373: A small world that absorbs spiritual energy

The capital was in turmoil, yet within the Cave Heaven Small World, there was a profound sense of peace and tranquility, as if isolated from the outside world.

Li Mu slowly opened his eyes, exhaled a deep breath, and murmured softly, "Ever since the last spiritual energy tide, I've felt my Cultivation progress quite smoothly recently."

He clenched his fist, a faint smile playing on his lips, revealing a hint of satisfaction.

"While I was in seclusion Cultivating, I wonder how their progress at the Dragon Gate is coming along?"

Li Mu muttered to himself as he opened the System, carefully observed the situation at the East Sea Dragon Gate, and then individually reviewed the System videos of the Special Affairs Handling Bureau members challenging the Dragon Gate.

When he noticed those shadowy humanoid figures lurking near the Dragon Gate, he knew that some people could no longer hold back and had begun to act.

He closed the System without hesitation and dotingly petted Linglong and the others.

"After Cultivating, petting fluffy animals truly makes one feel pleasant, both in body and mind!"

With a few casual flicks of his fingers, his figure instantly vanished from the spot.

Li Mu left the Cave Heaven Small World and, for the first time in a long while, looked at the bustling, busy crowd below, a wave of emotion surging within him: "It’s been so long since I’ve been out; it feels like an eternity has passed."

He took a deep breath, feeling the fresh air and familiar atmosphere of the outside world, as if everything had become more intimate.

After a long period of Cultivation, he felt it was time to go out and explore the Small Worlds that had emerged in various parts of the world due to the spiritual energy tide.

His Divine Sense instantly spread out like a vast net, and within half the Earth centered around him, every blade of grass and every tree came into his view.

Suddenly, he sensed a strange aura emanating from an island in a nearby sea.

Found it, let's start with you!

That strange aura was precisely what Li Mu was going to investigate, emanating from the Small World.

Li Mu decided to head to the nearest Small World first.

He used his teleportation ability and arrived at his destination in the blink of an eye.

This Small World was filled with pleasant Spiritual Qi, and as he walked deeper into it, Li Mu discovered that it contained various exotic creatures and precious spiritual materials.

Li Mu ambled along, exploring, and found that the Spiritual Qi concentration here was several times higher than in the outside world.

Just as he was preparing to leave, slightly disappointed, a powerful Spiritual Qi fluctuation suddenly caught his attention.

"This Small World is quite interesting."

He followed the direction of the fluctuation and discovered an ancient ruin hidden in a valley.

The valley floor was littered with various precious high-level Spiritual Plants, yet not a single Yao Beast appeared, which was very strange.

Li Mu walked into the valley and casually picked a Spiritual Plant, his eyebrows raising in surprise.

He hadn't expected to find Heavenly Lightning Grass here, and a thousand-year-old one at that.

The System had previously indicated that Heavenly Lightning Grass was exceptionally difficult to find, let alone those tens of thousands of years old.

He had already prepared to accumulate more deception points to purchase it from the System, but he hadn't expected to find one here.

Li Mu quickly purchased a box for the Heavenly Lightning Grass from the System, ensuring that picking it early would not affect its medicinal properties and effects.

He then opened another section of the System, which displayed various ancient medicinal herbs and Spiritual Plants.

Li Mu quickly scanned it, purchased a few more of the same boxes for the Heavenly Lightning Grass from the System, and then closed the System.

As he walked deeper into the valley, more and more medicinal herbs and Spiritual Plants came into view; although there were many, not a single one was what he needed!

Aside from the Heavenly Lightning Grass he had just picked, the remaining medicinal herbs and Spiritual Plants were useless to him!

If Yang Zheng knew Li Mu's thoughts, he would surely faint directly beside the Pill Furnace.

Seeing that there were no other discoveries in this Small World, Li Mu left this sea island and continued to the next Small World.

In a flash, Li Mu arrived at another island in the sea; this island's situation was precisely the opposite of the previous one he had examined.

This Small World had not a single medicinal herb or Spiritual Plant, nor did it have a single Yao Beast.

Even the Spiritual Qi was extremely scarce; its concentration was even less than that of the islands outside the Small World.

Li Mu frowned as he surveyed the Small World, discovering that the longer he stayed in it, the more his own Spiritual Qi seemed to be absorbed by this Small World; however, this absorption of Spiritual Qi from others was very minimal, and staying for a short period had no effect on the human body.

