Chapter 711 - Questioning Fu Delun
King Hong looked at the minister of law in front of him and so did advisor Liu.
Both of them were a bit upset at the time Fu Delun had taken to approach them. Usually, any minister that was within the city would be able to reach them in less than twenty minutes, as for the ones that were in the central district would be able to do the same in less than ten minutes.
As far as King Hong was concerned, Fu Delun was supposed to be in the ministry of Law and thus it should have taken him at most ten minutes, if not even less.
"Was Minister Fu Delun busy? It is uncommon for you to take this long." Adviser Liu took the lead this time.
Lin Mu accusing on their people had already put a bad taste in his mouth and now seeing that very same accused delaying royal summons only made him that much upset. It instead made it seem like it was the King who was actually incompetent and allowed his official to be lacking.
While Lin Mu didn't really think about them like this, to adviser Liu and King Hong, this would be the norm. If one of the court officials acts in a manner that is ill of their position, it reflects the situation of the royalty.
"Ah, indeed adviser Liu. Work has just been more and more hectic these few days. With the autumn festival on our heels and his majesty taking time due to his imminent breakthrough, the work is just even more intense.
I am working to ensure that his majesty is not troubled; not now and not after his successful breakthroughs." Fu Delun skillfully spoke.
He knew he was at fault here. He had not spent years in the royal court for nothing and knew how to read people. That minute change in the tone of the adviser was enough for him to know that the king had asked him here for something important.
'And who are these three? Their cultivation bases... that one is at the... NASCENT SOUL REALM? And the other two... I can't even sense them.' Fu Delun thought to himself.
While he didn't get fully nervous, he still became a bit more cautious. Right now he was in a situation where he didn't know why he was called here and there were even unknown people here.
"I see... I have called you here to meet three very respected cultivators. Meet Disciples Hua San and Hua Wu. Their master is the sect master of the Noon Grass Sect. And finally, we have brother Lin Mu, he is also someone of a standing equal to the previous too." King Hong introduced.
Fu Delun raised his brows upon hearing this as the gears within his brain started to move.
"Ah, did the Noon Grass sect decide to help his majesty?" Minster Fu Delun asked.
"Indeed." King Hong nodded his head.
"Good, good, good." Fu Delun nodded his head. "But what is it that respected seniors need of me?" he asked again.
"I am the one that asked King Hong to call in Minister Fu Delun today. It's just that I had certain questions to ask of you regarding some incidences and policies." Lin Mu replied.
Hearing this, Fu Delun became even more confused.
"Incidences and policies? What does senior need specifically? Did something happen to cause trouble for senior?" Fu Delun asked, thinking that this might be the only reason why he would be summoned.
It was obvious to him that Lin Mu was a strong and influential cultivator. And thus he was offended somehow and ended up contacting King Hong who then ended up summoning him to give the answer.
Fu Delun now started to sweat and wondered what could have been the problem.
"You see... I found minister Fu Delun's previous words to be a bit confusing. A few days earlier I visited the law enforcement department and saw quite a bit of disarray there. Most of the officials there seemed to be inept and the only qualified official, the head of the department, seemed to be handling all of the work.
He not only seemed overworked, but also troubled by the others working in the department.
In addition to this, I also found some past actions of minister Du Delun that interested me; such as the fact that you personally went ahead and arrested a certain group of suspects that go by the name of Hei corps." Lin Mu laid down the facts.
Fu Delun was confused at first but the more he heard, the more he sweated. And when he heard the name of Hei corps, he became alert instead.
"As I said before, work is piling on due to unavoidable circumstances that have led to all of us officials becoming very busy. As for the matter with the Hei corps, it was of utmost importance, after all, it was according to a decree sent by the empire itself." Fu Delun stated as a matter of fact.
"Hmm... is that so... they may I ask adviser Liu what are the policies on keeping official documents related to law enforcement? I mean the specific protocol of storage and records keeping?" Lin Mu questioned.
