章節 27: The Leader Meets Lin Mu
Fifteen minutes before the arrival of the leader.
Hei Wen had taken a brief rest and was now feeling a bit better. Even still, the thoughts of the nightmare that occurred before haunted him. He could even remember the pain of being cut to pieces by millions of swords, clearly.
Hei Wen wondered what kind of cultivation technique or skill Lin Mu practiced that even his mere presence caused him to experience this kind of a backlash. Just him hearing the esoteric chants was enough to defeat him.
Though after experiencing this, Hei Wen did not completely regret it.
'At the very least, I'll be able to inform the Lord about this. That way he won't be at a disadvantage.' Hei Wen thought.
With this thought in mind, Hei Wen went to find Hei Bao. Hei Bao had already asked him to come to meet with him after resting, so this just met his purpose. Hei Wen soon found Hei Bao in his personal room. He saw that the door was already open, thus he just walked in. Hei Bao was currently sitting on his desk while reading a report from a scroll in his hand.
'Preparing for the arrival of the leader, I see.' Hei Wen inwardly said.
Hei Bao noticed Hei Wen's footsteps, thus looked up to see him enter.
"Are you feeling well now?" Hei Bao questioned.
"Not completely, but better than before at least." Hei Wen replied.
"You should just rest more then. The leader won't mind your absence, I'll inform her of your condition." Hei Bao replied with concern.
"Yes, I'll do that. But I need to tell you about what happened to me before that." Hei Wen interrupted.
Hei Bao nodded in response and spoke,
"Go on ahead then."
Hei Wen then started to tell Hei Bao of what happened from the very start. How he saw Lin Mu speaking some esoteric chants and how he got curious and listened to them. He then told him what he felt after that and then how he was trapped in his mind and experienced the nightmare of being chopped into innumerable pieces by a million swords.
Hei Wen also told Hei Bao, how he had also heard Lin Mu speak similar chats during the battle with the culprits, and how those chants seemed to have immobilized the culprits until they were killed by Lin Mu.
The more Hei Bao heard, the more shocked and concerned he got. Hei Bao knew that there were as many cultivation techniques in the world as there were drops of water in an ocean. There were common cultivation techniques that were similar to each other, and then there were cultivation techniques that were completely unique.
Hei Bao had heard rumors or more like legends about forbidden cultivation techniques that only a chosen few could cultivate. These cultivation techniques were highly attuned to their user and would cause a backlash for others that tried using it.
But even then, he had never heard of a cultivation technique that could harm another person if he was just in the presence of one. From the vivid descriptions and the expressions of Hei Wen, Hei Bao could tell that this was no mere exaggeration and was truly what he said it was.
'If just his presence is this dangerous, then what would it be like when he actually attacks someone with his full strength.' Hei Bao thought.
Hei Bao could tell that Lin Mu did not use his full strength during the previous battle either. He now understood how lucky they were that Lin Mu chose to join their side and was not their foe, well at least not now.
'I can't let this happen though, who knows what kind of background that boy has. For all we know, his history could all have been faked and he must've been trained by hidden experts.' Hei Bao thought.
After Hei Wen was done with his explanation, a slight expression of relief could be seen on his face, as if a burden was lifted off of his mind. Though what he didn't know was that this burden had not disappeared, instead it had just transferred over to Hei Bao and had even increased in size.
"Thank you for informing me of this, it was wise of you to do so. You should go and rest now, I'll take care of the rest." Hei Bao spoke.
Hei Wen simply nodded and left the room to go and rest again.
"The leader should be arriving soon. I better gather the others and wait at the entrance." Hei Bao muttered.
Hei Bao stored the scroll that he was reading back into a drawer and then left the room as well.
"Gather at the main hall Hei Corps, the leader should be arriving any minute." Hei Bao shouted out.
*****
Present time at the storage room inside the safe house.
Hei Bao had just finished telling the veiled woman who was the leader of the Hei Corps about Lin Mu. After hearing his entire explanation, the veiled woman was fully shocked and could not help but praise their luck. Though she still could not tell whether it would turn to misfortune in the future or not.
"We better take this one step at a time. The most basic thing would be to avoid conflict with this boy 'Lin Mu' and to prevent any enmity." The Veiled Woman concluded.
'Perhaps the lord should personally meet this boy.' The veiled woman thought.
"As you say, leader." Hei Bao responded.
The veiled woman then nodded and spoke again.
"The others will go and try to gather more clues about the culprits. In the meantime, we should go and meet up with this Lin Mu."
Hei Bao gestured for the veiled woman to follow and then led her to the room where Lin Mu was currently residing in. They reached the room in a minute and Hei Bao opened the door. He walked in first and looked for Lin Mu. He instantly spotted Lin Mu as he was still sitting in the same position on the bed.
Lin Mu was not as focused on cultivating right now, thus was easily able to detect when the door of the room opened. His eyes snapped open, and he saw Hei Bao entering the room, with another person in tow. This person had a veil on their face that hid their features, but Lin Mu could tell that it was a woman.
