Decaying World-Chapter 36

"The 'why' is none of your business," Deng Mingchao said coldly.
"Heh..." Mu Qiaozhi chuckled. Her fit, leopard-like body approached slowly, step by step, closing the distance. "You look angry?"
"Why shouldn't I be angry? Facing a traitor..." Deng Mingchao wore a look of mockery, but his words were cut short.
"What exactly did I betray?" Mu Qiaozhi laughed. "No, seriously, Junior Brother Deng, isn't your way of thinking a bit laughable? Clear Wind Temple opens its doors to teach martial arts; we pay money to enter and learn. It’s just External Style martial arts—you can learn it anywhere. The rich do it to exercise their bodies, the poor do it to make a living. Did you actually intend to treat it as a lifelong pursuit?"
"..." Deng Mingchao wanted to say something, but for a moment, he didn't know how to refute her.
"Junior Brother Deng, these External Style martial halls are just revolving-door training centers. Money in one hand, skills in the other. It's not like they're passing down any important or rare secret arts. If this one fails, we just switch to another. Every so often, all sorts of martial halls close down and rise up. If everyone were as pedantic as you, do you intend to collapse along with the martial hall?" Mu Qiaozhi continued to smile.
"Then what is Senior Sister Mu's intention in coming here?" Lin Hui, standing behind, couldn't help but speak up.
"I just want to pull you over to the Black Dragon Gate. The martial arts of Clear Wind Temple are too weak. Even if the movement techniques hold a slight advantage, the overall inferiority cannot cancel out the massive gap," Mu Qiaozhi smiled. "Don't forget why we practice martial arts in the first place."
She walked to a spot three meters away from the two and stopped.
"Isn't it just to gain the power to protect ourselves and our families after failing the selection?"
Sighing, she slowly raised her hand, flexing her black metal claws.
"If we had been selected and become Called Ones, who would still be willing to practice martial arts? Internal Style is one thing, but the ceiling for External Style has always been visible. We learn just enough to get by, and the masters teach casually. Everyone knows that practicing External Style martial arts to the end amounts to nothing more than this. That is reality."
"Senior Sister makes sense, but..." Deng Mingchao began, his face ugly.
"But what? Even your masters—the three of the 'Ming' generation—wasn't it the same for them back then? They failed the selection and had to settle for second best, trying to enter the Three Sects and Six Gangs of the Inner City. But they weren't selected there either, and only in the end did they have no choice but to learn External Style. If there were a choice, who would stay in the Outer City to practice these bitter, second- or third-rate techniques?" Mu Qiaozhi continued.
Hearing this, Lin Hui understood. These martial halls in the Outer City were essentially vocational training centers, accepting young losers who had failed the selection and couldn't enter the Three Sects and Six Gangs.
These young people wanted to practice martial arts for self-preservation but suffered from a lack of options, thus spawning this massive market.
And this market gave birth to a large number of External Style martial halls located in various towns.
Because External Style didn't pick people, anyone could practice it, as long as they paid money.
And this was the key reason leading to Mu Qiaozhi's mindset.
"Mu Qiaozhi, are you done?" Deng Mingchao's face was extremely unsightly by now.
"Draw your sword. Show me your strongest move. As former classmates, I came to let you witness just how much higher the martial arts of the Black Dragon Gate are compared to Clear Wind Temple!" Mu Qiaozhi smiled again.
Clang!
With the ring of a sword, Deng Mingchao could no longer hold back. He drew his sword in a flash. The sword shadow was like a wisp of clear wind, its speed far exceeding before, arriving instantly in front of Mu Qiaozhi.
This strike clearly contained complex variations, but at the moment of the final release, the sword speed exploded violently. It was as if everything prior had been the compression of a spring, and this final strike was its explosive release.
This sword speed!?
Standing behind him, Lin Hui recognized it at a glance. This wasn't the Nine-Section Swift Sword; it was the Clear Wind Sword Technique!
The characteristic of the Clear Wind Sword Technique was speed! Extremely sudden speed. It caught people off guard, making them unable to react in time.
This sword strike even approached the speed of Lin Hui's own sword when his special effect was activated. Clearly, Senior Brother Deng had also been hiding a bit of strength all along.
The current Lin Hui had reached the 6th Rank of Body Tempering, approaching the 7th.
