CHAPTER 2172  REINFORCING THE CAGE

Lin Mu watched as Ziran's Dao Skill started reinforcing the cage. First the vines crept up the bars of the cage and tightly wrapped them. Next, branches grew out from the vines and connected with the rest of the bars, forming a tight net. ~rustle~rustle~rustle~

The density of the vines and branches kept on increasing unit it became over a meter thick!

"Crown Princess Shang," Ziran gave her the signal.

"On it." She said before making a few hand seas and readying a skill. She didn't use a Dao Skill though and intended to use another skill of hers to support Ziran's Dao Skill. "Shang Imperial Technique: Blessing of the Bountiful Orchard!" Crown Princes Shang chanted, as hundreds of green tattoos formed on her hands.

She then touched her hands onto the reinforced cage, causing the tattoos to transfer onto the vines and branches. The tattoos seem to be runes of some kind, and covered the entirety of the cage within a few seconds.

Once that was done, Lin Mu could sense a great difference in the reinforced cage.

If Ziran's Dao Skill earlier had made it 'tough', Lin Mu now felt that the not only was the cage durable, but also flexible.

"The vines will keep on regenerating for a while once they take damage." Crown Princess Shang stated.

"That'll make things easier." Ziran nodded.

Now that the cage was stable and wouldn't break easily, it was time to add more defenses to it.

"Daoist Chu." Lin Mu called the next person in order.

Everyone had a different step assigned to them, in order to create the best defense possible. Some skills could not be layered over others, thus it was important to follow the order.

Then there was also the fact that some skills would only be usable when someone was inside the cage. As such, they went with the defensive skills that could be applied from the outside first..

"Give me a few minutes." Daoist Chu said as he began his work.

His plan was to add multiple defensive aspects to the cage instead of just a skill. The first step to this was the most basic disposable defensive item that cultivators kept, talismans. Daoist Chu stuck on about a hundred defensive talismans onto the outside of the cage. Now the vines were further covered up, and about half of the runes on them couldn't even be seen.

But this was merely the start for Daoist Chu, as he next step up an array. The man took out thirty six formation flags and placed six of them on each side of the cage. The flags were inserted deeply such that, only the cloth was hanging outside and it wouldn't fall off.

"Daoist Mu Lin, can you lift this." He asked.

"Sure." Lin Mu nodded and easily lifted the heavy cage with one hand.

Daoist Chu then inserted the final six flags under the cage, covering all of its sides.

With that done, he took out four sheets of paper and stuck them on the horizontal sides of the cage. He then drew a complex pattern on it, that Lin Mu recognized to be a connecting formation.

Once Daoist Chu was done with all four sheets, they glowed lightly and an invisible link between the thirty six formation flags was created.

"Now for the final part." Daoist Chu took out a large black crystal.

It was about the size of a watermelon and looked to be decently heavy.

"You're going to use that?" Crown Prince Feng Shun recognized it.

"Didn't you say that you'd keep it for your abode?" Crown Princess Shang asked.

"What use will be the abode if I'm dead?" Daoist Chu chuckled. "Besides if we're lucky, this crystal might survive too. Even if the energy inside it is drained." He added.

"What's that crystal though?" Lin Mu questioned, unable to recognize it other than the fact that it seemed to be some kind of obsidian.

He tried to probe it with his Immortal sense but found out that the crystal was entirely impermeable!

'Huh…' And when Lin Mu tried to use his Spatial Perception he realized that even that didn't work!

"This is… Not a normal obsidian, is it?" Lin Mu furrowed his brows.

There were not many things that could block his Spatial Perception. Even if they were opaque to it, if Lin Mu focused a bit more, his perception would go past it and show him the things behind it.

But right now, Lin Mu could neither see inside nor past it.

Both these properties hadn't been seen in anything Lin Mu had encountered so far. Even strong Isolating Arrays that blocked his Spatial Perception didn't stop him from looking into the Void.

