Lin Mu and the group were met with the adviser Liu and quickly brought to the main hall.
"Forgive me Adviser Liu, but we cannot stay here for the time being and it's best if we go on to our mission at once." Lin Mu spoke.
"Of course, senior Lin Mu. That is not the reason why I brought you here, there is something else." Adviser Liu replied.
"Oh? What is it?" Lin Mu asked curiously.
In response to this, Adviser Liu went to the side where something was kept under a sheet. He lifted the sheet and revealed a closed box underneath it.
~Crack~
He pulled on the lid and the nails were pulled out along with it, before he placed it at the side.
"This was found by our guards at the border of the kingdom. We don't really know what this is and it is certainly suspicious. I wonder if you know what it is?" Adviser Liu said as he pointed to the contents of the box.
"This… can it really be that…" Lin Mu said in disbelief.
~thud~
He tilted the box and let the object fall out of it, which was then revealed to be a beast's carcass.
"Heavens… what kind of a beast is this?" Elder Boqin couldn't help but exclaim at the grotesque appearance.
The beast looked like a monkey beast, but it seemed to have horribly mutated. It had black slimy skin and bone spurs protruding out from everywhere, and teeth that grew haphazardly out of its mouth.
Its nails had grown to unnatural length and were nearly a meter long. Its tail had changed too and no longer covered with flesh and skin. Instead, there were bones fully revealed and had some small patches of flesh on the joints of it.
A frown appeared on Lin Mu's face as he saw the beast and he had a bad feeling.
~SHUA~
Suddenly, a character appeared on his forehead and shone brightly.
"What's happening, Lin Mu?" Jing Luo asked in a concerned tone.
"Invader…" Lin Mu said in a low voice.
"INVADER?" Elder Wenyan exclaimed.
Jing Luo finally understood what Lin Mu was talking about and looked at the beast closely.
"What do you mean Invader, Senior Lin Mu?" Elder Boqin asked.
"You were told about the invader that was brought on by the Northern Tribes, right?" Lin Mu asked.
"Of course… You don't mean to say…" Elder Boqin realized.
"Yes… as much as I don't want it to be, this is another host of the invader." Lin Mu stated.
~gasp~
Loud gasps could be heard coming from everyone as they finally knew what kind of a situation this was.
"When did they find this?" Lin Mu asked.
"The guards found it about two days ago and it just arrived this morning. I would have informed you earlier but since you were coming here anyway, I reckoned it would be better to just show it to you." Adviser Liu replied.
Jing Luo furrowed his brows and kneeled beside the corpse to check up on it.
"I have no way of estimating the time of death of this beast. This… it is horribly mutated that I can't tell if the flesh has decomposed or not." Jing Luo said.
"Mmm… I've come across a few examples of them before. They too were mutated rather strangely, but this… this one certainly takes the top spot." Lin Mu spoke.
"What do think caused its death?" Elder Wenyan asked.
Lin Mu extended his spirit sense and probed the beast to see what could be the issue, since there were no physical wounds on the corpse. But even after checking it throughly he could not grasp it.
"I can't tell how it died. There are no wounds nor any internal injuries in its body. There is no vitality left in its body either, which is strange since there should be some lingering vitality left in the flesh." Lin Mu spoke.
"Can we get the exact location where this was found?" Jing Luo questioned.
"Of course. I had the guards cordon off that area and there are a few of them watching over it as well." Adviser Liu answered.
"Good… If this thing has appeared, it means there is more than one of them out there. After all these years… they are finally starting to appear again." Lin Mu said in a straight voice.
"The last beast you saw who was infected was the bear, right?" Jing Luo asked.
"Indeed. Your grandfather and Duan Ke wiped out all the other beast's back then. We thought all the traces were gone, but it is certain now that it is not true." Lin Mu replied.
"If it has spread this far south, then…" Jing Luo muttered. "Someone brought it here."
The three elders of the Long Cloud sect furrowed their brows and looked on in confusion.
"Could it be the Northern tribes?" Adviser Liu wondered.
"Hmm… that might be possible." Lin Mu said before he turned to look at the unconscious old woman who was tied up on Little Shrubby's back.
"She never said anything about it, did she?" Elder Peizhi asked.
"No, she didn't." Lin Mu replied.
"Could she have hid it?" Elder Wenyan wondered.
"I doubt… but we can't say for sure." Lin Mu replied.
"We'll know more at the sect. We have certain means to extract information that the person didn't even know they had." Elder Boqin chimed in.
Lin Mu nodded his head and thought that it might be the proper choice.
"This is where the corpse was found." Adviser Liu said before handing them a map.
Jing Luo took a look and realized that it was in the north western side of the kingdom.
"This is just slightly away from our path. We can take a look there on our way to the Long Cloud sect." Jing Luo suggested.
"Hmm… yeah, we'll do that. This is not something we can ignore." Lin Mu agreed before looking at the three elders.
"We're fine with that. I want to see what it exactly is too." Elder Boqin approved.
"Very well. Let's leave then." Lin Mu stated before he pushed the beast's corpse back into the box and then stored it in his ring.
They left the hall and flew up from the outer gardens directly.
Lin Mu had a frown on his face the entire duration of the journey and no one could tell what he was thinking. Jing Luo looked at him with concern but knew that there was not much he could say right now.
It took them about seven hours before they reached the location where the corpse was said to have been found.
"That should be it." Jing Luo said, spotting the soldiers who were guarding a barricaded area.
The guards spotted them very quickly and were alarmed, but then realized who they must be.
"Elders," All the guards saluted with cupped hands that were raised above their head.
"At ease." Lin Mu said as he looked at the barricade.
"Show us the site." Lin Mu spoke.
"At once, please follow me." One of the guards said and brought them to the inside.
They walked to a small clearing where there were no signs of any physical conflict or something else.
"This is where the corpse was found, elders." The guard pointed to a spot on the ground.
Lin Mu could see the traces on the ground that looked like footsteps and an indent, which showed that the beast had collapsed on the ground there.
"Did it rain before?" Jing Luo questioned, seeing the indent which normally wound not be found since the soil was dry.
"Yes senior, it rained about a week ago. But there has been no rain after that." The guard replied.
"Hmm… so it died here about a week ago. The traces in the mud would not have been here otherwise." Jing Luo estimated.
Lin Mu let his spirit sense wander and scan everything in the area. It went deep into the ground as well, making sure he didn't miss anything. After about five minutes, Lin Mu opened his eyes that had slight confusion in them.
"Did you find anything?" Jing Luo asked.
"No… there is nothing." Lin Mu replied. "I can't tell where this beast came from or went."
~Sniff~ sniff~
It was at this time that Little Shrubby moved. He sniffed the area and turned towards a certain location. Lin Mu looked there as well, and his expression eased.
"Looks like we have something to go on, after all." Lin Mu spoke in a pleased tone.
"Oh?" Elder Boqin inquired.
"Little Shrubby found a trace of its scent." Lin Mu spoke.
"Really? That's good then." Jing Luo replied.
"Hmm… but this also means that there is another such beast." Lin Mu said, which confused the three elders.
"The invader infects and corrupts the bodies of its host. And since this one died for some reason, the invader would try to find another host. Which means… it has been carried away by something else." Lin Mu explained.
