Having confirmed and assessed that it was a basic Wood Elemental Immortal Tribulation Lin Mu knew just what to do.

His experience watching Little Shrubby had taught him quite a bit and he knew that the first step to overcoming the Wood Elemental Immortal Tribulation was to simply not let it harm him.

"It'll take a lot more than that to injure my body." Lin Mu spoke as he pushed the Vines apart.

~SHUA~ SHUA~

The broken vines quickly regrew but were being ripped apart by Lin Mu's arms. To him, they were the same as cotton strings, soft and fragile. 

~RUSTLE~ RUSTLE~

The vines were not ready to give up either and increased in number. The Wood Elemental Immortal Tribulation felt like it was challenged and increased its offense. Hundreds of vines sprouted out of the cracked space, crawling all over Lin Mu.

~SHING~ SHING~

Lin Mu directly drew out Afternoon Pine and slashed at the vines, cutting them into pieces. is the owner.

~SHUA~

But the broken pieces of the vines were like young bamboo shoots. They sprouted once more, this time in the form of thinner vines that tried to ensnare Lin Mu. The tendrils crawled up Lin Mu's legs and wrapped around Lin Mu's waist.

"HAAAH!" Lin Mu simply gave it a tug and snapped the tendrils.

~HUALA~

In the next second, flames ignited on his hands quickly spreading to the vines preventing them from growing back from the fragments.

~HONG~

But that wasn't all as Lin Mu also used the sword, continually swinging it around. 

For a few seconds, a circle of emptiness was created around Lin Mu. 

Whenever the vines tried to get to him, they were slashed apart or burned to ashes. The combination of both attacks was enough to stave off the vines from coming in contact with his body for five minutes.

'If it's gonna stay at this level, I'll be able to overcome it easily.' Lin Mu thought. "But it should ramp up soon enough." He knew the truth.

And as if on point, the Wood Elemental Immortal Tribulation got stronger.

~SHUA~

The spatial tears around him grew bigger, with the Tribulation energy reaching great levels. The vines coming out of the space also increased in size, with some reaching the thickness of entire tree trunks. 

Since they couldn't wrap around Lin Mu, they just decided to batter him.

~THUD~THUD~THUD~

The tree trunk sized vines whipped at him like massive hammers. Lin Mu blocked them with his hands, while also slashing back.

"Getting tougher, huh…" But this time, they were not cut apart in one go. 

Slash marks were left behind on them, but they were quickly healed. Their attacks never stopped and they continued to ram into Lin Mu. At first, there were just two such large vines, but a couple minutes later they doubled to four.

Then five minutes later they reached eight. Ten more minutes later, there were sixteen of them, pummeling away.

'They'll keep on doubling at this rate. I need to cull their numbers…' Lin Mu thought to himself.

He had been able to ensure it with his raw strength so far and hadn't used his body cultivation yet. Just the toughness of his body could endure it so far, but Lin Mu had realized that the vines were still having an effect.

It was a faint effect but it was still there.

'Each attack that makes contact with me is still able to sap away a bit of my vitality,' Lin Mu realized.

The amount being drained was small for Lin Mu personally, but for an average immortal, it would be debilitating. After all, while the amount drained in one hit was less, Lin Mu was getting hit several times every second.

For a normal immortals, they would find themselves getting drained from these short contact attacks in just a few minutes. 

Lin Mu though endured it, finding it to be tolerable.

This was the crux of the Wood Elemental Immortal Tribulation. It would drain your vitality and you had to endure it. 

One couldn't stop it by simply destroying or stopping the vines, as they would simply continue to reappear. The only way to overcome the Wood Elemental Immortal Tribulation was to take it as a battle of endurance.

They needed to withstand the attacks of the vines until the Wood Elemental Immortal Tribulation ran out of the Tribulation energy. 

Even if it looked like an Immortal Tribulation had endless energy, it was not so. The actual energy that triggered and sustained it was the pure Tribulation energy that was sent by the Heavens.

It was this Tribulation energy that had the ability to command other energies like Qi and bring forth various phenomena. While it could theoretically command an almost endless amount of Qi, its own existence was short lived.

As long as one outlasted it, they would be able to survive the Immortal Tribulation.

That was exactly what Lin Mu did as he used his stronger attacks now.

~HONGLONG~ 

Afternoon Pine hummed with joy, as the Sword Intent poured into it. 

"SEVER!" Lin Mu's hand was like a blur, tens of slashes flying out in a second.

But these were no normal Qi infused slashes, but those with Sword Intent. 

Its power was inherently greater and brought forth a quantitative change. The slashes cut apart the vines of the Wood Elemental Immortal Tribulation while the Sword Intent contaminated them.

Now that the vines tried to regenerate, they found themselves bursting apart instead. 

The Sword Intent was like a grinder, ripping away at the vines like a hungry beast.

~THUD~ THUD~

~BOOM~

The thick vines were the same, as they were cut part this time. The Slashes first bisected them, before the Sword Intent invaded them and destroyed them from the inside. In just a couple of seconds, they exploded as if they were stuffed with gunpowder.

"Haa… Just gotta keep this up," Lin Mu took a deep breath as his hands continued to move.

His right hand wielded Afternoon Pine, while his left spewed out flames and fire darts.