Ku Waowen had come from a long line of Chieftains and had become the chieftess of her clan after her grandfather died. She was the first person from her clan who was ever acknowledged from the tribal alliance and had thus been chosen for the mission.

The mission was something she herself had been looking forward to a long item. Kushao was an ancestor of her Ku clan and was considered to be a legend in the northern tribes. Yet even then, his existence was kept a secret from the younger and weaker members.

This was to keep the information spreading to the Great Zhou Empire. After all, Kushao had sacrificed a lot to infiltrate it and make the ruins, along with the teleportation formation array.

He had made it with a long term goal. The one thing all sects liked was to get more resources and allow their disciples to gain experience from inheritance grounds. Thus, making the tomb of an old expert into his own and turning it into a trial ground was the best way he could have taken.

Of course, the cost to make it was really great, but in the face of his goals, it was nothing. 

The Northern Tribes had used the ruins multiple times in the past to get the sects to sacrifice their disciples. They would only think that they died in the ruins of natural consequences, and would never find out what happened.

All that happened with no suspicion for a long time until five hundred years ago, when the sects have had enough of it. They mounted a secret mission to get to the bottom of it.

Of course, the Northern Tribes were already aware of it and decided to make use of it while turning it in their favor. They were already prepared at the ruins and managed to kill all those that had entered the tomb secretly.

And just as they had expected, the sects kept this loss a secret for the fear of losing face.

But it came at a cost and the formation arrays of the ruins ended up getting damaged.

Ku Waowen looked at the complex formation array in front of her and sighed.

"All these years we've waited to gain the secrets and it's finally here. Ancestor sealed the teleportation array along with the main inheritance of the tomb to protect it from the sects. We've waited such long and we finally have the opportunity…" Ku Waowen muttered to herself.

She stared into the Formation array and saw the hollow bottom. The hall was circular in shape and had a hole in the center of it. From this hole, one could look down into the fifth level of the ruins.

It was now that she felt something she had never expected. Her spirit sense was spread around in the hall and felt another spirit sense appearing. Her face turned stern, and she immediately intercepted it.

'Who? Did they have some problem?' Ku Waowen thought.

But then she looked in the direction and saw a young man standing near the staircase. She furrowed her brows and questioned herself if she was seeing correctly. But no matter how much she wanted to believe that this was one of their people she could not.

"Who are you and how did you get in here?" Ku Waowen questioned.

She already had a guess about what had happened up there, but she needed to buy some time to manage some things on her end. Her spirit sense secretly split and changed certain parts on the formation.

Lin Mu, who knew he had already been detected, calmly approached the woman.

"You don't need to know that. As for how I got here, you should already know." Lin Mu said in a cold tone.

"I see… looks like your head will have to pay the price for this… NOW DIE!" Ku Waowen shouted and waved her hand.

~shing~shing~shing~

Three small black spikes shot out of her fingers. They moved at a great speed and were almost invisible to the naked eye. Lin Mu though, simply blinked to the right ten meters away and dodged it with ease.

Ku Waowen kept a still face, but internally she was a bit surprised.

'Speed? No… even a Dao Treading realm expert might not be able to do that… then what…' she wondered.

Her mind worked at great speed, while Lin Mu continued to approach, she responded by sending out more spikes but Lin Mu dodged them with ease too.

"You done?" Lin Mu asked, "My turn then!" 

~shua~

The short sword and several more spirit weapons appeared around Lin Mu. He clasped his hand around the short sword's handle and blinked ahead. In less than two seconds, he was already next to Ku Waowen. 

She widened her eyes and pushed her palm out, creating a shield that looked like a bowl.

"Defense of the Chant bowl!" She recited.

~CLANG~

Lin Mu's short sword hit the bowl and created a loud noise. Ku Waowen felt the power exuding from him and finally understood what she was facing.

"Dao Shell realm?" She muttered.

Till now she had been unable to fully sense Lin Mu's cultivation base, but now she could. And the revelation was astounding to her. It was due to the fact how young Lin Mu looked. She knew for sure that even if Lin Mu had managed to maintain his youth, he would have to be at least a hundred years or more to have such an appearance.

But even then a Dao Shell realm expert might not necessarily achieve that. It was absolutely incomprehensible to her how such a person could exist.

"Who are you? A sect's chosen?" Ku Waowen immediately assumed.

To her, a person who could reach the Dao Shell realm at this young age must have been carefully nurtured from the very start. They would have to begin from before he was even born and was still in the womb.

They would have to provide great nutrition to the mother before that so that her child could have a great talent. Not to mention the parents would have to have good talent as well for the child to be talented.

It would take centuries of preparation and a ton of resources to even nurture a single person like this. To Ku Waowen, only the top three sects could do something like this. If it were any other sect, they would have already known about it.

"No." Lin Mu simply replied as she flipped back, neutralizing the recoil from the bowl like shield.

'Iron Thorn Spear!' Lin Mu activated its skill.

~shing~shing~shing~

Black blades shot out of the Iron thorn spear as it showed its power. The spear itself shot forward as well and attacked the bowl like shield.

~DENG~

The bowl started getting pushed back and the black blades tried to swerve around it.

"Oh no, you don't!" Ku Waowen as she brought her left hand's middle and index finger together before making a pattern in the air.

The pattern materialized and turned into a whip that flicked the black blades away. There were tens of black blades, yet the whip could block each and every one of them. It moved at a lightning speed and by the time it was done blocking all of the attacks, only a few fragments of it were left.

~tch~

"Seems like a kid like you has a lot of good things… the sects certainly didn't spare anything I see…" Ku Waowen stated.

She made a gesture with her hand and red mist spread in the area. Just like she had done with Elder Liqiang, the red mist turned into more whips and chains before they started attacking Lin Mu.

The chains morphed to have spikes on their ends while the whips had thorns along their length. Both of them looked fierce and gnarly. 

"Humph! This won't work on me." Lin Mu said as he blocked the attacks one by one. 

But the attacks only kept on increasing in speed and intensity. Lin Mu switched from his short sword to another long sword. Now his left hand held the short sword and his right held the long sword.

They moved around in complex trajectories, guided by his spirit sense, and clashed against the attacks.

"Let's see if you can handle double that…" Ku Waowen made a few hand seals and the whips and chains were divided into two. 

The intensity of attacks on Lin Mu increased once more and he had to spend even more effort in blocking them. But at a certain point, he could not keep up and a few attacks managed to hit him.

~boom~

"Hahaha!" Ku Waowen laughed as she saw Lin Mu getting stuck by the spiked chain.

But her expression changed rather quickly upon seeing a brown armor appearing around Lin Mu. The mortal strengthening scripture worked to defend Lin Mu and he frowned.

"Seems like I'll need to put more effort… A Shell Expansion stage Dao Shell realm cultivator is certainly worth its title." Lin Mu muttered to himself.

That's right, Ku Waowen was at the Shell Expansion stage. The fact was confirmed now that Lin Mu was fighting with her. 

"How?" Ku Waowen questioned.

To her, the technique that Lin Mu had just used seemed to have been activated almost instantly. Which was strange to her, as she should have seen Lin Mu do something for it at the very least.

'Is that a spirit tool?' Ku Waowen wondered.

Blink!

But then Lin Mu disappeared in front of her eyes. She looked around, but her spirit sense could not feel him anywhere in the hall.

~SLASH~

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