1847 Dormancy And Plant Talk

Little Shrubby had been in the Sleepscape since before Lin Mu had started his fight with Yao Changying and after that he had been recuperating for several days.

And in that time, he had barely talked to Little Shrubby, which had made the beast worried about him.

Especially since the fact that the two had a link and could tell the condition of each other. Little Shrubby might not sense the minor injuries that Lin Mu might get, but the dangerous slate Grey energy of the Withering Dao was shocking for him.

"Are you okay?" Little Shrubby finally asked.

"I'm good now." Lin Mu gave a nod. "I defeated the opponent."

"YAY!" Little Shrubby cheered.

With the beast happy again, Lin Mu decided to take a look around the Sleepscape.

"Anything change here?" Lin Mu asked, since Little Shrubby would have probably seen the most.

"Mm… The Giant Tree released some energy a while ago." Little Shrubby replied.

"It did?" Lin Mu raised his brows and spread his Immortal sense around.

For the mutated Violet Mystic Life Tree to release any kind of energy was a matter of concern. He didn't know if it was good or not, but knew that the other beings in the Sleepscape could have been affected including Little Shrubby.

"The energy floated for a bit before disappearing into the ground." Little Shrubby continued.

"Huh, it went inside." Lin Mu looked down and tried to use his Immortal sense to take a deeper look. 

Unfortunately for Lin Mu, he could barely go so far before he reached an impenetrable layer. It wasn't his first time encountering this and he knew he had hit the limits of the Garden of Karma.

"Senior Xukong," Lin Mu finally called the spider out.

~shua~

A flickering silver orb manifested near him that was about the size of a large watermelon. The orb's surface faded away to reveals the spider inside.

He had grown once more and was quite large.

"You've progressed?" Lin Mu knew that Xukong's size would increase as he continued cultivating.

"I have indeed." Xukong replied as his ten golden eyes looked around. 

Even without his Immortal sense he could perceive everything within the Sleepscape in one look.

"Hmm… The Violet Mystic Life Tree has gone dormant." Xukong suddenly spoke.

"It has?" Lin Mu hadn't felt this from his earlier scan. 

"Let's take a look." Xukong said instead.

Lin Mu nodded and flew alongside him to the base of the giant tree. The red crystal still grew from its trunk while slithering red veins could also be seen. 

Its leaves gleamed with a dim violet light while its branches swayed.

"It's hard to tell just like this. It looks the same." Lin Mu said before walking up to it and touching it.

He closed his eyes and let his Immortal sense enter the giant tree. He had nothing to fear since it was already inside the Sleepscape. Everything here was technically part of Lin Mu and couldn't harm him.

Lin Mu's immortal sense smoothly entered the tree and went to its core sensing the energy within it. Unlike before where it flowed like a gushing river, it now felt like a trickling stream.

Opening his eyes, Lin Mu wrinkled his brows unable to tell just what had happened to the tree. There was certainly no damage to it, but its dormancy felt different.

"Why do you think it went dormant?" Lin Mu asked Xukong.

"For normal Violet Mystic Life Tree's going dormant usually means that they've expended quite a lot of their energy in producing the fruits. But this only happens once ever few cycles of fruit production and can take a few thousand years to happen.

But this one is mutated and showed no signs of dormancy before. Which only makes me think that something made it lose a part of its energy." Xukong explained.

"Little Shrubby did say that it released some energy before and it entered the ground." Lin Mu replied. "But that is also confusing since the tree takes Vital essence from the ground too with the mine buried alongside it." He expressed his doubts.

"It is indeed strange. But then again this is the Garden of Karma, even I don't know what kind of things it can do." Xukong was helpless here. "You'll just have to observe and figure out on your own."

Lin Mu simply gave a nod with a slight frown as he surveyed around the tree. Seeing that there was no significant change to the area, he went to check up on the other plants.

The Wood Spirit Tulip was resting and had grown its flower heads further. Though it hadn't generated the Wood Essence yet and as such was in a state of cultivation.

Lin Mu didn't disturb the plant and let it be.

~Rustle~

Next he checked on the Purple Sickle Amaranth that had grown even more. 

"It's thrice as big now." Lin Mu noticed.

The plant hadn't grown in height from the last time, but had instead chosen to spread around. It now had multiple stems growing from the ground, along with many branches that covered the area.

Its trees swayed in the air, absorbing the immortal qi and spirit qi from it before converting it into the wood element.

'Guess Little Shrubby has been absorbing it all this time which made it harder for me to sense the difference.' Lin Mu reckoned he would have felt the change earlier.

Done with the two plants, Lin Mu returned to his original tree which had come with the Sleepscape, the Immortal Apple tree.

"How are you doing?" Lin Mu asked the tree lightly.

~Sha~

As if to answer him, the tree lightly swayed towards him like it was nodding.

"Having fun absorbing the qi?" Lin Mu asked next.

~CREAK~

In response, the tree extended a branch towards Lin Mu, and shook off a couple of apples from it.

"Huh, guess more of them ripened." Lin Mu held the mixed green and red apples that looked pristine.

~crunch~

He bit into one of them while giving the second to Little Shrubby.

"Just like before." The taste was refreshing and made Lin Mu smile.