Chapter 685: Two Conversations
The two disciples looked at each other and the senior disciple finally decided to speak.
"Fine, we shall do as you ask. We'll make a tribulation attenuation platform for the King to safely breakthrough." The senior brother answered the king's uncle.
"Excellent! I hope you can prepare for this as soon as possible." The King's uncle urge.
The junior brother furrowed his eyes in doubt and looked at his senior brother. But before he could say anything, he was signaled by his senior brother to stay silent and not to do anything.
With that done, the senior brother suddenly stood up.
"We shall take our leave then and prepare for it, Senior Kou." The senior brother stated.
"Of course, please do. The suites are available for you and you can stay there if you so please." The King's uncle, who was evidently named Kou spoke.
Having said that, the two disciples took their leave and so did Kou after a few minutes. Lin Mu observed both parties with his spirit sense and saw that Kou went to talk with the king about the meeting he just had while the two brothers went to the room that they were assigned.
Since the entire palace was a single large building, they didn't have a separate courtyard like in many other places. Instead of that, there were large suits assigned to people within which there were more rooms.
The suite was rather luxurious and of high quality. There were several decorations in it, along with many plants. There were even miniature Hong Lin trees that had evidently been grown especially for indoor areas like this.
Overall, it gave a rather comfortable vibe despite not being as big as a courtyard. There were now two conversations going on at the same time, and Lin Mu didn't know which party to listen to first.
But after hearing the two disciples for a few seconds, Lin Mu took a breath of relief.
"Why did you accept it, senior brother?" The Junior brother questioned.
"Stay quiet for now. There can be people listening in more ways than just one. We shall talk later outside, for now just cultivate and wait." The senior brother stated, not letting the junior protest.
The junior brother had an uneasy expression on his face, but he didn't protest and simply accepted it for now.
Lin Mu nodded upon hearing the senior brother's words and knew that it was actually true. There were formations that could listen to people that were located in the royal palace.
The formation was directly integrated into the entire fomentation array of the palace and thus would be hard to discover unless a formation master came by and decided to investigate it thoroughly.
Even then, it might take that master a long time to do so and they might not even be successful. For Lin Mu though, he could simply use the ring to look past the layers without a problem.
Normally for formation masters, solving a formation array was like solving a puzzle, but the puzzle was hidden behind a wall and they could not see it. In addition to that touching, any wrong part might collapse the wall and hurt, if not damage them.
All in all, it was a complex process and needed quite a lot of skill to learn and master. Lin Mu had discovered them and didn't really care for them as they couldn't affect him anyway when he was in Phase.
After this short conversation, the two disciples went silent and continued to calmly cultivate.
"Hmm… I'll come to them later." Lin Mu muttered to himself and focused his attention on the King and his uncle.
The King was sitting on the throne and the entire throne room was currently empty. It was evident that the members of the royal court had been asked to give the king time to breakthrough while not being disturbed.
Nearly every cultivator knew how difficult it was to overcome a heavenly tribulation and thus they took to their duties seriously while the king was busy with his own breakthrough preparations.
Of course, the normal public did not know about this as it could be a troublesome event in the case that the King fails his tribulation and gets hurt, if not dies. Plus, it would also give the enemies of the king and the royal court information about this, letting them have a chance to plot against them.
If the news about the king being close to a breakthrough was heard, it was bound to cause waves in the entire Hong Lin kingdom. It would thus invite attention from the enemies, who would be worried about the increasing power of the king and try to kill him.
By keeping a secret, the king would be safer and perhaps even have a better chance at surviving this without the stress of people watching his every move. Plus, if he successfully broke through and stabilized his cultivation base, the announcement after that would only be that much better.
It would increase the veneration for the king that was felt by the citizens of the Hong Lin country and it would also increase the fear that these enemies felt from them. Overall it was a plan that focused more on safety and stability rather than temporary publicity.
"I have managed to convince the two disciples of sect master Hua to help in your tribulation." Kou spoke.
"You didn't have to, uncle Kou. I know that I can accomplish this on my own as well. Plus, taking the help of others would only put us in debt with them." The King replied.
"Hahaha, you don't need to worry about that. Those two came here to actually ask for our help, thus when they take care of this task, that debt their master owed your father will be written off.
That way, no one will be in each other's debt and you won't have to worry about it either." Kou spoke with a laugh.
"Hmm… if you say so, uncle Kou." The King replied in a low voice.
Chapter 686: Hong Lin Kingdom's Secrets
Lin Mu continued to listen to the conversion of the royal nephew, and uncle as they talked.
"But what is it that they wanted with us, Uncle Kou?" The king questioned.
"Oh, it was the same old, people needing thousand year old Hong Lin trees. I told him that we don't have the location for any such trees as of now. Instead of that, we are willing to provide them some wood from our own reserve storage that they can take." Kou answered.
Hearing this, the king furrowed his brows.
"Hmm… the number of Hong Lin trees that reach a thousand years has greatly fallen over the years for us. I think it may be time to enact the measures father had chosen back then." The king spoke upon hearing Kou.
"Those measures were controversial and you know that. If we really do announce them, our trade will fall and so will the taxes we gain from our people." Kou replied.
"But if we really don't do anything, we will be losing our heritage, the Hong Lin trees. You of all people should know well uncle, there must always be at least ten thousand year old Hong Lin trees living, or the entire forest will start to die.
They are the mother trees that we protect, but if others cannot replace them later on, if some accident happens, we won't be able to do anything and it will be too late to regret it." The King said in a concerned voice.
~Sigh~
"This is a problem that has troubled us for a long time now. Many past ministers and kings tried to find some solution, but it was never suitable for the time period. Even now, we cannot do it.
It is unknown which trees have the potential to survive till a thousand years and become thousand year old Hong Lin trees. If we forcibly protect all trees and prevent them from being cut down, just for the fear that it might be the potential thousand year old tree, it will only cause an uproar." Kou explained.
The King shook his head and closed his eyes to focus on his cultivation back again.
Unknown to both of them, Lin Mu had heard their entire conversion, which could be considered to be very sensitive. Lin Mu had evidently gotten to learn several sensitive secrets of the Hong Lin kingdom.
The first was that there were ten mother Hong Lin trees being actively protected by the royal family somewhere and that not all Hong Lin trees had the potential of becoming a thousand year old.
Lin Mu knew that there were actually people that sold Hong Lin saplings to various people. The customers for this were both the citizens from the Hong Lin kingdom and also other kingdoms.
Several sects had bought them as well, just for the hope that the tree might reach thousand years and grow to become a thousand year old Hong Lin tree.
But what they did not know was that they had been intentionally misinformed. If they did find out about this, there was a great chance they would be offended, despite the fact that the natural survival chances of a Hong Lin tree only decreased once it lived past five hundred years.
