2268 Seclusion For The Group
With their plan set, the group split up, intending to prepare in their own way.
Crown Princess Shang went to her room and set up the Bell Jar Spatial Terrarium up. She still had the task of studying the Three Colored Dazzling Mud Lotuses after all. Not to mention, she also needed to make sure that the two plants that did not have flowers were growing well.
Her plan right now was to let the third plant to progress from a flower to a seed pod, so that she could harvest it while letting the second and third plants flower further. That way, they would have seeds which could be distributed amongst them and the flowers which could very well come in handy.
The flowers were the main part of the Three Colored Dazzling Mud Lotus that were useful, and the shoots and leaves weren't the best to be used. As for the seeds, while they could be consumed similar to a spirit fruit, it was a waste of them.
It would be much better to grow more of the plants and let the flowers mature.
Daoist Chu meanwhile worked on the arrays of the base.
While Lin Mu had modified them at the last moment to open up a path, the array needed to be rectified again. This was something Daoist Chu was capable of handling too as such he got to working on them so that they could be turned back into the normal Dual Yang Repulsing Array.
Thankfully there was still a steady supply of Yang Qi in the storage that Lin Mu had set up, so he didn't have to worry about that.
Another reason why Daoist Chu was enthusiastic about working on it alone was that he would be getting a chance to improve his skills too.
Monk Hushu on the other hand, cultivated on his own. With the improvement in his Buddhist path earlier and achieving the Buddhist tune, Monk Hushu still needed to comprehend it further. This would help him solidify his foundation and further pave the path for growth.
That way when he finally obtained the next part of his scriptures, he would be able to progress faster and reach the Sixth Tribulation Stage of the Immortal Realm.
Crown Prince Feng Shun on the other hand stayed 'awake' and regularly monitored the map, to see if any changes happened. Since they couldn't go out, the map was the only way to glance at the changes outside, however vague they maybe.
He also wanted to be ready for anything drastic that happened, thus was staying awake.
Qiao De went to cultivate too, while Ziran did multiple things.
Ziran discussed things with Crown Prince from time to time while monitoring the map, read the books and documents he had to see if there was any new information he could learn from it and cultivated too.
Elder Hu and Min Ju were in the rooms next to Lady Kang and all were cultivating silently. They all knew that being prepared for any kind of event was necessary and after they had learned about the Chimeric Beasts that might be stronger than before, they knew it was important to be ready.
As of now both Elder Hu and Min Ju didn't have many ways of fighting against Death Qi, but Lady Kang did. As such, she took the initiative to prepare a few methods that would allow the two to fight better too.
Finally, there was Lin Mu who was in the Sleepscape and trying to learn the Grand Bagua Mythic Series. The Qian Series technique: Cloud Dragon Stride was quite complex and Lin Mu would need to at least an inkling of comprehension of the Sky Dao.
'Since I can't talk to Saintess right now, I'll just have to try my best. Lin Mu thought to himself as he sat under the Immortal Apple tree.
He read the jade slip repeatedly, going over the technique in his mind again and again.
The way the technique was made was such that unless one learned the initial parts of it, the subsequent parts would simply be incomprehensible.
It was as if one was given a recipe to follow and was trying to read it from the middle.
Even if one understood the words themselves, they would have no idea what to do with the food without knowing its actual state in that step. One would have to follow the steps one by one before reaching that step and seeing how the food looked, before being able to follow the rest.
-huu-
'To think there's only three parts and yet its this complex... The Grand Bagua Mythic Series surely is something.' Lin Mu thought to himself.
The Cloud Dragon Stride technique had three levels to it and each level was improvement of the previous one. The First level was called as 'Cloudy Step' and was the most basic, only needing the practitioner to be able to manifest the clouds around their feet.
The manifestation was the hardest part, as it was the key to learning the technique. The actual footwork part of the Cloud Dragon Stride was actually something that was relatively simple on its own. But combining that with the cloud manifestation made it quite hard.
'Perhaps I should divide these in two sections and learn them separately?' Lin Mu had an idea.
While he couldn't make the clouds on their own, he reckoned learning the footwork wouldn't be as hard for him. He had already memorized it and only needed to practice it now.
"May as well try it." Lin Mu muttered to himself as he stood up.
The Sleepscape was quite vast, thus he didn't have to worry auto running out of room. Other than the places where the plants were planted, the rest of the area was basically just empty, leaving it free for use.
Lin Mu went over the footwork in his mind before taking the first step.
~WHOOSH~
As soon as he did though, he shot forward awkwardly before stumbling.
-THUD-
"Okay... not as simple as I thought." Lin Mu got up from the ground.
He had not expected to fall so easily, but understood he had underestimated the footwork part too. But he didn't lose hope since this was just the first try.
"Practice will make me perfect." Lin Mu said to himself and repeated it.
~WHOOSH~
He followed the footwork and took the first step again, sending him forward at a decent speed. But at the same time, he realized the reason for his stumbling and fall.
'Maintaining the posture isn't exactly the best during the transition period between the steps.' Lin Mu understood.
-THUD-
But when he tried to be a bit more 'flexible' it only caused him to fall again.
"Yeah, just being flexible with it isn't gonna work." Lin Mu reckoned there were more things he'd need to try. -WHOOSH~
He kept on trying the steps while doing slight modifications to it every time. He fell many times and kept on stumbling, but he was eventually figuring out how to do it without falling.
Minute after minute passed, and Lin Mu had tried it over a hundred times before he finally managed to move without stumbling.
~WHOOSH~
-STEP~
"Huh, it worked." Lin Mu actually managed to move the next step without falling to the ground. 'I don't have to keep the stance rigid, but I can't be too loose either. It has to be a balance in between. He now understood. This measure of balance was not mentioned in the technique, since it wasn't exact for each person. One would have to figure out their balance point for their body, which would be dependant on factors like body weight, shape and what they were wielding at that moment.
And this was all on top of following the Qi circuit for the footwork, which could easily get interrupted if one lost focus.
Lin Mu continued practicing it further, to see just how many times he could repeat this.
~WHOOSH-WHOOSH-WHOOSH-
~THUD-
But soon he learned three steps were the limit with his current method, for he fell again.
"Hmm... the stance changes again." Lin Mu furrowed his brows as he thought how to balance this time.
He got up and repeated the process again, changing the stance's flexibility every time bit by bit until he achieved the next balance.
Lin Mu maintained this process for the subsequent steps too and fully engrossed himself in learning the footwork first.
The hours turned into days rather fast, as Lin Mu practiced nonstop.
Xukong would check in from time to time, but didn't interfere as there was simply no need for it. Though he was certainly pleased that Lin Mu was understanding the technique without his suggestions or hints. "He figured out dividing the foot work and the cloud creation is the key to learning the technique quite fast. Looks like he won't need that long to fully learn the footwork." Xukong muttered to himself as he observed Lin Mu working hard.