Chapter 2272 Six Months In Sleepscape
Lin Mu didn't know how many days he had been flying. It could have been months or perhaps even an entire year. But he knew that the act was now feeling natural to him. 'It's almost as if I have wings myself…' Lin Mu thought to himself.
As an Immortal, he had been flying for a long time too, but it was never in the way that a bird flew. Cultivators flew in the air by the means of controlling the Qi within their bodies and the ambient around them.
Usually they pushed and pulled, the ambient Qi allowing them to move through it.
In a way it was similar to how someone swam in the water. If there was no ambient Qi in the surroundings, a cultivator would have a hard time flying but they still could. The difference would be that they would have to use the Qi within their bodies to fly.
They would have to continually expel the Qi in their bodies in order to fly.
This method was exhausting and could easily deplete their Qi. But for a bird, it didn't matter if there was ambient Qi in the air or not. It could simply flap its wings and fly in the air. As such, it got a 'true' understanding of the Sky and the Air.
By living through Ashy's memories and going through various conditions, Lin Mu understood how it was to truly fly as well as what the Sky was like.
Every feeling was thoroughly imbued in him, as if his very own instincts had been expanded.
~SHUA~
Finally, he reached the end of the memories and returned to the memory library he had made.
~huu~
He took a deep breath and glanced at the gate that was still filling with memories.
"This will be enough." Lin Mu had an inkling that this was the farthest he could get by living through other's memories. ~SHUA~
With that in mind, he canceled his current state as everything started to fade away. Lin Mu's consciousness returned to his body, making him open his eyes in the Sleepscape.
He turned his head to the left, and glanced at the bird that was fast asleep on his shoulder.
The tiny bird's eyes were closed and seemed to be deep in sleep.
"To think you'd actually maintain that state for over three months." Xukong's voice was heard, making Lin Mu look up.
The spider was floating a short distance from him and had possibly been watching him for a while.
"Three months?" Lin Mu muttered hearing the period. "Shorter than I expected." To him the time experienced was much longer.
"Well you were in your mind. The time experienced by you will always be a lot different." Xukong replied. "Though to maintain that link for so long… You improved." He added.
"Ah yeah… I had practice." Lin Mu replied. "With the awakening and growth of Ocean Raker and Afternoon Pine, it gave me an idea of how to do it." He explained.
"Oh?" Xukong had been deep in cultivation back then, thus didn't know that Lin Mu had experienced that.
Plus he hadn't gone that far in his memories either, as such there was no way for him to know at the moment.
"Yeah. I got to see their spirits." Lin Mu replied. "And I also saw their memories. Its how I learned more about the Spatial Plane." He explained.
"I see… Looks like there's more things we'll have to talk about later." Xukong replied. "But for now I think it might be necessary for you to check outside." He added.
"Ah yes!" Lin Mu calculated and realized it had now been six months since he had started training in the Sleepscape. "Wait… did they not contact me?" he wondered.
"So far there have been no attempts." Xukong replied. "I didn't sense anyone around your room either." He added.
"Strange… it has been six months, there should have been a few changes at least." Lin Mu muttered. "I guess I'll just have to check in myself." He said before picking up Ashy from his shoulders.
He then flew to the nest she had made on the Violet Mystic Life Tree and placed her there.
"She'll be asleep for a while now." Xukong informed him. "While there is no harm to her, it would have certainly exhausted her quite a bit." He explained.
"I hadn't expected that the link would last that long. I was simply trying to see how far I could go." Lin Mu replied. "I had always expected that she would be the link that would break first." He stated.
"Your previous experience seems to have compensated for that. Plus it will bring certain benefits to her too." Xukong responded.
"Benefits?" Lin Mu hadn't expected that. "Like what?" he asked.
"Well that's hard to say, but there's one thing for sure. Her link to you will deepen even further and as such her growth will improve." Xukong answered.
"I see…" Lin Mu knew that while the Beast Qi had improved Ashy's bloodline, her own cultivation base hadn't improved as fast.
He had been thinking that it was a side effect of the mutation that her bloodline had gone through. There were some bloodlines that were strong, but also proved hard to cultivate with at times.
Of course, it had only been a short time since she had improved her bloodline compared to her age, thus it wasn't exactly a long period. Most beasts would take hundreds of years to cultivate anyways and often extended to thousands, thus it was nothing out of the ordinary.
It was actually Little Shrubby and the twins that were the greatest outliers to it all, having reached immortal realm faster than almost all beasts. Thinking about them though, Lin Mu realized they weren't here.
"Where's the three?" Lin Mu asked seeing that they weren't on the tree.
All his beast seemed to have taken a liking to the Violet Mystic Life tree and were usually staying there when they were in the Sleepscape. But he couldn't spot them anywhere on the tree.
"They're cooking something." Xukong replied. "Went to the other side of the Sleepscape so that they wouldn't disturb you." He revealed.
"Ah!" Lin Mu extended his immortal sense and quickly found the trio cooking.
It was mostly Little Shrubby cooking, while the twins assisted him. "They got bored and wanted to eat food, but you were still in the memories so Little Shrubby did it instead." Xukong explained.
"No wonder." Lin Mu muttered. "Well, it's fine for them to do that. I'll go take a look outside first while they continue." He said knowing that it was important to do that first.
"Alright." Xukong replied, before Lin Mu departed from the Sleepscape.
He opened his eyes in the real world and roused from the bed.
~step~ step~
"Huh… Feels weird to walk." Lin Mu muttered to himself.
His legs felt a bit strange to him, as if he had lost the habit of using them.
'Is this due to being in Ashy's memories for that long?' Lin Mu wondered.
He was sure that it wasn't due to being immobile, as he had done that for longer periods in the past. For years in a row, thus it shouldn't have been an issue now.
Thus the only factor that was left was him being in the memories.
"Looks like being in the form of another body for that long affected me." Lin Mu muttered to himself. "Now that I think of it, I had flown in the Sleepscape upon waking, and didn't walk." It had been done instinctively by him too.
Thinking about it all now, Lin Mu became a bit wary of doing it.
'While it did allow me to get an understanding of the Sky, it also does affects me in other ways.' Lin Mu thought to himself.
He understood that being in different body forms might not be the most ideal thing to do for long periods of time.
But after he walked around the room for a bit, his body's natural instincts returned and he felt normal using it again.
"That's better." Lin Mu was pleased that it was normal so quickly. "Perhaps its not that bad. I'll just be more careful next time." He reckoned taking breaks in between might be the better option, instead of doing it nonstop like he had for three months this time.
With that sorted, Lin Mu walked out of the room and looked for his companions. A single sweep with his immortal sense told him where everyone was, making him go to the meeting hall where the closest individuals were.
In there, the Crown Prince seemed to be present along with Qiao De. The others such as Crown Princess Shang, Daoist Chu, Monk Hushu and Lady Kang were in their rooms. Lady Kang's two attendants were in their rooms too, cultivating. As for Ziran, Lin Mu found him to be outside the base near the formations.