CHAPTER 2468  EXPLODING OUTPOST

Lin Mu had been cultivating these past four days and had finally finished absorbing about half of the materials he had obtained from the Treasury Minister.

It had grown his cores by varying amounts but they were certainly bigger than before. Having tested out the control on his 'new' elements, Lin Mu found it to be better than before though still not at the level where he would be able to use them freely in a battle.

Other than this, he also checked up on Ashy regularly as she could give him quickly updates through their link. So far, the suspected servant girl had done nothing suspicious and had been following her regular routine of work and rest.

Lin Mu had been wondering if they were wrong, but he reckoned waiting a few more days was needed as this could very well be a method to throw off suspicion. This only became more apparent to him once the reports from Crown Prince Feng Shun and the Discipline hall arrived.

"They actually managed to find an outpost!?" Lin Mu was surprised reading this. "So Daoist Chu's work really came to fruition." His suggestion had worked out.

Apparently, in one of his inspections, Daoist Chu ended up finding a Secret Spatial Storage tool that had been freshly put in the market. He easily sent someone to bought it and unraveled the security on it. By now, the Formation Masters of the imperial court had already figured out how to open the encryption without too much risk and only needed for the tool to be brought to them.

Not to mention, half the time the seal that was put on the Spatial Storage tool was that of a blood seal. As such opening it was relatively easy since they had been capturing plenty of Black Ying Empire members.

Finding which blood fit it was easy due to the database they established and simply having to compare the formation's details.

Having done this basically meant they had the master key to every secret Spatial Storage tool that the Black Ying Empire members were using. At least for the time being…

But thankfully, before they had the time to change it, the Discipline hall uncovered the location of the latest outpost. The message they had found in the storage tool was about the update they had sent for all the members about it being moved.

It was clear that the Black Ying Empire members had gotten a whiff of the actions being taken against their members, though it was probably limited to them thinking their members were killed. After all, there were plenty of self sacrificial techniques and poisons that the members could use to kill themselves.

So to them, it was only the loss of a few members and not really capture. Belongs to © n0velDrama.Org.

After all, they would have never expected that there would be someone like Lin Mu who would be able to directly restrain the space around people to stop them.

But now that an outpost was found, their chances of learning more had increased quite a bit.

'The outpost is quite far out though.' Lin Mu read that it was located at the very edge of the Capital City's border districts. This needed immediate action, so the Crown Prince had already sent the army squads that were located around the border to head there. At the same time, he was also sending several experts there to reinforce them.

"So the mission is underway as I'm reading this…" Lin Mu muttered to himself. 'Should I have gone too?' he wondered but knew that it was likely not viable.

The mission was time sensitive and getting there would take time. It was much faster for Crown Prince Feng Shun to send the army that was already located there. As such, Lin Mu continued to cultivate while waiting and about an hour later, he woke up.

"Huh?" He could sense a very volatile wave of Immortal Qi coming from the east. It wasn't targeted at him or anything, and was simply being released in a haphazard manner. Though by the time it had reached this far out, it had certainly reduced in its intensity.

"What is that?" Lin Mu was concerned and quickly took to the skies to check.

~WHOOSH~

There he looked to the distance, not seeing anything visible with his naked eyes.

"Hmm…" But then he activated his Spatial Perception and saw what was basically a mushroom cloud of Qi rising in the distance!

It contrasted highly against the Spatial Fabric and stood out like a screaming man in a library.

Lin Mu's eyes went wide as he understood something bad had happened.

~SHUA~

As if on cue, the Communication Jade Slip on his wrist hummed. Immediately taking hold of it, he checked the message.

'The Mission was a failure. The Black Ying Empire members detonated the entire outpost along with everyone inside.' The message read.

"Little Shrubby!" Lin Mu called for his companion, knowing that he needed to check this in person. ~ROAR~

Little Shrubby immediately appeared from the Sleepscape and enlarged to his full size before speeding away with Lin Mu.

"Can you sense anything from there?" Lin Mu questioned, hoping that the beast's senses might pick up on more.

"I can smell a lot of the Withering energy." Little Shrubby said as he wrinkled his nose a bit. "Its faint but it's definitely coming from there."

Hearing this alarmed Lin Mu, as it could be highly dangerous to have so much Withering energy there. "Is it just the smell and not the energy itself?" He asked, just to be sure.

"Just the smell so far." Little Shrubby replied. "Okay." This was a bit better as it meant that the fallout from the explosion hadn't spread this far.

Or hopefully could be limited to the site of the explosion itself.

Lin Mu knew that the stench of the Withering energy was rather pungent for the beasts, which was why they could smell it out from far away.

The city trailed past Lin Mu as Little Shrubby sprinted over it at his maximum speed. The beast only slowed down when the traces of the Withering Energy became strong in the air.

"Eat the resistance pill." Lin Mu quickly said.

"Yes!" Little Shrubby ate one pill from his storage, and Lin Mu did the same.

~SHUA~

The Longgui Bulwark Armor manifested around Lin Mu's body while Little Shrubby covered his entire body in flames. This would further protect them from the Withering energy and prevent them from coming in direct contact with it.

Lin Mu had no issues sitting on the flaming body of Little Shrubby either, as the flames simply did nothing to him. And this wasn't due to the armor, but due to the superior control that Little Shrubby had developed.

Over the past twenty five years, the Absolute Flame Control that Little Shrubby had learned had been further improved. The beast had gained a better proficiency with it and could now make it so that even if his flames were hot enough to melt iron, they wouldn't harm those he didn't want them to harm.

It was a level of control that was only possible when one had reached a high proficiency with the Fire Dao.

And sure enough, any Withing Energy traces that fell over them were quickly burned away by the flames of Little Shrubby. While the Withering Energy could corrupt other energies, it was still limited in what it could do in such a small concentration.

"Stop." Lin Mu ordered, seeing the state of the area in front of him.

A crater that was at least two hundred meters deep and five hundred meters wide was left in what should have had houses and other buildings. Looking at the circumference of the crater, Lin Mu could tell that the explosion had happened right at the edge of the city border and about a third of it extended into the forest area.

But the sight of the crater was quite shocking, at it was utterly blackened. And this wasn't from it being scorched from the explosion, but rather due to the Withering Energy tainting it all.

There was even a layer of gaseous Withering Energy having settled at the bottom of the crater.

"Lord Imperator!" Lin Mu's presence didn't go unnoticed by the Discipline Hall members that were rushing to address the situation.

"Are the formation masters here? We need to seal off the place." Lin Mu immediately stated.

"They're on their way here as we speak. We'll need the elders for this, as we cannot seal the Withering Energy easily." The Discipline hall member replied.

"I'll temporarily cordon off this place then." Lin Mu said, knowing that he couldn't let the Withering Energy spread anymore.

"You will…?" The Discipline Hall member was rather surprised by this, wondering how it would be done.

Then he watched as Lin Mu extended his hands and uttered a word.

"Meld." Lin Mu spoke expanding his control over the entire crater at once!