But here, the obsidian crystal could do that as long as Lin Mu directly looked into it.

"This is actually a treasure I found in one of the inheritance grounds we went to in the past." Daoist Chu answered. "Though it isn't exactly a natural mineral, but is actually from a beast." He revealed.

"A beast? What kind?" Lin Mu was intrigued, as a beast like this would be able to evade his Spatial Perception. He would definitely like to know more about a creature that could make his trump card ineffective.

"It is said to be from a great beast called as the Unyielding Obsidian Weasel." Daoist Chu stated. "It was a beast that lived a long time ago and was very powerful. It was impervious to most skills and its defenses were even said to be greater than that of the Black Tortoise." He explained.

"Greater than even the guardian beast?!" Lin Mu was shocked. He knew just how strong the defensive skills of the Black Tortoise clan were and had intended to obtain one from them as a reward. But in exchange he had obtained the Longgui Bulwark Armor.

"Of course, the Unyielding Obsidian Weasel was a beast that broke through to become a Celestial." Daoist Chu stated.

"Wait… So that obsidian crystal is technically a celestial object?" Lin Mu raised his brows.

"I wish." Daoist Chu shook his head. "This is from back when the Unyielding Obsidian Weasel was still in the Immortal realm. Technically speaking, this crystal is just some fur it shed." He explained.

"Huh… Just fur?" Lin Mu couldn't tell what kind of beast it would have been. "It should be very rare right?" "In this part of the Immortal realm, yes. But there are other areas where it can be found from time to time. The Unyielding Obsidian Weasel traveled a lot and its fur was spread in many places." Daoist Chu answered.

"Chunks of them do turn up on the auction houses from time to time." Qiao De spoke up. "Though I've never seen one in this part of the Immortal realm."

"Our Great Kang Auction house has had the opportunity to auction these too. And from what I know, there are at least a thousand chunks circulating in the market right now." Lady Kang revealed.

"That many?" Lin Mu hadn't expected such a rare resource to still be available from a time long past.

"It isn't exactly something we can use easily." Lady Kang could sense the confusion in Lin Mu's mind. "While it has excellent defensive capabilities, it cannot be forged or refined by just anyone. The wrong method would only lead to its destruction or the backslash for the refiner or forger.

Most people only manage to keep it as a show piece or use it in arrays." She explained further.

"I see… So Daoist Chu is doing the same." Lin Mu now understood the connecting formations.

"Indeed." The man replied before placing the obsidian crystal on top of the cage.

~SHUA~

Runes flew out from the talisman flags and linked up with the four connecting formations before illusory chains rose from them. The chains crept up from the sides and reached the obsidian crystal.

It tightly wound around the crystal from all sides, keeping it held in place.

~HUM~

The crystal glowed lightly for a moment and a faint energy fluctuation was also felt by everyone.

But to Lin Mu it was far greater than that.

'What in the…' A strong aura was felt by Lin Mu that originated in the crystal. owns this.

For a moment, he saw a figure of a beast above the crystal. It was a few meters in size and its entire body was covered in the same obsidian crystals. It had long sharp claws that were more comparable to long swords, along with fangs that should be able to cut into meter thick steel with ease.

But the most striking were its topaz yellow eyes that shone with a sharp gaze.

The gaze was something familiar to Lin Mu, but the strange thing was that it didn't match the form of the beast.

'A weasel with the gaze of a Dragon?' Lin Mu was confused.

Before he could observe it though, the figure disappeared as if it never existed.

"Did you see that?" Lin Mu questioned.

"Saw what?" The others asked.

"Never mind." Lin Mu shook his head, knowing that it was something only he had felt. 'That was definitely a bloodline manifestation… but for something like that to be present in a chunk of shed fur… Just how strong was the beast?' he couldn't help but marvel at the beast.

This also raised his hopes of the defensive power. Even now, Lin Mu had a hunch that the cage won't break easily.

With the crystal placed, Daoist Chu's work was done and it was now turn for the others.