Change of Heart I

Several days later, in the Mist Zone.

In the gray haze, a tall, sturdily built man with a ponytail, dressed in grimy white training clothes, dragged something resembling a black branch into the courtyard of a small cabin, his face full of exhaustion.

Thud.

He tossed the object onto the ground and sniffed. A faint aroma of eggs fried in lard drifted through the air.

With a creak, the cabin door slowly opened. Daoist Mingde strolled out carrying a bowl, eating a scallion as he glanced at the thing on the ground.

"How did it end up looking like this?"

"I don't know. I finally managed to chop it off, and it shriveled up right away." Lin Hui shook his head. What he had cut off was the Faceless Man's right arm. When it had first come off, it had still been whole and plump, with even transparent blood dripping from it. Yet in only a few minutes, the arm had withered into this state.

"Fine. Must have been improperly preserved." Mingde shook his head. "You pass."

"Thank you, Teacher."

"Don't rush. This is only the first trial. You've experienced the benefits of training in this fog yourself. Your Body Tempering has sped up quite a bit, hasn't it?" Mingde smiled.

"Yes... This disciple has also found it strange. Could this fog itself benefit Body Tempering?" Lin Hui nodded, curiosity stirring in his heart.

"I don't know. But whether it is Body Tempering or internal force cultivation, efficiency in the Mist Zone is much higher than in the No Fog Zone. That is a conclusion verified by everyone." Mingde said, "You've trained here for so long. It is about time you went back and rested for a while. Staying here too long requires Ning Xiang replenishment, and people can also suffer mental deviations and all sorts of problems."

"Yes." Lin Hui nodded respectfully.

The master and disciple slowly packed up their things. After eating the fried eggs, they shut the cabin and headed back toward the temple.

As they traveled, Mingde seized the time to teach him small details concerning swordsmanship.

Qingfeng Temple's sword arts actually had several realms when applied in real combat.

Such distinctions could not be seen in a practice method like the Seven Section Fast Sword, but beginning with the Nine Section Fast Sword, they started to emerge. By the time one reached the Clear Sword, the gap would rapidly widen.

Lin Hui listened with rapt attention, his understanding of fast sword techniques deepening further and further.

"The moves are the same. Swordsmanship is really only a handful of basic forms, so why can different people achieve results as far apart as heaven and earth when using them? The key lies in understanding."

Mingde's voice continued to sound beside his ear.

"Why did so many patriarchs and seniors always seek martial insights from different things? Why did they not all swarm toward the strongest path, the strongest style?"

"There are two reasons."

"First, people differ from one another. What suits you is the best."

"Second, the strongest styles and paths attract more people. Unless the gap between paths is enormous, forcing your way into one means that, in the end, you are still competing in effort and resources. If that is the competition, how can ordinary people contend with those at the top?"

"So the seniors chose to open another path through the thorns."

Before long, Mingde stepped out of the Mist and returned to the No Fog Zone.

Lin Hui followed right behind him.

"So your next step is to familiarize yourself with the sword art to a certain degree. Only then can you adjust and alter it according to your own conditions and state, turning it from the sect's sword art into your own. That is what creates different people's swordsmanship styles."

"Speed, slowness, grasping the timing, which moves your body coordinates better—these are all things you must study and understand yourself. Remember: moves are dead, but people are alive."

For the first time, Mingde's guidance gave Lin Hui an entirely new understanding of the swordsmanship he had learned.

He had previously tried practicing according to certain theories from the internet in his past life, but nothing made him feel as secure as having his master personally affirm that he was heading in the right direction.

Comparing the two, his understanding of swordsmanship and martial arts rapidly improved as well.

The two returned to the courtyard where Mingde lived.

"Alright. You have not gone out for a long time, so go home and see your parents. There have been many troubles lately. Put their minds at ease." Mingde instructed.

"Yes." Lin Hui nodded and took his leave.

After returning to the temple, tidying up, taking a bath, changing clothes, and treating his injuries, he took some silver and headed home.

Before leaving, he checked the Blood Seal. There were still more than three months until the evolution was complete. He had also figured it out: the Blood Seal simply counted down according to the time set at the beginning. It would not change because his comprehension and proficiency with the Nine Section Fast Sword had increased.

It was exceptionally rigid.

In the future, it would be more worthwhile to evolve individual moves separately. Nine months at a stretch means the entire sword art cannot incorporate my own practice and insights. The efficiency is too low. If I do it move by move, newly evolved techniques can fully connect with my own progress at any time and save quite a bit of time.

Lin Hui calculated silently as he hurried along.

The journey from Qingfeng Temple to his home was not short. It had taken a full half day by cart back then. Now that he was traveling on foot and using his movement technique at full speed, it still took him over half an hour to reach the town.

Beneath the gray sky.

On both sides of the blurry yellow dirt road ahead, bare fields gradually began to appear.

Some of the snow had melted. The fields were patched with yellow, green, and white, their varied colors making them much more pleasing to the eye.

Several crude scarecrows in gray clothes stood lonely in the middle of the fields, their tattered rags tugged by the wind.

Lin Hui felt slightly more at ease and continued onward.

Gradually, farmers carrying hoes and other tools also began to appear on the paths between the fields. Birds chirped and hopped about fighting at the field edges. With the snowfall ending, vitality and life slowly began to return.

Before long, separate little courtyards began to appear by the roadside. Some had mud walls, some stone walls, and poorer ones had nothing but wooden fences.

