The headquarters of the Flying Stone Sect was located in Shiyu Town, two townships distant from Fu'an Town.

Shiyu was distinct from its neighbors; it was a vast, commercially developed hub. Caravans from other districts, and even other races, frequently stopped here to trade. In particular, many who were unqualified to enter the Inner City—or who had failed the Inner City's screening—traveled here to offload valuable goods in their possession.

As a cultivator of the Circulation Realm, Li Chi required an immense volume of resources. Occupying an ordinary town would have been far from sufficient to sustain his cultivation; thus, choosing Shiyu Town was the only logical move for establishing a foothold in the Outer City.

The Flying Stone Sect sat on the edge of town, surrounded by treacherous terrain and dense forests. From a distance, it resembled a patch of white tiles set against a green-and-white slope.

Falling snow drifted through the air. The roofs of the sect’s dozens of buildings were blanketed in a thick layer of white.

On the third floor of one of the wooden structures, Li Chi sat cross-legged on a rush cushion. He faced the railing, his expression tranquil as he watched the transparent curtains flutter in the wind.

He was ninety-two years old. With a full head of white hair, long brows and beard, a white robe draped over his shoulders, and black jade hanging at his waist, a cursory glance gave him the air of an ethereal, virtuous sage.

Martial arts at the Internal Force stage all carried side effects. Upon reaching the Circulation Realm, these side effects became extreme, undergoing a qualitative shift.

This was the drawback of Extreme Martial Arts. Yet, this drawback was the price paid for incomparably powerful strength.

"No, Grandmaster," a girl with twin braids standing behind him answered respectfully.

"It seems an accident has occurred. The Golden Goose Gate of the New Martial Alliance must have acted..." Li Chi sighed. "It seems I have no choice but to be the knife..."

The Carefree Pavilion had invited him here for no other reason than to use him to probe the depths of the Golden Goose Gate. Although the Golden Goose Gate had turned the tide after the Alliance's previous disastrous defeat, how much strength did they actually have left? Specifically, what was the condition of the Circulation Realm martial artists in their inner sect? These were things that could only be judged through actual combat.

But probing could lead to death. And Li Chi, a latecomer from Xingdao, had become their weapon for this task.

Since it was a probe, he had to secure enough benefits; this was the fundamental reason for his frantic expansion in all directions. For this reason, the New Martial Alliance turned a blind eye, effectively indulging him. And without the restriction of the New Martial Alliance, the original resistance forces in the surrounding area simply lacked the power to oppose him.

As these thoughts flashed through Li Chi's mind, bringing with them a trace of helplessness, he suddenly sensed something. He slowly raised his chin, looking past the railing and curtains toward the foot of the mountain in the distance.

At the entrance of the Flying Stone Sect's memorial archway down the mountain, a white-clothed man holding a sword had appeared.

The man's face was obscured by the wind and snow, somewhat blurry, but the straight, unwavering way he held his sword spoke of immense confidence.

"Is this the Golden Goose Gate's answer?" Li Chi murmured.

"Report!" A shout suddenly came from a disciple behind him. "Bai Feihan, Li Zheng, Chan Master Yanmu, and Yao Huan have died in battle at Fu'an Town! The rest have been routed. The Clear Wind Temple's counterattack has already reached Shiyu Town!"

"He is already here. Do I still need you to report it?" Li Chi said softly.

Died in battle? Has the Golden Goose Gate finally torn off its mask?

"It's a pity... Bai Feihan was useful..."

He slowly stood up, his gaze falling through the air onto the sword-wielding figure.

Lin Hui stood at the entrance of the memorial archway, looking up through the wind and snow toward the old man on the balcony of the white wooden building halfway up the mountain.

He turned his gaze to the three large characters carved on the archway. Flying Stone Sect.

"Who goes there?!"

Inside the archway, several yellow-clad martial artists rushed out. Each clutched a weapon—some sabers, some swords, and other messy implements like hooks and chains. Apart from the uniform cross-shaped scars on their bodies, this group was a motley crew.

"Your eyes are full of fear. What use is there in accepting people like this?" Lin Hui sighed.

He lifted his sword and stepped forward. Behind him, Wang Hongshi spoke up, his voice tinged with a mix of incomprehension, worry, and fear of the terrible outcome that might ensue.

"Temple Master, do you plan to just kill your way up like this?"

"Have you forgotten what I said before we set out? To cut the weeds without digging up the roots is to invite disaster," Lin Hui answered. "What do we swing our swords countless times and practice countless times for?"

As his voice fell, he took a step forward.

In an instant, his figure blurred into a series of afterimages, flashing past the nervous group of martial artists.

Blood sprayed, scattering onto the snow like blossoming red plum.

Swish!

Lin Hui did not stop at all, charging straight ahead. Every hand he passed along the way was split in two the instant he swept by.

Extreme speed of the sword, extreme speed of movement technique—what this brought was extreme impact force and cutting power.

For martial artists below the Internal Force Realm, this was a death sentence. In a single encounter, no matter what martial art one cultivated, in the face of such speed, life and death were decided in an instant.

A magpie flying past the Flying Stone Sect looked down and clearly saw a line of blood extending rapidly from the archway toward the sect's headquarters—the wooden building halfway up the mountain.

At the end of that line of blood, Li Chi leaped lightly from the third floor, dropping to stand on the pure white snow, awaiting his guest. His expression was calm, as if those being slaughtered weren't his own people, but merely strangers.

A dozen seconds later.

Shua.

A figure in the wind and snow came to an abrupt halt, landing seven or eight meters away.

It was Lin Hui who had carved a bloody path up the mountain.

