2034 A Month's Journey

Listening to the Crown Prince's words Lin Mu understood that the location of the expedition site was not something anyone could figure out.

Just the fact that it was far in the ocean was a concerning thing. Not only getting there would take long, there was a high chance that it would not be a simple task at all.

Lin Mu had been in the ocean back in the past when he had just left the Haima Tribe. He had traveled on a ship and went to the Huiqing Continent. During this time, he had witnessed a lot of things which were all interesting to him.

He had witnessed many massive ships that had various features and were owned by rich and influential people. It was also on such a ship that Lin Mu had met the Saintess.

If not for that fated encounter, perhaps he had not been in the current position at all. He wouldn't have learned about the Seven Ancestral Serpents of the Serpent Moon Sects as well as the Yin Yang twin serpents.

As such, it was a major event in the life of Lin Mu. And now that he was about to head on another large ship, he couldn't help but analyze it all.

While he was doing this, Lin Mu sensed many formation arrays that had slightly unstable immortal Qi fluctuations.

'Were these made recently?' Lin Mu wondered to himself.

He observed the said arrays in detail and confirmed that fact. To him, it wasn't hard to tell which formation arrays were added later and which ones were originally present on the large ship.

'This is similar to the many other ships I've seen except with more defensive arrays,' Lin Mu thought to himself. 'The ability to fly though has been added later,' He reckoned.

While he was thinking all this, the Crown Prince saw him.

"It's a good ship, isn't it?" He asked.

"It sure is." Lin Mu replied. "But it couldn't always fly, could it?" he asked back.

"It didn't yes." Crown Prince Feng Shun nodded. "In fact, this was the reason I got delayed." He revealed.

"Oh? You were getting this ship modified?" Lin Mu raised a brow.

"Yeah, it was a necessary task. I had been trying to get it done for a longtime, but the damned old man simply wasn't available." Crown Prince said with slight frustration.

"You mean the formation master?" Lin Mu inquired.

"Yeah, the formation master… The old man's probably one of the top three formation masters in the entire Rust Sky World." Crown Prince answered, much to Lin Mu's surprise. "But he's a pain to contact and even bigger pain to actually get things done."

Lin Mu could clearly tell by the frustration in the Crown prince's voice and knew that he probably endured a bit of a suffering.

"Is that also released to why you were uncontactable?" Lin Mu questioned next.

"Indeed. The place the old man lives is hidden under hundreds of layers of arrays. One cannot contact those inside with ease." Crown Prince Feng Shun replied. "And if you're getting something commissioned by the old man, he doesn't let you leave and that prevents anyone from contacting you. He's a stickler for not getting 'disturbed'." He added.

Hearing that, Lin Mu was intrigued by this 'old man'.

'If he's one of the top three formation masters of the Rust Sky world, he must not be simple.' He thought to himself.

"This old man, who is he?" Lin Mu asked. "Is he part of the Imperial court?" he wondered.

"Part of the Imperial court? HAAAH~" The Crown Prince laughed. "He despises most nobles and has even rejected father's summons in the past. He's not part of the Dao Wind Empire either. Technically, he lives outside it." He revealed.

It was quite surprising for Lin Mu, as not many would dare to reject an emperor's summon. Even if it was an Emperor of another empire, most would think twice before offending them. And yet this old man seemed to be fearless in that regard.

"Does that mean he lives outside of the Dao Wind Empire?" Lin Mu asked, feeling curious.

"Yeah, he lives alone past the northern coast of the Dao Wind Continent on an island. Since its past the official limits of the Dao Wind Empire, he isn't part of it technically." The Crown Prince answered.

"I see… looks like he picked the place intentionally. He's a hermit." Lin Mu replied.

"He sure is… Anyways, enough of that old man." The Crown Prince stated. "We should probably get started on the contents of the expedition." He changed the topic.

"Of course." Lin Mu nodded and watched the Crown Prince take out a jade slip.

~shua~

The jade slip floated in front of them and projected a formation screen above it. Lin Mu watched it intently, while the Crown Prince controlled it.

"Let me start from the beginning." The Crown Prince said, making an image appear on the Formation screen. "You remember this, right?" he asked.

"Yeah, it's the tablet that I helped you translate." Lin Mu replied.

"Mmhmm, correct. This is also the confirmation we needed for this expedition, basically. It was the final bit of a thing that had been holding me back." Crown Prince spoke. "This expedition has been in the works for nearly a century already." He revealed.

"A century?" Lin Mu raised his brows.

"Back when we were still in the Immortal Court, a peculiar messaged arrived for the Crown prince inviting him for an expedition." Crown Princess Shang spoke up this time. "We were of course, suspicious of it, but because it had arrived through official channels, we decided to check it." She added.

"Yeah, it had come from a man named Qiao De, who's the manager at the Black Candle Pavilion in the Holy Topaz Dynasty." Crown Prince Feng Shun said. "I believe you've already met him."

"Yes, I have. He invited me too, like I said before." Lin Mu nodded his head.

"Qiao De asked me to join on an expedition to what is supposedly the inheritance ground of a Celestial. At first I didn't believe it since he said that it was actually on the Rust Sky World itself. There had been other inheritance grounds in the past, but they had all been uncovered already.

It wasn't until he said that it existed in a separate spatial plane did I realize why it had managed to stay hidden." Crown Prince Feng Shun explained.

"What about it being the treasure of a Celestial?" Lin Mu remembered that Qiao De had told him something different.

"Ah yeah, I had to verify it with Qiao De." Crown Prince replied with a slight frown. "So apparently it is a high chance that the entire spatial plane is actually the treasure of the Celestial and is also an inheritance ground.

We don't know who the celestial is, but we do know that they existed a long time ago in the Rust Sky World and fought against the Demonic Tribes in the past. Of course, they weren't a celestial back then and were just an immortal.

But later on they broke through and became a celestial, leaving behind their inheritance in the Rust Sky World, in hopes of someone obtaining it and carrying on their legacy." He explained further.

"I see… and you said it's on an uncharted island?" Lin Mu inquired.

"It is somewhere in the ocean west of the Dao Wind Empire. Even I don't know the exact coordinates as only Qiao De has the means to finding it. This is also why we are going to meet up with him first." Crown Prince Feng Shun replied. "It will take us about a month to reach the rendezvous point."

"There's also a few others joining us." Crown Princess Shang added.

"Ah yeah, you spoke about that too. Who is it do we know?" Lin Mu questioned. "Other than Qiao De, of course."

"The Inheritance ground is apparently a cluster of several spatial planes, but only one of them is the real one. As such, we'll be entering the main one and the others I've brought will enter the other planes as distraction.

Of course, the other planes also have treasures and resources and as such, it won't be a loss for them either.

But to figure out which one is the main plane, we need the assistance of another party… Someone from another world." Crown Prince Feng Shun stated. "I've only heard of this person before and never met them, but the power they are from are quite well known." He said, arousing Lin Mu's interest.

"Who is it?" Lin Mu wondered if they were from the Immortal court or something.

"It is Lady Kang of the Great Kang Auction house. One of the top auction houses in the entire Immortal Realm." Crown Prince Feng Shun revealed. "If anyone needs to find a peculiar item or resources outside of the Immortal court, there's a 99% chance the Great Kang Auction house has it or can find it."