Walker Of The Worlds

Chapter 3211: The Cause Behind The Elemental

Once everyone had stored their fragments safely within their respective spatial tools, Lin Mu gathered the group’s attention again.

”We need to understand how this happened,” he said seriously. ”A Greater Ice Elemental appearing here is no small matter. This place should not have the conditions necessary to form one naturally.”

Daoist Chu furrowed his brow. ”You are right. To summon or contain such a being, one would need an Immortal Tool capable of holding massive elemental energy. Something at least on the Transcendent Level.”

”And such an artifact would be worth more than entire sects,” Cattaleya added. ”I doubt even the Ephemera Sect has something like that lying around.”

Lin Mu agreed. The Ephemera Sect was dangerous, yes, but they were not wealthy enough to squander a Transcendent-grade vessel on a mere elemental experiment.

”No,” Lin Mu said slowly, ”this elemental was not brought here. It was created here.”

The group looked at him with varying degrees of shock and curiosity.

”You mean someone really used a catalyst to form it?” Daoist Chu asked.

”Exactly,” Lin Mu replied. ”Its strength was not as overwhelming as the texts describe. And according to what I understood, it would have eventually dissipated on its own, even without our intervention.” He didn’t tell them that it was the Saintess that had told him this.

Daoist Chu nodded thoughtfully. ”That would explain the irregular formation of its body. It lacked the stable energy flow of a naturally birthed elemental.”

”But even if it would have died out eventually,” Cattaleya said, ”the destruction it could have caused before that would have been catastrophic. The loggers, the nearby towns, the forest... all would have been wiped out.”

”That is why we could not allow it to roam freely,” Lin Mu said. ”Even a fading elemental has enough power to cause disaster before it burns out.”

The group spent the next hour combing through the surrounding forest.

They examined the scorched and frozen terrain, the shattered trees, and the strange energy residue that lingered in the air. But for all their searching, they could find no trace of a catalyst, nor any sign of who might have orchestrated this event.

”Could the catalyst have been consumed during the creation process?” Meng Bai asked after a long silence.

”Most likely,” Daoist Chu replied. ”If the catalyst was fully converted into energy to birth the elemental, nothing would remain. Not even a fragment.”

Lin Mu crouched near a patch of ground where frost still clung to the roots of an ancient tree. He touched the frozen bark lightly, feeling for residual energy.

”It feels... incomplete,” he muttered. ”Almost like the elemental was made hastily, or remotely controlled.”

Cattaleya frowned. ”Remotely? Is that even possible?”

”It is,” Lin Mu said. ”But it would require a complex array and immense skill. The one behind this likely never came close to the site. They could have triggered the process from a safe distance and let the elemental run wild.”

Daoist Chu’s expression darkened. ”Which means we might never find them if they have covered their tracks.”

Lin Mu straightened and looked toward the forest’s misty edge. The silence there was heavy, as if the world itself was holding its breath.

”Even so,” he said quietly, ”we will find out who did this. Someone went through great effort to release that thing here. It was not a random act.”

Cattaleya crossed her arms, her gaze hard. ”Then we keep watch. If more of these appear, we will know it was no coincidence.”

The group fell silent for a moment, their eyes meeting in grim understanding. The battle was over, but the true mystery had only just begun.

Lin Mu took out the icy fragment looked once more at the faintly glowing piece of the Elemental Heart in his hand, a faint urge rising from his body. Its light pulsed steadily, like the beating of a heart long dead.

He slipped it into his storage ring and turned away.

”We move at dawn,” he said. ”There is still more to uncover.”

The air had finally begun to settle after the battle, the howling winds fading to quiet sighs as snow melted into puddles across the scorched earth.

Lin Mu and his companions, now a bit weary from their clash with the Great Ice Elemental, made their way down the slope toward the cluster of logging camps nestled among the frost-covered trees.

The damage in the area was visible even from afar: splintered trees, frozen pits of half-melted ice, and scorch marks carved across the ground where fire and frost had collided in destructive harmony.

Even though they had been far away, the stray attacks of fragments from the clash of skills had spread all the way to the camps’ boundaries. It just showed how fierce the clash had been and what it could have been if they were not here to stop it.

The moment the group stepped into view, the barrier arrays protecting the camps began to shimmer faintly.

Lin Mu could sense the rippling energy of the defensive formations, layered with runic inscriptions that glowed in pale blue light. They had been activated recently and were still humming from prolonged use. He could tell that they had drained an enormous number of immortal stones to keep running for so long.

From within the camps, figures began to emerge cautiously. At first, only a few heads poked out from behind the barricaded doors, but as soon as the loggers recognized Lin Mu and his party, a collective sigh of relief spread like a wave.

”It’s them! It’s the Wandering Righteous Blades!” one of the loggers shouted.

The wooden gates were thrown open, and dozens of loggers poured out, their rugged faces filled with gratitude and awe.

The men and women wore thick padded jackets to shield against the cold, many still holding makeshift weapons and tools that they must have prepared in panic.

Even the supervisor, a stout middle-aged man with a long brown beard, came rushing forward with tears in his eyes.