Chapter 512 - A Diary
Lin Mu flipped open the cover and read the first entry.
'Day 1, third of October.
We have left the sect for the expedition. I managed to get a place in this by giving the excuse of not having done my yearly quota of missions. Usually, they would not give a mission like this to an outer court disciple like me but I was compensating for multiple yearly missions with this single one.
My main aim was to get to the Deep Moon Ravine, which getting to otherwise would have been very difficult. Now with the added protection of my fellow disciples, I would be able to go much further. And… I'll have them act as my shields too.
This is the first time I am going this far from the sect, but I feel only excited. One of the senior disciples that are traveling with me is more experienced and has been to the Deep Moon Ravine before. Under his guidance, we should swiftly reach the location within fifty days.'
Having read the entry Lin Mu was intrigued but could not tell if the person described in thisdiary was Jiao Fang or not. While the entry mentioned the day and month, it did not mention the year, which confused him even more.
'And this 'Day 1' too… why would someone put an entry like this?' Lin Mu wondered.
He felt a bit curious about the location mentioned in the diary, 'the Deep Moon Ravine' and recalled some information about it.
"Hmm… isn't the Deep Moon Ravine one of the many ravines located at the border of the Eastern Ming Dynasty?" Lin Mu recalled.
The Deep Moon Ravine was a relatively dangerous place because of the flying beasts that inhabited it. The area was steep, with a gushing river flowing at the bottom of it. Anyone that missed a step would fall, never to return again.
Still… the beasts that lived there were mostly Qi refining realm beasts that were in the early stages with a few at the late stage. A team of outer court disciples should still be able to handle them as long as nothing went wrong.
Having thought for a bit, Lin Mu flipped the page and read the next entry.
'Day 2, fourth of October.
We have left the territory of the sect and I am still amazed that the sect really is so large. Had it not been for the senior brother taking us through the shortest route, it would have taken us another extra day to cross this.
We continued traveling and encountered a few beasts, most of which we drew away while some that we ended up fighting. The senior brother told us to avoid as much conflict as we could and only act when it was needed.
If we did not, then we would only harm ourselves and waste the time.'
The entry was short and Lin Mu did not get anything substantial from this. He kept on reading and went from page to page. Most of the things were mundane and it was just the daily events that had been describe in this.
Whoever this person in the diary was, he was able to travel for over twenty nine days before he encountered trouble.
'Day 29, eighth of November.
We greatly messed up and now we are quite likely to die. There is a pair of Scale backed Storks following us for the past twenty four hours. These are both at the core condensation stage and we accidentally invited their ire when we ended up destroying a few eggs while fighting other beasts.
We didn't know that beasts like these would build their nest here, and now we can't do much other than to escape.'
Lin Mu knew about these Scale-backed stork. They had long sharp beaks that they would use to pierce their foes, killing them. They liked to eat the intestines of their prey by pecking them out with their long beaks. Overall, they were terrifying for a Qi refining realm cultivator.
Three more entries in the diary were similar, the person and his team kept on getting chase for three days.
'Day 33, eleventh of November.
I can't believe it! Today we were almost killed by those two Scale Backed Storks, but then another cultivator swooped in and killed those beasts in one slash. We thought this was our luck, but then when we saw the man's cultivation base we were shocked.
The man was a Nascent Soul realm cultivator! He did not tell us his name and just said that he was a wandering cultivator. We were grateful that he save us and did not question why he hid his name from us. It was the obvious thing to do for a wandering cultivator, especially when they met a group of sect cultivators.'
Lin Mu furrowed his brows upon reading about this unknown Nascent Soul realm cultivator but did not come to any conclusions and kept reading.
'Day 34, twelfth of November.
The Nascent Soul realm cultivator is still with us at our camp and our senior managed to somehow convince the man to allow us to follow him. The man was also heading to the Deep Moon ravine and this would only make things easier for us.
I can't believe our luck would only improve this day.'
Lin Mu read over a few more entities over which the contents only became more and more interesting.
'Day 40, eighteenth of November.
We were able to cover most of the path rather quickly due to the nascent soul realm cultivator clearing out beasts and dangers. We were now almost at the Deep Moon Ravine and would probably get there tomorrow morning.
The cultivator is also going to depart from us tomorrow and gonna head to his own path. But then at night, I saw him do something strange. He had woken up and walked to the tent of one of my female companions.
I thought that he was heading to 'interact' with her but instead of that he drugged her with some kind of a powder before carrying her out.'