The first thing Lin Mu did was to dispel the reinforcing formations that he had set up on the hill and around the area. With them gone, the others would be able to damage it without any issue.
"Begin!" Lin Mu said out loud.
Upon Lin Mu's command, the group was quick to act.
They all understood Lin Mu's thoughts and Childe Wildfire was the first one to act.
~WHOOSH~
He lifted his leg straight up before stabbing it down like a pike.
"Barren Purge Fire!" Childe Wildfire chanted.
A great wave of immortal Qi could be felt at that moment, as the man's aura rapidly rose. And yet, the force of the Qi skill didn't hit the others. It only spread into the ground, quickly filling it to the brim.
"We won't be left behind!" Ming Dandan said, as she quickly commanded the Mulch Crawl Eater Beast.
~GUKO~
The beast let out a loud cry before using its Dao Skill. The ground underneath it turned into mud and the effect kept on getting stronger with each passing second.
~RUMBLE~
The wet mud and heat from Childe Wildfire's flames collided within the earth, bringing forth movement. At first, it was faint but soon the collision of the two skills could be felt above ground as well. The two opposing skills created a great force that split apart the entire earth and the hill!
~BOOM~
The ground ruptured along with the entire hill, as the formations that Lin Mu had set up started to break apart. Cracks spread everywhere while the hill shook.
~SHING~
~CLANG~
Lu Xu and Qian Wen also acted, using their weapons to split the segments of the hill that had started to collapse.
"Ting! Blow it away!" Ming Aolian commanded her tamed beast.
~HOWL~
The Sky Soar Wolf spread her wings apart as wind immortal Qi gathered upon them. The wind immortal Qi swirled like small vortexes before they were all released in one go with the flap of the wings.
~WOONG~
The wind vortexes blew the layer of the earth away that had been cracked, revealing the hidden depths.
There one could see red hot earth and wet dark mud.
The two types of earths were colliding under the effects of the skills and were causing further damage to the ground.
'Since my immortal sense was unable to pick up on the location of the final remaining Immortal even at this range, it must mean they are very deep in the earth. We need to keep on splitting this part until we defeat them.' Lin Mu thought to himself.
~BOOM~BOOM~BOOM~
From time to time, explosions could be heard as the steam from the mud rapidly expanded, pushing the earth apart.
This allowed them to 'excavate' the ground with ease, as Lu Xu and Qian Wen would quickly cut them into smaller fragments, while Ting would blow them away. Lin Mu on the other hand kept his immortal sense extended to the maximum, ready to discover the last remaining cultivators.
He didn't know if the said cultivator even knew about their presence or not.
'Considering I can't sense them, they probably can't sense us either. At least not for now. They must be at a depth where nothing else can't be felt.' Lin Mu thought.
He was interested in such an Earth Escape skill. He had seen a few such skills before, but none that was on a level like this. Lin Mu found it rather similar to his own spatial skill Phase too.
But then again, the application of both skills was different.
The Earth Escape skill was something that only worked on the earth, while Phase worked on most substances. The energy consumption for both skills was also rather different. Phase had a varied energy consumption depending on the kind of material Lin Mu was passing through.
It could be less or more, but with Lin Mu's optimization, it was as reduced as possible.
The Earth Escape skill on the other hand had a constant rate of immortal Qi consumption. But it was something that only worked in one kind of substance.
Though it was not without its advantage either. With the skill active, one could stay within the earth for a long time after deactivating it. But one could not do the same with Phase, as deactivating it meant that one's body would collide with the particles of the earth.
Phase allowed one to be within a substance while also letting the molecules that composed it to exist at the same time. But Earth Escape skill parted the earth, making space for the cultivator to pass through. Thus one could stay within the depths of the earth as long as they could retain their breath.
Lin Mu wondered about the cultivator who was using the Earth Escape skill.
'How did he wander this far in?' He thought.
To Lin Mu, the formations that he had set up on the hill meant that someone wouldn't be able to find it easily.
'But what if he didn't 'discover' the hill in the first place? His Earth Escape skill would still work and they could wander in without ever knowing about it. The skill would simply consider their position and as long as it was earth they would be able to move.
In a way, it is a method of bypassing a restrictive formation.' Lin Mu pondered on it, learning about the flaws of the formations.
One could infiltrate without even needing to 'see' anything. There was no getting lost due to befuddling formations, nor would one mistake anything due to the illusory formation. These wouldn't affect one if they were traveling 'blind' in the first place.
'Hmm… for skills like this, perhaps the only way to block them is a physical barrier.' Lin Mu first thought of a low cost method.
One could always add a detection formation that could sense the presence of immortals, but they were more complex and would also need more energy depending on how far their range was. The best way of blocking would be to simply erect a solid barrier that would not let the used of the skill pass through.
But then again, the question about the range of the barrier also came. The bigger the barrier, the higher the energy consumption.
Lin Mu continued to think like this, as second after second passed.
His thoughts were like lightning and he was rapidly analyzing everything.
'It was good to let them do this rather than myself.' Lin Mu thought next.
Lin Mu had several skills that could have been used here. Firstly, Lin Mu could have very well used the Boulder Collapsing Fist to break the Earth apart. There was also the falling sky lance that had a large area of destruction.
But Lin Mu didn't use them as it would mean revealing his skills to the audience. It was not something he wished to do as he had already revealed plenty as of now.
'I need to keep more trump cards after all.' Lin Mu thought to himself.
Thus he let the others work to excavate the cultivator.
~BOOM~ BOOM~ BOOM~
Explosion after explosions kept on happening as the earth was broken apart layer by layer.
In just five minutes, the group had excavated a kilometer deep hole in the ground!
The hill aboveground was already eliminated in the first couple of minutes.
~BOOM~ BOOM~ BOOM~
But this was just the start as the group worked tirelessly. Childe Wildfire seemed to be overflowing with energy, as his flames kept on traveling deep into the ground like magma flowing in the bowels of the earth.
The Dao Skill of the Mulch Crawl Eater Beast was also being used to the peak now. In fact, the beast seemed to be gaining from a large scale use like this. The colliding of the Dao Skill with the Qi skill of Childe Wildfire was also allowing the immortal beast to comprehend further about its own Dao and improve the skill.
Perhaps it was the Beast Qi that Lin Mu had given to the tamed beast, but they were rapidly improving now. It was as if their hidden potential was being unearthed after all the tempering during the month long round.
The pace of excavating only increased as time went by, as the group started to improve.
Unknowingly and act of digging had allowed them to learn more than months of cultivation had.
It was not something that could be learned alone and needed the cooperation of others to work. But now that it had, the rustles were obvious.
In just forty minutes, the group had reached the depth of nearly twelve kilometers!
It was at this point that Lin Mu's Immortal sense finally picked up on faint immortal Qi fluctuations.
"Got him!" Lin Mu said out loud. "Sixteen meters from the left Childe Wildfire!" he pointed out.
"Time to roast the mole!" Childe Wildfire redirected his skill and targeted the area Lin Mu had pointed too.
~SHUA~
A few seconds later, all of them could feel a pull on their bodies before their vision turned dark.
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