The royal palace of the Shuang Qian kingdom used to seem really huge to Lin Mu once upon a time, but now Lin Mu had seen sect buildings that were several times bigger than this. Even the Tri cauldron peony sect's main peak buildings were bigger than the palace.
Lin Mu's spirit sense spread around as he quickly grasped the aura of those that had taken those pills as well as those controlled by Gu Yao.
"Oh? The king is actually not controlled?" Lin Mu was surprised.
Lin Mu had originally thought that the King of the Shuang Qian kingdom would be definitely be under the control of Gu Yao, but it seemed like that was not true anymore. Though when he checked the man a bit more, he did find traces of the pills of grace on him.
"Hmm… since he's weaker, Gu Yao probably didn't deem him worthy of having the Human Controlling Blood curse on him." Lin Mu muttered, noticing the king Infant soul stage Nascent soul realm cultivation.
It was relatively weak, as there were several more people stronger than him in the palace.
'No, wait… seems like he really is rather weak. Even with the use of the pills his cultivation is still this low.' Lin Mu realized that the Shuang Qian kingdom might have just been doomed from the start.
~Sigh~
"They never stood a chance…" Lin Mu sighed and understood why even the mutated beast infected by the invader hidden here was weak too.
Finally, having caught up with everything, Lin Mu left the palace, returning to room. Once there, he quickly sent the report with all the information he had gathered to both Wu Hei and the alliance.
"All ready?" Jing Luo questioned.
"Yes, had some surprises, but we can leave now." Lin Mu answered.
"Alright. Let's head off!" Jing Luo said.
The two of them with Little Shrubby, left the city and flew out to the west. Their destination was a certain pass slightly to the north west from where they were currently. It was a path that some merchants used to smuggle in high value goods so that they wouldn't be taxed.
While something like this didn't really matter to Lin Mu and Jing Luo since they could literally just fly over the mountains, what they did care for was that this path mostly avoided any dangers that might delay them, at the very least.
Another thing being that there were no Gu Legion hideouts on this path. So they wouldn't be detected by them either.
~shua~
Little Shrubby enlarged into his full size once they were a sufficient distance away from the city.
"Let's go!" Little Shrubby said with excitement.
"Alright." Lin Mu said as he got onto Little Shrubby's back.
Jing Luo did the same, and both of them hooked into the harness.
~WHOOSH~
Little Shrubby started to run and soon picked up a speed that was faster than ever before. Jing Luo found it hard to even see anything, despite the fact that he was at the Dao Shell realm too.
His dynamic vision should have been good enough to keep up with a lot of things, but with Little Shrubby's speed it was not. Lin Mu didn't have the same problem, though. But it did strain him a little bit, which just made him take this as a training opportunity.
Their travel was barely of three hours before they ended up reaching the pass.
"That should be the one." Jing Luo said as they looked down at a narrow pass.
It was nestled between two cliffs that almost touched each other. The mountains between which the path was located were tall enough for most humans to not be able to traverse normally. At the top of the mountains, snow could even be seen, showing just how tall they were.
But if one looked beyond the mountains, they would see a vast expanse of black land.
This was the Black Dawn Kingdom!
The soil of the Black Dawn Kingdom was what gave it the name. It was rich in certain nutrients which made it grow a lot of crops. But at the same time, it gave the opportunity for many strong beasts to grow here as well.
It was said that the people of the black Dawn kingdom were rather hardy, even if it was just the commoners. To them, encounter with beasts was a normal thing and even peasants would have to fight with such beasts almost every day.
Beasts wandering into the farms and stealing their cattle was a common thing that the peasants would defend against. Over the thousands of years the kingdom had existed, its residents had already grown accustomed to this.
Now killing a beast when they were six or seven wasn't unheard of, even if the beast was just at the first stage of the body tempering realm. The children would go out to play and bring back some beast corpses to eat later in the night.
It was good practice for the future and would also nourish their bodies.
Lin Mu passed over many villages and towns, taking in the sights. With his spirit sense, he could quickly take in the scenes of the commoners all at once. He saw their struggles and pains.
Their joys and sorrows as were well obvious to him. He felt a like he had just seen his own past in that moment.
His eyes stilled, and his heart stilled as well. His mind became tranquil as his lips started to move gently. Jing Luo who had been sitting behind, suddenly heard faint chants in his head.
He didn't even realize when he started repeating after them in his mind, even though he didn't understand the esoteric words. Unconsciously his spirit Qi started flowing smoothly in his meridians, speeding up his rate of cultivation.
But he wasn't the only one who experience this. Wherever Lin Mu passed, this effect spread. The commoners who never cultivated before felt a clarity in their minds that they had never felt before.
