Chapter 304 |
The sea east of Black Cloud.
A shuttle-shaped vessel carved from pure white bone sliced silently across the water, cutting toward a massive island in the distance.
A lone figure stood at the bow, facing into the wind—white-robed, a sword at his hip, long hair streaming behind him.
ROOAAR!
Suddenly, a pitch-black behemoth tens of meters long burst from the sea off the vessel's starboard side.
The creature bore the upper body of a shark and the lower half of a giant python, its back bristling with clusters of festering pustules. As it drew near, a faint blue halo radiated outward, shrouding its entire body—the unmistakable pulse of Void Force.
This was a wild sea beast, one at minimum in the Divine Officer realm.
Sea beasts wielded Void Force much as humanity did. Those capable of channeling it in small quantities were considered High-Tier Called Ones; those who could sheathe their entire bodies in it and spend it freely had invariably crossed into the Divine Officer realm.
Strictly speaking, monsters had no cultivation realms—they were classified by High-Threat levels instead.
"It has been three shichen. Time for lunch."
He cast a glance at the sky to mark the hour.
For this excursion, Lin Hui had set a direct course for the nearest Wanhua Sect branch they had previously scouted. Two Mistborn Island Lords happened to be stationed nearby, letting him take his targets and dismantle the sect in a single sweep.
"It seems destiny has brought us together, Dao Master Lin. What a coincidence."
Atop the giant beast's head, a handsome man in blue rose to his feet, jade flute in hand, smiling across the water.
Rings of translucent light pulsed steadily from beneath him—the distinctive strengthening halo of Mist Gods.
"You were waiting for me?" Lin Hui asked, surprised.
"Indeed. We have waited years for Dao Master Lin to finally leave the city. It was no small feat," the man laughed.
Waiting over a decade for a single outing—Lin Hui was lazier than even the Mist Gods themselves.
"As it happens, I wanted to meet you as well," Lin Hui said earnestly. "The world is in turmoil, and Mist-corrupted disasters grow more frequent by the day. Even given our opposing positions, there remains room for cooperation."
"You speak the truth." The man nodded. "It seems we have already reached a natural consensus. In that case—please, come with me."
"Lead the way." Lin Hui smiled.
Although he faced a Mist God, Lin Hui trusted that earnest persuasion would bring them around. Joining his Clear Wind Dao would be the only path to weathering the disasters ahead.
Of course, if reason failed, Lin Hui would demonstrate the cost of refusing heaven's gift.
"This way, please." The man steered the giant beast rightward, surging forward at speed.
A light breeze coiled around Lin Hui's vessel, pushing it to match pace.
After several minutes of sailing, the ocean before them began to rise.
A colossal dark-green sea turtle, hundreds of meters across, broke the surface.
It wore a necklace of giant white skulls; its thick limbs were sheathed in black scales. Atop its shell rose a spire-topped black pavilion—warm lights shifting within, figures moving, faint strains of music drifting across the water.
“Dao Master of Clear Wind, your reputation precedes you. A pleasure to meet you. I am Venerable Lingshan Diyun, fourth seat of the Zhenlong Pantheon.” The giant turtle lowered its head to regard Lin Hui, projecting the words directly into his mind through vibrations of spiritual sense. “I am here to ask that you give serious thought to joining our Pantheon. You will have heard of the shifting tides ahead. Sea Cry stirs with unrest. We are nothing like Minglan and those traitors, who scheme to align themselves with Sea Cry and betray this realm. Our Zhenlong Pantheon consists entirely of Mist Gods who wish to defend their own territories and resist the Sea Cry alliance.”
"My Clear Wind Dao has need of people. Would you consider joining my sect?" Lin Hui said sincerely. "Those who genuinely seek to learn will receive a Dharma Seal that amplifies physical strength by fifty percent. Spiritual protection and comprehension aptitude will each increase by fifty percent as well. We also possess an exclusive secret art capable of instantly restoring you to perfect condition—regardless of how severe your injuries."
“This… We are Mist Gods. Of course, we have heard of the Clear Wind Dao's secret arts, but can we use them as well?” The giant turtle hesitated.
"Of course. My sect makes no distinctions of race or origin—only the sincerity of one's heart," Lin Hui said earnestly.
“Words without proof are empty!” the giant turtle said flatly.
"Wait, Venerable—you belong to our Zhenlong Pantheon…" Sensing the conversation take an unexpected turn, the man on the giant beast's back grew anxious and quickly cut in.
“If we can use the Dao Master of Clear Wind's secret arts, what is the difference between us joining him and him joining us?” The giant turtle's logic was remarkably flexible.
Hearing this, Lin Hui clapped softly, a smile spreading across his face.
"The Venerable sees things clearly. In the coming tides, the wise secure every advantage available. Maximizing our strengths is exactly what we should do."
"But…" The man's face paled. If the other three Venerables learned of this, he would not only have failed to recruit the Dao Master of Clear Wind—he would have handed the Fourth Venerable over in the bargain. Then…
“I possess a secret method that restores all injuries without side effects in a crisis. Join my Clear Wind Dao, devote yourself to your cultivation, and strengthen the sect—I ask nothing beyond that. Are you willing?” Lin Hui's voice slipped quietly into the man's ear.