In the entire Hong Lin kingdom, there were less than 5% of trees that were actually a hundred years or older. One could only imagine how difficult it would be for a Hong Lin tree to reach a thousand years.
Lin Mu thought about this all and wondered if there was a way he could take advantage of this somehow.
The King's uncle took his leave and went back to his own room to cultivate for now. Lin Mu observed both of them for a while and saw that they were not doing anything other than cultivating and thus decided to take his leave.
"I should get to the repository so I can see the records about me and the Hei corps…" Lin Mu muttered to himself.
His spirit sense soon found the area where the repository was located. It was located right below where the king's court was and even had a direct entrance to it from the back. Its main entrance for others though was from the floor below it.
All of these, of course, were irrelevant to Lin Mu, and he directly descended into the repository. Luckily for him, there was no one in the hall for the time being and let him search it freely.
'It may be because the king is cultivating right above this that they decide to prevent others from coming here and accidentally disturbing the king.' Lin Mu thought to himself.
While the royal repository was large, it didn't have the same number of documents and records as that of the law enforcement hall. Plus, the documents and records that were kept here were rather varied and contained more than just crime reports and such.
There were official records of the Kingdom's daily expenditure and functioning that went all the way back to over three hundred years, its history and genealogy of all the king's and even several cultivation techniques.
While Lin Mu found several of these documents interesting, he put off reading them for the time being and focused on the task for which he came here. After about an hour's search, Lin Mu finally found the thing he came here for.
"There it is… Lin Mu and Hei corps." Lin Mu picked up the two scrolls that were kept together, along with several other scrolls with sensitive information.
Lin Mu first read his own scroll and then the scroll about the Hei corps.
In his own scroll, there wasn't anything that seemed out of the normal to him. It was just more and more orders about how to find and where to report the information about him.
It was all general instructions that would be issued for most wanted criminals. But when he finally got to the scroll about the Hei corps, his eyes narrowed.
Chapter 687: Change Of Plans
Lin Mu read the scroll and furrowed his brows.
"They caught over ten members of the Hei corps of the sixteen that they had detected were in the kingdom. The remaining six are still missing and have been put at a high level of importance.
The ones that were caught were then sent to the empire itself, as was requested of them according to the orders." Lin Mu muttered after reading the entire scroll.
He knew that it wasn't fully the Hong Lin kingdom's fault either in catching and sending the members of the Hei corps off. From all that he knew, the kingdoms needed to follow the orders of the empire, especially for highly wanted criminals like this.
Plus, it was not like they would listen if the members of the Hei corps protested. They were simply doing what they were asked to and anyone else would do the same if they didn't know that the sects and empires were being manipulated, no less.
~Sigh~
"This doesn't help us much. There is no more information about the six members that managed to escape either." Lin Mu said while shaking his head.
Comparing the dates, Lin Mu was sure that it would be close to impossible if he wanted to find the members of the Hei corps here. The outpost that was located in the Hong Lin kingdom could be said to be as good as gone now.
'Perhaps they have left the kingdom a long time ago as well…' Lin Mu thought.
With these thoughts in his mind, Lin Mu didn't know if completing their mission here was even possible anymore.
"Things won't always go according to your plans. This is one of the very important things you need to learn. Fate is a fickle mistress and often likes to play without much rhyme or reason." Xukong said in a sagely tone.
"I understand senior." Lin Mu replied.
"Though… it's not like this is a complete failure for you, either. There are other things you can accomplish here from what I've been seeing till now." Xukong stated.
Lin Mu thought over it and indeed found it to be true. There were a lot of things he could do in the Hong Lin kingdom, plus it didn't seem like Gu Yao had a very strong control here… at least not for now.
"Mmm, I'll see what else I can do here. At the very least, we'll get the Hong Lin wood before we leave for the Long Cloud sect." Lin Mu stated.
With that done, Lin Mu felt a bit free now and felt like he could do some other things and didn't need to rush everything.
'I'll take a look at the other things here… might as well take the advantage of being here already.' Lin Mu thought before looking around.
Lin Mu read through many records and documents that were stored in the repository and even learned of the history of the Hong Lin kingdom.
It was said that the Hong Lin kingdom was founded over three thousand years ago by the first king of named Hong. He was an orphan as well, who was abandoned in the Hong Lin forest.
He grew up in the harshness of the forest and survived it all, taking up the forest as his parents and thus naming himself 'Hong'. He alone managed to cultivate all the way to the peak of the Qi refining realm upon coming across a secret cultivator abode in the forest.
Using the cultivation technique he found in it, his cultivation continued to soar, and so did his status.
Back then, while the unification of the entire continent was already done, the area where the Hong Lin forest was located was still free. And since the nearby powers were still struggling in their own troubles after the war, they didn't have the chance to expand or take over more things than they could deal with back then.
This allowed there to be several small clans that settled in the Hong Lin forest. These were the natives of the forest and lived in large circular houses, much like the royal place itself.
Over time, the architecture style had changed and been influenced by the rest of the empire, but the Royal palace still kept up the tradition.
The first King, 'Hong' reached the Nascent soul realm and was said to be so talented that he was invited by many sects back then, even including several top sects. But he rejected all of them and instead chose to settle in the forest that had raised him and called it his home.
He established the Hong Lin Kingdom and united the smaller clans, making them his citizens and subjects. He dispelled opposition with an iron fist and decimated his opponents with ease.
But the one thing he loved dearly was the forest itself and the Hong Lin trees. He wrote countless poems and couplets about them, and praised them to no end. Many people said he was obsessed with the trees and that he would even marry them if one turned into a human.
His obsession even carried on after he became king. Becoming a king came with the duty of producing offspring and heirs, and thus he married several women. But the queen that he married never managed to truly win his heart, and he was often found cultivating in the forest instead.
Despite him having many heirs, his queen and concubines were always displeased with him. Over the years, this led to many conflicts among the heirs of the first king. Since he didn't pay much attention to his wives and the royal court, it ended up with them competing against each other.
With no attention from their husband, the wives fought and quarreled amongst themselves, redirecting their goals to gain more power in the kingdom for themselves, their children, and their families.
While the commoners lived in relative peace, the royal palace was almost always in some kind of internal trouble.
All of this only stopped when the King suddenly disappeared one day. Upon his departure, he only left a single letter from which mentioned that he was reaching the end of his lifespan and would not deal with the matters of the kingdom anymore.
As for who would be the next king?
He left that up to a quest that he assigned to his heirs.
Before leaving, the king had sealed the royal treasury and even the repository, basically leaving the entire royal place helpless. He stated that the next king will be the one who finds the oldest Hong Lin tree in the forest and takes the Royal Seal from it.
