Lin Mu observed Alchemist Bilao from one of the walls of the residence. The middle aged man was deep in meditation and had a still expression on his face.

From what Lin Mu knew, the man was over two hundred years already, but still looked quite young for his age. Until one reached the adult soul stage of the Nascent soul realm, their body would still age, albeit at a much slower rate.

For them, ten years were the same as one year, thus the time required for them to look one year older would take ten years. But for core condensation realm cultivators, it was less than that.

For them, three years was equivalent to one year. Thus considering that Bilao should have looked like someone who was in his sixties. But he looked like someone who was in his forties instead.

Lin Mu could only attribute this to him eating certain alchemical pills, which allowed him to maintain his condition far better than another cultivator. Once he reached the nascent soul realm, his aging would slow down to ten years, and he would be able to maintain this for far longer.

But that was not all he saw on Bilao. Lin Mu could see an almost imperceptible energy around Bilao.

'What is this…' Lin Mu wondered and squinted his eyes along with focusing his spirit sense.

This led him to use his spatial perception on instinct and he saw the faint spatial abnormalities around him.

"This… what is this… it's like the space around him is getting unstable?" Lin Mu muttered.

"Oh? You were able to see the spatial disturbance caused by an impending heavenly tribulation?" Xukong questioned.

"You know what that is, senior?!" Lin Mu asked.

"Indeed. What you is one of the signs of a heavenly tribulation." Xukong answered.

"One of the signs? But why would there be spatial disturbance caused by it?" Lin Mu asked, feeling confused.

"This is more like the heavenly tribulation observing Bilao and not letting him hide from it. Hiding from a heavenly tribulation is immensely difficult. Even if you hide within the void, the heavenly tribulation will break through the space itself to come to strike you." Xukong explained.

"Truly senior? Is it really this terrifying?" Lin Mu questioned.

"Of course. Why do you think nearly everyone fears it and wants to do a lot of preparations before attempting it?" Xukong replied.

"I see…" Lin Mu muttered and continued looking at Bilao.

Except for the spatial disturbance around Bilao, Lin Mu did not find anything of importance there. Alchemist Bilao wasn't even cultivating and was just meditating there with no change. 

Though now that he had learned about the spatial disturbances, he wondered if there were any spatial disturbances around his body. Alas! No matter how much he looked, there was none around him. The spatial fabric was as strong as every around him.

~Sigh~

"Seems like I'm gonna have to wait much longer for a tribulation…" Lin Mu muttered to himself.

Having observed him enough, Lin Mu decided to leave and take a look at the rest of the places. He would have gone all the way to the vault that was at the very end had it not been for the presence of the patriarch. 

No matter what, Lin Mu would have to wait till the heavenly tribulation started to be able to get to this vault. At that time, the patriarch and all the other elders will be at the tribulation platform and there were be next to no one watching the vaults.

With the scouting done, Lin Mu chose to return to the residence of Jiao Fang. The man was not here yet. Thus Lin Mu just sat down to cultivate for the time being. It took about five hours, after which Jiao Fang finally returned.

Lin Mu opened his eyes upon his arrival and spoke, "did you figure out anything?" Lin Mu questioned.

"I did. I was able to find out the time of the opening of both the vaults." Jiao Fang answered.

"You did? When is it?" Lin Mu questioned it.

"The original timing of their opening was in a week from now. But… I managed to make it much earlier." Jiao Fang answered it.

"And how did you do that?" Lin Mu questioned.

"Usually these vaults open once every month on a regular schedule or if someone needs something in an emergency they open it as well. Certain disciples are also allowed to ask for the vaults to be opened as well so that they can receive their reward from the sect.

Rewards such as these are not easy to come by and one needs to contribute greatly to the sect or use their merit points that the sect awards them for complete certain missions and tasks.

So what I did was basically make a couple of disciples who were eligible to receive their rewards from the sect speed it up." Jiao Fang answered.

"Making them use up their reward? How is this even possible?" Lin Mu questioned, feeling curious now.

"Well, it was much easier than I expected. The higher ranked core disciples of the sect are already on the edge due to the nearing breakthrough of Alchemist Bilao. Some of them are also particularly jealous, such that they want him to die in his heavenly tribulation.

I just had to put a few words into their ears such that they would become impatient to get their resources. Once they use them, they think that they can breakthrough and improve their chances of breaking through to the nascent soul realm themselves." Xukong explained.

Lin Mu was impressed by this and had no word for Jiao Fang except for the time at which the disciples would be doing this.

"So when exactly would they be opening the vaults?" Lin Mu asked.

"One of them will be opening early in the morning while the second one will be later in the night. It should be enough for you to complete each task." Jiao Fang stated.

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