At a roadside teahouse.
The autumn wind was desolate, the air dry and cold.
Inside the teahouse, a crude structure of gray cloth and thick wooden posts, Lin Hui found a random stool and sat down, ordering a pot of hot tea from the waiter.
He waited for a good while, but Chen Chong never appeared. It seemed the guy really had been scared off. After all, the wound on his waist had just bled a lot; it was nothing a bandage couldn't fix. But the wounds of the heart... who knew how to treat those?
Lin Hui poured himself a cup of hot tea, idly watching the pedestrians and carriages come and go on the street.
"Oh, that cursed wind~ It blows my heart so cold~ Whose fields are they, I wonder, all bloomin' with bitter flowers~" An old man driving an oxcart, cracking his whip, ambled past the teahouse, singing a folk song in an unknown dialect.
"Wen Xin! Fancy seeing you here. It's been too long!" In front of a nearby silversmith shop, a tall man with a white kerchief wrapped around his head hurried to catch up with a burly man ahead of him, greeting him with a smile.
"Mommy, I want to eat this! I'll use my own allowance to buy it!" Elsewhere, a little boy with his hair in a topknot stood frozen in front of a mobile candy stall, refusing to move.
Watching the people pass by one after another, Lin Hui once again felt that immense sense of disconnect he'd experienced before.
'The nights are so dangerous, with only a Jade Talisman to ward off the perils from outside. The people of the Outer City are under constant threat, so how can they be so calm? Why aren't they scared or panicked? How can they still smile like this?'
'What if the Jade Talisman fails...' Lin Hui subconsciously tightened his grip on his sword hilt.
His mind was a whirlwind of thoughts, so he simply closed his eyes to rest and gather his wits.
Before long, the tea grew cold. The other tables began to fill up with traveling merchants taking a rest. Taking advantage of the fog-free daytime, they carried Jade Talismans issued by the Inner City, shuttling back and forth between the two city districts.
They could be seen every day, entering and exiting the cities to transport goods.
Lin Hui had been sitting for a long time and was about to get up when fragments of the merchants' idle chatter drifted over to him.
"...disappeared too?"
"It's true. I swung by the Wang Family's place on my way here. There wasn't a single person inside. Looked like it had been empty for a while. The Jade Talisman was missing a huge chunk."
"Isn't that exactly what happened to the Zhou Family?"
"Yeah. Not long ago we had the Gate-Breaking Ghost, and now there are mysterious disappearances. The Outer City never gets any peace, year in and year out."
"Come on. What 'no peace'? Haven't you noticed it's always the down-and-out families that disappear or run into trouble? Has anything ever happened to the big, wealthy clans? You really think these are accidents?"
"Keep your voice down!"
"Sigh... it's better to just move to the Inner City. No fog at night, it's safe, prosperous, and the girls on the street are pretty and don't like to wear many clothes..."
The men seemed to notice others eavesdropping, so they lowered their voices and changed the subject to more frivolous matters.
Lin Hui's brow furrowed. He mentally filed the information away. His parents lived in town, and this sort of thing concerned his family's safety. He had to remain vigilant.
After sitting a while longer, Huang Shan and Qiu Yiren returned together. They sat down, ordered hot tea, and let out long sighs.
"This weather... it's so dry and cold, and the wind is so strong it's giving me a headache," Huang Shan said with a pained expression, cupping her teacup to absorb its warmth.
"You've worked hard. Would you like some snacks?" Lin Hui waved over the waiter, who was wringing out a towel.
"So attentive? What's up?" Qiu Yiren looked up at Lin Hui. Having partnered with him for some time, she had come to understand his personality a little.
He was the type to leave people alone, only approaching them when he had a reason to.
Lin Hui smiled. When the waiter got closer, he said, "Can't I be nice to my benefactors for no reason? For the next few days, if Junior Sister Huang is willing, she can continue to swap shifts with me. Waiter, some salted sunflower seeds and peanuts."
