"It's been a day. Will senior Lin Mu be fine?" One of the Noon Grass sect's disciples questioned.
"He should be fine. If anything happened to him, we would know." Jing Luo replied.
He then looked at Little Shrubby, who was staring at the staircase from the start.
"But those tremors before. It felt like something big happened." Another disciple expressed his concern.
"Maybe he needs our help?" Another one asked.
"Yeah! We should head down to check!"
"We can't leave him alone when he helped all of us so many times."
One by one, the disciples spoke out.
"No, we won't until we know for sure." Jing Luo stated.
"He's fine isn't he?" He questioned Little Shrubby.
The beast who had been worried about his master looked at the man he didn't particularly like and stared silently at him.
"You can sense him, right? Tell us if he's fine." Jing Luo questioned.
"GRR!" Little Shrubby growled lightly in response.
"I'll take that as if he's okay?" Jing Luo asked to be sure, to which Little Shrubby nodded his head.
"Good! We wait then." Jing Luo stated.
The disciples couldn't protest now and could only listen to Jing Luo and wait. Elder Weimin had heard everything but did not interfere. He could understand the disciples' concern and knew that they were only thinking well of Lin Mu.
Rather than Lin Mu, he was more concerned about Elder Liqiang right now. Despite having his injuries healed, the man had not woken up yet.
'We need to get him back to the sect as soon as possible.' Elder Weimin thought to himself.
A few minutes later, Jing Luo and the rest heard some steps behind them and immediately became alert. Little Shrubby's ears perked up and it sniffed the air. A second later, his expression eased up and he knew who had appeared.
~step~step~step~
Lin Mu gazed at everyone staring at him intently and didn't know what to think of it.
"Everything fine?" He questioned.
"S-Senior Lin Mu!" The disciples shouted out in a concerned tone.
"Are you okay? It took you longer than I thought it would take." Jing Luo asked as well.
Little Shrubby, on the other hand, simply approached Lin Mu and nuzzled against him. He could feel a little change in Lin Mu but could not tell exactly what.
~Sigh~
Lin Mu could only sigh in response to their questions before shaking his head.
"It will be easier to just show you all." Lin Mu stated. "Follow me." He ordered.
Jing Luo and the rest nodded before following behind him. A couple of disciples put the unconscious Elder Liqiang on a stretcher and carried him at the back. They reached the next floor soon and saw the scene of devastation.
~Gasp~
"What happened!?" A few disciples couldn't help but shout out in shock.
Jing Luo and Elder Weimin though scanned the hall for the one person of interest. Who they soon found lying on the ground some distance away.
"You fought with that old woman?" Jing Luo questioned with raised brows.
"Mmm, I did." Lin Mu nodded his head.
"I thought you were just going to observe her first." Elder Weimin asked.
"Things changed." Lin Mu simply responded.
But he could see that they all had a lot of questions and that they would not be satisfied by just this.
"Let me tell you what happened then…" Lin Mu said before starting the series of events that took place.
The more they heard, the more shocked they got. They couldn't even imagine Lin Mu would defeat a Shell Expansion Stage Dao Shell realm expert like this. Both Jing Luo and Elder Weimin knew what that entailed.
But what they were more shocked hearing was the truth about the ruins, as well as how the Northern Tribes had fooled all the sects. It was a terrifying revelation, and they finally understood just how much of a danger the Great Zhou Empire truly was in.
Lin Mu kept some things from them though, that he thought shouldn't be spread to others. These things just pertained to him and were not something that would cause problems if they were hidden.
He also avoided saying the finer details of the battle which both Elder Weimin and Jing Luo picked up on. Though they knew better to speak about it, as they understood everyone had their secrets.
'All that matters now is that she won't be a problem anymore.' Elder Weimin thought.
'Did grandfather know he would reach this point one day?' Jing Luo wondered.
About an hour later, Lin Mu was finally done explaining everything and took a deep breath.
"I need to check what exists beneath this floor. It is likely to be key to the mystery of the tomb and there is a great chance the teleportation array is behind it as well." Lin Mu stated.
"Of course. Do you need help with the formation array?" Jing Luo asked.
"No… we don't have time for the conventional approach." Lin Mu said as he recalled all that Ku Waowen had said.
"I want you all to be ready to leave at any moment. I don't think this place is stable anymore... or safe for that matter." Lin Mu stated.
Elder Weimin and Jing Luo nodded while the disciples had no disagreements about it. At this point, they would accept anything that Lin Mu would say. This was the level of faith Lin Mu had developed in them with his actions.
Though it wasn't even his original aim.
"S-senior!" It was now that one of the disciples spoke out.
"Mm?" Lin Mu hummed in a questioning tone.
"T-the two elders who died here in the past. You didn't tell us if you found out anything about them. And it doesn't seem like they are here either. We didn't find their remains upstairs either." The disciple said in a nervous tone.
"Ah, that…" Lin Mu responded, and pointed to the old woman. "You can get that out of her. Feel free to use any method." He added.
The disciples understood, and a serious expression appeared on his face. Elder Weimin was already quite angry but had been keeping a calm face for now. Still, his actions showed that he was angry as he quickly grabbed the unconscious old woman's hair and pulled her off to the side.
If it were not for the fact that he knew the old woman was crippled, he would have simply kicked her away. But at this point, that would just obliterate her body and they would not get the information that they wanted.
Elder Weimin knew enough tricks to get information out of someone. Even if he was not part of the disciplinary hall, he had lived long enough to learn quite a few techniques; though some of them might be considered unorthodox and cruel.
Lin Mu though, didn't care about anything and simply headed towards the large formation array in the center of the hall. It had become transparent since the one controlling it had lost it and had become dormant.
Though Lin Mu could still feel its presence there.
~huu~
Lin Mu took a deep breath and let his spirit sense probe the formation array.
~shua~
The runes reappeared and let out a pale yellow glow. It illuminated the relatively dark hall and showed its presence.
"Whoa!" The disciples were surprised to see the formation array.
It was different from any formation array they had come across till now, and it looked very complex to them.
"Heavens! Just how many layers are in there?" Someone exclaimed.
Even Jing Luo furrowed his brows upon seeing the formation array and knew why Lin Mu had rejected his offer.
'Even with the two of us, it would take a week to unravel this. And that's IF we can do that. I don't recognize several of those runes.' Jing Luo thought.
Though after thinking for a bit, he could recall seeing some of those runes in the information Lin Mu had passed on to him on behalf of his master. A serious expression appeared on Jing Luo's face, as he understood just how lacking he truly was.
"There is always a mountain behind a mountain and an ocean bigger than a sea…" Jing Luo muttered.
While he was doing this, the disciples watched on with curiosity as Lin Mu started to act.
"Will we get to see him unraveling it?" A female disciple that was interested in formations asked.
"Perhaps. It will be our great luck!" Another one commented.
But what they saw was completely different from their thoughts.
Lin Mu closed his eyes and brought his two hands together before touching only the finger tips and pulling his palms apart.
~Humm~
A strange humming could be felt in the air and it was made from spirit Qi. The disciples felt their clothes fluttering even though there was no wind in the hall. Then in the next second, Lin Mu Opened his eyes wide and split apart his hand in a wide gesture.
"Meld!" He recited.
~HONG~
Intense spatial fluctuations appeared in the hall and even Elder Weimin had to turn back to look. Keeping his left hand in its position, Lin Mu pulled his right to the center again.
Then extending it to the front like a long sword, he raised it up into the sky.
He took a deep breath and focused before bringing the hand down like a sword.
~SHING~
An almost visible light shot out of his hands like a sword strike and passed through the formation array like a hot knife through butter.
~KACHA~