He shook off the accumulating blood on his sword, glanced at the increasingly worn and chipped edge, and frowned slightly. The blood had seeped into the cracks and was hard to shake clean.

"This sword was a gift from my Master. I quite liked it... but at this point, it's time to put it down and let it rest..." He looked up at Li Chi. "People are like swords. You are already at such an advanced age—why go to the trouble of fighting to the death?"

"Just Internal Force Realm?" Li Chi did not reply to the question. Instead, he looked around somewhat strangely, seemingly searching for anyone hiding in ambush.

"Sorry, it's just me. No one else." Lin Hui understood his meaning.

"You have a lot of courage. Knowing my cultivation base, you still dare to come seek death," Li Chi said, puzzled. "Is it a side effect of your cultivation method?"

"Not really. I just have a little confidence in myself, that's all." Lin Hui looked around. Having killed his way up, a considerable number of martial artists had gathered again, surrounding them from a distance, weapons in hand. Their faces carried fear and panic, yet they dared not flee. Clearly, they feared Li Chi more than they feared him.

"Forget it. Seeing your commendable courage, put down your sword and join my Flying Stone Sect. I can overlook what happened before," Li Chi said calmly.

"..." Lin Hui paused. "Sect Master Li is joking? I killed so many of your people..."

"Waste like that—I can recruit as many as I want." Li Chi remained extremely calm, as if he felt no emotional fluctuation whatsoever.

"With that attitude, the Flying Stone Sect can still gather so many people? Truly..." Lin Hui couldn't understand.

"Well?" Li Chi waited for his answer.

"But since joining you means I could be abandoned at any time, why should I?" Lin Hui asked.

"Because if you don't join, I will kill you." Li Chi's answer was simple and direct.

"How can you prove you can kill me? If you actually kill me, I'll be dead, and you won't get a subordinate. So... if you can prove you have the strength to put me to death, but don't actually do it, then I will believe you," Lin Hui said with a faint smile.

"...What you say makes sense." Li Chi paused, then nodded. "Fine. Next, I will stop just a moment before killing you. But I will only give you one chance."

He raised his right hand, and a hazy white light suddenly ignited around his body. The light completely enveloped him like a suit of armor, dancing and burning in his palm as lively as fire.

Whoosh!

In the next instant, he flicked a finger.

The white light on his hand condensed into a white streak, shooting out violently and striking toward Lin Hui at terrifying speed.

Pfft.

The white streak missed, punching a hole of unknown depth into the snowy ground.

But this wasn't over. A rain of white streaks instantly erupted from Li Chi's hand, blotting out the sky and covering the earth. Densely packed filaments of white force—some straight, some curved—rushed at high speed from all directions toward Lin Hui, who was constantly dodging.

They seemed capable of locking onto his position, and their speed rivaled Xue Meng's burst. For Lin Hui, this was equivalent to the speed of an Internal Force burst before activating the Featherweight Ascension special effect.

If it were just one, it would be trivial, but such a large quantity posed a burden.

Pfft pfft pfft pfft!

The snowy ground was instantly riddled with dense holes.

Li Chi stood his ground, his hand frantically shooting out massive swathes of white threads. His expression remained calm, as if the consumption of energy was negligible.

Such high-speed dodging must consume a terrifying amount of energy, right? How long can you last? He transmitted his voice.

"For me, this doesn't count as a burden either." Lin Hui's voice came from the wind and snow, equally calm and peaceful. "But if the Circulation Realm is only this much, you aren't qualified to make me join the Flying Stone Sect."

"..." Surprise flashed in Li Chi's eyes. He had seen many high-speed opponents, but this was the first whose speed was so great that his Thousand Stone Palm couldn't even catch up. The dispersed palm force threads of the Thousand Stone Palm were not considered slow, even within the Circulation Realm. Yet they couldn't even touch the corner of this man's clothes.

Immediately, he extended his left hand as well.

Bang!

A massive swathe of identical white silk threads erupted from his palm.

This time, the number of Internal Force threads doubled, completely covering the surrounding thirty-meter radius. Countless threads rained down, penetrating the ground with strange hissing sounds.

Lin Hui finally could not continue dodging at close range; he retreated at extreme speed, widening the distance before landing in an open space. He looked at the hemisphere formed by the densely packed white threads not far away.

"It seems I can't get close to attack using just my normal state."

He pointed his sword blade downward, Internal Force pouring frantically into his limbs.

Special Effect: Featherweight Ascension.

He chanted silently in his heart.

His body suddenly became light. The sword in his hand seemed to vanish, feeling weightless and ethereal.

He raised the blade and vibrated it slightly.

"Wind!"

He gave a low shout.

Invisible airflow began to surge rapidly around him. The airflow became faster and faster, more and more urgent, whistling and spreading until it gradually covered a radius of more than twenty meters.

The invisible current blew in all directions, scattering debris and broken snow. Even the snowflakes falling from the sky were blasted away, forming a huge hemispherical cavity in the storm.

When Wang Hongshi and Wu Shinan arrived, breathless, what they saw was this astonishing scene.

In the wind and snow, one figure was enveloped by a sphere of white threads, and the other by a sphere of invisible airflow. The aura on both surged and accumulated rapidly.

Their eyes met.

In the next instant, Li Chi clasped his hands together. A violent fluctuation of Internal Force suddenly erupted from his palms, flying forward like an invisible steel needle to pierce the white sphere. All the white lines poured out from the breach like a flood.

Simultaneously, Lin Hui swung his long sword.

His human figure disappeared, his sword disappeared—he dissolved completely into a formless wind, unleashing a frontal strike with unprecedented, terrifying extreme speed.

The ear-splitting howl of the sword stabbed at everyone's eardrums.

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