"Right away," the waiter replied before turning to leave.
"Are you sure?" Huang Shan's eyes lit up. "You and Senior Brother Chen are getting along fine?"
"Of course. Senior Brother Chen is a good guy. As long as you get along with him, patrolling together is quite worry-free," Lin Hui said with a smile.
"..." Huang Shan looked at his strange smile and instantly understood that Chen Chong had definitely gotten the short end of the stick with Lin Hui. Her mood immediately brightened.
She pointed a finger at Lin Hui, a matching smile spreading across her face. Everything was understood without a word.
"Same price as before!"
"Junior Sister Huang is truly generous!" Lin Hui raised his teacup but didn't drink. Instead, he changed the subject. "Speaking of which, I just overheard some people mentioning that something's happened in the Outer City again. Have you two junior sisters heard anything?"
"The disappearances? We've heard," Huang Shan nodded. "There's definitely something suspicious about it. It feels like the victims are being specifically selected..."
"Aren't the Zhong Family Brothers your suitors? Do they have any inside information?" Qiu Yiren asked softly from the side.
"Information..." Huang Shan thought for a moment. "They did vaguely mention the Inner City's attitude toward the Outer City People."
She paused before continuing, "According to them, over ninety percent of Tuyue's population is concentrated in the Inner City, which is also largely self-sufficient in terms of production. The Outer City is basically an abandoned buffer zone. The Inner City doesn't really care about the safety of the Outer City People. The resources transported daily—vegetables, meat, and other supplies—are of little use to the Inner City."
"Does the Inner City have its own fields?" Lin Hui asked with a frown.
"Of course, and the yields are very high. Since there's no fog, they can work at night. Plus, with Wanfu Meat, no one goes hungry. The service and entertainment industries are extremely developed. It's a completely different world from outside the city walls," Huang Shan said quietly.
"How nice. The lack of fog at night alone is enough to make countless Outer City People desperate to get in," Qiu Yiren sighed.
"It is. And I've also heard a rumor." Huang Shan glanced around before lowering her voice again.
"They say the Inner City has a hidden evaluation grade for every resident of the Outer City."
"An evaluation grade? What's that?" Lin Hui's eyes narrowed.
"It's supposedly a system used to screen residents for their usefulness. If you're deemed useless, you get 'consumed' by all sorts of mysterious accidents." Huang Shan's voice grew even quieter. "Rumor has it that the Outer City People are just test subjects and consumables for many of the Inner City's organizations and factions. A lot of people mysteriously disappear from the Outer City every year. It's just that no one notices because families have lots of children, and a fair number of people are kicked out of the Inner City, replenishing the population here."
As he listened, Lin Hui inexplicably thought of the hanging Jade Talismans, and a chill shot through his heart.
He suddenly realized that if the faction that created the Jade Talismans truly wanted to cull the population, they would only need to tamper with the talismans to make the Outer City People mysteriously disappear in an instant.
Those Jade Talismans were, in fact, nooses hanging around the neck of every person in the Outer City, ready to be tightened at any moment.
"Alright, let's not talk about such tense and dangerous things. Shanshan, your family is about to move into the Inner City soon, right?" Qiu Yiren changed the subject.
"Yeah, I borrowed some money from the Zhong Family and bought a very small house in the Inner City. It's just big enough for us to squeeze into," Huang Shan nodded.
"Then why are you still spending money so freely?"
"I have my own ways of making money, of course," Huang Shan said with a mysterious smile.
The three of them chatted idly. Before long, it was time for the afternoon patrol. Since Chen Chong still hadn't returned, the two women were a bit puzzled but didn't ask any further questions. They got up and continued their patrol.
Lin Hui, meanwhile, continued his work alone along his previous route.
「Day by day, time passed.」
Chen Chong eventually returned to his patrol duties, but he always seemed distracted and wore a grim expression.
