Chapter 4014: He Has His Tricks

The others reluctantly agreed.

Their anger remained, but their minds had regained some clarity. At this moment, several elders quietly looked toward Lin Mu. There was a strange sense of relief in their eyes. If Junior Elder Zhenyu had not appeared, they might have already done something reckless.

Wild Peak had been boiling for a long time and the disappearance/imprisonment of Little Bull had pushed them toward confrontation. Now they had proof that someone had deliberately manipulated the situation.

Without someone to hold them back, they might have marched directly into the Vault Division. Fortunately, their ancient Junior Elder had returned.

And strangely enough, the man who had been missing for more than one hundred thousand years seemed to possess exactly the kind of authority and experience they needed at this moment.

Lin Mu noticed their expressions and internally, he almost laughed. ’Thankfully they are calming down.’

If they really had stormed into the Vault Division, Lin Mu’s carefully constructed identity would have been forced into a far more difficult situation. His objective was to investigate. He wanted information, and access. But to do that he needed Wild Peak’s trust.

Starting an internal war on his first day would be extremely inconvenient. He stroked his beard and maintained Zhenyu’s solemn expression. Just as the elders were beginning to discuss their next step, a young voice suddenly interrupted the conversation.

"Elder Zhenyu." Everyone turned.

One of the disciples who had accompanied them into the vault was staring at Lin Mu with a strange expression.

The young man hesitated before he finally asked, "How did you access those formations?"

The entire group froze and several elders blinked. For a moment, nobody understood the question. Then they realized what the disciple meant and their expressions changed. They had completely overlooked it.

The hidden formations, concealed pathways, the arrays Zhenyu had dismantled and the strange formations he had activated; nobody had asked how he had managed to access them.

High Elder Palm Saber looked toward Lin Mu and his eyes contained curiosity. Several other elders looked equally interested.

Lin Mu’s heart gave a small jump.

’Good question.’ He had already expected something like this.

Fortunately, he had prepared an answer and he laughed. It was a deep, confident laugh.

"I was there when these arrays were created." The elders stared.

Lin Mu continued stroking his beard.

"I have my own tricks." His answer was incredibly simple.

It should have been suspicious to most people. Instead, it produced exactly the opposite reaction. The disciples looked amazed and the elders exchanged glances.

One High Elder muttered, "Of course."

Another nodded slowly. "That makes sense."

Lin Mu almost had to restrain himself from smiling.

’It does?’ He had expected them to question him more.

Instead, they had already built their own explanation.

One elder spoke with admiration. "Senior Zhenyu was from an ancient generation. These formations were probably constructed during his time."

Another nodded. "Perhaps he participated in their creation."

A third elder looked thoughtful. "That would explain why he could bypass them so easily."

Lin Mu gave a mysterious smile and he decided not to explain further. Sometimes silence was more convincing than words.

"There is far more to the arrays of this sect than most members probably realize." He spoke slowly. "Many of the old formations were created during an era when the sect’s foundations were different. Over time, people forgot. New generations repair things without understanding their original purpose. Eventually, the formations become mysteries even to those who maintain them."

The elders listened carefully.

Lin Mu continued. "There are hidden pathways, auxiliary arrays, emergency formations, and old access routes throughout the sect. Most people today probably know only a fraction of them."

The elders’ eyes widened and High Elder Palm Saber looked genuinely impressed. "So the sect has been sitting on all these hidden arrangements without even realizing their full extent?"

Lin Mu nodded. "That is often how old sects become." His voice carried the tone of someone speaking from experience. "People inherit things. They repair what they understand. They forget what they don’t. After enough generations, nobody remembers why certain things were built."

The elders nodded as every word sounded plausible. And because Lin Mu had been using his genuine understanding of formations to create the illusion of profound familiarity, the explanation felt even more convincing.

Internally, however, Lin Mu was quite pleased. ’That worked better than expected.’

The truth was considerably simpler as the formations he had shown them were largely a performance. Even if the recording itself was genuine, the formations were not. When Lin Mu had been Little Bull, he had secretly recorded Taegong’s actions.

At the time, he had not known exactly how he would use that evidence. He had kept the recording because evidence was valuable. Now, however, he had discovered the perfect opportunity.

As Mengli Zhenyu, the recording had become a powerful piece of evidence that Wild Peak could accept without immediately questioning its source. The formation display had been something else entirely.

Lin Mu had created a series of illusory arrays and used his control over Immortal Qi to make them appear extraordinarily complex. The formations had rotated, then overlapped, to produce different lights.

Then, they appeared to extract information from the surrounding environment. To someone who understood formations deeply, the entire thing would have been laughably simple.

The arrays had essentially done nothing. They had been lights. Very impressive lights of course, but that was all. The elders had assumed the formations were beyond their understanding because they could not determine their function.

In reality, there had been no function to determine.

Lin Mu nearly laughed at the irony. Still, Zhenyu’s memoirs had genuinely contained several methods for gaining access to old formations and restricted areas of the sect. Those techniques had helped him create a believable foundation for his explanation.

His own formation understanding had filled in the gaps. The result was an excuse that sounded far more profound than the truth. And the elders were more than willing to believe it. Hence, their respect toward Zhenyu increased another level.

After all, their ancient Junior Elder had returned from the Mad Demon Depths with strength they could barely comprehend, knowledge of ancient formations, and secrets about the sect that even current elders did not know.