1420 Taking Precautions
The Saintess nodded her head in response.
To her, doing something like this was nothing much and could be considered the same as raising a finger.
‘I need to learn a skill like this that can help me erase traces. The Saintess used the Dao of Air to wipe them out, but it should be possible to do the same with other methods too…’ Lin Mu thought to himself.
He could tell that what the Saintess had done wasn’t exactly a skill but a direct application. She had used the Dao of Air to basically ‘wash’ off all the traces on his body. There were other methods that could have also been used.
But this did seem like the most straightforward method for someone like the Saintess.
‘Hmm… one doesn’t necessarily need to ‘wash’ them off. I can also just lock them in, or let them be removed somehow…’ Lin Mu started to think.
His mind worked quickly, and he soon had a possible solution. The solution came to him easily since he had something that could already be used to accomplish it.
‘I can just use the Spatial Abilities to do the same too. It might even be a lot more effective than using the Dao of Air as I can let the traces disappear in the void perhaps…’ Lin Mu knew of the way, but utilizing it was going to be a bit difficult.
There was no direct ability present with him, and he’ll need to deepen his understanding with space to do it. The Spiral Flake Crystal was going to come in handy soon enough too.
‘Guess I’ll add it to the list of things to do.’ Lin Mu noted in his mind before looking at the Saintess.
“I’ll head to my room now, Saintess.” Lin Mu said calmly.
“Mmhm, feel free.” The Saintess said before disappearing.
Lin Mu could faintly see a ‘curtain’ covering the Saintess.
‘It truly is a way to bend the air and disguise her presence…’ Lin Mu analyzed it as well.
He didn’t do it for long though, as he quickly returned to his room. He activated the isolating arrays of the room, before adding more formations from his own set. He didn’t want to depend on the per-installed ones as he didn’t fully trust their working.
The next thing he did there was to sort through his spoils from the battle. The Saintess’s advice had made him think about the items he had obtained.
‘There is no telling if there is something that can track them hidden within them. I should check them thoroughly…’ Lin Mu thought to himself.
He first took out the immortal tools and checked the runes and formations on them. If there was a tracking method, it was likely to be within them. Lin Mu spent three hours in doing this and thankfully didn’t find anything.
“I should erase the brands on them again just in case.” Lin Mu picked one of the Immortal tools and used his Immortal sense to wipe it.
Usually, the brand of a person would disappear if they died. But there were often times that a remnant of their will could be left behind on their belongings. While this remnant will might not do much, it could still be used to determine the circumstances of a person’s death.
Not to mention, one would be able to tell that this immortal tool belonged to someone else originally.
Lin Mu repeated this process for every Immortal tool and weapon he had obtained. It was relatively fast and Lin Mu was done in less than an hour.
~phew~
“The first part is done… now to the other items.” Lin Mu didn’t forget that there were other things left too.
These were items like some pills, herbs, and miscellaneous things left behind by them.
‘The pills and herbs seem to be fine.’ Lin Mu put them away for now and moved on to the miscellaneous things.
There were things like ornamental pins, a few gemstones, gold and silver coins as well as some writing quills, and brushes.
All these were fine, but Lin Mu sensed something strange with one of the metal tokens. Each of the men had this metal token and from the carving on it, he could tell that it was their identity token for the Saber Battle Union.
“This token is different… there is an additional formation on it… one that is hidden too…” Lin Mu had quite a lot of experience with such masking methods and thus he had found out about it.
His immortal sense pierced through the layers of runes before finally reaching the hidden layer.
~SHUA~
In the next moment, the token glowed, and a few runes flew out of it.
“I see now… this is indeed a tracking formation. But it isn’t meant to track the active position but just to track when someone passes certain checkpoints.” Lin Mu had not seen this kind of tracking formation before, but he had certainly read about it.
They were often used by kingdoms and empires to log the movement of merchants. This kind of formation would mark whenever a merchant passed through certain cities. This would, in turn, help the official to verify the paths of the merchants.
‘Seems like being mercenaries, the Saber Battle Union has added this. But only one person had it on their token… strange.’ Lin Mu checked the spatial storage bracelet in which he had found the token in.
“This belonged to the leader.” Lin Mu quickly recalled. “No wonder he has it,” he understood.
He thought about how to deal with this token and reckoned that the best way was to simply destroy it. It wasn’t exactly an immortal tool that was useful, thus there was no reason in keeping it with him.
~WOONG~
Lin Mu directly used the ring’s power and opened a small spatial crack in front of him. He then threw in the token and quickly closed the spatial crack.
“That should be more than enough.” Lin Mu nodded his head.
With that done, he felt a lot more relieved and decided to enter the Sleepscape.
“Now that I think of it, I haven’t slept like this for over a month now…” Lin Mu muttered before lying down on the bed.
He took out his trusty white bolster and replaced the pillow on the bed. He had become far too used to it and preferred to use it than any random pillow. Even now, he was surprised to see that the bolster was the best one he had seen so far.
This was just a fleeting thought though, and he soon slipped into a slumber.
~rustle~
The sound of leaves could be heard, making Lin Mu open his eyes.
He was now in the Sleepscape.
The sight of the Spirit Apple Tree was calming to Lin Mu and he stood up to touch its trunk.
“You’ve grown once more?” Lin Mu could tell that the tree had grown taller, albeit by just a few inches.
Its branches also seemed to be a bit wider and the number of leaves had increased.
The abundant apples on it also showed that it had been growing well. The difference though, was the fact that there were now a lot more Wood Spirit apples on it than the normal ones.
“It’s a shame that these won’t be of much help to me now…” Lin Mu muttered to himself.
~tremble~
As if responding to his words, the Spirit Apple Tree shook.
~RUSTLE~
The branches suddenly moved and the leaves parted.
~SHUA~
Lin Mu felt a wave of energy coming from the Spirit apple tree and saw changes happening in it.
“Huh? Why are the apples withering?” the spirit apples on the tree had started to shrink.
Once they shrank, they turned into dust and disappeared. This happened with all of the apples, whether they be normal ones or the wood spirit apples.
Lin Mu narrowed his eyes, wondering if there was something wrong with the Spirit apple Tree.
~POP~
But then a minute later, a popping sound was heard. A small bud appeared from a central branch. It was green and tender, with rich vitality exuding from it.
The bud bulged more before a tender twig grew out of it. The twig grew at a rapid pace until it turned into a thirty centimeter long small branch. But this wasn’t the extent of it as Lin Mu then saw a small flower blooming on it.
It was familiar to Lin Mu, and he had seen them many times before.
“No, wait… this energy…” Lin Mu quickly realized that the flower wasn’t exuding spirit Qi now.
~SHUA~
The flower’s petals fell off before a small bulge appeared on it. The bulge grew more and more, before turning into a green apple.
But this apple was different from any spirit apple Lin Mu had seen before.
“Immortal Qi? It transformed?” Lin Mu was surprised.
The apple continued to ripen until it was a mix of green and red.