Hei Yingjie took a deep breath and forcefully calmed down his expression. He then turned to look at Lin Mu, who had just opened the last box of weapons, and then back to Hei Wan.
"We should talk later, it is not the appropriate time. Just know this that we may have to alter our plans again, so be ready for it." Hei Yingjie replied.
Hei Wan didn't speak anything, but just simply nodded in response. She trusted her lieutenant's judgment and was willing to wait for his explanation. It was at this moment that Lin Mu finished putting the last weapon in his ring.
A satisfied and expression appeared on Lin Mu's face as he reveled in the fact that he could now continue his practice. He walked to Hei Wan and Hei Yingjie to discuss the plan with them. He was wondering what they had decided and wanted to see their approach.
"What do we do next?" Lin Mu questioned.
Hei Yingjie glanced at Hei Wan for a moment, which she understood and let him speak.
"I had originally thought that we would be going someplace else to get brother Lin Mu's reward, but now that it is already here, it's no longer necessary. The other members of the Hei corps have already been briefed, so we only have a few minor adjustments to make.
Brother Lin Mu, you can head back to your house for now, it will take us some time to prepare everyone for the mission. Some people will be staying here to make sure that the culprits do not do anything in the town. While the others including me will be traveling to the Northern forest to continue our investigations there." Hei Yingjie explained.
"So you don't need me right now?" Lin Mu confirmed one more time.
"No, you can head on and prepare yourself as well. You can get familiar with the new weapons till then." Hei Wan suggested.
Lin Mu's eyes lit up, as he understood that they were just giving him time to prepare himself.
"Ah well, thank you. I'll head off then." Lin Mu replied.
He then left the room and returned to the front room of the safe house. This time, the people there all suddenly stood up in ceremony and greeted him.
"Greetings senior, Lin Mu." They all spoke in unison.
Lin Mu didn't know how to respond, thus he just awkwardly nodded his head and left the safe house. A few minutes later he had left the shop and was on his way back to his house.
Back at the safe house, Hei Wan, Hei Bao, and Hei Yingjie were in the meeting room. A serious expression was on Hei Yingjie's' face, and Hei Wan and Hei Bao looked nervous. Hei Bao didn't know what the matter was, thus was feeling even more nervous.
Hei Yingjie's previous orders had already put him on the edge. Hei Wan looked at Hei Yingjie and waited for him to speak. Hei Yingjie took a deep breath before opening his eyes and looking at the two people.
"On my way to the Northern Town, I took a brief halt at Wu Lim city to pay my respects to the lord." Hei Yingjie spoke.
"I know that." Hei Wan spoke as she nodded in acknowledgment.
"But that was not the only reason why I had gone there. Our Lord had sent me an extra message to come meet with him." Hei Yingjie added.
A panicked expression appeared on Hei Wan's face as she tried to think of any reason on why her lord had not informed her first. Hei Yingjie noticed this and turned to her.
"It is not what you think. He just had some apprehensions about our new ally. Thus he wanted to discuss some things with me. Our Lord wanted me to determine the capabilities of Lin Mu without alerting him or being too overt with it." Hei Yingjie spoke.
"Is that why he approved the shipment of weapons so quickly?" Hei Bao realized.
Hei Yingjie nodded as he spoke.
"Yes, he had seen the reports about Lin Mu having a High-grade spatial treasure, thus devised this method to determine it. And from what I witnessed a few minutes ago, it is way beyond what our lord thought."
"What do you mean? Was there a problem with Lin Mu's spatial treasure?" Hei Wan questioned as she started to link the strings together.
"Yes. We know that the high grade spatial treasures have a great capacity to store items. But the number of weapons Lin Mu just stored would still be impossible to do. You may have not seen a true high grade spatial treasure before but I have. It is not even close to what Lin Mu has." Hei Yingjie answered.
"You mean his spatial treasure is something more than that?" Hei Wan questioned with apprehension.
"It is not that simple. You see, when a person uses a spatial treasure, some spatial energy fluctuations appear. While they are faint, they are still detectable by spirit sense if you are in the core condensation realm. For cultivators in the Nascent soul stage, it is even more easier to detect them.
But when Lin Mu used his spatial treasure, there were no such spatial fluctuations that I could detect. There are only a few methods that can be used to hide such fluctuations. One is that a secondary concealing treasure was used, but for it to hide a high grade spatial treasures fluctuations would require that it is of the same grade, which is incredibly difficult to find even in the top sects.
The second one would be that a Dao shell realm expert would personally restrict the fluctuations using his spirit sense. But here's the problem, the capacity of Lin Mu's spatial treasure is more than at least three high grade spatial treasures combined. Even a Dao shell realm expert would only be able to restrict the fluctuations of a single high grade spatial treasure, any more and the restriction won't be stable enough." Hei Yingjie explained.
Cold sweat had appeared on the bodies of both Hei Wan and Hei Bao by this time. The words of Hei Yingjie had been extremely shocking to them and were completely beyond what they had known about.
"Then this means…" Hei Wan spoke and trailed off.
"Yes, either of those situations are deeply serious. If it's the first, then there's no doubt that he's a disciple of a top sect. But if it's the second then it's even more serious. If he has more than one high grade spatial treasures, as we've seen, then it means that he has at least three Dao shell realm cultivators backing him. Or worse, a Dao treading realm cultivator." Hei Yingjie answered.
"A Dao treading realm, cultivator?" Hei Bao asked with confusion.
It was Hei Wan who answered this time instead of Hei Yingjie.
"Dao treading realm is the next realm after the Dao shell realm." She spoke.
"That… that's a realm beyond our understanding. Which sects even have them?" Hei Bao asked while stuttering.
~Sigh~
"Only the top ten cultivation sects have Dao treading realm experts. And they are either the supreme elders, sect patriarchs, or the ancestors themselves. This means that if Lin Mu has their backing, then he's most likely their personal disciple." Hei Wan explained.
~Gulp~
"Are you sure we should even be involving him, then? It is incredibly risky, I mean if anything happens to him, won't they just come for our lives." Hei Bao asked after gulping.
"The lord did think of that, but we are confused as his past history doesn't match up. From all that we've gathered, Lin Mu was just a common teenager and had no connection to any of the sects, not to mention top cultivation sects." Hei Wan replied.
"No, there is something else you're forgetting." Hei Yingjie interrupted.
"What?" Both Hei Wan and Hei Bao asked in unison.
"The day of the fallen." Hei Yingjie answered in a grim voice.
Both of their eyes went wide as they remembered the incident that happened some week ago. Cultivators all around in the Wu Lim city and its surroundings had fallen unconscious.
"What could the relation be between Lin Mu and the day of the fallen though?" Hei Bao questioned.
"I was not here to experience the Day of the fallen, but the lord had some assumptions and described it to me. I was able to identify it and deduced that it was actually caused by an extremely intense sword intent. But for someone to have such a peerless intent would mean that they would be well known.
I checked the records and there is no such cultivator in any of the sects. This led me to believe that it was hidden expert, perhaps. Though the problem still stands, we don't know their cultivation and unless we are able to determine it, it's going to be difficult for us to know how to proceed." Hei Yingjie explained.
"So what do we do know?" Hei Bao asked, feeling tired.
~Sigh~
"We wait."
