Chapter 539: Mighty Shrubby!

Xukong had been terribly worried upon seeing the state of Lin Mu. He didn't know what kind of damage had been caused by the tribulation lightning either. The thing was that Lin Mu was hit by was pure tribulation lightning, but it was not intended for him.

If it was punishment tribulation lightning, Xukong would be able to assess it much better. But this was something that he had rarely seen happen before. He had heard of certain cultivators who had special cultivation techniques that needed the Tribulation lightning to progress.

But even they didn't use pure tribulation lightning that was intended for someone else. The laws of heaven simply did not work like this. The tribulation lightning that was intended for someone would only hit that specific person.

If an extremely powerful person interfered, they may be able to stop the lightning, but it would still not go to them. Instead, a bolt of punishment lightning would descend instead. With so many unknown parameters, there was little Xukong could do.

And since Little Shrubby had not arrived yet either, and the sect members had, it only made the situation worse.

Xukong had even thought of using his trump card, but hesitated. Him interfering by descending directly into a world was extremely dangerous. Not only to the world, but also to him. 

And it was not like he was without enemies either…

But the arrival of little Shrubby gave him a great sense of relief. Upon seeing him though, he felt like little shrubby was a bit different than before. His aura was much stronger and he could even feel that there had been some kind of a change in its bloodline.

But this relief didn't last long as the sect patriarch Mudan and the rest of the elders had arrived at the location as well.

***

Mudan looked at the beast in front of him and felt a bit uneasy. Even though he was far above the cultivation base of the beast, he didn't know why but approaching it himself felt dangerous to him.

~Roar~

"Go get that beast! And get that man too!" Mudan ordered his elders, wanting to wait and see.

~gulp~

The elder's suppressed their fear and approached Little Shrubby. Their weapons gleamed as they floated in front of them.

"Die filthy beast!" 

~shing~ 

A spirit sword shot towards Little Shrubby, but it was stopped mid way. 

~DENG~

A hand was wrapped around the blade of the spirit sword… or more accurately, a metallic hand. 

"Wh-what? What the hell is that?" The elder couldn't help but wonder.

"It's a spirit tool! There's someone else here!" another elder said as they all became alert and looked around.

~roar~

Little shrubby had blocked the sword with the prosthetic hand, which was a spirit tool. Taking the opportunity while the elders were distracted, he slashed out with his claws, sending out streaks of scorching flames.

"Watch out!" 

~shing~

The elder withdrew the short sword to block the streaks of flames in front of them, but then felt a strong force hitting his cheek.

~slap~

~ptui~

The metallic hand had just slapped his cheek, making him spit out a couple of teeth. 

The other elders watched dumbly, as this was not something they had expected.

~slap~

Another slap hit the elder which knocked him back. Little shrubby took this opportunity to withdraw the harness from his spatial storage belt. He then picked up Lin Mu with his teeth and threw him up in the air before catching him on his back.

Only now did the patriarch and the elders realize the beast had actually come to rescue Lin Mu.

"STOP HIM! IT'S A TAMED BEAST!" Mudan shouted, this time acting personally.

~ROAR!~

Little Shrubby let out another roar that shook the air and made the elders flinch for a moment before bursting into a sprint. 

~whoosh~ 

He wasn't running at full speed though, as Lin Mu was still not strapped into the harness. Right now his legs were slid into the hoops, thus he wouldn't fall at this speed, but if he did not strap in properly, he would fall off.

~shua~

~piak~

The patriarch's head bobbed as he felt something hit it from the behind. He lifted his face, that was angry, and looked at the culprit.

"You! YOU!!! YOU DARE INSULT ME!" He shouted.

The metallic hand had just now slapped the back of Mudan's head before it returned to little shrubby.

But this only unnerved the elders more.

"Patriarch! That beast! It's controlling that spirit tool." 

"Not only that, didn't you see that harness appearing on its back!" 

"Wait, that's a spatial storage treasure on its neck!" 

Realization dawned upon their head as they put two and two together.

"There is no other person… that beast is behind it all!" 

They sped up, but couldn't keep up with the beast. 

Little Shrubby had recalled the metallic hand to his side and used that to strap Lin Mu into the harness. Once that was done, he stored the hand back into the storage treasure and increased his speed.

~thud… thud… thud… thud~

The sound of heartbeats echoed in the forest. The sect patriarch who was the only one able to keep up with little shrubby noticed that they were coming from it. The heartbeats kept on getting louder until they were like war drums.

And then he saw a sight he would never forget.

Seven illusory beasts appeared around little shrubby. Each of them looked different, but they were all big cat type beasts similar to lions, tigers, panthers, leopards, etc. The illusory beasts roared in unison before merging with Little Shrubby.

~KABOOM~

Little shrubby's body glowed before bursting entirely into flames. 

These flames were massive and fully covered his body, increasing his size by four times. Lin Mu couldn't even be seen among the flames, as they had fully buried him within. 

~ROAR!~

~KABOOM~

Finally, Little Shrubby let out a thunderous roar that shook the land, before disappearing with a sonic boom; knocking all the trees and soil back.