Lin Mu appeared in the parallel plane that was relatively empty.
Neither he nor Xukong were able to figure out how the parallel plane existed, other than the fact that it was not in any layer of the void. It was a mysterious existence that even Xukong, who was possibly one of the greatest experts at void didn't know about.
But it's characteristic were rather unique nonetheless.
It was mostly empty, but it would have some variants in it as one traveled. Its ground was usually just plain white or grey while there would be some objects scattered within it. Lin Mu had once even seen a barren mountain in it but that was a long time ago.
He didn't know how things were influenced in it and how they related to the place where he had entered the parallel world from. The one absolute was the fact that if a space existed, an equal area of the parallel world would exist as well.
It would match coordinate to coordinate between the worlds and if Lin Mu left it from one coordinate, he would appear in the same coordinate in the real world and vice-a-versa.
This was also what Lin Mu was intending to take advantage of.
"Since the trees cause the effect of befuddling, I can just avoid them all together here. Even if my time is limited, I should still be able to travel quite a lot and figure out how to avoid the workings of the forest." Lin Mu muttered to himself before stomping his leg.
~BOOM~
He shot forward with great speed and flew with as much power as he could.
Lin Mu traveled in a straight line so that he wouldn't lose his way as well as travel as far from his original location.
Thirty seconds later the duration of the skill was over and Lin Mu was forced to return to the real world.
~shua~
Upon reappearing Lin Mu quickly spread his immortal sense and scanned the area around him.
"Sure enough… I'm quite far from the original location." Lin Mu confirmed.
The trees around him had changed, and the ground was different as well. But these were merely the surface level things that he could see. The biggest factor that confirmed his assumption was none other than Little Shrubby.
'I can sense that Little Shrubby is still where I left him… the distance between us is roughly three kilometer or so…' Lin Mu guessed.
Since he could sense little Shrubby through their link, he could tell how far he had traveled.
"Master when did you get that far?" Little Shrubby spoke through their link.
"I'm coming back now. I was just trying to figure out a way to proceed." Lin Mu replied.
"Ah, did you get it?" Little Shrubby asked.
"Yes, I did." Lin Mu responded before moving towards Little Shrubby.
While going there though, he also watched for the befuddling effect of the array. Lin Mu could barely tell before he would change his direction and move in some other path.
One second he was going towards Little Shrubby, the next he had turned ninety degrees to the right and a minute later, he had turned back again.
"This is quite interesting… Even if I can sense where I'm supposed to walk, it makes me change direction unknowingly. This level of befuddling that can affect even Immortal sense is truly terrifying." Lin Mu couldn't help but feel amazed.
But he didn't need to worry about it now since he knew how to overcome it.
"I just need to not look at the trees." Lin Mu closed his eyes and walked straight, taking the link of the Little Shrubby as a guide.
Doing so meant that he inevitably walked into trees but a little rerouting was all it took for him to continue. The strange part was that the befuddling effect of the forest was still there, as Lin Mu's steps would change unknowingly but it was a lot weaker than before.
Not to mention he had a way to reorient himself every time. The method was a little unexpected but worked out in the end as Lin Mu reached Little Shrubby after a few minutes.
"Are we going to leave the forest?" Little Shrubby questioned.
"No… we are going straight in." Lin Mu answered. "But to do that, I'll need to send you to the Sleepscape." He instructed.
"As you say." Little Shrubby had no qualms and was quickly sent to the Sleepscape by Lin Mu.
There was no option as Lin Mu couldn't bring Little Shrubby along using his Spatial skills. Those skills simply didn't work that way.
"I just need to rely on fade now and I'll enter the depths of the Leafless Dead Forest." Lin Mu said to himself.
Fade!
A couple of seconds later, he entered the parallel world again and flew straight ahead. Thirty seconds later the duration of the skill would end and he would return to the real world. When that happened though, Lin Mu would look around and get a sense of his location.
As long as he stayed in one place and didn't move, he could use his Immortal sense to 'look' around.
What he needed to search for was reference locations that were mentioned in the map provided by Alchemist Ruoxian.
'The Sleeping Man rock…' Lin Mu used his immortal sense to look for the reference location.
It was called as Sleeping Man rock, as it was exactly what it looked like. It was simply a rock that looked like a man was sleeping on the ground. This was the first reference location of the Leafless Dead Forest one would encounter if they came from the Blood Spine Mountains.
There were other reference locations for other entry points too, but they didn't matter right now.
After a few uses of Fade, Lin Mu eventually discovered the Sleeping Man Rock.
"There it is!" Lin Mu quickly went there without being befuddled and recalculate his next reference location.
He then activated fade and continued onwards. Repeating this several times, Lin Mu finally reached his true destination.
