Lin Mu and Elder Niji set out to reach the target in the distance while the rest of the warriors followed. He finally got to see just how fast the people of the Haima tribe sprinted and it was certainly fast.
While it might not be comparable to that of Little Shrubby or Lin Mu's own speed, it was certainly a lot faster than any other cultivator at the same level. Then there was also the fact that he had yet to see other humans of this world and judge their standard, but Lin Wu wouldn't have to wait long now.
His group reached the target in about five minutes and soon saw it clearly.
"This…" Lin Mu came to a halt and was surprised by the person in front of him.
It was certainly a human, but he was not in a good state at all. His legs and arms were scabbed over as if they had been bleeding for a long time and his ribs were exposed from deep gashes.
It was a miracle as to how the man was even moving, even now. His eyes were dull and were half covered with matted hair that was caked in dust and dirt.
"Hey! Are you okay?" Lin Mu called out in Dao Script but received no answer.
He tried to speak a few more times, but the man didn't respond at all and continue to walk aimlessly.
"It's no use." Elder Niji placed a hand on his shoulder. "We've seen many others like him before. They are close to dead at this point and are living a hellish existence."
"W-what happened to him?" Lin Mu questioned.
"The Chasm Beasts… he clashed with them and was injured. He survived, but their toxins have basically wiped out his mind. Now he is only living on instinct." Elder Niji answered. "This is what the Chasm Beasts end up doing to those that survive their attacks."
"Then… does the Haima Clan also have such victims?" Lin Mu asked.
"No… we can't let them live on like that, so we help them find peace… in death." Elder Niji replied.
Lin Mu's expression fell, but he understood this was a better choice than letting them suffer. At the same time though, he now wondered just what kind of an existence the Chasm beasts were.
He had a hypothesis that the Chasm beasts were made out of the dark fog that filled the upper part of the chasm. But he himself had passed through it unaffected.
'If they have toxins too, then it should be part of the fog, right? How was I not affected?' Lin Mu wondered.
He could guess that it might be because of his body cultivation, but he couldn't confirm it. Looking at the effects of it, Lin Mu certainly found them terrifying.
"What do we do now, Elder Niji?" The Haima Tribe members that had accompanied them asked.
"We go to the mountains from here. Our guest needs to see them too." Elder Niji stated before looking at Lin Mu, who had walked up to the injured man.
Lin Mu's spirit sense extended and scanned the man's body, making sure that he missed nothing.
"This man… He's at the Immortal Ascension realm!" Lin Mu was stunned.
"Even immortals meet the same fate, Noble Lin Mu. They might survive longer, but they eventually end up the same. The Chasm Beasts spare no one. The only way to survive is to run and hide." Elder Niji explained.
"Doesn't your tribe fight the Chasm Beasts too?" Lin Mu asked in doubt.
"We only do so when they come too close to the settlement, but even that is only when the tide has receded. We fight the stragglers that are left behind after a majority has returned to the Chasm.
Usually these are the weaker ones that can be killed by us. The truly strong ones easily kill Immortals." Elder Niji answered.
"I see…" Lin Mu now had a slightly better grasp on the situation.
Still he knew that this was not enough, and he needed to do more.
~grip~
Placing his hand on the injured man's chest, Lin Mu injected metal spirit Qi into him. The metal spirit Qi directly cut the man's heart as well as his Dantian, ending his life swiftly.
~shua~
A flame lit up on Lin Mu's hand next, which surprise the Haima Tribe warriors quite a bit. They stared and pointed at it, while chattering amongst themselves. After all, not everyone in the tribe had seen the different kinds of Qi skills.
And while the Haima tribe could make fire, it was only through the use of normal methods. They then watched Lin Mu throw a fireball on the dead body, burning it into ashes in a minute.
"We don't know what kind of a man he was, but may he find peace in the next life…" Lin Mu muttered.
"Come. Let's go to the base of the Rust Hail Mountains." Elder Niji spoke.
"Yes." Lin Mu nodded his head.
He had asked Elder Niji to do this before and since their excursion for the human had turned out to be a failure; he decided it may be better to explore the place more.
Lin Mu was interested in the Rust Hail Mountains and wanted to see just what made it special. He also wanted to see the toughness of the material it was made out of.
'If it is the same as the other rocks, I might just be able to blast it apart. Not like I've done it before…' Lin Mu thought to himself.
The Rust Hail Mountains were still a couple of hours away from their current location, and it was best for them to be as fast as possible. While Elder Niji had agreed to take him there, there was still the danger of Chasm Beasts.
While it was relatively 'safe' on the periphery of the Barren lands, near the Rust Hail Mountains, the Chasm Beasts would still reach them eventually. The period of safety was only as long as the time needed for the Chasm Beasts to run up to them.
Other than that, they would also have to watch out for any Rust Hail that might cause rock slides. Falling boulders and such were very common.
After about two hours of travel, Lin Mu and the group finally reached the Rust Hail Mountains. This was the closest part of the Rust Hail Mountains, and extended in both directions for as far as one's gaze went.
With how far they extended into the sky, it was hard to even see anything beyond them. They directly pierced into the dark and rust colored clouds, leaving nothing to be observed. Lin Mu estimated that these mountains might be more than ten times taller than the tallest mountain in Xiaofan World.
Lin Mu knew that one couldn't even fly that high in the Xiaofan world as they would be restricted by the world itself.
'Even the world barrier was located lower than that…' Lin Mu thought to himself.
"It certainly is nothing like I've ever seen before…" Lin Mu said as he stood face to face against the mountain.
~step~step~step~
Walking up to the steep wall of the Mountain, Lin Mu touched it.
~huu~
Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath.
The Haima Tribe warriors looked on in confusion as Lin Mu stayed in that state for over ten minutes.
"Elder Niji, what is the noble human doing?" They asked.
"Trying to find a way for us to leave this place." Elder Niji replied without moving his gaze from Lin Mu.
"What!?" The Haima Tribe Warriors were stunned.
Elder Niji then explained to them what Lin Mu had he had discussed. It took the old man about half an hour to do so, during which Lin Mu didn't move at all, still staying in the same position.
By the time Elder Niji was done explaining, the look in the eyes of the Haima Tribe Warriors had changed entirely. They now looked at Lin Mu with hope, hope that one day he would get them out of here.
And just as they were watching him, Lin Mu lifted his hand from the mountain wall.
"Did you learn something?" Elder Niji questioned.
"There is certainly uniqueness to this mountain. I can feel the Element of Earth within it, but it is not pure… there is something else within it that makes it different." Lin Mu answered.
Lin Mu had actually been using his Dao Embryo to sense the mountain. He wanted to see if he could control the earth within it to find a way out, but it didn't seem to respond to him at all.
While there was the Earth Elemental energy within it, it was not pure and was likely in a derivative form.
"What do you want to do now?" Elder Niji asked.
"Now? Now we take the crude way." Lin Mu said as his gaze sharpened.
"Everyone get back." He ordered.
