Lin Mu and Jing Luo continued onwards after the short incident before.

"That was rather unexpected," Lin Mu spoke.

"Indeed. I don't know if that disciple was truly mistaken or guessed what we were going to do." Jing Luo replied.

"Hmm… if he was mistaken, that it would be fine. But if he was able to guess that they would not meet a good end if we conflicted, then I would have to reassess the disciple's intelligence." Lin Mu said with a serious tone.

If there were disciples with this level of foresight in the sect, then the elders were bound to be even better. Or so Lin Mu thought. Meanwhile, the disciples and the elders were unaware that the little incident had increased their image in Lin Mu's mind and he had become far more alert.

"To be on the safer side, I think we should expect some resistance soon. There is no way the sect does not know about us by now. There may be some people waiting for us." Lin Mu stated.

"I think so too. Though as long as it is no one in the Dao Shell realm, I'm confident of dealing with them." Jing Luo spoke.

"Yes, that would be good. As far as I know, the Ripple Mist sect's High elders are at the Dao shell realm and only the patriarch should be at the Dao Treading realm. There may be some hidden experts, but I doubt they would appear at this time.

Especially since Gu Yao must be controlling them as well… or suppressing them till he gains full control." Lin Mu replied.

"That would be for the best." Jing Luo said as he gazed ahead.

The three were now passive over the Ripple Mist sect's Spirit tool pavilion. Below them Lin Mu could see countless smaller buildings and what looked to be forges. Black smoke rose up from the chimneys, along with fumes of different colors.

Disciples moved around like busy ants as they went about their tasks. Overall, everyone seemed to be focused and even though they saw Lin Mu and Jing Luo along with Little Shrubby, they did not pay attention.

"I can't help but feel strange that they haven't alarmed the entire sect." Lin Mu said after assessing the unnerving calmness.

"Hmm… perhaps they know that alarming the sect may do more harm than good and thus they haven't done that. If they do, we will probably end up fighting the elders and disciples, many of them who would not be our match. This would cause damage to the sect and its members." Jing Luo hypothesized.

"That is a smart choice. Though if they can think this far, then they must be deliberately waiting for us to reach a suitable location that would not impact the rest of the sect." Lin Mu spoke.

Jing Luo raised his brows and spoke, "Do you have any idea where that might be? Comparing the last time I came here, I never entered the sect itself and even then I can see that several parts have been changed, so I can't really tell." 

"Indeed, the forest of the Ripple mist sect. That is the only place they can fight without impacting the rest of the sect. That is actually from where I entered the minor plane." Lin Mu replied.

"Hmm, if that is true, then it would be good for us too. More open space would allow us to fight better." Jing Luo said as a spark of battle arose in his eyes.

Lin Mu saw this and secretly sighed to himself.

"Don't forget, our first priority is to escape. We shall only battle if there is no other choice. Besides, once we reach that point, Little Shrubby will be able to use his full speed, and no one will be able to stop me. But you… you'll need to find a way to speed up as well." Lin Mu explained.

"Hahah! You don't need to worry about that. I've prepared well in advance for that. I assure you that my speed will be no less than our little kitten's," Jing Luo chuckled.

"GRRR~!" Little Shrubby let out a low growl, feeling offended by Jing Luo's comments.

Jing Luo heard it and only chuckled more to himself. And just like this, they crossed over to the next area that was the residences of the many disciples of the Ripple Mist sect. 

"We are close. Once we cross this, we will reach the forest. We will need to deal with the barrier here too." Lin Mu informed.

Jing Luo simply nodded his head and continued. 

~HONG~

Lin Mu and Jing Luo could hear the sound of a bell echoing from afar. They instantly became alert and knew that their time of ease had come to an end.

"Seems like the sect finally reacted." Lin Mu said and looked around, his gaze sharp.

Jing Luo had a similar expression, and they looked below to see a strange scene.

"Huh? The Elders have called for a gathering?" the disciples who heard the bell came out of their residences. 

They then hurried to the gathering ground in the central area of the sect without questioning why the bell had been rung. Lin Mu and Jing Luo clearly heard the words of the disciples and narrowed their eyes.

This was not what they expected for the bell to be for. 

"I don't feel so sure about this…" Lin Mu muttered to himself.

A gut feeling arose within Lin Mu and he instinctively used spatial perception. His eyes scanned the entire area along with his spirit sense. The spirit sense was unable to find anything, but with his spatial perception, Lin Mu found several spatial disturbances.

They were small and unnoticeable to most cultivators. Only someone with spatial perception might be able to see them. Lin Mu focused on the spatial disturbances and saw that they moved in a rather unique pattern.

"So it really is a trap." Lin Mu said.

"What?" Jing Luo questioned.

"There are several Nascent Soul realm cultivators surrounding us. They intentionally rang the bell to clear out the area."

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