Lin Mu heard the warning of senior Xukong and knew that he should not go overboard with this. Besides now that he thought of it, this was not something he would be able to do for long, as once Little Shrubby completes his breakthrough the seven illusory figures will disappear.

Seeing as he did not have long to do this, Lin Mu had to make a choice. He would have to select a beast about the seven to strengthen.

"Hmmm… I can exclude the Flash Fire Liger and Scorch Claw Tiger as they are already the dominant bloodlines. If I strengthen them further, they may become unstable. So which one should I pick?" Lin Mu muttered to himself in contemplation.

Lin Mu thought over the different abilities offered by each bloodline and reckoned that strengthening the Thunder Bolt Cheetah bloodline might be the better choice. It may increase the speed of little Shrubby further, as that was its main trump card against many enemies.

Not to mention that Lin Mu relied on Little Shrubby's speed to travel around. Even if he could fly now, he knew his speed could not be compared to that of little Shrubby in most cases, at least when he did not use his own skills.

If Lin Mu were to use Fade along with blink and kept on using them, he would be traveling at the fastest speed possible for him, which would be more than Little Shrubby's. Though that may change if the bloodline ability of the Thunder bolt Cheetah is added to the mix.

"I'll pick that one!" Lin Mu said before chanting the Nurturing heart sutra and converting the spirit Qi within his Dantian into Beast Qi.

A string of beast Qi was produced in his Dantian and it floated around. Lin Mu did not stop chanting there though and continued with it. As long as little Shrubby was in this state he wanted to take benefit of it.

While chanting the Nurturing heart sutra, Lin Mu also sent the strings of beast Qi that he had already refined to the Thunder Bolt Cheetah's illusory figure. This time because Lin Mu was actively controlling the string of beast Qi, the other illusory figures did not have the chance to take it.

~shua~

The Thunder Bolt Cheetah absorbed the beat Qi and his body started to glow in an electric blue light. Some sparks of electricity even coursed around its body before calming down. Once that was done, the illusory figure became a bit more opaque, showing that it had been strengthened.

But this was merely the start as Lin Mu kept on producing more and more Beast Qi. He sent two more strings of Beast Qi to the Thunder Bolt Cheetah's illusory figure, after which it had become almost the same as that of the Scorch Claw Tiger.

"That is enough, you should evenly distribute to the rest now." Xukong advised.

Lin Mu nodded his head and managed to refine four more strings of beast Qi before sending one each to the remaining illusory figures. Each of the figures seemed pleased from this and had increased its presence.

Little Shrubby's breakthrough was now at its end, and the spirit Qi infusion had also stopped. 

~thud~

His body landed back on the ground as he opened his eyes, that glowed with a powerful light. His fur swayed in the wind, and his muscular body rippled with strength.

~ROAR~

Little Shrubby let out a world shaking roar that echoed across the entire Minor Plane. There was a strange pressure contained within the roar such that all of the beasts of the forest that were just becoming active after the passage of the Tribulation clouds, became silent again.

***

In the tunnels below the mountain, a man was mining the ores and metals in the wall.

~Rumble~

~thud~

"DAMMIT!" Jing Luo cursed, as another large chunk of rock fell on his head.

This had been happening more and more recently and he knew it was due to the removal of the source vein of the Spirit stone mine below. It had caused a reduction in the spirit Qi saturation of the soil, which in turn led to the materials getting weaker and loosening.

Since then, whenever he mined, there would often be a random piece of ore or just rocks that would fall on him. While this did not hurt him in reality, it was still frustrating to get hit by rocks over and over again, when one was working.

~ROAR~

Jing Luo, who was about to hit the wall with his pickax again was shaken.

"What was that?" Jing Luo wondered as he focused on it. 

Since he was deep in the caves, the sound became distorted and it was hard to tell what sound was it that he was exactly hearing. But once he focused on it, Jing Luo managed to recognize it.

"Huh? A roar? Wait, is it time already?" Jing Luo said in a surprised tone.

He realized that the roar belonged to none other than Little Shrubby. He also understood that Little Shrubby may have broken through due to the power contained within the roar. 

'No wonder I felt like the concentration of spirit Qi here reduced again. That beast must have broken through to the Nascent Soul realm and caused this.' Jing Luo thought.

He stored away the pickax and the materials he had mined before rushing out of the mine. Jing Luo appeared in the cave residence before he flew up to the mountain top. He could already feel the difference of spirit Qi in the air and knew that he was right.

At the top of the peak, he saw Lin Mu and Little Shrubby. Lin Mu was sitting on the ground cross legged and looking at Little Shrubby while Little Shrubby was getting used to itself.

"Congratulation on the breakthrough!" Jing Luo said upon reaching the top.

~growl~

Little Shrubby looked at Jing Luo and growled.

"What did he say?" Jing Luo asked upon seeing the beast talk.

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