Chapter 3462: Rounding Up The Hidden Assassins

"No one escaped," Lin Mu said. "Not even with talismans."

"That means they are trapped," Cattaleya said. "Good."

"We should act quickly," she added. "There are always more than the ones you see."

Elyon nodded. "The experts are furious. They are already searching city by city, district by district. Anyone suspicious is being dragged out."

Lin Mu turned his gaze toward Meng Bai.

"For now, your safety comes first."

Meng Bai clenched his fists. "Master, I don’t want to be a burden."

Lin Mu placed a hand on his shoulder. "You are not a burden. You are my responsibility."

Then he looked at the others.

"I extracted memories," Lin Mu said. "They had one temporary base on this world. Built only for this mission. Several more bases exist across the Eastern Immortal Court, but the true headquarters is unknown to these lower ranks. The immortals Elyon caught might know more."

Cattaleya’s eyes sharpened. "You want them all."

"Yes," Lin Mu said simply. "Gather every one of them. I will handle this personally."

Elyon smiled thinly. "I was hoping you would say that."

He vanished into the shadows without another word.

Cattaleya stepped beside Meng Bai. Her tone softened, though her eyes still burned.

"I will take you," she said. "You stay with me. Nothing will touch you."

Meng Bai nodded gratefully.

"Xiao Yin, Xiao Yang," Lin Mu said. "Stay with Meng Bai."

"Yes," the twin snakes replied together.

"Shrubby," Lin Mu called.

The small beast instantly grew, his body surging into his massive true form. Flames rippled faintly along his mane as his fury mirrored Lin Mu’s own.

Lin Mu leapt onto his back.

"Find them," Lin Mu said quietly knowing Little Shrubby’s sense of smell will be more than enough.

ROARRRRR~

Shrubby roared, shaking the lake.

WHOOSH

In the next instant, they were gone, tearing through the night sky like a blazing comet.

Far below, hidden among inns, alleyways, and secret chambers, members of the Dead Needle Abyss began to feel something had gone utterly and horribly wrong.

The city was sealed.

Their communication talismans failed.

Their escape routes vanished.

And a pressure unlike any they had known before began to spread.

Some tried to hide, some tried to run and some tried to fight. But all of them felt the same thing... They were no longer hunters... They were prey.

And the one hunting them was not a man.

He was nothing less than a calamity.

.

.

.

By the time the sun had fully risen, the city was quiet again.

Not peaceful, but subdued.

Guards stood on every major street. Formation lights still glimmered faintly in the sky where the Patriarch’s seal remained in place. Cultivators whispered instead of shouting. Even merchants who usually argued loudly over prices spoke in hushed tones.

Everyone knew something terrible had happened in the night.

And everyone knew someone powerful was very, very angry.

Deep beneath the city, in a reinforced underground prison that had not been used in centuries, Lin Mu stood alone.

The air inside was cold and heavy. Thick stone walls were layered with ancient formations meant to suppress cultivation, spirit, body, and even bloodline power. Rows of pillars stood across the vast chamber, and bound to each pillar was a figure.

Some were alive.

Some were already dead.

Nearly ninety of them.

Men, women, old, young. Some looked like ordinary cultivators. Some looked like beggars. Some looked like wandering merchants.

But all of them shared the same hidden scent.

The scent of death.

Little Shrubby stood beside Lin Mu in his smaller form, nose low to the ground, occasionally letting out a low growl. His senses had been the key. Every assassin, every accomplice, every lookout and messenger who carried even a trace of the same poison, the same killing intent, had been dragged here.

Lin Mu’s face was calm... Too calm.

His eyes moved across the rows of prisoners. Some glared at him. Some cried. Some begged. Some trembled so hard their restraints rattled.

Lin Mu did not speak to them.

He raised his hand and activated isolation arrays layered on top of the prison formations. The Space Trembled slightly before sealing the chamber off from the rest of the world.

No sound would leave. No soul would escape.

Only then did Lin Mu begin to chant.

His voice was no longer gentle. It carried a cold, ancient rhythm.

"Reap the souls of all creations, take their providence as yours, and bring forth Hell upon the Myriad Heavens."

The temperature dropped instantly.

SHUA

Dark, formless energy rose from the ground like mist. Lin Mu’s eyes turned a deep, terrifying violet.

The prisoners screamed.

Some tried to struggle. Some tried to curse him. Some fainted from terror alone.

It did not matter.

One by one, pale phantoms were torn from their bodies. Souls were ripped out like threads pulled from cloth. They twisted and wailed, but the Murdering Heart Sutra did not care for screams.

Over a hundred souls were devoured.

Bodies collapsed, empty.

Some died instantly.

Some were who were not directly affiliated were left alive but broken, their souls partially torn, left only to be questioned later if needed.

Inside Lin Mu’s mind space, Lin Mo stood before a massive swirling field of soul fragments. His expression was darker than usual.

He did not joke.

He did not smirk.

He simply worked.

Memories unfolded like torn pages being forced back into order.

Faces, places, voices, commands, blood, contracts, hidden signals, poison recipes, assassination rituals.

Lin Mu stood motionless in the prison while his mind traveled through hell.

The first memories came from a low ranked member.

A man who had joined the Dead Needle Abyss only three years ago.

He had been a starving cultivator, abandoned by his sect for lacking talent. The Abyss had offered him pills, techniques, money, and revenge.

In exchange, he learned how to poison tea, how to track targets, how to hide killing intent, how to smile while planning murder.

From him, Lin Mu learned that the Dead Needle Abyss was not a single sect or organization.

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