Adviser Liu was also a bit confused by Lin Mu's question, but answered it nevertheless.
"For any ministries, including the law ministry, all official records are to be stored in their designated records departments." Adviser Liu replied.
"I see. Then what if someone higher in power gives an order to shift certain records to a different location not officially designated?" Lin Mu asked further.
"That will be a gross misuse of power and will be met with swift punishment. Records are only to be withdrawn when needed for official work and the official designation for storage cannot be changed unless the king approves of it." Adviser Liu stated.
"Then I must ask King Hong a question... Did you permit Minister Fu Delun to shift records to the royal repository?" Lin Mu asked.
Chapter 712 - Treasonous Confirmation
Hearing Lin Mu's question, King Hong was confused.
"I haven't had any official actions in the past three months and I have certainly not given any permission to Minster Fu Delun." King Hong stated.
"I see. Then I wonder why Mister Fu Delun ordered some records to be moved to the royal repository?" Lin Mu asked again.
King Hong and adviser Liu narrowed their eyes as they looked at Lin Mu.
"This is absolutely wrong your majesty. I have never done such a thing." Fu Delun lied right away.
Lin Mu could feel the nervousness of the man and the faint tremble of his legs rather easily.
"Oh, is that so minster Fu Delun? Then King Hong should be fine with us checking the royal repository, shouldn't he?" Lin Mu questioned further.
"This..." Fu Delun was now stuck, he didn't know how to proceed.
It was now that he suddenly had an idea.
"You are lying, there are no such records in the royal repository. After all, they have not been accessed since the king began preparing for his breakthrough." Fu Delun stated.
"Like I said, if King Hong or adviser Liu checks it, I believe we will find what are facts and what is fiction." Lin Mu replied calmly.
King Hong deliberated on it a bit and seemed to be hesitating. But then he took a deep breath and looked at his uncle.
"Please go and check the Royal repository adviser Liu." King Hong ordered.
"At once, your majesty." Adviser Liu said.
And just as he said this, it happened.
~BOOM~
Fu Delun threw out an explosive talisman that blasted the flooring and the chairs around, which knocked up a lot of smoke and dust.
"Got you..." Lin Mu said as he disappeared the next instant.
~KACHA~KACHA~KACHA~
"HNGMPGF!!!!" The sounds of multiple things cracking could be heard along with a muffled cry.
"YOUR MAJESTY!" Adviser Liu flew to the protection of King Hong while Hua San and Hua Wu also became alert.
They looked for Lin Mu but found him to be missing.
"What?" Hua San suddenly detected something with his spirit sense hidden behind the smoke.
~WHOOSH~
He waved his hand and executed a technique, blowing away all the smoke. Once the smoke was gone, they could finally see the scene behind it. Lin Mu stood there with his hand extended.
In front of him, Minister Fu Delun was as if frozen, while there were also shattered pieces of objects on the floor. If one looked at it, one would see that they belonged to a communication jade slip and two spatial storage tools.
"He made the wrong choice." Lin Mu muttered to himself.
Escaping in front of Lin Mu was an impossible option. Even the use of the explosive talisman by Fu Delun was something under Lin Mu's control. Lin Mu knew he would need to show proof of action to the king and thus he simply made Fu Delun think that he was caught and act accordingly.
If Lin Mu truly wanted to, he could have frozen the man in the very first second he saw him move. But Lin Mu intentionally let it happen. Now there was inexplicable proof that the minister was acting against the interest of King Hong.
Even if he was not under the control of Gu Yao, he would have still been arrested for an action like this. The action of using the explosive talisman went beyond any common misdemeanor that the king might tolerate and was now the same as an attempt on his life.
After all, the explosive talisman that Fu Delun had used could very well hurt the king, and the smoke was enough for him to take advantage of and kill the king. Alas for him, there were four Nascent Soul realm cultivators in the room and all he wanted to do was escape.
