Lin Mu had felt the spatial energy fluctuations which were the biggest sign that a teleportation portal had opened. And there was only one reason why there would be a teleportation portal in the Land of Exile.
Someone had just been exiled.
Lin Mu's eyes darted around and his spirit sense was extended as well. Even if its range was limited, he would at least detect any attacks within that range and be able to react to it.
"There!" Head Warrior Kulo was the first to spot the portal.
He was a lot more experienced in this and had seen several portals open in the past. Lin Mu too noticed it, and saw that the runes were very faint and hard to read.
'They've been hidden intentionally…' Lin Mu discovered.
It was possibly made with caution against Formation masters tampering with it, so they simply kept the runes hidden. Doing this for a large and complex array like this was very difficult as well as expensive.
This was no different from encrypting the runes, forming the arrays and preventing anyone from figuring them out.
Lin Mu might have been able to study them even if they were hidden, but their appearance itself was short term.
~SHUA~
A couple seconds later, they finally saw the person who had appeared from the portal.
It was a man, who seemed to be in his thirties. He had short brown hair that was cut straight. His face was clean shaven, showing a few scars that were present on his chin and nose.
He wore yellow and black robes with a deer motif on the back and chest. The deer motif itself was very detailed with its horns woven with golden threads and its eyes made out of pearls.
Though other that the robes that he was wearing, the man had nothing else on him. He wore no jewelry, and neither did he have any spatial storage tools on him. That was the next thing that Lin Mu checked.
'So they really do take everything other than clothes from the exiles before sending them here.' Lin Mu confirmed.
~THUD~
Lin Mu and the Haima warriors watched the man with caution as he landed on the ground.
The man opened his eyes and seemed a little disoriented. But soon gathered his wits after he saw that there were others around him.
"State your identities!" The man said with an air of authority.
A wave of energy spread from him as well, alarming Lin Mu and Head Warrior Kulo.
"Immortal Ascension realm…" Lin Mu understood at that very moment.
His brows furrowed and his thoughts flowed like a fast river. Multiple scenarios formed in his mind and he calculated the best way to proceed. The one thing that he was happy about was that the man in front of them spoke in a language that was understandable to Lin Mu.
'It's not Dao script but is certainly derived from it.' Lin Mu reckoned.
The Haima warriors talked amongst each other, wondering what the man had just said. To them the words spoken by the man were incomprehensible unlike Lin Mu. Even Head Warrior Kulo could only understand a single world: Identity.
But just as he was about to speak, Lin Mu took the lead.
"They are the members of the Haima tribe." Lin Mu stared into the man's eyes directly without wavering.
"And who are you? Where are you from?" the Man questioned next.
He could see that Lin Mu had not even blinked once after they made eye contact. Just from this, he could guess his attitude and realized that he was not simple. As for the four legged strange people that were there with him, he was completely lost.
"I am Lin Mu. I'm a wandering cultivator."
The man furrowed his brows, thinking about something.
"Why don't you tell us who you are? It's only fair that you do the same." Lin Mu asked next.
"Humph! I'm Huyun Chuan, Lord of the Huyun County." The man said proudly.
Seeing this Lin Mu raised his brow.
'Is this man serious? Why's he acting like this here?' Lin Mu couldn't understand.
And just as he was wondering at the man's words, he was baffled at the next.
"Well then, why aren't you all kneeling?" Huyun Chuan asked.
"Why should we?" Lin Mu asked simply.
"Why? You dare ask the lord of a county why? You dare not follow the etiquette of venerating your superiors?" Huyun Chuan retorted with anger.
"What lord?" Lin Mu couldn't hold his chuckle anymore. "You are in the Land of Exile now. That makes you no different from all those that came before."
"You dare insult me!" Huyun Chuan was infuriated. "This is merely a temporary thing! I will soon be brought back!" he stated.
"Oh? You have a special arrangement?" A smile appeared on Lin Mu's face.
"Of course! Do you think a great lord like me would belong to a wasteland like this? I'm here merely because of some complex circumstances." The man spoke without a care.
At this point, Lin Mu was wondering if the man was not entirely sane. It didn't make sense for someone to act this pompously even if they were at the Immortal Ascension realm. Even the three Immortals of the Northern Tribes were better in demeanor than this man.
'Compared to them, he acts like a… child.' Lin Mu suddenly recalled something that he had read in the records of the Lost immortal. 'Wait… he isn't one of those, is he?'
In the records of the Lost immortal, the unfortunate man had the misfortune of encountering several characters who were influential and rich. They threw around their background and money acting pompously.
And whenever they met a disadvantage or failed, they called their elders to act for them. They were of many types and identities, but the common factor in all of them was that they were self conceited.
While Lin Mu was thinking this, Huyun Chuan was watching them with an irritated expression.
"BAH! Guess peasants like you all only understand once you are crushed under a shoe!" Huyun Chuan shouted before attacking.
His palm glowed in a yellow light and created five sabers that slashed at the Haima Warriors.
"Get back!" Lin Mu shouted before he appeared in front to block.
His speed was surprising to Huyun Chuan, not to mention the fact that Lin Mu had blocked his attacks with his bare hands. Even though the five sabers had gone after different targets, Lin Mu was still fast enough to block them all.
~CLANG~ CLANG~ CLANG~
The sound of metal hitting metal was heard each time the sabers hit Lin Mu's hands. His sleeves had been torn from this, but his hands were still safe.
"Who are you?" Huyun Chuan asked in shock. "How can you block my family's Five Huyun Saber palm?"
Head Warrior Kulo lead the younger warriors to leap away from the area. He had understood right away that the man in front was someone they could not fight against.
'Even if I can go against him for a bit, the younger warriors will be hurt in the process.' Head Warrior Kulo thought as he decisively retreated.
His tribe had faced aggressive people like this in the past, but most were those that had already been in the Land of Exile for some time. It was his first time facing someone who had just appeared in the Land of Exile.
Then there was also the fact that Huyun Chuan's clothes were a little too good for someone who had been exiled.
~huu~
Once Lin Mu saw that the Haima people were a sufficient distance away, he took a breath of relief.
"Since you're acting like this, I don't need to hold back either." Lin Mu said as he withdrew the short sword.
Seeing this Huyun Chuan was even more shocked.
"How can you have a weapon here!? And a spatial storage tool too!?" It was the man's turn to be baffled now.
As far as Huyun Chuan knew, the Land of exile was basically the same as an eternal prison for most. And just like a prison, one couldn't have any weapons or other such things with them.
Of course, this was hard to apply to cultivators as they had more methods than just weapons to fight with. One method would be the cripple their cultivation before sending them to the Land of Exile, but that didn't suit the punishment that was intended.
In the first place, the Land of Exile was supposed to be a punishment in which the prisoner would be faced with helplessness. They were intentionally left with their cultivation intact, just so that they could despair upon facing the dangers of the Broken Chasm.
It was multi layered punishment, that only prevented the prisoners from taking any weapons, or other aids such as pills, spirit tools and more.
~WHOOSH~
And just as Huyun Chuan was wondering about all this, he felt a pressure rising from Lin Mu.
"Sword Intent?!"
