章節 29: End Of The Meeting
A few minutes after Jing Wei and Duan Ke left, the people in the room were finally able to relax and take control of themselves.
The Hei Corps could barely lift themselves up from the floor right now. They sat up from the kowtowing posture with the support of their arms and looked at the aftermath. They saw the rubble that was strewn around due to the collapse of the roof and the book shelves that were fallen as well. But in the end, their gazes settled on one of their comrades.
It was the same person who had reported about the abnormality and the same one who was also scolded by the lord. The person in question was currently stuck in the kowtowing posture. Unlike others who had lifted themselves, he was still stuck there.
One of the masked men dragged himself to the man who was still kowtowing and spoke,
"Hey! Are you fine?" He spoke.
Suddenly the lord, who was bowing all this time, plopped down onto his throne.
"It's no use. He's already dead." The Lord spoke with a tired tone.
"Wha... what?" Everyone uttered in unison.
The masked man who was near the kowtowing man shook him and saw him fall over onto the other side. The masked man who was kowtowing until now was bleeding from his eyes and mouth. His pupils had overturned into his skull and he was no longer breathing.
The veiled woman gasped and looked over to the lord and calculated her words before speaking.
"My Lord, were they?"
"I fear yes." The lord shortly spoke while rubbing the bridge of his nose.
The lord could already feel the headache coming. He hadn't thought that a routine mission would end up causing such a huge mess. He had lost one of his Core condensation realm cultivators and had also offended a hidden expert that was at the very least a Dao shell realm cultivator.
The other masked men were finally able to lift themselves off the ground. They stood up shakily and looked over to their lord.
"What was their cultivation?" One of the masked men asked.
The other masked men also joined in on the question as they were curious too. They did not understand the meaning of the interaction between their leader and their lord.
The Lord heard the question and sighed with dissatisfaction.
'It was good that I chose Hei Wan to become the leader, even if she is weaker than them.' The Lord thought.
"The old man was at least a Dao Shell realm cultivator, while the woman was probably a core condensation realm cultivator since she was able to fly using a spirit sword. Though she could be stronger than that too." Hei Wan answered for her Lord.
Hei Wan could sense the growing dissatisfaction in her Lord, thus answered for him. She also wondered how they were going to approach this matter in the future.
*****
Lin Mu was looking at Hei Wan, trying to grasp her personality. The genial way she had talked to him had made him feel strange, thus he wanted to know a little more about her.
"So you say these people have been abducting mercenaries?" Hei Wan asked.
"I don't exactly know, but it does seem like it. They even had memory confounding poison with them." Lin Mu answered.
Lin Mu then withdrew the small vial of memory confounding poison that he had stored in the ring. He then passed it to Hei Wan, who took it. She looked at it for a minute and seemed like she was using her spirit sense to determine its authenticity.
"It is indeed, memory confounding poison." Hei Wan concluded.
"They also found some Beast inciting powder on a mercenary." Hei Bao spoke up.
Hei Wan's eyes narrowed upon hearing this.
"You found it on a mercenary and not on a culprit?" She asked to confirm.
"Yes, I found it on one of the dead mercenary's body. I actually wanted someone to look at it and find out where it came from." Lin Mu replied.
"While I know a little about poisons, I'm not really an expert in this. I'll have to ask someone else." Hei Wan spoke.
Lin Mu nodded in understanding. He already knew that they would need an alchemist to take a look at it, as only the people capable of making it would be able to know what it was.
"But even then, we still need to investigate its source." Hei Wan spoke and then turned towards Hei Bao.
"Investigate the identity of the mercenary first and try to find out his associates." Hei Wan ordered.
"Yes, leader." Hei Bao answered.
Hei Wan and Lin Mu then talked about a multitude of topics. Lin Mu told her about his side of the story, and Hei Wan intently listened. While she already knew most of this, she still wanted to hear a firsthand account.
Hei Wan could feel goosebumps on her body upon imagining the scenes of Lin Mu fighting against the culprits. Her curiosity about Lin Mu's background was increasing by the minute. But she knew that asking it outright might be troublesome, thus she decided to wait for an opportune moment.
Hei Wan and Lin Mu's conversation lasted for over an hour, and they only stopped when one of the masked men that came with Hei Wan entered the room. Hei Wan looked at him and gestured with her hand for him to speak.
"It looks like the residents are finally waking up. The town head has also issued a warning." The Masked man reported.
Hei Wan nodded her head in response and turned to Lin Mu.
"Seems like our conversation ends here. You can leave for now, we'll inform you when we find more about things." Hei Wan spoke.
"Sure." Lin Mu answered.
Hei Wan then turned to Hei Bao and spoke.
"Give him an identity badge as well."
"As you command, leader." Hei Bao replied, and then gestured for Lin Mu to follow him.
Lin Mu then exited the room along with Hei Bao and went to the room where the emergency signal plates were kept. After entering the room, his attention was instantly pulled towards the metal plates that were kept on stands.
Hei Bao walked up to his desk and withdrew a hexagonal badge from it. He then handed it to Lin Mu and spoke.
