Lin Mu walked out of the manor and saw a carriage waiting for him.
"Lord Mu Lin, please," The carriage driver opened the door.
"Well, I guess I can think on the way back…" Lin Mu muttered to himself before climbing into the carriage.
~Haa~
Lin Mu let out a relaxed moan as he lounged on the comfy seat. He couldn't help but think of everything that had happened in the past year. He who was once a poor orphan was now having the Aristocrats interacting with him, that too with respect.
Lin Mu couldn't help but feel a strange sense of pride in himself, but at the same time, it felt wrong to himself. It was as if he thought he was unworthy of it.
Was it really him that accomplished all this or was it just luck?
Lin Mu asked himself this question. But no matter how much he pondered on it, no conclusion could be reached.
"Careful there!" Xukong suddenly spoke.
Lin Mu broke out of his stupor upon hearing Senior Xukong's voice.
"You said something senior?" Lin Mu asked.
"You are having a bad train of thought. Know this that self-doubt can be your biggest enemy if not controlled well. And by an enemy I mean one literally, if you let it grow for long, it will turn into a heart demon." Xukong warned.
Lin Mu's eyes went wide as he realized the seriousness of Senior's words. "I understand senior."
"But wait, why was I thinking of this? Oh yes, the thing that happened at the manor…" Lin Mu muttered.
"That Lin Mu, was you touching upon the edge of sword intent." Xukong said.
Xukong did not know what Lin Mu had actually seen. He had not seen the ocean of thoughts that had become demons, and neither had he seen the desire that Lin Mu had slain. This was not present in his thoughts either, thus Xukong could not read them.
But Xukong could still tell that Lin Mu had touched upon the realm of Sword intent.
"I did feel different when I held the short sword… it's as if there is a connection but not the same one that I had before. It's as if the sword was becoming part of me…" Lin Mu said, trying to recall.
"That's correct, you'll eventually get there and grasp the sword intent. The gate is already open, all you need to do is cross it." Xukong reapplied.
Lin Mu nodded his head in acknowledgment.
An idea then appeared in his mind and he took out the Refined bloodline crystal. He scanned it with his spirit sense and found it to be a bit easier for him this time. While it was still extremely dense and hard to penetrate, Lin Mu figured out that by condensing all of his spirit sense into a fine needle could see penetrate it a bit.
Lin Mu then observed some fine connections that existed in the structure of the crystal. These were invisible to the naked eye but were still present there. He could sense the energy within the Crystal concentrating around the joints.
He could sense that the energy flowed and circulated inside the bloodline crystal, creating an equilibrium. These joints seemed to be what were keeping the energy contained. He remembered when he first observed the core of the Trunk face cow, the joints did not exist and the energy within the core was just integrated into the structure.
Lin Mu recalled the ink paintings that he had seen in the manor and compared them with the formations that he had used to refine the bloodline crystal. He sensed that there was some kind of a link between them, but it was still a bit beyond his level.
While he had learned a bit about formations from senior Xukong, it was only at a basic level. He still didn't know the higher nuances of it and was still trying to understand them on his own.
Just like this, while pondering on the matter, he reached the courtyard.
"We're here Lord Mu Lin," The carriage driver spoke.
Lin Mu put the bloodline crystal away and left the carriage. A few minutes later, Lin Mu had changed out of the gaudy aristocrat clothes and was now sitting on the bed cross legged. He needed to recover the spirit qi that he had used up today.
Lin Mu spent the night cultivating and did not feel like sleeping. The next morning he was interrupted by the servant calling for him.
"Lord Lin Mu, a letter had come for you," The servant said.
Lin Mu took the letter from him and saw that it was from Wu Hei.
"Looks like he was fast…" Lin Mu muttered after reading the letter.
"He figured out a way to get rid of the guards?" Xukong questioned.
"Even better… we would be going in through the front door openly. The aristocrats and sect officials that would be coming today are going to go to the temple. Wu Hei was able to get me a place in the entourage as well." Lin Mu said feeling happy.
Lin Mu was honestly a bit tired with all the sneaking around he had to do. It was stressful on his mind too and being alert all the time took a toll on him. This method would be much more easy for him and he wouldn't have to be on his toes all the time.
"So when do we leave?" Xukong questioned.
"Right away, actually," Lin Mu said as he changed into something more presentable.
While these were no aristocrat's clothes, they were still of a good quality and he didn't think the people would mind it with his identity as a cultivator.
He swiftly left the courtyard and headed towards the Ancestral temple, reaching there in fifteen minutes. The streets were populated with a lot of carriages, which meant that the people had started coming for the wedding.
This made him slow down as he would have bumped into a lot of people otherwise.
At the ancestral temple, he could see around twenty carriages parked and a group of people standing near the entrance.
"Let's see what the truth is…"