《Parasitic Sword Monarch.》Chapter 87: Parts of a whole.
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Bai Mu wasn't too happy about having to bring along Yin Long and Lan Yun, but seeing as the other option was to make a fruitless attempt at losing them, he didn't really have much of a choice. He turned and started heading for the inn where the Bai clan was currently resting, Yin Long and Lan Yun following him in a leisurely manner.
Yin Long and Lan Yun both observed Bai Mu as they followed a step behind him, Lan Yun struggling a bit more with following than Yin Long. The reason she struggled a bit was actually quite simple, Bai Mu wasn't strictly walking, he seemed to just shift from shadow to shadow. She should be able to spot him if she used her law of earth to sense where his feet made contact with the ground, but he simply didn't seem to touch the earth at all, not even when he appeared in one of the shadows.
Yin Long's law of space made things much easier, after all, even the shadows themselves needed space to exist. And with him around, even if Bai Mu jumped from shadow to shadow in his strange manner, there was no way that he could leave Yin Long and Lan Yun behind.
They were somewhat taken aback by the way he moved, not even the law of darkness should allow something like this, not at their level at least. But the same could also be said about Bai Mu, he was equally taken aback by the two people that followed him. Thanks to the darkness all around them, and even on them, he could see them from all angles. But it was only by relying on this darkness that he could see them. He couldn't sense their presence, he couldn't even hear the sound of their heartbeats, breathing, or steps. It was as if they simply weren't present.
Just the fact that they could track him so easily, as well as the cold sharpness he felt deep within them, he could easily guess that they weren't just amateurs when it came to tasks like this. But seeing the truth for himself was much better than any guess, it also allowed him to feel a bit more at ease since the two were even more unlikely to alert his target.
Bai Mu had spent a bit of time trying to shake Yin Long's group, but even so, he had never moved too far from his target. Thanks to this, the group managed to quickly reach an inn that was shaped like a five-storied pagoda made from glimmering blue stone. Yin Long could sense that space around the pagoda was a bit unruly so it had probably been covered in several space-expanding arrays that made it bigger on the inside.
"Second floor, seventh cabin."
Bai Mu kept moving as he spat out the words, his body sinking into the darkness and vanishing from sight. Yin Long was still barely able to follow some faint traces of him as he moved through the darkness, ascending the outside of the pagoda without his body ever actually leaving the darkness. Yin Long and Lan Yun didn't exchange any words and simply followed Bai Mu in their own ways.
Yin Long could directly make his way to the pagoda, Lan Yun using a pillar of earth to bring him up to the second floor so that he could phase through the wall using his law of space. Lan Yun had a bit more trouble since she couldn't move directly through the wall, but it was only a matter of sinking herself into the earth and sneaking into the pagoda from below. From there, she could easily move through the earth underneath the pagoda until she reached the path that led to the second floor.
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The second floor of the pagoda was quite similar to the inn that Yin Long's group stayed in, it looked more like a slice of nature than an inn. A quiet forest covered the entire floor, the faint sound of a running stream tickling the ears of anyone moving about. The floor was a bit smaller than Yin Long expected, but he could easily guess that it didn't need to be all that big since it was a bit more exclusive than the first floor.
Several cabins were scattered throughout the forest and Bai Mu was already heading for one of the wooden cabins, still submerged in the shadows cast by the trees. Yin Long left the wall and met up with Lan Yun, who rose up from the ground since she had hidden herself the moment she ascended to the second floor.
"That one, 300 metres."
Yin Long spoke in a hushed tone while pointing at the cabin that Bai Mu was heading for, phasing into the ground to hide. Lan Yun simply copied him, sinking into the earth that covered this floor and heading for the cabin. Just as Yin Long said, she stopped 300 metres away from the wooden cabin, creating a small underground room for her and Yin Long, scattering out a few small air holes.
At this distance, Yin Long could observe the inside of the cabin with his law of space and Lan Yun would be able to at least sense the movements of the people in the cabin as long as they touched any wood. It was also sufficiently far away in case they needed to hurriedly flee, it was an appropriate distance for a time like this, as they had only come due to Yin Long's curiosity.
Both of them extended their senses and observed the cabin, which stretched about half a kilometre in each direction. The inside was fairly neat and had furniture covered in silk sheets, but Yin Long couldn't see the entire cabin since the range of his senses was limited to 500 metres. The bed large enough to house three people was however located within his senses so he was able to see the black-haired and brown-eyed man currently enjoying the company of a maid.
There should only be one person per cabin so this was most likely the Bai Juelong that Bai Mu had come here for. He looked to be in his early thirties and had reached the 6th Immortal Door, he was probably one of the Bai clan's competitors rather than one of their elders. But seeing as he had reached the 6th Immortal Door, Yin Long was quite interested in seeing how Bai Mu planned on dealing with him. After all, Bai Mu had yet to even reach the 1st Immortal Door.
