Chapter 7: The Variable I

As the sky gradually darkened.

Lin Hui put away his wooden stick, wiped the sweat from his face with a cloth, and quickly headed toward the communal bunkhouse.

The communal bunkhouse was located to the right of the training ground. Looking at it, it resembled a large, blackened intestine laid horizontally on the ground.

The patterns on the outside of the “intestine” were the individual, partitioned rooms. Each room could sleep about ten people.

Lin Hui lived in the rightmost room, which was relatively clean and ventilated.

He pushed the door open and glanced at the Tuyue jade talisman hanging on the wall. Everyone else in the room had returned. Two people were playing cards, and the rest were silently practicing movements with small wooden sticks in their respective spots, most of them looking focused and serious.

“A Hui, you’re back?” Chen Zhishen looked over, flipped up, and approached. “You weren’t here just now. Someone was discussing that the Martial Uncles at the temple caught a Monster and brought it back during the day. You should have seen it! Its claws—one arm was at least as tall as one of us!”

He looked somewhat excited and agitated.

After all, most people living in the city rarely got to see what a Monster looked like.

These rumored Monsters were mostly hidden in the Mist Zone outside, mysterious and unpredictable.

Legends said they were cruel, savage, insane, and carried unimaginable toxins and diseases.

The immense mist completely isolated them from humans, as if they were two separate worlds.

“A Monster? I’ve been practicing martial arts all day and didn’t notice anything else,” Lin Hui’s curiosity was also piqued.

To be honest, growing up in Xinyu Town in the Outer City, he hadn’t seen a Monster either. These Monsters seemed to rarely invade the city limits, only attacking those who ventured into the Mist Zone, such as pioneers, trade caravans, and messengers.

However, pioneers were often death row inmates who had committed serious crimes, only large business houses had the capability to form inter-city trade caravans, and as for messengers, they were an elite existence beyond the imagination of ordinary people.

Anyone who could travel between major cities alone was definitely a top-tier expert.

“It’s said that the Monster was over four meters tall, covered in black scales, with no eyes or nostrils, only a huge mouth covering its entire face. Very terrifying!” Chen Zhishen whispered.

“You’re just imagining things from reading too many storybooks, aren’t you?” A skinny fellow wearing glasses on the side mocked him.

“What storybooks? I personally saw Martial Uncle Mingde drag that Monster past the temple, and then it was taken away by the Yamen people. Fewer than ten people saw the entire process, and I was one of them!” Chen Zhishen was immediately displeased.

“Then do you know what the other career path is for people like us who practice martial arts, besides being a guard or a bodyguard? Or, have you ever considered why a Monster corpse would appear in the Mist-Free Zone where Monsters dare not enter? What was Martial Uncle Mingde doing dragging a Monster corpse here for no reason?” The skinny fellow pushed up his glasses and asked in a low voice.

“W-Why?” Chen Zhishen was intimidated by his words. He really hadn’t thought about these questions. He was just an ordinary farm boy who could barely read a few words, and his biggest source of knowledge was this Clear Wind Taoist Temple.

Lin Hui on the side was equally drawn in by the other party’s words. Not just him, but several other students nearby also quietly focused their attention on the skinny fellow.

Realizing that the topic he threw out had garnered everyone’s attention, the skinny fellow felt a sense of pride. He didn’t keep them guessing and rubbed his nose before saying,

“Because the main force for exploring the Mist Zone has always been us martial artists.”

He sighed.

“The Three Great Powers in the Inner City and the major powers in the various districts below them are actually all exploring the surrounding Mist Zone. Although there are Monsters in the Mist Zone, there are also all kinds of rare medicinal materials, precious mineral deposits, and even mysterious Ruins and treasures.”

“Ruins? Can’t anyone live or survive in the Mist Zone?” A gentle-looking youth couldn’t help but ask.

“No one lives there now, but some places used to be Mist-Free Zones and only later became Mist Zones for various reasons,” the skinny fellow whispered mysteriously. “Moreover, I heard from my uncle that most of the Ruins in the Mist Zone were actually not left behind by us humans, but by other unknown species.”

Unknown species!

This immediately piqued the interest of all the young men around.

“Unknown species can also leave Ruins? Does that mean they can also build houses, farm, raise livestock, and eat meat, just like us humans?” The youth who had asked before continued.

“I’m not sure, but it should be, otherwise how could they leave Ruins?” The skinny fellow laughed. Seeing more and more people gathering around, he became even more enthusiastic and began to meticulously describe how he had learned this information.

It turned out that his uncle was once one of the martial artists who ventured out to explore the Mist Zone. He was highly skilled, but after multiple explorations, he was unfortunately left disabled and severely injured. In the end, he could only rely on his past savings to retire at home and wait to die.

All this information about the Mist Zone was told to him by his uncle as stories during his idle time.

Lin Hui listened intently from the side. He had never been exposed to this kind of information before.

Through the skinny fellow’s words, his perception of this world seemed to have a curtain slowly drawn back.

According to him, this world was not only inhabited by humans but also by many humanoid species and some non-human species.

Some of these humanoid species had even secretly infiltrated the Mist-Free Zone within the city, living there under disguise. Other species would engage in friendly trade with humans and even intermarry, leading to mixed blood. These were not particularly huge secrets in the Inner City.

Finally, seeing the mist outside thicken and the time for extinguishing the lamps approaching.

The skinny fellow concluded with one final statement.

“Alright, alright, I’ve talked so much my throat is dry, and I haven’t even received any money for tea. If you’re really interested, you can go to Rift Town on the edge when you have time. I heard there are stationed troops there, and because a humanoid species called the Cloud Tribe frequently appears, many residents of Rift Town are of mixed human and Cloud Tribe blood.”

