1603 The Approaching Tournament

Lin Mu couldn't let the two immortal swords work on their own from here.

"I'll need to do this manually." Lin Mu said as he held Afternoon Pine in his hand.

He carefully placed it at the seam where the different grade Immortal Stones met and pressed into it.

~CLINK~

The sound of the stone getting scratched was heard. Lin Mu exerted more force and pierced the immortal sword into it with ease. Little by little he cut into the Immortal stones and started separating them.

As much as he wished to use Meld for this, he knew the chances of a mistake arising were high with this level of complexity.

All this made Lin Mu wonder about the formation of the immortal stone mine. It was clear that it hadn't taken shape the same way as the previous one. It was a lot more open, but at the same time the demarcation between the different grades of Immortal stone was also obscure.

Lin Mu made a note to learn more about the immortal stone mine's formation later on in the future. This was just so in case, he had to clear out another mine and knew well enough what he would be coming across.

Prying away the different segments of the Immortal stones and storing them away took Lin Mu a few hours. Thankfully, only the edges of the Immortal stones were like this, with the middle segments being of one grade.

Lin Mu repeated the process again and again for each intersecting segment until finally an entire week passed by.

"I can finally see the source vein." Lin Mu said as he sat down to take a break.

The break wasn't because he was tired though. Rather it was to check if anything had been missed of if there were any issues.

Little Shrubby had also finished his task of gathering other materials a while ago and was now resting at the side. He rolled on top of an Immortal Stone Slab, while lazily absorbing the Qi from it.

Lin Mu let him be, as the beast had already done his part of the job.

The Saintess was also sitting nearby, having fashioned a set of Table and chairs from the same Immortal Stone. She had merely waved her hand and the winds from it had cut up the  Immortal Stone into a perfectly shaped Table and chairs.

It was certainly a luxury product as the cut up table and chairs would be worth a few thousand Immortal Stones. The furniture was quite literally worth its weight in Immortal stones.

The Saintess had observed Lin Mu's relentless work over the past few days. Though she had mostly kept silent and let the young man work. No one knew what her thoughts were, other than the fact that her gaze barely left Lin Mu.

It didn't matter how far he was, or if he was behind something. Her gaze could see through all.

And her very gaze caught the gleaming pillar of Immortal Source Vein that was finally revealed after Lin Mu's hard work. Its glow fell on Lin Mu's face, illuminating his dark eyes and straight brows.

"Finally… Time to finish this." Lin Mu muttered and extended his hand.

~HUALA~

The saintess's eyes narrowed as she felt strong spatial fluctuations coming from Lin Mu.

'He's controlling the Spatial Fabric itself?!' The Saintess wondered.

She watched as Lin Mu's hand moved and skillfully plucked the Immortal Source Vein.

~WHOOSH~

With it being removed from the cave, the Immortal Qi concentration in the air started to rapidly fall such that wind started to blow in the closed off space. Lin Mu though didn't care for that and simply stored it in the ring.

~HUU~

Having finished what he had set out to do, Lin Mu felt a sense of accomplishment and let out a long breath.

"That's done… Now all that's left is to leave the Desolate Blood Battled and return to the Middle Fort city." Lin Mu said out loud.

"You still have a little over a month left till the Tournament." The Saintess reminded.

"A over a month, Hmm… I'll have to be fast then I suppose." Lin Mu's thought deeply, trying to find the best series of actions.

'Firstly, I need to implant the Source Vein in the Sleepscape. The earlier I do the better. Once that's done, I can start my return. Covering the expanse of the Desolate Blood Battlefield will take around two to three weeks too considering I'm in the Grey Slate Ravines now.' Lin Mu plotted the route in his mind.

It was safe to say that there was a high chance he would be cutting very close to the tournament's date.

~Sigh~

"I should begin with a single step at a time first." Lin Mu said to himself before deciding to implant the Source Vein.

But before he could do that though, he needed to take care of something else.

"I'm going to sleep for a bit, Saintess." Lin Mu informed.

"Sleep? You're tired?" The Saintess was a bit doubtful.

According to what she could see, Lin Mu's body was full of energy and he didn't seem to be tired at all.

"Mentally a bit yes." Lin Mu nodded his head. "And I also need to talk to master." He added.

"Your master?!" The Saintess raised her brows under her veil. "He uses Dream Transmission with you?" she asked.

"Something like that yes." Lin Mu answered.

While it wasn't accurate, it was similar to what he did anyways. Lin Mu knew the Saintess seemed to know and respect his master for a reason, thus he chose to mention him.

"Alright then. You should sleep." The Saintess had no objections.

"It won't be long. Just a few hours." Lin Mu said before taking out his bolster and lying down on another slab of Immortal Stone.

While it was rather hard, it still gave one a comfortable feeling due to the sheer amount of Immortal Qi it would emit.

Even if one slept on it every day, they wouldn't find their body getting stiff!