Chapter 2416  A Tearful Reunion

Lin Mu"s eyes met ten golden yellow eyes, making him feel relieved.

If it were anyone else, they might be terrified by the sight of the spider, but to Lin Mu, it was the most reliable person in the world.

"Senior Xukong!" Lin Mu burst towards the spider, hugging him as hard as he could.

"Haha," The Spider couldn"t help but laugh.

It was something really new for him too, as no one had ever hugged him like this before. He was not a human or a humanoid in the first place, and his reputation made him a figure of terror to most in the universe. The fact that he was in this situation seemed unbelievable to him and if this were him from the past, he wouldn"t have ever though he would be doing something like this.

Though, the hug was also rather awkward since his body was still that of a spider, so Lin Mu simply wrapped his arms around his head.

A few tears were shed, as Lin Mu came to terms with the situation.

~HISS~ HISS~

It was at this time that two more presences appeared and immediately wrapped around Lin Mu.

"Haha, Xiao Yin, Xiao Yang!" Lin Mu hugged the twins as well seeing them after who knows how long.

"Master!"

"Master!" The twins cried out, having missed him dearly.

"You two have grown?" Lin Mu could see that the twins were almost two meters long now. Though in terms of thickness they had not grown as much, making it look a bit disproportionate. If anything, they now looked more like black and white ropes, if one didn"t look at their heads or scales properly.

"Yesss~" The twins replied as they continued to rub their heads against Lin Mu"s cheeks.

"Wait, where"s Ashy!?" Lin Mu questioned.

The bird had been dormant long before Lin Mu had ended up falling unconscious. He didn"t know when she might be awakening and since he didn"t know how long it had been; he hoped that she was awake too.

~CHIRP~

As if on cue, a sonorous chirp was heard before a dark figure could be seen approaching.

~WHOOSH~

The figure flew rather quickly and came to land atop Lin Mu"s hand.

"MASTER!!!! YOU"RE BACK! WUWUWUWU! I MISSED YOU!" The bird started crying right away as tiny beads of tears dripped down the corners of her eyes.

"It"s okay, I"m back now." Lin Mu rubbed her head and petted her back, making her calm down after a bit.

While doing this, he also observed her body and saw that she had certainly changed. Her body was now pitch black and seemed to almost be absorbing light into it, making it seem abyssal.

Her eyes were dark black as well, but a hint of light reflected off them, allowing Lin Mu to make them out better. Her size had also shrunk down much to Lin Mu"s surprise, becoming smaller than even a palm.

If Lin Mu considered the entire length of her body, it was barely around seven centimeters!

"She"s the same size as hummingbirds." He compared before realizing something else. "You reached the Dao Treading Realm?" Lin Mu felt the bird"s spirit Qi fluctuations.

"Yes! I did a few years ago." Ashy replied.

"You changed as well." Lin Mu muttered. "What can you do now?" he couldn"t help but ask.

"Oh, you will like this," Xukong spoke at this time.

"Ah! Pardon me, senior." Lin Mu finally let go of the spider, who had been in his arms all this time.

Xukong"s avatar body was still a bit smaller than Lin Mu. this it was a bit hard for the spider to get out easily. After having let go, the spider floated in front of him and took a breath.

"Ashy seems to have changed into something I didn"t expect." Xukong stated. "Show him what you can do." He asked.

"Of course!" Ashy nodded and flew up. "Master look! Look!" it said eagerly before suddenly speeding up.

It flew around them for a couple seconds before suddenly diving down into Lin Mu"s shadow!

"What!?" Lin Mu was shocked ups seeming this.

He stepped back and took a look at his shadow, but couldn"t see anything there. He even tried to use his immortal sense to check, but didn"t feel anything until he tried to recheck with his link to Ashy.

"She"s still there…" this time he followed the link and used his immortal sense too, allowing him to finally pinpoint a small spot where the bird seemed to be hiding.

"YEP!" The bird finally jumped out of his shadow.

"Is this your new ability?" Lin Mu asked.

"Yes, I learned it upon reaching the Dao Treading Realm." Ashy nodded her head.

"And it"s not even a Dao Skill… This is just your innate skill." Lin Mu realized after sensing no Dao Traces from her.

"It is indeed just her normal innate skill." Xukong replied. "It"s called as Shadow Dive." He revealed.

"Shadow Dive… I think I"ve read of it." Lin Mu could faintly recall mentions of a skill with this name. "Though there were no descriptions of what it could do, just a mention in a list of skills of the Shadow Element. Wait, so she awakened the Shadow Element!?" He said in shock.

"Indeed." Xukong confirmed. "Her new mutated form is fully inclined towards the Shadow Element." Lin Mu looked at the tiny form of Ashy that seemed to look rather fragile and weak, but held a hidden power. "Can you do this with anyone"s shadows?" Lin Mu asked.

"Yes." Ashy replied. "Though if they are strong, I can"t enter it easily. I tried with Sister Yin and brother Yang, but it didn"t work." She added.

"I see… so it"s dependent on the cultivation, too. It only worked on mine since we are already linked." Lin Mu understood. "Though the skill is rather good. It can work for stealth attacks, intelligence collection and more." He could see the benefits rather easily.