Xukong's words were astonishing to Lin Mu, but at the same time they seemed to clear out the fog that was clouding the mystery.
"If the world evolving is behind it all, then why would it release the Qi?" Lin Mu questioned.
"That is a normal way of the world enriching itself. The more creatures cultivating on it, the faster it will grow too. The world's evolution also has a catalytic effect on all beings, resulting in their faster growth and cultivation." Xukong answered.
"I see… and what about the energy that Elder Pear absorbed?" Lin Mu questioned.
"That… was probably a wisp of pure Nature Essence." Xukong answered.
"Nature Essence?" Lin Mu recalled an entry he had read about in the memoirs of the Lost Immortal.
The Lost Immortal had once obtained a map and gone on a treasure hunt in a forbidden area. There were many dangerous beasts and creatures there. He fought them all before finally reaching the location of the treasure which was guarded by a strange being. The strange being was made out of rocks and would not let the Lost Immortal proceed.
The Lost Immortal fought the strange being and discovered that it wasn't just some mindless puppet. It wasn't his first time seeing a rock puppet before as there were many cultivators who made them. But this one was different.
Not only could it talk, but it had an entire personality too!
The Lost Immortal was stunned and wondered if it was just a very complex puppet, thus when he defeated it he checked for formations. But he found none within its body; instead, it contained an entirely different structures.
The rock creature didn't have any particular organs, but it did have meridians!
It even had a Dantian and a structure that looked like a heart.
Interested about it, the Lost Immortal kept the corpse of the strange being and checked the location for treasure. But much to his confusion, there was no treasure there. It wasn't until a year later that he obtained more information about the whole endeavor and found out that the treasure was none other than the rock being he had killed.
The Lost Immortal couldn't understand why that strange being was considered a treasure. Since he couldn't figure it out, he gave up on it until a few years later when he stumbled on information about such beings.
It mentioned inanimate objects like rocks, stones, gems, furniture, weapons, trees and more spontaneously gaining life.
It was a mysterious phenomenon and many experts deemed it as the heaven's blessing. They deemed it as the heavens bestowing a soul onto the inanimate objects and letting them live.
"This Nature Essence seems very close to what the Lost Immortal Experienced." Lin Mu spoke.
"You're correct. In fact, this is a thing that happens all over the universe from time to time. And the creatures that are born from this are called as Nature Spirits." Xukong revealed.
"So that means… Elder Pear is a Nature Spirit?" Lin Mu questioned.
"Not exactly… He could be deemed half a Nature spirit. He already had a soul, and a level of consciousness and cultivation before he absorbed the Nature essence, hence his sentience simply increased to that of a full human. Whereas, if the same Nature Essence was absorbed by a random stone, it would have developed some organs such as Meridians, Dantian, and a Heart before gaining a soul.
It would then need to cultivate to grow and become stronger.
Basically Nature Essence grants an object the ability to gain a soul and then develop further." Xukong explained in detail.
After hearing it all, Lin Mu was rather amazed.
"Doesn't this mean… Life can be created with Nature essence?" Lin Mu spoke in marvel. "If one can control Nature Essence they can create more and more such creatures."
"It isn't possible." Xukong denied. "Nature Essence is very rare and can only be created by a world. Even then, the world does not produce it regularly; a single wisp of Nature Essence might take thousands of years to be created.
And even if it is created, there is no guarantee if the object that absorbed it would be able to live long. More often than not, they get destroyed; either by themselves or by others.
Even the top experts in the universe haven't been able to make or control Nature Essence. They can't even contain it.
Many have tried to capture the Nature Essence, but the tools they used to capture the Nature Essence ended up gaining sentience instead." He explained further.
"It is indeed very complex. But what if an already living creature absorbs it? Or a cultivator does it?" Lin Mu asked next.
"It won't work. Nature Essence can only be absorbed by inanimate objects, or at least those that are close to it, like plants. For humans, beasts or other such races the Nature Essence would simply ignore them. Even if they consumed it directly, the Nature Essence would simply pass through their body as if it were air." Xukong answered, making Lin Mu satisfied.
"Hmm… then that means Elder Pear's words were wrong when he said that any other passing animal could have absorbed it?" Lin Mu asked.
"Yes. He doesn't know the details of the Nature Essence, hence it is normal for him to think anything else could have absorbed it. When in reality, only he, other animate objectives and the plants would have been able to absorb it in the first place." Xukong replied.
~Sigh~
"Guess my search for sentient plants will be ineffective this time. If Elder Pear gained it through Nature Essence, it won't work for the other Snow Glass Pears." Lin Mu shook his head.
"Actually, it might still work," Xukong said, making Lin Mu's ears perk up.
"Really?" Lin Mu inquired with anticipation.
"Yes… The Snow Glass Pear Trees might still be plantable in the Sleepscape." Xukong confirmed, raising Lin Mu's excitement.
"If so, I need to talk with them." Lin Mu focused his attention on Elder Pear.