Yin Long just barely sensed Bai Mu move through the darkness, settling in the shadow cast by the bed. His very presence and aura had perfectly merged with the darkness he was hiding in, you couldn't use sight to spot him and using your senses would require them to be in such a realm of sharpness that it was impossible to acquire in the Immortal Doors realm. Had it not been for Yin Long's law of space then this camouflage of Bai Mu's could have been considered truly perfect, and that alone was sufficient to make most people fear him a fair bit.
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Yin Long was very interested in seeing what sort of moves Bai Mu would pull, but he actually remained entirely still after settling in the darkness beneath the bed. His already shallow breathing slowed to an extent where it seemed like he should die, and not even the tips of his fingers moved in the slightest, removing even the chance that his movements inside the darkness might give him away.
And once he stilled himself to this extent, he simply waited. He didn't move as Bai Juelong pleasured himself with the maid, he didn't move when the two finished and the maid left, he didn't even move as Bai Juelong got up and made himself some tea. Seconds had quickly turned to minutes and then to hours, midnight passing and a new day swiftly approaching.
Yet Bai Mu remained perfectly still in the darkness beneath the bed. Even when Bai Juelong finished going through some books and went to sleep, Bai Mu remained perfectly still. Only an hour after Bai Juelong went to bed, a mere half-hour or so before the sun would rise, did Bai Mu spring into action. And as he sprung into action, he left his victim with not the slightest chance.
Bai Juelong's mouth was open as he snored, and the faint lights still on in the room cast a few shadows across his body. And these shadows became the weapons to end his life. The darkness in his mouth, the shadows cast over his throat, even the darkness produced by the silk blanket covering his body, all of them swelled up at once.
The darkness in his mouth seemed to turn into a viscous liquid, sealing his throat and expanding so violently that his throat bulged and ruptured. The shadow cast over his throat seemed to turn into Bai Mu's sharp dagger, slitting the already rupturing throat while the darkness created by the silk blanket seemed to turn into hundreds of sharp spikes.
Blood gushed out from beneath the blanket and splashed the ground, Bai Mu finally moving and rising out from the darkness. His gaze was filled with nothing but blood and killing intent as he looked down at the dying Bai Juelong, his dagger appearing in his grasp. Bai Juelong's throat had already ruptured and been sliced, he hadn't even gotten to put up a defence since he had been sleeping so peacefully. But Bai Mu still placed his dagger against the ruined throat, his voice cold and vicious.
"Didn't I tell you? Where you go, I go too. You've hit the bottom, so let me go down to your level."
Bai Mu pressed his dagger down and cut through Bai Juelong's neck, severing his head from his body. He then sank back into the darkness and made his way out of the cabin, he didn't even pick up Bai Juelong's interspatial ring or any of his belongings.
Yin Long had been wondering just how Bai Mu planned to kill this person that was stronger than him, and now he got his answer. A very simple yet perfectly executed assassination. Yin Long himself had also worked as an assassin, but if he had to compare then he would have to admit that Bai Mu seemed far better than him at it. He was most certainly far better suited to it with this law of darkness, and he certainly seemed extremely used to it.
If he hadn't already been used to it then there was no way he would have been able to remain so still for several hours. The first thing he had done was even seal Bai Juelong's mouth to prevent him from making any sound that might attract others. His actions and ways he had gone about it was so far removed from the usual Bai Mu that it only aroused even more curiosity, how could two personalities this different show up in the same person?
Of course, with Bai Mu making his way out of the inn, Yin Long and Lan Yun also lost their reason for being here and swiftly followed. Neither of them batted an eye at Bai Juelong's death, they had long since gotten used to things like this thanks to their own shady past.
The two simply retraced their steps to leave the inn, not a single soul noticing the arrival or departure of these three people. The three met up again outside of the inn, mainly thanks to Yin Long tracking down the departing Bai Mu before he could just slip away. Yin Long was content to just let Bai Mu have his secrets until the truth revealed itself, he wasn't like Xue Qiuling who would start digging up information through external sources the moment his interest was piqued. But Lan Yun wasn't the same in that regard and just straightforwardly asked her question when they met again.
"Didn't expect the seemingly naive Bai Mu to actually have something like that in him. Are you a separate soul residing in his body? A split personality? Or are you maybe one body shared by two different entities, seeing as your hair and eyes changed?"
Souls were a strange thing, illusory yet perfectly real. Once the soul died, it didn't matter how strong you were, you would die all the same. But conversely, as long as your soul remained, you would be able to survive. Even if your body was destroyed, as long as your soul survived, you would be able to move on to a new body and take it over.
Of course, the premise of all this was also that your soul was strong enough, if your soul was too weak then it would still be connected to your body and would perish along with it. As such, it wasn't entirely out of the question that there was indeed another soul lingering in Bai Mu's body, bringing about this great change in him. But Bai Mu didn't give a proper response, his expression somewhat dark as he simply continued to walk away.
"It doesn't matter. In the end, both parts of the whole must merge together again. And at that time, only one can remain, you can ask again at that time."
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