1334 A Month Of Sailing
The rifts in the Sea of Muxuan were quite notorious.
Many ships and cultivators had been lost in them and every year there would be at least a hundred reports of this happening. And this was when they were witnessed in the first place, no one knew how many were not known at all.
“What do you know about the rifts?” Lin Mu questioned Kunzi.
“Pretty much the same as everyone. They are spatial anomalies and can send one into random places including the very bottom of the sea. Though there are also rumors they can send one into the great ocean directly.
But there is no way to verify the authenticity. Plus, these rifts are random, appearing anywhere and changing their positions. Other than the large rifts which don’t really move, the rest of them are pretty random.” Kunzi answered.
“Wait, there are actually rifts that don’t move?” Lin Mu raised a brow.
“Yes. There are apparently twelve such rifts in the entire Sea of Muxuan. Well, at least the ones that are discovered. Everyone avoids them at all costs and they are advised to keep a hundred kilometer distance at the very least.” Kunzi replied.
This was new information for Lin Mu as even Huyun Chuan had not told him about them.
“Do you know where they are?” Lin Mu questioned.
“Oh, they should be recorded in the navigation data of the ship. Telling where the are without the navigation arrays is very difficult. Of course this is when you are away from them, if you get within a few kilometers of it, you will certainly see it.
Not to mention, there are often storms accompanying them.” Kunzi answered.
“I see…” Lin Mu immediately accessed the ship’s array and found the navigation data.
The information was stored in a rather unique way too.
Normally when sailing on the sea, the sailors would use compass as well as the position of the stars to navigate. But on the Rust Sky world, the sky was always overcast and no stars could be see.
This made sailing a lot harder. Even if one used a compass, there was still a need for reference locations to navigate properly.
Thus to overcome this problem, the people of the Rust Sky world had come up with a rather novel method.
Since the Sea of Muxuan was a landlocked sea, all the kingdoms of the Eight Kingdom alliance had built specialized lighthouses on the coast. These Light houses didn’t just shine light, but also specialized energy signals.
These were similar to the how communication jade slips worked.
There were over ten thousand such lighthouses doing the same forming a 360 degree encirclement around the Sea of Muxuan.
How they took advantage of this was by adding a specialized array to the ships. This array would calculate how strong or how weak each signal was and then mark the location of the ship.
Of course, it wasn’t perfectly accurate. One could still get lost even when using this, due to the fact that these energy signals could be affected by external factors like storms and the rifts.
Despite all this, it was better than nothing and could be used for the better part of the journey.
Having learned this, the travel became easier for them.
Furthermore, with the ability of Elder Niji to mask their presence, the travel was also a bit safer. While they encountered several aquatic beasts, these beasts didn’t really come close to them. Not to mention, they also avoided them as much as possible.
Lin Mu got to see several different kinds of aquatic beasts too.
Some were like normal looking, normal sized fishes and then there were gigantic ones the size of a whale. There were large crabs and other crustaceans as well as tentacle clad beasts like octopuses and squids.
This was just the normal looking aquatic beasts. There were also those that seemed to be a mix of multiple beasts both aquatic and land based.
For example, Lin Mu saw a house sized beast that had the front legs of a bull, head of a catfish and the lower half of a lobster. It was simply a brand new experience for him, allowing him to expand his horizons.
But this wasn’t all either. The cultivation bases of these aquatic beasts varied greatly took.
A majority that they encountered on the surface of the water were either at the Dao Treading realm or the First Tribulation Immortal realm. But from time to time, they could also see a deep sea beast appear.
These were the strongest beasts in the Sea of Muxuan. The highest cultivation base that Lin Mu and the rest encountered was at the sixth Tribulation stage of the Immortal realm!
Such a cultivation base was almost at the peak of the Rust Sky world and could be a king or prime minister in any of the kingdoms. Unfortunately for them, they didn’t really get to see the form of the beast.
It was hidden within a large tornado that was traveling over the water thus they didn’t dare to come close to it. Doing so would only mean going to their deaths. But they certainly did feel the pressure of a sixth Tribulation Stage immortal from that distance.
It was strong enough to make Lin Mu shiver. It also allowed him to get a comparison with the indigo woman on the asteroid. She was certainly a lot stronger than the beast they had encountered.
Day upon day passed like this and all they saw was the endless sea along with some storms and waves.
The Haima tribe members continued to grow stronger, with more of them entering the Dao Treading realm. It seemed like their progress was even faster now that they were out of the Land of Exile and in the sea.
Similar to Elder Niji, the Dao Treading realm members were comprehending the Dao Traces of water a lot faster than before. Lin Mu too continued his cultivation and deepening his understanding of the Earth.