While Lin Mu felt a little disappointed that little Shrubby couldn't control his size, it did give him another thing to wonder about.
"What do you mean, boost your speed? Doesn't your speed decrease if you reduced your size as it also reduces your cultivation base?" Lin Mu questioned.
"Oh, I just run very fast in my full form them shrink quickly while running. When I do that, my speed multiplies for some reason and go faster than ever." Little Shrubby answered.
"Huh?" Lin Mu was once again intrigued.
"How does that work?" Lin Mu wondered about it.
"I can show you." Little Shrubby said, and increased to his full side.
He flew up to the sky and started running. In a moment, he was at least a kilometer away from where he originally was. Then he started running towards Lin Mu again, but just as he had picked up enough speed, he quickly shrunk down.
~BOOOM!~
And when he did that, the air tore apart with a sonic boom. Little shrubby's small form shot forward faster than ever before, covering almost thirty kilometers in the blink of an eye.
"Just how fast is even that?" Lin Mu and Jing Luo were stunned.
"I think I can explain that." Xukong spoke.
"Please do, senior." Lin Mu said in his mind, finding it rather interesting.
"What is happening here is that the momentum that Little Shrubby builds while running stays the same while his body weight rapidly reduces to a fraction of what it was. Hence, this multiplies the velocity, sending him flying faster than before.
It's like you are pushing a rock with just the right amount of force to make it move, but then it turns in a feather, but your force is the same. The power exerted would be greatly different." Xukong explained in a way Lin Mu could understand.
Lin Mu pondered over it for a bit and finally wrapped his head around it. It even gave him some other ideas that he wondered if they could be used.
Lin Mu explained it to Jing Luo as well, who understood it even faster than Lin Mu.
It was easier for Jing Luo since he actually knew about the concept itself, just didn't know that this was the same.
Little Shrubby returned in this time too and went back to cooking. The food was mostly done, and the hands were still stirring. Surprisingly the hands had not stopped working even if Little Shrubby's cultivation base reduced.
Lin Mu noticed this too when Little Shrubby went to serve the food.
'How did the hands not stop working? Doesn't reducing his cultivation base also prevent him from using so many high grade spirit tools at the same time?' Lin Mu wondered to himself.
He thought while thinking and came up with a potential answer.
'Of course! The technique reduces what is in his body. But the spirit sense is not fully a part of the body. It is also attached to the mind and is mostly separate. It can also grow and be severed if needed.
It already has the same properties like that of Vitality Reversal.' Lin Mu concluded.
With enough spirit Qi that was already poured into the spirit tools and a strong spirit sense, the hands could work on their own with the commands that were already given to them.
Though Lin Mu did notice the pause in their working when Little Shrubby had gone beyond a ten kilometer radius. The hands didn't fall lifelessly though and simply floated in the positions they were last in before the spirit sense link disconnected.
It was another interesting discovery for him and made him look forward to learning more later in the future.
"If Little Shrubby awakens other abilities too, I wonder just how much a difference it will make." Lin Mu muttered to himself.
Right now Little Shrubby had his speed that he got from the Flash Fire Liger and the Thunderbolt Cheetah, the control over fire that he got from Flash Fire Liger and Scorch Claw tiger along with the Vitality Reversal that he got from the Fume Wood Panther now.
The Seven Beasts Burst was an innate ability that was independent from all the bloodlines though.
With just these many abilities, Little Shrubby's power was great. Adding more to them might make him far stronger than now.
Lin Mu recalled the different abilities of the other bloodlines that Little Shrubby had in his body. All of them were powerful beasts in their own sense, and each of their abilities could be considered very good.
"Seems like I'll have to up his portion of Beast Qi again." Lin Mu said to himself.
"Beast Qi!?" Little Shrubby's ears perked up at the smallest mention of the words and he immediately rushed towards Lin Mu.
Lin Mu chuckled upon seeing this and made a streak of Beast Qi before giving it to Little Shrubby.
"There you go." Lin Mu said as Little Shrubby happily devoured the Beast Qi.
He was in the small form so could lie in Lin Mu's lap with ease. It reminded him of the days when he was still small.
'Maybe it's not so bad after all…' Lin Mu thought as he stroked Little Shrubby's fur.
"You're Little again…" he muttered lightly.
Little Shrubby didn't mind his words and continued to eat. Lin Mu too, returned to eating and ate a large amount of food, having missed Little Shrubby's cooking. With the eight large cauldrons of food that Little Shrubby had made, Lin Mu had plenty to refill his expended vitality.
While it was not at the same level as before, he reckoned it won't be long before he'd return to that point if he kept on eating the same way.
Morning came, and it was now time for them to leave.
"This will be quick now." Jing Luo commented.
~grrr~
Little Shrubby let out a low growl before transforming into his full form.
~thud~
The large body made deep pawprints in the soil and made its presence known.
"Let's go, Wu Hei has been waiting for too long." Lin Mu said with a sense on anticipation.
