"Whoa!" Lin Mu exclaimed, seeing the vibrant and sprawling lands of the Eastern Ming Dynasty.

"I told you right, it's amazing." Jing Luo chuckled.

There were tall snow-capped peaks, that were in the distance and a colorful forest that spread to the very horizon. There was a long river that flowed towards the north and came from the southwest.

Millions upon millions of flowers were blooming currently even though it was already autumn. Usually the flowers should have reduced in numbers due to the incoming winter and yet it was not so.

Bird flew across the sky, going about their day while the beasts hunted on the ground. The cycle of life continued, and it didn't seem like there was any darkness looming here.

'We truly are small in the large world. None of these beings know about the incoming doom and yet they live their lives. There is bliss in ignorance and yet that very bliss is a deadly poison that will kill them slowly.' Lin Mu thought to himself.

~humm~

"Huh?" Lin Mu looked at his hand as he felt the ring hum ever so slightly.

'What happened?' Lin Mu wondered.

But even after a few seconds, nothing was felt from the ring, so Lin Mu just let go of it. It had happened multiple times and Lin Mu didn't know what to make of it. He knew it was better to focus on the task at hand rather than wasting his time wondering about the unknown.

'The ring will tell me if it really is something truly important.' Lin Mu thought to himself.

Since Lin Mu didn't have Little Shrubby, and Jing Luo was accompanying him, the journey would be a lot slower than he was used to. It would take them about a week to reach the border of the Shuang Qian kingdom and then another week to get to the capital where Wu Hei actually was.

Still, two weeks was a frighteningly short amount of time considering the long distance they were traveling. If it was the average cultivator at the Qi refining realm, it would take him at least three months to do the same.

And if it were a commoner, it would take them even longer. Perhaps even six months would not be enough. After all, the path was not just difficult because of the distance, but also because of the dangers that existed there.

The paths passed through mountains, rivers and forests, all of which were the habitats of beasts. One needed strength to be able to safely pass through them all. A commoner wouldn't even be able to take such a journey and would probably end up dying before reaching the final destination.

Which was also why commoners traveled along with the merchant caravans as they had cultivators for protection.

"It's a shame we won't get to see the capital of the Eastern Ming Dynasty, though. Their Azure roofed buildings are an amazing sight." Jing Luo suddenly spoke.

"We can always go there later. I want to see it sometime in the future, too." Lin Mu replied.

The Light Harmony sect was located southwest of the Eastern Ming Dynasty's capital and they were heading further west, thus there was no way they would get to see the capital.

"Though we will pass by the location of the destroyed teleportation gate, right?" Lin Mu asked.

"Yes. It is on our path." Jing Luo said with a serious expression.

The destruction of the teleportation gate was a loss of both life and finances. And since it was due to the Northern Tribes, Lin Mu definitely didn't want to let go of it easily.

"Do you know more about that place? How did the explosion happen and all?" Lin Mu questioned.

"I do know some. The place was selected originally as a merchant outpost too and also a way for us to get closer to the Shuang Qian kingdom. But what we didn't know was that the Northern Tribes evidently had the same idea and had picked the same region as their base.

Both our outpost and the base of the Northern Tribes were within a hundred kilometers of each other. We didn't encounter each other for the first three months, but then the very first conflict turned serious.

Three of our people died then and several more of the Northern Tribes died. At first we didn't know that they had a base there and just thought they might have been passing through. But then over the coming months, we ended up encountering them more and more.

Three months later, the entire area had basically turned into a battlefield. But then one day, out of nowhere… the explosion happened. We had a clue that the Northern Tribes were doing something there, but we didn't know what exactly.

But whatever it was, it must have been quite volatile to have caused an explosion that obliterated an area of over a hundred kilometers." Jing Luo explained.

"Damn… could it be the rebirth blood or the reborn that they make?" Lin Mu wondered. holds © this.

"Since we don't know how they are made, it could be possible." Jing Luo relied.

"Has anyone else gone to check the area since the explosion?" Lin Mu questioned.

"We did send some scouts, but there was pretty much nothing left to check. The entire area has been flattened and charred black. You will know when you see it. A large black patch on this beautiful green land." Jing Luo answered.

Lin Mu's expression darkened, and he subconsciously sped up.

Their journey went mostly uneventful, and they didn't really have any troubles except for the one time that they passed by the territory of some beasts which got startled and ended up starting a stampede.

Lin Mu and Jing Luo then had to stop that since the beasts were heading towards a town nearby. While it was a little hiccup in their journey, it did replenish Lin Mu's stock of meat again.

'I need to eat more later… my stores of vitality are down since I woke up..' Lin Mu noted.