Seeing the state of Tie Nie's cultivation base, Lin Mu knew that the way he cultivated must not have been normal.

"If you don't want to die, speak." Lin Mu said in a cold tone.

"W-what do you want to know?" Tie Niu asked while stuttering.

The pain was still making him tremble, and thinking straight was hard for him as well. He couldn't remember when was the last time he had ever felt such pain. He had been the mayor of the iron bull city for over a hundred years now, and his family had owned the city for even longer.

Since they had contributed a lot in the past wars, they were directly given this city by the then emperor of the Great Zhou Empire. Their military might was considered to be great such that they were even said to have Dao Treading realm experts among their clan.

But that was all in the past. Now, Tie Niu's clan still existed but wasn't as strong as before. The strongest person in their clan was just a peak adult soul stage nascent soul realm cultivator and he didn't know how long he would like either.

With this on his mind, Tie Niu knew that the reign of his clan in the Iron Bull city might end after his generation. His children were not any good either, and none of them seemed to have enough talent to reach the Nascent soul realm, which was the bare minimum one would need to have to own the city.

While a couple of his younger children managed to join the sects, they were just mid grade sects and couldn't reach any great status. Plus, since they had become the disciples of the sects, even if they reached Nascent soul realm in the future, they would still be disqualified from becoming the mayor.

Tie Niu was sure that he would have no hope for the future until he finally got an opportunity he had never thought he would see. 

And while Tie Niu felt his memories flash by, he heard Lin Mu's voice again. Lin Mu stared into the man's eyes, making them trembled as tears continued to streak down.

"Tell me everything… each and every detail as to what happened in this city, how you gained power, the others that reached the nascent soul realm using the strange method and why the population of the city is so skewed towards commoners." Lin Mu answered. "Don't miss even a single word… or the next thing you'll miss is your head." He warned.

Terror flowed through Tie Niu's heart as if a dam had broken and he only felt despair. He had thought that after reaching the Dao Shell realm, he would be strong and be able to do whatever he wanted, but that reality was broken apart like a mirror.

Even with the support of strong formation arrays, he was unable to defeat Lin Mu who wasn't even at the Dao Treading realm.

"I'll give you thirty seconds, think deeply." Lin Mu said, giving the man a chance to revise his memories.

~huu~

~huu~

~huu~

Tie Niu felt his heart beating faster and faster with each passing second, and his body felt cold. He wanted to run away, but couldn't. He wanted to be saved, but there was no one to save him.

'Today was supposed to be a good day. How did it end up like this?' Tie Niu thought as he finally gave up.

"I… I'll speak…" Tie Niu muttered in a lost tone.

Lin Mu looked at the man, feeling the change in his emotions. This was very perceptible to Lin Mu, since the strange aura within the man's body had weakened as well.

"It all started a year ago… my fifth son is an inner sect disciple of the Blue Ribbon sect. He came to visit me and told me about a great opportunity. An opportunity that would allow me to breakthrough my bottleneck and reach the Dao Shell realm.

You must understand… my clan was in danger of being removed from our position soon. I don't know how long I would have been able to hold on. Especially after the sickness of the Emperor, the schemes of the Imperial court have only gotten more dangerous.

The ministers and the emperors concubines all want a share of the pie and are vying for supremacy. The Iron Bull city has always been one of the more important cites of the Empire's main land and they one who controls it would have a great source of revenue along with a large part of the army to be controlled.

The military base here houses over a hundred thousand soldiers, a majority of whom are cultivators. 

I could not let that happen. My clan sacrificed a lot in the past wars to reach its current position…" Tie Niu said and took a deep breath.

It was evident that saying all this was difficult for him, but Lin Mu could feel the hypocrisy in his words.

'How many times have I heard such words before?' Lin Mu thought to himself.

All people that were in power wanted to stay in power. Once they had a taste of it, it was hard to let go and they would do whatever it was possible to stay in that position and keep their power.

"What was this opportunity your son spoke about?" Lin Mu questioned, urging the man.

"He… he told me that one of the elders in his sect had chosen him as his disciple and that he would get a reward for that. The reward in question was a bottle of pills… he consumed just one of them and reached the nascent soul realm as if it was nothing.

But he was told that it was just the initial effect of the pills. If one continued to eat them, their power would only increase more. And thus, he brought a few pills to me.. That was the opportunity…" Tie Niu answered, feeling the chill in his heart deepen.

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