Chapter 50: Dangerous Situation II

‘In their eyes, the Clear Wind Sword has a limit; the initial stage of the Internal Force Realm is the ceiling. Unfortunately, in my eyes, the Clear Wind Sword has no limit…‘

Lin Hui sighed in his heart.

‘Safety ultimately depends on oneself. Relying on others is unreliable.‘

Closing his eyes, he adjusted his breathing and tried to sleep, but he felt somewhat unsettled and couldn’t fall asleep.

After tossing and turning, he simply got out of bed, picked up his sword, and practiced a set of the Clear Wind Sword Style. Only then did his whole body feel refreshed, and he fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.

Early the next morning.

Lin Hui had just gotten up when he saw a half-grown girl of thirteen or fourteen with bun hair, wearing a light blue long skirt with centipede buttons, waiting in the small courtyard in front of his bedroom door.

“Young Master Hui, this slave is Ding Ning. Ding as in the surname Ding, Ning as in peace (anning). The Master arranged for me to serve you. If you need anything, please order this slave to do it.” The little girl quickly approached, bowed, and curtsied.

“Ding Ning… good name. Understood. Go and boil the Total Essence Powder my dad prepared for me and bring it here,” Lin Hui ordered.

Yesterday, Lin Shunhe had promised him the energy-boosting Total Essence Powder. It was a good time to test whether it was effective for him.

Since reaching the limit of Body Tempering, Lin Hui hadn’t felt an increase in energy for some time.

The blood-red mark’s speed of evolving one move every four days had remained unchanged. If this medicinal powder was useful, maybe it could further shorten the blood-red mark’s evolution time.

“Yes. I’ll go ask the kitchen,” Ding Ning responded quickly.

Lin Hui washed up, dressed neatly, and then began practicing the sword.

Because the evolution time of the blood-red mark was long, besides practicing the sword, he often spent time researching and pondering the principles of Body Tempering.

The Body Tempering principle of the Perfected Seven-Section Quick Sword was very magical. It was clearly just a set of sword routines slightly more difficult than in his previous life, but by using the correct force points, it could actually produce the miraculous effect of Body Tempering.

This made Lin Hui very curious about the so-called “force points.”

After comparing the differences in force points between the original and perfected versions extensively, he carefully recorded and tested them, discovering a trace of the secret behind the Seven-Section Quick Sword’s Body Tempering.

At this moment, after practicing the Seven-Section Quick Sword again and savoring his guesses, Lin Hui began practicing the Clear Wind Sword Style.

Half an hour later, Ding Ning quickly entered the courtyard carrying a medicinal soup pot. She also brought a delicately made soup dumpling and a small bottle of sour plum soup.

Lin Hui ate breakfast first, then picked up the bowl of Total Essence Powder soup and drank it in one gulp.

After resting for a while, he waved Ding Ning away to eat her own breakfast. Lin Hui sat cross-legged on the stone bench in the small courtyard, and strands of heat gradually began to emerge in his abdomen.

The heat continuously spread to all parts of his body like ripples. The slight fatigue from the concentrated sword practice just now actually dissipated quickly under the wash of this warm current.

Lin Hui’s heart moved, and he quickly called up the blood-red mark.

The text of the blood-red mark appeared in his lower field of vision.

‘Clear Wind Sword Style Forty-Seventh Move — Clouds Open and Mist Disperses, evolution complete.’

‘It really works!‘ Lin Hui looked delighted and stood up abruptly.

He had only started evolving this move the day before yesterday. As a result, the evolution ended on just the third day!

He had checked it just after getting up, and it was still evolving. Now, not long after drinking the medicine, the evolution was complete.

‘Is it a coincidence?‘

Feeling the warm current still spreading in his body, Lin Hui felt it wasn’t.

Without a word, he continued to strengthen the next sword move.

Soon, the evolution time of the blood-red mark appeared.

