Lin Mu took the Saintess's warning seriously and decided to be careful with it.
No longer was he using his old skills that were meant for the spirit Qi realm. He was now using skills that matched up to the immortal realm and even among them they were of the top level. It was now something he could truly wring out the potential from.
"Thank you for the advice Saintess." Lin Mu said with gratitude.
"It's nothing. You would have figured it out on your own too later." The Saintess waved it away.
Lin Mu nodded his head and looked up at the sky sensing some fluctuations there. He found the barrier to be flickering lightly.
"Is that normal, by the way?" He asked.
"It'll go back to normal in a bit." The Saintess replied.
"Why's it happening though? My attack didn't hit it." Lin Mu asked.
"The Tyrant Bull Marrow Secrets doesn't just come with your skills and power. Did you not notice your aura?" The Saintess questioned instead.
"My aura?" Lin Mu had noticed it indeed. "I did, but… that caused that?"
"Of course. Thats the Tyrannical Aura of the Tyrant Bull. Its mere presence can cause disturbances and make creatures intimidated. The stronger you get and further you progress with the Tyrant Bull Marrow Secrets, the stronger that aura will get. Eventually it'll reach a point where it can directly harm others." The Saintess answered.
"Huh… that wasn't in the manual." Lin Mu was surprised that Xukong hadn't mentioned that to him.
"Well, it isn't an explicit feature of it. But rather a passive effect." The Saintess replied.
"Ah, I see." Lin Mu now understood.
Some of his other techniques had similar effects too, so he grasped it quickly.
Done with that, Lin Mu looked at Little Shrubby and The twins.
"We're going to go out today." Lin Mu said.
"We are?" Little Shrubby and the twins approached him.
"Yeah, we'll take a look around the city as well as ask about the banquets. They did ask us to visit one before." Lin Mu answered.
"A Banquet?" The Saintess muttered. "Do you mean this?" she waved her hand and a letter drifted over.
"Hmmm?" Lin Mu looked at the letter and found the seal of the Lingering Bamboo Pavilion on it. "From the staff?"
"A servant dropped it off a few days ago, and announced that it was an invitation for a banquet." The Saintess replied.
Lin Mu then realized that the woman manning the desk at the Lingering Bamboo Pavilion knew about him being a contestant in the tournament. And he had asked for no servants to be there, so it made sense for them to simply send the letter this way.
"Let's take a look then." Lin Mu picked up the letter and opened it, finding a rather elegant invitation card inside.
'Dear Contestant, is the owner.
If you have received this invitation, then you are chosen and have been considered a promising immortal. We are pleased to invite you to the Vibrant Flame banquet. As the greatest of all Pre-Tournament Banquets, we continue our tradition this time too, and will continue to do so for thousands of years to come just like before.
Every week there shall be one Vibrant Flame Banquet held at the Little Glory Palace until the start of the tournament. We will be greatly pleased if you would grace us with your presence.
Yours Faithfully
High Wind Alliance.'
Having read the letter, Lin Mu was a bit surprised as it didn't seem like a normal invite. From what he had heard, the other banquets were basically open invitation for contestants. But this one seemed to be targeted and exclusive.
"Seems like they've picked you." The Saintess spoke.
"Indeed… I think being here might have made them send it to me." Lin Mu concluded.
After all, he was staying in quite the expensive place. As for the majority of contestants, even if they were strong, not all of them had the liquid assets to afford something like this. They would rather spend all their earnings on resources so that they could cultivate more.
"But this High Wind Allaince… who are they?" Lin Mu couldn't recall hearing about them.
Considering the exclusivity of the invitation he reckoned that it was certainly someone important.
"And if you add the Little Glory Palace to that… It must be someone high ranking." Lin Mu guessed.
The Little Glory Palace was one of the many palaces located within the royal grounds and was further from the External Greeting hall that Lin Mu had visited. In a way, its function was similar to the External Greeting hall, meant to entertain and meet guests.
But in the case of the Little Glory Palace, the guests were usually of a high influence or power. And to make use of the Little Glory Palace was not easy, and only a high noble could authorize it.
"Considering its an alliance, perhaps they are not one but several nobles?" it didn't take much for Lin Mu to guess it.
"Are you going to this one?" The Saintess asked.
"Hmm… I'm considering it." Lin Mu didn't know how good it was to enter the palace grounds again, especially since he didn't know who was it that was throwing this banquet exactly.
His past experience had enlightened him enough to the politics of nobles and knew that merely talking with some can offend others. Even if it was just a passing greeting. Lin Mu didn't wish to get embroiled in their politics and the easiest way to do so was to avoid them.
But then at the same time, the banquet was a good chance to assess his potential competitors.
"It's tomorrow night, so you have today to consider." The Saintess said, looking at the dates.
"Yeah, I'll take a walk around first. Maybe look into who this High Wind alliance is first." Lin Mu replied.
"Interacting with other contestants will be good for you. Who knows, you might even have some gains from it." Xukong chimed in as well.
Now that even Xukong had said this, Lin Mu was a lot more positive about it.
"Alright, let's head out then." Lin Mu said to his beasts.
"Yay! I want to get some new ingredients too!" Little Shrubby said with excitement.
"Sure, we'll see what new stuff they're selling." Lin Mu agreed quickly.
With the number of new traders coming to the city, quite a lot of new items were brought. And in them all, materials that could be used as cooking ingredients were plenty too. Lin Mu was interested in it too as there were traders from different worlds arriving as well.
The party of four took their leave with the twins hiding under Lin Mu's sleeves while Little Shrubby sat on his shoulder like usual. In his kitten form, he was seen as harmless and even his cultivation base seemed to be low.
Smaller beasts like Little Shrubby were actually quite popular, especially among the younger female cultivators. Women were drawn to cute things, and the same applied to their taste in beasts.
It wasn't unusual for Lin Mu to see women walking around with small tamed beasts, that looked cute. There were small dogs, some puppies, a few birds, lots of feline beasts as well as a few hybrid beasts.
All this made it easier for Lin Mu to walk around with Little Shrubby as he didn't really stick out.
Though people would find their tamed beast getting silent when Lin Mu and Little Shrubby passed by them. Of course no one knew that the reason for this was the two. Both Little Shrubby and Lin Mu had a passive presence that alerted the instincts of the beasts.
They might not be able to tell that the threat was coming from Lin Mu and little Shrubby, but they could tell that something was around them. Thus they would stay silent until the 'danger' had passed.
Though the twins were relatively hidden, as their aura's were completely concealed. Lin Mu could tell that the Saintess had taken care of that, so that other's wouldn't notice the two as easily.
Otherwise, the effect of fear would have only been multiplied several times. There was a reason why the Yin Yang Twin Serpents were the ancestral serpents of the Serpent Moon Sect. Even in their infant forms, their power was not something to scoff at.
Just their bloodline might alert beasts several times stronger than them.
Of course, Lin Mu and his beasts didn't care about all this and simply enjoyed their time in the city. They bought new ingredients from the merchants who had newly arrived as well as ate some new dishes.
And on top of all that, Lin Mu also took that chance to find out about the High Wind alliance.
He learned that it was a special alliance of over thirty influential people that not only included nobles, but also other strong cultivators from the Dao Wind Empire. Their main function was to gather talents for their own powers and the tournament was a great way to do so.