The pungent smell of the blood had scattered a little bit, but the sharp noses of Lin Mu and the masked man were able to detect them rather easily. They followed the stench and soon found the origin of it.
They walked up to a large box that was partially covered with a tarp and checked it. The first thing they noticed was the bloodied paw prints nearby the box. The paw prints were similar to the stray dogs they had seen outside the warehouse.
Lin Mu took a breath before lifting the tarp that was covering the large box. A wave of foul stench assaulted his nose as the tarp blocking it was lifted. Lin Mu wrinkled his nose in disgust and steeled his senses.
Lin Mu went closer and looked at the source of the vile stench. It was a dead body that was lying inside the box. One of its arms was hanging out of the box and seemed to have been gnawed on, probably by the stray dogs.
The dead body was wearing some mangled clothes along with leather Armour that was nearly shredded. Lin Mu looked at the face of the dead body and could not identify it, as it was someone unknown to him.
"Why is this dead body here?" Lin Mu spoke.
"It's a mercenary from the Crimson Fang mercenary company." The masked man spoke.
Lin Mu turned to look at the masked man and spoke.
"How do you know this?"
"I can tell that from the symbol. Even though it's damaged, I can still recognize it." The masked man answered.
In response to Lin Mu's question, the masked man slightly lifted the dead body's arm and showed the damaged symbol that was present on the shredded armor. Since the leather armor was heavily damaged, the symbol of the Crimson Fang mercenary company was only partially visible.
Lin Mu looked at the symbol closely and recognized it, as he had also met some of the crimson fang mercenaries before. They all had the same symbol engraved on their armors. Though looking at the leather armor that this dead man was wearing, Lin Mu could tell that it was of higher quality. The armors that he had seen the other crimson fang mercenaries were of a lower quality than this.
"Use your spirit sense," Xukong ordered.
Lin Mu extended his spirit sense and scanned the body and found out a shocking thing.
"He was a cultivator." Lin Mu spoke out loud.
The masked man heard Lin Mu's words and did his own deduction. Coming to the same conclusion, he narrowed his eyes that were hidden behind the featureless mask.
"An elite member of the Crimson Fang mercenary team." The masked man informed.
"Could this be related to the disappearance of the mercenaries? But there haven't been any new reports about crimson Fang mercenaries." Lin Mu muttered.
"No, there have been more mercenaries disappearing, but because they are far from the town and separated, it takes a few days till someone discovers that they have gone missing." The masked man explained.
Lin Mu looked at the masked man with a curious expression and asked,
"How do you know of this?"
"Our lord has been keeping an eye on the recent events. There are other comrades of mine that have been investigating this as well." The masked man spoke honestly.
Lin Mu was rather surprised by the masked man's honesty. He did not know why he was telling him this, but there was probably some other reason behind it.
"Why are you telling me this?" Lin Mu questioned.
"Because it seems to me that our goals are the same, so it will be beneficial for both of us to cooperate." The masked man spoke.
"But weren't you ordered to attack me?" Lin Mu asked in a nonchalant tone.
"No, I was only ordered to observe you, I wasn't told to make contact." The masked man answered with a straight voice.
"It seems like we have an alliance on our hands. Well, at least a temporary one." Xukong spoke with a chuckle.
"You're fine with this senior?" Lin Mu spoke inside his mind.
"I am, at least for now. Besides, you need to learn to cooperate with people, or more accurately cultivators." Xukong Answered.
"If you say so, senior." Lin Mu replied.
Lin Mu always felt strange when senior Xukong used his chuckling tone of voice. Since he had seen his real body, it just didn't sit well with him. It was as if an imposing being was behaving like a child.
"Wait, there's something more here." The masked man spoke upon spotting something.
The masked man then went towards another box that was kept at the side. This box had another box that was kept over it and was blocking its opening. He lifted the upper box and moved it to the side.
Soon more bloody scent spread around. Though this time it was not foul and instead seemed like it was rather fresh. Lin Mu approached the box and saw what was lying inside it.
It was another corpse of a man that seemed to be freshly killed. Lin Mu looked at the wounds and saw that they were bandaged.
"They bandaged the wounds after death, the same as with Gan Ma." Lin Mu spoke.
The masked man also looked at the strange corpse and tried to find any other wounds, but could not. The only wound the corpse had seemed to be in his chest and was covered with bandages. The masked man heard Lin Mu's words and went back to check the other corpse for wounds.
Upon checking the corpse, he found out that the corpse actually didn't have any wounds that caused its death. Strangely enough, only the clothes and armor were destroyed. The cause of death was due to strangulation, as could be seen from the ligature marks on the neck. The cause of the bloody smell was actually because of the stray dogs.
"You say you've seen something similar before?" The masked man asked.
"Yes, Gan Ma the hunter was also killed and then his wound was bandaged." Lin Mu replied.
"You know the people that caused that?" The masked man questioned.
"Yes, they saw that I discovered them and tried to kill me." Lin Mu answered.
"And what happened to them after that?" The masked man asked, even though he already knew the answer.
"What do you think? They are dead." Lin Mu answered with a calm tone and then heard senior Xukong speak something in his mind.
"Repeat my words to him," Xukong spoke.
Lin Mu softly hummed in response and agreed.
The masked man was lost in thought for a moment as he seemed to have realized something.
"Then you must have seen their faces." The masked man suddenly spoke.
"Yes I did indeed, I also know the identity of one of the men." Lin Mu spoke with a straight expression.
"Do you have some evidence too?" The masked man couldn't help but ask.
The masked man was feeling a little excited as he knew that he had probably made a huge discovery. His comrades had been investigating the recent events for a while but did not have much success with it as the culprits were rather good at hiding their tracks.
He had never thought that he would be able to discover something like this by chance.
'I have to get the information and report it to the lord.' The masked man thought.
"Can you tell me about their identities and also the evidence?" The masked man asked with slight anxiousness in his voice.
"We got him," Xukong spoke in Lin Mu's mind.
Lin Mu was a little surprised by this as everything had gone according to senior Xukong's plan. Now he just had to do a little more, like senior had instructed.
"I could, but I won't." Lin Mu replied to the masked man.
The masked man felt his heart drop for a moment, but then calmed down. He understood that he had to do something in return and would not be able to get it easily.
"Okay, what do you want in return?" The masked man asked.
A sharp glint appeared in Lin Mu's eyes, and even a slight smirk could be seen at the edge of his mouth.
"I want to meet your lord." Lin Mu answered.
"That won't be possible." The masked man replied straight away.
The masked man knew how difficult it was to meet their lord. Even he himself had only met him three times until now. But even those three times were enough for him to develop undying loyalty and pledge his life to his lord.
The masked man went silent and thought for a minute before continuing.
"You can meet the lord's closest person, though. My lord is reclusive and does not meet people easily."
"This is better than I thought. A person close to this 'Lord' would work just fine." Xukong said.
Lin Mu knew that senior Xukong was never intending to meet the lord straight away. He just wanted him to have an advantage in bargaining the terms of this alliance and thus wanted to meet someone in a higher position.
The masked man was certainly a low-level person in his organization, thus he wanted someone who at least had some administrative authority. A person that was probably the right hand of this 'Lord' would work perfectly for them.
"That's fine with me. We are now…" Lin Mu spoke and extended his right hand.
The masked man extended his right reciprocation and shook Lin Mu's hand.
"Allies." Both men spoke in unison.