Chapter 2500 Forced Into Action
Yao Changying remembered the people they had encountered in the bridge plane and the man she had fought.
It was someone familiar to her and she had been defeated by the same man before.
"Mu Lin…" She remembered the man who had foiled her plan in the Tournament of the Four Guardian beasts and forced her to reveal her secrets. "But the one I saw in the Bridge Plane was different… He seems a lot more… Dangerous." She muttered.
"That man also knew about us… He could see both of us." The Withered Spirit Daoist spoke.
"How is that possible? You said that no one in the Rust Sky World would be able to tell that other than the Guardian Beasts." Yao Changying questioned.
"He must have some technique that his beyond the limits of this world… His power was also far greater than should have been possible." The Withered Spirit Daoist spoke, her expression grim.
"Just what power was it? His Qi was… even more terrifying than the Withering Qi." Yao Changying asked still remembering the fear she had felt back then.
It had been completely expected to her as she had not felt such fear after obtaining the Soul Fragments of the Withering Spirit Daoist.
"That power he used… It was a Devil's power." The Withered Spirit Daoist replied. "Devil's power!? He's a Devil Cultivator!?" Yao Changying was shocked.
The last time she had fought Mu Lin, she had not felt even an inkling of this. While his skills had indeed been powerful, she was sure that they were certainly not that of a Devil Cultivator. 'His demeanor was also different even if his appearance was the same… those eyes of his were rather… terrifying.' Yao Changying thought to herself. "How did he manage to change that much?" she wondered.
"Whatever it might be, its clear that he'll be a problem for us." The Withered Spirit Daoist replied. "Whatever it might we cannot afford to hold back anymore." She said in a serious tone.
"So we begin the next phase right away?" Yao Changying said in a low voice.
"Do it… Now that one of the Soul Fragments have been destroyed we absolutely cannot waste anymore time. We have to get the remaining Soul Fragments we have to complete me!" The Withered Spirit Daoist urged.
Hearing that, Yao Changying could only nod and take out a communication Jade Slip to contact her people.
Lin Mu and his companion had no idea that their actions had sped up the course of action.
They were on their way back to the Dao Wind Empire, while Lin Mu continued to recover his immortal Qi. Time went by in a blur and soon they were landing in the Capital City.
Once there they quickly disembarked and a meeting was held with the Emperor and the other companions of Lin Mu.
The explained all that they had seen and told them what they had learned. Of course, Lin Mu kept the fact that he had consumed the Soul Fragment a secret and they simply told that it had been destroyed, which wasn't exactly a lie anyways.
The information was quite shocking to everyone and the Emperor was highly concerned now that he knew that another Celestial was involved in this. Even if the Withered Spirit Daoist might not be one right now, it didn't mean that she was no less trouble.
"So this Withered Spirit Daoist has been doing this for a long time?" One of the ministers of the imperial court asked.
"Yes, from what we learned this is not her first attempt at this. She's done this several times in the Rust Sky world and had multiple Soul Fragments spread in the world." Lin Mu stated. "How many of them are there?" another Minster asked.
"If we count the one I destroyed, and the one that Yao Changying found off world, there should be can be at least four more. Though I think she has already absorbed at least one or two of them by now." Lin Mu had a hunch that she had a lot more progress. "If we consider her past actions of taking over the Eight Kingdom Alliance as well as the Bridge Plane, it does seem possible that those places had Soul Fragments there." Crown Prince Feng Shun stated.
"Hmm… One off world, one in the Dao Wind Continent, one in the Eight Kingdom Alliance Continent, and one in the Bridge Plane. That leaves two… The Holy Topaz Continent and the Huiqing Continent." Lady Kang guessed after thinking about it. "Your majesty, we need to inform the Huiqing Emperor and the Holy Topaz Emperor right away!" The Minister of War urged.
"Indeed." Emperor Feng agreed and immediately contacted his equals.
Now that they had a good idea of what Yao Changying wanted, they couldn't let her continue to get it. They were lucky that Yao Changying had not found the other Soul Fragments.
Whoever had hid them had done it well, and the same could be said for the Dao Wind Empire. If not for their combined intel they might not have found it at all. And even if they managed to decrypt the clues, actually getting to the hidden shrine would be difficult too and those that reached it might have died to the Withering Energy and the Demon Punishing Spine Lash inside.
They could only hope to obtain the clues to the Soul Fragments on the other two continents first and destroy them before Yao Changying could get her hands on them.
The only problem was that getting to the two continents was not easy with the lack of Teleportation. And even with their fastest ships it would still take months before they would reach there. As such they could only leave it to the two emperors to handle it.
After that was done, they discussed more plans and things that needed to be done as well as the new measures that had to be taken to halt Yao Changying's progress.