Hearing that Lin Mu had gifts for him, Little Shrubby was really excited.
"What did you get?" Little Shrubby questioned.
"Well, let me show you." Lin Mu said before taking out all the ingredients and condiments that he had bought.
The more Little Shrubby saw, the wider his eyes got.
"This is awesome! I can try so many things now!" Little Shrubby said before he went to check each of the items.
He smelled them and tasted them before deciding what things they could be used for. Lin Mu let it happen and the beast enjoyed it. By the time Little Shrubby was done checking all things, an entire hour had passed.
"I think you should store them away for now. We need to go someplace else now." Lin Mu spoke.
"Okay," Little Shrubby replied before quickly getting to storing all of the items in the many spatial storage treasures he now had.
In a minute, he was done and the two of them were ready to leave.
"So where are we going?" Little Shrubby questioned.
"We are going to test out a new technique that I got. But for this, I need Hong Lin trees that are at least a hundred years old." Lin Mu answered.
"These trees? Hmm…" Little Shrubby muttered.
"Come on, let's leave." Lin Mu said as he flew up.
He didn't get onto Little Shrubby as their aim, wasn't to travel a long distance in a short time but rather to find specific kinds of trees. Lin Mu knew a little about the Hong Lin Trees and knew that the hundred years old trees didn't really look much different from the other trees with the exception that their roots would be far more deeper and longer.
Just from the outward appearance it was often hard to find one and even when someone used spirit sense to find the right kind of a tree there was still a chance that the tree might not be a hundred years old and it was just their roots that had reached a length long enough to look like that.
Since the Hong Lin trees were plants, ultimately they could have different growing styles and uniqueness that animals often could not. Not only that, but their lifespan was also naturally longer with some trees even immortal despite not needing to cultivate.
As long as trees got the nutrition and ideal conditions, they would keep on growing and stay alive for years and years to come. But cultivation often came with time. Every item in the world absorbed spirit Qi passively even if they wanted it or not.
It didn't matter what kind of objects they were either, they could be living beings or even inanimate objects like rocks, stones, lakes or even something like clouds. The longer something existed the more spirit Qi they would have absorbed.
Living creatures had an advantage here and they could naturally absorb far more spirit Qi passively than what inanimate objects like rocks could. And thus plants coming under this category could also cultivate after a certain age.
There were often times cases when a plant that had reached over a thousand years old would gather enough spirit Qi to naturally breakthrough to the Qi refining realm and become a spirit herb.
But if one compared this to a human, the very same human might not even live for one tenth the entire lifespan of the plant. And the more ironic part was the fact that even if a human did cultivate and reached the Nascent Soul realm, they would at most be able to live for a thousand years, whereas the plant would have already lived for that long.
This was also the reason why, while there were variations in sizes of the Hong Lin Trees, a bigger tree might not necessarily be hundred years old or even a thousand years old. There were many more factors to them and one could only depend on their luck to find one.
Of course, hundred year old Hong Lin trees weren't something that were too hard to find either. Even commoners could find them on their own, given that they searched hard enough and long enough as well.
From what Lin Mu knew, the entire Hong Lin forest had at least ten percent trees that were at the age of hundred years old or more. As for the thousand year old trees, the people had no idea and neither did the King.
Lin Mu and little Shrubby traveled over the forest for about an hour, with Lin Mu having his spirit sense extended fully and checking the earth for the roots of the Hong Lin trees. Even if the roots might not necessarily indicate if a tree was hundred years old, it still had a greater chance of being a hundred years old than a tree with shorter roots.
"There," Lin Mu suddenly said while pointing to one of the areas below.
Him and Little Shrubby then descended to the ground and reached the tree, which Lin Mu suspected was a hundred years old Hong Lin tree. He checked the method that was described in his mind and placed his hand onto the trunk of the tree.
Closing his eyes, Lin Mu sensed the condition of the Hong Lin tree. At first, he didn't sense anything but after five seconds, Lin Mu could feel the vibrant energy that was only hidden within a hundred year old Hong Lin tree.
Lin Mu opened his eyes that shined with content.
"This is it!" Lin Mu said.
"What do we do now?" Little Shrubby questioned.
"Now I'm gonna try and cultivate using the new method. You can try and find other trees similar to them. I don't know if your senses will work with this or not though." Lin Mu said.
He knew that the method would not be something that Little Shrubby would be able to use, but Lin Mu hoped that Little Shrubby's animal senses would triumph here instead.