Chapter 3720: The Saintess’ Gift |
After a moment, Lin Mu realized nobody else around him reacted at all to the Saintess’ presence.
’Of course.’
No one besides him could see her.
To everyone else, it probably looked like Lin Mu was casually pouring wine into empty air while talking to himself.
Compared to everything else they had learned recently, that was likely the least strange thing happening tonight.
The Saintess looked exactly as serene as ever.
"Happy birthday," she said simply.
Lin Mu smiled warmly.
"Thank you, Saintess."
"Please have some wine," he said. "The dwarven liquor is genuinely excellent."
"Sure," she replied casually before accepting the cup.
To any outsider, the sight would have appeared extremely bizarre.
A cup floated slightly into empty air before its contents slowly vanished.
Yet nearby dwarves merely glanced over once before continuing their own drinking.
One even nodded approvingly.
"Ah," the dwarf muttered drunkenly. "The human is feeding ghosts again."
"Very polite of him," another agreed.
Neither questioned it further.
Meanwhile Lin Mu and the Saintess continued chatting normally amidst the celebration.
Unlike everyone else, she already knew Lin Mu’s age from the very beginning.
Thus there was no shock or existential crisis involved.
Lin Mu looked toward her curiously.
"What have you been doing all this time?" he asked. "I barely sensed your presence after I comprehended Gravity Sense."
The Saintess took a sip of wine thoughtfully.
"I went around the solar system," she answered calmly.
Lin Mu listened attentively.
"I checked several nearby worlds and asteroid fragments. Places without life are easier for gathering celestial Qi."
Lin Mu nodded slowly.
That matched his assumptions.
After all, celestial Qi was naturally difficult to obtain within populated worlds due to the interference of countless living beings and the restrictions of heavenly laws. Dead worlds and broken fragments were far easier to exploit.
The Saintess swirled the wine within her cup afterward.
"Since it is your birthday," she continued. "I prepared a gift for you."
Lin Mu immediately shook his head.
"You really didn’t have to," he said honestly. "You’ve already helped me countless times. I still owe you a massive debt."
"It is fine," the Saintess replied simply.
Then she raised one hand.
Something appeared between them.
Lin Mu’s eyes narrowed slightly.
It was a transparent glass sphere roughly the size of a watermelon.
The material itself looked unusual. It resembled glass, yet carried faint spatial fluctuations upon its surface.
And within the sphere, a strange mist slowly swirled.
The mist constantly shifted between shades of green and azure while moving in flowing spirals. Occasionally small sparks of silver light flickered deep within it.
The sight was mesmerizing.
Lin Mu instinctively felt that the energy contained within it was highly unusual.
"What is this?" he asked quietly.
The Saintess looked at the sphere calmly.
"A birthday gift," she answered.
Lin Mu gave her a flat look.
She blinked once before elaborating.
"It is condensed Planetary wind essence," she explained. "Mixed with fragments of Giant Wood Plankton vitality."
Hearing that, Lin Mu’s expression changed immediately.
He looked back at the sphere with surprise.
Planetary wind essence?
And Giant Wood Plankton vitality?
Both were absurdly rare treasures. Planetary Winds were something that every planet had but refining it was considered impossible. After all how do you refine winds of a whole planet?
As for the Giant Wood Plantktons, Lin Mu had heard that they were speical creatures that only lived in Oceanic Worlds with no land mass. Planktons were microscopic and made energy by photosynthesis.
Yet the Giant Wood Planktons were totally different, reaching masses as big as mountains or entire mountain ranges. And they were only found in specific Oceanic worlds that had no other aquatic beasts.
They were hard to deal with as attacks did nothing to them. They would simply split and regenerate. Cutting one only made thousands more. They had one of the best known regeneration capabilities known in the Immortal Realm.
They were also terrifying though, as they could drain energy instantly. Unlike normal plankton, they didn’t just rely on sunlight. They could consume all kinds of vitality. If a beast or living creature approached, it would be drained dry before it even sensed the Plankton.
Even obtaining tiny traces of either one separately would already be incredibly difficult within the Immortal Realm.
Yet the Saintess had somehow gathered enough to condense an entire sphere of it.
Lin Mu instantly realized why the colors alternated between green and blue.
Wind and wood.
His unfinished cores.
The Saintess took another sip of wine calmly before continuing.
"You completed Water, earth, fire, and metal," she said. "But your wood and wind affinities are still lacking. This should help considerably." Lin Mu could tell that she had kept tabs on all that had happened in Mantleheim even while she was gone.
He stared at the sphere silently for several moments.
Then he looked toward the Saintess again.
"...This is too valuable."
"Probably," she agreed casually.
Lin Mu nearly choked on his wine.
The Saintess gently placed the sphere into his hands afterward.
"It suits you more than me," she said. "Besides, I collected it while wandering anyway. I took the Planetary Winds from the Gas Giants and the Plankton Essence from the last planet in the solar system which is an Ocean World."
Lin Mu carefully held the sphere while feeling the dense energies swirling within it.
Even through the outer shell, he could sense the incredible purity contained inside.
The wind essence felt light and endless.
The wood vitality felt ancient and alive.
Just holding it made his unfinished cores react faintly.
Seeing this, Lin Mu felt quite impatient.
"Go on, absorb it." The Saintess said. "I’ll create a barrier." She waved her hand and an invisible barrier of air formed around them.
"Alright," Lin Mu nodded and held the Sphere before activating the Omnicore Ascendency Technique.
SHUA
The Sphere, which was just a barrier created by the Saintess dissolved, and the energy within it started being absorbed by Lin Mu’s body and then by his Wood and Wind Cores.