Lin Mu extended his spirit sense and observed the Spirit qi wisps in the air being absorbed into Little Shrubby's body. The process didn't last that long and concluded after two minutes.
~Meow~
A growl escaped little Shrubby's mouth as it felt the effects of the Duan Circle Ascension fruit. It was at that moment that Lin Mu could sense the connection between himself and Little Shrubby strengthening.
"Is this the effect of its intelligence increasing?" Lin Mu wondered.
"Not exactly. His intelligence would not increase this fast, it will be an eventual increase. What you're seeing is simply the connection strengthening due to little Shrubby's potential for intelligence increase. Once it reaches its potential, it will increase even more." Xukong explained.
Lin Mu nodded in response and thought over it. Although he did not know what the effects will be like later on, he at least knew that there were some effects.
"Here you go," Lin Mu said as he offered the rest of the Duan Circle Ascension fruits to Little Shrubby.
The beast ate them one by one, and soon the effects intensified. Lin Mu could sense the spirit qi in the air stirring again as it moved towards Little Shrubby. This time the process lasted much longer, for about ten minutes.
Little Shrubby was a bit overwhelmed and laid down on the ground with his eyes closed. It absorbed the spirit qi that was swirling around it, and its cultivation started to rapidly increase. Lin Mu estimated that the increase was much more than his own.
It took Lin Mu about six fruits to obtain an increase of about five percent, while Little Shrubby was able to obtain an increase of about fifteen percent with just four fruits. Not only that, but the connection between Lin Mu and Little Shrubby was also strengthening visibly.
"This is rather big, the benefits that it obtained are much more than me…" Lin Mu muttered.
"It was bound to happen. You are not only at a higher cultivation base, but you also have been practicing the nameless technique of the lost immortal. In addition to that, I believe the mysterious ring also had a hand in improving your aptitude perhaps, that's why the increase was lesser. You are already at a higher level." Xukong explained.
"I understand, Senior." Lin Mu replied before returning to his cultivation.
Time passed by and night arrived. Lin Mu slept and appeared in the Sleepscape. There he plucked the five spirit apples that were hanging on the tree before starting his daily practice. After a sufficient time, he paused and used the nameless technique of the lost immortal to infuse half of the drops of liquid spirit qi that he had obtained today.
~Huu~
Lin Mu let out a breath as he opened his eyes. He still could not feel much of a difference and was now wondering if he could find anything in the Memoirs of the lost immortal that could perhaps give him a clue about the technique.
The thing that he had discovered about the wooden slip was that he could not actually browse through it as he did with the communication jade slip, that had the records that Jing Wei gave him. If Lin Mu wanted to see the latter contents, he had no choice but to read through it one by one.
The next part of the memoir would only appear if he completed the previous one and but he could still go back and check the previous one.
In the past few weeks, Lin Mu had lightly glanced through the Memoirs, but did not really focus on it much as he had been busy cultivating for most of the time. Right now, since he felt like he was nearing a dead end, he thought of reading it once again.
Lin Mu took out the wooden slip and opened it, making the text appear on it.
***
A year had passed by since the Lost immortal had become the old man's disciple. During this time they were still living in the mines and were working as a slave. They had not escaped yet due to a few changes that had occurred after the mine collapse.
The kingdom had a conflict in the royal family, which lead to one of the princes being assigned to take over the working of the mines. While they did not know the specifics behind it, the rumors that went around in the guards was that the prince in question had offended some influential cultivator that was invited by the king as a guest.
The king, intending to punish the prince assigned him to take care of the mines which was something that most royals and nobles did not want to do. Not only did it take up too much time, but they would have to stay away from the luxuries they were so used to.
It wasn't like it brought much profit anyway, which led to everyone avoiding it like the plague. Still, upon being assigned to the mines the prince actually improved the functioning. He applied certain policies which were better for the slaves and also increased the productivity.
The first of the policies was to make a roster of each and every slave that worked in the mine. He wanted to know how many workers were currently there after the mine collapse. They had still not done a proper head count as it was common for some slaves to simply die in the mines and disappear.
The guards were less than pleased, to say the least after being told about this. Still under the pressure of authority, they carried out their duty and finished the roster after a month.
This became the main reason why it became difficult for the lost immortal and the old man to escape. Before, they were relatively unknown and if they went missing, people would have just assumed that they had died in the mines. But now that the roster was made, and it was confirmed that they were alive, it would be much harder.
