章節 15: Old Warehouse
Lin Mu did not move his short sword from the neck of the masked man, even after he declared his surrender. He did not want the man to surprise him after letting his guard down.
Lin Mu instead scanned every inch of the man's body for any hidden weapons or dangerous items. He had seen the darkly dressed men use poisons, thus he wanted to be extremely sure of his safety. After scanning the man with his spirit sense, Lin Mu found a few weapons hidden on his body.
This included four daggers, one each hidden at the ankles and wrists along with a set of metal needles which seemed to be steeped in some kind of black liquid; most likely to be poison. Lin Mu took away all of these weapons from the masked man before allowing him to sit up.
"Now speak, who are you from, and why have you been following me?" Lin Mu questioned with a stern tone.
The masked man seemed to hesitate a bit before speaking,
"I am but my lord's tool and I was ordered by him to observe you."
Lin Mu narrowed his eyes upon hearing the masked man's words. It was a little surprising to him that it was actually someone else that was pulling the strings from the behind. He then thought of the similarities between the men who had tried to kill him before and this man.
"Are you part of the same group of people that killed Gan Ma?" Lin Mu questioned.
The masked man tilted his head slightly upon hearing Lin Mu's words, as if he was confused.
'Isn't Gan Ma the second hunter who became a cultivator?' The masked man thought before speaking,
"Gan Ma's dead?" The masked man asked.
Lin Mu closely observed the masked man and could tell the genuine confusion in the man's voice.
"You didn't know that, but know who he is?" Lin Mu asked.
"We know who he is but according to our intelligence he has been missing for nearly a month now." The masked man answered.
"We? So you are with those men." Lin Mu uttered before straightening his blade.
Seeing that his target had assumed something wrongly, the masked man put up his hands in protest.
"No, we are not who you think. Though if you allow me to contact my lord, I can find it out for you." The masked man replied.
Lin Mu felt a little surprised at the masked man's words, but did not accept them right away. There were a few more questions he wanted the answers to.
"Are your people behind what's happening in the district right now?" Lin Mu questioned with a grave expression.
"No, we're not, but I can tell you that we wouldn't do something like this. Even my lord would like to find out more about this and why this happened. But let me tell you this: that whoever has done this is very influential and has a lot of resources." The masked man spoke.
"Why do you say that?" Lin Mu asked.
"Whatever substance that is being used to induce the sleep into the district's residents, it is definitely expensive and difficult to get." The masked man answered.
Lin Mu did not believe the masked man at first, but then he heard senior Xukong talk.
"He's probably telling the truth. A substance that can incapacitate so many people at once is definitely hard to come by in a lower-level world like this." Xukong spoke.
The masked man saw that Lin Mu's expression had turned dull for a moment. He didn't understand why, but after that, the boy nodded to himself and spoke.
"Okay then, for now, I'll accept your answer, but I won't trust you completely." Lin Mu said.
The masked man thought to himself for a bit before speaking,
"I have a little more information that may be helpful to you."
"Go ahead" Lin Mu replied.
"The dogs that were chasing that man, I know why they were not barking." The masked man answered.
"And why's that?" Lin Mu asked.
"They were affected by a poison called as the Beast Inciting powder." The masked man answered.
"It was probably an inferior version of that poison, seeing that it was able to affect normal animals," Xukong informed Lin Mu.
"You know what it is, senior?" Lin Mu curiously asked.
"Yes, it's a rather infamous poison and is known in most of the worlds. It does not directly harm the beasts, rather it just sends them into a mindless rage. If a normal animal is poisoned by it though, then they will just explode." Xukong explained.
"Is this poison something that's easily available?" Lin Mu asked out loud.
To the masked man, it seemed as if the boy was asking him, but Lin Mu was actually asking both senior Xukong and the masked man.
"Any qualified alchemist should be able to make an inferior version, even for a lower-level world like this. Though I can't tell about the restrictions that would occur in its acquisition." Xukong answered.
"No, it is outlawed in the Shuang Qian kingdom as it can cause the beasts to rampage which can result in a beast wave. It is also very expensive and few people can acquire it, especially in this region." The masked man answered.
"Why would someone use an expensive substance like it on mere stray dogs?" Lin Mu muttered.
Suddenly a thought clicked in Lin Mu's mind as he formed an idea. The masked man saw the change of expression on Lin Mu's face and grasped that something was wrong.
"Oh no! The place where Xiao Lu came from, there's probably something there." Lin Mu exclaimed.
"You can't leave the masked man here though," Xukong spoke.
Lin Mu understood senior Xukong's words and knew that he would either have to make a choice between killing the masked man or to let him go.
It was as if the masked man read Lin Mu's mind and instantly spoke,
"I'll come with you. Don't misunderstand me, but if something wrong is happening here, I have to report it to my lord."
Lin Mu stared at the masked man for a few seconds before he lifted his short sword from his neck.
"I'll trust you for now, but if you do anything suspicious, know that I'll kill you in the next moment." Lin Mu spoke with a grim tone.