The king had hidden his Royal seal, which was his token of authority on the oldest tree of the Hong Lin forest. This tree was something that only the king knew, as he was the only one who had spent so much time in the forest.
It is said that due to the pressure from the potential fall of the royal family, the heirs actually worked together and eventually found the royal seal. One of the heirs was elected as the king, while the rest of them took different positions in the royal court.
Though half of them also chose to leave the kingdom and pursue the life of a cultivator, either in the sects or just as itinerant cultivators.
Over the years, the throne changed hands several times, and the king wasn't always someone who reached the Nascent Soul realm.
"That was one eccentric king… why did he even choose to become one when he didn't want to run his kingdom well?" Lin Mu couldn't help but wonder.
"People have many obsessions in their life and some of these make them want to protect it. The first king loved the forest like his own parents and thus took the only method he thought would be possible to protect it, becoming king." Xukong explained.
Lin Mu thought over it and found it to be reasonable. He then continued to read through more documents and spent several hours in the repository. He also kept checking the status of the king, his uncle Kou and the two disciples from the sect he didn't know about yet, but they were all still in their places and cultivated in silence.
Just as he was about to debate on whether to leave or not, he came across something that caught his attention.
It was a cultivation technique and was kept among the other cultivation techniques in the repository. They weren't particularly good and thus didn't catch Lin Mu's eyes, as he could cultivate far easily without them.
But this cultivation technique caught his attention, became of its description and method that it showed.
"This is a rather strange technique…" Lin Mu said upon reading its content.
'Embrace the heart of the Hong Lin, let its essence flow through you, and ignite the flame in your heart.' Lin Mu read the mnemonic of the technique.
Chapter 688: A Technique
The technique in front of Lin Mu was unlike the other ones he had seen. The more he read it, the more he found it to be strange. By the time he was done reading it, he understood that it was not a normal cultivation technique.
It was then that it hit him.
"Senior, could this be a body cultivation technique?" Lin Mu questioned.
Xukong quickly took a look through the recent memories and assessed the technique.
"Oh? This is actually a rudimentary body cultivation technique." Xukong spoke.
"It really is!?" Lin Mu was now excited.
"Indeed. Though this one is dependent mostly on a specific kind of resources and thus it can only be considered to be the lowest grade of body cultivation technique." Xukong replied.
Lin Wu was now excited upon hearing this. A body cultivation technique was what he was lacking, and now he finally had one. Even if it was a low quality one, Lin Wu reckoned it should be better than nothing.
"What's the difference between this body cultivation technique and others, senior?" Lin Mu questioned.
"Hmm…. This one was evidently made by trial and error. And now that I observe it again, it seems like the creator of this technique originally wanted to make a Qi cultivation technique but ended up with something completely else." Xukong explained.
"I see… this essence of Hong Lin that the technique talk about… isn't this just Vital essence?" Lin Mu asked.
"That's probably it. This world probably does not have body cultivation techniques since those require vital essence to cultivate rather than just Vital energy. But in the case of this technique, it managed to find an alternative way of obtaining it which is from those Hong Lin trees." Xukong spoke.
"Seems like it. Though it also needs some specific kinds of trees, it looks like. Normal Hong Lin trees won't be enough. The tree needs to be one with a 'Heart'." Lin Mu stated.
Xukong thought over it for a bit and shook his head.
"You will have to investigate this on your own and see how it works. So far, you have managed to use elemental Qi instead of Vital essence to cultivate, but that only works for the initial stages.
I doubt your body will be that responsive to it as you increase it further. Even when you absorbed the fire elemental Qi, that was a great luck. I don't think fire elemental Qi will work for you anymore." Xukong explained.
Lin Mu thought over it and found it to be reasonable. He knew that even if he had managed to refine some fire attributive spirit Qi and his heart had been refined due to the first influence, it was not something that could be repeated over and over again.
~Sigh~
"Seems like we will be focusing on Hong Lin trees even more than I thought. Though having obtained this technique is more than enough reason to come to the Hong Lin kingdom. I can't say we've wasted our time here now, despite the fact that we have basically failed with the Hei corps." Lin Mu said while shaking his head.
"Indeed. Like I said before, there are opportunities everywhere and all you need to do is search for them." Xukong spoke.
"I understand now, senior." Lin Mu said before putting the technique's scroll back where he found it.
He had already memorized it and had even made a copy of its contents in another jade slip. Thus, he no longer needed it, plus he didn't want to steal it from its rightful owners. The Hong Lin kingdom had not directly harmed him yet and thus he didn't want to harm them either.
Even if they did end up harming the Hei corps, it was not something Lin Wu could blame them for. With that said and done, Lin Mu swept through the rest of the repository, reading and gathering information that was of use to him.
There were some minor pieces of information that came to his use and cleared some of the doubts that he had about the empire as well and thus he felt that this was all useful to him.
Once he was done, Lin Mu checked the entire repository to make sure that no one would find that he was here and left it. He observed the king, his uncle Kou and also the two disciples only to find them cultivating now as well.
"Hmm… this makes it easier. I'll go check up on Jing Luo and see how he's doing before doing other things." Lin Mu muttered to himself and quickly left the royal palace.
In a few minutes, Lin Mu was already in the courtyard, which he had rented for the month. He used his spirit sense and saw that Jing Luo was still deep in assimilating the knowledge. He had also set up a barrier around his room to prevent any sound or someone from disturbing him.
"Hmm, guess I'll leave him alone for now and go do other tasks." Lin Mu said before leaving the hall.
It was now nighttime and the streets were filled with people going about their tasks. Some were walking around, enjoying their time and eating at the various restaurants and food stalls that were located in the city.
There were children playing around while their parents looked after them. There were also several cultivators that were selling things here.
"I may as well check out the market and see how things fare." Lin Mu said before he wandered through the streets.
There were many areas in the capital city, and they were divided according to their purpose. There was the food street that was filled with restaurants, the entertainment street that had brothels, pleasure pavilions, taverns and gambling houses, and finally shopping streets where various goods and items were sold.
Lin Mu of course, decided to visit the food street first and partake in the unique cuisine of the Hong Lin kingdom.
"This will be fun…"
Chapter 689: An Exhausted Official
The people of the food street had a rather unique and a bit overwhelming experience today. For the first time in their lives, all of their stock had been finished and even their reserves were all sold off.
A rather handsome man as described by the female vendors, went to shop by shop, stall by stall, and either ate all the food they had or bought it all. In some shops, he tasted some and bought the rest.
The other people who had come to visit the street were left stunned, unable to even complain. All they could see was a man, eating food like he had been starving for who knows how long.
Of course, this person was none other than Lin Mu, who was having the time of his life. There were many kinds of dishes to taste and even more ingredients to buy.
