Lin Mu's name was not something that was known outside of the alliance itself, thus the disciples who heard it were confused.
"That's the alliance leader of the Long Cloud Alliance? How come we've never heard of him?" Someone asked.
"Yeah, isn't the alliance leader supposed to be the Patriarch of the Long Cloud sect, Yi You?" the junior brother asked.
"That is what was said to be on the surface, but the true person behind it all is him." Yulong replied with a smile.
'Lin Mu, Lin Mu… it's been such a long time. If not for you showing me the way in life, perhaps I would have already been dead.' Yulong thought to himself as a few memories passed though his mind.
"What do we do now, then? Won't we be caught in the crossfire if we stay here?" The junior brother asked and took another look at the broken roof.
"Look at them, their attacks have already flattened half of the outer court!" One of the disciples pointed at the screen.
On it, one could see Lin Mu standing on the ground which had caved in and turned into a crater. The ground had sunk nearly three meters deep, and the radius of the crater along was about a kilometer!
Standing in the crater Lin Mu gazed at the two men beneath him.
"Begone from this world." Lin Mu lightly spoke and stomped on the greatly injured bodies of the two high elders.
He had already killed the supreme elder and the two high elders were the last of the Dao Treading realm experts that were currently present in the Zither Wind sect. Lin Mu's spirit sense had already scanned the entire sect and he knew that there was no one else among the sect's higher ups here.
'Where did the patriarch of the Zither Wind sect go? Did he go to the Gu Legion like the Ripple Mist sect's patriarch did?' Lin Mu wondered.
He didn't know why the patriarch would leave their sects unattended, without a reason.
"Gu Yao probably summoned them and have been keeping them there." Lin Mu could only think of this for now.
~BOOM~
And while he was getting thinking of the next course of action, a few more explosions happened in the distance.
~ROAR~
Lin Mu looked and saw Little Shrubby fighting against seven elders at once. Or rather, fighting was an overstatement, as the elders were being beaten with little to no effort. Their attacks couldn't even touch Little Shrubby, as he could outrun them.
And they couldn't bear Little Shrubby's attacks as they were filled with a heat and crushing power that broke through their defenses with ease.
"Finish it Little Shrubby, we got more stuff to do." Lin Mu spoke.
~GRRR~
"Alright!" Little Shrubby replied with a growl that terrified the four elder that were still alive.
~SHUA~
~BOOM~
Little Shrubby moved at such a great speed that the very air tore apart, creating a sonic boom.
"AARGGHHHHH!!!!—" The elders could only let out half a shout before they were directly exploded!
~HISS~
Their remains were directly turned to dust and blown away by the wind, leaving behind nothing.
~shua~
Little Shrubby moved and appeared next to Lin Mu just a second later.
"I'm done~" Little Shrubby spoke.
"Did you get their storage?" Lin Mu asked.
"Of course!" Little Shrubby shook his neck and nine storage treasures fell out of it.
They had been caught into Little Shrubby's fur when he had attacked the elder. At his speed, one couldn't even see when he picked all of them up.
"Perfect." Lin Mu said before taking a quick look through their storage treasure.
He wanted to find some more clues about Gu Yao or the patriarch or anything basically.
"Hmm…" Lin Mu furrowed his brows as the storage treasures of the nine elders were basically empty, other than a few pills and spirit stones.
Their spirit weapons had already been destroyed during the battle with Little Shrubby. Mid grade or even high grade spirit weapons weren't durable enough to withstand Little Shrubby's attacks now.
Though Lin Mu didn't really mind the weapons, as he had plenty of his own.
"Did you find anything?" Little Shrubby asked.
"No… it's strange." Lin Mu replied before taking a look through the storage treasure of the two high elders he had killed earlier.
"Strange… they have even fewer resources than the other elders. And don't have anything else either." Lin Mu said after searching.
"What about the supreme elder?" Xukong suddenly spoke.
"His body didn't have any spatial storage treasures on them." Lin Mu replied.