The man stilled. Considered in those terms, he was surprised to find himself wavering.
Compared to the Mistborn, the Mist Gods' greatest weakness lay in self-healing and recovery.
Their recuperative speed was staggeringly inferior—accumulating Divine Force simply demanded too much time.
Only Mist Gods with vast reserves could afford to spend that power on healing their divine bodies. For most, squandering it so casually was not an option.
A secret art that could substitute for Divine Force in restoring the body would save an incalculable amount of power.
"Are your words… true?" the man asked hesitantly.
Realizing how that sounded, he quickly added, "I only meant to test the effects on behalf of my Venerable. Don't misunderstand."
"Naturally." Lin Hui had not expected these Mist Gods to be quite so guileless.
That a few earnest words at a first meeting could sway them this readily made one thing obvious: the "Zhenlong Pantheon" was nothing more than a loose confederation of opportunists.
“How do we test this?” the giant turtle asked. It carried an old wound—cloven into its flesh three hundred years ago by a Mistborn—that had never fully healed. If Lin Hui's secret art was genuinely effective, joining the Clear Wind Dao was a trivial concession.
Besides, the human had never said they could only belong to one organization.
"It is simple." Lin Hui smiled and raised one hand. "As long as you sincerely wish to join my Clear Wind Dao, you will satisfy the Dharma Seal's verification."
A faint white light kindled at his fingertip.
"I'll go first!" the man said without hesitation.
Lin Hui didn't mind. His figure blurred, reappearing a meter before the man. He raised one finger and pressed it between the man's brows.
Several minutes later…
Flanking Lin Hui's small bone vessel were a giant sea turtle and a Mist God astride a bizarre behemoth.
Standing on his deck, Lin Hui's expression was somewhat stiff.
It wasn't that the two Mist Gods had failed the initiation. It was that they had succeeded far too smoothly.
All of it had been absurdly easy.
He had fully expected negotiations to break down and force to follow. Instead, the moment they heard his terms, both had defected without a second thought.
The giant turtle, in particular, had reversed course without the faintest hesitation.
No grand battle, no righteous fury, no stubborn resistance. Now the turtle was personally guiding him to the Pantheon's headquarters, already prepared to bring the First, Second, and Third Venerable into the fold.
After experiencing the unnatural power of the secret art firsthand, both the turtle and the man had bowed their heads and acknowledged Lin Hui as their Dao Master without complaint.
In their eyes, the Clear Wind Dao's secret art was outrageously potent, yet its restrictions were pitifully few. The sect was practically dispensing charity.
And as they sailed, newly arrived Divine Descendants would occasionally emerge from the surrounding waters—only to be enthusiastically persuaded by the turtle and the man and folded into the Clear Wind Dao en masse.
After witnessing the secret art's efficacy, they kowtowed and swore submission one after another, without a trace of shame.
"Venerable Diyun, why do I get the feeling that you Mist Gods are simply—"
Two shichen later, still more Divine Descendants and Mist Gods were converging on them, drawn by word spreading across the waters. Mostly small-timers, but staggering in number.
In a mere two shichen, nine Mist Gods and twenty-four Divine Descendants had rushed over.
Unable to hold back any longer, Lin Hui voiced the thought aloud.
“You may simply call me Diyun, Dao Master,” the giant turtle replied respectfully. “The situation is exactly as it looks. To speak plainly—life in the outer seas has grown exceedingly difficult of late. Sea Cry's corruption touches everything, and many Divine Descendants have already succumbed to deep-sea transformation. Anxiety about the future is constant. With subjects across our territories transforming in such numbers, even our supply of Divine Force has begun to dry up.”
It paused.
“And then, at just the right moment, you arrived. This Eye of Life secret art addresses our most urgent crisis directly. Our Pantheon spent three years searching for a method to heal injuries and restore our divine bodies—and you solved it with a single secret art.”
"This…" Lin Hui had assumed his secret art might prove popular. He hadn't anticipated anything quite this extreme.
“Regardless, since you are already here, Dao Master might as well bring everyone into the fold. We will all have to face the Sea Cry alliance together eventually, won't we?” Diyun chuckled.
Lin Hui was speechless.
He finally saw it plainly: this gaggle of Mist Gods and Divine Descendants intended to squeeze him for everything he was worth.
They almost certainly disbelieved his claim that the secret art would fail the moment one's heart turned away from the Clear Wind Dao.
All they wanted was to coax him into passing down the technique. The courtesy they showed was nothing more than an assumption that he had even better methods in reserve. Realizing this, Lin Hui didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
The process was absurd. The outcome, at least, matched his expectations.
He felt perfectly justified in following them back to the Zhenlong Pantheon.
As they traveled, the originally small party swelled rapidly—the Mist Gods and Divine Descendants sending transmissions in all directions, spreading the word.
The rumor took shape quickly: a human fool from Black Cloud had appeared, and so long as one could convince oneself to "join" his so-called Clear Wind Dao, he would naively hand over an extraordinarily precious healing and body-strengthening secret method.