"This is an identity badge for our corps. You can use this to enter the safe house if you need to report something or if there's an emergency."
"Thanks." Lin Mu replied and then looked towards the plates.
"What are those?" Lin Mu asked.
Hei Bao looked at where Lin Mu was pointing and saw that it was the emergency signal plates. He wondered if he should tell him about it or not but then decided to tell him. He had seen how the leader was very respectful with Lin Mu and already knew that they would probably be allies in the future.
"They're used for emergencies. Whenever a member is in the most dire of emergencies they can use the whistle to alarm us." Hei Bao answered.
Lin Mu then remembered the small tube that was hanging on Hei Wen's necklace. He had blown on it and called for help.
"How does it work though?" Lin Mu questioned.
Hei Bao had a confused look upon his face after hearing Lin Mu's question.
"I actually don't know exactly how. Our Lord designed this and the only thing I know is that it makes a noise when a whistle is blown." Hei Bao replied.
Lin Mu used his spirit sense to observe the metal plates and found out that they were actually of different thicknesses. Although the plates looked the same, there was a difference in the thickness and size.
"This is rather innovative. Someone actually found a way to use earthen spirit metal without placing formations on it." Xukong suddenly spoke.
"Earthen spirit metal?" Lin Mu asked.
"It's a common type of spirit metal that's used in the manufacture of spirit tools and spirit weapons. Usually in order to use it, one needs to place formations on it. But the way these are designed, they don't need any formations to work. These can actually be called as primitive spirit tools." Xukong answered.
Lin Mu's curiosity was ignited once again after hearing senior Xukong's words.
"So does this mean senior knows how it works?" Lin Mu inquired.
"Yes, I can. These plates work due to a phenomenon called as qi resonance. When air is blown into an emergency whistle, it is also charged with spirit qi. This qi is absorbed by the whistle and is then released in the form of a certain type of wave.
As long as the person using it is in the range of the plate, the disk in the center of it will start resonating and will spin. And due to the difference in the dimensions of the plate, the emergency whistles can be made uniquely for each individual." Xukong explained.
Lin Mu intently listened to senior Xukong's words and felt amazed at learning this.
"Whoever this Lord is, we can safely assume that he is very smart. He used such an ingenious method that it would actually be appreciated in some of the higher worlds as well." Xukong praised.
章節 30: The Mercenaries' Situation
After hearing senior Xukong's praise about the Lord, Lin Mu understood that he must be careful with him. A person as smart as the Lord must be carefully dealt with.
Hei Bao saw that Lin Mu was still staring at the metal plates, thus spoke out,
"Are you fine?"
Lin Mu snapped out of his thoughts and hurriedly spoke,
"Ah yes. Let's go now."
Hei Bao nodded and led Lin Mu out of the safe house. A few minutes later they were standing in the shop upstairs. There, Hei Bao went to talk with the old woman and spoke to her about Lin Mu and their current situation. The Old Woman did not speak much and only nodded, before leaving the room to do her own tasks.
Hei Bao showed Lin Mu off to the door and let him leave. Lin Mu stepped out of the door and saw the dim sunlight that was illuminating the town and the clouds that were trying to block it. There did not seem to be any snow today, and the previous day's snow had melted too. He let out a breath and saw it fog up.
"Should I take a look around the town?" Lin Mu muttered to himself.
"I think you should; get an idea of what's actually happening. You may also need to talk with those people from the night vigil." Xukong advised.
"Ah yes! The night vigil. I nearly forgot about them." Lin mu replied.
Having decided what he was gonna do, Lin Mu chose a path and started walking on it. He first decided to go check on the mercenary camp as it was close by. The safe house was located in the western part of the town, thus this was the most obvious choice.
Lin Mu saw some people while walking and observed that they seemed to be unnerved and some seemed to even be scared. Lin Mu spotted some familiar faces, but they were not the residents of the eastern part. He continued on and reached the mercenary camp.
As soon as he got close to the mercenary camp, he could hear the increase in the noise. He crossed the exit and saw the mercenaries gathered up in an area. They all seemed to be shouting about something, and a tall and muscled mercenary seemed to be directing them.
Lin Mu went to the group to try and listen to what was happening. He glanced at the tall and muscled mercenary and could sense that he was different. He got even more closer and narrowed his eyes after hearing their shouts.
"We won't stand this anymore! They did not listen to us when mercenaries disappeared, and now that it happened to their own townsmen, they're up in arms about it." The tall and muscled mercenary shouted.
"YES!" The crowd shouted.
"They did not give us answers first and now they suspect us, we won't bear this injustice!" The tall and muscled mercenary shouted.
"YES WE WON'T!" The crowd shouted again.
Lin Mu was a little stunned after hearing the mercenary's shouts. He would have never thought that instead of doing a proper investigation, they were instead trying to pin it on the mercenaries.
"Has the town head become senile?" Lin Mu wondered.
"The machinations seem to be running deep. There's more to this than we think, but unless we look more into it, we won't know." Xukong replied.
