Chapter 262
, Story 4
Chapter 262, Story Four
"Why should we fight together against the enemy?" Lin Hui countered. "Before you joined, we didn't know what grudges you had in the past. These are things you started, and you should settle them yourself. If you die on the road, that's your fate. Of course, if you have the ability to get your fellow disciples to help you, that's also your ability."
He founded Qingfengdao with the initial intention of building up his power, protecting his own people, and acquiring more ways to make money and gather intelligence.
However, as his own strength rapidly improved, his need for this aspect diminished considerably.
In addition, as long as the Dharma Seal is recognized, the disciples have a strong sense of belonging and identity, and will spontaneously protect their sect and him as the sect leader who bestowed the seal.
Many minor details are left unmentioned to avoid causing offense.
After accepting the seal, Song Feishi silently told himself that he acknowledged being a member of the Qingfeng Dao.
For someone at her level, temporarily changing superficial perceptions is not a difficult task.
With this kind of superficial cognitive verification, there shouldn't be any major problems.
After receiving the seal, Song Feishi stood still, his body remaining unchanged.
"It's a pity. Go down, it's the next person's turn." Lin Hui said gently, "Those of you who didn't pass, don't be discouraged. You can still serve as outer disciples of Qingfeng Dao, learn basic martial arts, and wait for the next test opportunity. After all, people's hearts can change."
He paused for a moment, then continued.
"Those who pass the test should not rest easy. Once your hearts change and you no longer identify as disciples of Qingfeng Dao, the magic seal will quickly disappear and lose its effect. Therefore, every now and then, I will gather everyone together to confirm whether the magic seal is intact and whether it can still work."
These words immediately stirred something in everyone present.
Song Feishi narrowed his eyes, moved aside, and decided to stay a while longer to observe Qingfengdao.
After the two tremors she had just experienced, she now felt even more curious and eager to explore this mysterious Qingfeng Path.
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time flies.
With Lin Hui settling down in Black Cloud, and after Qingfeng Dao accepted many members from the three original blood families, it developed rapidly and secretly became a new force in Black Cloud.
While cultivating, Lin Hui went to the Moon Tower to exchange for a large amount of Purple Cloud Mushroom and Spirit-Nourishing Mushroom, successfully shortening the evolution time of the Great Yin-Yang Time Reversal Sword Technique to only twenty years.
He originally planned to reduce the dosage completely at once, but the effects of Ziyunzhi and Yunlingzhi became weaker and weaker as time went on.
No, it seems that it's not that he's weaker, but rather that the amount of evolutionary resources he needs has increased.
After all, the Blood Seal calculates time consumption based on the energy and mental effort he can provide each day.
With his current level of strength, the energy and mental focus he can conserve far surpass what he had in the past.
Therefore, the Great Yin Yang Reversal Sword Technique, which seems to have a short evolutionary time of only a hundred years, would actually have been equivalent to thousands of years in the past.
Lin Hui only discovered the problem after eating over a hundred purple fungus plants in one go.
Logically speaking, a single Purple Cloud Mushroom should have been able to shorten his blood seal evolution time by two years.
But now, the more you take it, the worse the effect becomes in the later stages.
Not only Ziyunzhi, but also Heihuangdan, has become much weaker.
As a result, he now has to take medication every day, and forcibly smuggle various other types of aphrodisiacs from the deputy city lord's channels, in order to barely maintain the speed of shortening the time by one month compared to eight months.
Fortunately, there are only twenty years left. If you convert that to a calculation, it will only take two or three years at most to complete the evolution of the sword technique.
Lin Hui was no longer in a hurry. He simply continued his daily routine, testing the cultivation method of the Saint of Annihilation.
He first tested the ants.
Killing an ant yields the Pulse of Annihilation, a subtle, chilling aura, so faint it's almost negligible.
So Lin Hui switched between ordinary animals and fog zone monsters, gradually increasing his strength according to his power level.
He discovered that, just like with the Saint of Life type, the stronger the type of life he killed, the more and stronger the Pulse of Annihilation he obtained.
He paused further testing after reaching the fifty-fourth species. He intended to reserve the remaining slots for more powerful life forms, except for the extremely weakest.
More than four months later.
The situation that had been stirred up by the storytelling gradually calmed down, and Lin Hui's vigilance slowly relaxed. As long as the situation did not repeat itself, he believed that the problem would not continue to escalate.
At this very moment, Tao Xuehai's son, Tao Changsheng, also arrived safely in the Black Cloud City and was picked up by the people of Qingfeng Dao and sent to the Dao Academy.
In the Taoist temple, the pear trees had long since finished blooming, and the trees were now laden with large, plump white pears.
Li Yuanyuan was instructing two cooks to carefully pick the pears using long tongs.
Lin Hui and his master Mingde sat on either side of a stone table not far away, playing chess while brewing tea on a small stove.
White steam billowed from the edge of the transparent teapot lid, releasing a delicate and refreshing tea aroma.
"Why go through all this trouble? Couldn't we have just picked them all with internal force and hidden weapons?" Mingde had been recuperating for half a year, and now he was back to his former rosy complexion and full of energy.
