Walker Of The Worlds

Chapter 2886: Extracting Memories

Elder Dugu Ciu reckoned Lin Mu's sword skills might not be the only thing he was good at.

After a tense pause, Elder Dugu nodded and exited the room in silence, sealing the chamber with several layers of formation. The heavy stone door locked shut behind him.

The room was silent again.

Lin Mu stood there for a moment, staring at the bound man.

"You've seen a lot," the prisoner said, grinning despite his bindings. "But you can't take what isn't yours."

"I don't need your permission," Lin Mu said, stepping forward.

His eyes darkened.

A strange black aura began to ripple from his body—thick, oppressive, and filled with unclean intent. It was like watching dusk rot into midnight.

"Murdering Heart Sutra."

A single chant—and the atmosphere shifted.

Purple-red lines crawled out of Lin Mu's shadow, forming a circle beneath the prisoner's chair. The air trembled as the chains began to rattle—though the prisoner didn't struggle. He froze.

"Devilish energy…" he whispered hoarsely.

Lin Mu's palm rose, and the sutra glowed in dark purple lines around his forearm. His aura no longer concealed itself—it revealed the hidden abyss beneath his calm exterior.

"I will peel your soul," Lin Mu said his words strangely carrying two voices. "And carve your memories into my own."

He placed his palm against the prisoner's chest.

The thorns on the man's skin pulsed violently, resisting.

Lin Mu might've become patient and calm in his time at the Green Lotus Temple, but he had also learned an important thing: Patience did not matter for those who did not deserve it.

Even if the Murdering Heart Sutra was of the Devil path and should not be used lightly, he knew this was the right moment for it.

Lin Mu's aura surged inward—not with light, but with utter cold cruelty. A ripple passed through the man's spirit.

He screamed.

SCREEEEEE~

His soul was being pulled—drawn out of his body like vapor rising from boiling water. The Murdering Heart Sutra did not request cooperation—it took. The soul twisted and convulsed, trying to retreat, but the black-purple circle beneath them sealed off every escape.

Lin Mu's eyes darkened further, until only a thin ring of silver remained within them. He inhaled slowly, and the soul split—two layers emerging: the conscious essence carrying the Soul's energy, and the memories.

"Reveal." Lin Mu commanded as both of them were sucked into his body.

The memory flashed open.

Lin Mu stepped into it—not physically, but mentally. The world shifted.

He stood within a flickering landscape: burning villages, blood-soaked marshes, thorns twisting around temples. Children crying. A massive eye etched in the earth beneath an altar, watching endlessly.

He walked past memory fragments: cruel initiations, the loss of names, screams muffled in fog.

Then, the deepest memory:

A cloaked figure with no face, wearing a crown of thorns and nine bleeding eyes, leaning over a stone well. The well was filled with blood, and from it emerged a whisper.

"Speak."

The figure did not respond—but the word Root echoed in Lin Mu's ears.

"Where is it?" Lin Mu growled within the vision.

A direction emerged, burned into the cultist's soul: Southwest. Marshes of Silent Skies. Beneath the Ninefold Crypt.

Suddenly, the memory trembled.

Back in the real world, the prisoner's body began to convulse uncontrollably. The seals on his soul reacted violently. Even if Lin Mu had already extracted the soul, it was clear the seal on it was far beyond anything normal, persisting even without the soul there.

Lin Mu exhaled sharply as the seal protested, trying to destroy him.

"Bind."

He pressed his hand deeper, locking the soul and fully severing it from its origin. The soul screamed again—then dimmed.

The prisoner slumped.

His body was dead.

But Lin Mu's eyes remained dark as the memories in the form of a wisp coiled around his palm—sealed in a temporary jade slip.

He stepped back, panting slightly. The Murdering Heart Sutra's price wasn't on his qi but on his mind. Still, it was bearable. Lin Mu chanted the Severing Heart Sutra and cast away all foul thoughts, regaining his normal demeanor.

The stone door clicked, and Elder Dugu reentered the room hesitantly.

"…He's gone?" the elder asked.

"Yes," Lin Mu said flatly.

"But you found something."

"I did." Lin Mu held up the soul fragment.

"The Rooted Eye. The Ninefold Crypt. Marshes of Silent Skies." He paused. "And a name. Yun Ren. That was who he used to be."

Elder Dugu frowned deeply. "The Ninefold Crypt… I've heard of it. A forbidden ruin no one returns from."

"Then we'll be the first," Lin Mu said, turning.

SIGH

"It's not that easy." Dugu Ciu spoke.

The mood in the underground chamber was heavier than before. Lin Mu had shown the elder sealed memries t of the soul, and the brief silence that followed his words felt thick—like the stillness before a storm.

"Darkhan Dynasty?" Lin Mu muttered, his gaze narrowing.

"Yes," Elder Dugu Ciu replied, nodding with a grave expression. "That place... the Marshes of Silent Skies… and especially the Ninefold Crypt within it—it's not something that should be approached casually."

"I wasn't planning to go there today," Lin Mu said calmly. "But I need to know what we're dealing with."

Dugu Ciu folded his arms. "You should know that many have tried to explore that ruin for fortune. Cultivators, sect disciples, rogue experts—even Transcendents. Very few returned, and those who did… didn't come back whole."

Lin Mu raised a brow.

"They returned… without their minds intact," Dugu Ciu clarified. "Babbling nonsense. Eyes bleeding. Some simply went catatonic. Others laughed until their hearts stopped. One man kept whispering, 'It sees me… It sees me…' until he finally ripped his own eyes out."

A deep, oppressive silence followed.

Meng Bai, who had just entered, paled as he heard the account. "That place… it sounds cursed."

"It might as well be," Dugu Ciu sighed. "The Ninefold Crypt is surrounded by layers of baleful energy—malignant, ancient stuff. Even Qi doesn't behave normally there. Spiritual sense gets distorted, and formation arrays go haywire. It's like stepping into a different realm altogether."