Walker Of The Worlds

Chapter 3066: Returning With Prisoners

Ash Crown City soon appeared on the horizon—its towering basalt walls and obsidian towers gleaming under the late afternoon sun. A city built on fire-forged stone, it stood as the westernmost hub of trade before the lands turned wilder and crueler.

Lin Mu led the group directly to the headquarters of the Smoldering Rock Union, one of the dominant merchant factions in the region, known not just for trade, but for their private armies and underground vaults.

The guards recognized him instantly and bowed low. They dared not delay a cultivator whose aura had left deep impressions on their city just weeks prior.

"I require secure storage," Lin Mu said curtly.

The elder steward of the union, a portly man named Tuo Sen with rings on every finger, wrung his hands nervously.

"Y-You mean vault access?" he asked, blinking.

Lin Mu gestured behind him. "For these."

Tuo Sen’s eyes widened as he saw the blood-robed survivors, some barely conscious, others glaring in silent rage. He blanched.

"These are enemies of the sects," Lin Mu continued. "They’re to be imprisoned until the Xian Sword Sect comes to claim them. Under no circumstances are they to be released."

Tuo Sen composed himself quickly, nodding with grave seriousness. "Understood, Honored One. We shall place them in the Embersteel Vaults. Not even a Peak Immortal cultivator could escape those without melting through ten meters of enchanted alloy. And we’ll seal them with our inner-circle formation. They will not leave unless you or the Xian Sword Sect demands it."

Satisfied, Lin Mu gave a slight nod.

As the cultists were dragged away, Lin Mu turned to Daoist Chu, Meng Bai and Elyon. "Time is against us. Let’s move."

By sundown, they had left Ash Crown City behind.

The wind shifted as they traveled west, growing heavier with ash and salt. In the far distance, the horizon darkened—not with clouds, but with the perpetual haze that lingered near the Blackbone Sea.

For Elyon, the weight of the moment finally began to settle in.

They were going to the heart of it all. Not a scattered cult cell, not a rogue faction hidden in the woods—but the den.

The Crooked Abyss.

He glanced at Lin Mu, who walked ahead in silence, the edges of his robe fluttering in the breeze. The man’s presence felt different now—less like a sword drawn in battle, and more like an immovable mountain. His aura was silent, yet vast... encompassing everything they passed.

Elyon shuddered.

He had seen Lin Mu bend space, slice armies with sword light, absorb flames and metal and earth into his body. He had felt the crushing gravity Dao erupt and destroy hundreds in the blink of an eye.

And then, as if that weren’t enough, he had witnessed Lin Mu wield life itself—calling the forest’s love to heal the broken with nothing more than a chant.

Now, he would walk into an abyss that had swallowed ships, swallowed legends, and dare to take back what had been stolen.

The Drowned Crescent Cult would not expect this.

The Ephemera Sect would not see it coming.

But Lin Mu was no longer coming just to disrupt their plans.

He was coming to end them.

The days passed like the winds that whipped through the trees—swift and wild.

Two weeks since they had left Ash Crown City, and the world had grown stranger and more untamed with each league crossed. What should have been a journey of over a month across dense, perilous terrain had been halved thanks to one extraordinary creature: Little Shrubby.

The massive feline mount surged through the Ashen Forest like a living storm, his body rippling with explosive power, paws tearing through roots and soil with each mighty bound.

With his innate control over Fire, Wood, and beastly essence, Little Shrubby could leap miles in minutes, his body wrapped in a blur of verdant vitality and flaming strength. On his back rode Lin Mu, Elyon, Daoist Chu, and Meng Bai.

Each day brought them closer to the Blackbone Sea, and each day was a trial in itself.

They felt the Ashen Forest’s hostility.

Unlike the outer regions, the deeper layers of the Ashen Forest were older, wilder, and vaster than maps could portray.

The sky overhead was often obscured by thick canopies of charred trees and ash-hued leaves, some still smoldering faintly from ancient curses or natural fire qi that leaked from the ground below.

And the beasts?

The beasts were more than feral—they were territorial, intelligent, and overwhelmingly aggressive.

They first encountered the Ash Beak Cranes, monstrous avian immortals with wingspans stretching over twenty meters. Cloaked in soot-colored feathers and with cruelly hooked beaks that shimmered like obsidian, they attacked in coordinated flocks, descending from above with blinding speed.

One had almost caught Daoist Chu off guard, its beak grazing his shoulder with a shriek of rending steel.

"They go for the eyes!" Elyon shouted mid-air, drawing a wave of darkness to ward off a diving crane.

"They crave the flesh," Lin Mu remarked, and with a casual flick of his hand, a wave of gravity flattened a dozen of the birds into the canopy below, snapping trees and sending ash flying like a volcanic plume.

Their bodies were taken. Their feathers—some still sizzling with fire qi—were perfect for artifact refinement, while their beaks were as strong as mid-tier immortal weapons.

Next came the Magma Back Immortal Lizards, a peculiar species that crawled from beneath scorched rocks and shallow lava pools. Their hides were covered in hardened, glowing plates that pulsed with fire qi.

One night, while the group rested near a blackened creek, the ground suddenly split, and half a dozen of the creatures emerged in a ring of molten heat. They hissed in unison, spewing jets of fire toward the encampment.

Little Shrubby snarled and leapt into the fray, a blur of claws and fury. With a swipe of his paw, he launched a half-ton boulder into one of the beasts, cracking its armored spine. Daoist Chu retaliated with sweeping arcs of water-based talisman energy, steam hissing in the humid night air.

As for Lin Mu, he simply stepped forward and let the beasts unleash their fury—then opened his arms.