Xiao Fei dared not be perfunctory this time, cultivating the techniques diligently, and his progress was rapid.
His original aptitude was not bad, and with the foundation of the Hun Yuan Gong, cultivating all five elements, it was of a higher grade than the techniques given by Immortal Lord Yi Mu. A year of cultivation could be equivalent to several years for others.
In just half a year, he had reached the stage of mastery in this nameless technique.
At this point, it seemed to have reached a limit. He vaguely felt that the technique was not complete and there were still some imperfections.
He had angered Immortal Lord Yi Mu by being perfunctory last time. This time, he had to perform a little better to make amends.
After all, this Immortal Lord was amiable, generous, and possessed the demeanor of an elder. It was best to maintain a good relationship with him if possible.
An excellent student could often extrapolate from a single point, expanding it to a broader understanding. Elders favored such juniors.
He decided to find a way to mend the flaws in the technique himself.
Xiao Fei's theoretical foundation was solid. Although he had rarely encountered immortal realm techniques after entering the immortal realm, the principles were the same.
Moreover, the techniques Zhu Yu had created for him were very advanced, far superior to this nameless one.
He could manage to patch it up to some extent.
Even if he couldn't fix it, it would at least show his sincerity to Immortal Lord Yi Mu.
Thus, during the remaining half year, Xiao Fei delved into the technique, attempting to make some modifications.
Although the changes he could make were few, his sincerity was evident, and he expected to receive praise from Immortal Lord Yi Mu.
In addition, he would use his spare time to investigate the tree hole, even chipping off a small portion of the wood to keep it secretly.
In fact, during his two years in the tree hole, he had tried several times to escape using wood遁之法 (wood escape technique), but found that his wood escape technique was ineffective within this tree hole.
He was currently in the tree hole of the Qian Yuan Immortal Fruit, yet he could not derive any benefit from it.
He could not obtain the Qian Yuan Immortal Fruit, nor the seeds of this immortal tree. The feeling of not getting it was worse than losing something, making him itch as if scratched by seven or eight cats.
If he missed this opportunity, once Immortal Lord Yi Mu completed his task, he might leave this place. He didn't know when such a good opportunity would arise again.
As the year approached its end, the opportunity was slipping away. Xiao Fei felt a sense of urgency, helplessness, regret, and reluctance.
When Xiao Fei emerged from the tree hole room this day, he found seven strangers in the tree hole.
They must have arrived during his period of secluded cultivation. As for the seven servants who had accompanied him, they were nowhere to be seen.
He didn't know if they had completed their tasks and returned, or gone elsewhere.
Xiao Fei did not dare to ask further. Immortal Lord Yi Mu did not intend to explain, casting a cursory glance at him and nodding with satisfaction.
"You few, follow me!"
Immortal Lord Yi Mu led the eight of them deeper into the tree hole.
He brought them to a large hall, pointed to the green sphere in the center, and instructed them to stand in a circle around it.
Immortal Lord Yi Mu was extremely proficient in this procedure.
"When I give the order, immediately inject your immortal power into the green sphere. No mistakes will be tolerated, or you will be killed!"
Xiao Fei squeezed in among the eight. He felt a slight regret that Immortal Lord Yi Mu had not closely examined his cultivation technique.
Otherwise, he would have liked to showcase his modified technique. Even a few words of guidance from an Immortal Lord would be of great help to him.
Xiao Fei, along with the others, obediently injected their immortal power into the green sphere.
He felt as if the sphere was a bottomless pit, devouring their immortal power without any reaction.
When everyone's immortal power was depleted, they naturally sought help from Immortal Lord Yi Mu, but as usual, he merely comforted them and urged them to persist.
Only when everyone could no longer continue and prepared to resist did Immortal Lord Yi Mu reveal his true intentions.
He circulated his mother technique, controlling the techniques within everyone's bodies to operate automatically, extracting their innate essence to inject into the green sphere.
"Ah! This technique has a trap!"
"We've been tricked!"
"Please spare us, Immortal Lord!"
"The old scoundrel has ill intentions!"
"..."
Immortal Lord Yi Mu was unfazed by their reactions, merely chuckling coldly.
As soon as Xiao Fei stopped circulating the nameless technique within his body, he found it starting to operate automatically, completely ignoring his command as its master.
He inwardly surveyed his entire body with his immortal sense and finally discovered that it was the flaws he had previously identified in the technique that caused him to lose control.
Furthermore, following the flaws, he sensed a power similar to the nameless technique.
This similar power seeped in through the flaws, controlling his technique to operate automatically and extracting his dwindling innate essence.
In this short period, Xiao Fei's cultivation had dropped from the True Immortal realm to the Earth Immortal realm, and it was still declining.
At this critical juncture, he gritted his teeth and decided to actively circulate the nameless technique.
Based on his previous repairs to some of the flaws, he had actually managed to block the infiltration of this external force.
Since he was now actively circulating the technique and had regained control, Xiao Fei immediately stopped the extraction of his innate essence.
Immortal Lord Yi Mu's mother technique could, at most, divide into eight streams of power simultaneously, controlling the sub-techniques within eight individuals.
He was somewhat surprised to find one stream of power being blocked.
However, he was unable to divert his attention at the moment and could afford to let Xiao Fei live a little longer.
Immortal Lord Yi Mu continued to mobilize the sub-techniques within the remaining seven individuals, intending to drain their innate essence.
Xiao Fei had lost a large amount of his innate essence. Although he had regained control of his body, he sat on the ground, extremely weak, lacking the strength to even stand up and escape.
He was gasping for breath, watching the bodies of the other seven rapidly wither, knowing that he probably wouldn't last much longer.
Once Immortal Lord Yi Mu was free, he could fully deal with him.
He looked at the seven individuals whose innate essence was rapidly draining, and a thought suddenly struck him.
Could he recover the innate essence he had lost from these people?
After all, their innate essence was being wasted by being absorbed by the green sphere.
With this thought, he accelerated the circulation of the nameless technique within his body, his immortal sense touching the innate essence being output by the other seven, and tentatively began to absorb some of it.
A stream of innate essence power flowed quietly into his body along his immortal sense.
"Heh! This plan is indeed feasible!"
Xiao Fei, having absorbed this stream of essence, felt his mental state improve considerably, and he increased the absorption rate.