1921 Snow Glass Pear Orchard

Seeing the direction that the Head Elder had gone, Lin Mu guessed that the head elder still had work to do there, or was perhaps called over.

'They will probably take a long time to set up proper defenses at the wall. I should also take a look later and see what kind of arrays they're making.' Lin Mu thought to himself while flying.

A short while later he reached the Library and went up.

Lin Mu spent the night in 'reading' and analyzing books while condensing the information and transferring it into the jade slip. Then in the morning, he would go out to have tea with the Head Elder and discuss about formations.

They had food as well, with the Head Elder showing off the dishes their clan made with the vegetables and herbs that grew in the Valley. Lin Mu enjoyed them with Little Shrubby while the Head Elder was intrigued by the beast.

This was the second time he had seen the beast, as the first time was at the banquet. The head elder was busy talking and celebrating, and as such hadn't focused on the beast much. 

But now that he had a proper look, he realized that the beast was not simple. 

Despite its small body, its cultivation seemed to be hidden. It only seemed to be in the Spirit realm at first, but the Head Elder was sure the beast was much stronger. It was his own instincts honed over the years telling him that this was a strong beast.

Still, he didn't question much about it and reckoned Lin Mu would tell him if need be.

The same cycle repeated day by day, with Lin Mu and the Head Elder steadily progressing in their discussions. 

This continued until the day on which Lin Mu was to meet Elder Pear arrived.

Lin Mu and the Head Elder were sitting in the Eight Whorl Peak like before, but this time they had a visitor.

"Great Grandfather!" Shuijing Mingzhu called out.

"Mingzhu, have you decided to join us too?" The Head Elder questioned.

"No, I'm here to bring Daoist Mu Lin with me. Elder Pear has awakened." She replied.

"Oh? Is he finally awake?" Lin Mu was excited.

"Yes, I just got the information and I quickly came to get you." She stated.

"Go on, we'll end the discussion here for today." The Head Elder spoke.

"Very well, Head Elder." Lin Mu nodded his head and got up.

~whoosh~

Him and Shuijing Mingzhu flew off the peak, and talked on the way.

"Shuijing Ju didn't come?" He asked.

"He's busy with work. He's also assigned to the Great Meteorite Wall now." Shuijing Mingzhu replied.

"Oh? But he isn't a formation master, right?" Lin Mu asked, feeling confused.

"Indeed. Senior brother is part of our defense members. As such, he is currently guarding the wall along with several others." Shuijing Mingzhu answered.

"Guarding? But aren't they setting up arrays there?" Lin Mu inquired in doubt.

"Yes, but the arrays will take a while to be finished. And the preliminary ones that are set up, can still be broken. As such, the Elder Council decided to always have guards standing at the Wall." Shuijing Mingzhu explained.

"I see… that makes sense." Lin Mu replied. 

"Oh! And I heard they even made an outpost on top of the wall." Shuijing Mingzhu added.

"Really? That was fast." Lin Mu responded. "Though it is a good place to defend from. Plus, you get a really great view of both sides."

"You've been to the top. How is it there Daoist Mu Lin?" Shuijing Mingzhu asked curiously.

"It is very beautiful. Rather calming too. You should definitely check it out once." Lin Mu answered, making Shuijing Mingzhu interested in it too now.

"Hmm… maybe I'll go visit it sometime. I can always help out with the formations anyway." She said, before noticing where they were. "Ah! We're almost there." She spoke up.

"Oh?" Lin Mu looked down but didn't see any kind of orchard there. "Wait… is it within an illusory area?" he could faintly sense some Immortal Qi fluctuations.

"You can sense them?!" Shuijing Mingzhu was surprised.

"There are faint fluctuations…" Lin Mu said before closing his eyes for a moment and activating Spatial Perception. "Hmmm…. Fifty five layers of isolating formations arranged into a three fold array and then wrapped with an illusory array." He identified.

