Lin Mu looked around at the scene of devastation, thinking the worst.

"Senior? Who are you?" The Long Cloud sect elders asked.

But Lin Mu didn't answer them. His mind was far to occupied by his own voice that incessantly spoke to him, telling him that he was too late.

~SHUA~

~thud~thud~thud~

The Long Cloud sect elders were forced to take a few steps back as a strong spirit qi wave spread out from Lin Mu's body like a tsunami. The ground cracked even though it was not being attacked directly. But that was the least of all, as the more the spirit qi spread, the more the pressure increasing.

"Such strong spirit sense… it has almost turned physical…" Elder Liu Cai gasped.

Every cultivator within a hundred kilometer radius of Lin Mu felt the imposing spirit sense probing them. They all felt as if their secrets were exposed and dread rose within their minds. To them, it was as if a predator was now watching their every move.

Some distance away from where Lin Mu was, a group of Long Cloud sect disciples had just finished their battle against the Gu Legion members. They had won, but at a great cost. 

"What was that?!" The cried out in fear.

To them, such a presence meant that it was a very strong expert that had appeared. This could mean either of two things for them, either that there was a high elder from their sect who had come to help them. Or… they were going to meet their end soon and the Gu Legion got even more reinforcements.

"Heavens save us…" They muttered.

~SHING~

And just as they said this, the humming of a sword was heard. 

"A short sword?" one of the disciples with a strong perception saw a blurry figure moving at a great speed. 

His eyes caught it just for a moment, but he could tell that it was a weapon. The short sword passed from in front of them and spun back to enter the forest.

~splat~

The sound of liquid spilling and splattering could be heard as they saw fountain of blood shoot up into the sky. 

"What in the world…" the gasped as their jaws fell open.

That was just the first of the blood fountains as more of them could seen in coming from the treetops. Sometimes if they were lucky they could even see a head or two flying in the sky. All of the heads had something in common though, their eyes were filled with fear and confusion while their faces were frozen in despair.

Back where the elders of the Long Cloud sect were, the pressure exuding from Lin Mu finally stopped as he withdrew his spirit sense.

"Return…" Lin Mu lightly spoke.

~SHING~

The cry of a sword could be heard as the short sword flew back at equally great speed. It floated around Lin Mu and hummed, as if it had missed him for a long time and was happy to work for him.

It soon disappeared into thin air as Lin Mu stored it in the ring. 

"Seems like I really was late…" Lin Mu said with a hint of regret.

"That short sword… and that face…" Liu Cai finally got a hold of his wits and jogged his memory, recognizing the features of Lin Mu.

"A-Alliance leader Lin Mu?" Liu Cai muttered in disbelief.

Most of the members of the alliance had not seen Lin Mu for a long time and the general information was that he had entered seclusion. Even after two years had passed he had not appeared and some of the alliance members had started to doubt him. A small minority even thought that Lin Mu had ran away and was hiding somewhere.

Of course due to the presence of Jing Luo and Little Shrubby most members still had trust in Lin Mu. They knew both of them were close companions of Lin Mu and Little Shrubby was even his tamed beast. 

The patriarchs of the Long Cloud alliance also needed to somewhat placate their members by telling them that Lin Mu had put Little Shrubby to do his work while he was in seclusion. While some guessed that he was off on some secret mission that could not be told to them.

A lot of rumors had popped up about Lin Mu among the alliance members, specially after Gu Legion began its open assault on the Long Cloud alliance last year. Thus many people were curious about Lin Mu and his abilities.

They all knew that the patriarchs had all asked Lin Mu to become the chief disciple and the heir of the sect. They were willing to make him the next patriarch, thus his importance could be seen from that.

The other elders heard Liu Cai's words and finally put the pieces together. They had all seen Lin Mu at least once before and now they could match his current appearance with his past one.

'What happened to him?' The elders wondered.

The golden sheen coming off his skin was not something that could be ignored. And neither could the crushing spirit qi emanating from him along with the domineering aura.

Lin Mu who finally heard him being called looked at the elders and replied, "take this." He said before throwing the elders some healing pills.

"T-this…" the elders were a bit surprised seeing this.

"Thank you senior Lin Mu." Liu Cai said in a grateful tone. 

They had used up a lot of their healing pills in the past battles and were now almost out. The pills that Lin Mu gave them was something that had been desiring anyway.

"Senior Lin Mu! You need to help the disciples too! They are in danger with the other Gu Legion members." The female elder said recalling that the others were not out of danger.

Lin Mu turned to look at her and shook his head. 

"I took care of it… they're already dead." Lin Mu said in a cold tone.

"They're… Dead?" The elders were confused and spread their spirit senses around, finally becoming stunned.

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