Chapter 11: Low Point I

“Xie Li greets Senior Brother Lin and Senior Brother Chen.” Xie Li was only fifteen or sixteen years old, but her words and actions were quite precocious. She skillfully clasped her hands in a salute to the two of them.

The two clasped their hands in return.

Xie Li smiled and continued.

“The Clear Wind Sword Style is a huge step up in practical combat compared to the Nine-Section Quick Sword, and its complexity is far beyond what the former can match. Once executed, both one’s own speed and the speed of the sword strike increase significantly, making people feel like they’ve only felt a clear breeze on their face before losing, unaware of what happened.”

“So, as long as you master the Clear Wind Sword Style, your strength can immediately soar?” Chen Zhishen couldn’t help but ask, his voice tinged with a hard-to-conceal envy.

“Precisely. In fact, many martial arts are like this. The strongest are the Superior Martial Arts, but Superior Martial Arts are not something ordinary people can master. Once mastered, a huge gap is created between them and ordinary martial arts,” Xie Li explained.

“But won’t practicing Superior Martial Arts put a heavier burden on the body?” Lin Hui frowned and asked.

“Superior Martial Arts inherently come with Superior Body Tempering Methods whose effects are far stronger than others. How could they put a heavier burden on the body? Rather, once a Superior Martial Art is mastered, and one returns to executing inferior martial arts with a body that has been intensely tempered, they can exert far greater power than ordinary martial artists, no matter what martial art they use,” Xie Li, clearly well-informed, explained with a smile.

“Thank you for the clarification,” Lin Hui clasped his hands in salute. “It sounds like the Clear Wind Sword Style is not something everyone can master either?”

“Yes, to be taught the sword style not only requires the Master’s trust but also extremely high aptitude,” Xie Li nodded. “This is also the reason for the Abbot’s personal attendance.”

“In other words, Huang Shan and the others might be noticed by the Abbot and accepted as true inner-chamber disciples?” Chen Zhishen‘s tone carried an unconcealed trace of envy.

“To be precise, yes. Geniuses, after all,” Xie Li didn’t say much more, but her tone also held an unusual complexity.

Judging by her conversation, she was clearly someone with a family background in scholarship, but even so, against a pure comparison of talent, no background was useful. You either had it or you didn’t.

At this moment, the next round of sword combat among the core disciples had begun on the open ground. The disciple named Wu Cheng, who had mastered several stances of the Clear Wind Sword Style, easily defeated his opponents by using the moves at crucial moments in the field.

This drew frequent attention from those around, and gradually more focus gathered on him.

Looking at the triumphant Wu Cheng on the field, Lin Hui fell into contemplation. If, as Xie Li said, strength was determined by the martial art mastered, then the control over Superior Martial Arts would undoubtedly completely lock the upward mobility in the hands of the previous generation.

In such a time, where the gap in natural talent was not too wide, perhaps connections and relationships were the more important factors.

Following Wu Cheng‘s demonstration of the Clear Wind Sword Style, another disciple who stepped onto the stage also displayed their mastery of the Clear Wind Sword Style. However, due to a lack of proficiency compared to Wu Cheng, he was also defeated and stepped down.

In the Clear Wind Taoist Temple, the ability to master the Clear Wind Sword Style was a huge chasm separating one from the rest.

The subsequent matches fully proved this point. Among the twenty disciples, the final top five Senior Brothers and Sisters who appeared all mastered the Clear Wind Sword Style.

Among them, the Senior Brother, Second Senior Brother, and Senior Sister had even mastered the complete Clear Wind Sword Style. However, Lin Hui observed closely that although they all mastered the same sword style, the temperament and feeling they conveyed when executing it were very different.

Clearly, even with the same Clear Wind Sword Style, there were still gaps in levels and understanding.

Soon, in less than an hour, the small competition was mostly over. The rankings of the top five were not much different from before; the Senior Brother was still the strongest in the first place, with the others following in order.

But starting from the sixth place, the strength order was different.

