1955 Evergreen Pillars Forest

The Evergreen Pillar Bamboo was a native plant, and as such, it thrived well here. So much so that Lin Mu could sense the steady flow of Wood Element within it.

'Guess this much is expected.' Lin Mu thought before discovering something else. "Wait… This flow… it goes into the ground?" He narrowed his eyes.

~shua~

Lin Mu's immortal sense entered the ground and followed along the roots of the Eternal Pillar Bamboo. He could observe the roots spreading everywhere and even linking with the other bamboos.

'So that's why the flow is so rich and steady… All the bamboos are linked.' Lin Mu discovered.

It was an interesting finding, as it basically meant that all the bamboos were essentially a single organism!

"No wonder it has taken up the entirety of the area. It is dominated by a single plant in the end." Lin Mu muttered to himself, wondering how strong could one consider the cultivation base.

He tried to sense any cultivation base from the bamboo but could not do so.

"They are certainly not following the conventional cultivation system." Lin Mu confirmed. 

At the very least, Lin Mu could not tell if the Bamboos would be able to fight back if they were attacked. 

They didn't show any higher instincts, and the flow of Qi within them was also constant which was a characteristic of immortal plants. Whereas, most animals would have a dynamic Qi flow that would change according to their bodies.

But in all this, Lin Mu did learn something else.

'Since all the bamboos are essentially the same, and have the same Qi signature… Sensing other beings here is actually difficult.' Lin Mu realized that he could have made a big mistake in the future. "And here I thought, I had sensed everything here…" He muttered in surprise.

The Evergreen Pillar Bamboos were spread in a large area, and since they had a steady flow, it was basically acting as a mask for the beings inside it. If there were beasts or other beings, their immortal Qi fluctuations would be masked by the bamboo.

This would make it hard to sense other creatures if they were far away.

"Hmm… I need to test this." Lin Mu knew it was best to understand the characteristics of the forest right away. "Little Shrubby, go as far as you can. I want to see how far I can sense you." He asked.

"Okay." Little Shrubby didn't mind and started to run into the forest.

Lin Mu kept his immortal sense extended while suppressing his link with Little Shrubby. He wanted to only test the capability of his Immortal Sense after all.

~shua~

After a few seconds, Little Shrubby had run quite far.

"Still detectable. Need to go farther." Lin Mu muttered and continued to sense.

Another minute later, Little Shrubby was a kilometer away from him.

"Hmm… a bit faint." Lin Mu started to sense the change. 

Another minute passed and the presence got even fainter. After this point, the presence started to get weaker rather fast.

"Two kilometers… so that's the limit now." Lin Mu furrowed his brows. "Come back Little Shrubby. No need to go any further." He spoke through his link.

~WHOOSH~

Soon, Little Shrubby was back near to him.

"Looks like we'll have to be more careful than I originally thought." Lin Mu replied. "Immortal Sense does not work well after two kilometers." He added.

"I could smell you, but not sense you either." Little Shrubby agreed. 

"We'll rely on your sense of smell too." Lin Mu added. "You should be able to detect the creatures here, much better than I can." 

Lin Mu was content that he had Little Shrubby with him here. 

"I'll always be alert!" Little Shrubby said with confidence.

"Though this also works in our favor. It just means the other beasts will also have a hard time sensing us through immortal sense." Lin Mu stated. "And hiding our scent won't be that hard." He said, taking out a Talisman.

It was one of the talisman that Shuijing Mingzhu had made for him.

"Never thought it would come in handy this fast." Lin Mu said before putting it on his body.

~Huala~

The Talisman glowed lightly, before merging into his body. 

This was a Scent Masking Talisman and was mostly used to prevent beasts from sensing the cultivators. However, a majority of cultivators using it were at the First Tribulation Stage of the Immortal realm or lower. It didn't make sense to use it in most cases, as the beasts could simply sense them with their Immortal Sense.

But the unique characteristics of the Evergreen Bamboo Forest made it so that the Scent Masking Talisman was the perfect fit.

"Let's see… this should last a week before its effect wears out." Lin Mu estimated. "Though if I'm in combat and use too much Immortal Qi, it'll wear off faster." He analyzed the effectiveness of the talisman.

It was still decent and he had several talismans. 

Shuijing Mingzhu had clearly gone out in making them as she had handed Lin Mu over two hundred talismans of many types.

With them as a preventive option, Lin Mu hoped that he would be able to cultivate here in an undisturbed manner for the most part.

"We can now go further in." Lin Mu spoke and the two proceeded.

The Evergreen Pillars Forest was like a directionless Maze. The further he went in, the more it felt like the area never changed. The Evergreen Pillar Bamboos grew everywhere, and every location seemed to be the same. 

It took a lot of effort to observe the finer details of the area, for Lin Mu to even tell that he was actually going into a new area and not just walking around in circles.

"No wonder not many people come here despite being beautiful… It can make them get lost." Lin Mu muttered to himself.

But Lin Mu had no idea that this wasn't even the start of it all. There were bigger secrets that the forest was hiding.