Lin Mu blinked a few times and appeared on the roof of a luxurious house that was on the side of the lake. Right across the house was the stronghold of the Tri cauldron peony sect. 

It was a six layered courtyard and was one of the biggest properties in this district. It was also attached to the lake and was nearly the size of the lord, Wu Hei's Mansion. Lin Mu looked at the insides of the courtyard and couldn't see anyone there.

"It's a type of illusory formation array, it shows the contents of the location it's placed on but hides the people living in it," Xukong informed Lin Mu.

This was a lower version of the formation array that Lin Mu had set up in his house and was much more affordable. It couldn't be forgotten that the only reason Lin Mu had been able to set one up was because Jing Wei had given him pre-made materials.

Lin Mu didn't know that even the top sects would not be able to set up an illusory formation array of the level that Xukong had set up. Perhaps they would, but they would have no knowledge of how to do it, anyway. This was also why Lin Mu was so trusting of the formation to protect his house.

Lin Mu had no thoughts of breaking this formation array as the courtyard was relatively open. He could just enter using his skills. He first chose a relatively hidden area that was least likely to have people. And even if there were people there, Lin Mu would be able to take care of them quickly.

The area he chose to enter was none other than the small space behind the latrines of the servant quarters. Lin Mu's spirit sense wasn't able to pierce the additional barriers that had been set up in the courtyard, thus he had decided to measure the distance directly with his eyes. 

Since it was an open area, it shouldn't be much of a problem to him even if he used the fourth Skill 'Fade'. With the path in his mind set, Lin Mu jumped down from the roof of the house and Faded away from the world. He appeared in the parallel void and saw the grey environment.

It was the same as before, completely empty and plain. He started to walk forward with measured steps.

Ten steps…

Sixteen steps…

Thirty steps…

Fifty eight steps…

Hundred and twenty one steps…

Finally, Lin Mu had reached the area that he had chose… or at least he hoped he was.

He deactivated Fade and appeared in the real world. Lin Mu's Sprint sense instantly split into multiple tendrils, scanning three hundred and sixty degrees around him. 

"Who…" A faint sound was heard behind Lin Mu as his eyes went wide.

A servant had been standing in the place that Lin Mu had just appeared and had spotted him.

"Dammit!" Lin Mu cursed under his breath.

In the next moment, he used blink and appeared right in front of the servant with his hand gripping the servant's neck. Then Lin Mu did something he had never done before, he forcibly put the servant into the ring. He was able to feel the resistance in doing so and even felt a greater consumption of spirit qi.

In fact, it had taken about ten drops of liquid spirit qi, which was the highest consumption that he had ever seen.

After doing the act, Lin Mu was shocked.

"Why did it take so much?" Lin Mu questioned in his mind.

"The servant had cultivation. Of course, it would cost a lot more. The beasts that you had killed before did not have as strong of a cultivation or they were unconscious or incapacitated, neither did they have a stronger will to resist the spatial displacement. 

Even what you did right now was pushing it, if the servant was not at the early stage of the qi refining realm, perhaps you would have not been able to put him in the ring at all. You will most likely fail if you try to put cultivators with stronger cultivation, at least as long as they are fully conscious." Xukong explained.

Lin Mu had heard of the theory behind the storing of things in a spatial treasure before from Senior Xukong, but the mysterious ring was a special exception to it. They still did not know all of its peculiarities and were figuring them out.

Lin Mu had known that putting live creatures in any spatial treasure was impossible as they were incompatible. Only the special treasures that could store beasts were capable of that, or higher spatial tools like the Myriad armament canopy abode.

Still, now Lin Mu knew the risk behind using the ring to put cultivators inside it. Lin Mu did not want to keep the servant in there for too long as the man would die from suffocation. 

"Seems like you the servant will not be of much concern now." Xukong suddenly spoke.

"Huh? Why?" Lin Mu asked feeling concerned.

"Take a look yourself," Xukong replied.

Lin Mu looked inside the ring and saw the condition of the servant. His skin was torn in multiple places and some of his bones had been sliced clean. Blood was freely spilling out of his body.

"What the…! How?" Lin Mu exclaimed in his mind.

"The man was ripped due to the spatial displacement because he tried to resist. Seems like even using extra spirit qi was not enough to save him." Xukong explained.

Seeing that he had most likely killed an innocent man, Lin Mu was a bit lost.

"Do not think of it much. There will be far too many innocents that will inevitably get involved in the matters of the cultivators and die. Such is the way of the Jianghu and the karma shall be sowed. You will understand it in the future do not take it to your heart." Xukong consoled.

Lin Mu closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath to calm his mind. He did not take the assistance of the calming heart sutra but rather did it on his own. He knew he had to come to terms with it on his own and that's what he did.

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