1486 Information Leak

'I'll be able to practice more with Senior Xukong now.' Lin Mu thought after getting the materials.

The reason why he was even consuming formation materials was because Xukong was teaching him. Lin Mu got to learn a variety of formations, which needed different materials that ranged from beast blood, plant sap, extracts of herbs and a lot more.

These were all consumable and needed to be replenished from time to time.

And since Lin Mu was close to running out, he had reduced the lessons that he was getting from Xukong, focusing on the Diamond Mountain Talismans from there on. But now he could resume the lessons again.

"I guess that'll be a thing for later though. For now, I need to get to Alchemist Ruoxian." Lin Mu said as he looked at the Alchemy Hall in front.

He walked up to a clerk and requested to meet Alchemist Ruoxian.

"Oh wait, are you Daoist Mu Lin?" The clerk recalled something.

"Yes, I am." Lin Mu replied.

"Ah! Alchemist Ruoxian informed us that you might be coming." The clerk replied. "Please come with me, I'll take you to the meeting room." He asked.

"Sure." Lin Mu was quickly brought to the same meeting room as before.

He merely had to wait a couple of minutes before Alchemist Ruoxian had appeared.

'Oh? He doesn't look too good.' Lin Mu found the man's appearance to be a bit pale.

"Daoist Mu Lin, you came at the right time. I was actually gonna call for you." The man replied.

"What happened? Are you okay?" Lin Mu wondered if it had something to do with the situation in the Desolate Blood Battlefield.

~Sigh~

But hearing Lin Mu's words, the alchemist sighed.

"I'd be lying if I said things are okay." Alchemist Ruoxian said in a tired voice. "The situation in the Desolate Blood Battlefield has gotten a lot worse than we expected. It looks like I wasn't the only one with a map to the cache." He revealed.

"What?" Lin Mu said in surprise. "You mean to say someone else got there before us?" he was a bit worried.

"No… but I don't know if I should be thankful about it or not." Alchemist Ruoxian replied, making Lin Mu confused.

"How so? Tell me the whole story." Lin Mu requested.

"So one of the other powers of the Holy Topaz Continent, the Blue Mountain Palace somehow found information in a document about an old set of ruins. At first I didn't really care much, since there were far too many ruins in the Desolate Blood Battlefield.

But it didn't take long for the information from the Blue Mountain Palace spread among others. The Grand Sky Pavilion got alerted too and looked into it themselves, verifying that it really was true.

It was at this point that I also came to know about the details. I checked the location of the said ruins and confirmed that it is the same place as the cache." Alchemist Ruoxian explained in detail.

Hearing this, Lin Mu furrowed his brows. He could already guess a lot of things from this and how troublesome it was going to get.

"Was the document that the Blue Mountain Palace got the same map as yours?" Lin Mu asked first.

"No. But they do seem to be of the same source." Alchemist Ruoxian replied. "Which means that the information I had was limited. There wasn't just a cache of Immortal Essence stones there, but also a ruin which might have been a base of the extinct power." He added.

"So they don't know about the existence of the cache?" Lin Mu said, feeling a bit better.

"Yes! That's the saving grace we have. As long as they haven't reached and explored it, they wouldn't be able to find out about the cache." Alchemist Ruoxian said with slight relief. "But there are bigger issues at hand." He said before taking a breath.

"Since the information from the Blue Mountain Palace was leaked, we will have a lot more competitors now. All of them will vie for the same thing." Alchemist Ruoxian stated.

"And what about the Violet Mystic Life Tree?" Lin Mu asked next.

"That's another thing of concern. Since the Violet Mystic Life Tree has appeared in the location of ruins, many are linking them. Several experts have the option that the tree originated from the ruins and that many more treasure are hidden there." Ruoxian replied.

~Sigh~

"And it gets worse…" Lin Mu let out a long sigh. 'Seems like it is time for the luck to turn on the other side now… I've enjoyed it's good side for some time, but guess its ending now…' he reckoned.

Though Lin Mu quickly shook that thought out of his mind. He had gotten out of a lot worse, and little conflict wasn't going to stop him from getting what he desired. In fact, it only ignited his competitive drive, and he secretly looked forward to what he'll get to see.

"I was in the same condition. But it only became worse for me." Alchemist Ruoxian said after seeing Lin Mu's reaction.

"What happened?" Lin Mu asked.

"Since the information from the Blue mountain Palace was confirmed by the Grand Sky Pavilion and the Violet Mystic Life Tree's location is also there, they have decided to execute a large scale mission.

This mission will be an expedition to the said ruins as well as the Violet Mystic Life Tree and will involve a multitude of experts." Alchemist Ruoxian stated.

Upon hearing this, Lin Mu could understand what was happening. "And in those multitudes of experts, there is also alchemists… with you included?" he guessed.

"Exactly." Alchemist Ruoxian nodded weakly. "I've been preparing in a hurry for that in the past few days. There are a lot of alchemical pills that will be needed, not just by the Grand Sky Pavilion but also me."

"And when does this mission start?" Lin Mu asked.

"Tomorrow." Alchemist Ruoxian said with a wry smile.

"Looks like I picked the right time to come here, then." Lin Mu chuckled.