Lin Mu had not exposed all of his capabilities, thus was confident in being able to kill the masked man anytime that he wanted. With his two skills of Flicker and Blink, it would be a piece of cake.
The masked man gently nodded and then stood up, intending to follow Lin Mu.
Both of them then started running towards the residential district. With their full speed, they reached the residential district in five minutes. The masked man was having a hard time keeping up with Lin Mu, even after strengthening his legs with spirit qi.
'With speed and spirit sense like this, the boy is rather talented. I can't even estimate his cultivation, is he perhaps in the peak stage of the Qi refining realm?' The masked man thought to himself.
The masked man had only seen such speed and spirit sense in his senior comrades. He had also experienced spirit sense before, thus was able to tell when Lin Mu's spirit sense probed him. It was also because of this he was shocked, as according to the knowledge he had, spirit sense could only be refined when a cultivator reached the Peak stage of the Qi refining realm.
What he didn't know was that Lin Mu's speed was not just because of his qi cultivation but also because of his Tenth stage of body tempering realm vitality. Him being able to refine spirit sense could also be attributed to his unique situation, in which he actually did not have a cultivation technique at all but was rather using an auxiliary cultivation technique unique to him.
People of a lower-level world like this would never be able to comprehend this, as they simply did not have the information or the capabilities. Even if someone told them that it was possible, they would just deny it.
After reaching the square located at the center of the residential district, Lin Mu turned towards the Eastern direction and started running towards it. He kept an eye out for anything abnormal that stood out and also focused his senses.
A minute later they reached the end of the street and started looking around for any clues that may have been left behind.
"Xiao Lu should have most likely encountered the stray dogs here." Lin Mu spoke while looking at the mud prints on the ground.
The mud prints were of the stray dogs and were faintly visible in the darkness. He followed them and found out that they lead to an old warehouse. The warehouse was used by the local residents to store their surplus crops, but ever since the reduction in population from last year's plague, its use had become less.
Lin Mu noticed a small hole at the base of a wall that was big enough for a dog to pass through. There were paw prints coming out of the hole. Lin Mu found the side door of the warehouse and broke through it with ease.
The masked man followed behind Lin Mu tensely. Even he was feeling the grimness of the situation. Lin Mu looked at the relatively empty warehouse that had a few crates, wooden boxes, and sacks lying around.
Lin Mu suddenly squinted his nose as he smelt something,
"Blood" Both Lin Mu and the masked man spoke out in unison.
章節 16: A Temporary Alliance
The pungent smell of the blood had scattered a little bit, but the sharp noses of Lin Mu and the masked man were able to detect them rather easily. They followed the stench and soon found the origin of it.
They walked up to a large box that was partially covered with a tarp and checked it. The first thing they noticed was the bloodied paw prints nearby the box. The paw prints were similar to the stray dogs they had seen outside the warehouse.
Lin Mu took a breath before lifting the tarp that was covering the large box. A wave of foul stench assaulted his nose as the tarp blocking it was lifted. Lin Mu wrinkled his nose in disgust and steeled his senses.
Lin Mu went closer and looked at the source of the vile stench. It was a dead body that was lying inside the box. One of its arms was hanging out of the box and seemed to have been gnawed on, probably by the stray dogs.
The dead body was wearing some mangled clothes along with leather Armour that was nearly shredded. Lin Mu looked at the face of the dead body and could not identify it, as it was someone unknown to him.
"Why is this dead body here?" Lin Mu spoke.
"It's a mercenary from the Crimson Fang mercenary company." The masked man spoke.
Lin Mu turned to look at the masked man and spoke.
"How do you know this?"
"I can tell that from the symbol. Even though it's damaged, I can still recognize it." The masked man answered.
In response to Lin Mu's question, the masked man slightly lifted the dead body's arm and showed the damaged symbol that was present on the shredded armor. Since the leather armor was heavily damaged, the symbol of the Crimson Fang mercenary company was only partially visible.
Lin Mu looked at the symbol closely and recognized it, as he had also met some of the crimson fang mercenaries before. They all had the same symbol engraved on their armors. Though looking at the leather armor that this dead man was wearing, Lin Mu could tell that it was of higher quality. The armors that he had seen the other crimson fang mercenaries were of a lower quality than this.
"Use your spirit sense," Xukong ordered.
Lin Mu extended his spirit sense and scanned the body and found out a shocking thing.
"He was a cultivator." Lin Mu spoke out loud.
The masked man heard Lin Mu's words and did his own deduction. Coming to the same conclusion, he narrowed his eyes that were hidden behind the featureless mask.
"An elite member of the Crimson Fang mercenary team." The masked man informed.
"Could this be related to the disappearance of the mercenaries? But there haven't been any new reports about crimson Fang mercenaries." Lin Mu muttered.
"No, there have been more mercenaries disappearing, but because they are far from the town and separated, it takes a few days till someone discovers that they have gone missing." The masked man explained.