There were special herbs that were cooked in jungle fowl fat to make a stir-fry. There was one of the specialties of the Hong Lin kingdom, which was the Leave wrapped rice and meat cakes.
These were made by covering beast meat in rice first before it was wrapped in the broad leaves of the Hong Lin trees and then steamed. The leaves of the Hong Lin Trees gave it a rather unique armor and a tinge of flavor that seeped into the rice.
Even the water that was used to steam it all was flavored with the flowers of the Hong Lin trees, adding a scent that mesmerized everyone that passed by. This was also one of the most expensive dishes that could be bought here, but Lin Mu simply spent several tens of gold coins and bought the entire shop's supply.
In total, he had bought around twenty steamers full of this dish. Once he stored them in the ring, they would stay good for a long time and Lin Mu would be able to enjoy them later.
In addition to the food street, Lin Mu even went to the street where they sent the ingredients for those dishes and emptied out other stores as well. Some of the other customers protested, of course, but they couldn't really do much in the face of money.
After all, no sane shopkeeper would deny Lin Mu, who was paying everything upfront. The other customers could only sigh to themselves and curse their bad luck that they met a whale today.
The thing was, they didn't even know why Lin Mu was buying all this. At the start, the customers thought he owned a restaurant or something like that and thus he was buying in bulk, but when Lin Mu started to empty out other shops as well, they started to find it really strange.
No restaurant would buy these many ingredients. Even if they wanted to keep some in the reserve storage, they wouldn't keep such a massive amount. Doing so was just asking to make a loss as the ingredients would go bad on their own after a while, even if they tried to use as many as possible.
Of course, how could they know that Lin Mu had a spatial storage treasure that had a massive capacity that was not even a fraction of one percent filled? And the food and ingredients that were kept in it would not go bad for years to come, which was enough for him to finish it all of.
Though to be honest, that situation would never arrive, as even after eating so much food, Lin Mu didn't feel full at all. The only reason he bought it for later was that he knew it would probably cause an even bigger commotion if he went around eating their entire stocks instead of just buying it.
Another reason why the people didn't question Lin Mu much was because of his identity as a cultivator. Since he was able to store all of it in spatial storage treasures they knew that not only was he a cultivator, he was also a very rich cultivator.
Some of the women and girls couldn't help but send flirtatious glances towards him but unfortunately for them, Lin Mu only had eyes for the food.
While Lin Mu continued to go from one store to the next, buying stuff, the news about the commotion had already reached the law enforcement office. In there, a few guards were standing in front of a man who seemed to be exhausted and had eye bags.
His eyes were bloodshot, and it was apparent he had not had much sleep these few days.
"And you woke me up because this man was buying things?" The man asked.
"Yes, office head." The guards spoke.
"And he brought everything legitimately?" The man asked.
"Yes, office head." The guard replied again.
"No stealing?"
"No, office head."
"The coins were real?"
"Yes, office head.
"Did he cause any conflict or a fight?"
"The other customers were upset and displeased that all of the stock was bought off by him, not only in one or two shops but the entire streets." The guard replied.
"And they were the ones that reported him to you all?" The office head questioned.
"Yes, office head. They said that he is intentionally causing trouble and strife in the business. They say he is attempting to run them out of business and make them bankrupt." The guards answered.
Hearing all this, the office head rubbed his forehead and eyes.
~Sigh~
The man let out a sigh as he raised his head. His exhausted expression contorted and fear filled the eyes of the guards.
"YOU IMBECILES! DID YOU EVEN CHECK THE LAWS AND REGULATIONS BEFORE YOU CAME TO ME?" The office head thundered.
"Umm…" the guards were unable to reply anymore.
"SPEAK!" The office head yelled again.
"Uh… he didn't really break any laws or regulations. But since the merchants and all complained, we had no choice but to come to you, office head." The guards replied with difficultly.
"I swear I'll flip the ministry of trade someday… just because someone outbid them, they think they can just force work onto us…" the office head cursed.
Chapter 690: Nice
gulp~
The guards couldn't help but swallow their saliva in fear as they worried about their office head. They didn't know if he would have a breakdown and start beating them up or if he would really go ahead with his words and cause an upheaval in the ministry of trade.
They didn't even know how their office head caught onto the fact that a majority of the people who had complained to them were influential supporters of the ministry of trade. With their money and power, the guards dared not offend them and directly came to report to their superior.
But now they were getting yelled at here as well and all they could do was bear it silently. They knew that if they voiced out or protested, the office head would not hesitate in beating them up.
After a few minutes of cursing, the office head calmed down and took a deep breath.
~huu~
"Tell the merchants if they complain again for things like these, that are clearly not against the rules, they will be the ones getting punished. And if they really don't like running out of things to buy, they are free to approach the ministry of trade to appeal a new law specifically for that.
Tell them that they can have their 'fair' purchase power as much as they can if they do that. Whatever the backlash they get from that though will not be on us." The office head declared.
~gulp~
The guards swallowed down their saliva and nodded their heads.
"We'll do as you said, Office head." The guards said in a meek voice.
"Now then… GET OUT!" The office head replied before kicking them out of his office.
~BANG~
The door was slammed shut behind the backs of the guards, and they could only smile wryly.
***
While all this happened, Lin Mu was blissfully unaware of it all and kept on shopping. And even if he did know that this happened, he wouldn't really care, as it was not like he had broken any rules.
Lin Mu was now sitting in a tea house, calmly sipping some tea made from Hong Lin Blossoms. He reckoned that after having eaten so many things, it only made sense to cleanse his palate and relax while drinking some tea.
"The Hong Lin trees truly are the life blood of this kingdom." Lin Mu muttered after thinking for a bit.
He had seen so many products and items that all used Hong Lin trees or involved them, making him feel a bit awed at it all.
"No wonder the first king of the kingdom was so obsessed about the trees. They definitely have a lot of uses and his obsession was even passed down among his citizens." Lin Mu muttered to himself.
He looked around the tea shop and saw the other patrons talking and enjoying their tea. Some were gossiping about the rumors they had had while some were just talking about their day and how their boss had yelled at them.
Some married men complained about their wives and how they complained to them and pestered them. Then there were the youngsters who talked about who had the best and trendy things.
Lin Mu even saw a few cultivators among them all and they were also talking amongst themselves.
Seeing all of this made Lin Mu feel a strange sense of detachment. He felt that he was far apart from them, gazing from the outlines while these people went about their daily lives.
~Sigh~
"Is this what the Lost Immortal meant by the flavor of life of the mortals?" Lin Mu muttered to himself, recalling one of the lines that the Lost immortal had written in his memoirs.
Pondering over it for an hour, Lin Mu finished the pot of tea that he had ordered. Once he was done, he decided to take his leave and head out of the city.
