Within Lin Mu's perception, appeared a man who was clearly controlling the formation arrays of the entire city right now. He was sitting in the center of a large room with several statues that were channeling spirit Qi into the arrays.

There were runes inscribed on the floor of the ground directly while different ribbons hung from the walls, all carrying various formations on them, acting as additional complements of the entire array.

Just from all this, Lin Mu could tell that it was a rather complex array and one that would be very expensive to set up.

'It's on the same level as that of the sects… perhaps even the top sects might not have such formation arrays depending on the place.' Lin Mu thought.

But that was not all that caught Lin Mu's attention. He could also feel a steady stream of spirit Qi flowing into the man that was sitting in the center of the formations. The man was at the Dao Shell realm too.

"The same aura as the others… rather it's even more concentrated in him." Lin Mu muttered.

But just as he appeared in the hall, the man opened his eyes.

"How did you enter my residence?" the man said in a calm voice.

It seemed as if he was not worried about Lin Mu at all and deemed him of to be of no worth.

"I walked through the doors." Lin Mu causally said.

"Lies… though I must say it is brave of you to come right up to my doorstep. Others would have chosen to run away." The man said before thinking a bit more. "But this might just be the foolish decision you have made too."

~SHUA~

The moment he finished speaking, the formations shone on the walls and weapons started materializing around Lin Mu.

"Hmm… so I wasn't entirely wrong. It isn't just a Qi skill, rather it's a combination of a Qi skill and a formation." Lin Mu muttered as he blinked away to dodge the weapons that had shot towards him.

The dodging window was rather narrow since the weapons materialized within a meter or less from Lin Mu. For any normal cultivator, even those in the Dao Shell realm, they probably won't be able to dodge it entirely and would have to defend instead.

Blocking might give them the chance to get out of the encirclement.

And this was what the man controlling the formations had thought, but it turned out to be a new surprise for him.

"You're fast. No… that's not just speed…" the man said, as his eyes narrowed.

~Shing~

Lin Mu didn't just keep on dodging and threw out the short sword to counterattack. The short sword swirled around the man before attacking him from the back. But before it could even get within two meters of the man, it was blocked by a shield that had automatically materialized.

"That's a rather nice formation array for you to control alone. I wonder how you got something like this… I doubt even the empire would have something like this. And even if they did, they won't give it to just any city mayor, would they? Tie Niu?" Lin Mu replied.

Tie Niu's eyes narrowed, and he brought his fingers together in a sword gesture. Belongs © to .

"SLASH!" he said before a long sword materialized above his head.

The long sword was rather large, being five meters long and ten centimeters wide. It seemed to be made out of spirit Qi that had been hardened with the effects of the formations.

~SHING~

The attack was faster than the previous attacks, so much so that even Lin Mu was unable to use Blink before that.

His pupils constricted as he saw the sword slashing at his head.

~CLANG~

But then an astounding thing happened. Tie Niu felt his world view change as the attack was blocked.

"Impossible! A full powered attack from the Hundred Slaughter Grand Formation can even injure a Dao Treading realm expert? How can someone like you even block it?!" the man was stunned.

"Oh? So you were having confidence all this time due to this one move?" Lin Mu said as a smile appeared on his face.

He had to admit that even he was a bit anxious in taking an attack like this. If this was the Lin Mu of past, he would have certainly been injured, if not lost a limb. The mortal strengthening scripture's armor had already been broken by the force of the attack.

Even though the part that was broken was just on his hand, it was still a testimony to the fact that it could break the entire armor on his body if it hit some place else.

But this time, Lin Mu had an additional thing in his arsenal.

~CLINK~

Lin Mu's fingers gripped harder as the surface of the long sword rubbed against his skin. The sound of a blade being ground was heard as Lin Mu kept on increasing his force.

'The True Gold Body Forging Arts truly live up to its name.' Lin Mu said to himself.

~shing~

"W-who… no… W-what are you?" Tie Niu questioned, seeing the golden glow that had started to come off Lin Mu's body.

In the rather dim hall, it was very easy to perceive, and the sheen was like that of the highest polished gold.

'An armor? No… it is directly his skin that seems to be blocking it. A skill? What is it?' Tie Niu had a lot of question that he was unable to get answers for.

Alas, even if he wanted them, he would not be lucky enough to get them; for his fate was about to change very soon.

~CRACK~

Tie Niu's eyes went wide as he saw the cracks forming on the long sword's blade.

~hiss~

Spirit Qi started leaking out of the cracks, as the runes forming the long sword dimmed down.

"Time to end it. Thanks for giving me a way to test myself." Lin Mu said as he fully exerted his force.

~KACHA~

~SHATTER~