While the meeting continued on in the Light Harmony Sect, Lin Mu continued his investigation.
'With the number of people to fall from nearly a hundred to merely ten… something must have happened. And all that to happen in merely two days is a bit too much as well.' Lin Mu thought to himself.
"Little Shrubby, do you smell any other scents than these ones? Did they split up, perhaps?" Lin Mu questioned.
~SNIFF~
Little Shrubby's small nose twitched as he quickly analyzed the scents.
"They don't just have their own scents. There is the scent of more people on them." Little Shrubby answered. "And also blood… but very little. Doesn't seem like it came from an injury or fight, though." He added.
Hearing this Lin Mu narrows his brows. He would understand if the scent of blood was high, as it would mean that these people had fought a battle and gotten injured. But there was still the scent of others on them.
It was also possible that they might have had an inner conflict among themselves, but there were no signs of them splitting off either.
"Did they kill their own members?" Lin Mu wondered.
Lin Mu approached them while hiding on the ground. He intended to listen to them, and learn what they might be up to.
For a few minutes, the people didn't talk at all. But one of them finally spoke after twenty minutes of silence.
"Prince, we should be close by now." One of the men spoke.
~HAAA~
"We came all this way betting that they were saying the truth. It's good that it is, or we would have had to take a bad route." The prince spoke. "There is no way, I'd live like commoners to hide." He added.
"You've paid the right prince, so I doubt they would not keep their word. It was after all, a deal your mother made for you." The man replied, to which the prince just nodded.
"I hope the payment will be as the prince stated?" another man who was dressed in armor asked.
"Of course you will, commander. I've given you my word." The prince replied, but the displeasure in his eyes could still be seen.
"As long as the prince complies. After all… my men have had to pay the price for your safe passage." The commander stated, a slight smile on his face.
The expression of the prince wavered for a moment, but he composed himself in the next. Turning his head away from the commander, he continued walking.
Unknown to them, Lin Mu was following them and listened to all that they had talked.
'The prince found a backer?' Lin Mu understood from their words.
It was certainly intriguing who would dare to harbor a deserter prince.
"No… even if someone was willing to do that, no one is in this direction other than one party… The Northern Tribes." Lin Mu's expression turned serious.
The prince and his party continued walking for about three more hours before they finally reached the peaks that formed the great border between the two continents. Of course, the frontier was beyond these peaks, but the paths to reach it were only two.
And this path was certainly not one of them. Or rather, it wasn't a path at all, being a dead end instead.
"Are you sure this is the right location, prince?" The commander asked.
"It should be…" the prince replied, a little uncertainty in his voice.
"Let me check the map, prince." The prince's personal steward said before taking out a scroll.
Upon unrolling it, a map could be seen. The map was relatively simple and was of a very small range of area. On the map were drawn several trees, and other topographical features.
But the most eye-catching was the character written near some trees. The character was written in the tribal language and was unreadable by others.
"Hang on. Doesn't this group of trees look similar to the one on the map?" One of the soldiers said after glancing for a moment.
The steward follow the soldier's hand and truly saw a group of trees that looked to be in the same exact arrangement as that of the map.
"Seems like it. We should check it out." The steward said.
The prince's party went to the group of trees and tried to find any clues.
"I found something!" A soldier said after a few minutes.
"What is it?" the commander asked.
"Seems like a letter." The soldier said, before handing it to the commander.
The prince approached the commander and asked him to open it. The letter was small, and inside it only a few words were written.
'Wait till midnight, then ignite a fire for 2 minutes exactly.' The instructions on the letter read.
"Is this it?" The commander said, finding the letter to be a lacking.
"Only one way to find out…" The prince stated. "We'll wait till night."
Lin Mu though, didn't just wait around with them.
'If they've been instructed to light a fire, then the other party must be close enough to see it even in night.' Lin Mu reckoned.
His spirit sense searched the hundred kilometer area in detail, even going deep in the ground to avoid missing anything.
"Hmm… nothing on the surface, at least. Other than beasts…" Lin Mu continued to check.
After a couple of minutes, though, he finally found something.
"Oh?" Keeping up the 'tradition' of the Gu Legion, Lin Mu found a few people hidden at the foot of a mountain.
There were a lot of bare trees there, and even more had been put there. The trick was that these trees were actually moved there to cover the entrance of the hideout.
"Let's see what they are up to." Lin Mu muttered before flying to the hideout.
In just five minutes, he was there and observed there to be five people belonging to the northern Tribes hidden.
Lin Mu didn't alert them though nor did he attack them. His first goal was to find out why they were here exactly.
