Walker Of The Worlds

Chapter 3873: Awakening An Ancient Presence

The ancient man inspected every inch of the water, he examined the lingering will of the Rain Dragon, he checked the surrounding mountains, but there was no living person left. There was no hidden Devil cultivator and there was no demonic formation.

Nothing remained except the lake itself.

The old man quietly stroked his beard. "Even if the Rain Dragon was once an enemy, it was still a noble beast."

His gaze settled upon the restless waters. "There is no way a Devil’s aura should originate from there."

His expression grew thoughtful as the contradiction bothered him. He trusted his own perception and he also trusted the records of the sect. But right now, the two directly opposed each other.

Silence filled the cave once again.

The old man remained seated for several long minutes before finally raising one hand. A small crimson talisman appeared between his fingers. Unlike ordinary communication talismans, this one contained no inscriptions upon its surface.

The symbols remained hidden until the old man gently breathed upon it.

Golden runes surfaced one after another as the talisman trembled. Then without any dramatic display, it quietly vanished. There was no explosion or flash of light, it simply disappeared from the cave as if it had never existed.

Its destination lay only one place, the Core Court.

The old man slowly closed his eyes once more. "The matter should be investigated."

His breathing gradually slowed and the cave returned to silence.

Far away, the person responsible for all of this remained blissfully unaware.

...

Lin Mu jogged back toward the Wild Peak at a comfortable pace, completely unaware that a Transcendent level existence had awakened because of a few moments of the Murdering Heart Sutra.

His thoughts remained occupied by a completely different problem.

"The forbidden zones seem promising." Lin Mu muttered while leaping across a rocky stream. "But they cannot be the only option."

Xukong agreed. "The vault has remained hidden for far too long. It would be foolish to assume only one clue exists."

Lin Mu nodded.

Lady Kang’s information had been thorough, though even her intelligence network could only gather rumors after so many years. The Virtuous Calamity Daoist’s vault had almost become a legend.

There was no guarantee it remained exactly where it had originally been hidden. The vault might have been discovered long ago. Perhaps someone had secretly emptied it. Or perhaps parts of its contents had been scattered throughout the sect.

There were simply too many possibilities.

’I should gather information naturally.’ Lin Mu thought.

The Wild Peak disciples presented the perfect opportunity. Unlike the rest of the sect, they were refreshingly straightforward as politics barely existed among them and schemes rarely lasted longer than a few minutes before someone simply challenged another person to a fight.

Little Bull’s simple personality had already earned everyone’s trust, so no one expected hidden motives from him. Lin Mu intended to use that advantage carefully. By the time he returned to the Wild Peak, several disciples had already gathered near one of the larger courtyards.

Some were lifting enormous stone pillars, others sparred using body cultivation techniques and several more simply sat around enormous tables eating yet another meal.

One of the senior disciples immediately spotted him. "Junior Brother!"

Little Bull waved. "I’m back."

"Finished your training?"

Little Bull nodded earnestly. "I ran around."

"Good. Running is important as it builds your legs." The disciples nodded approvingly. "And strong legs are the foundation for a strong combat stance." He added.

Another disciple stuffed an entire roasted beast leg into his mouth before speaking. "You hungry?"

Little Bull looked at the table. "Yes."

"Come then!" Within moments another mountain of food appeared before him.

Lin Mu happily began eating while casually listening to the conversations around him. The topics remained exactly what one would expect; training, beasts, food, who had broken which cliff and which elder had accidentally shattered another courtyard.

Someone proudly announced that High Elder Palm Saber had punched a mountain goat yesterday because it kept eating medicinal herbs. Apparently the mountain goat had survived.

The disciples sounded mildly disappointed but Little Bull quietly listened.

Eventually he decided to begin steering the conversation.

"So..." Several disciples looked over. "I was thinking."

One disciple laughed. "Our Junior Brother is growing smarter already."

Little Bull scratched his head. "I wanted lots of food."

The disciples nodded as it was reasonable.

"A really big amount." Little Bull finally said.

"How big?" Someone asked.

Little Bull thought for a moment. "So much that I never run out."

One disciple nearly choked on his drink. "You’d empty half the kitchens."

Little Bull looked genuinely surprised. "Really?"

The senior disciple laughed. "You eat enough already."

Little Bull continued innocently. "So if I wanted food forever..."

"You’d need a farm." Another disciple answered immediately. "One that can keep on growing food."

"A really big farm." Someone else added.

Little Bull tilted his head. "Can I buy one?"

The table became quiet for several seconds as several disciples looked at each other. Finally one scratched his beard. "I suppose... technically?"

Little Bull blinked. "Technically?"

The disciple nodded. "The land around the sect isn’t quite that simple."

Another senior disciple leaned back in his chair. "Most of the land inside the Heavenly Stream Guardian World belongs to the sect."

Little Bull nodded attentively.

"The commoners living here farm it but they don’t really own it. They merely lease it."

Little Bull frowned.

"Lease?"

"They borrow it."

"Oh." That made sense to him.

"So nobody owns farms?"

"A few do."

Several disciples spoke almost together.

"There are some old cultivation clans."

"They’ve lived here for countless generations."

"They accumulated enough merits."

"They’ve offered enough tributes."

"The sect eventually granted them ownership of certain lands."

Little Bull looked impressed. "They worked hard."

"They definitely did." One disciple laughed.

Little Bull remained thoughtful while chewing another mouthful of roasted meat.

Then he innocently asked another question. "Is land expensive?"

The disciples burst into laughter and one of them almost dropped his bowl.