'This tea is quite good… thankfully I bought plenty of it and can make it later on.' Lin Mu thought to himself.
This was one of the reasons why he had come here. Even if Lin Mu had bought the tea, he had not tasted it and decided that going to a tea house that specialized in it might be the best choice.
And now that it was confirmed that the tea was truly excellent, Lin Mu felt pleased about his purchase.
"Hmm… little shrubby will probably like the new ingredients. He'll have a lot more to try out now." Lin Mu muttered to himself.
Little Shrubby actually had more than just one spatial storage treasure now, and Jing Luo had modified a few of the ones they had gotten as spoils from other enemies. Little Shrubby was using those to store the food ingredients and all other things that he liked.
"Now that I think of it… we haven't tried that Saw tooth Tuna either…" Lin Mu said to himself as he flew towards the hill where Little Shrubby was hidden.
The hill was located about ten kilometers from the capital city and gave a really good view of the city from the distance. And like many other hills, it was also covered with the Hong Lin trees hiding whatever beasts that were living on it.
This was the reason why Lin Mu and Jing Luo had picked this place to halt beforehand and also why they let Little Shrubby stay there.
The beast in question opened his eyes when he sensed his master appraising from the distance.
~Grrr~
Little Shrubby lightly growled and stretched his body before getting up from the curled up position he was in before. Lin Mu also saw him and couldn't help but smile upon seeing it.
"Even if he has grown many times bigger than before, he still sleeps in the same manner when he was a small cat." Lin Mu muttered to himself and landed on the hill.
"You're back!" Little Shrubby spoke.
"Yes… and I brought some things you might like."
Chapter 691: Search For Hong Lin Trees
Hearing that Lin Mu had gifts for him, Little Shrubby was really excited.
"What did you get?" Little Shrubby questioned.
"Well, let me show you." Lin Mu said before taking out all the ingredients and condiments that he had bought.
The more Little Shrubby saw, the wider his eyes got.
"This is awesome! I can try so many things now!" Little Shrubby said before he went to check each of the items.
He smelled them and tasted them before deciding what things they could be used for. Lin Mu let it happen and the beast enjoyed it. By the time Little Shrubby was done checking all things, an entire hour had passed.
"I think you should store them away for now. We need to go someplace else now." Lin Mu spoke.
"Okay," Little Shrubby replied before quickly getting to storing all of the items in the many spatial storage treasures he now had.
In a minute, he was done and the two of them were ready to leave.
"So where are we going?" Little Shrubby questioned.
"We are going to test out a new technique that I got. But for this, I need Hong Lin trees that are at least a hundred years old." Lin Mu answered.
"These trees? Hmm…" Little Shrubby muttered.
"Come on, let's leave." Lin Mu said as he flew up.
He didn't get onto Little Shrubby as their aim, wasn't to travel a long distance in a short time but rather to find specific kinds of trees. Lin Mu knew a little about the Hong Lin Trees and knew that the hundred years old trees didn't really look much different from the other trees with the exception that their roots would be far more deeper and longer.
Just from the outward appearance it was often hard to find one and even when someone used spirit sense to find the right kind of a tree there was still a chance that the tree might not be a hundred years old and it was just their roots that had reached a length long enough to look like that.
Since the Hong Lin trees were plants, ultimately they could have different growing styles and uniqueness that animals often could not. Not only that, but their lifespan was also naturally longer with some trees even immortal despite not needing to cultivate.
As long as trees got the nutrition and ideal conditions, they would keep on growing and stay alive for years and years to come. But cultivation often came with time. Every item in the world absorbed spirit Qi passively even if they wanted it or not.
It didn't matter what kind of objects they were either, they could be living beings or even inanimate objects like rocks, stones, lakes or even something like clouds. The longer something existed the more spirit Qi they would have absorbed.
Living creatures had an advantage here and they could naturally absorb far more spirit Qi passively than what inanimate objects like rocks could. And thus plants coming under this category could also cultivate after a certain age.
There were often times cases when a plant that had reached over a thousand years old would gather enough spirit Qi to naturally breakthrough to the Qi refining realm and become a spirit herb.
But if one compared this to a human, the very same human might not even live for one tenth the entire lifespan of the plant. And the more ironic part was the fact that even if a human did cultivate and reached the Nascent Soul realm, they would at most be able to live for a thousand years, whereas the plant would have already lived for that long.
This was also the reason why, while there were variations in sizes of the Hong Lin Trees, a bigger tree might not necessarily be hundred years old or even a thousand years old. There were many more factors to them and one could only depend on their luck to find one.
Of course, hundred year old Hong Lin trees weren't something that were too hard to find either. Even commoners could find them on their own, given that they searched hard enough and long enough as well.
From what Lin Mu knew, the entire Hong Lin forest had at least ten percent trees that were at the age of hundred years old or more. As for the thousand year old trees, the people had no idea and neither did the King.
Lin Mu and little Shrubby traveled over the forest for about an hour, with Lin Mu having his spirit sense extended fully and checking the earth for the roots of the Hong Lin trees. Even if the roots might not necessarily indicate if a tree was hundred years old, it still had a greater chance of being a hundred years old than a tree with shorter roots.
"There," Lin Mu suddenly said while pointing to one of the areas below.
Him and Little Shrubby then descended to the ground and reached the tree, which Lin Mu suspected was a hundred years old Hong Lin tree. He checked the method that was described in his mind and placed his hand onto the trunk of the tree.
Closing his eyes, Lin Mu sensed the condition of the Hong Lin tree. At first, he didn't sense anything but after five seconds, Lin Mu could feel the vibrant energy that was only hidden within a hundred year old Hong Lin tree.
Lin Mu opened his eyes that shined with content.
"This is it!" Lin Mu said.
"What do we do now?" Little Shrubby questioned.
"Now I'm gonna try and cultivate using the new method. You can try and find other trees similar to them. I don't know if your senses will work with this or not though." Lin Mu said.
He knew that the method would not be something that Little Shrubby would be able to use, but Lin Mu hoped that Little Shrubby's animal senses would triumph here instead.
Chapter 692: Embrace Of Hong Lin
Hearing Lin Mu's words, Little Shrubby approached the hundred year old Hong Lin tree and probed it with his spirit sense. He then touched the tree and smelled it before scratching the tree and tasting it as well.
Lin Mu watched on and let the beast do its thing.
"Hmm… I can tell that something is different about this tree than the other ones here. I think I may be able to find more of them." Little Shrubby spoke.
"Alright, please go ahead and find them. I'll try to cultivate in the meantime." Lin Mu stated.
Little Shrubby nodded his head and flew away in search of more hundred year old Hong Lin trees. Lin Mu, on the other hand, followed the methodology that was described in the technique he got from the repository and sat down with his back facing the Hong Lin tree.
