Hearing this, Lin Mu was surprised and confused at the same time.
"A turtle?" Lin Mu asked.
"Yes, a turtle… my turtle Bao." Kong Hutao replied.
"You have a tamed beast?" Lin Mu guessed.
"Indeed. I have one.. Or I do… I think. It's been several thousand years. I don't think Bao's alive anymore." Kong Hutao replied.
"If he's dead, then how do I find him?" Lin Mu questioned. "And why do I need to find him again?" he added.
"Before I died, I gave some instructions to my turtle. He was the one that was supposed to take care of my dead body. My grave should be where the turtle is." Kong Hutao replied.
"I see… and where is this turtle?" Lin Mu asked.
"Go to the south from this cave. If you travel for about half a day, you should find a large lake. I left him there. I'm sure if you were able to figure out how to get into this minor plane you can find that turtle too." Kong Hutao said.
"Umm… south? This place has no directions, there is no sun." Lin Mu replied.
"No sun? What do you mean no sun?" Kong Hutao asked, feeling confused as well.
"There is no sun out there, just a blue sky." Lin Mu replied.
"That's weird. I know there can't be a sun in this place, but I still let the formations represent the position of the sun in the real world here." Kong Hutao explained.
"Perhaps that formation broke down too?" Lin Mu suggested.
"Maybe… guess you'll need another way to find the direction. Hmm… how do we find it…" Kong Hutao was perplexed.
"You can… point me in the direction using one of the spirit Qi channels that are linked to the Formation nexus?" Lin Mu suggested. Published by Nôv'elD/rama.Org.
"Ah yes! That will work!" Kong Hutao nodded his head.
Kong Hutao then instructed Lin Mu about the different channels that were used to absorb spirit Qi. Lin Mu asked a few more questions and learned that they were spread all across the minor plane.
In fact, the ones that he saw linking to this location actually split in several more junctions all over the plane. The spirit Qi they absorbed was used to then function the rest of the formation array.
That was also the reason why Former Adviser Chu and the other survivors, ended up making the teleportation formation here. They could tell that the spirit Qi concentration here was higher and thus it would be the best to make the formation work.
In other places, there was no way they would be able to power it on their own and also keep it stable at the same time. Any formation that had anything to deal with the space was not to be messed with.
One small mistake and you could be split into several fragments or sent into the void… probably in pieces as well. There were plenty of cultivators who had made this mistake and there were a lot of warnings in all kinds of records and documents.
With the new information added to his repertoire, Lin Mu was ready to leave. He left the cave and followed the direction of the spirit Qi channel. The direction that south was in was slight to the left from where the Eight Hill was.
Lin Mu and Little Shrubby reached there in about twelve hours, just as Kong Hutao had said. But upon reaching it he was a bit surprised, because what he saw was far more than a lake.
"Is this… a sea?" Lin Mu said, feeling stunned.
In front of Lin Mu, a vast blue sea extended all the way into the horizon. He couldn't see anything past it and there were just a few islands scattered inside it. But looking at them closely, one would realize that they were actually mountain peaks.
"Hmm… the changes are certainly a bit more than expected." Xukong commented.
"Ugh… more water." Little Shrubby muttered.
Lin Mu got closer and landed on the seashore. The seashore was rocky and several shells could be seen scattered on it. Now Lin Mu was in a dilemma and didn't know what to do exactly.
"It's one thing to search for a turtle in a lake and the land around it, and a completely different one searching for it in an entire sea!" Lin Mu said out loud.
"Hmm… perhaps we can narrow down the search. We know that the turtle that Kong Hutao had was in the nascent soul realm, so it should be relatively big. It's rather unlikely that it would have lived even now unless it managed to progress its cultivation base without stop.
Certain beasts like turtle and tortoise have naturally long lifespans, and even some Qi refining realm turtle beasts can live up to a thousand years. If the turtle that Kong Hutao was one of them and managed to reach the Dao Shell realm, there is a slim chance it is still alive.
Though if it's in the Dao Treading realm, then it's certainly possible for it to be alive." Xukong spoke.
Lin Mu nodded his head and looked around. It was now that a thought appeared in his mind and he furrowed his brows.
"Senior… is there a chance perhaps that this sea… was made by that turtle?" Lin Mu questioned.
"That may be possible if the Dao embryo it made had the grasp over the Dao of water." Xukong answered.
"Exactly. I've heard of some beasts doing this before. I remember reading a record about a beast called as the Aquadream Lotus. It's a plant like beast and lives in water bodies. I've heard that when it reached the Dao Treading realm, it becomes an Aquadream Sea Lotus and the power it has can make seas.
In one of the legends, I even read that one such Aquadream Sea Lotus fought against a strong fire elemental beast. Fire and water raged and in the end, two areas were created. One was a sea and one was a flaming Marsh.." Lin Mu replied.