Lin Mu stood quietly upon the mountain path.
The mountain wind buffeted his robes, snapping and rustling.
Those deep, pitch-black eyes crossed layer upon layer of mountain forest, staring fixedly at that region of the rear mountain which had already been utterly sealed off.
His body, too, from that abruptly surging fear, gradually grew somewhat stiff.
But the next moment, he forcibly pressed down the alarm in his heart, and his expression once more returned to calm.
As it happened, a nearby Internal Affairs Hall deacon who was directing menial workers in hauling timber hurried past.
Lin Mu's gaze shifted slightly, and he offhandedly stopped the man, as though merely idly admiring the mountain scenery in the distance, and asked in passing:
"There's quite a commotion over at the rear mountain. What's going on?"
That deacon raised his head.
Upon making out the clan elder's garments upon Lin Mu, he hurriedly set down the work in his hands and bowed in respectful salute.
"In reply to my lord, this subordinate merely acts on orders from above."
"It is said that the Patriarch intends to build a new large-scale cultivation palace where the land veins converge at the rear mountain, so that it may serve the clan's Gu Masters for seclusion and cultivation in days to come."
Having heard him out, Lin Mu nodded exceedingly naturally.
"So that is how it is."
"A fine thing indeed, benefiting the clan and its people."
He waved his hand, indicating that the deacon should return to his work, and asked not half a sentence more.
But once that deacon had turned and departed, vanishing utterly from sight, Lin Mu turned his head toward the rear mountain once again.
The temperature in the depths of his eyes, however, had already dropped utterly to freezing point.
"A cultivation palace?"
"Does it require so many Gu Masters standing guard?"
There was certainly something fishy about this matter.
Lin Cang had absolutely discovered the anomaly deep beneath the earth.
But Lin Mu did not know just what the clan had discovered underground.
Or else… whether they had already connected him with the inheritance below.
The unknown.
That was what frightened a man most.
Just as Lin Mu's mind was churning madly,
"Tap, tap, tap…"
A stretch of steady, forceful footsteps came slowly from below the mountain path.
A Patriarch's personal guard strode quickly before Lin Mu and knelt on one knee, expressionless.
"Clan Elder Lin Mu."
"The Patriarch requests your presence."
"To deliberate in the side chamber."
This abrupt summons made Lin Mu's heart sink at once, as though a massive boulder had pressed down upon his chest.
But upon his face, not the slightest ripple surfaced.
At a time like this, he absolutely could not flee.
He could not even permit himself a trace of hesitation.
He had only just forcefully ascended to clan elder.
If, the moment Lin Cang summoned him, he turned and fled out of guilty fear… then this fine game of chess would, in an instant, become a dead one.
That would be truly delivering his own neck to Lin Cang's blade of his own accord.
"Understood."
Lin Mu's tone was flat as he reached out to straighten the robes upon his body.
"Lead the way."
...
A moment later.
The side chamber.
This time, Grand Clan Elder Lin Zhen was not in the room.
Nor was anyone else.
Within the empty, dim room, there were only the two of them, Lin Cang and Lin Mu.
Lin Mu crossed the threshold and walked slowly inside.
Lin Cang sat upright in the head position.
Those cold, hard eyes appraised Lin Mu up and down without the slightest restraint, and at last lingered for a long while upon the clan elder's robes he wore.
Oppressive.
Extremely oppressive.
The very air seemed to grow heavy in that moment.
A full cup of tea's worth of time passed.
Only then did Lin Cang's voice finally sound slowly within the side chamber.
"Do these clan elder's robes fit you well?"
Lin Mu lowered his head slightly and cupped his hands in salute.
"The clan's regulations tailor the garment to the body."
"Naturally, they fit."
"Is that so."
Lin Cang gave a light laugh of ambiguous meaning.
He lifted his eyelids and looked at Lin Mu.
"That move of yours today was very well played."
Lin Mu's expression did not change.
"The Patriarch overpraises me."
"It is all owed to the clan's cultivation."
BANG!
Lin Cang's palm pressed down heavily upon the tabletop, producing a muffled thud.
"I was not praising you."
His body leaned slightly forward.
That sense of pressure belonging to a Rank 4 Gu Master surged forth as though substantive.
"Rank 3 middle stage."
The corner of Lin Cang's mouth curved into a cold smile.
"What an imposing display, Lin Mu."
"If I had not, just now in the main hall, crushed a Rank 3 middle stage traitor to death with my own hands…"
"I daresay even I, this Patriarch, might have been bluffed by you today!"
Lin Mu's gaze stirred slightly.
Without the slightest stubborn denial, he immediately bowed deeply, lowering his posture.
"This subordinate would not dare."
"Exposing my cultivation today was truly out of necessity."
"This subordinate does have reasons difficult to voice."
"Reasons?"
Lin Cang gave a cold laugh.
"What sort of reasons require you to prop me over the fire and roast me before the whole of Black Blood Stockade?"
Matters had already been spoken to this extent.
Lin Mu knew.
If he continued to feign innocence, then he would truly be treating Lin Cang as a fool to be toyed with.
And so, he slowly straightened his body, putting away that deferential manner from moments before.
"The Patriarch discerns clearly."
"Since this subordinate dared to step forth, naturally I never thought I could go on concealing it from the Patriarch."
"It is only that, prior to this, for the sake of self-preservation, I did indeed conceal certain things."
