Chapter 966 - A Surprise Under A Shop

Seeing that the shopkeeper was still wavy, Lin Mu took out something from his ring.

~clang~ clang ~clang~

A circular object flew and fell on the counter, making a sonorous sound.

"That should be enough to supersede the requirement of the city administration, I believe." Lin Mu stated calmly.

The shopkeep was a bit surprised by seeing Lin Mu toss the object, but when he saw what it was he was absolutely stunned.

"L-lord mayor's token?!" The shopkeep was absolutely stunned.

Every person in the city knew what the authority of the person holding this token meant, and they were taught this very well. After all, there was more than one incident when someone had made use of the token to issue certain commands.

'If he has the token then… he works for lord mayor?' The shopkeeper understood.

He immediately bowed down and spoke, "Forgive me for not recognizing you my lord." 

"You can buy my property surely, my lord." The shopkeeper added.

"Mmm… this should be enough I suppose." Lin Mu said as he placed something on the counter again.

~DENG~ DENG~

A golden reflection could be seen in the eyes of the shopkeeper as an entranced look appeared on his face.

"O-of course! This is more than plenty! Thank you for your generosity, my lord!" The shopkeeper said before taking a look at Lin Mu and his still expression.

"Umm… when do you want me to leave?" The shopkeeper asked.

"Right this moment." Lin Mu said, with no option of negotiating.

Seeing the firmness in Lin Mu's voice, the shopkeeper knew that there was more to this than he knew.

'Fuck that! I don't wanna put my head on the line for something I don't need to deal with.' He thought to himself.

"I'll leave right away!" The shopkeeper hurriedly replied before picking up the two gold bricks that were kept on the counter.

The man stumbled slightly from the weight and realized that it was worth even more than he had originally thought. He slid them into a leather bag and slung it across his back before moving towards the door.

Lin Mu followed behind him and the two of them came to stand outside.

"Is someone else going to come to possess this property my lord?" the man asked, feeling curious.

But Lin Mu didn't speak anything. Instead, he extended his right hand forward as the air around him shook.

Then, a word was lightly spoken…

"Meld," 

~shua~

The Shopkeeper felt a chill go down his spine and gulped his saliva. Then under his stunned gaze, the building that he used to own started to rise up into the air.

"The building… it's flying?" The shopkeeper was absolutely shocked.

He couldn't help but take another look at Lin Mu as realization struck him. 

'What kind of an expert did I get to meet today?' the shopkeeper wondered.

Since he sold spirit tools and other things that cultivators used, he was informed about them and knew about the cultivation realms up to the nascent soul realm. While he didn't know of Dao Shell realm, he did know that there were some realms above the Nascent soul realm.

It was something way beyond them, thus he never thought much about it, but he did wonder about it from time to time. And now today he was finally getting to see the power of one of them.

He had seen the power of Nascent soul realm experts on more than one occasion since the fights happened nearly every week outside the city and above it, but such power and skill wasn't shown by any other cultivator, which only made him wonder how strong Lin Mu truly was.

But this was not the end of his shock, as what he saw after the building was lifted up was even more shocking to him.

"WHAT IN THE HOLY NAME OF HEAVENS IS THAT?!" the shopkeeper shouted before falling to the ground, utterly terrified.

"Seems like their method of controlling has gotten better…" Lin Mu muttered as he starred at the mutated being that was revealed.

Below the building, there was a wide open underground area. It was clearly man made and there were chiseled stone tiles on the walls as well as the floors. But that was not all as there were fine runes carved everywhere. 

But that was not all, as there were more things in the underground room.

At the very center of it was what looked like a black stone pool. It was filled with red and Grey liquid that seemed to be stirring. The pool was about five meters wide and had six pillars around it.

Each pillar had runes carved onto it as well and chains extended from them. These chains were attached to a certain creature that was slumbering in the pool. It looked humanoid, but had gnarly skin with warts and postures.

There were bone spurs protruding from its back, head, and arms. There might have been more of them on the legs and lower part of his body, but Lin Mu could not see them under the liquid.

The creature seemed to be asleep, but a malevolent aura was stirring around it. Lin Mu could feel a strange kind of contaminated energy exuding from it that he had felt only in one place before.

'He even made use of the Kushao ruins…' Lin Mu realized.

It was an energy similar to that of the crystal that Lin Mu had destroyed at the Kushao ruins, along with the beasts that had appeared from there.

Lin Mu's spirit Qi, extended and probed the mutated creature. But when he did that, it suddenly opened its eyes. They were pitch black, with no pupils in them.

~hiss~

A breath was let out from its nose that seemed to be rather pointed.

It raised its head and looked towards Lin Mu, who was descending towards him.

"Cultivator… Food… Kill… Master… need…" The mutated being said in a hoarse tone.

Lin Mu could tell that the being in front of him was not weak.

"Already at the Dao Shell realm? What has Gu Yao made now?"