Lin Mu looked at the masked man with a curious expression and asked,
"How do you know of this?"
"Our lord has been keeping an eye on the recent events. There are other comrades of mine that have been investigating this as well." The masked man spoke honestly.
Lin Mu was rather surprised by the masked man's honesty. He did not know why he was telling him this, but there was probably some other reason behind it.
"Why are you telling me this?" Lin Mu questioned.
"Because it seems to me that our goals are the same, so it will be beneficial for both of us to cooperate." The masked man spoke.
"But weren't you ordered to attack me?" Lin Mu asked in a nonchalant tone.
"No, I was only ordered to observe you, I wasn't told to make contact." The masked man answered with a straight voice.
"It seems like we have an alliance on our hands. Well, at least a temporary one." Xukong spoke with a chuckle.
"You're fine with this senior?" Lin Mu spoke inside his mind.
"I am, at least for now. Besides, you need to learn to cooperate with people, or more accurately cultivators." Xukong Answered.
"If you say so, senior." Lin Mu replied.
Lin Mu always felt strange when senior Xukong used his chuckling tone of voice. Since he had seen his real body, it just didn't sit well with him. It was as if an imposing being was behaving like a child.
"Wait, there's something more here." The masked man spoke upon spotting something.
The masked man then went towards another box that was kept at the side. This box had another box that was kept over it and was blocking its opening. He lifted the upper box and moved it to the side.
Soon more bloody scent spread around. Though this time it was not foul and instead seemed like it was rather fresh. Lin Mu approached the box and saw what was lying inside it.
It was another corpse of a man that seemed to be freshly killed. Lin Mu looked at the wounds and saw that they were bandaged.
"They bandaged the wounds after death, the same as with Gan Ma." Lin Mu spoke.
The masked man also looked at the strange corpse and tried to find any other wounds, but could not. The only wound the corpse had seemed to be in his chest and was covered with bandages. The masked man heard Lin Mu's words and went back to check the other corpse for wounds.
Upon checking the corpse, he found out that the corpse actually didn't have any wounds that caused its death. Strangely enough, only the clothes and armor were destroyed. The cause of death was due to strangulation, as could be seen from the ligature marks on the neck. The cause of the bloody smell was actually because of the stray dogs.
"You say you've seen something similar before?" The masked man asked.
"Yes, Gan Ma the hunter was also killed and then his wound was bandaged." Lin Mu replied.
"You know the people that caused that?" The masked man questioned.
"Yes, they saw that I discovered them and tried to kill me." Lin Mu answered.
"And what happened to them after that?" The masked man asked, even though he already knew the answer.
"What do you think? They are dead." Lin Mu answered with a calm tone and then heard senior Xukong speak something in his mind.
"Repeat my words to him," Xukong spoke.
Lin Mu softly hummed in response and agreed.
The masked man was lost in thought for a moment as he seemed to have realized something.
"Then you must have seen their faces." The masked man suddenly spoke.
"Yes I did indeed, I also know the identity of one of the men." Lin Mu spoke with a straight expression.
"Do you have some evidence too?" The masked man couldn't help but ask.
The masked man was feeling a little excited as he knew that he had probably made a huge discovery. His comrades had been investigating the recent events for a while but did not have much success with it as the culprits were rather good at hiding their tracks.
He had never thought that he would be able to discover something like this by chance.
'I have to get the information and report it to the lord.' The masked man thought.
"Can you tell me about their identities and also the evidence?" The masked man asked with slight anxiousness in his voice.
"We got him," Xukong spoke in Lin Mu's mind.
Lin Mu was a little surprised by this as everything had gone according to senior Xukong's plan. Now he just had to do a little more, like senior had instructed.
"I could, but I won't." Lin Mu replied to the masked man.
The masked man felt his heart drop for a moment, but then calmed down. He understood that he had to do something in return and would not be able to get it easily.
"Okay, what do you want in return?" The masked man asked.
A sharp glint appeared in Lin Mu's eyes, and even a slight smirk could be seen at the edge of his mouth.
"I want to meet your lord." Lin Mu answered.
"That won't be possible." The masked man replied straight away.
The masked man knew how difficult it was to meet their lord. Even he himself had only met him three times until now. But even those three times were enough for him to develop undying loyalty and pledge his life to his lord.
The masked man went silent and thought for a minute before continuing.
"You can meet the lord's closest person, though. My lord is reclusive and does not meet people easily."
"This is better than I thought. A person close to this 'Lord' would work just fine." Xukong said.
Lin Mu knew that senior Xukong was never intending to meet the lord straight away. He just wanted him to have an advantage in bargaining the terms of this alliance and thus wanted to meet someone in a higher position.
The masked man was certainly a low-level person in his organization, thus he wanted someone who at least had some administrative authority. A person that was probably the right hand of this 'Lord' would work perfectly for them.
"That's fine with me. We are now..." Lin Mu spoke and extended his right hand.
The masked man extended his right reciprocation and shook Lin Mu's hand.
"Allies." Both men spoke in unison.
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