~THUD~
"FU DELUN, YOU DARE!" King Hong was now truly angry.
He stood up with a bang and pointed his finger at the frozen man. Of course, he didn't know that Fu Delun was frozen and he just thought that the man was looking away from him.
Adviser Liu didn't speak about anything right now and closely protected his nephew while keeping an eye out for danger. He looked at Lin Mu, who was holding back Fu Delun with some unknown technique.
Of course, due to being at the Child Soul stage of the Nascence soul realm, his senses were also stronger and he was able to tell what the objects broken on the floor were.
"A communication jade slip and... two Spatial Storage treasures?!" Adviser Liu was shocked now as well.
He would have understood Fu Delun having one spatial storage treasure but two was beyond anything that the man should have been able to afford at his current income. Even he himself only had a single spatial storage treasure and only the king had two such.
In their treasury as well, they only had a couple of spatial storage treasures. And even those were just low grade ones and not the mid grade one that minster Fu Delun had. Adviser Liu knew at this moment that even if Fu Delun was not being controlled by Gu Yao, he was obtaining ill gotten wealth from somewhere.
He finally looked at Lin Mu, who was casually standing there with his right hand extended out flat towards Minster Fu Delun. He then saw Lin Mu mutter something in a very low voice.
Upon hearing the words, he couldn't understand them and even felt strange. It felt like a daze, and he certainly didn't want that to happen to him in this situation. Thus he deiced to ask the only person who could answer him.
"What is happening, brother Lin Mu?" Adviser Liu questioned.
King Hong watched on as he came back to the front from his Uncle's back.
"I believe this should be enough of an explanation." Lin Mu said, pointing to Fu Delun.
"Yes... it is enough..." King Hong finally spoke.
Chapter 713 - Another Ally
To King Hong who had seen minster Fu Delun for a long time, he knew the nature of the man. He also knew that the man would have never acted like this before. A sudden change like this could only be attributed to a few things.
Either it was that the man was an imposter or that he was being controlled, just like Lin Mu had said.
"King Hong, perhaps we should still confirm this first." Adviser Liu asked.
"Go ahead, check the royal repository." King Hong replied before looking at Lin Mu and the other two disciples. "I believe you all can hold him?" he asked.
It was now that Lin Mu spoke.
"Oh, he won't move anymore." Lin Mu said as he moved towards Fu Delun and pushed him back with one finger.
~THUD~
The man helplessly fell on his back and did not react at all. His expression was stuck in a strange daze and his eyes were glazed over.
"He'll stay in this state for a couple of hours. You don't need to worry anymore." Lin Mu explained.
While there were many questions arising in the minds of King Hong and the others, they knew it was best to process and not think too much. Lin Mu had certainly used a skill that was beyond them, and they didn't want to pry into his secrets for the fear of offending him.
Lin Mu's might was already established by now and there was no need for them to test it beyond this.
King Hong sat back down on his throne and wondered where was it that he had gone wrong. He questioned himself if he had noticed all this earlier perhaps none of this might have happened.
Lin Mu, who looked at the perplexed expression on the king's face, guessed what he was thinking.
"Is King Hong wondering how all this happened?" Lin Mu questioned.
"How did you know?" King Hong raised his brows in surprise.
"It is not hard to guess. With Gu Yao... a lot of people have the same reactions. That is just how he operates. One day everything will be fine, then a few days later you would find people betraying you and everything flipping around.
That is how Gu Yao controls people and causes devastation." Lin Mu answered.
~Sigh~
King Hong sighed and didn't know what to make of this. He waited for Adviser Liu to appear and just kept on looking at the minister, whom he knew very well.
"Your majesty!" Adviser Liu's voice could soon be heard from the side.
In his hand were several documents, and a troubled expression was also on his face.
"Looks like... what brother Lin Mu said is true." Adviser Liu stated.
"Let me take a look myself." King Hong said as he took the documents in his hands.
