1968 Immersing Himself in The Forest

Once Lin Mu had stored all the Elder Evergreen Pillar Bamboos, he could now place the bamboo pavilion here.

He did have to make a couple more adjustments to the building though, as one sides of the pavilion would be dipping in the pond. But that was easily fixed by simply increasing the supporting pillar of the Bamboo pavilion on that side.

"And done." Lin Mu dusted his hands off, as he finished the touch ups.

~THUD~

He placed the bamboo pavilion in the center of the six ponds and completed his residence for the coming few months.

It was rather quaint with the six ponds surrounding it and then a circle of Elder Evergreen Pillar Bamboos that extended further and merged into the rest of the Forest. Looking at it from the bamboo boundary made it look quite picturesque too.

'Did they describe the abodes of immortals to be like this in the mortal stories?' Lin Mu recalled having heard many such stories when he was a child.

In those, immortals were elusive and lived in deep forests in scenic pavilions, or high up on mountain peaks that were occluded with mysterious mist.

And now that Lin Mu was rethinking about that, he realized that there was certainly some truth to those stories.

'If there are other skills like the Litany Of the Verdant Forests, then it would make sense why stories like those were created. There's bound to be other cultivators who had to move into suitable isolated areas to practice their cultivation techniques.' Lin Mu thought to himself as he stepped into his personally made pavilion.

The formations of the pavilion were functioning perfectly like before and all that was left was for Lin Mu to activate them.

~SHUA~

Lin Mu activated it with his Immortal sense and caused the Bamboo Pavilion to disappear and be replaced by a thicket of bamboos, just like before. 

Since there were ponds here, Lin Mu was sure beasts would certainly visit this place from time to time. As such, it was best to keep things same as before to prevent any extra disturbances. With that done, Lin Mu entered the pavilion and sat down again.

This time he intended to stay here until he had at leas some success with the technique.

~huu~

Lin Mu took a deep breath and started to chant the Calming Heart Sutra first. This allowed him to recover his body to the optimum state and when he felt like he was ready, he chanted the Severing Heart Sutra.

His emotions faded away and his mind was cleared, ready to take in all that the Evergreen Pillars Forest had to offer.

Lin Mu opened up all his senses and welcomed the forest to speak to him. He didn't know how long it would take, but he would wait… wait and let the forest whisper when it was ready for it.

Minute after minute passed, as Lin Mu immersed himself in the embrace of the forest.

The air was tinged with the subtle fragrance of bamboo, which was like a delicate perfume that whispered of its ancient secrets

A soft symphony of rustling leaves accompanying a gentle breeze swept through the forest. 

The bamboo leaves, long and slender, swayed in unison, and created a soothing melody that echoed through the groves. 

Occasionally the leaves would fall from the bamboo and create ripples in the six ponds around Lin Mu. Usually the sound would be almost imperceptible, but for Lin Mu who had opened up his senses to the forest, they sounded like gentle bells instead.

Night and Day shifted, and the atmosphere of in the forest changed too. 

At night the Evergreen Pillars Forest was like an endless labyrinth, but during the day, sunlight could trickle though the canopy when the bamboos swayed with the wind, creating gaps for it.

The momentary exposure of sunlight would reveal small flowers and blossoms, as if they were playing hide and seek. They had their own ephemeral beauty that could only be witnessed if one was lucky.

It was a dance of tranquility, a ballet of nature, an example of perfect harmony. 

The Jade colored world around Lin Mu was like a tranquil heaven where time seemed to slow and the outside world faded away.

Lin Mu too gave up on time, and let the world progress.

His breaths synchronized with the winds while the Qi within him flowed at the same pace as that of the Evergreen Pillar Bamboos.

While Lin Mu was immersed in this, the forest around him had started to subtly change. The changes were fine and even peak immortals would find it hard to sense. 

The bamboos shifted, ever so slightly. Their branches tilted little by little everyday, while the leaves began to face the pavilion.

Eventually a day came where, all the branches tilted towards Lin Mu, the leaves faced him and the Bamboo leaned at him.

If Lin Mu were to directly sense the Evergreen Pillar Bamboos with his Immortal sense, he would finally feel the difference. 

As of now, a major change had happened.

Not only was the flow of energy linked from the roots of the Evergreen Pillar Bamboo, but even the branches and leaves were the same.

Fine wisp of Qi rose from the leaves and flowed to the other bamboos. The flow was very delicate and fine. And with how many leaves and branches were present in the area, the wisps of Qi formed a dense net.

As time passed, the flowing Qi net got denser and denser, coming closer and closer to the pavilion. It eventually reached it, avoiding all the formations that were placed on it. It was as if they were never there.

The formations did not register this as a threat and considered it the same as air.

The net continued to grow until it weaved and wrapped around the pavilion. At a certain point, it was almost caressing Lin Mu's body and avoiding it just by a fraction of millimeters.