Chen Mu looked sternly at the five little paper men.

"Is that thing harmful?"

The five little paper men shook their heads in unison.

"Will it appear again?"

The little paper men continued shaking their heads.

"Can you do anything other than shaking your heads?!"

The little paper men were still shaking their heads.

Damn!

I was really confused by that thing just now.

The Five Ghosts Paper Men were at most slightly spiritual, like bewildered children, and essentially impossible to communicate with.

Chen Mu looked at his still cold right hand.

"What exactly was that thing?"

"Was it one or a group?"

"Did it cause the Yellow Bud Rice to wither?"

During his year on Jilong Mountain, he had never seen such long snake-like white smoke with a human face before. Now, with the mountain infected with decay disease, that thing had appeared just in time. This inevitably made Chen Mu wonder whether there was any connection between the two.

And the way that thing disappeared was too strange.

It was not invisibility, nor a rapid flight away, but a disappearance into thin air.

"Some kind of spatial escape technique? Breaking through boundaries with teleportation?"

"What if it suddenly appeared behind me and bit my head..."

Chen Mu felt uneasy.

He tossed and turned in bed all night, afraid the thing would suddenly show up.

Not until the sun rose and the thin mist over the mountains steamed up, and there were signs of life below the mountain, did he breathe a sigh of relief and slowly calm down.

...

Around noon, Song Wujie and Mo Wuzhou returned to the Spiritual Field of Sunrise Mountain.

Chen Mu stood on the second floor, watching from a distance as the two tried various methods of testing but still found nothing.

"Should I tell Mo Wuzhou?"

"If I can get Song Wujie to act, he might be able to capture that monster and rid us of the trouble for good."

"Hmm, let’s investigate first."

After breakfast, Chen Mu hurried off to the Scripture Transmission Institute and stayed there the whole day.

He searched for information on Exotic Beasts and Monsters, sought advice from a Scripture Doctorate, but all to no avail.

There was no record in the books, and the Scripture Doctorate didn’t know.

"The likelihood that that thing is causing the decay disease is growing higher and higher."

"Great news, indeed!"

"Song Wujie is here for the decay disease, and once he learns of the existence of the white smoke creature, he will definitely take action to investigate."

...

In the evening, Chen Mu sat in front of the door porch.

Gazing at the fiery red sunset in the sky, his mind was filled with the image of the white smoke with a human face from last night.

"How did the Five Ghosts Paper Men catch it?"

"Was it because of the Yama Emperor’s Command?"

He tried to activate the Yanmo Command, and an invisible fluctuation immediately surrounded him.

He carefully remained alert to his surroundings, but after a while, no odd occurrences took place.

Chen Mu couldn’t help but look at the little paper man beside him, "Why don’t you try to catch another one of those white smoke with a human face from last night?"

Upon hearing this, the Five Ghosts Paper Men immediately stood at attention mid-air, then slowly began to sway as Chen Mu looked on eagerly. Then, as they continued to sway, they began to dance joyously, as if they were performing a ritualistic dance.

Chen Mu’s face instantly darkened.

...

For several days in a row.

Whether it was the Vermilion Feather Sword patrolling the mountain, or the Truthful Listening Technique probing in all directions, nothing was discovered.

The Five Ghosts Paper Men flew back and forth every day, never finding that strange white smoke creature again.

Yet, the Yellow Bud Rice continued to wither, and the disciples of Jilong Mountain grew increasingly anxious.

"Have you found the cause yet?"

When Mo Wuzhou, who hadn’t shown up for a month, visited again with Yuanbao, Chen Mu immediately couldn’t wait to inquire.

Mo Wuzhou shook his head helplessly.

"Sect Master Song suspects it’s some kind of Exotic Beast or insect. But after several searches, they found many pests that could harm Spirit Rice and Spiritual Medicine, none of which are the source of the decay disease."

Chen Mu’s eyes immediately narrowed, "You didn’t find any particularly strange creatures?"

Mo Wuzhou still shook his head.

"Jilong Mountain was once the heart of the Upper Court, and it has been surveyed countless times over the past few hundred years."

"Some small insects might succeed in hiding because they are overlooked."

