The cultivators gazed at Lin Mu with a combination of fear and anger in their eyes.
They couldn't believe that the Bull Whip Chain formation that had been able to defeat many Dao Shell cultivators till now had failed to stop another one that was actually only at the Shell Genesis stage.
This was what they perceived from Lin Mu's spirit Qi fluctuations.
Of course, this was all their assumption since they couldn't actually tell that Lin Mu body cultivated either. Additionally, Lin Mu's body didn't let off the same clues as before either, making it even harder to tell.
The gold in Lin Mu's body had turned him into a metal vessel, making it hard for others to perceive anything easily. Even Lin Mu himself didn't know much about it yet and hadn't had the time to check up on it.
But to him, testing things out in practice was fine as well.
'I'll take things as they come, but…' Lin Mu thought and gazed deep into the eyes of the cultivators finding something stirring there.
"You all… what is your relationship with Gu Yao." Lin Mu questioned.
"Y-You dare do all this? The city mayor will nor spare you!" One of the more courageous ones retorted.
Lin Mu didn't even look at the man, but the man seemed to have fallen on the ground somehow. At the same time, his hands seemed to be bent at awkward angles and his legs were now backwards.
"ARGGHHHHHHHH!!!! MYYYYYY LEGSSSSS! MY ARMLESS!" The man finally felt the pain and the change in his body.
'How…?' all the cultivators had the question in their mind.
"Anyone else want to dodge the question?" Lin Mu asked.
"You cannot do this! Do you know what you are doing?"
"You are challenging the authority of the Mayor of Iron Bull city!"
"If this reaches the capital, you will have to answer to the emperor himself!"
The men tried to scare Lin Mu, but he did not care about it. Lin Mu's perception was clearly telling him that these men were not right.
"Hmm… I see… so if you think I am challenging the authority of the mayor… why is he not appearing? Or even better, why don't you bring me to him?" Lin Mu replied calmly.
"You think just because you say, you will get to meet the mayor?!" The leader of the cultivators shouted.
"Oh?" In that moment, Lin Mu could feel a flareup of a strange aura from the man.
'I see…' a thought appeared in Lin Mu's mind.
"Alright then… if you don't bring me to the Mayor, I'll force you to—" Then before the men could even respond, they felt pain all over their bodies.
Lin Mu had disappeared right in front of their eyes and suddenly it seemed like there were tens of him all around them. They attacked them at a speed hard for them to perceive and soon they were reduced to the same state as the other two that were injured.
~thud~thud~thud~
"ARGH!!!"
"NOOO!"
A mix of cries and grunts were heard as the bodies of all cultivators fell to the ground uncontrollably. A few that were a bit unfortunate were directly knocked out from the pain. It didn't matter that they were nascent soul realm cultivators, but they were still the same.
This was another thing Lin Mu was surprised by when he saw them. All of them were nascent soul cultivators, which was a large number, even for a major city of the empire. Rather than being part of the empire, these men could easily make many sects of their own, gaining a lot of fortune that way.
But they didn't, which felt both suspiciously loyal and usual when there were so many of them. Additionally, Lin Mu had heard the words and whispers of a few men, knowing that this might not be the first time they had done this.
~grab~
Lin Mu picked up one of the more 'less' injured of the cultivators by his neck and started into his eyes. The cultivator trembled like a chicken grabbed by their neck and couldn't even struggle.
"Show me the way," Lin Mu ordered.
"… N… N-no…" The man still said.
"I see… need a little more push." Lin Mu said as he noted the aura once again.
He closed his eyes and a faint chant came out of Lin Mu's mouth. The chant was the hum of a sword that had been sharpened and polished for hundreds of years, making one's hair stand on its ends.
The man that Lin Mu was holding felt his vision turning cloudy and soon his expression was that of a daze. He felt as if there was nothing left in the world for him and everything he did was useless.
Five seconds later, Lin Mu stopped upon feeling the weakening of the aura.
"Now then… will you show me the way?" Lin Mu asked.
The man's gazed expression cleared up and a lot more fear appeared on it. Instead of the mix of anger and fear, now there was just pure terror left.
"D… D-don't kill me! I'll show you! I'll show you! Please don't kill me!" the man frantically spoke.
"Good, now then… where do we go from here?" Lin Mu asked.
"D-down there." The man pointed with his eyes.
Since his hands and legs were broken, he was useless in that manner. Of course, Lin Mu didn't care for it and could understand it enough.
'So that big building huh… guess the mayors never change their preference, no matter the kind of a city.' Lin Mu thought and started to move.
"Wait! You need to remove the barrier first. If you pass through it forcefully, it will kill both of us from the recoil!" the man horridly spoke.
But Lin Mu paid no attention to it. He simply touched the surface of the barrier and under the stunned eyes of the crippled man, the barrier automatically opened up for him.
"H-how?!" the man was utterly stunned now, knowing opening the formation was only possible from the inside.