"The leader of the Hei corps," Lin Mu softly muttered.
"Keep your spirit sense alert, she may try to probe you," Xukong ordered.
"Yes, Senior." Lin Mu replied in his mind.
Following senior Xukong's words, Lin Mu extended his spirit sense and kept it alert. In the next moment, Senior Xukong's words came true as he sensed the collision of another spirit sense with his own. This was his first time experiencing the spirit sense of another person except for senior Xukong, Duan Ke, and Old man Jing.
Lin Mu saw the distance between them and estimated that the range of the spirit sense of the veiled woman should be a little less than ten meters, most probably at nine meters. Lin Mu could also observe the difference between the veiled woman's spirit sense and the other spirit senses he had experienced. It was much weaker than any of the other ones he had observed.
Of the spirit senses he had experienced before, Senior Xukong's was the strongest, while Duan Ke's was the weakest. But even still, the veiled woman's spirit sense was at least ten times as weaker than that of Duan Ke's. Lin Mu even had the confidence that he would overtake the veiled woman in a few weeks' time.
Similar to Lin Mu, the veiled woman had also thought of trying to estimate Lin Mu's cultivation base. But when she felt her spirit sense probe being blocked by Lin Mu's own, she instantly retracted it. She could feel the density of Lin Mu's spirit sense and did not want to probe further, as it could end up offending him.
'His spirit sense is already denser than mine, and his range should be wider than mine as well, he must just be restraining it.' The veiled woman thought.
'He should be at the very peak of the Qi refining realm, the same as me. But his cultivation technique should be much stronger and superior.' The veiled woman pondered.
Lin Mu could not have imagined that in the brief moment their spirit senses collided, the veiled woman would have thought of so many things and even had overestimated his cultivation by a long shot. He didn't mind the spirit probe the veiled woman used and was fine with it as she instantly withdrew it after meeting his.
The veiled woman came close and stood in front of him.
"Greetings, I'm Lin Mu." Lin Mu greeted the veiled woman with cupped hands, as was the proper etiquette.
In a surprise to him, the veiled woman actually reciprocated his greeting.
"Greetings, fellow cultivator. My name is Hei Wan." The veiled woman replied respectfully.
Hei Bao was also surprised by this, not because of how the veiled woman greeted Lin Mu respectfully, as it was already expected; but because of the tone of her voice. The leader who was always cold and straight with her tone had suddenly switched it for a mellow and genial tone that was bordering on the realm of sweet too!
章節 28: The Hei Corps Meet Old Man Jing
The Veiled woman named Hei Wan gestured Lin Mu to take a seat.
"Please be at ease, we'll just talk casually." Hei Wan spoke.
Lin Mu nodded and pulled a chair from the side to sit on. Hei Bao too slid a chair forward for Hei Wan to sit on, while he himself stood at the side. Lin Mu saw this and looked at Hei Bao, but he just shook his head. Understanding his intention, Lin Mu didn't question it.
Hei Wan had many questions that she wanted to ask, but knew that she had to show some restraint and keep to herself, lest she ends up offending the cultivator in front of her. In her first non-verbal interaction with Lin Mu, she had already grasped a part of Lin Mu's personality and understood that he was rather mild and reserved. Compared to the other young and talented cultivators who were often arrogant and upturned, he was much more reasonable.
Hei Wan could not help but think of the upbringing he must have received for him to be this humble. She had investigated and learned about the situation with Lin Mu's parents and knew that he was an orphan. She could only attribute Lin Mu's current standing to a hidden master.
At this point, Hei Wan could only hope that whatever background Lin Mu had was either amicable or at the very least neutral with theirs. Hei Wan was already extremely wary when she heard that the boy in front of her knew about Old man Jing. She could still remember when she and her lord had their first run-in with Old man Jing a few years ago.
*****
A few years ago, in Wu Lim city.
A thin man who had a scholarly aura was sitting on a luxurious-looking chair and was listening to a person speak. He was sitting in a room that looked like a study and was illuminated by softly glowing lights. There were five more people in the room and all of them were dressed in dark blue robes. Of the five people, only one person was not wearing a mask and was instead wearing a veil.
This person was none other than the leader of the Hei corps, Hei Wan and the scholarly man sitting on the luxurious chair was the 'Lord' that the Hei corps followed. If one could sense it, then they would find out that the four men who were wearing masks were all Core condensation realm cultivators. Such a lineup wasn't something that could be seen every day.
Currently, one of the masked Core condensation realm experts was speaking.
"We have completed or initial reconnaissance of the Black dawn kingdom and the Easter Ming dynasty. Most of what we discovered was the same as before, but there were still some abnormalities that we detected." Said the man who was standing in front of the Lord.
"We think that someone has been manipulating and hiding their involvement. The recent conflict between the royal family of the Black dawn kingdom also seems to be their doing." Another masked man that was standing to the right spoke.
The Lord stroked his beard a couple of times before replying,
"That's fine. It is indeed as I expected. We will just need to continue monitoring it further then. For now, just assign a few of the lower members to keep an eye on the situation and if it gets more complicated only then, will we interfere."
