Chapter 532: The First Vault

Lin Mu had chosen the main peak to be his first target, as he would be able to access the vault relatively easily, since he already had the key for it. The only problem was that he didn't know about the current security there.

While he wouldn't have to worry about the formations much, he would still have to look out for guards. Lin Mu had seen that the elders of the peak were already at the tribulation platform, but he had not noticed the sect patriarch there.

"Hopefully he has left, and I just missed him." Lin Mu muttered to himself.

He skipped the five buildings before him and made his way to the vault at the top. But upon reaching there he felt a wave of goosebumps appearing on his body and instantly used fade to enter the parallel world.

Back in the real world, an old man who looked to be in his sixties was staring at a location.

"Was that my imagination? Or was there someone there for a moment?" The old man wondered before his spirit sense spread out.

If someone were to be here, they would be able to feel the strength of his spirit sense and the aura that he emitted. This old man was none other than the sect patriarch of the Tri cauldron peony sect, Sect Patriarch Mudan!

The patriarch looked around the area carefully, and only when he was sure that no one was here did he leave.

~phew~

"So he was still here… thankfully I was able to use fade and get away." Lin Mu muttered to himself.

He watched the area empty out and then blinked to the top of the tallest building there to take a look at the proceedings in the tribulation platform. Since the building was at the very top, it was relatively easy for him to take a peek at the things below.

A huge crowd of over a hundred thousand people was gathered around an eight sided building that had no roof. From time to time, they could see formations flickering in the air, which showed that the Tribulation platform was active.

At the center of the platform, one could see that alchemist Bilao could be seen sitting.

"The spatial fluctuations… they're getting stronger." Lin Mu muttered, seeing that they were visible from such a distance.

"That's not all, look up." Xukong suddenly spoke.

Lin Mu looked up at the sky and saw a stunning scene. To a normal person, there were only some white clouds floating around in the sky but to Lin Mu, who was using spatial perception along with the ring's help, he saw a black tear spreading across the sky.

"What is that…?" Lin Mu questioned.

"That is the spatial cracks caused by the incoming heavenly tribulation. Why do you think they take so long? They come from an unknown dimension and rip through the void to reach the being that is to be punished." Xukong answered.

"Then what's the function of the tribulation clouds? Don't they make the tribulation lightning?" Lin Mu questioned, feeling a bit confused.

"Of course that is its function, but the clouds themselves are mere constructs. The energy, or rather the command that is needed for them to form, is what comes through those spatial cracks. After it arrives it creates the tribulation clouds which then generate the tribulation lightning." Xukong revealed.

Lin Mu's eyes glowed with amazement upon learning this as he had not expected there to be a secret like this behind the phenomenon called a heavenly tribulation. Getting overs his amazement after a few moments, Lin Mu looked to the location of the vault and blinked to there.

He took out the key to the vault and held it up.

~shua~

The vault's formations started glowing and scanned the key that Lin Mu had held out. Once the scan was done, the formations became active and the door of the vault started to open. During this entire process, Lin Mu was alert and his spirit sense was spread around, watching for anything unusual.

~Creek~

~DENG~

The door fully opened and Lin Mu could see the myriad treasures that were kept in the vault. His eyes darted from one thing to the other as he took it all in. There were high grade spirit stones, high grade herbs, various cultivation techniques, skills, manuals, weapons, spirit tools, talismans, and a lot more.

It all felt surreal to Lin Mu, and he could barely bring himself to believe his eyes.

Lin Mu quickly chanted the calming heart sutra to focus his mind and got to storing everything. He simply extended his finger and started to run along the items, as they started being stored into the ring one by one.

The vault itself was relatively small compared to the other ones Lin Mu had seen and it also had the least amount of items in it. Still, all of these items were personally collected by the sect patriarch or the supreme elder of the sect.

In less than three minutes, Lin Mu had robbed what was pretty much centuries' worth of fortune accumulated by the patriarch. 

~huu~

Lin Mu took a deep breath and left the vault, letting it close behind his back. He could see that some of the formations seemed to be behaving abnormally, but he didn't have the liberty to check them.

'Alright, NEXT!' Lin Mu said in his mind before phasing and blinking his way to the next vault.

This was the vault that had the majority of spirit tools and weapons of the sect. Lin Mu checked the area and quickly got to analyzing the formations before starting to unravel them. For any normal formation master, it would take months if not even longer to unravel these, but to Lin Mu who could directly perceive the fine changes in the space, it was simple.

Because Lin Mu could bypass the different layers of the formation by using the ring's ability to create portals and gates, he was able to pick at each layer one by one. Some layers were intricate and did not follow the numerical order.

It was this complexity that basically made it extremely difficult for most formation masters to do their work. 

He spent about ten minutes on this before the formations were fully unraveled.

"Bingo!"