Chapter 96 - Hong Luo's Request
Hong Luo took a deep breath and thought for a moment before speaking.
"Brother Lin Mu, as you can see, we don’t have many cultivators left here. While we have many mercenaries in the Body tempering realm, there are only the three of us left here now." Hong Luo spoke.
"Only three of you? The last time I came here there were at least ten cultivators here. Where did everyone go?" Lin Mu interrupted.
While Lin Mu had known that a few mercenaries that were also cultivators had disappeared, there were still at least ten cultivators remaining. Now that there were only three of them left here, it was a little surprising to him.
"Another elite team of mercenaries had to leave for the mission in the Northern forest about a week ago. I was appointed to keep watch on the camp and to relay any message to the teams working in the forest, but as you can see the incident happened." Hong Luo spoke and sighed.
"Then did you inform your superiors about this?" Lin Mu questioned.
"Yes, I did. But the problem is that the elite teams are hunting spirit beasts deep in the forest. Just reaching their location would maybe take around five days, and if we were to add the time required to find them, it would be increased even more."
"I sent one of my junior cultivators to inform them about three days ago, but I fear that by the time they know about this, something worse could have happened." Hong Luo answered.
Lin Mu was now starting to understand more about their current predicament.
"Then what you require from me is help?" Lin Mu asked.
"Yes, we do." Hong Luo simply answered.
"But why me?" Lin Mu curiously asked.
Hong Luo and the other two sighed in helplessness upon hearing Lin Mu’s words.
"We tried asking the other cultivators in town before. But the two hunters that are cultivators have disappeared, and the only other remaining cultivators are the captain and the two vice-captains of the town guards. Obviously the latter are not going to help us." Hong Luo explained.
Lin Mu thought over what Hong Luo had said until now and wondered how he should approach this. He didn’t want to get involved as it would take up his time and will slow down his cultivation progress. Another reason was that with the conspiracy and machinations that were going on in the underbelly of the town, Lin Mu did not know what kind of powers he would face.
Lin Mu thought about it and found it to be reasonable. It would align with his goals, and using the Hei corps would be shooting two birds with one arrow.
"I accept." Lin Mu answered after deliberating.
"Then I look forward to our cooperation." Hong Luo said as he extended his right hand forward.
Lin Mu shook hands with Hong Luo and confirmed their cooperation.
"Now then, let’s go to my tent so that I can give you the pills that you require." Hong Luo said.
Hong Luo then turned around and started walking towards the camp. The Ming brothers also walked along with him, while Lin Mu followed at the back.
’He’s rather trusting, isn’t he.’ Lin Mu inwardly spoke.
"No, it’s more like he has no other option rather than to trust you. He seems to be at the end of his line." Xukong replied.
"Hmm, perhaps." Lin Mu muttered.
They soon reached Hong Lou’s tent. The tent was rather large and tall enough that anyone could stand and walk in without any obstruction. There were two mercenaries that were standing guard outside of the tent and kept an eye out for any person that passed by.
Lin Mu used his spirit sense to probe their strength and discovered that they were actually at the tenth stage of the Body tempering realm! This was the second time Lin Mu was seeing a warrior that was at the tenth stage of the body tempering realm other than him. All the other people he had seen, even the ones who were Qi cultivators, were only at the eighth stage of the Body tempering realm.
Lin Mu tried observing closer and found out that while there two were at the tenth stage of the body tempering realm, they were barely at the border of it. Lin Mu probed even deeper and could sense that there seemed to be some abnormalities in the vital energy that permeated their body.
"This is rather strange, why is their vital energy like this?" Lin Mu inwardly spoke.
"It seems they have forcibly raised their strength to the tenth stage of the body tempering realm by certain means." Xukong guessed.
"They can do that? Doesn’t a person need to train and consolidate vital energy properly in order to raise their straight?" Lin Mu curiously asked.
"That is indeed true normally, but there are still certain methods by which they can raise it further. In the case of these two mercenaries, it’s likely that their Innate talent was not enough, and they stalled at the ninth stage of the body tempering realm. They probably used some unorthodox technique or a resource to raise it in this way." Xukong answered.
"What method do you think is the most likely, Senior Xukong?" Lin Mu questioned.
"In their case, seeing how unstable their vital energy is, I can conclude that it’s a pill."