Having cleared the tracking seals from the three beasts, Lin Mu decided to rest for a bit.
'I did use up a lot of energy in all that...' Lin Mu thought to himself.
More than half of his Immortal Essence had been consumed in uprooting the Violet Mystic Life Tree as well as enduring its attacks. Even the claw imprints that Lin Mu had learned were attacks of decent consumption.
Each of the claw imprints used up wisps of Immortal Essence, which was also what made them quite strong.
'If I think about it, that might be one of my first dedicated Immortal Essence skills...' Lin Mu thought to himself.
While he did have the boulder collapsing fist too, it wasn't a skill specifically meant for Immortal essence. Rather it was a skill that could utilize all kinds of energies as long as one was skilled enough to control them.
'That reminds me, I need to see if I can handle using Immortal Essence with the Boulder Collapsing fist or not...' Lin Mu thought to himself.
He had been able to use immortal Qi with no issues since its properties were similar to spirit Qi and even controlling it was similar. But for Immortal Essence just holding it within his body was difficult, thus he didn't know how the skill would work with it.
Lin Mu took note of it and added it to the list of things he needed to do.
"I'm done, master!" Little Shrubby's voice could be heard.
Lin Mu looked towards the cave that Little Shrubby had dug out and nodded his head in approval.
"This is good enough." Lin Mu walked into the cave and closed its entrance to prevent anyone from finding him..
"Thankfully the bloody aura that permeates this area makes it easier to hide like this too." Lin Mu muttered to himself.
He then sat down and let Little Shrubby and the twin's settle in too.
Next, he took out the Tri Essence Immortal Pills, and consumed one of them.
~SHUA~
The burst of energy was released in his stomach and was quickly contained by it. He then practiced the Three Apertures invoking technique and let the Immortal Essence be channeled into his Aperture.
'The process is smooth. Looks like if I've accumulated a certain amount of Immortal Essence before, it is easier to return to that amount again.' Lin Mu found this aspect to be similar to that of Immortal Qi or spirit Qi. 'Though my body cannot generate Immortal Essence naturally. That is the only con of this...' he thought.
According to what Lin Mu had learned so far, if one fully completed the Three Apertures Invoking Technique their body would be truly adapted to the Immortal essence. At that point, they would be able to generate their own Immortal Essence too.
Of course, Lin Mu didn't know just how much Immortal Essence would be generated in that way.
'Even a little passive generation would still be better than nothing.' Lin Mu reckoned.
He spent a day in absorbing all the Immortal essence as well as replenishing his stores of Immortal Qi. Once he felt like he was back to his optimum condition, Lin Mu opened his eyes again.
~huu~
Letting out a deep breath, Lin Mu looked towards his tamed beast. They were silently cultivating on their own and had not disturbed him during his recovery.
Though when Lin Mu observed the twins, he could see that their stores of energy had already increased by more than double.
'They did absorb some energy from the Violet Mystic Life Tree... what exactly was that?' Lin Mu didn't know and couldn't verify it right away either.
But he did know that it was due to the twins help that the Violet Mystic Life Tree had become weaker towards the end. It had allowed him to uproot the giant tree and store it away in the ring.
'I need to take care of the Violet Mystic Life Tree too.' Lin Mu had not forgotten. "But before that, there is someone I need to talk too..." he took out a communication jade slip from his ring.
It was the special jade slip that Alchemist Ruoxian had given him, so that they could talk to each other even in the Desolate Blood Battlefield. Due to the baleful energies, there was often interference and the Jade Slip helped in avoiding that for the most part.
'Since the Grand Sky Pavilion was there, Alchemist Ruoxian should have been there too.' Lin Mu couldn't remember seeing the man there though.
After all, he had finished the original goal of finding the Hundred Year old Essence Spring Stalactite. And not just that, he had also obtained triple the amount that was needed for him.
"Is this working?" Lin Mu held the jade slip and waited for the message to be sent.
Unlike a normal jade slip, it seemed to be taking time.
'Is it due to the interference?' Lin Mu tried to use his normal jade slip and found that it was entirely blocked. "Hmm... the special jade slip seems to at least be working to some extent." He just waited for the message to be sent.
Fifteen minutes passed like this before a connection was finally made.
"Daoist Mu Lin? Daoist Mu Lin!" Alchemist Ruoxian's voice could be heard.
"It's me yeah! Where are you?" Lin Mu questioned.
"I've just arrived at the site of the ruins." Alchemist Ruoxian answered. "But where are you? I heard a demon appeared at the ruins and the Violet Mystic Life Tree has disappeared." He spoke in a really anxious tone.
"You just arrived? You didn't come with the other group of the Grand Sky Pavilion?" Lin Mu was a bit confused.
"No. They split us into two parties since they needed to rush to the Violet Mystic Life Tree. But from what I can see here, the tree is gone and the elders are quite furious." Alchemist Ruoxian replied. "What about you? Where are you? Did the mission fail?" he questioned.
