~HONG~

Once the name was declared, the link was solidified between Lin Mu and the bird now called Ashy.

A thread extended from the head of the tiny bird to Lin Mu's chest and connected the two, their thoughts forming a stream and allowing them to speak freely.

Of course, the tiny bird was still asleep and as such there was no conversation as of now. But once she woke up, there were bound to be a lot of words.

"Though considering Ashy is still at the Dao Shell realm, I wonder how much she can speak?

" Lin Mu wondered, while also having found out the gender of the bird through the link.

Ashy was a female as well, but her age was still unknown to Lin Mu.

Beasts could communicate clearly depending on their cultivation base, intelligence as well as age.

For example, the Yin Yang Twin Serpents were born strong and quickly progressed to the Immortal realm. But they still had a hard time speaking.

Whereas, Little Shrubby was able to speak even at the Qi refining realm. The difference between the two was age.

Little Shrubby was already over twenty years old when he had met Lin Mu, and had also seen many other humans. As such he already had the information on how to talk.

The twins had newly learned it, and had been accelerated with their link with Lin Mu.

Lin Mu had no idea how much Ashy knew or how she could talk.

'But since she could talk with Little Shrubby and the twins, she should be decent at it.' Lin Mu reckoned and decided to check the age of the beast.

The method was the same as that of human cultivators. Lin Mu simply checked the bone age of the beast and quickly found out that the tiny bird was actually over three hundred years old!

"Huh… that is certainly old… but I guess she is at the Dao Shell realm this is still young.

" Lin Mu muttered to himself.

If he considered his own group, Ashy who was the newcomer was the oldest member now. Of course that was excluding Xukong and the Saintess.

It wasn't really appropriate to include them in the list as both of them would greatly exceed it. It wouldn't even fit in a small statistical interval to be viable.

'Though I suppose for a beast in an immortal world, three hundred years of age for a Dao Shell realm beast is about average. Especially for a tiny beast like her.' Lin Mu reckoned.

If Lin Mu considered the beast's talent, it was neither too good neither too bad. The changes in bloodline would be affecting this, and as such all the old estimates that Lin Mu had would have to be changed.

'I'll have to wait and watch how it all changes. It'll be all new…' Lin Mu thought to himself as he gazed at the calmly sleeping bird.

He let it sleep and checked on the arrays of the abode again, as he had stopped earlier.

"Just a little bit left to analyze.

" Lin Mu muttered.

He was interested in the array as it was a good example of how an array could modify the natural ecology of the area around it, over time. Arrays like this that had existed for hundreds or thousands of years were rare and even if they did, they were often in cities or sects.

As such the effects would not be as clear and would be modified further by the cultivators living there.

But it was not like that here and it was mostly untouched. This was an important point of study for Lin Mu, as he could tell there was a link with the natural befuddling array of the Evergreen Pillars forest.

For an array like this to exist this long, there must have been some kind of compatibility between it and the Natural Befuddling array. Or even if it wasn't there one right now, there was possibly one in the past.

And incompatibility which had been sorted out on its own somehow.

Lin Mu spent his time in doing this, while the Saintess was thousands of kilometer away on the unknown archipelago doing her own research.

~BOOM~

An explosion happened, and a dense cloud of smoke suddenly spread on the island that the Saintess was on.

~SHUA~

A strong wind suddenly blew in a sphere, and blew away all the smoke, revealing the immaculate Saintess.

"That doesn't work either… these restrictions aren't simple.

" The Saintess muttered, her frown deepening.

Ever since coming here, she had tried various methods on accessing or stopping the arrays, but none of them seemed to work. At least not within the limitations that she had in the Rust Sky World. If she used any more power, she would affect the world and alert the temple of the Four Guardian beasts. They would then alert the immortal court which could become a headache for the Saintess.

'I've already acted once during the tournament. I'm safe because the Great Senior also acted and the immortal court will be wary to act. But if I do it again, they are bound to take notice.' The Saintess pondered on it.

But her experiments here did give her clues to what this place was and how it worked.

'The spatial plane it leads to only allows those below the Transcendent Immortal realm in. The source of the energy of death is still unknown but it is highly likely to be a graveyard of some sort. And the way all these shrines are built… this is definitely a legacy ground.' The Saintess concluded.

The only question was whom did this legacy ground belong to?

'The Demonic tribes? The old inhabitants of the Rust Sky world? Or someone else entirely?' The Saintess didn't know the answer.

All she knew was that the time that the Legacy ground would open was coming close. That was also the reason why the pulses of ominous energy could be felt.

They were the first signs of it opening.