1321 Forced To Become A Criminal

Lin Mu was both confused and intrigued upon hearing Kunzi's words.

"Outlawed in some and legal in others?" Lin Mu asked for clarification.

"Yes. The kingdoms of the Eight Kingdom alliance all have certain cultivation techniques that they have banned within their kingdoms. There are several reasons for it. But on the surface, they say that they have banned techniques that had been used by great criminals in the past.

But in reality, most of the techniques they outlaw are those that are counters against their royal cultivation techniques. Which is why there are different banned techniques in different kingdoms." Kunzi gave a quick explanation.

Just from hearing this, Lin Mu quickly deciphered the ploy of the kingdoms.

While it seemed like outlawing a technique that went against their own was fine, it had greater implications. After all, if they were so worried they could very well modify their own techniques to have a counter to that.

'No… they probably have that already. This seems to be a much wider thing…' Lin Mu thought to himself.

"All of it is just ridiculous. I am from the Ridge Valley kingdom, and the technique I use is perfectly legal there. But then I was forced by some local officials to leave the kingdom and went to the Lush Stream kingdom which is located just next to it.

I never knew the technique was illegal there and was then caught." Immortal Taegu spoke up seeing that Lin Mu didn't seem to be unreasonable.

"Oh?" Lin Mu raised a brow, smelling the foul play at work.

"Tell me, were you always a bandit?" Lin Mu questioned.

"Of course not! I was born a peasant and joined a shop as an assistant. I stayed as one for fifty years before I joined under a traveling merchant as an apprentice. After learning from him for about two hundred years, I established my own caravan and became a proper merchant." Taegu spoke, pride clearly visible in his voice.

Lin Mu could tell that the man was filled with honor when he spoke about his past.

"Then what made you resort to banditry?" Lin Mu questioned.

Taegu's expression darkened at this point, and a hint of frustration also appeared on it.

"After establishing my own merchant caravan, it grew well in just a hundred years. But I also invited the ire of several merchants and businessmen with that." Taegu took a deep breath and sighed.

Lin Mu could understand this as conflicts in business were rather common. Merchants would often resort to underhanded means when things weren't according to their liking. Of course, this was only limited to those that had the capability to do that.

"My rivals bribed several city officials and implicated my caravan in transporting adulterated goods. All of it was false!" Taegu almost shouted.

"I had to pay a great fine, but they weren't satisfied with that. Eventually, I realized, that if I continued to do business there I would be taking great loss. A few of the city officials though advised me to take my business to the Lush Stream kingdom.

I thought they were really advising me, but it was in fact a trick. My caravan was raided on the border and all that I had was taken from me. The officials said it was the work of bandits, but I knew it wasn't so.

Having realized that living an honest life was simply not enough and even if I did my best I would be pushed around, I decided to use force. I cultivated as much as I could and grew stronger.

Then I raided the very same merchants who had once forced me to leave!" Taegu explained, his eyes red at this point.

~Sigh~

Kunzi too sighed upon hearing this, finding it to be a rather common story.

"But that isn't the end is it?" Lin Mu asked.

"No… it seemed like the city officials knew about my cultivation technique. They also knew that it was a banned technique in the Lush Stream kingdom and told me to go there, hoping that I would be naturally arrested by them.

But that didn't happen for a long time since I simply stayed in seclusion to get stronger. It wasn't until I started raiding the merchant caravans did they identify me again and sent out arrest warrants.

Then when I finally broke through to the immortal realm, they managed to catch me." Immortal Taegu replied in a tired tone.

"I see…" Lin Mu understood all of it to be nothing but corruption and greed.

It was nothing special and could even be said to be common. And Taegu was a victim of it while also a perpetrator of revenge.

Kunzi looked at Lin Mu and had a look of hesitation on his face. But after a minute, he made up his mind to speak.

"Senior Lin Mu, why don't we take him with us as well? I'm sure he will be of some help. At the very least having an Immortal will give an extra safety factor to the tribe." Kunzi suggested.

"Take me? Where?" Immortal Taegu was confused by their words.

But he didn't receive his answer right away as Lin Mu was still considering it. After five minutes, Lin Mu reckoned there wasn't much of a problem.

"Alright, you can get him up to speed and explain everything to him. Only if he is willing to give his all will we take him." Lin Mu stated before taking his leave.

But just as he was about to reach the exit he stopped and spoke, "oh and you may as well interrogate the rest of the convicts. Pick out those that have some use and are also relatively 'innocent'."

"We'll do that." Kunzi agreed.

Lin Mu and Kunzi both knew that the Haima Tribe would need help from the humans when they were outside the Land of Exile. This was so that they could be resettled properly as well as acclimatized to the society outside.

The humans would also be able to trade on their behalf for the start.