Chapter 73 - The Conspiracy Unfolds

Lin Mu hid behind a wall and peeked out from the edge. He then saw the guard pull out a small metal contraption from his sleeves. Lin Mu could not see the contraption clearly except for the glint of light it reflected.

Lin Mu walked around the wall and used the alleyways to get close to the guard. The guard was pointing the contraption towards the townsmen and stalking behind them. The townsmen were completely unaware of the guard following behind them and were just conversing amongst themselves.

The townsmen soon reached the residential district and entered their houses. The guard saw this and waited for thirty minutes before leaving. Lin Mu took a breath of relief and went back to follow the guard.

The guard did not return to his post but instead went to a different location. He went towards the southern entrance which leads towards Wu Lim city and entered the guard's barracks there. Lin Mu could not enter the barracks without rousing suspicion, thus he just spied on it from the outside.

Lin Mu stood there for an hour and gave up after seeing that no one came out of it anymore. He then returned to his house to rest. Twenty minutes later, Lin Mu was sitting in his room while staring at the small piece of paper he had picked up.

He was observing it against the light of a lamp and discovered that there was a small symbol written on the bottom of the paper. Lin Mu had not seen it before, as the symbol was covered with a splotch of blood. He tried to decipher it and could only comprehend that the symbol looked like two cones intersecting.

'What could this mean?' Lin Mu thought.

"Rest for now. You'll probably find out something in the morning, such a conspiracy can't be hidden for long." Xukong spoke.

Lin Mu nodded and lied down on the bed. A minute later, he appeared in the Sleepscape and started his daily practice. He had experienced the effects of the Thousand Armament Blade scripture today and felt that it was indeed a top-quality manual.

Even though he had barely learned a part of the manual, he still felt that he had improved a lot. Right now, in order to improve more, he needed the rest of the weapons that were mentioned in the manual. He had asked in the weapon shops in the town and got the same answer from all of them. They did not have those weapons as they were either unpopular or expensive.

If Lin Mu wanted those weapons, he would have to get them custom made or he would have to buy them from Wu Lim city. Lin Mu knew that even if he got them custom made, the weapons would probably not be of a good enough quality. Thus he had decided that he would head to the Wu Lim city sometime later to buy the weapons. But for now, he would just have to do with the weapons he had.

Lin Mu also had a few more reasons for which he wanted to visit the Wu Lim city. He wanted to see the cultivators that lived in the city and also to check out the shops that catered to the cultivators. He also wanted to experience the average life of a cultivator in the city, as he had no sample to compare it with here.

Senior Xukong had told him some stories of cultivators, how they were glorified and venerated, yet Lin Mu still wanted to see it for himself.

After a few hours of practicing the Thousand Armament Blade scripture, Lin Mu learned more Dao script from senior Xukong. In the end, he plucked the two ripe spirit apples hanging on the tree and fell asleep.

After his breakthrough to the Mid-stage of the Qi refining realm, the Sleepscape had undergone some development and the spirit apple tree now bore two apples instead of one every day. Lin Mu had also thought that he could also sell these spirit apples as a source of income. Though he could not do it in the town, as it would be too suspicious and no one would actually be able to afford it.

Lin Mu woke up in the morning to the sound of a commotion.

"What's going on so early?" Lin Mu groggily muttered.

Lin Mu walked out of his room and into the courtyard. He could already hear the gaggle of noises outside on the street. He opened the gate and peeked outside. He saw a large group of people arguing with a few guards in the middle of the street.

The people were all locals that lived in the neighborhood, and the guards were from the barracks at the eastern entrance. Lin Mu walked closed to listen to what was happening.

"We can't live in peace if you don't do something." A man standing at the front shouted.

"Yeah, what will we do if the beast enters the town somehow?" Another complained.

"Even the guards died and you're telling us to just stay calm." A woman protested.

The guard lifted his hands and gestured for the people to calm down as he spoke,

"People, please listen to me. We are doing all we can right now, but this is the town head's orders. All residents of the town are ordered to stay inside the residential district until further orders."

Lin Mu felt confused by the people's words, thus he tapped a person's shoulder to talk to them.

"What? Ah, Lin Mu, it's you! When did you return? I haven't seen you for months here." The man spoke.

The man Lin Mu had chosen to speak to was a neighbor that lived a few houses away from his own.

"I recently moved back here. Never mind that though, what's actually happening here?" Lin Mu replied.

"Oh, you didn't hear? There was another spirit beast attack." The man spoke.

"What do you mean another spirit beast attack?" Lin Mu asked.

"A few scouts had spotted a spirit beast wandering out of the forest, thus the captain of the guards had ordered the closure of the town yesterday. Apparently, the second vice-captain himself led a team of guards to drive the beast away, but they did not return yet. Then another team was sent out to find them, which only lead to them finding a few pools of blood and remains of bodies." The neighbor spoke.

'The vice-captain? Wait, was that person from yesterday the second vice-captain, maybe?' Lin Mu thought.

"So why are the people angry?" Lin Mu asked.

"Some townsmen never returned after yesterday, so they are scared. The guards are also not doing much and have just been told to give us some orders." The neighbor replied.

Lin Mu had an idea what happened, thus he nodded to his neighbor and walked away. The crowd too disappeared after the guards placated them.

Lin Mu wanted to verify if the person called second brother and the vice-captain were the same. He had seen the other vice-captain before, so knew that it wasn't that person. He went to the town center to check for it.

Lin Mu knew that as long as he greased the palm of a clerk, he should be able to get some information. It took him fifteen minutes to reach the town center, and upon reaching the town center he saw another crowd of people gathered around.

But this time these were not the residents of the town, but rather the mercenaries. The crowd was not making much noise and was just standing there looking at the town center with anger in their eyes.

Not wanting to bother the mercenaries, Lin Mu slipped into the building from the side. He saw the staffers working on their desks and the clerks running around doing their tasks and carrying rolls of papers.

Lin Mu chose a clerk that passed by him and called out to him. The clerk stopped and looked at him with an annoyed face. In response, Lin Mu instantly pulled out a silver coin from the pouch.

"Brother, may I have a moment of your time? I'll definitely make it worth your while." Lin Mu spoke.

Lin Mu could see the shine of greed in the clerk's eyes and knew that he had him in his palm.

"What would you like, brother?" The clerk spoke as he eyed the silver coin.

Lin Mu passed the silver coin to the clerk and patted his back to gesture him to go to a corner. The clerk obediently followed and guided Lin Mu to a different room. There were some other clerks in the room who were working on their own tasks and did not pay attention to the two of them.

"I would like some information about what's happening in the town." Lin Mu asked.

"What do you mean by that brother? Everyone knows what happened, it was a beast attack." The clerk replied.

"I… would like a few more details." Lin Mu spoke.

The clerk thought for a moment before speaking again.

"The truth is, we don't know what exactly happened." The clerk replied.