While it was a bit uncomfortable at first, Lin Mu managed to find a position in which his back made maximum contact with the tree trunk as it could. Once that was done, Lin Mu closed his eyes and tried to sense the energy within the Hong Lin Trees once again.
After about a minute, he was able to sense them again, this time without even touching with his hand. The main use of this step was to let the cultivator get used to the Hong Lin tree and learn about the energy within it.
Even if Lin Mu had his back to the tree, he wasn't actually using his back to sense the energy within the Hong Lin Tree, as that was not how the technique worked. He could only sense it directly with his hands as they worked through his hands' meridians and not his back's.
This step was to see if the cultivator could still sense the energy within the Hong Lin trees without a direct link. Now that Lin Mu had sensed the energy hidden within the tree, the next step was to pull the energy towards him.
This was the 'Embracing the heart of Hong Lin' part of the mnemonic.
This was also a far harder step than before, and it took Lin Mu over an hour before he was able to even make the energy move a millimeter. But once that happened, he found the next parts easier.
As minutes passed by, Lin Mu was able to pull the energy within the Hong Lin trees closer and closer. And when the energy finally reached close to his body, Lin Mu realized something.
"This… this is vital essence?" Lin Mu muttered. "No, wait… there's is some difference between this vital essence and my own. I guess this is what makes it possible to cultivate…"
Lin Mu thought to himself that this technique really did work as was said and continued the process. With this step completed, it became far easier for him to do the next step. The vital essence from within the Hong Lin tree entered his back and then spread over the skin.
Little by little, it trickled into his body before passing through the muscles, bones, and sinews. The strange thing was this vital essence didn't merge into his cells directly like his own vital essence did.
'This separation might be one of the factors that make this technique possible…' Lin Mu thought to himself.
The transmission of vital essence was rather slow within his body, and it took over an hour before it reached his internal organs. Once it was there, it didn't go to any other organ and started moving towards the Heart.
It was as if the other organs were repulsive to it and only when it reached his heart did the vital essence start getting absorbed into it. The moment it did, Lin Mu could feel the cells of his heart starting to strengthen.
Normally, since a heart was involved in the pumping of blood, it came in contact with a lot of vital essences that Lin Mu's body normally produced. But even then, it only stored a certain amount of vital essence in its cells.
It did not actually absorb the vital essence directly to refine itself. The process was a bit strange and hard to understand. If one were to compare it to something, they could think of it as using a jug of water to pour a glass and then using that very water to fill the jug back up.
Overall there was no net change of energy, and thus it would stay the same. This was where the cultivation techniques came and the need for external resources and requirements.
One needed something of 'high potential' to increase their own 'low potential'.
Lin Mu calmly continued to cultivate using the method and kept on absorbing the vital essence of the Hong Lin tree. Eventually, the cells stopped absorbing the vital essence and started to divide.
'My Five Treasures Realm cultivation… it's increasing!' Lin Mu detected.
Seeing this, hope lit up in Lin Mu's eyes and he focused even more in the absorption. Once the replication of cells stopped, his heart could absorb more vital essence from the Hong Lin Tree.
Just like this another three hours passed before the Hong Lin Tree had run out of all Vital essence.
~huu~
Lin Mu opened his eyes and checked his condition.
"That… this is at least two percent increase!" Lin Mu exclaimed.
While this increase seemed minuscule, one must remember that even this was a great progress compared to before. His heart was now 32% refined and Lin Mu was assured that as long as he kept this up, he will surely reach 100% completion and also break through to the Third Stage of the Five Treasures realm.
Lin Mu stood up and took a look at the Hong Lin tree finding it to be the same as before. But when he placed his hand on it, he could see that it was now fully drained of the energy that was present in it.
"No wonder the first king liked the Hong Lin trees so much. They were the ones that helped him cultivate and he wanted to increase their numbers while protecting them." Lin Mu said.
Chapter 693: An Intelligent Herb
With the increase in his Five Treasures realm cultivation, Lin Mu felt incredibly pleased.
"This will work! I just need to find more Hundred year old Hong Lin trees." Lin Mu said whit excitement.
He looked around to see if Little Shrubby had returned yet or not but did not see him there. He closed his eyes and sensed his connection, only to find that Little Shrubby was fifty kilometers away from him in the southern direction.
"Did he find something there?" Lin Mu wondered.
He then flew towards little Shrubby's direction and reached it after a few minutes. There Lin Mu saw Little Shrubby fighting another creature.
"Huh? What is that?" Lin Mu wondered.
The creature Little Shrubby was fighting was not a beast but rather a plant. The plant was moving around underground and popping up to attack Little Shrubby. Little Shrubby was chasing the plant around trying to catch him.
Lin Mu could tell that Little Shrubby didn't intend to kill the plant otherwise with his speed he would have done it rather easily.
"What are you doing little Shrubby?" Lin Mu questioned.
Little Shrubby who was in the middle of a jump, missed his target and the plant moved away quickly. Lin Mu didn't really get to take a good look at the plant and from what he could see it was just a brown root.
Little Shrubby looked up at Lin Mu who had just appeared and spoke "Catch it, its good ingredient!"
Hearing this Lin Mu didn't know if he should laugh or not.
'No wonder…' Lin Mu thought to himself.
He extended his spirit sense and let it penetrate the ground. There he finally got to see the real appearance of the plant. Just as he had thought it was a spirit herb and was in the form of an onion like bulb.
It had long roots that were several tens of meters long, while at its top it had flat green leaves that numbered eleven. Lin Mu did not immediately realize what spirit herb this was but since it was able to move around like this, Lin Mu knew it was no common spirit herb.
"Oh?" Xukong's surprised voice was heard in Lin Mu's mind.
"What happened senior?" Lin Mu questioned.
"It's a peak grade herb that has managed to gain intelligence," Xukong spoke.
"Peak grade herb?" Lin Mu repeated as a smile appeared in his mind.
He quickly extended his hand in the direction of the spirit herb which was now trying to run away. Since Lin Mu had also appeared and he was quite strong which the spirit herb could perceive, it decided it was no longer worth it to fight and started to run away.
Alas, it was Lin Mu he was trying to escape from which was very difficult now.
"Meld," Lin Mu said as the entire area around the spirit herb was frozen.
The spirit herb also stopped moving and it looked it had turned into a normal spirit herb that was inanimate. Lin Mu raised his hand along with which the entire chunk of soil was lifted up as well.
He then waved his fingers, making the soil split apart till the spirit herb's side was revealed. Lin Mu didn't go too much in deep as that may end up harming the spirit herb. He wanted the spirit herb intact as a spirit herb with intelligence was far more valuable than just a dead one.
With that one, Lin Mu pulled the chunk with the spirit herb towards him and he held onto it with his other hand and finally deactivated meld.
