Walker Of The Worlds

Chapter 3977: Mengli Zhenyu’s Records

Lin Mu stared at the final line for several seconds.

’So this was what the Heavenly Stream Guardian Sect believed.’

Zhenyu had vanished and the sect had searched for him. But eventually, they gave up. And one hundred years later, his soul lamp had disappeared. All this had been enough for the sect to declare him dead.

Lin Mu slowly exhaled. ”A bit strange.”

He had expected something similar, yet seeing it written in the official records gave the matter a different weight. To the sect, Zhenyu had died more than one hundred thousand years ago.

His name had become history and his position had been replaced. His disciples and contemporaries had eventually disappeared into the river of time before the man himself had been forgotten.

Lin Mu’s fingers lightly touched the edge of the ancient book.

Yet here he was, using Zhenyu’s identity, wearing his robes, carrying his token and possessing information that no living member of the current sect should have.

A faint smile appeared on Lin Mu’s face. ”This should make things interesting.”

He turned another page as there was still much more to learn. The records had confirmed Zhenyu’s identity, his history and the circumstances surrounding his disappearance. More importantly, they gave Lin Mu something he had desperately needed: A legitimate history and a foundation for his new identity.

Now he needed to find out what had happened after Zhenyu’s disappearance, what people remembered about him, which factions had known him personally and whether any records existed concerning the Hopeful Star Pavilion.

Those answers could determine how convincing his return would be and Lin Mu’s immortal sense spread farther into the archives. Thousands of ancient records began opening simultaneously as Lin Mu continued reading.

At first, he had intended to focus solely on Junior Elder Zhenyu, yet he soon realized that understanding a person who had lived more than a hundred thousand years ago could not be accomplished by reading that person’s records alone.

A person’s life was intertwined with countless others.

Their masters shaped them, their fellow disciples influenced them, their rivals forced them to grow, their juniors remembered their accomplishments, and their enemies often preserved details that the sect’s official records preferred to phrase more politely. If Lin Mu wanted to truly become Zhenyu, he needed to understand the world that had surrounded him.

So he expanded his search.

The records concerning Zhenyu’s immediate circle became his first target. He went through the names of the elders who had served alongside him, the disciples who had interacted with him regularly and the cultivators who had either competed with him or worked alongside him during missions.

He memorized their appearances when those descriptions were available, their cultivation bases, their temperaments, their achievements and even the small details that seemed insignificant at first glance.

Some records mentioned family connections while others recorded the disciples they had accepted. Several contained information about descendants who had later joined the sect. A few even recorded marriages, clan disputes and inheritance struggles that had occurred generations after Zhenyu’s own time.

Lin Mu absorbed all of it.

He learned which elders had been close to Zhenyu and which ones had disliked him. He learned which disciples had once followed him around hoping to receive guidance and which had eventually turned against him.

He learned about the people Zhenyu had offended through his arrogance and the people who had nevertheless respected his talent enough to overlook his temperament. There were also records of missions and those interested Lin Mu particularly.

A mission report might seem unrelated to a person’s personality, yet the people involved often revealed more through such records than through biographies. Lin Mu learned that Zhenyu had participated in several battles alongside particular elders, had once rescued a group of junior disciples during a dangerous expedition and had also argued with a mission supervisor over the distribution of merits.

He learned which formations had been used during those missions, which regions they had visited and which enemies they had encountered. He even memorized some of the phrases Zhenyu had supposedly used in official reports.

’These details can become extremely valuable later.’ He thought.

If someone who had known Zhenyu in the distant past suddenly encountered Lin Mu, they might ask something completely unexpected. A question about an old mission could be enough to expose a fake. Lin Mu intended to make such a possibility extremely difficult.

He therefore kept digging as hours became a day and a day became another. Lin Mu barely noticed the passage of time inside the ancient archives as there was simply too much information.

Eventually, he moved beyond the twelfth section and began checking adjacent chronological records. He wanted to understand what had happened to the people connected to Zhenyu after his disappearance.

Some had died during tribulations. Others had perished in wars. A few had managed to advance considerably before eventually disappearing into the vastness of the immortal world.

Several families connected to Zhenyu had remained within the sect for thousands of years before eventually declining. One clan had even produced three elders over the following generations while another had completely vanished after its members offended a powerful faction.

Lin Mu memorized those details as well and the more he read, the more complete Zhenyu’s world became inside his mind. Eventually, Lin Mu began to understand something important. Zhenyu had not been an isolated genius, he had been one piece of a much larger generation.

There had been other prodigies around him, some of whom had surpassed him temporarily before falling behind. There had been elders who had been considered ancient experts at the time, even though they were now long forgotten. There had been factions that had once held enormous influence and had since disappeared completely.

The sect itself had been different as its internal structure had changed. Some halls had different names while several departments had been reorganized. There were even times when entire branches of the sect had been dissolved or absorbed into others.