The man in front of Lin Mu was extremely emaciated and thing. Veins popped on his skin like the ridges on the bark of an old tree. What little hair he had was white and a long white beard accompanied it.

His fingers were long and bony, with nary a bit of flesh on it. His back was crooked, and he was sitting cross legged. No matter which angle Lin Mu looked from, the man looked no less than dead.

And yet, the spirit Qi fluctuations coming from his body showed him that the man was at the Nascent Soul realm. Though Lin Mu could not fully estimate which stage he was at as doing, that would probably disturb the old man.

"If he's not dead, then he's extremely close to death." Xukong spoke.

Seeing this, Lin Mu was reminded of the reality of what happened when a cultivator reached the end of their lifespan. They would start to rapidly age and years would turn into months for them.

The man in front of Lin Mu easily looked like he was over a hundred years old if compared to a common mortal human. 

"Seems like he is the ancestor of this kingdom, perhaps one of the former kings?" Lin Mu guessed.

"Hmm, that could be it. Such experts usually enter seclusion and stay there, guarding the younger generation against any trouble that they can't handle. Of course, there is a limit to how many times they can do so and also how long they can perform this duty.

Seeing this old man, I doubt he has more than a month or two left." Xukong replied.

Lin Mu observed the unmoving man for a few minutes, while he was given a harsh reminder of what could be his eventual future.

'I can't let that happen… I don't want to be like this in the future!' Lin Mu thought to himself.

~huu~

Lin Mu took a deep breath and opened his eyes that were filled with newfound determination; determination to never let himself reach this point. Even if he was going to die, he would die with dignity and not like this.

At the same time, within the Mysterious ring, the Ethereal altar flickered before a few runes came out of it. The runes were different from the ones on it and were written in a rather fierce style.

They looked like they had been carved out by claws rather than written or drawn. The color of the runes was also dark grey, almost bordering on black. The runes spun around the altar before trying to move away from it.

But when they tried to do so, they were blocked by the barrier that surrounded the ethereal altar. This was the same barrier that prevented Xukong from getting close and was extremely strong, according to him.

The runes tried to go through the barrier but were unable to do so. It was at this point that they seemed to have noticed the Grey egg that was kept near the barrier. They approached that part of the barrier and tapped against it.

The runes vibrated and let out a strange hum. These vibrations were able to pass through the barrier and reached the Grey egg. Upon hitting the egg, they made the egg tremble.

The egg kept on trembling and was moved from its position. It rolled slightly towards the barrier but then suddenly stopped. This time, the sound of heartbeats came from the egg and it stopped responding to the vibrations created by the runes.

The runes kept on sending more vibrations, but the egg stayed in its place, not moving at all. It was as if the heartbeats were matching the vibrations of the runes and countering them.

The runes continued their effort for a few seconds, but once they realized that it was not working, they returned to hover above the ethereal altar. There, they kept on spinning as if lost at what to do.

They stayed like this for about a minute before finally, they started to shrink. The more they shrunk, the darker their color got, and when they reached a size that was less than ten times than the original, they had turned fully pitch black.

At this time, they looked no less than a needle and let out a thin beam of black light straight up. The light traveled at a great speed and disappeared. Xukong who was also in the ring, suddenly turned around and looked in the direction of the ethereal altar.

"Huh? Did something happen? Why did the space tremble?" Xukong wondered.

He moved to see the altar and saw that nothing had changed. He even saw the egg, which was lying in a tilted position but did not put much thought to it. Lin Mu withdrew the egg nearly every day and thus its position would change often.

Of course, Xukong did not pay any extra attention to how the egg looked or moved. He observed the barrier and the altar within, confirming that everything was fine. 

At the same time as this, Lin Mu was also having a different experience.

While he was thinking about his own lifespan, and how it would end, Lin Mu suddenly heard a whisper. It was extremely strange to him as he didn't hear it from his ears but rather directly in his head.

"Kill… Kill forever… live… live forever…"

Lin Mu could only hear a few words and even if he tried to focus on it a bit more, he was unable to hear anything more.

"What the hell are these whispers?" Lin Mu said in his mind, pulling Xukong's attention as well.

"What happened?" Xukong questioned.

"I heard some strange whispers, but they weren't from outside, rather directly in my mind." Lin Mu answered.

"Whispers? What did they say?" Xukong asked, now feeling a bit concerned.

"They said… They said… I… can't remember them? I can't remember them!" Lin Mu exclaimed in his mind.

Xukong was now officially concerned and wondered if what he felt before was linked to this.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.