Walker Of The Worlds

Chapter 3326: A Shocking Reveal For The Coral Clan

Just below the platform stood the five youngsters, all recently returned from their dangerous pilgrimage. Their faces still held traces of exhaustion, but their posture radiated pride and excitement.

Once everyone had gathered, the patriarch gestured for the youngsters to begin.

Shanhu Guimen stepped forward and bowed. "Honored Patriarch, Elders, we shall give our report."

What followed was a recounting that made the hall fall increasingly silent with each passing sentence.

They told the story of how Lin Mu’s sword intent shielded them from the overpowering curse of the Ninth Sea.

They described how the ship would have been torn apart without him.

They spoke of Daoist Chu working in tandem with Lin Mu, controlling arrays they believed impossible for outsiders to touch.

They described Elyon’s shadows tearing through cursed beasts with uncanny precision.

Then came the part that hit the elders the hardest.

Shanhu Dian explained how Cattaleya had fought the colossal whale, a beast strong enough to crush mountains. How she had shattered its carapace with her fists and blade. How she had been swallowed whole, only to burst out from within the monster moments later, drenched in blood but uninjured.

When Shanhu Jie spoke of Lin Mu reaching up and forcibly closing a spatial rift with his bare hands before pushing it away like a drifting leaf, even the most experienced elders gasped aloud.

At the end of the debrief, the patriarch, the elders, and even the escorts from before were pale with shock.

It took them nearly five minutes to compose themselves.

Then all the elders and the patriarch stood as one and bowed deeply toward Lin Mu’s group.

"Thank you," the patriarch said, his voice thick with sincerity. "Without your help, none of our children would have returned."

Even the previously stern elders bowed so deeply that their foreheads nearly touched the floor.

Lin Mu lifted a hand gently. "We only did what needed to be done. Perhaps your ancestors guided us to this mission."

Hearing that, the patriarch’s eyes softened. He nodded slowly, as though believing those words more deeply than he had expected.

After the emotions settled, the patriarch gathered his thoughts and spoke again. "However, honored guests, after hearing this report, we have realized something. The reward we prepared is far too little. We must increase it."

Lin Mu blinked. "Patriarch, the original payment is more than enough."

"No," Shanhu Haiyang insisted, his tone firm. "Your efforts were far beyond the scope of the mission."

Elyon stepped forward. "I appreciate the offer, but it would be against the mercenary code to demand extra. It is dishonorable. The original payment is acceptable."

Several elders exchanged uneasy glances. They clearly wanted to insist further.

Shanhu Haiyang pressed on. "We cannot in good conscience pay you so little. But I must admit that our clan has limited immortal stones. Our isolation makes trade rare with other humans. Our wealth lies more in materials and crafted goods."

Lin Mu smiled faintly. "In that case, let us keep things simple. The original payment of one million high grade stones is fine. As for additional reward, I would accept some Water Elemental materials if you can spare them."

The elders’ faces relaxed. "That is easy," one of them said immediately. "But it is still too little."

Before Lin Mu could refuse, Little Shrubby mewed softly beside him, tapping his tail against the ground.

Lin Mu chuckled. "In that case, some local ingredients and produce would be appreciated too. My companion here has a fondness for new flavors."

The elders burst into laughter.

"Ingredients are something we have no shortage of," one said. "You may take more than you can carry."

Even the patriarch smiled at that.

But before the matter could progress any further, Lin Mu’s expression grew serious. He raised his hand.

"There is something more important I must share with the clan. Something concerning your ancestors."

The cheerful atmosphere was pierced immediately. Silence swept across the hall.

"What do you mean?" the patriarch asked.

Lin Mu retrieved a jade slip from his ring. "I found something beneath the ancestral island. I recorded what I saw."

He sent the image forward.

With a tap of immortal sense, the projection flared into life above the hall: a floating image of the cavern beneath the island. The clear lake. The five hovering corpses bound by cursed chains. The pulsing arrays layered beneath them.

Gasps filled the room.

Lin Mu narrated calmly, explaining how he had found the place, how the cursed energy reacted, and the nature of the arrays he had uncovered. Of course, he did not mention extracting memory fragments.

He instead spoke of "memory-recording formations" integrated into the cavern’s structure.

The patriarch and elders listened with growing dread, their expressions darkening with every detail.

When Lin Mu finished, silence engulfed the hall. No one moved. No one spoke.

Shanhu Haiyang stared blankly for a long moment before whispering, "War... unity... sacrifice..."

Suddenly, he stood up with abrupt energy and shouted with a trembling voice, "Bring the ancestral records. Bring all of them!"

Several elders scrambled and rushed out of the hall.

Within minutes they returned carrying armloads of jade scrolls and ancient coral-bound books. They placed them on the platform and backed away.

The patriarch seized the records and began flipping through them desperately. His eyes scanned line after line, skipping entire sections until he found the entries he sought.

He froze.

His breath stopped midway.

Then his hands trembled, and the record slipped from his fingers onto the table.

Shanhu Haiyang collapsed back into his seat, pale and soaked in cold sweat.

Lin Mu stepped forward. "Patriarch, what did you find?"

The patriarch looked up with haunted eyes.

"What you found... fills in a missing piece of our clan’s history. A piece so terrifying that our forebears tried to bury it."

He exhaled shakily.

"And yet... the truth still remained waiting for the day someone uncovered it."

The hall felt colder.

Every elder leaned forward with wide eyes.

Shanhu Haiyang whispered the words that would change everything.

"Our ancestors... did not only create the curse."

He swallowed.

"They created it to seal something far worse."