He went through them one by one and saw the stamps of approval on them. The more he read, the more infuriated he got.
"This is atrocious! This is a joint seal of authority! How did Minister Fu Delun even get access to it?" King Hong said out loud.
"I wouldn't be surprised if they have forged even more documents and seals by now, King Hong. You may want to do a full audit of the officials. While I'm sure there won't be any more people being controlled by Gu Yao directly since he has limited numbers that he can control like that, I wouldn't be shocked if there were corrupt officials within." Lin Mu explained.
Adviser Liu and King Hong understood what Lin Mu meant and nodded their heads.
"Seems like we were this close to drowning and we would have never even realized it had it not been for you, senior Lin Mu." This time King Hong addressed him with even more respect.
"It is fine, King Hong. After all, this is what I set out to do. I want to prevent Gu Yao from completing his goals and I want your help in it as well." Lin Mu proposed formally.
~clap~
King Hong cupped his fists formally and spoke, "you have my word now, senior Lin Mu. You have saved the Hong Lin Kingdom from a grave disaster.
And seeing the severe implications of it, I don't think we will be able to keep ourselves away from the muddied water. It is best that we join you now."
Lin Mu nodded his head in approval, as this was exactly what he had set out to achieve.
"I'm happy that we could come to an agreement." Lin Mu spoke.
"This is great!" Hua Wu chimed in as well.
"Forgive me senior Lin Mu, but i need to get the things in order quickly. Can you pardon my leave?" Adviser Liu asked.
"Sure, please go ahead and do what you have to do, adviser Liu." Lin Mu replied.
"Thank you once again." Adviser Liu said while cupping his hand.
He then rushed out of the court hurriedly. Midway, his expression turned fierce and one could imagine the anger boiling over in the heart of the man. After all, today he had been through a lot. Not only did they find out about a massive plot to take over the entire great Zhou empire, but also about people being controlled.
And now that he learned that there were other corrupt officials as well, Adviser Liu's cap had blown off finally.
~Sigh~
King Hong sighed once again, and he now seemed a bit more fatigued.
"Perhaps King Hong should focus on his breakthrough for now. We shall wait here for today, at least till things get somewhat in order and nothing problematic occurs." Lin Mu said.
"If you can do that I will be grateful, Senior Lin Mu." King Hong stated.
"I believe you two are fine with this as well?" Lin Mu questioned Hua San and Hua Wu.
"We shall follow the words of senior Lin Mu." The two answers right away.
And with this, Lin Mu had added another ally to his alliance... this time an entire kingdom.
Chapter 714 - Hidden Problems
The day after that passed rather quickly and a lot of new discoveries were made during that time. Lin Mu, Hua San and Hua Wu were still in the court so they got to see everything first hand.
King Hong also realized that his kingdom was in a lot more trouble than was being let on to him. It had become especially severe in the past months, ever since he entered the 'seclusion' for his breakthrough.
There were piles of criminal matters that had accumulated and the poor department head of the law enforcement office was handling it as much as he could. He was also the reason why the entire structure had not collapsed yet.
That single man had somehow managed to keep the department running while pushing the incompetent fools he had for subordinates. This also kept the other departments running somewhat.
The King was highly impressed by this and even Lin Mu was since he had personally seen the man back then. The name of the man was Xian Po, and he had been the head of the department for less than two years.
He had been made one when the last department head died two years ago due to an unexpected illness. Of course, Lin Mu found this suspicious and so did adviser Liu. Upon a bit more investigation, it was found that the death of the former department head was also due to the orchestration of Fu Delun.
The minister of law had been in control of Gu Yao for a long time now and according to what Lin Mu could analyze, had been in that state for at least three years. Lin Mu felt where this was linked since there was no way Gu Yao came to the Hong Lin kingdom to personally control the man.
He thus asked Adviser Liu for the records and even the king agreed since he wanted to know the weak link in his administrator and where was it that everything started to go wrong.
