Chapter 687 - Change Of Plans
Lin Mu read the scroll and furrowed his brows.
"They caught over ten members of the Hei corps of the sixteen that they had detected were in the kingdom. The remaining six are still missing and have been put at a high level of importance.
The ones that were caught were then sent to the empire itself, as was requested of them according to the orders." Lin Mu muttered after reading the entire scroll.
He knew that it wasn’t fully the Hong Lin kingdom’s fault either in catching and sending the members of the Hei corps off. From all that he knew, the kingdoms needed to follow the orders of the empire, especially for highly wanted criminals like this.
Plus, it was not like they would listen if the members of the Hei corps protested. They were simply doing what they were asked to and anyone else would do the same if they didn’t know that the sects and empires were being manipulated, no less.This chapter made its debut appearance via N0v3lB1n.
~Sigh~
"This doesn’t help us much. There is no more information about the six members that managed to escape either." Lin Mu said while shaking his head.
Comparing the dates, Lin Mu was sure that it would be close to impossible if he wanted to find the members of the Hei corps here. The outpost that was located in the Hong Lin kingdom could be said to be as good as gone now.
’Perhaps they have left the kingdom a long time ago as well...’ Lin Mu thought.
With these thoughts in his mind, Lin Mu didn’t know if completing their mission here was even possible anymore.
"Things won’t always go according to your plans. This is one of the very important things you need to learn. Fate is a fickle mistress and often likes to play without much rhyme or reason." Xukong said in a sagely tone.
"I understand senior." Lin Mu replied.
"Though... it’s not like this is a complete failure for you, either. There are other things you can accomplish here from what I’ve been seeing till now." Xukong stated.
Lin Mu thought over it and indeed found it to be true. There were a lot of things he could do in the Hong Lin kingdom, plus it didn’t seem like Gu Yao had a very strong control here... at least not for now.
All of this only stopped when the King suddenly disappeared one day. Upon his departure, he only left a single letter from which mentioned that he was reaching the end of his lifespan and would not deal with the matters of the kingdom anymore.
As for who would be the next king?
He left that up to a quest that he assigned to his heirs.
Before leaving, the king had sealed the royal treasury and even the repository, basically leaving the entire royal place helpless. He stated that the next king will be the one who finds the oldest Hong Lin tree in the forest and takes the Royal Seal from it.
The king had hidden his Royal seal, which was his token of authority on the oldest tree of the Hong Lin forest. This tree was something that only the king knew, as he was the only one who had spent so much time in the forest.
It is said that due to the pressure from the potential fall of the royal family, the heirs actually worked together and eventually found the royal seal. One of the heirs was elected as the king, while the rest of them took different positions in the royal court.
Though half of them also chose to leave the kingdom and pursue the life of a cultivator, either in the sects or just as itinerant cultivators.
Over the years, the throne changed hands several times, and the king wasn’t always someone who reached the Nascent Soul realm.
"That was one eccentric king... why did he even choose to become one when he didn’t want to run his kingdom well?" Lin Mu couldn’t help but wonder.
"People have many obsessions in their life and some of these make them want to protect it. The first king loved the forest like his own parents and thus took the only method he thought would be possible to protect it, becoming king." Xukong explained.
Lin Mu thought over it and found it to be reasonable. He then continued to read through more documents and spent several hours in the repository. He also kept checking the status of the king, his uncle Kou and the two disciples from the sect he didn’t know about yet, but they were all still in their places and cultivated in silence.
Just as he was about to debate on whether to leave or not, he came across something that caught his attention.
It was a cultivation technique and was kept among the other cultivation techniques in the repository. They weren’t particularly good and thus didn’t catch Lin Mu’s eyes, as he could cultivate far easily without them.
But this cultivation technique caught his attention, became of its description and method that it showed.
"This is a rather strange technique..." Lin Mu said upon reading its content.
’Embrace the heart of the Hong Lin, let its essence flow through you, and ignite the flame in your heart.’ Lin Mu read the mnemonic of the technique.