Most of the assumptions that Senior Xukong had made turned out to be true and Lin Mu was thankful it had not gone beyond what they had expected. If it truly did, then they would have been unable to do anything.
Thankfully now that they knew the situation at hand, they would be able to make a plan that was appropriate for it and it would hopefully work.
"Brother Lin Mu, Gu Yao has also reached the Dao Shell realm himself due to the support from all the resources of the cultivation sects and the blood sacrificial. Did you master tell if this will affect his ability to control others with the human controlling blood curse?" Wu Hei questioned.
"Yes. My master already thought of this and told me that even if Gu Yao reaches the Dao Shell realm, he would be limited in his controlling ability. We can roughly consider that he has about ten Dao Shell realm cultivators under his control for now.
And if he wants to control more, he would need a lot of blood essence to use the Human controlling blood curse to control those that are at the Dao Shell realm. But if he wants to do the same with those at the Dao Treading Realm, he would need to be at the Dao Treading realm as well." Lin Mu answered.
~phew~
"That means the top three sects are safe for now. They each have their respective Dao treading realm cultivators who will prevent them from being controlled." Wu Hei took a breath of relief.
"Indeed. But we can't drop our guard here. There is still the wild card which is the Northern Tribes. What more information do you have on them?" Lin Mu asked.
"Honestly, I don't have much. Even Gu Yao himself does not interact with them as much thus we have no idea of what they're planning. The two times that I did see them speak with Gu Yao, they were merely discussing about more resources and nothing more." Wu Hei replied.
"I see… what about the blood sacrifices? I know you have been trying to divert them." Lin Mu said.
Wu Hei seemed a bit surprised upon hearing this but just attribute it to Lin Mu's skill of hiding and disappearing, whatever it was.
"I have been able to free a few of them by changing the location of deliveries. Though not all of them were able to survive it. But those that did are willing to join our cause as they want to take revenge for their companions as well." Wu Hei stated.
"How exactly are you doing it?" Lin Mu asked.
"Well, I simply make it so that the sacrificial cultivators are delivered to a fake location and taken by someone who is disguised as one of Gu Yao's servants. They then pretend to take them. But this does not always work and the ones delivering discover it.
Me and the others have been able to kill those that find out thankfully, to stop this information from getting out. We were able to hide the fact that there are traitors within the ranks, by telling Gu Yao, the cultivators freed themselves somehow and escaped to that location. We pretend that we reached that place to capture them and that is how we justify the change of delivery location.
So far, the success rate is about thirty percent. A lot of cultivators still end up reaching Gu Yao as I am not the only one handling these deliveries. There are other servants of his that do the same for other regions and they still deliver them. Even I can't do it too often as Gu Yao may end up discovering it." Wu Hei explained.
Lin Mu nodded his head and knew this was the best Wu Hei could do for now. Even with his cultivation base that was at the peak stage of the core condensation realm like him, he still wasn't a match for multiple nascent soul realm cultivators that may attack him if he was found out.
"What about the Hei corps?" Lin Mu asked next.
Wu Hei had a tense expression after listening to the question and gritted his teeth. Lin Mu instantly knew something bad had happened.
"When Gu Yao controlled everyone in the city, there were many Hei corps members amongst them as well. With them being in his control, he was able to find the others who were not there and free. He quickly eliminated them and now barely five percent of all my people are left." Wu Hei said in a sorrowful tone.
Lin Mu felt anger rise within his heart as well, since he had some good relations with some of the people in there too.
"Who are the ones that are still left?" Lin Mu questioned.
~Sigh~
"Right now, there is Hei Wan and a few of the weaker members of the Hei corps left. Hei Wan had secret orders from me to escape with some documents if she felt we were a lost cause. She was to deliver them to the sects and the kingdom.
But back then, I did not know that Gu Yao had the ability to control so many people. That plan failed before it had even started. But still, due to that Hei Wan was not in the northern town at that time and was able to escape the massacre." Wu Hei answered.
~pat~pat~
"Don't worry, we will not let their deaths go in vain. I swear upon my honor that I shall take revenge for all that have been affected by Gu Yao and the Northern Tribes!" Lin Mu said while patting Wu Hei's shoulder.
Wu Hei looked up and thought he was hallucinating. For a moment there he had seen an obscure pattern appearing on Lin Mu's forehead. He couldn't read what the pattern said, but could feel the power exuding from it. There was a strange sense of reassurance in Lin Mu's words that he could not explain.
"And when that time arrives, I'll be with you!" Wu Hei replied.