Lin Mu's immortal sense scoured Little Shrubby's Dantian and found a swirling mass of qi within it.
The qi was none other than the wood elemental immortal qi that Little Shrubby had absorbed after eating the fruits. It was swirling around his Nascent Soul and was nourishing it.
A flicker of energy could be felt coming from the nascent soul too, making Lin Mu realize something.
"Oh boy…" Lin Mu muttered in astonishment. "Senior is this…"
"Yes… He's going to face a Tribulation soon." Xukong replied.
"But Little Shrubby hasn't even finished his lifespan." Lin Mu said before turning to the beast. "Are you triggering this yourself?" he asked just in case.
"No. I feel like it's happening on its own." Little Shrubby shook his head.
Lin Mu was baffled as to why it was happening.
"It might be his bloodline. He has seven bloodlines, so it wouldn't be unusual for them to act out." Xukong said with a slight doubt.
"Why so? They should be in harmony though? I've made sure to feed them Beast qi in the right proportions." Lin Mu replied.Published by Nôv'elD/rama.Org.
"Even if you do that, it doesn't mean that they'll stay like that always. Besides, it probably won't be breaking the balance but rather progressing." Xukong said, making Lin Mu think further.
Lin Mu went silent for a bit before speaking again.
"Then do you think, the Fume Wood Panther Bloodline wants to reach the same level as the Flash Fire Liger and Scorch Claw Tiger Bloodline?" Lin Mu said after pondering on it.
"That does seem likely. I think you might have to prepare for it." Xukong replied.
Lin Mu's expression turned serious as he sped up his pace. He soon reached the Lingering Bamboo Pavilion and went straight to meet the clerk.
"Ah!" The woman was startled by Lin Mu's sudden appearance.
Despite being an immortal herself, she had been unable to sense his presence until he standing right in front of her. Then there was the fact that Lin Mu's expression was serious and he was dressed in good looking clothes.
All those factors combined made the woman feel intimidated.
"Ah! It's sir Mu Lin." The clerk finally recognized. "D-do you need something?" she asked.
"Is the Lingering Bamboo Pavilion and the Courtyards within it equipped to handle an Immortal Tribulation?" Lin Mu questioned.
While he could ask the Saintess to help hide the Tribulation and its effects, he didn't know if it was appropriate for her to act in the Capital City. After all, there was temple of the Four Guardian beasts here and since they were close to awakening, they could sense her.
The Saintess had mentioned that she wasn't exactly supposed to be in the Rust Sky world, and had sneaked in here.
This limited her options, and any action by her could potentially get detected. Especially now that he tournament was close and there was high security. Even the Emperor might be paying attention to it personally.
"Immortal Tribulation?!" The Clerk didn't take long to guess what Lin Mu was getting at. "The courtyard that Sir has rented has the privilege of utilizing the Tribulation Isolation array. If sir wishes to do so, he can undergo an immortal tribulation." She said.
"Though… If there are any damages beyond a certain limit, sir would have to pay for it." The woman added.
Hearing that Lin Mu was satisfied. He could very well limit the damage that could happen to the area. Plus even if the Saintess couldn't act to hide the tribulation, she could still limit the damage it caused.
Of course, Lin Mu was going to set up some arrays to do the same.
"Alright, that's fine." Lin Mu replied.
"Are you really undergoing a break through?" The woman asked.
With how many immortals there were in the city and those that were taking part in the Tournament of the Four Guardian beasts, breakthrough were relatively common.
Many immortals were engrossed in last minute cultivation and hoped to grow their strength as much as possible before the day of their match. In fact, the close the tournament got, the greater the pressure on them.
This led to some of them actually breaking their bottlenecks and progressing to the next stage. It was a classic example of pushing their limits and overcoming them.
The royal court obviously knew of this and the fact that there would be people breaking through. Thus they had already set up the tribulation isolation arrays to address the issue.
These arrays were different than Tribulation Attenuation arrays though.
Tribulation Isolation arrays were mainly meant to prevent the interference of outside elements as well as the tribulation affecting the surroundings. After all, they wouldn't want a tribulation to causally devastate buildings right in the middle of the capital.
Of course, there were certain tribulations that would be beyond the capabilities of the Tribulation Isolation arrays and could still cause damage. They might even shatter the array itself and cause even more chaos.
This was something that couldn't really be addressed without a stronger array. Of course, being the capital city it had this part covered too. But a strong array like that wasn't kept active all the time.
Instead, it was linked to a tribulation detection array that would cause it to activate only when there was a strong enough immortal tribulation. In a way, one could call it the backup for the smaller tribulation isolation array.
Every individual district had its own small tribulation isolation array and the same was the case for the Lingering Bamboo Pavilion. In fact, with how big it was along with the immortals living in it, they had added their own private array to it too.
These were then further reinforced with defensive and durability arrays, to prevent extra damage.
So if the arrays were to be overloaded, it would have to overcome 3 arrays before the stronger city wide Tribulation isolation array would be activated.
Of course for something like that to happen, the tribulation would have to be very strong.