Senior Brother Chen Sui also returned, with a bloody gash on the back of his hand. No one knew how he got injured. Since he didn't say anything, it wasn't their place to ask.
Soon, the last two days of the patrol were over. After the five of them handed off their duties in town, they returned to Qingfeng Temple together.
Excluding Chen Chong, his interactions during this period had earned Lin Hui three new acquaintances in the temple.
Huang Shan, Qiu Yiren, and Senior Brother Chen Sui had all developed a favorable impression of Lin Hui, who was reliable and diligent. They would occasionally greet him and chat for a bit when they ran into each other.
This greatly expanded Lin Hui's social circle at Qingfeng Temple. Perhaps this was what Daoist Mingde had hoped to see.
People must form groups to gain influence and, in turn, greater safety.
Back at Qingfeng Temple, Lin Hui first sent a letter home to let his family know he was safe, then began to examine the results of his Blood Seal's evolution.
After a month, the Blood Seal had finally completed its evolution based on the natural patterns of the insect egg.
Outside Qingfeng Temple, under a large, old locust tree, the shade was deep and the autumn wind rustled gently.
Lin Hui, dressed in his gray and white Formal Clothing, sat cross-legged on the ground. He had placed a thin gray cloth underneath him to keep from getting his backside dirty.
Not far away, other temple disciples were practicing their Swordsmanship, the air whistling softly with their movements.
This was a common outdoor training area for the temple disciples. Because the ground was flat and the light was good, many disciples and students often came here to claim a spot and practice their swordsmanship.
Lin Hui was a regular here.
Sitting cross-legged, his entire focus was on the Blood Seal's text at the bottom of his vision.
'Sealing Array: Derived from the special three-dimensional structural patterns inside the Sealed Insect Egg. Can seal a creature's basic consciousness for one second. Cooldown: two seconds. Sealing method: poison contact. Evolvable Branches: 0.'
This was the evolved ability he had just obtained.
'Sealing Array...' Lin Hui held out his hand, looking at the tip of his index finger.
His translucent fingernail was slightly longer and pointier now. Beneath it, the nail bed was a healthy pink, showing no sign of any poison whatsoever.
'The effect of this Sealed Array Poison only lasts for one second. No wonder it only took a month to evolve. But even one second could be quite effective if used properly. The question now is, how do I use this ability?'
Lin Hui flexed his fingers, his gaze sweeping over the dirt ground around him. He soon locked onto a black ant that was struggling to climb a dark green weed.
He reached out, pinched the black ant, and gently placed it in the palm of his hand.
'Seal!' he thought, concentrating on the ant.
The ant crawled all over, showing no reaction.
After a moment of thought, Lin Hui recalled the Sealed Insect Egg.
'The Sealed Insect Egg's sealing method was to envelop its target. That's a form of contact, which means the sealing ability I've obtained should have a similar activation requirement.'
Thinking of this, he extended his other index finger and gently touched the ant. At the same time, he focused his Consciousness Power on the seal, imagining that he wanted to seal the small ant before him.
BUZZ.
In an instant, an extremely faint wisp of transparent energy seeped from Lin Hui's fingertip and precisely attached itself to the black ant.
The moment the energy stream made contact with the ant, it vanished.
And at the same time, the black ant instantly froze, becoming completely motionless.
It was like a static, 3D-printed black model, lying motionless on the skin of his palm.
A second later, the ant quickly started moving again, scurrying around in a panic.
'It worked... The trigger condition is to have contact and activate it with my mind at the same time.' Lin Hui flicked the ant away, his brow furrowed slightly. 'This ability is a bit useless. It's best suited for a surprise attack in hand-to-hand combat. Not very practical...'
He stood up and drew the sword from his waist. It was the one gifted to him by Daoist Mingde, which he had named Qinghe, signifying that its blade was as clear and straight as a pristine river.
WHOOSH.
He suddenly thrust his sword forward, the tip precisely striking the little black ant he had just released.