673 On To The Hong Lin Kingdom

After a couple of minutes, the people had gotten comfortable with Little Shrubby's presence. Seeing that it did not do anything, and it was only the aura that was imposing helped a bit to condition their minds as well.

"Alright then, we'll take our leave." Lin Mu said as Little Shrubby made the harness appear on his back.

Strapping into the harness, Lin Mu looked at Jing Luo. The man tapped his feet together, making the wind strider boots replace the ones that he was wearing before.

"Take care, senior!" Mu Tao and the rest said as Lin Mu and Jing Luo soared into the sky.

~boom~

In the blink of an eye, the three of them disappeared, causing a small sonic boom that blew the hair of everyone back.

***

Their destination was the Hong Lin Kingdom, which was located about five hundred kilometers from the border of the Fenlong Kingdom. It was also the home to a couple of small sects but they were unranked and thus didn't really matter to Lin Mu and Jing Luo.

For unranked sects, the strongest cultivation in their sect would be at most in the Nascent Soul realm. Such unranked sects were many in number all over the empire and would rise and fall every couple of years.

There was no lack of ambitious Nascent soul realm cultivators who had newly broken through, wanting to establish their foothold in the world. Of course, while they did have the qualifications to start a sect, it didn't really mean their sect would get members or that they would have resources.

Sure, there would be many that would want to join the tutelage of a Nascent soul realm cultivator, but whether they could provide the resources to cultivate was also an important point that was often missed by people.

If one did not have resources, it was better for them to be an itinerant cultivator rather than a sect head. Only after spending several years as an itinerant cultivation and gathering sufficient resources might one think of establishing a sect.

If they were lucky, they might even find a suitable location that was rich in spirit Qi for the sect. But such locations were rare and few in between, as they would need to have a spirit stone mine or spirit Qi spring at the very least under them.

Such locations had mostly been discovered by the majority of the cultivation sects and others would have to be incredibly lucky to find one in a deserted location or a completely new born spirit Qi spring to even had a chance.

Lin Mu and Jing Luo reached the border of the Fenlong kingdom in about ten hours, and this was when they weren't going at full speed. After all, they weren't running away from anyone and weren't in danger.

Even if Jing Luo had put on the wind strider boots, he was mainly using them with his own spirit Qi rather than the spirit stones. And the only reason why Lin Mu was sitting on the back of Little Shrubby and not flying on his own was because he was cultivating right now.

As days passed by, Lin Mu understood that he needed to increase his own cultivation base as much as he could in the shortest time. In the past two months, his cultivation had been increasing steadily and while he was not close to a breakthrough, Lin Mu knew that he was half way to the Adult Stage of the Nascent Soul realm.

Little Shrubby had some shocking gains in the past two months as well, and had reached the Adolescent soul stage of the Nascent Soul realm.

"How did you break through again?" Lin Mu questioned Little Shrubby through their link.

"I've been hunting beasts in the ocean and eating them. I found that, unlike the forest, there are a lot of Nascent soul realm beasts in the water. I don't even need to do much and they come out on their own to die." Little Shrubby said smugly.

Lin Mu had a wry smile on his face, understanding that Little Shrubby had basically eaten his way to a breakthrough. He had been aware of his taste for Nascent souls and knew that he had been desiring them for a while now.

Seeing the Saw toothed Tuna, Lin Mu knew that while the beast's body was intact, its Nascent soul had already been killed and possibly eaten by little Shrubby.

Lin Mu curiously checked the body of Little Shrubby and saw that it had become stronger than before. The Beast Qi that Lin Mu had given little Shrubby two months ago was fully assimilated and had brought about several minor changes that were hard to notice on the outside.

His bloodline also felt a bit more stable to Lin Mu and was possibly affecting him more than he could understand right now.

Once Lin Mu and Jing Luo reached the border of the Fenlong Kingdom, they could see the dense forest that started from there. Most of the area of Fenlong kingdom was sparse hills and trees, but on the southern border, the forest started.

"Once the trees of this forest start to turn red, we'll know that we have entered the territory of the Hong Lin kingdom." Lin Mu informed.

"Hmm… I've heard of this before. The Hong Lin kingdom is also known as the crimson leaf nation and is filled with the Hong Lin Trees. There are some special herbs that are only found here too." Jing Luo replied.

"Have you been here before?" Lin Mu questioned cursorily.

"Once when I was a child. I came here with my uncle to get some thousand year old Hong Lin wood. They are used as a material for weapons and are very good for use with fire attribute materials." Jing Luo answered.

"I see… anything of use we can get here in addition to our mission?" Lin Mu asked again.

"Hmm… nothing that specifically comes to my mind, but I guess we can get some resin of the Hong Lin trees here. I'll be able to make some more formations with it as it can be used in several unique inks." Jing Luo replied.