Rift Town…

Lin Hui secretly committed this place name to memory.

Hoo.

Blowing out the oil lamp, everyone lay down in their spots, but no matter who they were, they were all too excited by the skinny fellow’s words to fall asleep.

Lin Hui was the same. His mind continuously replayed everything the skinny fellow had described. His impression of the Mist Zone gradually changed from merely a place of deadly danger to a place where danger and opportunity coexisted.

The night passed quietly, with only the constant whistling of the wind outside making the door creak.

The next day.

As soon as the sky brightened, most of the teenagers in the room got up, and Lin Hui was among them.

As usual: fetch water, chop wood, and then practice the sword.

After practicing until almost noon, he had a different plan this time.

After hearing the skinny fellow’s story yesterday, Lin Hui decided to personally visit the boundary of the Mist-Free Zone during the day.

If he were still in Xinyu Town, he wouldn’t be able to run that far. But the Clear Wind Taoist Temple was already close to the edge of the Mist-Free Zone and had a small Mist Zone path that trade caravans frequently used, so walking there and back on foot was actually manageable.

With his mind made up, Lin Hui immediately returned to the communal bunkhouse to pack his things, grabbed his water bag, checked the direction, and decisively headed out through the temple’s side gate.

The north side of the temple was the massive Tuyue City. The south side was an enormous, grayish-white expanse of mist.

The distance from the side gate to the mist boundary was less than three hundred meters.

Lin Hui left the side gate, found a large tree, climbed it, and surveyed the terrain from above.

The shortest route to the boundary from here was along the small river beside the temple.

This river was called the Intestine River (肠河), which, as the name implied, was a small, winding river like an intestine. Its source passed through Xinyu Town in the Outer City, flowed all the way to the Clear Wind Taoist Temple, then passed through a dense forest, and finally disappeared completely into the vast, endless mist.

Lin Hui’s departure did not attract the attention of the gatekeeping Taoist children, as going out to chop wood was the most common activity for the students.

Teachers from the temple were also frequently seen patrolling the area to mitigate any risks.

As for Monster door-crashing ghosts, at least so far, they had not seen any Monsters actively trying to break into the Mist-Free Zone.

Carrying his water bag, Lin Hui, dressed in gray short martial attire and holding a sharpened, thick wooden stick, quickly followed a faint path toward the Mist Zone.

The sky was overcast and sunless, with thick clouds piled up and the wind howling, making rain seem possible at any moment.

Lin Hui walked alone on the overgrown forest path.

All around him were thick, straight, gray-black trees.

The luxuriant, dark green grass and shrubs were half a man’s height, completely concealing the area outside the small path.

Crack.

Crack.

Lin Hui carefully rushed forward. Soon, following the small path, his vision gradually caught sight of the gray mist emerging from the trees ahead.

The thick gray mist was like a wall, connecting the sky and the earth, slicing the forest in two.

At the same time, Lin Hui’s footsteps paused because he saw an old man in a black Taoist robe sitting cross-legged at the base of a large tree beside the path.

The old man looked benevolent, with white hair and beard. He was solidly built and carried a pitch-black long sword on his back.

Hearing the footsteps, he slowly squinted and looked over at Lin Hui.

“Every few days, some curious kid comes to see a spectacle. Can’t you people be a little less restless?”

Lin Hui saw the style and marking on the old Taoist’s robe. It was the style of the Clear Wind Taoist Temple. He knew the man was specifically stationed here to guard and maintain safety.

He immediately stepped forward and respectfully bowed to the man.

“Disciple Lin Hui pays his respects to the Master.”

“I am Minchen. Although no Monsters come in and out of this area, don’t run over here looking for trouble for no reason. If you enter the Mist Zone, you will surely die without a whole corpse.” The old Taoist warned.

“Disciple understands. I was just curious and planned to look around the edge. I absolutely will not enter,” Lin Hui replied seriously. This was what he was thinking and what he was doing.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t have deliberately followed a path already trodden by others.

“Very well. Go back after you’ve looked enough.” Daoist Minchen nodded, no longer looking in this direction, and resumed his meditative sitting.

The rustling of the leaves was carried by the whooshing wind.

A few leaves occasionally drifted down onto the two of them.

Lin Hui stared intently at the mist wall not far away, trying to peer through the mist to see what was inside.

Swish.

Faintly, he saw a gray shadow, taller than a person, flash by in the mist. It was very fast.

“May I ask, Master, why don’t the Monsters in the Mist Zone enter our area?” Lin Hui asked softly.

Daoist Minchen remained motionless, as if he hadn’t heard anything.

Seeing this, Lin Hui knew that the man completely ignored him. After a moment of silence, he looked around and felt that running back now would be a bit anticlimactic. So, he simply picked up his sharp wooden stick and vigorously carved a line of text on a tree trunk on the side.

‘Lin Hui was here.’

“…” Minchen heard the movement, opened his eyes to look, and immediately looked speechless.

After doing this, Lin Hui turned around, intending to return. But after only taking two steps, he looked down and bent over to pick up a fragment of a black-purple material from the grass on the ground.

The fragment was cold to the touch and seemed to have broken off the edge of some kind of equipment.

After acquiring this souvenir, Lin Hui was satisfied and quickly returned to the temple.

Daoist Minchen saw this and was once again left speechless. That fragment was nothing more than a leftover piece of skin or horn from a Monster that had passed by at night from the Mist Zone. It was worthless. Yet, this kid picked it up and acted as if it were a treasure.

(End of Chapter)