It was then that he found out that minster Fu Delun had attended the wedding of one of the sect elders of Light Harmony sect. This was a mid ranked sect of a similar size as the Tri Cauldron peony sect.
It's located to the west of the Hong Lin kingdom and is also part of the Zither wind alliance now. It wasn't just minister Fu Delun that had attended it either. A lot of high officials from nearby kingdoms had done the same, and now it was safe to assume that all of them could be under the control of Gu Yao.
In the case of Hong Lin kingdom, it was especially bad since Fu Delun was the minister of law and thus his position was rather special. Other than the king and adviser Liu he was the only man who could command the military power of the kingdom and also influence the policies of the kingdom.
Whenever a problem happened and something needed to be done, he was the first one to hear it, and then if it was deemed worthy he would elevate it to adviser Liu who would then present it to King Hong.
But with Fu Delun in Gu Yao's control, one could only imagine the level of changes he could cause. Corruption was one big thing which he used to influence other ministers and officials of the kingdom.
Right now, the Hong Lin kingdom was in such internal peril that over half of its officials were corrupt. The public had long since felt their impact, but the King was grossly unaware. Adviser Liu had his suspicions too all this time, but due to the many diplomatic changes occurring across the empire, he had been busy outside.
One could only imagine the luck of King Hong that it wasn't adviser Liu that was controlled rather than Minster Fu Delun as it would have meant the end for the Hong Lin Kingdom effectively.
One must know that if the king died, the next in line for the throne would be his heirs. But Adviser Liu being their grand uncle, would be able to usurp power rather easily. After all, he had his Nascent Soul realm cultivation on his side.
Though Lin Mu also knew that there was an additional Nascent Soul realm cultivator hidden underneath the royal palace. But he didn't let that out. He also gave an excuse about how he found out about the records kept at the repository and the law enforcement department.
The excuse he gave was that he had some special skills. Seeing his standing, King Hong and Adviser Liu didn't question him in detail, of course. They could care less that Lin Mu may have just spied on their secrets as their entire kingdom was close to grave danger right now.
But in addition to this, there were still more shocking things to come. Lin Mu and the rest were drinking some tea in the royal court, nursing their headaches when an official came running in frantically.
"MY KING! MY KING! ADVISER LIU! DISASTER! IT IS A DISASTER!" the voice of the official could be heard coming right from the corridor.
Hearing this, the brows of everyone in the room furrowed even more. The headache that they had borne came back and the tea they had drunk was wasted.
"What is it?" King Hong questioned, no longer caring for decorum.
"The... the... The Royal Reserve Storage... its... it's empty!" The official spat out with difficulty.
"WHAT!?" Both King Hong and Adviser Liu said out loud.
Lin Mu and the two Hua brother also focused on the official as they quickly scanned him from top to bottom with their spirit senses. They couldn't help but be suspicious about everyone now.
"Are you sure? I literally checked the storage a week ago and everything was right there." Adviser Liu stated.
"That's the thing... the things in the storage were never there! We went to do a manual inventory today and discovered that the entire place is under an illusory formation. There are no actual items in it!"
Chapter 715 - Empty Reserves?
Hearing this information, the King didn't know what to think of.
"How can this even be?" King Hong said before looking towards his uncle.
"When you checked it was it the same?" He asked.
"No... I... when I checked it I just did a visual check with my spirit sense. I didn't actually touch them physically." Adviser Liu said in a sorrowful voice.
"I should have checked it dammit! If I did, then perhaps we would have found all of this earlier." Adviser Liu cursed himself.
"It is not your fault Adviser Liu. If they were able to set up a formation that could fool even your spirit sense, then there was nothing you could do. They may have even taken a harsher approach if they were outed back then.
At least now, we have several excuses for the discovery of the corrupt officials. Even if Gu Yao finds out that his plan has been derailed, he wouldn't know that we know of him. All that he will know is that some investigations were done, and the truth came out." Lin Mu consoled the man.