The Lord then looked at the masked men and scanned them before speaking again,
"Anything else of importance?"
One of the Masked men seemed to be hesitating, and this was hidden behind the mask, yet the Lord detected it.
"Do you have something to say?" The Lord asked in a calm voice.
"I do, but I don't want to waste my Lord's time." The masked man answered respectfully.
The Lord then waved his hand and spoke,
"Go on ahead, we still have some time left."
The masked man then cupped his hands in respect before speaking,
"While returning from the Northern Frontier, this servant passed through the Northern town and took a halt for a brief amount of time. There I sensed something different. I felt as if the flow of spirit qi in the air was abnormal and seemed to be gathering towards a certain area."
"Thus to investigate this, I went forward towards the area, which was an unassuming and abandoned alley. The first strange thing I found out was that there was no one in the alley, all of the shops in the alley seemed to be old and rundown." The masked man took a breath before continuing.
"I then sensed the second strange thing, my spirit sense was blocked when I tried to probe the alley. It was as if there was a barrier set up there that was surrounding it. No matter what direction I tried, my spirit sense was always blocked. This Servant then decided to enter the alley himself to see what was the cause for this.
As soon as I entered the alley, I could sense the concentrated spirit qi in the air. I looked around and concluded that there was an illusory formation placed on the area. Then suddenly, I felt as if I saw someone in the sky, but they then disappeared in the next second. And along with this, the formation that was covering the area also disappeared. A few seconds later, the concentration of spirit qi in the air also returned to normal."
The expression on the Lord's face was getting sharper by the second.
"How did you leave the alley?" The lord asked with a cold tone.
The other people in the room were currently a little shocked by the masked man's words, thus did not detect the faint aura that was rising from the Lord's body.
The masked man, who was speaking, suddenly had a confused expression on his face after hearing his Lord's question.
He was lost in his thoughts for a few seconds before speaking.
"I... I... I don't know how? I can't remember when I left it either." The masked man uttered while stuttering
An enraged aura suddenly burst out of the scholarly man. An aura that was stronger than the aura's of all of the people here combined together.
"YOU FOOL! You've been under the effect of a confounding formation all this while and you did not realize it." The Lord shouted with fury bursting out of his eyes.
The veiled woman who was standing to the side suddenly widened her eyes in realization.
"The area had a confounding formation placed on it. What if you've been followed all this while?" Hei Wan spoke out loud.
It was at this time that the other members of the Hei corps realized the seriousness of their situation. Suddenly, as if to justify their fears, an imposing aura that was even stronger than the Lord's descended upon the room.
"WHOO?" The Lord shouted as he struggled to bear the weight of the aura.
The other people in the room were already unable to bear it as they all instantly collapsed onto their knees. Then, in the next moment, the roof of the room was split apart as two people descended from the sky.
The two people that descended into the room were an old man that looked ancient and had a long beard, along with a young woman that was wearing a green-colored Daoist robe and had a wooden hairpin in her hair that was in the shape of a poplar leaf.
These two were none other than the pair of grandfather and granddaughter, Jing Wei and Duan Ke. The pair looked at the people in the room and finally settled their gazes onto the Lord.
~Humph~ "A group of measly Core Condensation realm cultivators." Duan Ke scoffed.
"Seems like you were right, Ke'er, I was overthinking this. They're not worth our time." Jing Wei spoke.
"Should I finish them off?" Duan Ke asked without moving her petrifying gaze from the Lord.
Jing Wei seemed to be thinking as he did not answer right away. Instead, a wave of imposing spirit qi emanated from him and spread around. A few seconds later, he seemed to have reached a conclusion as he spoke,
"No, leave them for now." Jing Wei spoke while looking at his granddaughter.
He then turned back to the Lord and spoke in a grandiose tone.
"This is your first and last warning. Do not interfere in our matters and don't intrude our territory either."
Each and every person could feel these words being carved into their minds. They all then nodded their heads in acceptance, albeit with difficulty.
"Let's go, grandfather." Duan Ke spoke and then withdrew a spirit sword from her spatial treasure.
The pair of grandfather and granddaughter were just about to jump on the spirit sword and leave, when the Lord gritted his teeth and spoke out.
"May I have the names of your Excellencies?" The Lord asked while bowing his head.
An annoyed look appeared on Duan Ke's face after being interrupted. She was just about to speak, when Jing Wei gestured to her and she settled down while letting out a harrumph.
"You can call me Old Man Jing." Jing Wei answered in his hoarse voice.
"This junior will forever remember the grace that the senior has shown me." The Lord spoke with a tone that was overflowing with awe and respect.
The Members of the Hei corpse simply kowtowed on the ground, without being prompted to do so, they could not speak anything due to the imposing pressure, anyway. Jing Wei faintly nodded before mounting the spirit sword and flying away.
But a moment after they left, Duan Ke's voice echoed again.
"You better keep this to yourself." She spoke in a cold and menacing tone.
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