Lin Mu and Jing Luo had barely been gone for ten minutes and thus finding a shadow towering over them was alarming to them.
But when Lin Mu actually realized who it was, his expression massively changed.
~THUD~
Before he could speak though, he was tackled to the ground!
This was no joke, and not easy to do. Lin Mu was after all over six tones heavy. Moving him was like moving a small hill.
~PURR~
"AHAHAHA!" Lin Mu thought didn't mind it and started laughing.
"MASTER!!!!!!!" Little Shrubby cried out.
Little Shrubby rubbed his head on Lin Mu, embedding him deeper and deeper into the ground.
Jing Luo who saw all this, was stunned though.
"Oh, boy… that is not the same beast I last saw." Jing Luo was shocked. "How in the heaven's name did he grow that big?!"
Just Little Shrubby's head alone was bigger than Lin Mu's entire body now. Seeing that size, it would be easy for little Shrubby to just devour several humans whole in a single bite.
Jing Luo had read and seen several beasts in his lifetime, but he could easily say that Little Shrubby was among the top five largest beasts he knew of.
He kept on watching as the Master and beast rolled around on the ground, creating depressions after depressions with their weight. A few trees around them were broken apart and it was like a large bowling ball had mowed them down.
Finally, after five minutes of 'cuddling', Little Shrubby stopped. It was a cuddle that could easily kill most people. Jing Luo was not confident that he'd be able to come out of it uninjured either.
Lin Mu too stood up and wiped away the saliva that was splattered on to his face and robes. Little Shrubby had pretty much drenched him in it. He tried to evaporate the saliva with fire but realized that it could do nothing to it.
Then he realized that this was saliva that stayed in Little Shrubby's mouth from where he literally spat out flames. There was no way just simple flames would be able to dry him out.
In the end, Lin Mu just had to change his clothes and quickly wash his face.
Even the armor of the Mortal Strengthening Scripture was unable to bear the cuddles of Little Shrubby and had shattered easily. Otherwise the saliva would have fallen off Lin mu's body rather easily.
Night had already descended by now, thus the two men and a beast decided to take a break for a while.
~clang~ ~clang~ clang~
The sound of metal hitting metal could be heard lightly. This was of course, the sound of Little Shrubby stirring a large pot of stew. Or rather one of the prosthetic hands doing it.
"There are ten of them now?" Lin Mu was surprised.
"Oh yeah, I made more for him later on." Jing Luo informed.
Lin Mu checked all the hands and realized that they were far better than before. In fact, each of them was now a high grade spirit tool!
Even the old ones were upgraded and were stronger than before.
Lin Mu looked at the giant Little Shrubby and was still surprised. He was now nearly seven meters tall when standing and was pretty much the size of a building. While the length of his body was ten meters long.
"He's heavier than me too…" Lin Mu realized upon remembering the weight with which Little Shrubby tackled him.
It was surely more than Lin Mu who was over sixty thousand kilograms heavy.
"So then, are you gonna tell me how you became this big?" Lin Mu asked.
"After the breakthrough, I grew a little, but once I went to the Frontier, I ate a lot of stuff and grew faster." Little Shrubby answered.
"Oh?" Lin Mu was surprised.
His spirit sense spread out and he checked Little Shrubby's body, discovering a lot of things.
'He's almost at the Shell Genesis stage of the Dao Shell realm, too.' Lin Mu discovered.
While little Shrubby was still in the Shell Initiation stage, Lin Mu could see the faint outline of the Dao Shell in his Dantian. The Dao Shell had changed its shape and now looked like a cube that had five long extensions on one half of it.
'Is that… a hand?' Lin Mu found the shape to be vaguely like that of a hand.
"Or a claw." Xukong suddenly spoke up. "Seems like his bloodline is also directing the shape of his Dao Shell. That is good, he won't have to spend time in figuring out a shape for himself." He added.
"Mm, that can indeed be helpful. Wonder if it will be the same for his Dao Embryo in the future." Lin Mu replied.
"Oh, it definitely will. There is no way with seven strong bloodlines he would have a hard time forming a Dao embryo. I'm sure the moment his bloodline feels his Dao Shell is ready, it would quickly form an appropriate Dao Embryo." Xukong spoke.
"And that Dao Embryo, it would most likely be a fire related one, right?" Lin Mu asked.
"Quite likely. I don't see any other that could be formed. Though we can't say much. His other bloodlines can influence it too. After all, he has other elements than fire in him now." Xukong replied. "And speaking of that… I can feel some difference in his aura." He added.
"A difference?" Lin Mu raised his brows.
He tried to sense it but couldn't tell much. Little Shrubby's aura and cultivation base were both vastly different than before, so it was hard for Lin Mu to tell right away.
"I think one of his bloodlines has strengthened again. And from the increased wood elemental spirit Qi in his body, I think it is the Fume Wood Panther." Xukong explained.
"The Fume Wood Panther's Bloodline…" Lin Mu closed his eyes and chanted the calming heart sutra to enhance his perception.
He opened his eyes after a minute and indeed felt the difference.
"Little Shrubby… by any chance, did you learn a new skill?"
