CHAPTER 2291  HEAVY EXCAVATION

Lin Mu could see the conflict between the group on what was do be done with the Fruiting Bodies.

"It's fine. We do not know if the methods we're going to use will work in the long term or not anyways." Lin Mu spoke. "We need to eliminate the Chimera Plants first, and there's always a chance we'll have gathered enough credits that we need for the rewards before that." He added.

"That's true. It is far too early to discuss that." Crown Prince Feng Shun agreed. "We'll get to that when it is time." With that said, the group was on the same page again, and they could move on.

"So how do we find the Fruiting Body of this Chimera Plant?" Qiao De asked. "Do we just dig along the roots?"

"That's the most straightforward way. So we may as well do that." Lin Mu replied. "Plus the Fruiting body shouldn't be to far since the roots are already here. We just need to see which part of the roots go upwards to the surface." He explained.

"Plus there would be a lot of Chimeric beasts around the area too, wouldn't there?" Daoist Chu reminded.

"Yeah, so the signs will be plenty." Lin Mu nodded his head.

"Let's get going then," Crown Prince Feng Shun said, and they flew into the caves.

~WHOOSH~

The part of the caves they had landed in was twenty kilometer wide and open, but that didn't mean it was the only area. The roots of the Chimera Plant extended further into the narrow parts of the caves and seem to be going even deeper.

The first part of the area was easily covered by them, since all they had to do was fly. But they soon reached an area where they now had to dig. The roots had entered solid rock and there was no clear way ahead. Têxt belongs to .

"Get back a bit," Lin Mu said as he directly punched into the rock wall.

~BOOM~

~CRACK~CRACK~CRACK~

Cracks spread all around the rock wall and soon a fifty meter wide area was opened up.

"Hmm… okay this is durable enough." Lin Mu said seeing that the rest of the walls and the ceiling hadn't fallen on them. He had tested out a smaller attack since he had no idea whether using a full scale attack would collapse the entire place and cause a cave in. While the group wouldn't be particularly injured, they would still have problems getting back down.

Lin Mu stood in a punching stance and gathered power in his arm.

Of course, this time, he didn't go all the way with Mountain Collapsing Fist.

He only used the boulder collapsing fist, as they only needed to make a large enough tunnel to pass through the place.

"Boulder Collapsing Fist: Third Form- Earthen Devastator!" ~RUMBLE~

A dark brown streak of energy was released from Lin Mu's bare fist that quickly drilled into the rock wall. This time Lin Mu didn't need to use the Longgui Bulwark Armor to protect him as the skill was used at a lower output.

In fact, Lin Mu had barely used three percent of his Qi in it, which was still enough to do the task they were here for.

~BOOM~

The rocks and soil were pulverized into dust from the skill, and a straight tunnel was opened up that seemed to have no end.

"That's certainly effective." Daoist Chu muttered.

The group got to see the weaker version of the skill that Lin Mu had used and also the scaling of power that varied.

"Here we go." Lin Mu said as he flew in first.

~WHOOSH~WHOOSH~WHOSO~

The others followed after and kept their senses alert for any danger. After all, the walls could still cave in and they could get trapped for a period. That would delay them, which they didn't want to, as such, kept an eye on the cracks.

Thankfully, the Death Qi wasn't as spread in this part of the ground due to how deep it was. Thus, the group wasn't as restricted on using their Immortal senses as they were on the surface. Still, that didn't mean they could use it to the full extent, and were limited to less than five hundred meters of range.

This was still better than being entirely unable to use it.

The hole was quite long and by the group reached its end, Lin Mu had already punched out again.

~BOOM~

Another tunnel was carved out by the Boulder Collapsing Fist and they continued onwards. Though around this part, they realized that the roots weren't moving as straight as before.

"They're curving quite a bit," Lin Mu spoke. "We might have to change path." He scanned the depths of the rocks, finding that the roots had entirely pivoted off the tunnel he had made.

"Perhaps we should do a slower dig along the roots." Ziran suggested.

"Probably." Lin Mu nodded his head. ~SHING~

Doing that was no issue either, as Lin Mu could simply cut it apart the traditional way. ~SHING~SHING~SHING~

He slashed out with Afternoon Pine, cutting open a path that he could change as he wished. The roots moved in tricky patterns and Lin Mu had to change often, sometimes going sideways, sometimes upwards and sometimes downward.

They ended up doing this for more than six hours, before Crown Prince Feng Shun spoke.

"Perhaps we should switch." The man said as he stepped forward. "Recuperate your Qi, Daoist Mu Lin. We'll take turns to dig." He offered.

"Sure." Lin Mu didn't mind that, as he had indeed used up a decent amount of his Qi today. He was down to about sixty percent of his Immortal Qi stores, which was mostly exhausted due to his use of Mountain Collapsing Fist, Boulder Collapsing Fist, and his sword skills. Lin Mu could have continued to dig, but there was no telling how long it would take for them to reach the final destination.

If they did reach it and Lin Mu had exhausted more than needed, it would be a tough thing to fight out. After all, it could be a time sensitive matter and the Fruiting Body could very well change location by the time he had recovered.

And this was without even considering the kind of danger they could face with it.

With all these in mind, it was a lot more safe to conserve their immortal Qi and spread out the digging.

This turned out to be a good choice as the search for the Fruiting Body and now turned into a full blown tunneling job, and over two days passed by.

"Haah!~ Are there no end to these roots?" Qiao De couldn't help but let out a tired sigh.

"They sure have spread far… We've definitely dug more than three hundred kilometers of area at least." Daoist Chu estimated. "And this is just one of the Chimeric plants… Imagine doing the same for the others." Crown Princess Shang almost stammered at the thought of that.

"I suppose this kind of effort makes sense, considering this was used for War." Crown Prince Feng Shun was tired too, but understood the situation. "If it was destroyed easily the Chimera Plants wouldn't have been feared so much."

"Indeed. We are not against a simple foe," Elder Hu agreed.

~CRUMBLE~

"Wait!" And just as he said that, Ziran stopped them.

"What is it?" Min Ju asked. "Look," Ziran pointed up. "The roots… they're finally going up!" "Isn't it just the normal deviation? We've seen that several times so far." Min Ju asked in doubt.

"No… We're already the highest we've been so far. The roots have never gone above this point before… there's a high chance they're finally going up to the surface." Ziran explained.

Hearing that, Lin Mu used his Immortal sense to probe the area around the roots and scanned it until he could verify it.

"Ziran's right," Lin Mu said, feeling a bit excited now. "The roots are going straight up for at least six hundred meters uninterrupted. That's how far I could scan, as there's more Death Qi up there." He explained.

"So we're finally there," Lady Kang said, looking up. "Will you do the honors, Daoist Mu Lin?" Crown Prince Feng Shun asked.

"With pleasure." Lin Mu said as he gathered six percent of his Immortal Qi in his arm.

The immortal Qi and vitality mixed, turning into ribbons and spun at great speeds. ~BOOM~

Another Dark Brown Ribbon was shot out of Lin Mu's fist that bore a straight path up to the surface.

The force of the skill was enough that the debris was directly pushed out of the surface, and it was like a dust volcano had exploded. A large cloud of dust shot up into the sky and spread around the area, hiding everything behind it.

It lingered there for a few seconds before a strong gust of wind pushed it away.

~WHOOSH~

From the hole in the ground, rose the ten immortals, as they faced the giant foe in front of them.