Chapter 101: A Change

Xukong sensed the abnormality that was happening instantly. He could feel that a change had happened within Lin Mu's mind which he was not clear about. He could sense the mysterious ring responding to Lin Mu in someway.

"What!?" Xukong suddenly exclaimed as he felt the environment within the mysterious ring change.

Xukong could see that the mysterious ring had become active once again as a beam of light was being emanated by the ethereal altar. He rushed towards the ethereal altar to observe what exactly was happening with it.

*****

While this was happening in the mysterious ring, Lin Mu was clueless about it in the real world. Right now his mind seemed to have entered a strange state where he felt as if he couldn't think straight and a myriad of thoughts were going rushing through it. He didn't notice that the people in the office were staring at him either.

"Lin Mu?" Lu Xiao called out but received no response.

Then, the sound of a door opening could be heard, and footsteps approached them.

"What did that boy say? This is wrong?" An approaching voice said.

Lu Xiao and the vice captain saw the Town head entering from another room that was attached to the office. He came in and saw the three people standing in his office. The town head recognized the new vice captain, Han Lei, but did not know who the other two people were. 

Lin Mu had his head down the entire time, as if he was lost in thinking. The town head could not see Lin Mu's clearly, thus he came even closer.

"Who's this, Han Lei?" The Town head questioned.

The annoyed expression that Han Lei had on his face was still there and showed no signs of dissipating. He looked at the town head and spoke,

"They are the remaining people from the Night Vigil." Han Lei spoke in a curt tone paying no heed to the status of the Town head.

Lu Xiao was shocked upon seeing the manner in which Han Lei had spoken with the town head. All the people from the Northern town were usually respectful in talking with the town head and seldom did they behave like this. Even the Captain of the Town's guards was very respectful of the town head. 

The only other person who could speak with the Town head on the same level was the Supervisor of the Spirit apple orchards Li Peng, and even that was only because he was appointed by the mayor of Wu Lim city.

The Town head paid no heed to Han Lei's tone and just looked at Lin Mu.

"What was this boy saying again?" The town head asked as if he had not heard the previous words clearly.

"He said something about this being wrong." Han Lei answered.

The Town head stroked his beard a couple of times before speaking.

"And what is this thing that's wrong?" 

"Everything…" Lin Mu lightly muttered in response.

"Look at me and speak, boy. Do not disrespect me." The town head spoke in a grim tone.

The Vice captain too was feeling furious after seeing Lin Mu act like this. He was already annoyed after being ordered to do such a measly task, and now even a kid like Lin Mu was ignoring his presence and was behaving insolently.

~Thwack~

"Look up, boy!" Han Lei shouted as he slapped Lin Mu's back in anger.

Han Lei had expected for Lin Mu to stumble ahead after getting hit, but in a surprise to him, he didn't react at all. Even when he had hit Lin Mu, Han Lei felt as if he had hit a stiff surface.

'Is he… is he wearing armor beneath his clothes?' Han Lei thought.

Lin Mu finally looked up and glared at the eyes of the town head. But when the town head looked at his face and his eyes, alarm bells rang through his mind. A furious expression could be seen on Lin Mu's face, and his eyes were bloodshot.

"I SAID EVERYTHING!!!!" Lin Mu spat out.

*****

Back in the mysterious ring, Xukong was traveling at a great speed towards the glowing ethereal altar in the distance. The altar was currently glowing with a white light, and waves of energy could be felt emanating from it.

"What is happening this time?" Xukong muttered.

"Is he going to have another bout of enlightenment?" Xukong wondered.

Soon Xukong reached the altar and saw the changes in it. The altar was no longer ethereal but had instead turned corporeal now, and even its size seemed to have increased. Large and complex runes could be seen rising from the altar and spreading around it.

Xukong looked at the runes and for the first time, found himself stumped at them. He could not recognize these runes at all. In all the tens of millions of years that he had lived, Xukong had seen countless runes and even more languages. He could say that he knew most of what there was to know about them.

"What are these runes? Wait… No! This… this can't be!" Xukong shouted as he suddenly realized something.

The runes had now stopped arising from the altar and were now moving around. Soon they had arranged themselves into multiple concentric formation arrays. The formation array was vast and the complexity of it could be seldom seen, even in the myriad of worlds.

"A True Grand Formation Array!" Xukong uttered in shock.

Xukong could not determine the function of this formation array as he could not read the runes at all. The characters which were used to write the runes were not from the Dao script and seemed to be completely different.

Unable to determine the use of the formation array, Xukong focused his attention on Lin Mu. He forced his own spirit sense to leave the mysterious ring and observed the outside world. In another surprise to Xukong, his spirit sense was easily able to leave the mysterious ring. He had expected a backlash from the world's restrictions, but somehow it did not arrive.

Suppressing his surprise for now, Xukong scanned Lin Mu's surroundings and got a grasp of the situation. While Xukong would roughly know what was in Lin Mu's environment, this was because of Lin Mu thinking about it in his mind and not because of his own spirit sense.

Xukong refrained from using his spirit sense as he knew that it would cause a backlash. This was the first time that Xukong was looking around in the world after arriving here.

Xukong saw the changes in Lin Mu's expression, but could no longer see what was happening in his mind. It was as if a barrier had been erected around his mind, which shielded his thoughts and prevented him from observing them. 

In the next moment, Xukong could feel a violent presence arising within Lin Mu. The others around him could not feel it, but since Xukong was the closest he could. 

"Could it be? But it's not possible, he's not even at that stage now." Xukong spoke to himself.

Xukong then directed his spirit sense towards Lin Mu's Dantian to observe the situation within it. His spirit sense passed through his abdomen and entered the dantian. At first, he felt a little obstruction upon entering, but his superior spirit sense was able to successfully enter it.

Xukong looked around the dantian, which had more than a thousand wisps of spirit qi floating around in it. These wisps of spirit qi seem to be moving in a haphazard manner, as if they were being scared by something.

Then finally, in a corner of the dantian, Xukong saw it.

There was a vague figure floating in the expanse, the spirit qi wisps were running away from it. Xukong observed closely and found that the figure was wearing some commoners clothes and its face was just a mass of shifting darkness.

The mass of darkness would sometimes morph into a masculine face and sometimes into a feminine face. The presence of Xukong's spirit sense seemed to have disturbed the figure, and it awakened. 

~Screech~

A piercing sound could suddenly be heard coming from the figure's head. The sound was more close to a screech rather than a cry as it resounded in the dantian and affected the spirit qi wisps. 

The spirit Qi wisps that were once running away from the figure were now going towards it with blinding speed. The figure then started absorbing the spirit qi at an immense pace, and the spirit qi in the dantian started reducing at a visible rate.

'Oh no… it is what I thought it was.' Xukong thought.

The more the figure absorbed the spirit qi, the more its features became clear. The mass of darkness that faintly resembled masculine and feminine features was now changing to get more apparent. Soon the mass of darkness turned to become actual faces. 

One of the faces belonged to a rough and brawny looking man, while the other belonged to a gentle and motherly looking woman. Both the faces had certain features that resembled Lin Mu himself. The figure kept on absorbing the spirit qi, and the faces alternated between the man and woman.

"Are these… Lin Mu's parents?"