"Teacher, you may not know this, but this is no ordinary pear tree. It's a variety called the Iron Pear Tree, whose branches and leaves are extremely hard and strange. The pears it bears can only be cut and harvested using strong pliers made of special materials and a slow, grinding shearing motion," Lin Hui explained. "I see." Mingde nodded, put down a chess piece, looked at the game he had lost for the seventh time, and shook his head slightly. "It seems I'm really getting old. I used to be very good at chess."
"Teacher, what are you saying? With my current mental state, if I were to let you win, wouldn't that seem a bit hypocritical?" Lin Hui said with a smile. "It's just a game of chess, don't take it to heart."
“Of course you don’t mind if you keep winning.” Mingde pointed at him speechlessly.
After smiling, he changed the subject.
"I've heard rumors these past few days that the Minglan Divine Group has started acting strangely again. There are too many monsters appearing, and they should be reaching their regular cleanup cycle. It seems like war is about to break out."
“Yes, the Black Army is already mobilizing. There are three regular combat zones, each centered around one of the three city lords.” Lin Hui nodded.
"Then how do you plan to settle Tao Changsheng?" Mingde suddenly asked again.
"I promised Xuehai that I would raise him; he is the only bloodline of the Tao family," Lin Hui sighed.
“That’s good. If you’re too busy, I think it would be better to let me take care of him,” Mingde said. “He’s still too young. Weiwei has gotten along very well with that child these past few days and wants to adopt him as her godson.”
Senior Sister Weiwei?
Lin Hui closed his eyes, recalling Tao Changsheng's appearance when he first arrived at Black Cloud. He was a two-year-old child, standing shakily on the deck, his face covered with wet tears, his eyes red like peaches, and his body thin and small, with only a round head that was very large and prominent.
Upon seeing him, the child burst into incoherent sobs and knelt on the ground, calling him "Grandmaster."
Upon hearing this, Lin Hui immediately wanted to go and kill Tu Yue.
In other words, the situation on Hei Yun's side is becoming increasingly tense, and war is about to break out. Otherwise, he might already be quietly heading to Tu Yue's ship.
"If Changsheng is willing, I have no objection," Lin Hui said softly as he opened his eyes.
“Alright, Changsheng already agreed, all that’s left is for you to nod.” Mingde smiled.
"That's fine too." Lin Hui nodded.
After seeing Mingde off, he got up, looked at the bare pear tree, sighed, and returned to his room to meditate.
Comprehending the control of airflow by the Saintly Form of Life is one of his daily practices nowadays.
The more he contemplated, the deeper his understanding of calamity energy became. His ability to manipulate airflow grew increasingly powerful and effortless. Simultaneously, through this repeated contemplation and understanding, calamity energy rapidly deepened, becoming more integrated into his body and mind.
Around 4 p.m., dusk began to fall.
A familiar sound reached his ears through the vibration of the wind chimes.
"Master, my Typhoon Sword Technique has failed again. But my Gale Sword Technique seems to have made a new breakthrough."
It was Xia Si's voice.
With a thought, Lin Hui's figure flickered, and in the blink of an eye, he flew out of the Taoist temple, flashing several times before arriving at a spacious pavilion by the sea that was partially submerged in the ocean.
This is Xia Si's residence.
She now holds the position of deputy commander in the Black Cloud Black Army, overseeing thousands of people. She's a fairly high-ranking official.
At this moment, Xia Si was holding a jet-black longsword, dressed in black clothes and wearing black armor, sitting cross-legged in the center of the huge circular martial arts arena.
Lin Hui was somewhat surprised when he saw Xia Si.
The aura of calamity emanating from this child was much stronger than when he last saw him. At least ten times stronger!
Moreover, he was surprised to find that Xia Si's mind was constantly sending out tendrils, spreading in all directions. With the slightest touch, he felt that its strength had actually reached the level he had felt when he had practiced the Typhoon Sword Technique to the middle stage.
It also seems that a large number of unfamiliar forces are mixed in.
This feeling
Lin Hui carefully observed Xia Si and vaguely sensed that her personality seemed to have undergone a significant change.
"Teacher," Xia Si opened her eyes, stood up, and bowed to him. "This disciple has been trying to comprehend the Typhoon Sword Technique you taught me recently, but unfortunately, the difficulty of getting started is too great. I have not yet succeeded."
"It's alright. The Typhoon Sword Technique is so difficult that I've never seen anyone truly master it," Lin Hui comforted him.
“But,” Xia Si said in a deep voice, her eyes now faintly turning into a strange iron-gray.
"For some reason, although I failed in my cultivation, a new and powerful force would surge within me after each practice session. This force seemed to appear out of thin air. I had expected some rejection and instability in my foundation, but not only were there no problems, this force even easily integrated into my body and mind, as if it had always been a part of me."
Lin Hui remained silent.
Because of the blood seal, he had already confirmed Xia Si's origins long ago, and the current situation only confirms the correctness of the blood seal.
The pseudo-human race, the masked leader, has now simply regained his original memories…
"What troubles this disciple is that, with the emergence of this power, an increasingly strong and insane desire for destruction has begun to rise in my heart," Xia Si said in a deep voice, lowering his head.
(End of this chapter)