The people on the ships didn't even get that long to relax before witnessing another shocking sight.
Lin Mu too was startled but managed to keep his composure.
"Is that… A beast?" Immortal Taegu questioned in shock.
In front of them was what could only be described as a beast the size of an entire mountain range. It seemed to be lying down, but even then, the highest point on its body was nearly a kilometer tall.
There were hundreds of such 'peaks' on its body that extended from one side of their vision to the other. Even if they turned around entirely, they were still unable to tell just how large the beast was.
~huu~
~WHOOSH~
~SPLASH~
But just as they were all watching the beast, they saw it moved. It was as if the mountains were rising and the seawater around them was falling.
"Is that beast breathing?" They realized.
~HUALA~
~TEAR~
But when the beast breathed, it created chaos in the area.
'The space is trembling?' Lin Mu looked around while his spatial perception activated.
He could see several weak points appearing in the spatial fabric. It would be fine if they were naturally present there, but Lin Mu witnessed perfectly stable parts of the spatial fabric tearing apart.
~GUSH~
One such tear appeared 500 meters from where the ship was, and more sea water gushed out from it.
"It can't be…" It was now that Lin Mu realized something.
"That beast… and the rifts… they are linked. The rifts are appearing because the beast is breathing. Just that lone causes the space to tear apart, forcefully pulling in energy and water from the Rust Sky world." Lin Mu said in a shocked tone.
The others who heard here words were left stunned. The beast was definitely the biggest one they had ever seen in their lives and its cultivation base couldn't even be perceived by them.
In fact, there was no aura coming from the beast.
The spirit Qi fluctuations around the beast were also mild, save for the gush of fresh spirit Qi that came from the rifts. This prompted Lin Mu to turn to Elder Niji and ask something.
"Is there immortal Qi here too?" He questioned.
"Yes… it seemed to be concentrated around the beast. But it is not that harsh… its rather stable." Elder Niji answered.
This basically confirmed Lin Mu's conjecture that the beast was very high in cultivation base.
"What kind of beast is this? For it to be this large?" the humans wondered.
All they could see was the top half of the beast's body right now. The another half of its body was sunken under the water and was probably quite big too. The beast's head was also not apparent, probably being curled up on the side.
Lin Mu tried to use his spirit sense to observe the beast and finally saw its full appearance.
The beast only had two limbs that were on the front of its body. These were its legs that looked like that of a horse and had steel colored hooves. Then on its back there was a fish like tail instead of hind limbs.
The fish tail looked rather muscular and with its size could probably flatten a few mountains at once. Then there was its head which was about the size of a mountain too. It looked like a mix between a horse and a catfish.
There were long whiskers on its head, while barbells hung from its chin. Hot steam could be seen coming out from its nostrils with each breath.
"What is this beast?" Lin Mu couldn't find any information in his memories about a beast such as this.
He hadn't seen it in the Memoirs of the Lost Immortal either.
"A Great Ocean Hippocampus… You don't see them often." Xukong's voice was heard.
"Huh? You know what beast it is Senior?" Lin Mu questioned recalling that Xukong had awakened now, and he didn't need to struggle.
"Yes, I know. This is a Great Ocean Hippocampus. It is quite a rare beast and is certainly not seen in this part of the universe. And this one is even more special… it has reached a size that I personally haven't seen before in beasts like these." Xukong answered.
"Are they not this big usually?" Lin Mu asked in wonder.
"Among the beasts called as Hippocampuses, the Great Ocean Hippocampus are the largest ones. But no… the average individuals of their species are about the size of a small hill. The largest ones can reach the size of a mountain.
But this one… this has exceeded that by several times reaching the size of a mountain range." Xukong replied.
"Wait, so there are other variants of this beast?" Lin Mu was curious.
"Yes. Just like there are probably a million variants of wolf or other common animals in the form of beasts, this unique beast has variants too. The most common Hippocampuses aren't that big, being thrice the size of a normal horse." Xukong clarified.
"Whoa… then it really is massive." Lin Mu marveled. "I can't even tell its cultivation base."
"Hmm… Seems like this beast is already at the highest cultivation base it can reach." Xukong spoke.
"It has? Then is it close to a breakthrough?" Lin Mu questioned.
"This beast is in a rather complex situation. It has reached the absolute peak of what this world can allow. To compensate for this on some level, it probably came to this minor plane where the laws won't be as strong.
Which might also be why it has managed to reach such a large size. Since it couldn't breakthrough normally, it probably accumulated all that energy and Qi in its body, causing it to grow to unseen lengths.
And this didn't occur in a short time either. For such a large size difference, this beast has probably been here for hundreds of thousands of years. For it to breakthrough it needs to enter a higher leveled world." Xukong explained in detail.