Clear Wind Sword Style Forty-Eighth Move — Cloud Mist Exiting the Sea. The time required for evolution was still four days, unchanged.

But those warm currents in his body seemed to find a new target, rapidly and continuously surging toward his heart.

One minute, two minutes, five minutes.

Swish.

Lin Hui watched helplessly as the remaining evolution time in the blood-red text rapidly decreased from four days to three days.

Only then did the warm current in his abdomen slowly dissipate and disappear.

“One dose of medicine can save about two days of evolution time. Not bad, not bad!” Lin Hui was joyful. After so long, he had finally found something that could shorten the evolution time of the blood-red mark.

Actually, he had eaten medicinal ingredients claiming to replenish energy before, but none worked. Now it seemed it was because their age was too low and the medicinal effect insufficient.

‘Since the Total Essence Powder is useful, it seems I need to accumulate and take more next…‘

Lin Hui made up his mind.

In the following two days, he took two more doses of Total Essence Powder from his father, saving four days of evolution time.

Because he consumed it too fast, the medicinal ingredients temporarily ran out. Lin Hui simply asked about the prescription in detail and confirmed that a medicinal ingredient called Tree Scorpion Tail was missing. This ingredient was also the most expensive one in the entire prescription, taken from a Mist Zone monster called a Tree Scorpion.

Immediately, without a word, he inquired about the Tree Scorpion’s range of activity, which happened to be in the edge of the Mist Zone near another town.

It just so happened that he needed to avoid that Yu Ying from the Inner City and the search team from the Hundred Flowers Gate during this time.

He rarely went to other towns, so he decided to go out for some activity this time, considering it his first long trip.

The discovery that Total Essence Powder was useful for his blood-red mark evolution gave Lin Hui great enthusiasm for hunting Tree Scorpions.

If he could take two doses of Total Essence Powder a day, wouldn’t he be able to evolve one move a day? The remaining moves of the Clear Wind Sword Style could be completed in a short time. Moreover, with the acceleration from the medicine, he would dare to attempt evolving those items that required a long time.

Of course, drug resistance would appear sooner or later for any medicine, so he had to look for other prescriptions as future substitutes.

Action followed thought.

Immediately, Lin Hui bid farewell to his parents, left home with some simple food and silver notes, and rushed toward the direction of the Mist Zone where the Tree Scorpions were located.

The town adjacent in that direction was a distant town called Shiqiao Town.

Shiqiao Town was separated from Xinyu Town by three towns. The distance was relatively far, so for a long journey, he had to purchase an ox cart.

Originally, Lin Hui intended to rush over alone relying on his movement technique, but because he wasn’t familiar with the route, for his first trip, he went to the market and bought an ox cart. He joined a few traveling merchants also going to Shiqiao Town to form a small caravan and set off quickly.

Early in the morning, before the sky was fully bright and just as the mist dispersed, a small convoy of five ox carts started their journey along the mud road of Xinyu Town at a moderate pace.

These ox carts were entirely black with enclosed carriages.

The black oxen pulling the carts also wore thick leather covers, looking like old oxen in leather coats. By pulling the hat on the ox’s head forward, the head could be completely covered for the night.

Lin Hui sat on the last small ox cart in the driver’s seat, holding a whip, following the four carts ahead all the way.

The black ox he bought was old and slow-paced, but steady. It pulled the cart smoothly without bumps, perfect for him to sit cross-legged and rest.

For this trip, he just needed to get enough Tree Scorpion tails; the other medicinal ingredients could be replenished by his father.

Actually, if he wasn’t in a hurry, he could wait for his father to get them. But since he could speed up the collection himself, Lin Hui felt there was no need to waste time; accelerating evolution as soon as possible was the true path.

Adding the need to avoid trouble, he simply went alone.

‘I hope Master doesn’t get into trouble over there.‘ Halfway there, thinking of the exploration team from the Inner City and the search team from the Hundred Flowers Gate, he was somewhat worried about his Senior Sister causing trouble.

