Chapter 498: The Vault at Herb Peak

Lin Mu had to be extra careful as if the elders or heavens forbid the peak master ever scanned the ground with their spirit sense they would end up finding Lin Mu there. These people were either as strong as Lin Mu or even stronger than him, thus their range of spirit sense would be higher as well.

He finally reached a compound that had high walls. There was a large gate at the front which needed an identity badge to enter inside as well. Lin Mu tried to enter using phase, but the barriers surrounded it from everywhere making it difficult to pass.

"I'll just have to use fade, I guess." Lin Mu said to himself before disappearing from the real world.

His proficiency with fade was getting better with time and now he could judge how much distance he had traveled just by estimating it with his eye. This was good for the short distances he needed to travel like these barriers.

He would have done the same with the formations on the warehouse but they were different. While he would be able to enter them using fade, an alarm would still ring as soon as he deactivated it and appeared in the real world.

The warehouses had active formations that prohibited one from staying in it for long times and also checked who was in it at all times. So to overcome this, Lin Mu would have to override the formations themselves.

As for the barrier in this compound, it only prevented one from entering but did not constantly check for the identity. Thus, once Lin Mu entered it, things were a bit easier. Lin Mu looked around and saw all the buildings that were locatedwithin it.

The biggest building was where the peak master stayed at. There were two more buildings in it that were smaller than it. These were the buildings where the elders and the core disciples of the peak lived in.

They were layered in an ascending manner, with the building where the core disciples lived first, then the elders' building and finally the peak master's building.

'According to the information I was given, the vault is located between the elder's building and the peak master's building.' Lin Mu recalled.

Lin Mu spread his spirit sense around and sensed the spirit Qi fluctuations in the area.

"So there are about seven core disciples in the building and they are all at the early stage of the core condensation realm." Lin Mu discovered.

He didn't worry much about these disciples as they couldn't do much to him, even if they all attacked him at once. He then continued on ahead and reached the elder's building. Here the spirit Qi fluctuations were a bit stronger and Lin Mu was able to see that there were three elders in here.

"Oh? One of them is missing. Perhaps he's gone out…" Lin Mu guessed.

According to the information he was given, there were a total of four elders in the herb peak, two of which were at the late stage of the core condensation realm and two at the peak stage of the core condensation realm.

They all were currently busy with preparations for the event that would be happening in the coming few days and seemed to be engrossed in it. 

'This may make it a bit easier…' Lin Mu thought.

He finally went past the building and reached the middle area between the elder's building and the peak master's building. There was a garden in between them where spirit herbs were planted as well. These were all high grade spirit herbs and were quite difficult to grow.

Lin Mu checked the properties of these herbs and found some interesting ones.

"Oh my, the main herb needed to make the four vessels restoration pill is here too." Lin Mu said upon seeing a small plant that had four cylindrical leaves. 

This was the Tube Rest Grass and was a high grade herb that was the main ingredient for the four vessels restoration pill. There were a total of ten such plants which showed how expensive the pill really was.

There were also other herbs that were used to make other high grade pills such as the high grade basic Qi pill and even the Earth resurgence pill. Lin Mu's eyes particularly trained on the flower that was used for the Earth Resurgence pill.

His gaze lingered over it for a bit before he reluctantly withdrew it. He looked at the small pavilion that was built at the other end of the garden and moved towards it. This was the vault of the Herb peak that contained all the high grade herbs that the peak had grown over the many years it had exited. 

It was built along a cliff and the other side of it extended out the side of the peak. This gave it quite a mystic look and the formations the faintly glowed around it only made it more enchanting. But Lin Mu knew that this only accentuated the danger that was there.

Lin Mu checked the formations with his spirit Qi and saw the complicated formation array that was layered over the vault. 

"Dammit, just unrevealing this single vault will take me a few days. If this is not completed before the tribulation I may really fail this." Lin Mu said in a frustrated tone.

The original plan was that Lin Mu would quickly break into the vaultsformations, during the time of tribulation and steal all the things in it. But this was a final gambit kind of a goal, which was to only be done when there was no option.

Optimally, Lin Mu would have resolved the formations that protected the vaults and storage pavilions before the tribulation even came. This way, not only would the sect take longer to realize that they had been robbed, Lin Mu may even be able to gain more time to rob more of the storage pavilions.

But just as Lin Mu was observing the vault, he sensed someone approaching it.

"Shaoyan Qianyu…"