"Should we interfere in this though?" Lin Mu questioned himself.
"You're not directly involved in this, except for the part where you were attacked. I would say that you should just watch and wait, let these 'Hei corps' do their part. Though the final decision is still up to you." Xukong advised.
Lin Mu thought it over for a minute and then made up his mind.
"We'll wait and watch, only if push comes to shove, will we act. Besides, I still need to cultivate." Lin Mu spoke.
Lin Mu then turned around and was just about to walk away when he suddenly felt something.
"Spirit sense!" Lin Mu whispered and turned around.
The instant Lin Mu turned around, his eyes met the eyes of the mercenary that was directing the crowd. Their gazes clashed and Lin Mu understood. He spread his spirit sense probe and started to observe everything more closely. Lin Mu found the source of spirit sense and determined it to be the mercenary. The leading mercenary showed momentary shock when Lin Mu did this.
The leading mercenary then withdrew his spirit sense and nodded at Lin Mu before gesturing with his eyes. Lin Mu understood this and walked aside.
"It seems like he wants to meet you," Xukong spoke.
"Indeed, let's see what he has to say." Lin Mu replied and readied himself.
While waiting for the mercenary, Lin Mu probed the other mercenaries in the crowd and discovered that there were two more cultivators in there. These cultivators were standing near the leading mercenary and did not detect anything when Lin Mu used his spirit sense to observe them.
"Hmm, these two probably don't have spirit sense and haven't experienced it before either, I think." Lin Mu guessed.
"Or they're good at hiding their expression," Xukong spoke.
"It doesn't seem like it. Their cultivation was at the early stage of the Qi refining realm, unlike the other mercenary who is at the peak stage of the Qi refining realm." Lin Mu replied.
"You will have to be careful, he may already know your cultivation base as well," Xukong advised.
"Yes, senior. Though I feel confident that I can deal with it if things go sideways." Lin Mu spoke with determination.
'Haha, at least his confidence is increasing well.' Xukong thought with mirth.
Lin Mu waited for the mercenary and kept on listening to the shouts of the crowd.
"My fellow mercenaries, even if we are from different companies, we need to unite. Our superiors are out there working hard and thus can't help us currently. We need to deal with this ourselves." The leading mercenary said before shouting one last time.
"YES!" The crowd shouted in unison.
The leading mercenary then left the area, and the crowd dispersed into smaller groups. The shouting had stopped, yet the mercenaries were still discussing amongst themselves in the groups. The leading mercenary spoke to the two other cultivators and then started walking towards Lin Mu's location.
Lin Mu was standing a little distance from the crowd and was leaning against a tree. He watched as the three cultivator mercenaries approached him. Their expressions seem to be neutral and they were walking with an unhurried gait.
The trio reached Lin Mu and stood in front of him.
"Greetings fellow cultivator." The trio greeted with cupped hands.
'I should have guessed this beforehand.' Lin Mu thought with a chuckle.
"Greetings." Lin Mu responded.
The three men then lowered their hands and a neutral yet amicable expression appeared on their faces.
"I am Hong Luo from the Crimson fang mercenary company. May I have the opportunity to know fellow cultivator's name?" The leading mercenary spoke.
"I am Lin Mu."
The two accompanying cultivators had an irked expression upon hearing Lin Mu introduce himself in this way. But then the leading mercenary seemed to have secretly tapped them, after which they abruptly changed it back. This happened in nearly an instant, yet Lin Mu was able to detect it.
"Why are you here, brother Lin Mu?" Hong Luo asked.
"Oh, I was just passing by and heard some shouts, thus I came to look." Lin Mu spoke.
"Ah yes. We are, you see, in a rather complex predicament." Hong Luo replied.
"What's exactly happening, though? I would like to know more." Lin Mu questioned.
"I'm sure brother Lin Mu must've heard about the recent incidents of mercenaries disappearing." Hong Luo spoke.
"I did indeed and something happened in the town as well, I reckon." Lin Mu replied.
"Since you already know this, then its more simple to explain. The town head basically suspects that someone from the mercenaries is to blame for the disappearances. They did not listen to us when the first incident happened and now when the townsmen disappeared, they have the audacity to blame us." Hong Luo explained.
"That is rather wrong of the town head." Lin Mu replied.
Lin Mu did actually feel that something was wrong with the town head. He seemed to be acting strangely and was taking absurd decisions.
"Brother Lin Mu is on the same page as us, that makes me delighted." Hong Luo spoke, while the other two cultivators nodded.
Lin Mu then realized that the two cultivators had not spoken anything yet.
"And these two are?" Lin Mu questioned.
"Forgive me, I forgot to introduce them. These two are the Ming brothers and they are both mute, thus they can't speak. They are part of the Crimson fang mercenary company as well." Hong Luo answered.
"So what did you want from me?" Lin Mu asked the actual question that he's been meaning to do.
Upon hearing Lin Mu's question, Hong Lou's expression became serious.
每周推薦票狀態
200+ 推薦票
榜單 
0 推薦票 
段落評論