With his current foundation, when he activated the special effect, his sword speed far exceeded the full-power strike of the First Senior Brother back then by a large margin.
Yet Senior Brother Deng Mingchao could barely approach this speed. It was evident that he hadn't just learned the martial arts of Clear Wind Temple, but had other martial arts assisting and strengthening him.
In an instant, this sword shadow, like a clear breeze, flew toward Mu Qiaozhi's chest, about to pierce it.
Unfortunately, a black metal claw ignored all subtlety, waving forward like lightning, sweeping out a large swathe of black claw shadows.
Ding ding ding ding!
Four consecutive sounds rang out. The Clear Wind Sword and the black claw clashed rapidly, then separated.
The immense force of the black claw forcibly knocked the sword's momentum askew, then reversed to press straight toward Deng Mingchao's chest, repaying him in kind.
Swish!
The black metal claw stopped steadily in front of Deng Mingchao, motionless.
The intense airflow blew against Deng Mingchao's uniform, pressing it tightly against his chest.
He gasped violently, a look of disbelief revealing itself on his face.
Even if he was weaker than Mu Qiaozhi, the opponent hadn't used the Clear Wind Sword Technique from start to finish, but the martial arts of the Black Dragon Gate.
How long had it been since Mu Qiaozhi transferred? And she was already...!?
"Do you see?" Mu Qiaozhi retracted her sharp claws. "This is the gap in martial arts. Junior Brother Deng, Junior Brother Lin, when a road is destined not to go far, turning back early to choose a longer path is the wise choice. Don't waste your time in vain, only to regret it in your old age."
After saying this, she turned around and walked toward the dark alley she had come from, disappearing quickly.
Deng Mingchao and Lin Hui were left standing in place, silent. Their hearts were heavy with myriad thoughts.
They stood for a full few minutes.
"Senior Brother Deng?" Lin Hui finally spoke. He noticed that Deng Mingchao seemed distracted, his face extremely ugly, even faintly revealing a trace of struggle.
Seeing this, he understood. Senior Brother Deng was shaken.
If the gap between the martial arts of the Black Dragon Gate and Clear Wind Temple was only slight, he believed Senior Brother Deng wouldn't be easily swayed. After all, the sunk costs were high, plus Master Mingde's care within Clear Wind Temple meant different treatment; which side to choose went without saying.
But the problem was, judging from Mu Qiaozhi's display just now, the gap between the martial arts of the two sides was truly somewhat large.
Lin Hui knew that others were actually different from him. Back then, he had a choice, but he chose Clear Wind Temple for speed. But the others, in reality, had no choice but to join Clear Wind Temple.
Others practiced martial arts to become strong, focusing on strength. But he was different; he practiced martial arts primarily to run away—focusing on survival.
Regarding the Black Dragon Gate, even if Mu Qiaozhi displayed a huge gap, Lin Hui was unmoved. Because no matter how strong the Black Dragon Gate was in a head-on fight, their running speed was inferior to Clear Wind Temple.
Back then, if Daoist Baohe hadn't cared about face and had just turned and run instead of engaging directly, he definitely wouldn't have been injured.
Understanding the changing expressions on Deng Mingchao's face at this moment, Lin Hui sighed in his heart, knowing that perhaps before long, he would have one less senior brother.
Clear Wind Temple... what it would become in the future, he couldn't say for sure now.
"Let's go." Deng Mingchao exhaled, restrained his expression, and continued to lead the way forward.
The two subsequently resolved two more Blood-Eyed Afflicted and one Blood-Body Afflicted, but Deng Mingchao didn't say another word.
Lin Hui also followed suit and resolved a Blood-Eyed Afflicted. When it was time to return, the two turned back all the way, exiting the black housing area.
At the gathering point, most of the team members had already returned.
First Senior Brother Chen Sui, Huang Shan, Qiu Yiren, the Black Dragon Gate's Zhao Jiang'an, Mu Qiaozhi, and others were all there.
When he saw the First Senior Brother, Lin Hui's expression shifted slightly. He noticed a faint split wound on the webbing of Chen Sui's right hand.
Moreover, Chen Sui's expression mirrored Deng Mingchao's moments ago.
His gaze drifted unconsciously toward the former Second Senior Brother, Zhao Jiang'an.
Seeing this, Lin Hui had a guess in his heart. And Deng Mingchao beside him was no fool; he, too, spotted the clues, and his face became even uglier.
