The men were now frozen in fear and could only look at Lin Mu as he casually approached them. He bent and looked at the underside of their torsos and the bottom parts of their bodies.
"Hmm... interesting... very interesting." Lin Mu said.
"This is rather unexpected, this level of spatial manipulation... amazing," Xukong said.
"Indeed senior. But the drain on spirit Qi... it is still quite a lot. And it hasn’t stopped either, the longer I keep this state the longer it keeps on draining." Lin Mu replied.
"Well... let’s see what happens when it stops." Xukong suggested.
The members of the Gu Legion could not see who Lin Mu was talking to and it terrified them. His words were especially depressing to them as they could see their demise in the proximity.
"Alright," Lin Mu said and stopped the skill.
A cacophony of screams echoed in the town at that moment as blood and guts splattered on the earth, the stench spreading in the air.
The stray dogs smelled the scent of the blood and howled in excitement, while the people of the town tightly closed their doors and windows, fearing that if they went out, they may suffer the same fate as what those voices did.
The scream of the men only lasted for a couple of seconds after which a deathly silence had descended in the town.
"Uff... this is a messy skill..." Lin Mu said as he wiped the blood that had splattered onto his robes and hands.
"Should have gone a bit far before deactivating the skill... now these robes are stained too..." Lin Mu complained.
Lin Mu walked to the bodies and stored each of them into the ring. There was still blood left on the ground but Lin Mu didn’t care for it much as the stray dogs would take care of that for him.
They had already rushed to the place and were licking the spilled blood.
"At least they were good to be food for the dogs." Lin Mu muttered to himself before fading away.
The next morning, the townsmen would find more of their populace missing but they would not forget the pain filled screams that they had heard. A legend would be born from this day onwards of a being that swallowed men whole, not even leaving blood behind.
But the person behind this, Lin Mu could not care less. He simply contacted Wu Hei to tell him what had happed.
"Since they are the ones that chose to attack you and they were not in their robes I should be able to find it. I’ll frame it as if they attacked a cultivator that was beyond their strengths and were killed. Won’t be the first time something has happened so we should be fine." Wu Hei said.
"Alright... at least there won’t be any kidnappings in the near future there." Lin Mu said.
"Master, you’re back already?" Little Shrubby asked.
"Yes, I was done early." Lin Mu replied.
"Blood? More enemies there?" Little Shrubby asked.
"Yup." Lin Mu said as he rubbed the beast’s head.
They rested there for another hour before little Shrubby was ready to go. Lin Mu got onto his back and the duo sped away like the wind.
Hours passed by and they traveled across the lands. They encountered several beasts in the forests nearby and some of them were even at the Peak stage of the core condensation realm. Lin Mu didn’t fight them though as it was much easier for him to just use the severing heart sutra and quickly pass from the side.
He didn’t want to delay anymore, and seeing the situation in the Dust Mill town had only made him more impatient. After a certain distance, the outposts of the Shuang Qian kingdom’s army had stopped appearing and even the blockades could not be seen.
Not that it mattered to Lin Mu, as he could easily bypass them all.
Twelve more hours had passed and it was time to let little Shrubby rest again. They found a spot in the forest and Lin Mu got to cooking this time. Finding a couple of early stage core condensation realm beasts, Lin Mu skinned and cut them.
In less than half an hour, a fragrant barbecue was set up. The master and beast enjoyed the meal while resting for the time being. But just as both of them had finished their meal, Little Shrubby smelled something.
"Humans, they’re coming from the south east." Little Shrubby said.
Lin Mu furrowed his brows and spread his spirit sense to the furthest limit, but still could not see them.
"They’re farther than four hundred meters at the very least." Lin Mu said before blinking to the top of a tree.
He looked in the approximate direction of the humans and was able to spot one of them. The man was dressed in light armor and had his chest bare. His face was cascaded and so was his chest. On his back, there was a club hanging and in his arm, he carried a large burlap sack.
Lin Mu blinked to get closer to them, while keeping his presence hidden.
"Hahaha! It was the right decision to move here, Little Bu. There are no soldiers to fear and the travelers are also plenty to rob." The man spoke.
Hearing their words, Lin Mu instantly knew who they were.
"Bandits..." Lin Mu muttered as he counted them
There were seven of them, one at the qi refining realm and the rest in the body tempering realm. some of them even had dried blood on their weapons. Though when Lin Mu scanned them with his spirit sense he found there to be more than seven people.
"That sack... there is someone in it. A child..." Lin Mu muttered to himself.
He followed behind the men while giving some orders to little shrubby. After following them for about thirty minutes, Lin Mu reached their camp that they had set up.
It wasn’t much just a few crude tents, but seeing the cages there only made Lin Mu seal the fate of these men.