Lin Mu’s words were correct and were echoed by the two elders of the discipline hall.
“Lord Imperator is right. While there have been many attempts at assassinating people by the Black Ying Empire in the past, this is the first time they have been this careless.” The Left Elder stated. “They always used to act on precise intel and attacked when the target was the most vulnerable.” “And yet they dared to attack right in front of Lord Imperator.” The minister spoke, finding it quite ridiculous.
While he had heard a lot about Lin Mu’s strength, he had finally gotten to witness it. The assassin was at the Third Tribulation Stage of the Immortal Realm, but his speed was blinding due to his skill.
Even if the assassin had died later, she would have still managed to kill the Treasury Minster with the poison. It would have been a great loss to the Imperial Court and would certainly harm their functioning.
The Treasury Minster was after all, a very high ranking minister that handled the wealth of the court and the Imperial Family.
“I suppose they don’t have much information about me either,” Lin Mu said after thinking about it. “Indeed. I don’t think they know more than the appointment of a new Imperial Imperator.” The Left Elder nodded.
It was common knowledge now and pretty much everyone in the Capital City knew about it. Though the number of people who had seen Lin Mu was limited thus, there was still a lack of information. Even the fact that he was now living in the Imperial Azalea Courtyard was unknown to pretty much everyone outside of the Imperial Court and the people associated with them.
‘Perhaps that’s why they thought targeting the Treasury Minister when he was visiting me was a good opportunity.’ Lin Mu reckoned they simply thought he was some noble that the Minister was visiting for some reason.
Normally, an assassin should have considered it suspicious, since it was not often that the Treasurer Minister visited someone personally. But the chance was a rare one, thus they couldn’t resist the temptation.
“Looks like we’ll just have to monitor the situation for now.” Lin Mu stated before the others began to leave. “Little Shrubby, go with them and check for spies.” He requester .
“Thank you for this. It’ll help us immensely.” The Left and Right Elders stated. “We’ll keep you informed of any news, Lord Imperator.”
“Thank you for your help once again, Lord Imperator. I’ll ensure that the banquet will be memorable for you.” The Treasury minister was certainly grateful. “And I’ll ensure the security is good for it too… personally.” He added.
“Very well.” Lin Mu said as they all left.
The servants had also finished cleaning up the aftermath of the failed assassination attempt. Thankfully, most of the food was fine, so Lin Mu just quickly chowed it all down and returned to the task at hand.
“Let’s take a look…” Lin Mu held the Spatial Storage tool that was in the form of a box and checked inside.
The Treasury minister had personally handed it to Lin Mu, and it had quite a few security measures on it too. Lin Mu could feel the arrays scanning him before finally permitting him to look inside. Of course, if he wished to he could take things out anyways, but it was definitely extra work.
“Oh? That’s a lot of materials.” Lin Mu could sense a neat assortment of materials within the box.
They had all been arranged according to his instructions, making it easy for him to use. With this done, Lin Mu simply transferred everything outside and sat down to use them.
There were herbs, minerals, fruits, pills and more in them that Lin Mu had never seen before. They ranged from the lowest mortal to the peak immortal grade and were highly valuable. The box alone had a value that might exceed the entire wealth of a clan.
And Lin Mu began to ‘consume’ them nonstop.
Having developed the cores, the speed of absorption was a lot faster and Lin Mu barely had to hold them for a second before they were already turned into pure energy and guided into his body.
Bit by bit, his cores started to grow once more as tiny fractions were of elemental essences were added to them.
While Lin Mu focused on this, the rest of the Imperial Grounds were undergoing a tense situation. All the servants were gathered batch by batch and went for an inspection. The presence of Little Shrubby was kept hidden, of course, as the beast merely stayed inside a room while the servants were gathered in a square outside.
Little Shrubby could smell them from far enough, so there were no issues for him. Plus, it helped avert any suspicion about their actions too.
The servants were stressed but weren’t too bothered as they knew this was the usual for a situation like this. Whenever an assassination attempt happened, it was normal protocol to inspect all the people that might be involved and the servants were usually first in line.
But they were a bit surprised, as the interrogation was lighter than usual. They had no idea that this was merely a formality, as the true assessment was actually being done by Little Shrubby.
A couple of days passed like this before all the servants had been inspected. From them, Little Shrubby picked out three servants that were suspicious to him.
They didn’t have the energy of the Black Ying Empire members, but they had the similar scent of ink and resin coming from their bodies. The beast communicated this to Lin Mu, who then gave out a report to the Discipline hall members.
To not arouse any suspicion, these three servants were monitored secretly and all their actions were observed, but nothing strange was found.
“Lord Imperator, we’ve looked into their background. They’ve all been servants here for at least two hundred years and have a good record.” The Left Elder reported.
“Hmm… perhaps we need to monitor them in a different way. They might pretend to be ‘normal’ until given the orders, or might be getting them in a way we don’t know about.”