Lin Hui soon arrived before a large courtyard enclosed by gray-white stone walls. He looked at the red Spring Festival couplets pasted on the door: "Bamboo shadows sweep the street, yet dust does not stir; spring sounds enter the home, and blessings forever remain."

The horizontal scroll read: "Peace Is Fortune."

"One look and you can tell they paid someone to write these. Looks like the family is doing well now." Lin Hui's mood improved considerably.

He stepped forward and knocked on the door.

Knock, knock...

Before he could knock a third time, the door swung open with a bang, leaving a crack.

Lin Hui froze. Through the gap, he faintly heard voices speaking inside the house.

He simply pulled the door open and walked in.

A flock of little yellow chicks darted about the courtyard. Startled by him, they scattered into the corners and did not dare come back out.

The voices from the inner room became increasingly clear.

"...Your intentions were good, but the circumstances back then truly made things difficult. There was only that one opportunity..."

The voice sounded somewhat familiar, and Lin Hui frowned.

Taking several steps in one, he pushed open the inner door. He saw both his parents seated on chairs, their expressions grim, clearly faced with something difficult to decide.

The moment they saw Lin Hui enter, both were startled and quickly stood up.

"A-Hui, why are you back? Isn't it not vacation time yet?" Yao Shan hurried over and squeezed her son's arm. Finding that there was still plenty of flesh on him and that he had not grown thin, she immediately felt half her worries lift.

"You even changed into new clothes. Where is the set I made for you last time?"

"Uh..." Lin Hui's words caught in his throat. That set had been torn open by a huge gash during his desperate fight with the Faceless Man.

Real-combat Body Tempering was fast, alright—it just consumed clothes rather quickly.

"You brat, you came home without telling us beforehand. Your mother and I could have prepared food for you. You eat so much now that if we do not buy groceries in advance, there will not be enough for you to burn through." Lin Shunhe also walked over, sounding helpless.

"It's fine, Old Man. I'll go buy some with you later." Lin Hui smiled, his gaze shifting toward the other people in the room. Clearly, these people were the reason his parents had been in such low spirits that they had even forgotten to close the door.

The moment he saw them, he understood.

No wonder his parents were upset. If it were him, his mood would likely have been even worse.

The visitor was none other than the Lin Family patriarch, Lin Shunhe's biological father, and Lin Hui's grandfather—Lin Chaoyi.

At that moment, Lin Chaoyi wore a faintly benevolent smile on his old face. He was dressed in a clean, neat dark green squire's robe and leaned on a rosewood cane inlaid with turquoise. His attitude was as different as heaven and earth from the way he had once ignored Lin Hui's family.

"So it is Lin Hui. It has been a long time. Grandfather came this time to apologize for how poorly I treated you before." His smile faded as he let out a mournful sigh. "Before..."

"What is there to apologize for? I forgot long ago what happened." Lin Hui looked at his parents' unpleasant expressions, understood at once, and directly interrupted him.

"You forgot? That is good, that is good. I was saying..." Lin Chaoyi sighed again. "Actually, when it comes to what happened back then, it was still this patriarch who failed to handle things properly..."

"No, you handled it very well. Aren't we all doing quite well now? You have seen how things are, so go back. There is no need for you to worry about this place." Lin Hui smiled and cut in.

"Look at you. You still have not forgiven me. You blame me. Blame this old man for being so dishonorable in what I did back then..." Lin Chaoyi lowered his head, his old face trembling. "A thousand mistakes, ten thousand mistakes, they were all mine..."

"You did nothing wrong. Alright, you can go home now. At your age, stop standing outside in the wind and rain. Just enjoy your remaining years in peace." Lin Hui continued.

Thump.

The instant his words fell, his expression changed, and he swiftly dodged to the side.

Lin Chaoyi, standing before him, had actually bent his knees without the slightest hesitation, tossed aside his cane, and dropped to his knees before him and his parents.

Lin Hui had dodged. His parents had also dodged with practiced ease, and not a trace of shock appeared on their faces.

While this shocked Lin Hui, he also understood why, upon returning home, he had found such grim and troubled expressions on his parents' faces.

He looked at Lin Chaoyi kneeling on the floor. The old man was still continuously apologizing, saying that he should not have done this or that back then.

"Fourth, I am kneeling before you! A thousand mistakes, ten thousand mistakes, they were all mine alone. But no matter what the mistake was, we are still family. Blood is thicker than water! Do you know that after you left, every time I thought of my decision back then in the dead of night, it felt as if a knife were cutting through my heart..." Lin Chaoyi's voice trembled, making him seem pitiful beyond measure, as though he might collapse and faint at any moment.

Seeing this, Lin Shunhe immediately pulled his wife down to kneel before the old man as well.

"Old Man, when you stole my son's opportunity and took the heart and soul that my wife and I spent most of our lives building, did you ever think about whether you might drive us to death?"

His expression was resolute. He was not fooled in the slightest by his father's performance. Since childhood, he had seen Lin Chaoyi put on this sort of act more times than he could count.

"You are my son! How could I, as your father, ever want to drive you to death!?" Lin Chaoyi raised his voice. "Even a vicious tiger does not eat its cubs! Let alone a human being!?"

"You know even a vicious tiger does not eat its cubs? We have moved away for so long, yet you did not come early or late to apologize. You came rushing over the moment you saw that our family was starting to improve? Old Man, I learned all three tricks of your axe long ago. Want me to perform one for you later? First I can faint, then foam at the mouth and spit out a little more blood?" Lin Shunhe raised his voice as well.

He looked at Lin Hui, who was equally speechless and unsure what to do, then waved to his son, signaling for him to handle things here while Lin Hui went inside to rest.