"Bizarre creatures? Impossible."

Chen Mu immediately furrowed his brow.

He really hadn’t found anything.

"Is it possible that some exotic beasts are so rare and hide in such a secret way that they haven’t been discovered?" he hinted subtly.

"How could there be any that escaped notice when Master Song is an expert in the manipulation of exotic creatures," Mo Wuzhou dismissed with a wave of his hand.

"What if it can escape into the void to hide?"

"Impossible," Mo Wuzhou laughed. "The escape skill of slipping into the void is not so easy to execute, even our Sect Master can’t do it."

Chen Mu glanced at the other person. "You can’t perform Escaping Earth, but Yuanbao can."

"How can Escaping Earth be compared to teleportation between two realms? Hmm... Have you discovered something?"

As he spoke, Mo Wuzhou suddenly caught on.

"You’ve definitely discovered something!"

Chen Mu pulled up a corner of his mouth, his eyes narrowing to slits. "I haven’t discovered anything."

"I just think that the world is vast, and there are countless exotic beasts and monsters; it’s possible that some creature has special abilities that allow it to evade your searches."

"Zhongshan Path hasn’t found the cause of the withering disease, which suggests that its origin might be very rare."

"So..." Chen Mu said with a beaming smile, shrugging his shoulders.

"I’m going to find Master Song!" After gulping down two pieces of roast meat, Mo Wuzhou immediately summoned his Escape Light and shot towards the back mountain.

...

Perhaps Chen Mu’s hints had played a role.

The next day, numerous unfamiliar faces arrived at Jilong Mountain, and then they started setting up Forbidden Laws all over the mountains.

Chen Mu observed for a long time, only to know that it was some sort of binding Forbidden Law, similar to the Isolation Barrier Technique that Sun Wujiu had set up previously. He couldn’t understand the specifics.

This went on for many days.

He paid attention to the goings-on of Jilong Mountain every day and also continuously attempted to explore, but unfortunately, he never encountered that kind of white smoke again.

Instead, with the continuous patrolling of the mountain with his Flying Sword, he gained a large amount of Mechanical Technique experience.

That night.

In front of the window on the second floor.

Chen Mu lay in a rocking chair, the grey wall materializing before his eyes. He looked down, focusing on one particular section.

Find more to read at

Mechanical Technique: 35/10000/Fifth Rank;

With a thought, the palm-length Vermilion Feather Sword started flashing around him, leaving streaks of red lines in mid-air.

"The speed is clearly three parts faster."

"And the Mechanical Technique has gained eight more Talisman Spirit Seeds."

Chen Mu inspected the Jade Seed with glee.

Within the dark green mist, eight white translucent threads actively wriggled inside the black stone-shaped Talisman.

"That means I can control nine Magic Swords at once!"

"One Vermilion Feather Sword is already sharp enough; if nine swords were to strike together..."

He couldn’t help but get excited at the thought.

"Right, the Mechanical Technique is a Secret Technique for controlling puppet weapons, aiming for the strategy of overwhelming numbers."

"It makes sense that it would split into multiple Talisman Spirit Seeds after advancing."

"Now it’s only at the Fifth Rank, but if I push it to the limit... haha!"

As he fantasized about the scene of a sky filled with Flying Swords at his command.

A thunderous roar suddenly exploded.

Chen Mu’s face changed, and the Vermilion Feather Sword shot up into the sky with a swish.

The pitch-black back mountain came into view.

Under the stars and moonlight, a vast expanse of pale and strange fog shrouded Jilong Mountain.

Accompanied by a succession of explosions, red lights flashed within the white smoke.

The next moment, an unseen force rose from all directions, locking down the area surrounding Jilong Mountain firmly.

"A Forbidden Law that traps the void?"

"Song Wujie has really caught it!" Chen Mu rejoiced.

Many people heard the commotion and leaped out of their rooms, rushing to the mountaintop to watch.

Chen Mu also sprang up from the second floor and then... he zipped into the ground and disappeared without a trace.

Having both the Truthful Listening Technique and the Mechanical Technique, he could watch from a distance, with no intention of joining the crowd on the mountaintop.

That fog looked very strange; what if he got affected by it?

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