But he knew that no matter how much he did, the adviser would likely blame himself for a while.
"Senior Lin Mu is right. There is nothing you could have done, Uncle Liu." The king said a bit more affectionately. "You cannot blame yourself. We need you to be in the right place in these tough times."
~huu~
Adviser Liu took a deep breath and closed his eyes before looking up.
"That is right... I can't be like this. Rather than moping about it, it's better to focus my energy on making things right." Adviser Liu said with determination.
"Indeed." Hua Wu chimed in.
Hearing him, the king looked at him and sighed.
"I'm afraid we won't be able to give you a payment for the help you've provided us," King Hong said to the two disciples.
To this Hua San just smiled and spoke, "there is little we can do now. Besides, the Hong Lin wood matters less now as we are in a more complex situation. While we do really need it in the sect, I'm sure the sect master will be able to figure out something else."
The reserve storage being emptied out also meant that there was no Hong Lin wood that was promised to the two disciples.
"What exactly is it that you need the Hong Lin wood for?" Lin Mu questioned.
He wondered what could be so important to them that they would need it.
Hua Wu looked at Hua San before seeing the approval in his eyes.
"Our supreme elder... he experienced Qi deviation and is now injured. To heal that we need to make a pill which needs the Thousand year old Hong Lin wood as one of the ingredients." Hua Wu answered.
"Master is looking for other options while we are here, and we aren't the only ones looking for resources. There are some others that we need and my fellow disciples are looking for them.
Thankfully, our sect is located near the edge of the Grand Southern Forest and most of the spirit herbs can be found there along with other beast materials. It's just some special herbs and minerals that can't be found there." Hua San added.
Hearing this, Lin Mu nodded his head and understood their situation.
"If you are willing to wait a month or a bit more, I may be able to help you with the thousand year old Hong Lin wood." Lin Mu said, much to the surprise of the two brothers.
Lin Mu then looked towards the King and asked, "King Hong you must know if there is still the possibility of thousand year old Hong Lin trees in the forest right? Your clan has been revering them for centuries now."
"Hmm... there are two locations where there are definitely thousand year old Hong Lin trees." King Hong spoke after thinking for a bit.
"There are?" Lin Mu asked.
"Indeed... one of them in the home of the first king. It is also the sacred land of our Hong clan. But going there is prohibited and the Thousand year old Hong Lin trees there are not to be touched.
They are the trees that keep the entire Hong Lin forest alive and even if one of them is damaged, the entire forest away suffer." King Hong revealed.
"I understand... that is indeed a very important location. But what about the second one?" Lin Mu questioned.
Even the two Hua brothers were surprised as they were not told this information when they came to ask them for help. They could understand about the sacred lands as that was something they could definitely not ask for.
"The second location... that is a difficult and dangerous one. Over the many years, many rumors have sprung up about that location. It is called as the wandering sinkhole." King Hong spoke.
"The Wandering Sinkhole?" Lin Mu questioned.
"I think I've heard of this before." Hua Wu suddenly spoke. "It is said to be a mystical location that is rarely stumbled upon by travelers and woodcutters. It has no fixed coordinates and has been reported to be in multiple locations. But whoever truly enters it either doesn't return or dies." He explained.
Lin Mu was intrigued by this and wondered what could be the reason.
"What you said is correct. We do have confirmation that the location is real, but it is also filled with a myriad of dangers. The only problem is that we have no method to enter it. The location is filled with treasures through and thousand year old Hong Lin trees aren't the only spirit plants there." King Hong answered.
"Huh? If you don't know its exact location, then how do you know what things it has? Someone must have seen and returned to tell the tale, right?" Lin Mu questioned.
"Yes... someone has indeed seen it and recorded his experience." King Hong answered.
"Can't we just ask them for more information, then? Perhaps we'll get some clues.." Lin Mu suggested.