Jing Luo gazed at the yellow plains with a hint of nostalgia in his eyes before turning to Lin Mu.
"A bit further… at least until we hit the ocean. Then we need to search along the coast." Jing Luo answered.
"Alright." Lin Mu said as they continued onwards.
The yellow plains went by really quick. If one observed from their point of view, it looked like a yellow blanket was quickly being pulled back. The more it was pulled back, the more the blue bedsheets hidden underneath could be seen.
These blue bedsheets was, of course, the ocean.
At first it was like a distant blue line which soon expanded into a blue crescent. The closer they got, the bigger the ocean got. And when they were finally at it, they witnessed the endless ocean, the ends of which could not be seen at all.
There was mist floating around the area, making it only harder to see. If not for Lin Mu's spirit sense, he wouldn't be able to even tell how vast the ocean really was.
"This is the side of the continent that not many get to see." Jing Luo said as he got off Little Shrubby's back.
"Indeed… it's like a different world." Lin Mu muttered.
There didn't seem to be many beasts here either, and the area looked a bit desolate.
This area was considered to be restricted to most humans of the Black Dawn Kingdom. They all knew about the Northern Tribes and didn't want to be close to the area that they supposedly lived in.
The Forbidden kingdom was beyond this ocean and even if it was unlikely for them to cross over from here, they still didn't feel comfortable. That was the main reason why there were no settlements here.
The beasts also seemed to be in an agreement from what Lin Mu could see. The beasts that resided here were rather weak, with most of them being in the body tempering realm. And the only ones in the Qi refining realm he found were aquatic beasts living in the ocean.
"Now we just search around here?" Lin Mu asked.
"Yes… or at least I hope so." Jing Luo replied.
"Okay, let's begin." Lin Mu said as the trio of men and beast walked along the coast.
This time, they couldn't use Little Shrubby's speed as Lin Mu needed to focus on fine spatial fluctuations that would get muffled if they ran on Little Shrubby's back. The Jing clan was afraid that their hidden ancestral grounds could be found and they were a bit paranoid.
Which was why they set up the best isolating and masking formation arrays that they could.
Even Lin Mu would need to put effort into finding it.
The token that Jing Luo had forged only provided the entry to the ancestral grounds but couldn't find them. The location of the ancestral grounds was always kept hidden, and only the patriarch of the Jing Clan would know it.
This was so that no one could threaten, blackmail or torture the information out of a clan member. And if this happened to the patriarch, it would mean that the clan was already at an endpoint and there was no chance to survive, thus it wouldn't matter anyway.
Lin Mu and Jing Luo decided to start from the very western tip of the Black Dawn Kingdom's northern coast and then head east from there. Upon reaching their first start point, they were surprised to see a village there.
"Huh? There's actually a village here?" Lin Mu said with surprise.
"I don't think there was one here before…" Jing Luo replied as he checked the maps. "Yeah… there's nothing."
Looking at the village, Lin Mu could tell that the village was newly built. Most of the huts were made out of straw and mud, with only a few houses made from stone and wood. There weren't that many houses here either, only about forty.
And considering that they were rather small in size too, the village was easily condensed in an area of two hundred meters. There were small rafts that the villagers were using to fish in the ocean too.
This was unusual since no normal peasant would dare to get near the coast due to the danger of aquatic beasts. They were considered to be far more dangerous than land beasts, mostly due to the fact that once they decided to target them, there would be less chance of escape.
After all, humans were way faster on land than they were in water. Even if they had a raft, there wasn't a good chance of escape. Most Aquatic beasts would be able to wreck the rafts with a causal attack.
Lin Mu observed the villagers, who seemed to be rather rugged looking. They were even more rugged than the average Black Dawn Kingdom commoner. Their skins had an even tan, as if they spent most of their time out under the sun.
Looking at the sky, Lin Mu could actually see a clear sun out too, which was different from the misty look on the other areas of the coast where the skies were cloudy.
"Definitely a different area, huh…" Jing Luo said.
~step~step~step~
But while they were wondering about the village, a few people approached them from the behind.
"Travelers? This far?" one of the villager said upon seeing Lin Mu and Jing Luo.
"AHH!!!!!" But soon a scream could also be heard as their eyes went to the beast that was standing some distance away.
"BEAST! SPIRIT BEAST!" The villagers cried out.
Lin Mu and Jing Luo felt a little awkward at this. They had not expected to find a village here, and thus Lin Mu had not sent Little Shrubby away either.
"Calm down, he is my tamed beast." Lin Mu said as he lightly floated into the air.
Looking at his handsome face and the aura exuding from his body, the villagers quickly understood the situation.
"Ah! Forgive us, Lord Cultivators!" The villagers hurriedly bowed.
