct paths:
[1 — Grand Yin-Yang Time Reversal Sword Art.]
[2 — Circulation Spirit Combat Sword Canon.]
[3 — Star Tomb Sword Canon.]
He had examined all three with care.
The Grand Yin-Yang Time Reversal Sword Art was devoted entirely to the self-reinforcing potential of the Star Breath Sword Canon. It amplified the practitioner without limit, drawing upon all available external power to drive reaction speed to a velocity beyond imagining. This path upheld the Star Breath Sword Canon's foundational principle: absorb external energy and push one's own speed to the extreme. The art claimed to be fast to an absolute limit—fast enough, supposedly, to produce the terrifying effect of reversing time.
Lin Hui withheld judgment on that last claim. Not because he doubted the Blood Seal's reliability, but because the other two paths were equally compelling.
The second option was the Circulation Spirit Combat Sword Canon. Built on the Star Breath Sword Canon as its foundation and fused with the legendary Circulation Starry Sky Grand Array, it became a specialized martial art that wielded Star Spirits as weapons, summoning them to strike. The stars in circulation were countless, and each Star Spirit carried its own distinct properties—making this sword technique extraordinarily adaptable across a vast range of harsh environments.
The Circulation Starry Sky Grand Array.
Lin Hui knew it well, and it was the primary source of his hesitation. In terms of pure versatility, the second option's adaptability was completely maxed out. If he successfully cultivated it, he could summon Star Spirits regardless of where he stood. He had no reason to doubt the Blood Seal's assessment.
Yet this world was choked with corrupted Mist and crawling with dangerous Mist monsters. Without a Mist-Free Zone, sustaining any kind of survival base was fundamentally untenable. A highly adaptable martial art would make his exploration of the outside world far more viable.
The third option was the Star Tomb Sword Canon. Its description was spare and merciless: This method aims to destroy stars. It draws upon the breathing of the multitude of stars to counter their pulsations, forging a powerful sword technique that vastly increases the area of destruction.
Pure obliteration. Coincidentally, Lin Hui occasionally entertained the thought of exterminating every Mist monster in the Mist Zone and rebuilding an entirely new ecological order from nothing. Gather all of humanity together, erase everything else with a single sword strike, and rebuild civilization—the world that emerged would likely be far more stable than the one that existed now.
That kind of large-scale, indiscriminate, destructive power had given him considerable pause.
Forget it. I haven't even successfully cultivated the Star Breath Sword Canon yet. Getting this far ahead of myself is pure madness.
He shook his head inwardly, set his hesitation aside, and selected the first option—the Grand Yin-Yang Time Reversal Sword Art.
The immense versatility of the second option could be compensated for by using the Blood Seal to evolve minor secret arts or Relics as needed. But the first option's terrifying speed—theoretically fast enough to reverse time—was something no External Martial Artist could ever replicate.
As for the raw destructive scale of the third option, the Mistborn of this world likely already possessed comparable methods for large-area attacks.
But in terms of absolute speed, Lin Hui had yet to encounter anyone faster than himself. Pressing his greatest advantage was the soundest strategy for ensuring his victory.
After confirming the first option, the Blood Seal returned its evolution requirements.
[Grand Yin-Yang Time Reversal Sword Art — Resources required for evolution: 150 years of Reserve Energy, 150 years of Reserve Spirit. Time required: 200 years.]
No special conditions—only time. An excruciatingly long evolution time.
Lin Hui sighed, but accepted it. The other two options demanded even longer—both exceeding 300 years. That, too, had weighed heavily in his final decision.
The Blood Seal... I won't be able to use it again for a very long time.
With a sigh, he confirmed the Blood Seal's prompt and initiated the evolution.
The blood-colored patterns on the back of his hand gathered and converged in an instant.
The new evolution had begun.
Having made his choice, Lin Hui did not leave at once. He resumed his stroll along Red Stone Beach.
Red Stone Beach owed its name to a tiny crustacean native to its shores: the Red Date Crab. Every breeding season, a massive swarm of them would crawl onto the rocky coastline to reproduce. The juveniles were no larger than a fingernail—often smaller—and they blanketed the shore in such numbers that they stained the entire beach a living, shifting shade of red, giving the place its name.
Lin Hui clasped his hands behind his back and walked toward the pale green sea. The area bore a passing resemblance to the Jade Sea, the water equally green, though far less vivid—not the deep, gemlike emerald of the Jade Sea, but a washed-out, sickly pale green.
A dense wall of Mist hung low over the water's surface, swallowing any possibility of a wide-open view. The horizon felt utterly claustrophobic, stripped of distance and depth.
He wandered the rugged shoreline for a while. Before long, beneath a fist-sized black rock, he came across a small cluster of Red Date Crabs laying their eggs.
He crouched down and lifted the sheltering stone. The crabs were anatomically identical to ordinary crabs—shells of pale red, and tiny eyes that glowed with a faint green light.
Lin Hui casually scooped one up and examined it closely.