~sniff~ sniff~

"I can smell it!" Little Shrubby suddenly said.

Lin Mu looked towards him in anticipation and asked, "where?" 

"Follow me," Little Shrubby said, and brought them through the maze of trees and vines. 

The heat radiating from his body directly dried out and burned the vines that came in front of him and proved to be no obstacles. A minute later, they finally reached a clearing of the forest.

"Whoa!" Hua Yi said as he looked at the area in front.

There were no normal trees for about half a kilometer diameter, but at the very center a different kind of a plant could be seen.

"Is that the spirit herb?" Lin Mu wondered.

"That… does seem similar to the silhouette I saw. But… it's a bit bigger than that too." Hua Yi answered.

Lin Mu narrowed his eyes and used his spirit sense to probe the spirit herb in front of him.

The herb was over two meters tall and had leaves shaped like sickles. It also had flowers that were located in clusters and were rather small. They were purple in color and let out a pleasant fragrance. 

But in addition to the flowers, there were a few pod shaped things hanging from the spirit herb as well. Lin Mu could see smaller versions of the pods growing from the flowers that were starting to wilt, prompting him to think that they were actually the fruit of the spirit herb.

"It's actually bearing fruits…" Lin Mu muttered as he tried to probe the spirit herb.

But the moment his spirit sense touched the herb, it trembled.

~Rustle~

~whoosh~

Then in the next moment, all its leaves curled and wrapped around its stem, pulling the the flowers as well before it shrank into the ground.

"It got startled!" Hua Yi exclaimed and tried to detect the spirit herb.

Little Shrubby sniffed the air and quickly found the position of the spirit herb.

~SHUA~

He raised his right leg and clawed out in the air, creating a claw imprint the blazed the ground some distance away.

~RUSTLE~

~THUD~

The sentient spirit herb shout of the ground in fear and changed its direction. Little Shrubby's attack had created a deep cut on the ground that was now burning. It was at least five meters deep and was enough to stop the sentient spirit herb from retreating.

"It can't go deeper than five meters, it seems. It has a limit to how far it can dig. We just need to stop it from going away from this area!" Lin Mu quickly understood.

"I'll block the left!" Hua Yi said and quickly flew.

Little Shrubby didn't speak anything and just ran in a circle quickly, creating a wall of fire around the area.

"That'll make it a bit easy." Lin Mu said as his spirit sense entered the ground, searching for the spirit herb again. 

"THERE!" Lin Mu lunged towards a certain spot before punching down.

~BOOM~

His fist directly created a crater in the ground, spreading cracks around the areas.

~THUD~

About a meter from the edge of the crater, a bulge appeared and a certain spirit herb was pushed out.

"Now I got you!" Lin Mu said before he quickly blinked to the spirit herb and firmly grasped it.

~sha~sha~sha~

Upon doing this though, Lin Mu infuriated the spirit herb, and it unfurled its branches and leaves. 

~shingling~

The leaves suddenly turned rigid and sharp before slashing at Lin Mu. 

~DENG~ DENG~ deng~

Sparks were created as the sickle like leaves hit the Mortal Strengthening Scriptures armor. Lin Mu was unaffected and simply watched on in amusement as the spirit herb struggle.

"This thing isn't weak at all…" Lin Mu said as he felt the pull of the spirit herb.

It was trying its best to escape, but could not leave Lin Mu's grasp. 

Hua Yi approached Lin Mu, feeling surprised at the pace at which Lin Mu caught the spirit herb. He recalled how it had taken their sect over a month to catch a spirit herb like this before.

At that time, he had just joined the sect and was barely at the body tempering realm. It was a long time ago, and he only learned all of that due to being a disciple of the Patriarch.

"At what level do you estimate its strength to be senior Lin Mu?" Hua Yi questioned.

"Hmmm… it is at least equivalent to a Nascent soul realm creature. Those leaves are very sharp too and will cut through steel. Even a Nascent soul realm beast might be injured." Lin Mu answered.

~gulp~

Hua Yi couldn't help but swallow his saliva hearing this. The spirit herb's spirit Qi fluctuations seemed to be far weaker than what its actual power was. It could very well make a cultivator lower their guard and then kill them.

"Let's get this over with." Lin Mu muttered and stored the spirit herb into the ring.

He specifically put it in an area that had some soil and spirit stones that had been kept together. Lin Mu had learned from the Wood Spirit Tulip and knew what the spirit herbs liked.

'That should keep it fine for the time being.' Lin Mu thought.

~phew~

"That was way quicker than I thought it would take us." Hua Yi spoke after taking a breath of relief.

"Indeed. This plan went just as I had hoped it would." Lin Mu said, feeling pleased. "Not many of my plans have been going as I expected these days, so one going perfectly feels good." He added.

"Plans are always subject to change and fate will often gamble with our plans… this is something I often heard Master say." Hua Yi stated.

"That is true." Lin Mu said with a nod, recalling the words of senior Xukong as well that were rather similar.

"Do we go back now?" Little Shrubby questioned.

"Indeed. We head back. And this till we'll be even quicker, since we don't have to be on the ground." Lin Mu answered with a smile.

"ALRIGHT!" Little Shrubby said before the upgraded harness appeared on his back.

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