Wu Cheng abruptly moved up, surging into the sixth position. Following him were Qiu Yiren and Huang Shan, the two newly emerged geniuses. The two had forcefully squeezed out the previous seventh and eighth places, becoming new hot focuses of attention.

When the competition was completely over and the crowd dispersed, the outer circle of disciples and students were quite excited, still discussing the foundations and attainments of the twenty core disciples even after the event concluded.

Lin Hui was calm. He still returned to his residence to practice the Seven-Section Quick Sword, as if the small competition had no effect on him.

In between, Xie Li dragged Chen Zhishen to find him to go out for a wild barbecue and get closer, but he gently refused.

The two could only go by themselves.

It was clear that Xie Li was somewhat actively trying to get closer to him, and involving Chen Zhishen was only a pretext.

But Lin Hui had no interest in meaningless socializing. His biggest interest now was monitoring his blood-red mark every day, calculating how many days had passed since the evolution time began.

The ability to grow stronger just by lying flat was undoubtedly very powerful. The only thing that made Lin Hui feel helpless was that the speed of this ability was a bit too slow.

In this way, every few days, Xie Li would drag Chen Zhishen along to invite Lin Hui. After several failed attempts, the two simply hunted some wild game and came over to eat with Lin Hui.

Lin Hui didn’t mind. With someone delivering food to his door and helping to barbecue it, he was naturally happy to improve his meals.

As time passed, the three slowly formed a new small circle within the temple.

Chen Zhishen, seemingly influenced by Xie Li, slowly emerged from his painful emotions over Lu Baihua. The two seemed to have a new, subtle relationship.

In the blink of an eye, Lin Hui‘s fourth stance was also fully evolved, followed by the fifth stance.

The gradually approaching mastery of the Seven-Section Quick Sword gave Lin Hui a sense of anticipation.

He looked forward to seeing how his perfect, error-free version of the Seven-Section Quick Sword would differ from other disciples in its Body Tempering Light Body effect.

Another few days quickly passed.

Dong dong dong, dong dong dong!

Lin Hui started practicing his sword early in the morning, just as the sky brightened. He had only practiced two rounds when a frantic knocking sound came.

The single room he lived in had a small empty courtyard outside for hanging clothes and sunbathing, and the courtyard had a separate gate.

The knocking sound now came from the brownish-black courtyard gate outside.

“Who is it?”

Lin Hui asked out loud.

“It’s Junior Brother Lin! It’s me, Huishen!” Huishen‘s voice urgently came from outside. “Open the door quickly, something has happened to your family!”

Something happened to his family!?

Lin Hui‘s heart leaped. He quickly put down his wooden sword, rushed to the courtyard gate, and opened it.

Huishen outside was sweating profusely and his face was grave. He had clearly run quickly to get here. As soon as he saw Lin Hui, he quickly lowered his voice.

“Your family’s servant ran here to deliver a message! She said something happened to your father! Many people went there, and they almost emptied your house!”

“Please ask for leave for me!” Lin Hui said without a second thought, dropping the request and quickly rushing out of the courtyard toward the outside of the temple.

Although he hadn’t achieved Body Tempering yet, his physical fitness had improved significantly due to long-term exercise.

Just as he rushed out of the main gate, he saw Sister Luo, the servant who worked at his home, standing outside with a pale face, blocked by two gatekeeping Taoist children who wouldn’t let her in.

Lin Hui rushed over in a few steps.

“What exactly happened!?” he asked in a deep voice.

“Master told me to come and call you before he left, and he told you not to worry, that he would be back soon!” Sister Luo said quickly.

“Let’s go, let’s go back first!” Lin Hui‘s face was solemn. He quickly ran in the direction of his home.

More than half an hour later, Lin Hui arrived back at his house.

The courtyard gate was wide open, and the house doors inside were also open. Several men were moving things out.

“What are you doing!?” Lin Hui regulated his breathing and quickly stepped forward to ask.

