The Ripple mist sect had different barriers for security in different sections of the sect. This was to prevent those who did not have access or were not authorized to enter those areas from proceeding.
Only if one had the right identity token would one be able to enter that area. But there were still some peculiarities to this. There were several areas that were considered to be public and did not need an identity token except for the most basic one to enter.
This would be the token needed for a person to enter the sect's boundaries. Lin Mu did not need this, as the formation pretty much recognized him as part of the natural 'fauna'. As for Jing Luo, he already had a fake identity token that he had made during the time when Lin Mu was absorbing the spirit Qi of the minor plane.
He had made this fake token from the remnants of the cultivators he had found when he originally came to the minor plane. One could see from how Jing Luo had the Wind vortex talismans and the fake identity token, that he was quite prepared.
Another thing about the barriers was that if one was inside it, some of them actually did not need the token to exit it. They only needed the tokens for the entry. The gate of the Sacred grounds was under one such area that only needed the token for the entrance and not exit and as such Lin Mu and Jing Luo were able to leave rather easily.
After exiting this area, they ended up in the public area of the sect, which did not need anything specific, so they were able to travel with ease. Theoretically, they could just travel in the common area of the sect and exit it without actually triggering anything.
But this was not possible, as that would mean they would need to go around a long path and would get seen by a lot of people. Rather than that, it was easier for them to just go straight through the sect.
After reaching one such area, Lin Mu and Jing Luo had to stop.
"Let me take care of this barrier," Jing Luo said before walking up to it and placing his hand on it.
His spirit sense extended into the formation nodes while with his left hand he withdrew a couple of spirit tools that were used with the formations. Jing Luo had a talisman in his left hand and he then slapped it on top of the surface of the barrier.
He then took out a cuboid stone and let it float in front of him.
~humm~
Under the effect of the talisman, the nodes of the formation became revealed to the naked eye and his spirit sense started to make changes to them. After a certain amount of changes were done, Jing Luo used the cuboid stone to tap the node, which would then deactivate it.
He did this five times in five minutes before finally stopping.
~shua~
The barrier in front of them disappeared, and they were able to continue onward. Lin Mu knew about the method that Jing Luo had just used as it was included in the jade slip that he had given him.
Lin Mu had a lot of time to study it all, but was barely half way through it. There was no way he would be able to go through everything in that jade slip as that had taken over fifty years to be made.
Lin Mu would need even more time than that if he wanted to internalize it and fully become proficient in it, it would take him years to do that. Thus Jing Luo, taking care of these formations right now was a better choice and would save them a lot of time.
Haven gone past the barrier, Lin Mu and Jing Luo continued their journey. Thankfully, the Ripple Mist Sect was rather vast and the number of disciples currently around were rather sparse.
Still, Lin Mu knew that some of them had noticed them while traveling and that there was also a chance that their existence had been revealed to the sect by now. Lin Mu had used the severing heart sutra on all of the elders and the disciples at the gate of the sacred ground and had put them in a daze.
At his current level, Lin Mu knew that all cultivators up to the core condensation realm should be dazed for at least ten minutes if no one woke them up and as for the Nascent Soul realm cultivators he didn't really have a proper idea. When he had used the severing heart sutra of Jing Luo, it had only worked for a mere second before he had managed to snap out of it.
But considering that Lin Mu was at the Adolescence Stage of the Nascent Soul realm, and that the elders at the gate were only at the Infant Soul stage, Lin Mu reckoned that they would be dazed for at least five minutes and perhaps even more.
'The best would be if they stay like that for as long as possible… at least until we are half way through the sect.' Lin Mu thought.
"Who's that? Did our sect have a guest?" Some of the disciples in the distance spoke.
Lin Mu could hear them clearly at this distance and just ignored them, not even looking at them. His spirit sense was spread around in a circle and was observing everything just in case.
And since they were just passing without doing much, the disciples did not think that they were intruders, either. But when they came across another barrier and had to stop there, the disciples nearby saw it.
Jing Luo and Lin Mu looked at each other and then at the disciples, the same idea appearing in their minds. But just when they were about to act, one of the disciples approached them on his own.