~thud~thud~thud~
All the chunks of soil fell to the ground as the spirit herb was now firmly clasped in his left hand.
~rustle~ rustle~ rustle~
The spirit herb that looked like an onion couldn't really make any noise but its struggling in Lin Mu's hand made its leaves rustle. But no matter how hard it tried, the plant found it impossible to escape Lin Mu's grasp.
"You caught it!" Little Shrubby said with excitement.
"Yes, I did." Lin Mu said with a nod.
"Now let's cook it! I know it will be really good I can sense the spirit Qi in it!" Little Shrubby stated, his mouth almost dripping with drool.
~rustle~ rustle~ rustle~
Lin Mu didn't know if the onion like spirit herb could even understand Little Shrubby's cries or not and did it understood what he had meant, but it certainly did start to struggle even more. Though Lin Mu had to admit the spirit herb was strong.
'Its strength is almost comparable to someone in the Nascent soul realm.' Lin Mu thought.
Had it not been for Lin Mu's superior cultivation base and a strong body, he might have been forced to let go of the onion like herb.
"Hang on now," Lin Mu said to Little Shrubby. "We should first see what spirit herb this is." He added.
Little Shrubby nodded his head and slurped back his drool. Lin Mu looked back at the herb and saw it continue to struggle it was now whipping around its roots and hitting Lin Mu as well.
~slap~slap~whip~
Its roots were long and thin, and could cause a lot of damage to the average cultivator. In fact, Lin Mu estimated that if it really did use a little more force with its roots, it might just end up cutting apart the body of whatever it struck.
In Lin Mu's case though, the spirit herb was out of luck as the Mortal Strengthening scripture's armor had kept in impervious to damage.
'No wonder little Shrubby was acutely dodging its attack… they can actually cause him some damage.' Lin Mu understood.
Learning all this had only made him that much curious about the herb in his hand. Keeping his hand on the herb, Lin Mu held the jade slip with all the records in his right hand. He then started to search through it, trying to find the identity of the herb.
Chapter 694: Wood Spirit Tulip
Five minutes had passed since Lin Mu began his search through the jade slip but he was still unable to find anything in it.
"Hmm… it's not in this." Lin Mu said while furrowing his brows.
The record that he had just checked was the one that Jing Wei had given him and it had most of the information of spirit herbs that he could find. In fact, if the information was present in this record, Lin Mu would have already recognized the spirit herb with his eyes.
But since he didn't he thought that he had missed one of the herbs or forgotten about it.
"I'll need to check the other records. But keeping it in this manner is not viable." Lin Mu said.
"Send it into the ring. The spirit herb should be fine, unlike beasts. As long as it has a small source of spirit Qi it will stay calm." Xukong suggested.
"Ah yes! I'll do that." Lin Mu said before storing the onion like herb into the ring.
Little Shrubby had been watching Lin Mu's hand without moving and saw the herb suddenly disappear. His eyes went wide and he quickly snapped his neck around looking to see if the herb had escaped or something.
"Don't worry. I kept it in the ring. I'll take it out once we know what it really is." Lin Mu said seeing the lost little Shrubby.
"Okay~" Little Shrubby said before laying down on the ground.
Lin Mu took out the rest of the records and went through them one by one. But the more he looked the more confused he got as the herb was not present in any of them. Lin Mu finished the records he had obtained from the mercenary union and was now moving on to the records that the Tri Cauldron peony sect had.
"If it is anywhere then it should be in these records. After all the Tri cauldron peony sect was a sect focused on alchemy and grew a lot of herbs." Lin Mu muttered to himself. "And if it's not in this, then I'll just have to look elsewhere."
Since the records of the Tri cauldron peony sect were all divided into multiple jade slips, books, and scrolls, Lin Mu took several hours to look through them. This reminded him that he should compile all of these into one jade slip later.
'I need to get Jing Luo to make me a higher capacity jade slip as well so I can store all the information later on.' Lin Mu noted in his mind.
Finally when an entire day passed he was able to find out what the herb was. The book he found it in was also a bit astounding to him.
The name of the book was 'Theorized existence of cross habitat residing spirit herbs'.
The content of the book was actually quite interesting to Lin Mu and he only stopped when he had finished reading the entire book. It wasn't a rather large book either as it actually seemed to be incomplete.
Lin Mu saw the note at the end of the book, which stated that this was a work in progress and that all the theories were yet to be fully verified. In fact, of the plants that were mentioned in the book, only a handful of them had even been seen by the author ever in his life.
And those plants were not even seen clearly by the author as they were of a very high grade. But the author was not discouraged from this and went ahead doing as much as he could.
What the author wanted to say was that there were certain strong spirit herbs that were very weak to the element which was opposite to the element that they belonged to. And thus because of that, they resided in habitats that were rich in the element which was strong against their weak element.
For example, a herb of the fire element is weak to water and thus it would reside in a habitat that was strong against water which was nothing but earth. It was a rather unique phenomenon in which a herb chose to live and grown in an environment that wasn't actually its own element.
And all of this just because they had a great fear for the opposing element. While the author had been unable to gather any of such herbs he did theorize that if these herbs came into contact with objects or spirit Qi of the element they were weak to they would instantly die.
This would happen, no matter how strong those herbs really were or how high their rank was.
The onion like herb Lin Mu caught was alone one such herb and had been described in the book. It was one of the only handful of herbs that the author actually managed to find and observe enough to write it down.
Since he was the first one to find the herb, he named it the wood spirit tulip. It looked just the same as what Lin Mu had caught except that it also had a vibrant green flower at the top.
'The one I got should be an immature one which has not blossomed yet.' Lin Mu reckoned.
While there was no flower at its top, the herb matched all the features such as the onion like bulb, long brown roots that moved around like whips and green stalk and leaves.
But to confirm further, Lin Mu withdrew the spirit herb from his ring and held it back in his hand.
~rustle~ rustle~
It tried to escape again, but could not. Lin Mu used his spirit sense to probe the spirit herb and realized that it had wood attribute spirit Qi within it.
"Just as I thought. The Wood Spirit Tulip is of the wood element and is weak to the metal element, thus it is residing in an area rich in the fire element which is the Hong Lin forest." Lin Mu analyzed.
Chapter 695: Peculiarities Of The Hong Lin Trees
Having learned of the identity of the spirit herb, Lin Mu felt a bit satisfied. It was as if an itch he was unable to scratch for a long time was finally relieved. And it was not any normal itch, it was the itch of curiosity which could only be satisfied by knowledge.
"What do we do it now? Are we not going to eat it?" Little Shrubby questioned.
"Oh we will, but not so fast. It is still not fully grown, when it does it will have a flower on top of it." Lin Wu spoke.
