Chapter 38 - Testing The New Skills
The second part of the Nine divine heart sutras was finally unlocked. The esoteric chants of the Severing heart sutra were currently being carved in Lin Mu's mind. As the chants resounded within his head, a sharp stabbing pain accompanied them.
For Lin Mu, it was as if every passing second was equal to a day. When the entire process was complete Lin Mu could not figure out how much time had passed, for the intense pain had robbed him of his sense of time.
When the pain subsided, Lin Mu could see that the ethereal altar had dimmed down considerably. It was still pulsing, but not as intensely as before. He once again felt like he needed to touch the altar, and that's what he did.
Lin Mu had braced for the next bout of pain that could be arriving, but it did not. Instead, a very gentle stream of energy was released from the altar that travelled to the mysterious ring and then to Lin Mu's head. Once the energy entered his head, additional new information appeared in his mind.
There were only two things that were transmitted to him, and these two were skills. They were called 'Flicker' and 'Blink'. Lin Mu understood that the mysterious ring had transmitted the information about these skills to him and had told him that these were some of the innate skills that originated from itself.
"Why would I receive these skills only now and not before? Could it be because of spirit qi?" Lin Mu wondered.
After receiving the skills, the ring hummed again, expelling Lin Mu into the hunting shack. He looked around and confirmed his location. Lin Mu had experienced too many shocks today, thus he sat down to chant the calming heart sutra again to get his thoughts in order.
After half an hour, Lin Mu was able to make the heads and tails of the entire situation.
"I unlocked the Severing heart sutra, and the ring imparted the two skills called Flicker and Blink to me." Lin Mu concluded in one sentence.
The first thing Lin Mu wanted to test was the Severing heart sutra. He wanted to see how it compared to the calming heart sutra and if it could help him in his cultivation. So, in order to test it, Lin Mu sat down cross-legged and began chanting the severing heart sutra.
The chants of the severing heart sutra were different from the calming heart sutra. While the calming heart sutra made one feel tranquil, the severing heart sutra made one empty.
The closest way Lin Mu could describe his feelings was as, nothing. He felt completely devoid of everything. He did not feel any desire, nor did he feel any emotions. He focused on the vital energy within his body and found it to be the same as before. It did not enhance his perception as it did with the calming hear sutra.
Lin Mu then tried sensing the spirit qi within his dantian. Before he was able to control a single wisp of spirit qi with the help of the calming heart sutra, but he could not exactly measure how much spirit qi he had in his dantian. But once he used the severing heart sutra, he found that he only had around five percent of his dantian filled with spirit qi.
He tried to count the number of spirit qi wisps he had and estimated them to be around 100. He could not get an exact number as the spirit qi mixed and melded together.
'If only five percent of my dantian is filled then, it means that I can store nearly 2000 wisps of spirit qi.' Lin Mu thought.
After this, he tried to control a wisp of spirit qi and was able to do it successfully. He tried going further and controlled the spirit qi to move towards the meridians. He willed it, and the wisp of spirit qi entered the first meridian.
Getting the spirit qi into the meridians was the hard part for Lin Mu. Now that it was in the meridians, it only had one path to follow. Soon under the control of Lin Mu, the wisp of spirit qi completed its first complete circulation cycle.
After Lin Mu successfully completed the first cycle of qi circulation, he could feel his body's pores open, as a tiny amount of energy was absorbed from the air and refined into a new wisp of spirit qi that settled down in his dantian.
'Is this how a person is supposed to cultivate?' Lin Mu questioned himself.
Lin Mu did not know, but what he had just accomplished would have shocked any other cultivator if they knew about it. He had successfully refined spirit qi without the use of a cultivation manual. Even though it was a minuscule amount and was not comparable to the efficiency of an actual cultivation manual, this single feat of his was still earth shaking.
Lin Mu stopped chanting the severing heart sutra and stood up. Once the effects of the sutra wore off, all his emotions returned. Only now did he understand how disturbing it felt to be devoid of emotions.
'This feeling, or the absence of it, is unexplainable.' Lin Mu thought to himself with a perplexed expression on his face.
The next thing Lin Mu wanted to test was the two new skills he was imparted by the ring. He instinctively knew how to use these skills. The first skill Lin Mu tested was the skill called ��Flicker'.
He knew how to use it but did not know what it actually did. He would have to experience it himself, to understand it. Thus Lin Mu took a deep breath and triggered the skill. Automatically a small wisp of spirit qi rose from his dantian and entered the ring.
After the spirit qi was consumed by the ring nothing happened, which made Lin Mu confused about whether he was making a mistake or not. He tried again and another wisp of spirit qi was consumed, with no results. He tried again and again with no sign of success until he noticed his hands when he used the skill.
Lin Mu observed that whenever he used Flicker, his hands would turn blurry for a moment. To test his hypothesis, he tried it again and indeed found it to be true. In his later attempts, he found that not only were his hands turning blurry, but his entire body was also turning blurry.
A stroke of insight struck Lin Mu, and he remembered his first fight with the two thieves. A similar thing had happened then, and the attacks of the two men had passed through his body as if it was made of air.
"So it was this skill that saved my life then." Lin Mu exclaimed.
He wanted to test the skill out further, so he held the table with his hand while he used Flicker. As soon as he used the skill Lin Mu's hand passed through the table as if it were air. Lin Mu was awestruck and stared at his hand. He tested it out with many things and found it to work the same.
But while testing, he also found the limitations of the skill. The skill only turned his body immaterial for a second, after which it solidified. While it was possible for his hand to pass through thinner objects such as the table, it could not pass through the wall of the shack, or of course the ground itself. A handful of soil and small stones could fall through his hands when he used the skill, but he could not push his hand through the earth.
'But if the limitation of the skill depends on the thickness of the objects, how was I able to dodge the axe of that thief?' Lin Mu wondered with a puzzled look.
Lin Mu thought for a bit and understood that there may be more factors that influenced the skill. He withdrew the short sword and held it in his hand while he used Flicker. He had expected it to fall through his hand, but it did not. He then held it flat against his left hand and swung at it. This time it passed through his left hand but was still held in his right hand.
'So the thickness of an object, as well as the speed at which my body moves through it, decides whether the skill would work or not.' Lin Mu concluded and felt proud of himself inwardly.
At only this point did he notice that he had depleted nearly all of the spirit qi in his dantian. This also gave him an idea of how many times he could use the skill 'Flicker'. He consumed one wisp of spirit qi to use the skill once, thus could use it at least a hundred times before stopping.
'Guess I'll have to test the second skill tomorrow then.' Lin Mu thought.
After all the experiments, Lin Mu had once again become tired and sleepy. He laid down on the bed and fell asleep. This time though, Lin Mu did not enter the Sleepscape but instead fell asleep normally.