"You… No wonder Great Grandfather likes you so much." Shuijing Mingzhu muttered. "Very few can sense this array at all." She revealed.

"It is well concealed, for sure." Lin Mu replied, not telling her that he had somewhat cheated with the Spatial perception.

"Mmhmm, this is one of the well protected areas of the Serene Glass Valley. It is also the oldest place in the valley and is very important to us." Shuijing Mingzhu said before taking a pause. "Plus, it is required to be in a special condition, so it needs to stay inside the array." She added.

"Oh?" Lin Mu wondered what they were.

"You'll see it soon enough." Shuijing Mingzhu said and landed at a particular spot.

The area looked rather normal and only had a couple of trees and bushes around them. It was mostly empty and it didn't seem like an Orchard existed here at all. 

But then Shuijing Mingzhu took out a glass piece that was carved into the shape of a small pear and held it out in air.

~HONG~

The glass pear reacted with something, and a vertical line materialized in front of them. The Line then expanded and turned into a rectangular opening that was filled with a blank white light.

"Come," Shuijing Mingzhu stepped towards the door that had appeared. 

Lin Mu followed after her and passed through the gate, his vision turning white for a few seconds.

~Shua~

And when he regained his vision, he saw a vast orchard in front of him. Thousands upon thousands of trees extended in all directions making Lin Mu think as if he had teleported into an entirely different area.

'If not for the fact I didn't feel any Spatial fluctuations, I wouldn't even be able to tell all of this was concealed with an illusory array.' Lin Mu thought to himself. 

He looked around with his Spatial Perception a bit more and identified more arrays that were within the orchard.

The most eye catching was a glowing array that was floating in the sky. It was illuminating the entire area with a bright white light, but when Lin Mu focused on it, he sensed a different kind of Qi from it.

"Is that… Light Elemental Immortal Qi?" Lin Mu questioned.

"Yes!" Shuijing Mingzhu answered. "The Snow Glass Pear Trees have the dual element of Ice and Light. As such, they need a lot of light to grow and bear fruits." She explained.

"Interesting…" Lin Mu looked at the trees and found them to be different than most trees he had seen so far.

Their trunks were brown like most other trees, but that's where the similarities ended. The leaves of the tree were a pale blue color with dark green veins on them. Then, between those trees, one could see strange fruits hanging from them.

These fruits were white in color and had a glassy texture, as if they were made out of glass.

These were none other than the Snow Glass Pears!

"They do look like they are made out of glass." Lin Mu couldn't help but say.

"Yeah, they're very pretty, right?" Shuijing Mingzhu said with a smile.

"For sure." Lin Mu agreed.

"Come on, we'll go see them from close." She said and pulled Lin Mu with his hand.

The two got closer to the Snow Glass Pear trees, allowing Lin Mu to observe them better.

"This is my first time seeing a tree with the Light Element. I've seen some with the ice element, but never light." Lin Mu spoke, placing his hand on the trunk. 

He felt a cool sensation from the trunk, and could also sense the Ice Elemental Qi contained within it.

~drip~

But as he did this, he felt something cold fall on his hand.

"Huh?" He looked at it and found it to be a translucent liquid of some kind. "What's this?" he narrowed his eyes.

"That is why the Snow Glass Pear Tree Orchard is so valuable to the Serene Glass Valley." Shuijing Mingzhu spoke. "The sap of the trees."

"The Sap?" Lin Mu looked at it closely and even used his Immortal Sense to probe the sap.

By this time, the sap had already hardened on his hand and looked like a glass teardrop. 

"Is this… How the weapons of the Serene Glass Valley were made?" Lin Mu questioned. "The Sword Shuijing Ju used." He recalled the unique glass like sword that the man had used to fight against him.

"Yes!" Shuijing Mingzhu nodded her head. "That sap is essential to making our signature glass weapons." 

"How peculiar…" Lin Mu muttered and looked up where the sap had fallen from.