Lin Mu prepared as much as he could and was ready to face whatever that was behind the two doors of the Royal court.
"Let's enter…" Lin Mu said as he placed his hand on the doors and pushed with full force.
~BANG~
The doors of the royal court opened with a bang and slammed on the sides of the walls before being pulled off their hinges due to the force applied. The place where Lin Mu had pushed was directly broken and splinters flew across from it.
Finally, the inside of the hall could be seen and Lin Mu's eyes darted around and so did his spirit sense, grasping everything all at once.
But the very next moment, he was stunned.
"Huh? What's happening here?" Lin Mu said in a strange tone.
The entire momentum that he had built until now had been doused in less than a second. This was because of what was happening in front of him.
"Lin Mu? Why did you break the doors?!" The voice of Jing Luo could be heard. "I just finished with the restrictive formations yesterday, now the spirit Qi will start leaking out again."
"Spirit Qi leaking? Restrictive formation?" Lin Mu repeated and did a double-take.
In front of him, several people seemed to be sitting around a long table that was 'U' shaped. In the center of it, a large and long grill seemed to have been set up and several pieces of meat were currently being cooked on it.
On both sides of the table, people familiar to Lin Mu were sitting. On the right sat King Hong's uncle adviser Liu and Jing Luo, along with the ministers of trade, commerce and labor. On the left sat the two disciples Hua San and Hua Wu, along with the minister of war and minister of agriculture.
Then at the very helm of the table, sat none other than King Hong. He himself seemed to be in a rather strange state, and it looked like he was covered in a fiery cloak from head to the toe.
The cloak was immaterial and seemed to be flickering. One of his hands was extended towards the grill and flames seemed to be coming out of them.
"T-they… they're having a barbecue party without us!" Little Shrubby said.
Of course, this was only heard by Lin Mu, while to the others it sounded like a low growl instead.
Lin Mu and Little Shrubby weren't the only ones shocked here either. Everyone else in the room was the same. Jing Luo who had shouted initially was also a bit taken aback at seeing Lin Mu and little Shrubby.
Lin Mu seemed to be battle ready and had a sharp gaze while the spirit weapons floated behind him, ready to attack. His aura was also turbulent and was exerting a silent pressure in the area.
But the thing that shocked him the most was the fact that he could not sense Lin Mu's cultivation base anymore. The spirit Qi fluctuations coming from his body were far too suppressed for him to feel anything accurately.
Though when he looked at Little Shrubby, he could tell that the beast had a breakthrough and was almost at the peak of the Adult Stage of the Nascent Soul realm!
The changes in Lin Mu and Little Shrubby were far too surprising for him, so it could be understood just how shocked the others were. Unlike Jing Luo, Adviser Liu and King Hong, the others in the room weren't all Nascent soul realm cultivators, thus the pressure exerting from Lin Mu was like a bounder kept on their heads.
They had to hold on to the large table and exert some power on their legs in order to keep on sitting. If they didn't do that, they feared that they may end up bashing their heads into the table or the ground itself.
"What exactly is going on here?" Lin Mu asked.
He was ready for a lot of things, but a party like this was completely out of his expectations. It also seemed to be a bit unusual since they were in a very sensitive time, with the supreme elder of the Noon Grass sect being close to death and the situation with Gu Yao.
~Sigh~
Jing Luo sighed to himself and knew that this was going to be a long explanation.
"Come sit, I'll tell you all that happened." Jing Luo said.
"Alright." Lin Mu replied and reeled in his aura along with the weapons, which were sent back into the ring with a wave.
Lin Mu took a seat at the table and Jing Luo started to explain all that had happened in the past three months.
After Lin Mu was gone, Jing Luo spent the time in setting up the detection formations around the kingdom. During this, he was also learning the new knowledge that Lin Mu had passed on to him.
It gave him a few epiphanies and he was able to increase his pace of work. The work that was going to take him nearly three months was finished in less than a month that way.
And just as he had finished his work, he was called by Adviser Liu urgently to the capital. It was due to none other than King Hong who seemed to be undergoing an uncontrollable process.
All the fire attribute spirit Qi in the area around the city seemed to be getting at attracted towards him as if he was a magnet for it. This led to several scares in the city, with the commoners thinking some great power had attacked them.
It took several excuses to assuage their fears and assure them that everything was fine.
Jing Luo was called for this very thing. They needed to restrain the fire attribute spirit from causing the chaos. Jing Luo set all the new formations and formation array that Lin Mu saw on his way here up and they were all for safety.
"Now I understand…" Lin Mu said after having heard everything.
But then his brows furrowed, "but why are you having a barbecue here?"