"There it is! That's the Cask Bile Beetle's territory." Hua Yi pointed.
Lin Mu observed the area in front of him that was vastly different from the other forests. In addition to the trees, there were thousands upon thousands of vines covering them. In some places, the vines were dense enough that one could not differentiate what was a vine and what was a tree.
The sky was almost entirely hidden as the vines covered the canopy of the trees and made a dense network.
"This is certainly different…" Lin Mu said as his spirit sense extended.
It was not just the appearance of the area that was different, but its feeling was different as well. While Lin Mu could feel the common vitality and life of a forest from the area, the silence that was filling the area was unsettling.
"Don't be mistaken Senior Lin Mu. This is just because it is day time right now. The Cask Bile beetles are sleeping at this time. But once it is day time, they will start pouring out in droves and you will find yourself irritated by the constant noise." Hua Yi explained.
"I see…" Lin Mu replied, recalling the information that he had read about the said insect beasts.
"They are also rather foul smelling, aren't they?" Lin Mu questioned.
"Oh, they are indeed." Hua Yi said, wrinkling his nose, as if the memory offended him. "I still feel nauseous when I think of them."
"I can understand… I recently had an encounter with something that was rather foul as well." Lin Mu said in sympathy.
The two checked the area with their spirit sense before proceeding.
"We should try to get as close to the center as possible before night. It will be very difficult after that." Hua Yi said.
"Very well," Lin Mu said before withdrawing several spirit weapons.
~WHOOSH~
All of the spirit weapons shot out and chopped all the vines that were obstructing their path.
"These vines… they aren't normal, are they?" Lin Mu asked.
"Yes. They are actually a form of a low grade spirit herb too, but they are mostly not used for anything. They cause bad reactions when refining pills, thus they are not worth when there are more compatible ingredients available." Hua Yi replied.
Lin Mu nodded his head and continued onwards. Their path was straight for the most part, but the number of vines they had to chap was immense. Plus at the same time, they needed to constantly check the area for the presence of the sentient spirit herb.
"This spirit herb; you've seen it before haven't you? Tell me more about it," Lin Mu asked.
"While I did see it, it was just a momentary glance. The spirit herb disappeared before I could observe it properly. Senior already knows how they can be, thus we might have to look in all directions including underground, since they can hide there.
Though about the spirit herb, I can tell this one thing… it is not small." Hua Yi answered.
"It's not small? How big is it exactly?" Lin Mu questioned.
"At least two meters tall… from what I could tell from its blurry silhouette." Hua Yi answered.
"Hmm… I see. At least that narrows it down for us. A bigger target will be easier to sense than a small one." Lin Mu responded.
~sniff~ sniff~
"I smell something bad," Little shrubby said with a growl.
"What's the problem?" Lin Mu asked, turning to Little Shrubby.
"There are a lot of bad smelling things nearby. I can't smell anything else due to it." Little Shrubby replied.
Lin Mu furrowed his brows and let his spirit sense extend as far as possible. But even at the full range, he could not find anything.
"Senior?" Hua Yi looked on in confusion.
"There might be Bile Cask Beetles nearby." Lin Mu informed.
"How far do you estimate?" Hua Yi asked as a serious expression appeared on his face.
"At least eight kilometers away." Lin Mu replied.
"Eight kilometers? That's strange… the last time I came here they were more spread than this. They seemed to have moved more to the depths." Hua Yi said.
"Oh yeah, from what I read, we were supposed to encounter them by now, weren't we? Even if they are sleeping, we should still see them on the trees." Lin Mu responded.
"Exactly senior. There might be some change we are unaware of." Hua Yi replied.
"Let's be a bit more careful then." Lin Mu said before looking at Little Shrubby.
"Watch your fire, we don't want to burn the sentient spirit herb thinking it was an attacking beast." Lin Mu warned.
"Okay~" Little Shrubby replied with a nod.
The party of three continued onwards and finally reached a foul smelling area after fifteen minutes.
"Ugh! This is disgusting." Lin Mu said as he scrunched his nose.
~GRRR~
~POOF~
Little Shrubby huffed in irritation and directly ignited a flame on the tip of his nose. Once the flame started burning, his expression eased up.
Hua Yi who saw it, couldn't help but feel envious.
'Smart,' he thought.
Lin Mu decided to try copying the idea and closed his eyes.
~shua~
He opened his eyes a few seconds later as another flame burned under his nose, covering the nostrils fully.
"Whoa! You can do that too, senior?" Hua Yi was surprised.
"It looks a bit tricky, but as long as you can control your nasal meridians, and know how to use fire attribute spirit Qi, it's easy." Lin Mu said.
The flame on his nose burned away the foul smell selectively, yet allowing him to breathe as normal. Hua Yi understood the concept but couldn't replicate it. He was neither that skilled nor did he have control over the fire attribute spirit Qi.
He could only wrap a cloth around his nose that was rubbed with some aromatic oil. With the precaution taken, the trio walked ahead and finally saw the source of the stench.
"So these are the Bile Cask beetles…" Lin Mu muttered as his eyes gazed over the creatures.