Conversely, the longer one stayed here, the more Spiritual Qi would be unknowingly absorbed by the Small World.

Even if this Small World had no life-threatening things like Yao Beasts, if you arrived on this island with Spiritual Qi and found you had none when you left, you probably wouldn't even be able to return home!

However, the appearance of such an abnormal situation in this Small World couldn't help but draw Li Mu's attention.

The deeper he entered the Small World, the more his Spiritual Qi was absorbed.

For others, this absorbed Spiritual Qi might have caused them to panic, but for Li Mu, it was merely a drop in the ocean.

Instead, he followed the direction where the Spiritual Qi absorption was strongest, and as he went deeper, the Spiritual Qi absorption became even more intense.

Li Mu walked leisurely and found a tree ahead.

It was a towering tree, with lush green leaves.

This was not surprising, but what was surprising was that this Small World was like a ruin, with no plants, no trees, and no Yao Beasts, yet a towering tree full of vitality appeared here.

This couldn't help but make one ponder deeply.

Li Mu's fingertip lightly touched the tree trunk, and he immediately felt his Spiritual Qi being rapidly drained.

The tree's leaves, unnoticed by anyone, also became increasingly lush green, brimming with even more vitality.

Li Mu's expression showed no surprise; instead, he unhurriedly disconnected his finger from which Spiritual Qi was being drained and said lightly, "You little rascal, the Spiritual Qi you just absorbed must be equivalent to that of an Early Stage Refining Qi Transformation Cultivator, right!"

"If I were an Early Stage Refining Qi Transformation Cultivator just now, I'm afraid you would have sucked me dry."

After being disconnected, the big tree's leaves instantly darkened.

Even the leaves rustled, expressing their dissatisfaction with Li Mu's actions.

Li Mu raised an eyebrow and said, "What's wrong? You're still not satisfied."

He pondered for a moment, looking at the tree trunk. Could it be what he was thinking?

If it really was, then it would require a significant amount of Spiritual Qi and Spirit Stones.

However, what I don't lack is Spiritual Qi and Spirit Stones!

"Alright, you must have been hungry for a long time here. Today, I'll feed you until you're full."

After speaking, Li Mu took out a large quantity of Top-Grade Spirit Stones, extracted all the Spiritual Qi from them, and then poured all the extracted Spiritual Qi into the tree trunk.

In an instant, as the Spiritual Qi was injected, the big tree subtly shook and seemed to shrink a little.

Although he had a rough guess, Li Mu was still surprised when his guess was confirmed.

"I really guessed correctly!"

Seeing his guess confirmed, Li Mu again took out twice the number of Top-Grade Spirit Stones as before.

He placed them beside the big tree, directly piling them into a small mountain.

As Li Mu repeatedly extracted Spiritual Qi from the Spirit Stones and injected it into the big tree, the pile of ruins Spirit Stones on the ground grew larger and larger, and the big tree became smaller and smaller, until it was the size of a small sapling.

Looking at the piles of ruined Spirit Stones, Li Mu smiled helplessly.

"You're really a big eater. This time, Linglong might even fall to second place."

Seeing that it had already become a small sapling, Li Mu once again poured in double the amount of Spiritual Qi.

He didn't know how long it had been, but with the continuous infusion of Spiritual Qi, the small sapling transformed into a palm-sized tree trunk glowing with light.

Li Mu wiped the sweat from his forehead, then sat cross-legged in the Void Realm to regulate his breathing. Moments later, Li Mu's aura had returned to calm.

He examined the palm-sized tree trunk before him. It was indeed a small trunk, but surprisingly gluttonous.

This must be the Spirit-Absorbing Wood. If it were made into a weapon, wouldn't it become a proper Spirit-Absorbing Divine Artifact?

He then placed the Spirit-Absorbing Wood into a box and put it away. Afterwards, he surveyed his surroundings. With the disappearance of the Spirit-Absorbing Wood, the Small World had stopped absorbing others' Spiritual Qi.

The surrounding Spiritual Qi also became much thinner compared to before, almost making him think that no Spiritual Qi existed here at all.

He had only explored two island Small Worlds so far, and already two completely different results had appeared.

Li Mu frowned. What would the Small Worlds in other places be like?