While some events and meetings were happening in the Wu Lim city, Lin Mu himself was completely oblivious to it. He was peacefully cultivating in his house and was simply following the routine he had formed.
Lin Mu would cultivate during the day, eat the beast meat, assimilate vital energy, cultivate till evening and then sleep. Even in sleep he would train in the Sleepscape increasing his proficiency with the thousand armament blade scripture and would then practice with the nameless technique of the lost immortal.
Just like this, a month swiftly passed by and Lin Mu barely noticed. No one disturbed him during this period and he simply stayed inside the house, not taking even a single step outside the courtyard. The neighborhood people had finally started to notice that he had disappeared for a long time and some tried inquiring.
But all of their attempts were blocked by Hei Ping, who would stand guard near the house every day and would just give the people excuses that Lin Mu had gone out or something else. The people were fine with it for a week before they started to get incredibly suspicious.
The people in Lin Mu's neighborhood had already found out that he had become a cultivator a while ago, as some of them had seen him visiting the town center and interacting with Hei Wan and the other officials. Some people had even seen him display his strength, thus they now had respect for Lin Mu in their minds.
This was also the reason why they thought that Hei Ping was assigned to the house. At first, even Hei Ping had tried to deny the fact that Lin Mu was a cultivator but eventually when Hei Bao and the rest realized that the entire neighborhood knew about it, they decided to reveal it officially and said that Lin Mu now worked for them.
This was done without the knowledge of Lin Mu, but Hei Bao and Hei Wan thought that this would help solve some unnecessary problems that would crop up in the future. The people from the neighborhood that knew Lin Mu since he was a kid felt slightly proud that someone from their neighborhood had become a venerated cultivator.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtAnother thing was that they had already been paranoid because of the disappearances and were relieved that they had stopped. The way that Hei Ping acted by giving excuses was only making them think that perhaps Lin Mu had disappeared as well, and the truth was being hidden from them for some reason.
Even the fear of the guards was not stopping them this time. It was as if the fear of an unknown threat was much greater to them than the threat of opposing authority.
"You can't stop us today, we are going to take a look inside ourselves!" A man spoke.
"People, people, people, trust me, Lin Mu is currently resting in his house and is taking a rest after a tiring task." Hei Ping tried to convince by putting up his hands.
While he himself was also a cultivator, he could not carelessly reveal his identity as that may point to how he reached this level by being a common guard. This was also problematic, as it could lead to his identity as a member of the Hei corps.
Since he could not exert his strength, all he could do was try to speak to the people and hold them back that way.
"No, enough is enough! We have seen Lin Mu grow up since he was a child, we've known him for a long time. He won't mind it if we go meet him." An old woman spoke.
Even more people voiced their opinion and a person eventually managed to get by Hei Ping, who was blocking the people. Seeing that this person was about to knock on the door, Hei Ping became tense. He had known that Lin Mu was in seclusion and also knew how important it was that a cultivator is not disturbed during it.
Even a small mistake could potentially be harmful and result in an injury. Thus he definitely did not want anyone to even attempt to get close to Lin Mu's house, not to mention knock on the door.
"STOP!" Hei Ping shouted.
But the man seemed to have ignored his words as his hand had already extended towards the gate of the courtyard.
But just as his hand was about to touch the gate, it opened by itself. The man froze in place and so did the other people who had been causing ruckus this entire while.
"What?" Spoke a person standing behind the gate in a groggy voice.
"Why is there a commotion so early in the morning?" He continued as he rubbed his eyes.
"Li-Lin Mu… You're alive! You're alive!" The old lady spoke in a surprised tone.
"Alive? Of course, I'm alive, what would happen to me?" Lin Mu spoke as a yawn escaped his mouth.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmHei Ping's eyes went wide as he came forward. He could see Lin Mu's expression and understood that he seemed to have awakened from sleep and was perhaps quite tired. He wondered if he had made a mistake by not using force with these people and whether he would get punished by his captain for this.
He had been ordered to strictly not disturb Lin Mu unless explicitly told to do so, thus he was even more tense.
"Se-Senior Lin Mu… I-I… I tried to stop them, but they just did not want to listen to me. Please forgive me." Hei Ping pleaded.
Lin Mu who was listening to the entire thing was only feeling confused and wondered what was happening.
"Wait, explain from the start, I'm confused." Lin Mu spoke.
"It's like this…" Hei Ping then went on to tell him everything.
How he had been told to not disturb him and not to let others disturb him either. About how Lin Mu was lightly in seclusion and that it would be bad to interrupt him.
Lin Mu listened to everything and let out a breath.
~Sigh~
"These people…"