Having confirmed the existence of Dao Shell realm beasts, Lin Mu decided to stay clear of such areas, at least until he was confident of taking them on. He was still in the Adolescent Soul stage of the Nascent Soul realm and needed to reach the Adult stage at the very least before he would be able to have some confidence in battling Dao Shell realms beings.
Lin Mu and Little Shrubby continued their search through the forest and observed the flora and fauna around. There were a variety of plants and animals that Lin Mu had not seen before.
There were also plenty of spirit herbs that were unknown to him here.
"May as well take some of everything, just in case." Lin Mu said to himself.
Thus he picked whatever herbs he could while walking around and stored them in the ring. He didn't know if they would ever come in handy later, but he reckoned it was better to have it than not need it than need it and not have it.
~Growl~
.Lin Mu was about to pick another spirit herb that looked like a cross between an orchid and a lily when he heard a growl from the back. His spirit sense extended immediately and caught the beast midway.
~WHOOSH~
~Boom~
But before he could even do anything, a fire ball hit the beast and it was knocked to the side.
~thud~
Little Shrubby was the one who had attacked of course and he was now standing just at the head of the beast that had just tried to attack them. He bared his fangs at the beast and pressed upon its head with his paw.
"Oh? It's a Nascent soul realm beast?" Lin Mu was surprised.
He was surprised because the beast had let out no spirit Qi fluctuations and had a rather fast speed. Normally his spirit sense would have detected anything way faster than they could get to him.
Still, Little Shrubby was way faster and reacted before he could. Looking at the beast, Lin Mu found it to be rather different. It had the head of a Jackal, body of a bull, tail of a wolf, and broad hooves like that of a horse.
It had no horns but it did have bumps on his head that looked similar to them.
"A Wood Trampler beast?" Lin Mu recognized after a few seconds.
He had read about such beasts before and knew that they lived in dense forests. They could be found on the Xiaofan worlds as well but were only seen in the great southern forest.
"It's at the Infant Soul stage and yet it's quite fast, didn't expect them to be this good." Lin Mu said as he stabbed the short sword into the neck of the beast, killing it.
"This will serve a good meal," Little Shrubby said feeling pleased.
"Indeed," Lin Mu replied.
It was now that an idea struck him.
"Hang on… if there is an abundance of Nascent soul realm beast here, then… we may as well kill as many as we can and stockpile for later!" Lin Mu stated.
"YES! We should do that!" Little Shrubby agreed as well.
"Mmmhmm, first we'll get the lay of the land and then decided which beasts are safe to attack. Though I also think that we should get the Thousand year old Hong Lin trees first since that may be a bit time sensitive.
Hua San said that his supreme elder might have three more months at most but won't be able to hang on for any more." Lin Mu said.
"We'll try to find the Thousand Year Old Hong Lin tree first then and mark the interesting locations along the way. We can come to them later once we are done." Little Shrubby spoke.
"That seems perfect," Lin Mu agreed.
He felt pleased with the smartness of Little Shrubby which was no less than that of a human now. It could even be said to be higher than a lot of humans, considering some had the IQ of non cultivating pigs.
One couldn't even say someone was as dumb as a donkey in the cultivation world since a donkey could very well start cultivating and gain far better intelligence than you. Who knows, one day you may even have to call it ancestor.
Lin Mu and Little Shrubby continued their search and gathered spirit herbs and whatever interesting materials that they could find. They were attacked by some beasts during that time to but managed to kill them with ease.
They also found two more areas that were considered to be the territories of Dao Shell realm beasts. Lin Mu had not seen them himself and neither had Little Shrubby felt their presence, but the eerie absence of beasts in that area was a telltale sign that there was a strong beast living there.
With that in mind, Lin Mu simply marked it on his map and continued onwards.
'Hmm… Adviser Chu had said that there were a total of five beasts that he had suspected to be at the Dao Shell back when he was here. Two of them were wolf beasts, one was a snake beast, one was a turtle beast and one was a squirrel beast.
Wonder if they are still here or not. He did say that there were conflicts among the beasts as well and seeing as it has been over two hundred years since he left the sinkhole, there are chances that some of them may have perished.' Lin Mu thought to himself.
About thirty six hours had passed since they had arrived in the sinkhole and they had yet to get out of the forest.
"Hmm… are we going in the right direction?" Lin Mu wondered.
He flew up and checked the area finding that he was now at the edge of the forest.
"Ah! Finally, we're out." Lin Mu said as he gazed in the distance and spotted something familiar.
"That should be a decent vantage point."