Chapter 693: An Intelligent Herb

With the increase in his Five Treasures realm cultivation, Lin Mu felt incredibly pleased. 

"This will work! I just need to find more Hundred year old Hong Lin trees." Lin Mu said whit excitement.

He looked around to see if Little Shrubby had returned yet or not but did not see him there. He closed his eyes and sensed his connection, only to find that Little Shrubby was fifty kilometers away from him in the southern direction.

"Did he find something there?" Lin Mu wondered.

He then flew towards little Shrubby's direction and reached it after a few minutes. There Lin Mu saw Little Shrubby fighting another creature.

"Huh? What is that?" Lin Mu wondered.

The creature Little Shrubby was fighting was not a beast but rather a plant. The plant was moving around underground and popping up to attack Little Shrubby. Little Shrubby was chasing the plant around trying to catch him.

Lin Mu could tell that Little Shrubby didn't intend to kill the plant otherwise with his speed he would have done it rather easily.

"What are you doing little Shrubby?" Lin Mu questioned.

Little Shrubby who was in the middle of a jump, missed his target and the plant moved away quickly. Lin Mu didn't really get to take a good look at the plant and from what he could see it was just a brown root.

Little Shrubby looked up at Lin Mu who had just appeared and spoke "Catch it, its good ingredient!" 

Hearing this Lin Mu didn't know if he should laugh or not.

'No wonder…' Lin Mu thought to himself.

He extended his spirit sense and let it penetrate the ground. There he finally got to see the real appearance of the plant. Just as he had thought it was a spirit herb and was in the form of an onion like bulb.

It had long roots that were several tens of meters long, while at its top it had flat green leaves that numbered eleven. Lin Mu did not immediately realize what spirit herb this was but since it was able to move around like this, Lin Mu knew it was no common spirit herb.

"Oh?" Xukong's surprised voice was heard in Lin Mu's mind.

"What happened senior?" Lin Mu questioned.

"It's a peak grade herb that has managed to gain intelligence," Xukong spoke.

"Peak grade herb?" Lin Mu repeated as a smile appeared in his mind.

He quickly extended his hand in the direction of the spirit herb which was now trying to run away. Since Lin Mu had also appeared and he was quite strong which the spirit herb could perceive, it decided it was no longer worth it to fight and started to run away.

Alas, it was Lin Mu he was trying to escape from which was very difficult now.

"Meld," Lin Mu said as the entire area around the spirit herb was frozen.

The spirit herb also stopped moving and it looked it had turned into a normal spirit herb that was inanimate. Lin Mu raised his hand along with which the entire chunk of soil was lifted up as well. 

He then waved his fingers, making the soil split apart till the spirit herb's side was revealed. Lin Mu didn't go too much in deep as that may end up harming the spirit herb. He wanted the spirit herb intact as a spirit herb with intelligence was far more valuable than just a dead one.

With that one, Lin Mu pulled the chunk with the spirit herb towards him and he held onto it with his other hand and finally deactivated meld.

~thud~thud~thud~

All the chunks of soil fell to the ground as the spirit herb was now firmly clasped in his left hand. 

~rustle~ rustle~ rustle~

The spirit herb that looked like an onion couldn't really make any noise but its struggling in Lin Mu's hand made its leaves rustle. But no matter how hard it tried, the plant found it impossible to escape Lin Mu's grasp.

"You caught it!" Little Shrubby said with excitement.

"Yes, I did." Lin Mu said with a nod.

"Now let's cook it! I know it will be really good I can sense the spirit Qi in it!" Little Shrubby stated, his mouth almost dripping with drool.

~rustle~ rustle~ rustle~

Lin Mu didn't know if the onion like spirit herb could even understand Little Shrubby's cries or not and did it understood what he had meant, but it certainly did start to struggle even more. Though Lin Mu had to admit the spirit herb was strong.

'Its strength is almost comparable to someone in the Nascent soul realm.' Lin Mu thought.

Had it not been for Lin Mu's superior cultivation base and a strong body, he might have been forced to let go of the onion like herb. 

"Hang on now," Lin Mu said to Little Shrubby. "We should first see what spirit herb this is." He added.

Little Shrubby nodded his head and slurped back his drool. Lin Mu looked back at the herb and saw it continue to struggle it was now whipping around its roots and hitting Lin Mu as well.

~slap~slap~whip~

Its roots were long and thin, and could cause a lot of damage to the average cultivator. In fact, Lin Mu estimated that if it really did use a little more force with its roots, it might just end up cutting apart the body of whatever it struck.

In Lin Mu's case though, the spirit herb was out of luck as the Mortal Strengthening scripture's armor had kept in impervious to damage.

'No wonder little Shrubby was acutely dodging its attack… they can actually cause him some damage.' Lin Mu understood.

Learning all this had only made him that much curious about the herb in his hand. Keeping his hand on the herb, Lin Mu held the jade slip with all the records in his right hand. He then started to search through it, trying to find the identity of the herb.