Chapter 257: A Trap?

Upon hearing the urgent message in his mind, Lin Mu became alert and his spirit sense spread around. But in the next moment, he was knocked back with great force, as if being hit by a bull.

~Thud~ 

~Cough~

~Cough~

~Cough~

Lin Mu coughed in pain as he tried to lift himself from the ground. 

~Meow~

The Brown Shrubby Forest Cat came running towards him to check up on him.

"Dammit, what was that!" Lin Mu cursed as he rubbed his head.

"Seems like there was a trap concealed in the Dual Circe Ascension vine," Xukong said.

Lin Mu propped himself up and sat down on the ground as he checked on his body. He couldn't find any injuries on his body, and the only pain he had was from being knocked back. He then looked at the Dual Circe Ascension vine and found it to be glowing with a faint light.

"Why did I not sense it before?" Lin Mu questioned.

"It seems to be a trap that can stay concealed from the spirit sense of a cultivator. You're still inexperienced about these matters so it's no wonder that you couldn't sense it. Though, now you know to be more careful. There may be more traps that we don't know of here." Xukong answered.

"I see…" Lin Mu muttered as his spirit sense scanned the entire area deeply.

He had been alarmed by this, hence wanted to be extremely sure of everything before continuing. He stood up and walked around, searching a radius of about two hundred meters before returning to the Dual Circe Ascension vine with the Brown Shrubby Forest Cat following behind him.

"Seems like there is only that one trap and no more in the area." Lin Mu stated as he gazed at the Dual Circe Ascension vine.

"Fortunately, you can destroy this trap rather easily. It is a simple knock back trap that you can break by finding its node. Before, it would have been impossible for you to find it as it was in a concealed state. But now that it's revealed, you should be able to find it." Xukong spoke.

"Alright Senior." Lin Mu replied before focusing on the Dual Circe Ascension vine.

He extended his spirit sense and tried to find the formation node on the trap. It took him about five minutes before he discovered it right below the tree.

"I found it, Senior," Lin Mu said.

"Good, now use your spirit sense and pour your spirit qi into the node. Keeping on doing it till it destabilizes." Xukong taught.

Lin Mu nodded in response before doing as he was instructed. He channeled wisps of spirit qi into his spirit sense tendril and started pouring it into the formation node. Lin Mu was already proficient in using his spirit sword with the spirit sense thus had no problem doing this, as the concept was pretty much the same.

Lin Mu could see the light of the formation getting stronger and stronger. The more spirit qi he channeled into it, the brighter it got.

"Is this correct, senior?" Lin Mu asked.

"Yes, just continue what you are doing. It should soon be reaching its limits." Xukong replied.

Lin Mu continued doing so, and two minutes later the effects started to show. He could feel that the formation node was trembling and cracks started to appear on it. Another minute passed by and finally, the cracks covered the entirety of the node.

~Pop~

Then, with a small pop, the glowing formation disappeared leaving the Dual Circe Ascension vine unprotected.

"That… was rather anti-climatic," Lin Mu said as he reached out with his hand.

He touched one of the Dual Circe Ascension Fruits with his index finger and found there to be no reaction.

"Well, now I can get the fruits." Lin Mu spoke with a happy tone as he plucked the first Dual Circe Ascension fruit.

He looked at the small berry like fruit clenched in his fingers for a few seconds before storing it in the ring.

Meanwhile, the Brown Shrubby Forest Cat was looking at the entire process with interest and waved its tail from side to side. 

Lin Mu quickly finished plucking the eleven Dual Circe Ascension fruits and stored all of them in the ring. He then turned to look at the Brown Shrubby Forest Cat and petted its head.

"No wonder he didn't eat the fruits, seems like he too was scared by the knockback trap formation." Lin Mu said. "But then how did it obtain the fruit that it had eaten before?" Lin Mu asked.

"One of the fruits probably fell from the vine and left the confines of the trap. The Dual Circe Ascension fruits stay on the vine for quite a while even after becoming ripe, thus it is likely that the Brown Forest Shrubby Cat probably obtained it after quite some time. Though, looking at these fruits, I can estimate that they should have fallen soon too." Xukong replied.

Lin Mu nodded, showing that he agreed with Xukong and kept on staring at the Dual Circe Ascension vine.

"Hmm, Senior can we… take this vine with us?" Lin Mu asked.

"No, that is impossible. The Dual Circe Ascension vine will wither away when it's plucked from the ground. It's already a miracle that it was able to grow in an environment such as this." Xukong replied.

Lin Mu hummed in response as his gaze curiously went to the base of the Dual Circe Ascension vine. There he spotted something protruding from the ground. It was rather hidden because of the thick grass and the leaves of the Dual Circe Ascension vine thus could not see it clearly.

"Hmm, what's this?" Lin Mu wondered as he kneeled to take a closer look.

He moved the leaves and grass aside and saw that there seemed to be a grey crystalline object protruding from the ground.

Lin Mu first carefully probed it with his spirit sense to make sure that it was safe to touch. Finding there to be no problems, he pulled out the object from the soil.

"This?"