Lin Mu was still resting in the Kong plane when a certain person appeared over the horizon.
"There he is!" Jing Luo said upon seeing Little Shrubby and Lin Mu.
Little Shrubby was rather eye-catching even from this distance as his large red body was easy to spot.
~shua~
Jing Luo quickly flew towards them and was detected by Little Shrubby. But the beast didn't react as he could tell it was an ally.
~thud~
Jing Luo landed near them and glanced at Lin Mu.
"Lin Mu," Jing Luo called out, but didn't receive a response.
Furrowing his brows, he got closer and felt that Lin Mu's aura was a bit weak.
"What happened?" Jing Luo asked Little Shrubby.
~GRRR
Little Shrubby simply growled in response, but Jing Luo could somewhat guess the meaning at this point.
"The fight was difficult, I guess? And he's exhausted?" Jing Luo questioned.
~Grrr~
Little Shrubby nodded his head in response.
"Ah… if he wanted to rest, he should have just told us. ~Sigh~ I'll inform the others. Just let him be for now." Jing Luo said before turning around.
Soon Little Shrubby became a small dot in the distance as Jing Luo flew away.
"Hard to believe that the problem that had plagued us for so long is gone now…" Jing Luo muttered to himself.
He knew that Lin Mu had succeeded, because if he had not, then there was no way he would have returned here right now. Rather, Lin Mu would have endured till the mission was completed.
Then there was also the fact that Jing Luo could see the exhaustion on Lin Mu's face. It was a bit subtle now that he had rested for a day, but was still visible enough to differentiate.
'He must've really spent himself, if he is this exhausted. I haven't seen him this tired since the day we escaped the Ripple Mist sect…' Jing Luo thought to himself.
There were other changes in Lin Mu too that he couldn't exactly perceive right now, but Jing Luo was fine with not knowing them. All he cared about was that Lin Mu was alive and the mission had succeeded.
A while later, Jing Luo left the Kong plane and arrived in the Long Cloud sect.
Several of the members of the alliance were already waiting for him here and were also looking rather anxious.
"Did you find him?" Patriarch Yi You asked.
"Yes… he is fine. He's just tired and resting." Jing Luo replied.
"Understandably so." Patriarch Hua nodded his head.
"Can't believe he really ended it all on his own." One of the elders of the Long Cloud sect spoke up.
"Mmm… he didn't need us… it was us who needed him in the first place. Perhaps even without us he would have accomplished the same." Patriarch Shandian stated.
"We truly owe a debt to the child now, don't we… this entire world does." Patriarch Mingliang said after a bit.
"Indeed…" Patriarch Yi You agreed.
But hearing this, Jing Luo seemed to be a bit irked.
"Unfortunately, there are others that don't feel like this and want Lin Mu to pay for destroying the traitor sects." Jing Luo spoke up.
"Humph! I'll see how they do that." Patriarch Shandian said fiercely.
"If the top three sects dare to do that, we shall all stand in opposition. You have our word!" Patriarch Yi You declared.
"Perhaps they'll be given a rude awakening soon. I doubt the Northern Tribes will wait much long once their pawn has been eliminated and their plan exposed for all to see." Patriarch Hua added.
Everyone's expression darkened upon hearing this as they recalled that danger had not completely passed yet. Or rather, there was a great chance that even stronger enemies were about to appear.
"We need to prepare for the northern tribes' invasion. I've already talked to the Fenlong kingdom and its clans, they are prepared to move north at any time." Jing Luo said.
"What about your grandfather? Will Jing Wei be ready?" Patriarch Yi You asked.
"Grandfather is mostly done with his preparations. He'll be out soon." Jing Luo replied.
"Good! We'll need all the manpower. It would be best we can overwhelm them before they even react." Patriarch Yi You replied.
The alliance members continued to discuss the plan of action while the hours passed by. And when the discussions were completed, the disciples of the sect all departed in droves, their destination the Shuang Qian kingdom.
That was the place which was decided to be the location to stop the advance of the Northern Tribes. Everyone already knew that the Vermillion Legion was compromised and thus that frontier would be useless to fight at.
Another part of the alliance members split, a part to destroy the remnants of the Gu Legion around the empire. Jiao Fang had evidently provided some more information a while back and now the alliance had all the secrets of the Gu Legion.
The spies of the northern tribes were rooted out and eliminated one by one.
The Top three sects were certainly alarmed by this sudden series of actions by the Long Cloud alliance and sent forth messengers to question them why. But what they didn't expect was that the four patriarchs of the sects themselves went to the Sky precepts sect and talked to the Patriarch of the sect in person.
The contents of discussion was unknown to most disciples who had seen the entourage of patriarchs enter the sect. But then a shocking thing happened as the Patriarchs of the Rainbow Pill sect and the Centennial Sword sect arrived at the sect.
Currently, all of them sat in the grand palace of the Sky Precepts sect while a few high elders of the sect were present as well.
"So you are saying the Northern Tribes will be attacking soon?" The patriarch of the Rainbow pill sect questioned.
"Yes. That is what we've been telling you all for months now." Patriarch Shandian answered in an irked tone.
"What proof do you have of that?" The Patriarch of the Centennial Sword sect asked.
"Humph! If you still need proof after all this, then you are being more than just ignorant, Jia Chuanli." Patriarch Yi You replied.