Although he had warned them before leaving, they were still too close…

The journey was uneventful. It took two days for Lin Hui to drive the cart to Shiqiao Town.

After temporarily storing the ox cart at a cart rental agency, he went straight to the suburban Mist Zone alone with his sword and empty bags.

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Gray mist filled the air. In the spherical cavity created by the Tranquility Incense, Lin Hui strolled slowly, holding his sword.

His expression was vigilant, listening for movements from the surroundings at any time.

‘The Tree Scorpion is not a Harmless-grade monster, but a Nuisance-grade one. This level corresponds to Internal Force Realm experts… Just killing one can be exchanged for other ingredients to make ten portions of Total Essence Powder. Very cost-effective…‘

The materials of a Nuisance-grade monster could be exchanged for over a hundred thousand in cash. This was precisely why the income of Internal Force experts from hunting far exceeded that of ordinary martial artists.

However, the risk was equally great. Compared to the stable income of teaching at a martial arts hall, if one accidentally encountered a group of monsters while hunting, the outcome…

Only because Lin Hui was confident in his movement speed did he dare to come alone.

Partly for materials, and partly to test his full current strength.

Especially the Sealing Formation Toxin. He had never used this trump card in actual combat. Without testing it in combat, if he faced an Internal Force Realm opponent and really needed to use it, he might fail.

He had to determine when to use it, how to follow up after using it, and so on.

After moving forward slowly for more than ten minutes, Lin Hui faintly heard the sound of weapons clashing from the distance on the right, but the sound soon moved away and disappeared.

He paused vigilantly, confirmed nothing was approaching, and then continued forward.

The Mist Zone here was full of black withered trees of varying thickness. The withered trees formed a forest filled with mist, and the ground was covered with dead leaves.

Walking made crisp sounds underfoot, and he occasionally had to reach out to push aside twigs blocking the way.

Lin Hui put the Tranquility Incense into a special leather buckle on his belt with one hand, then held the sword with both hands and crossed an upward slope.

Ahead appeared a massive fallen tree trunk. The huge trunk, over a meter thick, extended into the mist, its length invisible.

Many areas of the rough black surface had rotted, growing gray-white unknown fungi.

The trunk blocked the way. On the right was a crooked wooden sign with scrawled writing: Ten Thousand Blood Valley Ahead. Danger Level: Nuisance.

The writing was red, eye-catching and clear.

‘This is the place.‘ Lin Hui took a deep breath, gripped his sword tightly, jumped lightly over the tree trunk, and walked inside.

He had only walked a dozen meters.

Chii!

A black light flashed from the right, flying toward his chest.

The black light was extremely fast. Shooting out from the mist and passing through the cavity held up by the Tranquility Incense took only an instant.

This speed far exceeded any opponent Lin Hui had encountered before. Even Master Mingde’s attack speed wasn’t as fast as this black light.

But he was no longer the person he used to be. Having completed the Body Tempering of the Seven-Section Quick Sword, his reaction speed and movement had reached a level unimaginable to ordinary people.

As soon as he saw the black light fly out of the mist, he activated his special effect simultaneously.

‘Featherweight!‘

In an instant, the Clear River sword in his hand flicked upward, precisely hitting the black light.

A massive impact force came from the sword tip, almost knocking Lin Hui’s hand askew, but in the end, he forcibly flicked it away.

Whoosh.

At the same time, a massive black shadow, fully four meters tall, slowly crawled out of the mist in front of Lin Hui.

It was a giant black scorpion covered in black armor, raising its tail and swaying left and right!

‘This is the Tree Scorpion?!‘

Lin Hui narrowed his eyes slightly, the relevant intelligence he had collected beforehand flashing through his mind.

This was his first time engaging in a frontal confrontation with a complete Internal Force Realm opponent who hadn’t been worn down. Moreover, it was a strong one among the Internal Force Realm. Perhaps this could test the true upper limit of his strength…

(End of Chapter)