Hearing the words of the beast, Lin Mu was surprised. He was even more surprised because he had been unable to tell that it was a beast or that there was a beast nearby. There were simply no signs of it nor the aura of a beast.
But for now, Lin Mu knew he needed to see where the beast was about to take him and how.
"So… you are gonna bring us to your father? He's alive?" Lin Mu questioned.
"He's not… he died about a thousand years ago." Xiaobao answered. "I'm gonna take you to his grave."
Lin Mu raised his brows upon hearing this.
'A thousand years ago? That's still almost… seven thousand years of lifespan. Isn't that… even more than an Immortal Ascension realm expert?' Lin Wu thought to himself.
"Like I said, some beasts have naturally long lifespans. Some physiques have that factor too, including some cultivation techniques. Even you Lin Mu… are like that." Xukong suddenly said.
"I am too? What do you mean, senior? I have a thousand years of lifespans right now." Lin Mu said.
"No, you don't. You have two thousand years of it… perhaps even a bit more." Xukong replied, much to Lin Mu's shock.
"What?!" Lin Mu internally exclaimed.
"Did you forget you are practicing both Qi cultivation and body cultivation?" Xukong said with a chuckle.
It finally struck Lin Mu.
"Of course… why would a cultivator want to practice both of the paths, when they would have to spend a long time and a lot of resources. Having twice the lifespan makes sense." Lin Mu understood.
"It is also the reason why many cultivators, when they reach the end of their lifespan and are unable to progress anymore, try to practice other paths of cultivation. Of course, this is often useless as one cannot simply do that as many issues can arise.
This is why one needs to cultivate from the start or completely destroy their cultivation base and start over again. But for people that are already at the end of their lifespan, that is not really an option." Xukong explained.
Hearing this, Lin Mu was rather dazed now. Finding out that one had twice as long to live than they expected was, of course shocking. It was even more shocking, as it was over two thousand years.
"And I'm already close to breaking through… once I reach the Dao shell realm, how much more will I have?" Lin Mu said.
"Your longevity will simply be the sum of the normal lifespan of both paths, and a little bit added on top of that. The extra lifespan at the end is rather varied and hard to estimate. You've already seen the example of former adviser Chu. He spent nine extra months living and then you extended it by another month." Xukong replied.
Lin Mu nodded his head and knew that this was enough for him now. Having to not worry about enough time to live was a pleasurable thing and left one free to do a lot. Though Lin Mu also knew that he was lucky in this aspect till now.
He had been fortunate enough to progress very fast and have almost reached the Adult Stage of the Nascent Soul realm at the age of twenty years. In the Xiaofan world, it was already something that had not been seen ever before.
As for the higher worlds, Lin Mu did not know what the record was. But he did know that there were cultivators that were born immortals. He had read about them in the memoirs of the Lost Immortal and didn't know how that was possible or how that worked.
~FUUUSH~
While Lin Mu was in thoughts, he suddenly felt the island shake again and it then started to move.
"Huh? What?!" Lin Mu looked around. "What's happening?" Lin Mu questioned.
"I'm taking you to my father's grave, as I said," Xiaobao spoke.
"But… why's the island moving?" Lin Mu questioned.
"This is no island… this is my body," Xiaobao answered.
"What…" Lin Mu was now utterly shocked, taking another look at the island.
He was confused because he could not feel any spirit Qi or aura coming from it. It was as if this was a lifeless island.
"Little Shrubby should have also been able to smell him if that was so…" Lin Mu muttered.
He looked towards the head of Xiaobao and spoke, "what kind of a beast are you?" Lin Mu questioned.
He had not heard or read about a turtle beast as big as this before, and this was certainly the largest beast he had seen till now as well. And seeing as how he knew that his father died a thousand years ago, he was at least more than a thousand years old as well.
Lin Mu wondered what the beast truly was.
"According to my father, we are the Great Island Turtles. But I am bigger than my kind due to my mother, who was a Great Reef Turtle." Xiaobao answered.
"And what is your cultivation base… I can't really sense your presence. Which is strange…" Lin Mu replied.
He had understood by now that the beast was relatively friendly and did not seem to be as secretive.
"I am at the Nascent soul realm. As for why you can't sense me, that's simply because of my mother's bloodline. I do not know much about it as my mother died shortly after I and my siblings were born." Xiaobao asked.
"I… I'm sorry about your loss." Lin Mu said, not knowing what would be the right thing.
"It's fine. It wasn't you who killed them. I was told by my father that not all humans are the same. He said his master was kind and good. He took care of him when he was a small beast and injured.
It was also because of his master that he managed to live his life and he taught me the same.." Xiaobao revealed, making Lin Mu furrow his brows.