Lin Mu and Jing Luo had finished talking a while later.
Jing Luo went back to work on the armor as he now needed to fix it and also modify it according to himself. Meanwhile, Lin Mu decided to take a little visit.
"Little Shrubby let's head to the Northern Town." Lin Mu said as he left the mansion.
He had not been to the northern town since the day he had left it and wanted to see what it was like now. After the Red tide, the Wu Lim city and most of its people had been killed by Gu Yao, thus the city was depopulated for a while.
But the four satellite towns had survived this entire time. Though the condition of the people in them wasn't really as good. Thankfully in the recent years, Wu Hei had helped them out and the lives of the people were returning back to normal there.
~SHUA~
Little Shrubby transformed back into his full form, and Lin Mu jumped onto his back. The two of them quickly flew to the north where Wu Lim county was. It took them about an hour to reach it during which Lin Mu saw the empty roads.
'These roads are seldom this empty… I should have seen at least a couple of caravans on it, if not the soldiers patrolling it at least.' Lin Mu thought to himself.
After entering the Wu Lim county, the next location that appeared was none other than the southern town.
"The army camp is also half empty… strange." Lin Mu muttered, seeing the scene below.
The southern town was well known for housing a camp of the Shuang Qian Kingdom's royal army. It was meant to serve to functions, first to provide rapid support to the frontier just in case the invaders arrived, and second to keep Wu Xun in check.
All this was all in the past though, and the army camp had lost its true meaning after the Gu Legion took control of the region. But even then, the area shouldn't have been this empty.
'Did Wu Hei give some orders to them?' Lin Mu wondered.
He hadn't talked about this part, so didn't know about it. Just to be sure, Lin Mu quickly messaged the man and inquired about it.
"Wu Hei, have you ordered the soldiers in the southern town to move somewhere?" Lin Mu questioned.
"The Southern Town? No, the only orders I gave them last were to stay put and be alert." Wu Hei quickly responded. "Why? Is there an issue?" he questioned.
"Yeah… I'm above the town right now and half of it is empty." Lin Mu answered.
Wu Hei furrowed his brows, and a bad thought appeared in his mind.
"Try to see if you can find the Commanding captain posted there. If he's not there, then there is definitely something going on." Wu Hei replied.
"Didn't you send a messenger to the frontier? To the Vermillion legion, did they not see this?" Lin Mu asked.
"They couldn't have since the messenger would have left from a small outpost located to the northwest of Wu Lim city. He wouldn't go the opposite way to encounter this." Wu Hei replied.
"I see… I'll check up and find what's going on." Lin Mu said before putting away the jade slip.
"Shrink down, little Shrubby. We'll see what's going on down there." Lin Mu said.
"Okay~" little Shrubby immediately turned into a small cat and jumped onto Lin Mu's shoulder.
~shua~
Lin Mu flew down and landed near the gate of the southern town.
'Now that I think of it… this is only my second time coming here.' Lin Mu recalled the first time he had visited the southern town.
Back then, he had come with his father to help him out. His father had gotten some work at the southern town for a week. His father would normally hunt, but since this was a relatively high paying and low effort job, his father had taken it. Even if it was just temporary.
The work was actually at a small tavern, and Lin Mu's father would work as a guard there. Lin Mu on the other hand, helped out as a cleaner and washed the dishes. That way, they could get some extra money.
'How time passes…' Lin Mu reminisced for a moment.
He focused his attention back at the task at hand and walked towards the army camp. Along the way, he certainly caught the eye of many people that lived in the town. They all discussed in hushed voices and whispered to each other.
Lin Mu was eye-catching no matter where he went and it was the same here. Though none of these people were brave enough to talk to him directly. In the past few years, there had been too many conflicts and thus the commoners stayed away from strangers.
Especially when a stranger was obviously a cultivator. It was mostly cultivators that were the danger to them, after all.
"Is he going towards the camp?" the commoners wondered.
"He really is!" They confirmed after seeing that Lin Mu had taken the last turn that led to the camp.
The Army camp was nearly half of the southern town, and the other half were all the commoners of it. In the half where the commoners lived, there were blacksmiths, taverns, restaurants, tea houses, and even brothels.
All that was needed to make the soldiers spend money was located here.
"Sure enough, even the guards posted around the city aren't doing their work." Lin Mu observed.
After walking for a couple of minutes, Lin Mu arrived at the main tent of the army camp. It was the largest tent here and was nearly a hundred meters wide. There was also the crest of the Shuang Qian kingdom hanging above it, showing that it belonged to their army.
"Who are you?" The two guards standing outside the tent stopped Lin Mu and questioned him.
Even if their common sense could tell them that Lin Mu was a cultivator, they couldn't help but stop him, as it was their duty.
