A few minutes after Jing Wei and Duan Ke left, the people in the room were finally able to relax and take control of themselves.
The Hei Corps could barely lift themselves up from the floor right now. They sat up from the kowtowing posture with the support of their arms and looked at the aftermath. They saw the rubble that was strewn around due to the collapse of the roof and the book shelves that were fallen as well. But in the end, their gazes settled on one of their comrades.
It was the same person who had reported about the abnormality and the same one who was also scolded by the lord. The person in question was currently stuck in the kowtowing posture. Unlike others who had lifted themselves, he was still stuck there.
One of the masked men dragged himself to the man who was still kowtowing and spoke,
"Hey! Are you fine?" He spoke.
Suddenly the lord, who was bowing all this time, plopped down onto his throne.
"It's no use. He's already dead." The Lord spoke with a tired tone.
"Wha… what?" Everyone uttered in unison.
The masked man who was near the kowtowing man shook him and saw him fall over onto the other side. The masked man who was kowtowing until now was bleeding from his eyes and mouth. His pupils had overturned into his skull and he was no longer breathing.
The veiled woman gasped and looked over to the lord and calculated her words before speaking.
"My Lord, were they?"
"I fear yes." The lord shortly spoke while rubbing the bridge of his nose.
The lord could already feel the headache coming. He hadn't thought that a routine mission would end up causing such a huge mess. He had lost one of his Core condensation realm cultivators and had also offended a hidden expert that was at the very least a Dao shell realm cultivator.
The other masked men were finally able to lift themselves off the ground. They stood up shakily and looked over to their lord.
"What was their cultivation?" One of the masked men asked.
The other masked men also joined in on the question as they were curious too. They did not understand the meaning of the interaction between their leader and their lord.
The Lord heard the question and sighed with dissatisfaction.
'It was good that I chose Hei Wan to become the leader, even if she is weaker than them.' The Lord thought.
"The old man was at least a Dao Shell realm cultivator, while the woman was probably a core condensation realm cultivator since she was able to fly using a spirit sword. Though she could be stronger than that too." Hei Wan answered for her Lord.
Hei Wan could sense the growing dissatisfaction in her Lord, thus answered for him. She also wondered how they were going to approach this matter in the future.
*****
Lin Mu was looking at Hei Wan, trying to grasp her personality. The genial way she had talked to him had made him feel strange, thus he wanted to know a little more about her.
"So you say these people have been abducting mercenaries?" Hei Wan asked.
"I don't exactly know, but it does seem like it. They even had memory confounding poison with them." Lin Mu answered.
Lin Mu then withdrew the small vial of memory confounding poison that he had stored in the ring. He then passed it to Hei Wan, who took it. She looked at it for a minute and seemed like she was using her spirit sense to determine its authenticity.
"It is indeed, memory confounding poison." Hei Wan concluded.
"They also found some Beast inciting powder on a mercenary." Hei Bao spoke up.
Hei Wan's eyes narrowed upon hearing this.
"You found it on a mercenary and not on a culprit?" She asked to confirm.
"Yes, I found it on one of the dead mercenary's body. I actually wanted someone to look at it and find out where it came from." Lin Mu replied.
"While I know a little about poisons, I'm not really an expert in this. I'll have to ask someone else." Hei Wan spoke.
Lin Mu nodded in understanding. He already knew that they would need an alchemist to take a look at it, as only the people capable of making it would be able to know what it was.
"But even then, we still need to investigate its source." Hei Wan spoke and then turned towards Hei Bao.
"Investigate the identity of the mercenary first and try to find out his associates." Hei Wan ordered.
"Yes, leader." Hei Bao answered.
Hei Wan and Lin Mu then talked about a multitude of topics. Lin Mu told her about his side of the story, and Hei Wan intently listened. While she already knew most of this, she still wanted to hear a firsthand account.
Hei Wan could feel goosebumps on her body upon imagining the scenes of Lin Mu fighting against the culprits. Her curiosity about Lin Mu's background was increasing by the minute. But she knew that asking it outright might be troublesome, thus she decided to wait for an opportune moment.
Hei Wan and Lin Mu's conversation lasted for over an hour, and they only stopped when one of the masked men that came with Hei Wan entered the room. Hei Wan looked at him and gestured with her hand for him to speak.
"It looks like the residents are finally waking up. The town head has also issued a warning." The Masked man reported.
Hei Wan nodded her head in response and turned to Lin Mu.
"Seems like our conversation ends here. You can leave for now, we'll inform you when we find more about things." Hei Wan spoke.
"Sure." Lin Mu answered.
Hei Wan then turned to Hei Bao and spoke.
"Give him an identity badge as well."
"As you command, leader." Hei Bao replied, and then gestured for Lin Mu to follow him.
Lin Mu then exited the room along with Hei Bao and went to the room where the emergency signal plates were kept. After entering the room, his attention was instantly pulled towards the metal plates that were kept on stands.
Hei Bao walked up to his desk and withdrew a hexagonal badge from it. He then handed it to Lin Mu and spoke.
"This is an identity badge for our corps. You can use this to enter the safe house if you need to report something or if there's an emergency."
"Thanks." Lin Mu replied and then looked towards the plates.
"What are those?" Lin Mu asked.
Hei Bao looked at where Lin Mu was pointing and saw that it was the emergency signal plates. He wondered if he should tell him about it or not but then decided to tell him. He had seen how the leader was very respectful with Lin Mu and already knew that they would probably be allies in the future.
"They're used for emergencies. Whenever a member is in the most dire of emergencies they can use the whistle to alarm us." Hei Bao answered.
Lin Mu then remembered the small tube that was hanging on Hei Wen's necklace. He had blown on it and called for help.
"How does it work though?" Lin Mu questioned.
Hei Bao had a confused look upon his face after hearing Lin Mu's question.
"I actually don't know exactly how. Our Lord designed this and the only thing I know is that it makes a noise when a whistle is blown." Hei Bao replied.
Lin Mu used his spirit sense to observe the metal plates and found out that they were actually of different thicknesses. Although the plates looked the same, there was a difference in the thickness and size.
"This is rather innovative. Someone actually found a way to use earthen spirit metal without placing formations on it." Xukong suddenly spoke.
"Earthen spirit metal?" Lin Mu asked.
"It's a common type of spirit metal that's used in the manufacture of spirit tools and spirit weapons. Usually in order to use it, one needs to place formations on it. But the way these are designed, they don't need any formations to work. These can actually be called as primitive spirit tools." Xukong answered.
Lin Mu's curiosity was ignited once again after hearing senior Xukong's words.
"So does this mean senior knows how it works?" Lin Mu inquired.
"Yes, I can. These plates work due to a phenomenon called as qi resonance. When air is blown into an emergency whistle, it is also charged with spirit qi. This qi is absorbed by the whistle and is then released in the form of a certain type of wave.
As long as the person using it is in the range of the plate, the disk in the center of it will start resonating and will spin. And due to the difference in the dimensions of the plate, the emergency whistles can be made uniquely for each individual." Xukong explained.
Lin Mu intently listened to senior Xukong's words and felt amazed at learning this.
"Whoever this Lord is, we can safely assume that he is very smart. He used such an ingenious method that it would actually be appreciated in some of the higher worlds as well." Xukong praised.