Lin Mu quickly fell asleep and found himself in the Sleepscape.
The place looked mostly the same as he had left before, but there were still some chances in it. The biggest one being the tree in front of Lin Mu.
"That's a lot of spirit apples…" Lin Mu was surprised.
The spirit apple tree was covered with spirit apples of both types, the normal ones and the wood energy rich ones. This was unusual, as Lin Mu knew it would only grow a specific amount before the limit was reached and they would need to be plucked.
But now even the newer wood energy rich apples were filling half the tree. Not to mention, all of them were fully ripe.
"Guess it makes sense since I haven't been here in a few months…" Lin Mu remembered the last time he came here was a week before the start of the War in Xiaofan world.
That was almost four months ago, and it was normal for the spirit apples to accumulate to this extent.
This was not the only change in the Sleepscape either though.
~Huu~
Breathing in the air, Lin Mu felt that the spirit Qi in the air had increased even more. Not just that, but even the concentration of wood spirit Qi had increased.
"Huh?" Lin Mu gazed at the Wood Spirit Tulip and saw that it had change.
Instead of just swaying leaves, it now had a bright flower on top of it. The flower was a deep red in color and released a faint fragrance that filled the entire Sleepscape. If one looked closer, they would even see fine streaks of wood spirit Qi being absorbed into the flower.
"It actually bloomed…" Lin Mu had not expected for they Wood Spirit Tulip to bloom for a while.
While it had certainly grown up fast in the Sleepscape, the sudden change was unexpected, since Lin Mu and Xukong had estimated it would take at least a year or more to do this.
Walking closer to the flower, Lin Mu touched it. He was fully expecting to be slapped, but surprising the Wood Spirit flower didn't respond at all. It continued to sway gently and looked like any normal plant.
Its facade was almost perfect, if not for the fact that Lin Mu sensed the roots of the plant wiggling in the ground, nervously.
"Oh wait! My spirit sense works at its earlier range again!" Lin Mu discovered.
This confirmed his doubt that it really was the Rust Sky World that was causing his spirit sense to be limited.
"I should check more things." Lin Mu went on to test his Qi skills and found that the consumption was back to the earlier level.
"It is the effect of the Rust Sky world, for sure." Lin Mu nodded his head.
He felt like a lot of his doubts were now resolved and a feeling of relief also filled him.
~rustle~
A faint rustling sound attracted Lin Mu's attention and he turned to search for it. The sound had come from none other than the third spirit plant in the Sleepscape, the Purple Sickle Amaranth.
"You haven't changed much." Lin Mu observed the plant. "Hmm… you do have a few more leaves, though. Guess that counts as growth." He noted.
Lin Mu then took a walk across the entire Sleepscape, not finding any other change in it. The size of the Sleepscape was also the same as last time. In the end, he came to a stop before the Spirit apple tree and plucked all the fruits from it.
Holding a half green spirit apple in his hand, Lin Mu pondered for a bit.
~Crunch~
Then in the next minute, he took a deep bite, eating a quarter of the apple in one go. The juices of the spirit apple spread in his mouth, along with a sweet and sour taste. The wood spirit Qi and wood elemental energy too appeared quickly spreading through his body.
His stomach worked quickly at assimilating it all. The wood spirit Qi was simply stored in his Dantian, but the Wood elemental energy was instead guided to his liver, where it was used to refine the organ.
The effect was minuscule, but it was still there, which was better than nothing.
Not to mention, it still filled Lin Mu's belly.
"It would have been good if I could have come to the Sleepscape earlier. I wouldn't have had to be hungry for that long." Lin Mu said to himself.
This was one of the options he certainly had after having run out of all the food in his ring. But Lin Mu didn't do this because of a big reason; he didn't want to accidentally trigger the ability of the Great Slumber bear.
If that happened, when he was already lacking vitality, he might never wake up again. It was a very dangerous condition and it was best he stayed awake. Even though the chance of it happening was very low ever since Lin Mu had gotten control over it, there was no telling what the Rust Sky World's new rules might have on it.
'It was a risk that was best not taken… besides I managed to get the food in the end.' Lin Mu thought to himself.
~Crunch~
Lin Mu took another spirit apple rich in wood element and ate it as well. Without stopping, he ate all of them, leaving only the normal apples for later use.
The effects of the spirit apples were shown soon, as his liver started to get refined again. The increase was very slow, like a snail's pace, but it was something that still made Lin Mu pleased.
"If I keep this rate of progress, I might breakthrough to the fifth treasured organ before I reach the Immortal Ascension realm with my spirit Qi cultivation base." Lin Mu reckoned.
The fifth treasured organ was the body cultivation equivalent of the Immortal Ascension realm and would make Lin Mu stronger, placing him at the baseline for this world.
