Walker Of The Worlds

Chapter 3979: Looking Into Deng Siqi

Lin Mu opened one of the oldest records. Deng Siqi or rather the Heavenly Stream Immortal Daoist had apparently entered the sect as an ordinary disciple. His talent was described as decent but nothing exceptional.

His temperament, however, was praised repeatedly. He was hardworking and very reliable, known to be quite patient with his fellow disciples, juniors and elders alike. He also completed assignments without complaint and rarely caused trouble.

Lin Mu’s brows furrowed. "This doesn’t sound like someone who would eventually become the Heavenly Stream Immortal Daoist."

He continued reading and learned that the man had eventually advanced into the Inner Court. His records became increasingly sparse after that and then came a sudden gap.

Lin Mu searched several different archives but the same thing happened. His name disappeared from the local records. The next references were to a title: the Heavenly Stream Immortal Daoist.

Lin Mu’s eyes narrowed. "They removed his name."

He looked through the records again and it seemed deliberate. The later documents referred to him almost exclusively by his title. The actual name Deng Siqi had essentially vanished from the commonly accessible historical records.

Lin Mu slowly nodded. "They probably moved his records to the Core Court."

That made sense as the man had eventually risen to an extraordinary position. Information concerning someone of that level would naturally become restricted. Still, the coincidence with the name in Zhenyu’s records remained.

Hopeful Star Pavilion and Deng Siqi. The mysterious faction that had directed Zhenyu toward the Mad Demon Depths and the man who would eventually become one of the Eastern Immortal Court’s supreme figures.

Lin Mu’s gaze became thoughtful.

He had started this search simply wanting to become Zhenyu convincingly. Now he had uncovered missing soul lamps, suspicious deaths, forgotten investigations and a possible connection between an ancient faction and one of the greatest figures of the present era.

The deeper he searched, the more tangled the history became.

Lin Mu closed the record. "Looks like the Core Court is unavoidable."

He stood among the endless shelves of ancient records. He had learned enough to convincingly play the role of Junior Elder Zhenyu. Now he needed to learn why so much of Zhenyu’s history had been quietly buried.

And for that, the Records Division was no longer enough.

He had already extracted everything that seemed immediately useful from the ancient archives, and staying around after discovering the strange gaps in Zhenyu’s history would only increase the chance of someone noticing that an unusually large elder had been spending far too much time in restricted sections.

He retraced his route carefully, returning to the hidden bookshelf and stepping through the concealed passage. The spatial compression gate was still functioning perfectly. Lin Mu crossed it and found himself back inside the small underground chamber beneath the Records Division.

He paused there for a moment and looked around, committing the surroundings to memory once again. After everything he had discovered, he had learned to appreciate having an escape route that almost nobody knew existed.

He soon left the chamber and moved to a secluded location several kilometers away from the Records Division. Once he was certain that nobody had followed him, Lin Mu took out the jade token he had obtained from Junior Elder Zhenyu and activated one of the spatial nodes recorded within it.

The formation responded almost immediately, and a faint distortion spread through the air.

SHUA

A portal opened and Lin Mu stepped through. The familiar sensation of spatial compression surrounded him for an instant before the surroundings changed completely. Soon he was back inside the hidden chamber of the Mad Demon Depths.

Lin Mu glanced toward the eleven spatial portals that had remained open within the compressed space.

"Two of these lead to the Core Continent." He had already studied their coordinates.

One of them was relatively straightforward. It would send him to a small island near the outer edge of the Core Continent, several kilometers across the sea from the continent itself. But Lin Mu had immediately rejected it.

"Too close to the barrier."

He had no desire to casually appear outside one of the most heavily protected regions of the Heavenly Stream Guardian Sect. There was no telling what kind of defensive formations surrounded the continent, and even with his current abilities, triggering a defensive mechanism unnecessarily would be foolish.

That left the second portal and Lin Mu looked at it.

His expression slowly became strange. "This one is worse."

The coordinates indicated that it led directly into the Core Court and that was considerably more dangerous.

Still, after studying the location for a while, Lin Mu realized that the portal did not lead directly into the Grand Palace or the Grand Hall where the Patriarch and the highest-ranking figures of the sect held court. Instead, it opened somewhere within an area reserved for the residences of several Core Court elders.

"At least that’s something." Lin Mu activated the portal and a moment later, he disappeared.

When his feet touched solid ground again, his immortal sense immediately spread outward. The first thing he noticed was the enormous amount of energy around him. The Core Court was completely different from the Inner Court.

The concentration of Qi here was substantially higher, and the surrounding space itself was filled with layers of defensive formations. Lin Mu suppressed every trace of his aura before even moving.

He immediately used Phase and his body sank through the ground. He remained underground while his immortal sense carefully explored the courtyard as there were quite a few people here.

Lin Mu’s expression became cautious. "Hmm."

He slowly scanned them. "Mostly disciples and servants."

That eased his concerns somewhat and he continued listening.

The conversations revealed that the courtyard belonged to a High Elder named Xuan Xuan, who was part of the Beast Taming Division. The elder himself was currently away on sect business, leaving his residence under the care of servants and disciples.

Lin Mu waited until the surroundings were clear before quietly slipping away. Three hours later, he finally arrived near the Core Court’s Records Division. The sight immediately made him understand why Zhenyu’s notes had warned about the place.

The Records Division here was enormous. It almost looked like a city enclosed within another city, with countless buildings connected by bridges, courtyards and corridors. Powerful formations covered practically every surface.

Lin Mu examined them from a distance. "This would take days."

Even with his current understanding of formations and spatial Dao, unraveling all the defensive layers would take far too much time. There was also no guarantee that doing so would remain undetected.

Thankfully, Zhenyu had left another route and Lin Mu followed the old directions. But a short while later he stopped and his expression turned blank.

"Wait." He checked the location again, then he looked around.

His expression slowly became one of disbelief. "Dammit, Junior Elder, why didn’t you mention it was in the Women’s Baths?"