Alchemist Ruoxian's words had certainly incited Lin Mu's interest and now there wasn't a chance Lin Mu was going to give up on this opportunity.
"There is a great chance that the cache of Immortal Essence Crystals has now turned into an immortal Essence Crystal mine. Forget one vein, with how much time has passed, there might be several of them." Alchemist Ruoxian spoke with hope.
"Mmm… and with several mines, the chances of there being a Hundred year old Essence Spring Stalactite should also increase." Lin Mu finally understood the man's plan.
"Indeed." Alchemist Ruoxian nodded his head.
"Though… if you had this map since before, why haven't you gone to get it yourself? Or if you're busy, I'm sure you can afford to hire other people too." Lin Mu inquired just in case.
"Ahaha~ I might be at the Fourth Tribulation Stage of the Immortal realm, but I do not have the same battle experience that others might have." Alchemist Ruoxian said in a self-depreciating manner.
"Oh?" Lin Mu raised a brow in surprise..
"I'm not ashamed to admit I'm somewhat of a greenhouse flower. I was taught by my family since the start and was kept protected. And when my talents as an alchemist were discovered, they nurtured me accordingly as well, and I got to avoid most conflicts." Alchemist Ruoxian revealed a bit about himself.
"So while I'm confident of my talent in alchemy, I cannot say the same about my fighting skills." He admitted.
"Knowing about one's weaknesses and flaws is good. It prevents us from becoming complacent and making mistakes." Lin Mu couldn't find fault with the man for this.
"I've made mistakes in the past and learned from this. Which is why I know not to exert myself where I won't see good results." Alchemist Ruoxian replied.
"I understand why you didn't go to get it yourself, but then why didn't you hire others?" Lin Mu asked again.
"I actually have." Alchemist Ruoxian replied.
"You have?" Lin Mu was surprised before a thought came to him. "They failed, didn't they?" he knew.
"Not just failed… they didn't even return. I thought they might have made off with the Hundred year old Essence Spring Stalactite but even if they did, they would end up selling it some time. So I waited, and waited… But no Hundred year old Essence Spring Stalactite turned up in the market.
This made me think that they might have met an unfortunate end. After all, it wasn't that uncommon in the Desolate Blood Battlefield. Thus I sent another team of cultivators into the Desolate Blood Battlefield on the same mission.
And once more they too disappeared. This time though I sent more people but not to get the Hundred year old Essence Spring Stalactite but rather to search for the ones who had gone missing." Alchemist Ruoxian explained in detail.
"And what happened to them?" Lin Mu questioned, finding the situation a bit suspicious.Published by Nôv'elD/rama.Org.
"The people I sent to investigate did return." The man nodded his head. "But… they barely had any clues to the location of the previous two groups. Their tracks had disappeared around a certain area and it was impossible to determine where they might have gone.
But one thing was for sure, they didn't leave the Desolate Blood Battlefield. There were no records of them leaving in the logs of the guards either." He added.
Hearing this Lin Mu was now sure that there was some hidden danger to it all.
"So it's like that…" Lin Mu said in a light voice.
Alchemist Ruoxian was a little nervous after explaining all of it. After all, two groups of immortal cultivators had disappeared on this mission and there was no telling if the same would happen to another group.
Besides this time, it wasn't a group that was going but just one man. It made things even more dangerous and confusing.
Ruoxian wasn't sure either if Lin Mu would accept the offer after hearing all this. After all, it wouldn't be surprising for him to reject such a dangerous task.
This was what had happened the third time around too. Alchemist Ruoxian had asked another group to go search for the Hundred year old Essence Spring Stalactite but he had been turned down.
After two entire times had gone missing, no one wanted to take the task again. Even the people of the Grand Sky Pavilion had asked him to refrain from doing that and had instead advised him to just buy the Hundred year old Essence Spring Stalactite outright.
Which was what his next course of action was going to be, but the Hundred year old Essence Spring Stalactite had not been in auction for a long time and now his patience was getting thin.
Lin Mu's arrival was frankly a good hit of motivation for him and thus he was hoping that the request would be taken again.
Because of this he felt anxious.
And while he could have hidden it from Lin Mu, he didn't think it was a good option either.
"Alright, give me whatever location you have. I don't think I can use the map as it is." Lin Mu spoke after a minute.
"You'll take it?!" Alchemist Ruoxian said with a mix of excitement and surprise.
"Yes, like I said before. I'll be taking this mission in exchange for no cost for the pill." Lin Mu stated.
"You still want to go after knowing two teams didn't return?" Alchemist Ruoxian couldn't help but ask again.
He had hard time believing his ears.
"I want to yes." Lin Mu nodded his head. "Besides, I had intended to go to the Desolate Blood battlefield anyway. This will just give me an additional task to do while I'm there." He explained.
Hearing this, a bright smile appeared on the alchemist's face.
"GREAT!" The man exclaimed.
He then shuffled through the items he had in his spatial storage treasure and took out a few things. The first was a jade slip that looked quite normal, the second was a roll of paper and the third an object made out of glass.