Lin Mu had certainly not expected for the tree to have such a far reaching growth.
'Though considering how it has grown, it does make sense that it did this by capturing the mine.' Lin Mu thought to himself.
It posed several questions to Lin Mu too. After all, a magical tree like this would have been noticed by others a long time ago had it not been for the barrier that hid and protected it. But a barrier that could protect a tree like this was also not easy to make.
Lin Mu wasn't sure if the barrier was really meant to protect the cache.
"I just need to get what I came here for first. The rest can be taken care of later once I'm done…" Lin Mu walked ahead while observing the crystals that grew everywhere.
He could tell that they were different from the Immortal Stones or the spirit stones. While all of them were formed as crystals, their shapes and densities were different. Out of all of them, the Immortal Essence Crystals were the densest.
Their weight was higher, which resulted in their veins being formed in clusters. Their clusters were spread around in almost equal areas, probably due to being part of the original cache.
"If this was a fully natural mine, it would have formed a lot irregularly." Lin Mu understood.
He could also tell that the number of clusters grew as he progressed further. Which meant that the one's he was seeing here were the newly grown immortal essence crystal. They weren't from the main source at all.
"Just how far does this go?" Lin Mu had been walking for ten minutes now and there still was no sign of the main area.
From what he had heard from Alchemist Ruoxian, the Hundred Year of Essence Spring Stalactite would grow right in the core of the Immortal Essence Mine. It was a very sensitive and fragile material that needed to be in isolation to form.
'It certainly wouldn't form here…' Lin Mu thought to himself. 'I can't take any of the Immortal Essence Crystals from here right now either as there is no saying the effect it could cause on the Violet Mystic Life tree.'
Lin Mu had seen that the tree could respond to stimulus and was worried that if he made too much of a commotion, it could send tremors through the ground, causing the Hundred Year old Essence Spring Stalactite to crumble.
At the very least, he needed to obtain the stalactite before he could get the rest.
Lin Mu ended up traveling for about fifteen more minutes, having to pass through literal cliffs of Immortal Essence Crystals. It was stunning to see the sheer amount of them and Lin Mu's body was reacting accordingly too.
His vitality flared up involuntarily as if desiring all that was around him. Even the two Apertures within his chest sped up as if in anticipation.
"How long do you think this mine has been forming for, Senior Xukong?" Lin Mu questioned having seen the scale of the mine.
"Hmmm… this isn't a natural mine so it's a bit hard to estimate." Xukong first spoke. "If it were a fully naturally mine that had formed from scratch, even ever million or so years, it would be barely five or ten percent of what you've seen so far." He answered.
"Really? That small?" Lin Mu couldn't help but feel surprised.
"Yes. Immortal Essence Crystal Mines are rare in the first place. For them to form, an area doesn't just need to have a lot of vitality, but its location should also coincide with a natural focus point where the flow of the world's energies concentrate.
Only then would they truly form. But in the case of this mine, it was started from an already mined set of Immortal Essence Crystals. I'm thinking that there must be several grades of these crystals in them, including peak grade immortal essence crystals for it to trigger the transformation.
But even then, it should have taken a few hundred thousand years to reach that point." Xukong explained.
"Hmm… so this is quite old. Considering the legendary battle happened over a million years ago, the mine should have also started to form around that time." Lin Mu muttered.
"Yes. But I doubt, even with a million years to grow the mine would have reached this level of growth." Xukong was suspicious. "I don't think the mine has grown just due to natural factors. I think there is something else contributing to its growth." He stated.
Hearing this, Lin Mu understood what Xukong was implying.
"The Violet Mystic Life Tree… it has contributed to the growth of the mine…" Lin Mu said with some shock.
"Yes… it is likely that the Violet Mystic Life Tree originally started off growing with the help of the mine, but as it grew its natural ability to absorb Immortal Essence also grew. It might have resulted it concentrating it in its roots, which eventually led it to contributing to the Immortal Essence Crystal mine." Xukong explained his hypothesis.
"That does seem likely… But doesn't this mean that if this is left as is, the Violet Mystic Life Tree could continue to contribute to the growth of the mine?" Lin Mu wondered.
"That might be possible… but it's something that only future would tell." Xukong replied. "All the other Violet Mystic Life Trees I've seen had been harvested not long after theywere discovered."
Hearing this, Lin Mu had a thought.
"How would you compare this Violet Mystic Life Tree to the one's you've seen Senior? How big is it?" Lin Mu questioned.
"Compared to the other three I've seen, I would say it ranks second size wise." Xukong answered.
"Second… that means its quite big isn't it?" Lin Mu spoke. "And valuable?"
"Very… all Violet Mystic Life Trees end up causing wars and great conflicts. One as big as this would easily invite trouble from hundreds if not thousands of powers." Xukong replied.