"Did you check his head?" Xukong suggested.
"His head?" Lin Mu furrowed his brows, then recalled that the supreme elder did have a hair clip tying his hair in place.
"Oh yeah, I almost forgot about that." Lin Mu said before spreading his spirit sense.
"There it is." Lin Mu spotted the head nearly two kilometers away in the inner court of the sect.
Lin Mu flew towards the place where the head was, and Little Shrubby followed after him.
~sniff~
But just as they reached it, Little Shrubby sensed something.
"There are some people here, master." Little Shrubby said through their link.
Lin Mu raised his brows and checked with his spirit sense again, not finding anything.
Even though he didn't find anything right away, Lin Mu didn't doubt little shrubby's words.
'A formation array to hide themselves?' Lin Mu guessed.
It was rather surprising to him as a formation array that could hide from his spirit sense was not simple.
Narrowing his eyes, Lin Mu picked up the head of the supreme elder and took the hair clip from it.
"It's indeed the spatial storage tool he has." Lin Mu confirmed.
But he didn't check it right away, instead he gazed at the broken residence a short distance from him.
"Why don't you all come out? I know you all see me." Lin Mu calmly spoke.
But even though his voice was calm, the disciples hiding in the residence couldn't help but shiver upon hearing it. After all, Lin Mu had just killed the strongest elders of their sect without even so much as breaking a sweat!
There were no injuries on his body, and not even his robes seemed to have been dirtied.
Then there was also the giant beast next to him, that was glaring at them. The powerful aura coming from the beast was another terrifying factor to him.
For ten seconds, no sound was heard from the residence.
"AHahahah~" But then a man's laughter was heard.
Lin Mu looked on as a man walked out from the residence. And when he did, the formation array isolating the residence also disappeared, allowing him to perceive the disciples of the Zither wind sect hiding inside.
Lin Mu's spirit sense swept over them, making them almost faint.
'Such spirit sense… not even patriarch is on this level…' The elder brother thought to himself as a bead of cold sweat dripped down the side of his temple.
Lin Mu also saw all their expressions of fear and nervousness and guessed why they were there.
'So they took shelter there due to the battle… can't complain about that.' Lin Mu thought to himself.
He could also tell that these disciples were free from the Human Controlling blood curse as well as the muddy spirit Qi of the pills of grace. This combined meant that he had no reason to hold a grudge against them.
Besides, Lin Mu hadn't killed all the people of the sect either. He had not targeted the common disciples but only those that were clearly under the human controlling blood curse or had taken the pills of grace.
Even the flame barrier that Little Shrubby had set up with his new understanding of fire only targeted those that had that scent on them. The flames would react with merely a thought as Little Shrubby could smell everything that had happened around him.
Thus, the actual loss of human life in the sect was not absolute. Though the numbers of disciples that had taken the pills of grace was still rather high. And Lin Mu couldn't let that go.
Hence, even with Lin Mu's conservative efforts, over half of the sect had still be eradicated.
But all that was put at the back of his mind as Lin Mu now had a new thing to focus on for now.
Lin Mu watched as a man came and stood some distance away from him.
"What's a Dao Treading realm cultivator like you doing here? You are certainly not an elder of the sect." Lin Mu spoke as he knew each and every elder with the information he had been given a while ago.
"You are certainly not the same as I remember you… Lin Mu." Yulong spoke.
Lin Mu raised his brows, as this was the first time he was recognized.
"And who might you be?" Lin Mu questioned, not minding that the man knew him.
"Ah! I almost forgot." Yulong replied before he took out a pill and ate it.
Lin Mu let him do it as he felt no threat from the man. But a few seconds later, he saw the man's face change. It twitched and wiggled before its features started to change. The sharp jawline became a bit more curved while the eyes widened.
The brows lifted and the nose became bigger as well. About half a minute later, the appearance of the man had entirely changed!
"Jiao Fang!?" Lin Mu was surprised, seeing an old acquaintance.