"A flower? Then will it get a fruit too?" Little Shrubby questioned as drool started to drip from its mouth.
"Um… I don't know. The book doesn't mention it since the author never got to see a Wood Spirit Tulip that was beyond that stage. But perhaps it can grow beyond that and grow a fruit." Lin Mu spoke.
"Okay," Little Shrubby replied.
"We'll just have to wait and see." Lin Mu said before storing the Wood Spirit Tulip that was whipping around back into the ring.
"That was getting annoying…" Lin Mu muttered to himself.
With that out of the way, Lin Mu decided to focus on the task at hand.
"Oh yeah, did you find anymore Hundred year old Hong Lin Trees?" Lin Mu questioned.
"YES! Yes, I did! I found two of them when I saw this spirit herb." Little Shrubby answered.
"Excellent," Lin Mu praised while patting his head, "where are they?" He asked.
"Follow me," Little Shrubby said and the two of them flew away.
Little Shrubby went back to the north and brought Lin Mu there to a tree that was hidden between tens of similar. If it were anyone that passed by, they would find it indistinguishable from the others.
But to Lin Mu who used his spirit sense, he could tell that it was hundred year old Hong Lin tree.
"Yup, this is a Hundred Year Old Hong Lin Tree alright." Lin Mu said as he placed his hand over the tree's trunk.
He could sense the vital essence deep within the tree and the warmth that was hidden in it as well.
'Is that fire attribute spirit Qi as well?' Lin Mu wondered, but didn't pay much attention to it.
He didn't have any particular skill that needed fire attribute spirit Qi and thus he didn't really care for it as much. Perhaps in the future when he got more of it he would, but at that point, Lin Mu reckoned he may as well refine the fire attribute spirit Qi himself.
Lin Mu had learned that once his Spleen was fully refined into a five treasured Organ, his rate of refining earth attribute spirit Qi had increased substantially. Thus, with that in mind, he reckoned that each organ that is refined would increase the rate with which elemental spirit Qi can be refined.
Overall it was a rather pleasant surprise to him and he knew that cultivating the Five Treasures realm was a truly good decision. Not only did it increase his body cultivation, but it also boosted his spirit Qi cultivation.
'Body cultivation really was the progenitor of cultivation methods for all humans…' Lin Mu thought to himself.
With that done, he sat down with his back against the Hong Lin Tree and used the cultivation technique to absorb the vital essence. The First King who had made this cultivation technique had named it the 'Embrace Of Hong Lin' and it really was like that.
Not only could the Hong Lin Trees help one in the body tempering realm by providing Vital energy and vital essence. From reading further ahead, Lin Mu knew that one could also cultivate using the fire attribute spirit Qi.
Although the spirit Qi aspect of this technique was far weaker than that of the body cultivation one. There were very few techniques in the world that covered both the body and Qi cultivation, and the 'Embrace Of Hong Lin' could be considered one of the rare few.
Though it wasn't fully efficient seeing as how the spirit Qi that could be obtained from it was less than 10% of the vital essence.
Time passed and when an hour was finally over, Lin Mu had finished absorbing the vital essence from the Hong Lin tree.
"Hmm… the amount this time is less. Barely above a percent taking it to a total of 33% now." Lin Mu muttered to himself.
He then stood up and looked at Little Shrubby, who had been patiently waiting for him.
"Where's the next tree?" Lin Mu asked.
"Follow me," Little Shrubby replied, and took him to the next location.
This one wasn't that far from the previous tree and was at mere minutes' distance. This tree though, was different from before.
"Huh… seems like someone tried to cut this one before." Lin Mu said upon seeing the Axe marks on its branches and trunk.
Although whoever tried to cut it was not strong enough to do it since the tree was still here.
"Perhaps they gave up after being unable to cut it…" Lin Mu muttered to himself.
He then looked at little shrubby and spoke, "go ahead and find more of them. I'll continue here."
"Okay~" Little Shrubby said before flying away.
Following the same method as before, Lin Mu began his cultivation. This time it took him over two hours to finish absorbing all the vital essence. This wasn't because there was more vital essence in it, but rather because sucking the vital essence was harder.
It was like some debris was stuck in the pipe through which he was trying to pull it.
'Is this due to the damage? Doesn't seem like it could penetrate this deep…' Lin Mu thought to himself.
He stood up after absorbing it all and saw that the refinement had reached the 34% mark now.
"Hmm… if I keep this up, I'll need at least 66 more trees to do this. And that is if they all have the same amount of vital essence in them." Lin Mu said to himself.
He then sensed the location of Little Shrubby and went to find him. This time, Little Shrubby wasn't that far from him and he reached his location in about five minutes.
"Little Shrubby," Lin Mu called out.
~Grrr~
Lin Mu heard the growl of the beast and saw him hidden below the large crown of a Hong Lin tree.
"Here! It's this one." Little Shrubby spoke.
Lin Mu landed and saw that this Hong Lin Tree was far bigger than the ones he had seen till now.
"Is this the only one you found?" Lin Mu questioned.
"Yes, I looked around, but this one seems to be the only one in this area." Little Shrubby answered.
"I see…" Lin Mu said, wondering if it was something to do with the tree's size.
He placed his hand on it and sensed the vital energy within the tree.
"WHOA! That's a lot of vital essences." Lin Wu said upon feeling what looked like a lake of vital essence deep within the Hong Lin tree.
This Hong Lin Tree was about two and a half times as big as the normal Hong Lin Tree and contained a similar amount of vital essence.
"I'll go search for more." Little Shrubby stated, understating his part now.
Lin Mu nodded his head in response and got to work. Sitting down with his back to the large Hong Lin Tree, Lin Mu could feel the faint warmth on his back. This was strange to him since his body was protected by the armor of the Mortal Strengthening scripture.
Even when he had touched the Grey Egg, he was unable to tell if it was cold and hot. This meant that even now he should have been unable to tell the temperature correctly.
"This is peculiar…" Lin Mu muttered.
He was curious about it, but decided to finish absorbing vital essence first. Lin Mu spent five hours in absorbing the vital essence from this Hong Lin Tree. Unlike the other trees, he realized that this one had the vital essence distributed in multiple small and separate pockets throughout the tree.
Getting to them one by one took a little more effort than normal and he had to make routes to them individually. But when he was finally done, he realized that he had obtained far more vital essence than before.
"39%… this one had enough vital essence to increase my refinement progress by over five percent. If I can find more trees like this, I'll be able to reach full refinement very quick." Lin Mu muttered to himself.
Lin Mu opened his eyes and flew towards the direction of Little Shrubby, hoping that he had found more trees such as this. And even if they weren't like this, Lin Mu was fine with it as he knew that him reaching the peak of Heart Refinement was inevitable.