The conversation continued for a while until it finally came time to discuss the culprits.
"What other cultivation sects are there in the region apart from the Tri cauldron peony sect?" Lin Mu questioned.
Although Lin Mu knew that there was only one mentioned in the records he still asked to confirm.
"There is another one, a rather new sect. All we know is that it is quite small but we don’t have an estimate on its number of cultivators and that it was created about two decades ago." Jing Wei answered.
Lin Mu had not expected for his question to bear fruit. Though he wondered why, it was not in the records.
"Why was this not mentioned in the records that you gave me, though?" Lin Mu asked curiously.
"That’s because such sects pop up all the time. Some newly ascended Nascent soul realm cultivator thinks they have what it takes and creates a cultivation sect. Though these sects don’t last long and soon dissolve due to lack of resources or internal conflicts.
Another thing is that such sects prefer to stay hidden for a while as this allows them to stabilize their roots and prevents the other sects from taking advantage of them.
This is the reason why such sects are not even recorded in the main records. There may be some recent archives, but we didn’t have those as you can guess from our condition." Jing Wei explained, with the last part seeming a little wry.
"I found out about the sect last year, but they haven’t really done anything and have not officially revealed themselves to the world." Duan Ke added.
Lin Mu was intrigued by their words and was now starting to wonder if this sect was involved in it or not.
"You see, the suspicion I had was that someone hurt this cultivator. But seeing that his ring was left intact and the bewildering formation that was set up in the forest, it was likely that the attacked could not hold back this cultivator from escaping. We know that he was a nascent soul realm cultivator, thus the other party must be one too.
They should be at about the same strength, or such a thing would not have happened and his ring would have probably been stolen. This led me to believe that there was perhaps a nascent soul realm cultivator from one of the sects involved as it seemed to be the most obvious." Lin Mu explained.
Jing Wei and Duan Ke listened to his theory with rapt attention and indeed found it to be sensible. There were far too few nascent soul realm cultivators in the area, and all of them belonged to either the Tri cauldron peony sect or to the kingdom.
"Hmm, this does seem likely. But then according to this hypothesis, the attacker must have been injured as well. But I haven’t heard of any news about a nascent soul realm cultivator getting injured. There isn’t much chance that news such as this can be suppressed.
And I can tell for sure that it is not anyone from the Tri cauldron peony sect, as all four of their nascent soul realm experts are fine. They all recently showed up to an event a few months ago and all of them were fine and dandy as always." Jing Wei spoke.
After hearing Jing Wei’s explanation, Lin Mu wondered if it was not the Tri cauldron peony sect, then could it be the other ’new’ sect.
’Speaking of that, I don’t know its name yet.’ Lin Mu thought.
"What is the name of this new sect that was created in the region? Could they perhaps be involved in it?" Lin Mu questioned.
"That sect is called as the Autumn Valley sect and although they are not a righteous sect, they are definitely not an unorthodox sect. If they were, then the other orthodox sects would have long since exterminated them if they ever got even a little suspicion.
But from the very few interactions they had, it can be determined that they are a neutral sect. Considering their age, I cannot say for sure if they would have attacked this cultivator. Not to mention, this would mean that their only Nascent soul realm cultivator was injured, which would leave them with a lacking leadership.
Thus I cannot say for sure if they could be behind them either. What I think is that it was perhaps a wandering cultivator that discovered him and attacked him. There are actually some wandering Nascent soul realm cultivators in the kingdom. Although determining their location would be difficult. And if one of them got injured, it will be impossible for news to spread out." Jing Wei answered.
"This just keeps on getting more and more complex." Lin Mu muttered to himself, feeling a bit fatigued.
"Tell you what, Duan Ke will investigate this and try to find any news about it. Another thing is we are in luck as our supplier is coming here today, we may find something from them." Jing Wei revealed.
Lin Mu had certainly not expected to hear this today and suddenly remembered the state of the shop earlier.
"Is that why the shop was clean? I thought it was just supposed to stay like that." Lin Mu asked.
An almost invisible vein popped up on Duan Ke’s forehead which went unnoticed by Lin Mu. But Jing Wei felt it rather instantly and knew that his granddaughter was on the edge.
"Yes, yes, whenever the supplier comes, we make it seem like the shop is still active. The formation automatically cleans the shop." Jing Wei said, trying to suppress the volatility before it could even begin.
"Oh? That’s amazing. Cleaning formations... now that’s something I definitely need." Lin Mu muttered remembering the piles of bones and meat scraps that were left behind each morning after his monstrous meal.
"Ah, those are easy to set up. I’ll give you one of the premade ones, they are easy to set up and quite convenient." Jing Wei spoke upon hearing Lin Mu’s mutterings.
Just as Jing Wei finished saying this, they felt the formation array activate.