"All teams numbers," Head Constable Xu Ansheng said in a deep voice.
"Nine Blood-Eyes here, one Blood-Body."
"Six Blood-Eyes, two Blood-Bodies."
"Five Blood-Eyes, two Blood-Bodies..."
"Four Blood-Eyes, two Blood-Bodies."
Each team ed the number of afflicted they had killed.
"Not bad, prepare to withdraw. Hard work, everyone. We continue tomorrow." Xu Ansheng nodded. The statistical number of rampant patients this time was roughly between twenty and thirty. This trip solved more than half; the efficiency was quite good.
Soon, everyone returned quickly in the direction they came from.
Along the way, Deng Mingchao didn't say another word. Even when separating from Lin Hui, he disappeared in silence.
Lin Hui returned to Clear Wind Temple and told his master, Mingde, about what had happened today at the first opportunity.
Mingde's Home
"Sigh..." A sigh rang out.
Daoist Mingde held a cup of freshly brewed medicinal tea, his expression desolate.
"I don't blame him. Even I, hearing of this gap, feel moved to transfer, let alone young people..."
In the room, before the windowsill, he put down the teacup and pulled at the cotton coat draped over his shoulders.
"And you? Are you moved? The Black Dragon Gate is currently lacking core elites; going over now would ensure you are heavily utilized."
Hearing this, Lin Hui shook his head slightly.
"The Black Dragon Gate's martial arts are not what this disciple pursues."
"The truth, or words to soothe me?"
"Naturally, the truth. In the current situation, I have no need to lie to you," Lin Hui said calmly.
"That is true..." Mingde smiled, the smile somewhat bitter. "Unexpected, truly unexpected. Once Senior Brother Baohe fell, the enormous Clear Wind Temple scattered so quickly..."
"Master, don't worry. If we lower the tuition a bit, there will always be people learning," Lin Hui proposed. "We just won't compete directly with the Black Dragon Gate."
"True enough. Now, Clear Wind Temple relies on us three of the 'Ming' generation to support it. And even so, we are split into three branches, each going our own way. Decline is already a foregone conclusion. Indeed, we should lower the tuition." Mingde nodded in agreement.
"It's just..." He wanted to say something but stopped. In the end, he said nothing more, sighed deeply, and fell into silence.
Lowering the tuition meant that from now on, Clear Wind Temple would fall to the bottom tier of External martial halls, reduced from its previous mid-tier status to the lower class.
Low-tier martial halls accepted almost anyone as a disciple, and the tuition was generally less than half that of a mid-tier martial hall. It was just barely enough to scrape by, unable to support a slightly larger scale.
But the current situation allowed no hesitation from Mingde.
Thus, the day after accepting Lin Hui's suggestion, he decisively posted a public notice outside, announcing that for those entering his lineage to practice martial arts, the tuition would be only one-third of what it was before.
Once this announcement was out, within a few days, quite a few students came to inquire.
Lin Hui and Weiwei were responsible for reception and explanation, then occupied a piece of land in Clear Wind Temple as the new training ground.
Soon, half a month flashed by.
The original territory of Clear Wind Temple was divided into three blocks, controlled by Mingchen, Mingxiu, and Mingde, respectively.
Mingchen and Mingxiu both abandoned the Clear Wind Temple name, rebranding as the Swift Sword Sect and Wind Sword Sect, recruiting students on their own.
Only Mingde, still nostalgic for the past, continued to use the name Clear Wind Temple.
Additionally, Deng Mingchao finally left silently. After leaving a letter, he transferred to another sect—not the Black Dragon Gate, but another sect founded by experts from the Outer City.
In Mingde's lineage, only Lin Hui, Weiwei, and Wang Yun remained.
And the quality of the new students was far inferior to before. Some came to practice for fun, some purely for professional and cheap physical exercise—it didn't matter if the sword technique was strong, as long as it was cheap. There were even some who came to pursue Weiwei, attracted by her beauty...
For a time, the Clear Wind Temple inherited by Mingde seemed to transform into the common training classes of Lin Hui's previous life.
When practicing swords, everyone chatted and laughed on the grounds of the rear courtyard, completely losing the strict solemnity of before.
Mingde was also disheartened and too lazy to care. After teaching the introductory Seven-Section Swift Sword once, he went back to his room to rest. Order was maintained by Weiwei and Lin Hui.