Hearing the reason from Elder Niji about why the Rust Hail Mountains were hard to cross, Lin Mu found more questions rising within his mind.
"Wait, if the mountains are so hard to cross… then how do the new criminals arrive here?" Lin Mu questioned. "They must have some way of sending them here, right?"
"We… don't know. They just appear in the Land of Exile. Our ancestors also said the same in records. One day, they just found themselves here and knew why they were sent here." Elder Niji answered.
Lin Mu furrowed his brows, having a good guess.
"Seems like a teleportation formation of some kind. That seems to be the only method to sending them without anyone knowing how." Lin Mu said.
"The thing that immortals used to traverse the worlds?" Elder Niji asked. "I've read about them before."
"Yes. There are many kinds of them, and some can indeed be used to traverse the worlds." Lin Mu confirmed.
"Then did you come to this world using it, too?" Elder Niji inquired.
"I did indeed… though this world wasn't exactly a choice." Lin Mu replied. "I just entered a portal that happened to bring me here. You could say it was an accidental thing." He added.
"Ah, I see… no wonder you would want to get out of here fast." Elder Niji understood.
After all, he would want to leave this place with his clan too.
"Still, if it really is a teleportation formation that brings in criminals here, then I might actually be able to find a way to get us out of here." Lin Mu said.
"What?! Really?" Elder Niji was shocked.
"Yes. Though I need to see the Teleportation formation first. As long as I can analyze it, I might be able to find a way to reverse it." Lin Mu answered.
"That… will be amazing. If you really do manage to do that, our tribe will forever be in your debt!" Elder Niji said in an excited voice.
For the first time in over a thousand years, Elder Niji was feeling hopeful about his tribe's future.
"I'll try my best. But first I'll need to gather information… lots of it." Lin Mu replied with a smile.
"Me and my tribe shall assist you in this the best we can." Elder Niji nodded his head.
"Very well… though, do you know what's beyond the mountains, perhaps?" Lin Mu asked.
"YES! I do. Our ancestors mentioned it in the records too. Beyond the Rust Hail Mountains, there is a great sea. Thus, even if one escapes the mountains somehow, they will still be unable to get past the sea.
The only way might be to fly, but only those in the Immortal realm can do that. Additionally, the sea is not free of dangers either apparently. It is filled with great Immortal beasts that can eat up whole ships." Elder Niji explained with enthusiasm.
"Ah… that… complicates things a bit…" Lin Mu said, feeling that he might need to work on a lot more to get out of here, perhaps.
The two of them continued to talk for a while more, as Lin Mu asked more questions to learn about the place. The more he learned, the more he felt interested.
Lin Mu even learned the name of the world that he was in right now.
This world was called as the Rust Sky world. It was named aptly according to the appearance of its sky.
Lin Mu asked more about the sky and why it was like this, but even Elder Niji didn't know the answer. All Lin Mu got was that the sky had always been like this and there was simply no explanation.
But one thing that Lin Mu did learn from Elder Niji was that there were a lot of different lands in this world. And it was certainly a lot bigger than the Xiaofan world in size. Then there was also the fact that this world wasn't just inhabited by humans either.
There were several other races living in this world too, some even having entire kingdoms and empires of their own.
"Oh yeah, are there cultivation sects here?" Lin Mu questioned.
From all that he had learned from Elder Niji, he had not once heard the mention of any sect.
"No. Cultivation sects have been prohibited since times immemorial. The nobles of the human kingdoms do not allow the existence of any sect. The greatest authority of this world is held in the hands of the empires and kingdoms." Elder Niji answered.
Lin Mu was certainly surprised upon hearing this. He had learned from the memoirs of the Lost Immortal that sects existed in most worlds, even if they might not be common. But hearing that a world had directly outlawed sects was a new thing for Lin Mu.
"If there are no sects, then how do the cultivators learn and gather in this world?" Lin Mu questioned.
"They all need to join a kingdom or other royal powers to do that. They are the only ones that hold the things needed for cultivation. This is all that our ancestors have mentioned. There might be more, but we are in the dark about it." Elder Niji stated.
"I see… guess we'll just have to learn more once we get out of here." Lin Wu said, but then quickly turned his neck to gaze at something in the distance. "Or perhaps we get to learn something today itself."
"Huh?" Elder Niji followed where Lin Mu was pointing at and saw a small dot in the distance.
It was moving slowly, and a small shadow was also cast behind it that was barely visible.
"It's another exile." Elder Niji confirmed.
"Mmhmm… Can we go get it?" Lin Mu questioned.
"Sure, I'll call the warriors." Elder Niji answered right away and shouted through the doors of the outpost.
Within five minutes, ten warriors had arrived and were ready to heed their commands. The target on the other hand, was still moving somewhere aimlessly and was within their sights.
