Chapter 3875: Looking For Vaults

For nearly an hour Lin Mu wandered throughout the Wild Peak.

He inspected caves, he examined unusual rock formations, he looked behind waterfalls and he even climbed onto several enormous boulders because one disciple jokingly claimed the vault might be hidden underneath them.

Eventually Lin Mu admitted to himself that blindly searching would accomplish very little. ’Time to narrow things down.’

He casually wandered into a quiet part of the forest before ensuring nobody was watching. Then Lin Mu activated Spatial Perception as the world transformed.

The trees became translucent outlines while the mountain itself appeared as an enormous structure woven together by countless strands of Spatial Fabric. Lin Mu immediately noticed something else.

Formation arrays... Hundreds of them.

Some protected buildings, others stabilized cliffs, several reinforced important roads and there were even arrays hidden beneath ordinary courtyards. The deeper Lin Mu looked into the mountain, the denser the formations became.

"Found you." Lin Mu murmured.

Several massive arrays existed deep within the mountain. Unlike ordinary protective formations, these remained almost entirely concealed. Only their interaction with the surrounding Spatial Fabric exposed their existence.

Lin Mu carefully studied them.

There were multiple entrances leading toward the deeper sections. Most eventually converged toward several enormous chambers hidden within the mountain itself.

’Those should be the vaults.’ Lin Mu memorized one of the routes before deactivating Spatial Perception.

Now he merely had to locate the entrance physically. But that turned out to be far more difficult than expected. The Spatial Fabric showed him the approximate location. It did not reveal how the entrance had been disguised.

Lin Mu wandered around the region for another hour. Several times he arrived at the correct location only to find ordinary rocks. One location contained nothing more than thick bushes while another appeared to be a natural cliff.

Lin Mu patiently searched each area and eventually he arrived before an enormous ancient tree.

The tree stood alone near the edge of a rocky slope. Its trunk was several dozen meters wide while countless branches spread outward like a massive canopy.

Little Bull looked up. "What a big tree."

He circled around it as Lin Mu’s eyes narrowed slightly. ’Interesting.’

The tree and every part of it like its roots, bark, leaves, and branches were all real. Everything genuinely existed. Yet Spatial Perception had shown the entrance somewhere inside this exact location.

Lin Mu examined the tree more carefully, then he noticed it. ’A concealment array.’

It was cleverly integrated into the tree itself. The array subtly distorted perception, making the tree appear larger than it truly was. Its branches seemed denser and its trunk appeared thicker.

The illusion was incredibly natural.

Most cultivators would never question what they were seeing.

Lin Mu almost admired whoever had designed it. ’Simple but effective.

Of course, Little Bull could not simply walk directly toward the hidden entrance. That would immediately appear suspicious. So Lin Mu did what Little Bull would naturally do. He began touching everything.

"This bark feels rough." He patted the trunk, then one exposed root.

After that he walked around to the opposite side.

"Hmm..." He reached toward a low hanging branch.

Nothing happened, but Little Bull climbed onto it anyway. The branch bent beneath his weight as he climbed higher. One branch after the other, he kept on climbing.

Several times he deliberately chose the wrong direction before climbing back down and trying somewhere else. Eventually he reached one particular branch that looked no different from the others.

But the moment he stepped onto it, the scenery changed, the concealment array shifted and the surrounding illusion quietly faded. Instead of another tree branch, Lin Mu found himself standing before a stone platform built into the mountain.

An enormous stone gate stood only several dozen steps away. Runes covered its surface and ancient arrays surrounded the entrance.

Little Bull blinked. "I found it."

Lin Mu almost laughed, for the disciples had been right. One really could climb a few branches and arrive directly before the vault. Between the platform and the stone gate floated a translucent barrier and countless runes drifted across its surface.

Lin Mu approached carefully.

The barrier blocked his path so Little Bull reached out and touched it. The barrier rippled slightly with his touch.

"It won’t let me through." Lin Mu looked down at the disciple token hanging from his waist.

’Worth trying.’ He removed the token and held it against the barrier.

Lin Mu had no real expectation that this would work. His actual objective lay elsewhere. Once the formation began examining the token, the runes would become active. That brief moment would hopefully allow Lin Mu to study enough of the formation’s internal structure to determine how it functioned.

Perhaps he could eventually reproduce the authentication sequence himself.

The disciple token touched the barrier as the runes brightened and lines of light rapidly spread throughout the formation.

Lin Mu immediately focused and his mind began memorizing every rune. He observed every energy pathway and every change in the array until something unexpected happened... The barrier disappeared.

Little Bull stared blankly. "...It opened?"

Lin Mu remained frozen for several breaths. "It actually opened?"

Xukong sounded equally surprised. "Interesting."

Lin Mu frowned. "Surely they don’t intend for any disciple to enter the vault?"

It made little sense as even a lower ranked treasury should possess strict access control. Little Bull had joined only recently. His credentials should never grant unrestricted access.

Lin Mu considered several possibilities.

Perhaps the formation had malfunctioned. Perhaps it merely allowed disciples into the outer section. Either way, the path had opened.

Little Bull scratched his head. "I guess it wants me to go inside."

Lin Mu smiled internally. If someone questioned him later, Little Bull possessed the simplest explanation imaginable.

He found the door, touched it, and it opened. So naturally, he walked inside. There was no need for complicated lies or elaborate deception. Just the truth was more than enough. And a moment later Lin Mu stepped beyond where the barrier had been.

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