“This family owes a large sum of money. The Master told us to come and take goods to offset the debt! Brother, what do you go by?” The man leading the group walked over, holding a dried, brown-colored strip of meat floss, which he chewed on.

“Did you get the wrong place!?” Lin Hui stepped across the threshold, then walked into the house, finding that it had been almost completely emptied. His mother, Yao Shan, her eyes red and swollen, slowly walked out, seemingly having heard his movement.

“Mother!” Lin Hui quickly went forward to support her.

“A Hui… your father…” Yao Shan quickly reached out and grabbed Lin Hui‘s arm, sobbing. “I told him not to take risks, but he just wouldn’t listen… now… now…”

“Don’t worry! How is Father now? Where is he!?” Lin Hui asked quickly.

“The noble person spared him, considering that he had been thorough in his work for many years… He’s fine. He just went to another town to check on the rest of the family’s properties,” Yao Shan wept softly.

Lin Hui finally sighed in relief. Looking at the house, which was now almost empty, his heart was less anxious than before.

This incident confirmed his previous worries, and now that it had actually happened, a huge stone was instead lifted from his heart.

“It’s alright, it’s alright. I’ve also started working and earning money now. At worst, the family will start over; it’s fine,” he gently comforted his mother.

“I’m fine, it’s just… you’ve suffered, A Hui…” Yao Shan looked at their home, which had just gotten better only to become empty again. The blow, the second painful strike, had almost completely crushed her spirit.

She could only cling tightly to her son’s arm, trembling all over, her face seeming to have aged significantly in an instant.

Lin Hui just quietly watched as the men moved the belongings. The man who had spoken to him earlier came in and, seeing the situation, understood that Lin Hui was the master of the house. He also offered an apologetic smile.

It wasn’t until the afternoon that the move was finished and his father, Lin Shunhe, finally arrived late.

His face was aged, and his clothing looked somewhat disheveled. He entered the courtyard, saw his wife and son, and without a word, lowered his head and walked into the inner room.

Lin Hui didn’t say anything. He knew his father was suffering enough. The loss of wealth was only one aspect; the true loss was completely losing the noble person’s protection.

Next, having separated from the Lin family, the only thing they could rely on was themselves.

---

The Lin family.

Lin Chaoyi once again summoned the representatives of the various branches for an impromptu family meeting.

Seeing the somewhat subdued atmosphere in the room, he took the pipe from his mouth and gently tapped the small table beside him.

Bang, bang.

The crisp sound drew everyone’s attention.

“You all know about what happened to Shunhe‘s family, right?” he said loudly.

The group was silent for a moment, then nodded in succession.

“Since you know, anyone who used to have a good relationship with him, don’t help him. It is forbidden to help, and absolutely not one penny for borrowing money or anything similar!” Lin Chaoyi first set the tone with severe words.

Then, seeing the somewhat unnatural expressions of the First Branch members, he softened his tone and explained.

“It’s not that I, as a father, am without human feeling. First, the Fourth Brother already declared he was cutting ties with the family. Second, he caused a huge problem this time and incurred the anger of that noble person. This is no small matter. Once we step in to help, if we are perceived to be implicated with him, we will regret it too late!”

He sighed again.

“Don’t blame me for being heartless, but I am doing this for the entire Lin family. During this period, ever since Hongzhen from the First Branch successfully received the Summoning, you’ve all felt the increase in our family’s prestige, momentum, and influence. People around us show respect for everything we do. Even some of the town officials have softened their expressions considerably.”

“So, our Lin family is currently in a period of ascension. We absolutely cannot be dragged down by the Fourth Brother! This is a major opportunity we have waited for for many years. Once the First Branch establishes a firm footing in the Inner City, our Lin family might one day become a great clan like the Zhong Family or the Mu Family in the nearby towns.”

“But Father, wouldn’t doing this be too…” Lin Shunjiang, Lin Hongzhen‘s father from the First Branch, couldn’t help but speak up.

(End of Chapter)