Hearing that it was actually pills that managed to make Tie Niu and others breakthrough their bottle necks, Lin Mu narrowed his eyes.

'Those kinds of pills are not easy to obtain and are very expensive to make. Even one of the pills that can allow one to reach the nascent soul realm from the core condensation realm would be priced for tens of thousands of spirit stones.

Not to mention, one's that can allow one to breakthrough to the Dao Shel realm. Those kinds of pills might not even be available for sale…' Lin Mu thought.

He looked at Tie Niu and asked further, "So you simply ate those pills without checking?"

"Of course, what else could I do? I had no reason to suspect it since my son was the best proof they worked. I knew very well that he did not have the talent to reach the Nascent soul realm. His road was supposed to end at the Core condensation realm.

And yet… he proved me wrong. How could I not grab the opportunity when it had served itself on a silver platter?!" Tie Niu said in an agitated tone.

Yet a single glare from Lin Mu, shut his mouth and made him calm down forcibly.

~gulp~

The man swallowed his saliva and took a deep breath before continuing.

"I ate one pill and could instantly feel the new power flowing in my veins. My Dantian that had long since reached a bottleneck started to stir and even my Nascent soul started to absorb spirit Qi once again.

With just that single pill, I reached the very peak of the Adult Soul stage of the Nascent soul realm.

Feeling the impressive effects of the pill, I couldn't stop. One by one, I ate more pills until I had finished all four pills… after that… I finally broke through. But after the breakthrough, I realized something.

My cultivation base… it didn't seem to be fully in my control. My Dao Shell seemed to be a small and even my Nascent soul had changed in its color and form.

I inquired my son, but he just told me that this is the price of using the pills. They can help someone that has reached the end of their road breakthrough once more. Even I knew I couldn't breakthrough to the Dao Shell realm so I didn't mind it after thinking for while." Tie Niu explained.

"And so you destroyed your foundation and your effort," Lin Mu added.

Tie Niu felt his heart hurt at those words but knew that he could not deny those words.

"You don't know how it feels… the feeling… the feeling that you have nothing to reach, nothing to achieve. That no matter what you do, your current state is the highest you would reach.

Being at the peak of one's life, when it is so mediocre, is cruel!" Tie Niu exclaimed.

"HUMPH! You say a life of being the mayor of one of the major cities of the empire is cruel and mediocre?!" Lin Mu scowled.

~SLAP~

A tight slap hit the man's face, breaking away half of his teeth.

~splat~

If it were not for the fact that Lin Mu needed more information from Tie Niu, he would not have held back. Otherwise… it wouldn't have just been the teeth that had been broken.

"ARGH!" Tie Niu cried in pain, feeling the loss of his teeth.

The pain was still something he could not ignore, even if he would be able to heal the teeth with just a few pills in the future. It was the added fear of Lin Mu standing in front of him, that made it that much worse.

He was like the sword of Damocles hanging over his head, ready to chop it off at any moment.

"What about the others? How did they get pills?" Lin Mu questioned the man and prodded him on to speak more.

"After tasting the effect of the pills, I wanted more. I had just reached the Shell initiation stage of the Dao Shell realm and wanted more. There were many elders in the sects that were at the Dao Shell realm and they would be stronger than me.

But I wanted to be stronger than all of them. I wanted to be strong enough that the imperial court would not be able to take away my rightful property.

And to my surprise, I didn't even need to ask my son for it. It was as if he knew what it thought and had the next option ready. He told me that the elder of his sect would be willing to sponsor us with more pills if we did some of the things he wanted.

If we did as he told, not only would he give us enough pills to cultivate even further, he would even give a surplus such that others under me would be able to grow stronger too." Tie Niu replied.

"I doubt you would be willing to give up those pills to others, though," Lin Mu said in a low voice.

"Of course, I didn't want to give the pills to others, I wanted them all for myself. But then… when I heard what the elder wanted of us, I knew it was not something I would be able to do on my own.

I would need more people that would support me through it. And they needed to be strong too…

The cost of it all though... was too high… the work that the elder asked of us was for me to send cultivators to a place they specified. They didn't tell us much at once, just that they would be taken care of and no one would ask any questions.

But this also meant that the people I would send have to be the very ones I would need to do all that. This was not something I could do openly. If I tried that, the empire would have my neck the very next day!" Tie Niu explained.

"And thus you willingly sent them, like lambs to be slaughtered.." Lin Mu said as his eyes flickered in a cold light.All content is property © .