Lin Wu glanced at the system energy storage in the host data window and saw it falling much faster than he had thought.

SYSTEM ENERGY STORAGE: 7542 units

…7533

…7520

…7498

…7400

"Damn, I didn't expect it to fall this fast!" Lin Wu muttered in shock as he kept on looking.

The reduction continued at the same pace for about a minute, after which it started to slow down and then almost halted.

SYSTEM ENERGY STORAGE: 7002 units

~Phew~

Lin Wu took a breath of relief and guessed that it was consumed so fast as the system needed to at the start to begin the process. He kept on looking and saw the storage decrease again. But this time it happened after an interval of five minutes.

SYSTEM ENERGY STORAGE: 6992 units

"Oh, is it now going to consume it in specific time periods?" Lin Wu wondered.

He waited again and then confirmed it. Five minutes later, ten more units were consumed.

SYSTEM ENERGY STORAGE: 6982 units

"Okay, so that's confirmed. Hmm… ten units every five minutes that's about one twenty units every hour. That's fine, I guess… no wait," Lin Wu said.

"System, the system energy being consumed, what unit is it in? Is equivalent to liquid spirit qi drops or wisps?" Lin Wu questioned, feeling nervous.

~Ding~

——

ANSWER: The units are equivalent to wisp rather than drops as the host only asked to set it for the spirit qi storage and not for the others.

——

~Phew~

"Oh boy, that almost scared me. If it's in just wisps, then take it… take as much as you want. I'm gonna leech off this whale anyway, Hehehe." Lin Wu said with a glint in his eyes.

He took his attention off the Host data window and focused back on the real world. Because the spirit sense of Shirong was currently only spread in an area of five meters, Lin Wu couldn't see beyond it and thus couldn't see how the city looked like.

In the five meter area that he could actually see, there was nothing much except for the paved road and a few lamp posts that passed by at the side.

"Why are there no more people here?" Lin Wu wondered.

But a few seconds later it hit him.

"Oh no, wait! They are being escorted by the guards, no wonder there isn't anyone coming near them." Lin Wu realized.

Five more minutes passed and the group had walked quite deep into the city. Even if they were simply walking, they were still quite faster than a normal human, and it seemed more like they were running instead. It was a bit comical to Lin Wu and he was reminded of one of those speed walking competitions he had seen on the Television.

"If people saw someone walking like this out on the streets back in my past life, they would laugh like crazy. Only in the competitions does it seem normal…" Lin Wu chuckled.

Finally, Lin Wu saw the scene change and it looked like a building had appeared in front of them. Because the range of spirit sense extended five meters in all directions, Lin Wu could tell that the building was tall and had more than one story as even at the height of five meters it didn't end.

The building itself was made from a combination of bricks and polished stone tiles. From its quality of work, Lin Wu could tell that this was probably an important building in this city and was probably used by important people.

"Come on, why is no one talking anymore?" Lin Wu complained.

No one was really talking and there was an eerie silence while the guards escorted Shirong, Ye Dai, and Bei Wen. Finally, they entered what looked like a hall that had a throne like chair at the end and multiple smaller chairs along the right and left side.

All of the chairs were currently occupied, and the people sitting on them had serious expressions on their faces. Lin Wu saw the entourage stop in front of the old man sitting on the throne like chair. The old man had a calm expression on his face unlike the other people and was tapping the armrest of the chair.

"Young Master Shirong, I'm relieved that you were able to come back safe and sound." The old man spoke in a concerned tone.

"Clan Head Lu, I'm extremely sorry that I was not able to save the people who so graciously decided to accompany me despite the danger. I had told you that I would bring them back safely but I have failed, I… have disgraced my name." Shirong stated and bowed his head.

The expression of the Lu clan head changed upon hearing his apology and he then saw him doing something which made his brow set. The Lu clan head shot up from his seat and held on to the shoulders of Shirong.

"No! Young Master Shirong, you cannot bow your head to me… please it's not your fault. The people that accompanied you, even if they were from our clans knew exactly what they were getting into. I cannot take the burden of your bow." The Lu Clan Head said while gulping down his saliva.

It was evident that Shirong was about to bow to the Lu Clan head in apology, but the clan head stopped it. But while Shirong's head was slightly bent and his face was hidden from the people, Lin Wu saw the smirk on his face that faded away in an instant.

"Bravo! Bravo! What expression! What art!" Lin Wu praised upon seeing his acting.

Unlike the others, Lin Wu could see and hear what Shirong was muttering clearly and knew that he was intentionally doing this to throw off the clan's suspicion if it were to ever come.

Most of the other people that were sitting in the room were also affected by this and they became concerned. Still, there were a handful of people that did not seem pleased by this and were trying to suppress it from being shown on their faces.

"I got you now…" Shirong muttered silently.