Hearing about a sea basically spilled water on Lin Mu's original plans. He had originally decided to make use of the excellent speed and stamina of the Haima tribe to traverse the land beyond the Rust Hail Mountains.
While the aspect of getting away from the Rust Hail Mountains was secondary, and would only come after they actually managed to get past them, knowing that there was no solid path outside only made things harder.
After all, even if they got out of the Rust Hail mountains, they would have to figure out how to get past the sea. Lin Mu doubted that they would be able to use just any ship and that they would have a free ship just there for their taking.
'Considering that they even send immortals into exile here, the ships should be protected as well. I need to know more.' Lin Mu thought to himself.
After thinking for a minute, Lin Mu straightened a few factors and spoke.
"How did you get to the Land of exile? Or rather, where did you teleport from?" Lin Mu questioned Huyun Chuan.
"I was sent here though the major teleportation array that is set up in our Purple Sparrow kingdom. Each kingdom surrounding the Sea of Muxuan has such an array which they use to access the land of Exile." Huyun Chuan answered.
"What about the ships, then? You said they take six months to reach here." Lin Mu asked next.
"There are indeed ships that come here. But those are mostly used to transport prisoners in large groups. It is also something that's mostly used for weaker cultivators." Huyun Chuan said.
"Specify weak." Lin Mu asked with a rushed brow.
"Those below the Immortal realm." Huyun Chuan clarified.
"Then why were you sent through the array? Don't you fall in the category of weak, too?" Lin Mu doubted.
"Well, I… I had the befit of being a from a noble clan. So they sent me through the array." Huyun Chuan said, but seeing that Lin Mu didn't seem to be satisfied, he explained further. "You see, the cost of using a teleportation array is quite high. At least it's not worth using for normal prisoners. Thus, they would only use them when the risk of sending the prisoners with a ship is too high."
"I see…" Lin Mu understood a bit better.
"Tell me about the sea of Muxuan. What are the risks of traveling?" Lin Mu asked further.
"The Sea of Muxuan is one of the most dangerous areas of the Rust Sky world and is certainly the most dangerous sea among all eight seas of our world. Even the great ocean isn't as dangerous as this.
Even the ships that sail in the Sea Of Muxuan are especially made to withstand its environment and dangers that range from terrifying beasts, harsh weather, all the way to mysterious phenomenon.
Every ship that sails to the Land of Exile needs to have at least an immortal at the Fourth Tribulation stage at the helm and several more immortals to guard it. Simply running the ship with all its defenses is difficult without multiple immortals powering and controlling it.
The other weaker cultivators only manage the miscellaneous tasks above the ship, as well as guarding the prisoners inside.
And when a ship is anchored at any port of the Land of Exile, it is to be quickly emptied of the prisoners. Basically, they are advised to stay as little as possible on the island before sailing back." Huyun Chuan explained.
This gave Lin Mu a wider view of the problem at hand.
'An immortal at the Fourth Tribulation realm, at the help of multiple other immortals running the ships… there is no way we can take over a ship. Doing that will be the same as jumping to our deaths.' Lin Mu realized.
With this, one option was cut off from his possible solutions. He quickly needed to find other solutions.
"Tell me about the sea itself. What kind of beasts reside in it? And the other dangers too." Lin Mu asked next.
He knew knowing this would be the basis on which he could plan the next step.
"There are countless beasts in the sea of Muxuan. They range from as weak as the Nascent soul realm all the way to the peak of the Immortal realm. As for the weather, it is unpredictable and storms are the most common climate.
One can get lost very easily in the sea, and specialized tools are needed to guide the path of a ship. There are always over fifty ships that get lost in the Sea and many more that get destroyed.
Then there are mysterious rifts that can transport you to random parts of the sea. We do not know how these rifts appear, but they are almost always guarantee death to those that enter them.
There are very few that have survived going through a rift and returning to civilization. And there is said to be no limit to where these rifts would lead one inside the sea. Some are even said to take one directly to the depths of the sea.
If one takes such a rift, they can only hope that the immense pressure kills them swiftly. If not them, the turbulent energies of the deep sea would invader their bodies, killing them little by little and shattering their souls." Huyun Chuan explained, raising Lin Mu's interest.
"Rifts you say… Hmm…" Lin Mu felt he might after all have a solution.
'If I can find a pattern to these rifts and fight the right one, I might be able to get out of the sea. Or at the very least, get very close to the shore.' Lin Mu added this potential solution to his list.
"Do you know how these rifts appear?" Lin Mu questioned, hoping that there would be more information.
The more he had, the better his chances of making use of it successfully. He had, after all, traversed the void several times before, and had some experience in it. At the very least, he could trust the ring to open up a new rift if one didn't appear naturally.
While he didn't know if this rift would work like the other rifts, there was at least some choice there.
"I… do not know." Huyun Chuan shook his head.
~Sigh~
Lin Mu felt disappointed.
"But I once heard an old legend." Huyun Chuan spoke upon seeing Lin Mu's expression.
So far, he had been fine because Lin Mu had been satisfied with his word.
'Who knows what he'll do to me, if I don't give him the right information… I have to give him something.' Huyun Chuan was nervous.
"What legend?" Lin Mu asked.
"The Legend about how the Sea of Muxuan got its name. It's said that there was once a great beast who lived in the oceans of the Rust Sky world. It lived during the ancient times and was even worshiped as a god by some people.
But this worship was not taken kindly by the believers of other faiths that inhabited the world at that time. Back then, the cultivators were not so common and Immortals were simply myths, thus faith in the gods was abundant.
The people of these other faiths considered the great beast a demon and called its worshipers heretics.
This led to many conflicts until finally they waged a great war against them. Many lives were lost in this war, and the numbers of the Great Beast's worshipers fell greatly. It is unknown how long this lasted for but by the end of it, less than a hundred such heretics were left.
These heretics prayed to the great beast day and night, begging it to save them from the constant attacks. But their saviour never came.
With the fall in the number of the worshipers, the 'crusade' of the other faiths eventually lessened. The people who worshiped the great beast also hid themselves away from others. The ones that still lived in the cities hid the fact that they were heretics and simply gave up on their faith.
But there was one among them that did not falter. Until he very death, he kept on praying and when he was finally about to die, his call was answered.
A Great Tempest came into being. The skies tore apart while lightning fell through the cracks. Winds eroded the mountains and quakes sank the plains. The Great beast rose from the middle of the continent, bringing with it the disaster of ages.
It destroyed all the kingdoms of the faiths that had crusaded against its believers and sank it into the ground, creating a new sea in its place.
The Mu, in Muxuan is Coffin, while Xuan is said to be the name of the last believer of the great beast's faith.
The Sea of Muxuan is the final resting place of Xuan along with the kingdoms that offended the great beast." Huyun Chuan explained in detail.
<A/N: Thanks for reading :D>