Hearing these words, Lin Cang's brows knit tightly, and the irritation in his heart instead grew all the thicker.
Of course he knew Lin Mu had concealed things!
From the moment Lin Mu displayed Rank 2 peak stage combat strength, he had already known this brat absolutely harbored a great secret.
"Who does not carry a few secrets?"
"Water too clear holds no fish."
"So long as you were willing to serve the clan, I could not be bothered to investigate them one by one."
Lin Cang stared fixedly into Lin Mu's eyes.
His voice gradually sank lower, like a fierce tiger that might spring up and devour a man at any moment.
"But what I never imagined—"
"is that the pace of your cultivation's progress can no longer even be described as advancing by leaps and bounds."
"It is simply a thousand li in a single day!"
"It nearly violates the common principles of the Gu path!"
Lin Cang's gaze abruptly turned dangerous.
He asked, one word at a time:
"Lin Mu."
"The inheritance you obtained…"
"just what is it?!"
The map exhausted, the dagger revealed.
However.
Before Lin Mu could open his mouth to answer, Lin Cang, as though he had merely suddenly recalled something, exceedingly abruptly changed the subject.
"Ah, that's right."
"On your way here just now."
"The commotion over at the rear mountain — did you see it?"
This single sentence seemed offhand and light.
Yet it nearly caused a crack to appear in the expression upon Lin Mu's face.
But very quickly, relying on the temperament of a man who had lived two lives, he pressed down that momentary tremor firmly.
Not only did his face reveal no trace of alarm, but instead a trace of puzzlement surfaced exceedingly naturally.
Lin Mu met Lin Cang's gaze.
"I saw it."
"On the road just now, this subordinate even made a point of asking a deacon below."
"I heard that the Patriarch, in his far-sighted vision, intends to construct a cultivation palace at the rear mountain?"
"This subordinate was thinking that in days to come, our clan's high-rank Gu Masters would have one more place of cultivation abundant in heaven and earth's primeval energy."
Lin Cang narrowed his eyes slightly.
Those eyes were deep as an abyss.
"You truly do not know…"
"why such great construction works are being raised there?"
"I do not."
Lin Mu's answer was exceedingly crisp.
A brief silence.
The air within the side chamber seemed to congeal utterly.
Two men.
One standing, one seated.
Their gazes collided soundlessly in midair.
Lin Mu did not know just how many clues Lin Cang had discovered underground.
Still less did he know whether the other party was bluffing him at this moment, or had already grasped certain things.
And Lin Cang was likewise unable to judge, from Lin Mu's face which betrayed not the slightest flaw, whether the other party was truly ignorant, or was deliberately concealing.
After all, if the thing beneath the rear mountain truly had to do with the Black Bone King of legend… then what it entangled was simply too astonishing.
Before sufficient evidence was in hand, even Lin Cang was unwilling to draw a conclusion lightly.
In the end, Lin Cang gave Lin Mu one deep look.
Then slowly withdrew his gaze.
And nodded lightly.
"Fine."
"Then I shall take it that you do not know."
Hearing this weightless sentence, Lin Mu's back had long since been soaked through with cold sweat.
But the danger was still not lifted.
Lin Cang was still awaiting his "confession."
Lin Mu said nothing.
He merely stood silent where he was for a moment, as though making some exceedingly difficult decision.
Then, he turned and walked to the side table nearby.
He fetched paper and brush.
Under Lin Cang's scrutinizing gaze, he bowed his head and began to write.
Rustle, rustle…
The brush tip scraped across the paper.
A moment later, Lin Mu set down the brush.
He then placed that sheet covered in writing, along with a letter long since prepared, upon the desk before Lin Cang with both hands.
Lin Cang frowned.
He reached out and took up that sheet of paper.
At first, he was still somewhat perfunctory about it.
But as his gaze swept bit by bit across the page, those cold, hard eyes gradually began to change.
This was no ordinary thing.
Rather, it was— a complete Rank 3 Gu recipe!
As a Rank 4 Gu Master and the head of a clan, Lin Cang naturally knew what a Gu recipe such as this meant for a clan.
He then picked up the letter beside it.
After roughly scanning its contents, his gaze grew all the graver.
A moment later, Lin Cang slowly raised his head.
Fixing a burning gaze upon Lin Mu.
"Your cultivation…"
"is precisely because you obtained this inheritance?"
Lin Mu bowed slightly and cupped his hands.
"A chance opportunity."
"I obtained only fragments."
Lin Cang did not press further.
He merely sat there.
His fingers slowly rubbing across that Gu recipe.
Lin Mu likewise stood quietly where he was.
Within the side chamber, a long silence once again descended.
There was only the occasional sound of paper rubbing against paper.
Everything lay in what was left unsaid.
This was a transaction of tacit mutual understanding.
...
At dusk.
Lin Mu walked out of the main hall's side chamber, his expression calm.
Without a single hair harmed.
Several days flitted by in a blink.
When Lin Mu next appeared within everyone's field of vision, he was once again standing outside the Gu Storage Cave.
And at this moment, within his aperture, that originally Rank 2 Vital Gu, the Metal Rend Leaf Gu, had already completed a true metamorphosis.
An aura belonging solely to the Rank 3 Gu worm, the Metal Sever Leaf Gu, radiated slowly from its body.
He raised his head.
Gazing at that familiar, heavy stone door before him.
His face was expressionless, yet within his heart, ripples once again spread.