Lin Mu listened to the people in the ruined building talk a bit more and obtained some more information.
The most important thing he learned was the fact that they were all injured when they got near the tree. There were actually formations that could harm them there. All of them were caught off guard since they were unable to sense these formations at all.
And it wasn't just offensive formations either, there were trapping and binding formations mixed in it too.
'I wouldn't be surprised if some groups have already lost their members in this.' Lin Mu thought to himself as he sank back into the ground.
He moved away from the group and resurfaced next to Little Shrubby. Lin Mu had left him there as the beast could warn him about danger through their link. Not to mention, Little Shrubby could also assist quickly if needed.
It was an advantage to have him watch over his back, even if it was from some distance away. With Little Shrubby's speed, that distance was just a few second anyways.
Lin Mu was debating on checking up on other groups, but didn't wish to spend extra time on that.
"Let's just check out the tree first." Lin Mu said to Little Shrubby.
The two of them took a remote path that had no cultivators waiting nearby and proceeded. Walking through the ruins, Lin Mu saw the old buildings and houses that had been reduced to rubble.
He could almost see a hint of the past that these ruins held.
'This place was most probably a city. It doesn't seem like a military establishment at least.' Lin Mu thought to himself.
He had heard from Alchemist Ruoxian that these ruins were supposed to be the base of some power of the past. That was also the reason why there was an Immortal Essence Crystal cache hidden here.
But now that he was actually looking at the ruins, it just looked like a normal city to him.
"There is a chance that big powers lived here once too, but over time their main buildings have probably been destroyed." Lin Mu muttered.
If he looked around, he could only see a couple of buildings in his line of sight that were twenty or thirty meters tall. The rest had all collapsed or were missing a part of their structure.
Lin Mu was looking for one such building too as that was where the Cache was most likely to be.
'The map that Alchemist Ruoxian gave cannot be used right now as the other cultivators are waiting there. I'll just have to use the tree as a reference point.' Lin Mu reckoned.
Since the Violet Mystic Life Tree needed a lot of nutrients, it was normal for it to have grown where the Immortal Essence cache would be. Thus with this hypothesis, Lin Mu guessed that the cache should be somewhere under the tree.
After a few minutes of walking, Lin Mu and Little Shrubby finally reached the near the area where they had spotted the Violet Mystic Life Tree.
"It hasn't appeared in a while… but it should be just a little distance from here." Lin Mu furrowed his brows and looked around.
He hadn't forgotten the words of the cultivators and how they had gotten injured.
~SHUA~
His Immortal sense spread around, trying to search for any hidden arrays or formations.
"There's one right there." Lin Mu quickly spotted a formation not so far from him.
It was hidden underground and one wouldn't be able to find it if they didn't look there with their immortal sense.
"They are certainly quite old, and were probably built before these building were erected here." Lin Mu observed.
Lin Mu continued to look for more of them and discovered several that were spread out. There was a variety of them that could easily kill an immortal of they weren't careful or had their guard lowered.
"They are certainly deadly. But one's like these are intended to protect highly valuable or scree locations. Guess the cache really was supposed to be here." Lin Mu figured out.
It would make sense for such formations to be built to protect a valuable asset like an Immortal Essence Crystal cache, especially a secret one.
But as Lin Mu continued onwards, he started to see some damaged formations too. Most of these were connective or relay formations that were used to link other formations. These would be the key to making an array from multiple formations.
'Looks like these used to regulate how the offensive formations worked. But now that there is no link, they activate whenever someone is nearby.' Lin Mu thought to himself.
Thankfully for him, avoiding them was not an issue and those that he couldn't avoid were simply broken apart.
'Practicing with the Diamond Mountain Talisman sure is coming handy now… these formations seem easy even if they are unstable.' Lin Mu didn't feel any pressure dealing with them.
Still, it took him nearly an hour to cover this path before he arrived at a new obstacle.
~THUD~
"Ugh!" Lin Mu stumbled into an invisible barrier.
~HUMM~
The air in front of him flickered lightly, but there were almost no abnormalities. Lin Mu placed his hand on the barrier, finding it to be solid by transparent. His Immortal sense was blocked and so was his Spatial Perception.
"So this is the barrier that prevented me from seeing the Violet Mystic Life Tree…" Lin Mu grasped.
~SHUA~
And just as he said this, he felt an energy fluctuation.
Then in the next moment, he saw the Violet Mystic Life Tree reappear. Its wide crown covered a lot of area while its Violet Leaves emanated a comfortable aura.
"It really is marvelous…" Lin Mu could feel the vitality emitting from the tree.
Most of it was being restrained by the barrier and couldn't get out, but what did was quite good.
"Wait… perhaps the tree itself is why the barrier is getting weak!" Lin Mu suddenly had a thought.
