Several hours passed by as Lin Mu and the people of the Long Cloud sect discussed the plans when finally Jingming Shang messaged again.
Lin Mu picked up the communication jade slip and found that it was humming non stop.
'Seems like he got a long message…' Lin Mu thought as he held it.
The moment he did, he could hear the long message in his mind.
"Senior Lin Mu, I've found what you wanted.
We investigated the materials of the Horse Manticore and found that many have been sold in the past two years. Of these, a majority were in the form of hair and poison. There were some more ingredients auctioned in the capital of the empire too, but its source was hidden.
We did a little indirect tracing and learned that the materials had actually come from the northern lands!" Jingming Shang said.
Hearing this, Lin Mu raised his brows, as this was not what he had expected. He knew how difficult it was to control the Horse Manticore and that transporting a beast like that over such a large distance without it losing control was even more difficult.
Generally, the beast taming abilities of this world were not that good and the methods they used took a long time to work. Thus ideally, they would have to tame the beast as soon as possible after capturing it which would be difficult if they were transporting it over a large distance.
And taming it closer to the forest was also not a viable choice, since taming them might take months to even years. Especially a beast that was already at the Nascent soul realm and had intelligence almost on the level of a human.
Thus, taming a beast like this should only be possible for someone that was located more close to the Great Southern Forest.
"Are you sure it is the Northern lands?" Lin Mu questioned.
"We were confused too at first, but then realized that it was not the true source. The materials were simply being rerouted through there." Jingming Shang said, making Lin Mu think why the man had not said that directly at start.
"So, where is the source actually coming from?" Lin Mu questioned.
"You won't believe this, but the source was relatively close to me." Jingming Shang spoke.
"Huh? What? In the Fenlong Kingdom?" Lin Mu questioned, finding it absurd.
"No… another kingdom near us… The Kingdom of Shu!" Jingming Shang Revealed.
"The Kingdom of Shu…" Lin Mu muttered and tried to think if this could be a viable location.
'While it is a little past the mid point, if there was more than just one person that brought the Horse Manticore there and then a strong person tamed it, the location is just within the limits of what is possible.' Lin Mu analyzed.
Still, Lin Mu didn't think this was all and asked more.
"Is there anything else that you found?" Lin Mu asked.
"Yes! Originally, the supply for the Horse Manticore materials was steady, but since the past year it has declined. Then all of a sudden there were reports of a large shipment of materials being sent out all over the continent which was suspicious.
It was that shipment which helped me track the location." Jingming Shang replied.
While Lin Mu did find this a bit strange, he still kept it in mind, as it might come in handy later.
"Alright. That was good! I'll talk to you later." Lin Mu said before putting down communication jade slip.
Patriarch You Yi looked at Lin Mu in an inquisitive manner and knew that Lin Mu had discovered something.
"So… what did you learn?" He asked.
"I managed to track down the approximate location of the Horse Manticore materials." Lin Mu replied.
"Really? And where is it?" The Patriarch questioned.
"The Kingdom of Shu." Lin Mu answered.
"There?" Patriarch You Yi furrowed his brows.
"There is no way the royal family or any clan of that kingdom can afford to keep the Horse Manticore." One of the elders spoke.
"No, it doesn't have to be the royal family or a clan." Another elder chimed in.
Lin Mu nodded his head in this, as he found it to be close to his guess.
"It has got to be a sect that owns the Horse Manticore." Lin Mu stated.
Hearing this, You Yi had a sense of realization.
"The Mountain Brush Sect…" he muttered.
Jing Luo frowned upon hearing this as he had bad memories associated with this sect. They were one of the attackers who chased him down over fifty years ago. He had enmity with them and they were one of the sects that he would not forgive.
"It makes sense, the Patriarch of Mountain Brush Sect is at the Adult Soul Stage of the Nascent soul realm and would be able to control and tame the Horse Manticore." High Elder Sunsen spoke.
"But the question is, why would this beast be out of their sect and so close to the Hong Lin Kingdom? Ideally, they would never let such a precious source of materials out of the sect. And I don't think it would have been cheap for them to capture this beast, either." Another Elder questioned.
"We are forgetting another thing… The Mountain brush sect is under the control of Gu Yao as well." Lin Mu spoke up.
"Of course! The mountain brush sect joined the Zither Wind alliance last year!" high Elder Sunsen said out loud.
Lin Mu nodded his head in agreement.
"If that's true, then another thing would make sense. I learned that the supply of Horse Manticore materials suddenly declined a year ago. This matches the timeline of the sect joining the Zither Wind alliance." Lin Mu spoke.
"And that's not all, is it?" Patriarch You Yi asked.
"I heard from my informant that recently a large shipment of Horse Manticore Materials were sent all over the continent." Lin Mu replied.
Hearing this the elders and patriarch You Yi were surprised as they had not heard of this at all.
