“Hmm… this rune doesn’t seem to work as well?” Lin Mu muttered.

He was surrounded by several sheets of papers along with a few spirit stones and other materials that would be used for formation making.

“What seems to be the issue?” Xukong questioned upon appearing.

“This thing Senior.” Lin Mu pointed to a specific section of the formation. “When I shrink the formation, this rune seems to stop working normally. The spirit Qi output suddenly decreases and the entire formation stops working.” He explained.

“Let me see…” Xukong took a look and understood what Lin Mu meant. “No wonder…”

“Do you know why senior?” Lin Mu asked.

“Yes… the thing is… You’ve reached the limit of its size.” Xukong replied.

“The limit of size? That shouldn’t be so…” Lin Mu looked at the formation that was about the size of a palm.

This was something that Lin Mu had been working on improving. Shrinking the size of formations to smaller forms. It was actually a common skill of formation masters and was one of the things they needed to learn.

Thus Lin Mu was training himself by reducing the size of several formations that he knew. It was the method that he had been practicing in the recent days when he wasn’t cultivating.

Of course, right now he was in the Sleepscape as it would double his efficiency. Not only could his body continue to cultivate while he was sleeping, but he could also increase his proficiency with formations and more.

“It is though. Not all formations can be continually reduced. Some are simply at their limits after a certain size.” Xukong spoke. “This formation that you are trying to make is a suppression formation and is used to reduce the spirit Qi fluctuations.

It is meant to be inscribed onto walls for forging rooms, and on the cauldrons for alchemy. Both of those have wide surface areas that are more than enough for this formation. But once you reach this size, the runes will interfere with each other and end up causing issues.” Xukong explained.

“I see… guess I just need to use some other formation to train further.” Lin Mu spoke. “Perhaps I’ll get started on the Diamond Mountain Talismans. We still have a couple more days till the lock down is lifted anyway.” He added.

“Indeed.” Xukong agreed.

Lin Mu was supposed to leave the city the day after they had their feast. But when he was about to, he ended up facing an unexpected issue.

The port city had issued a lock down!

People coming from the ocean could still enter the city, but they couldn’t leave through the land route. It was a confusing thing for many people and the merchants were in an uproar. After all, each day of delay could cause them losses.

But under the orders of the City lord, there wasn’t much they could do.

Of course, the merchants wouldn’t take it silently and demanded for a reason for this. The city lord wasn’t unreasonable and gave an official response to everyone in the city.

The reason was that the Black Candle Pavilion had been targeted!

When the people heard this news, they were stunned. After all the Black Candle Pavilion was a relatively strong power and there weren’t many that would dare to target it.

Apparently something had been stolen from the Black Candle Pavilion and thus they had sought out the city lord for their assistance.

After hearing this, the people calmed down and some even became nervous. After all, someone capable of stealing form the Black Candle Pavilion wasn’t someone that they could take lightly either.

One must know the Black Candle pavilion had high security and stealing from them was the same as signing their own death warrant. But now someone had gone ahead and done it, making the other merchants concerned.

After all, if the thief could steal from the Black Candle pavilion, who’s to say he couldn’t do the same to them. This was especially problematic for the merchants who had high value goods with them.

They were worried about it and had raised their own security as well.

Because of this the atmosphere of the entire city was tense, and no one could leave. In fact, if someone came within five hundred meters of the city exits they would be monitored. And near the two hundred meter mark, they would face the barricade.

No one could go past it and there were Immortal cultivator guards posted everywhere. Not to mention, the city array was also activated adding another level of defense to it all.

When Lin Mu had heard all this, even he was surprised. After all, the managed of the Black Candle Pavilion could be considered an acquaintance of his. He had even invited Lin Mu for a fortunate encounter later.

Plus Lin Mu had seen the security in the Black Candle Pavilion first hand, knowing how it was. While he could escape with his spatial skills, others won’t be as safe.

Then there was also the fact that no one knew what was actually stolen. The Black Candle Pavilion had only told the city lord and thus the matter was kept confidential. Though it wasn’t hard to guess that it must be something really sensitive for even the city lord to keep it secret.

Lin Mu could have technically left the city with his skills, but since he had registered upon entering here, they could technically flag him as missing. And if they checked the timings, it might become problematic.

Besides, waiting a few more days was no issue to Lin Mu.

He was training anyways and would continue to improve his skills. At the same time, he too was a bit curious as to who might have stolen from the Black Candle Pavilion.

For now, he would simply continue to improve his skills, until it was time to leave.

And in the Sleepscape, time passed quickly as Lin Mu was fully engrossed in his training.

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