Chapter 50 - Refining The Spirit Sense
Xukong was impressed by the skills that Lin Mu had received from the ring. Just the two skills 'Flicker' and 'Blink' were already enough for any person in this world to become powerful in their own right.
Although the two skills seemed simple, but they actually were not. Those two skills employed the high-level concepts from the spatial laws. A cultivator could only comprehend the preliminary laws once they reached the Dao treading realm and formed a Dao embryo.
But it was nearly impossible for a cultivator to comprehend even a sliver of spatial laws, as they were one of the most complex and top-level Daos.
By now Xukong had an idea of how the mysterious ring worked. The ring worked as a conduit and a catalyst that helped Lin Mu manipulate the spatial laws. He also felt that the ring was sentient and was tailoring the skills according to Lin Mu's caliber.
As for the ability to open spatial rifts, Xukong only understood it when he started absorbing the pure spatial energy from the ring. For an artifact that could produce such pure spatial energy, it was a child's play to exploit the weak points in the space. It was even easier for the ring to tap into a teleportation channel and hijack it.
When Lin Mu was telling senior Xukong about how some spatial rifts felt different from others, he explained why.
The spatial rifts which felt like still water were just gates into the lesser void. But the ones which felt like a flowing river were actually teleportation channels created by teleportation formations.
Teleportation formations were used for long-distance movement and transportation. Objects as well as people could be moved a long distance within a short time with the help of such formations.
Though the ones that Lin Mu accessed were minor teleportation formations used for transporting objects. when Lin Mu accessed the two before he had basically stolen the four vessels restoration pills and the spirit stones from someone unknown.
The good thing was the person who used the formation to send the items would not know that they were stolen either.
"Will the person whose items I took come after me?" Lin Mu asked with a wary tone.
"That would be impossible. While sending items through teleportation formations is a safe method, it is not flawless. Any accident or disturbance in the spatial channel would cause the object to be lost in the void." Xukong answered.
Lin Mu felt relieved that he won't have to keep looking over his back for the owner of the items coming back for payback.
"Demonstrate the two skills you got from the ring for me. I want to see your proficiency in it." Xukong ordered.
Lin Mu nodded in response and demonstrated the first skill 'Flicker'. He first executed it while standing normally and then showed its ability to turn his body immaterial. He held his short sword and demonstrated his control over the technique.
"Next one." Xukong spoke.
Lin Mu took a deep breath and used the second skill 'Blink'. He disappeared from the place he was standing and then appeared in a location 10 meters away from there.
"Enough." Xukong said.
"Yes senior." Lin Mu promptly responded.
Xukong went silent for a minute as he thought and then spoke again.
"You will need to increase your accuracy while using Flicker. If you are to use it for dodging strikes, you will need to judge the exact moment to use the skill or you will just hurt yourself." Xukong spoke and then took a pause.
"As for the second skill Blink, you are highly inefficient in its use. You will need to understand the skill's true potential and from what I can see, you can only teleport to a location in your field of vision. This is the first flaw you need to amend." Xukong chided.
Lin Mu already knew that he had to learn to judge the timing of the activation of Flicker, but did not expect that he was this bad with the second skill Blink.
"How can I resolve the flaw, senior?" Lin Mu asked.
"The reason you can't teleport to a location behind you is that you haven't learned one of the most basic abilities of a cultivator. You haven't refined your spirit sense." Xukong answered.
Lin Mu had heard about spirit sense before when senior Xukong asked him if he could see his body. senior Xukong then mentioned that he could not see it as he did not have spirit sense.
"You can think of spirit sense as an additional organ. You can use it to touch and feel your environment. You can 'see' without actually seeing, with the help of spirit sense. Though I do not blame you for not knowing how to use it. You would have innately understood it if you were using an orthodox cultivation technique, but your unique situation changes things a bit." Xukong said.
Xukong waited until Lin Mu fully understood his words and then continued.
"Now I want you to listen to my words with your complete attention.
First, close your eyes and focus on the spirit Qi within your dantian.
Now guide a wisp of spirit qi to leave your body and let it float around your body." After speaking till here, Xukong stopped and let Lin Mu practice.
It took Lin Mu a few tries before he grasped it and was able to control spirit Qi to hover around his body. After a few minutes, Lin Mu found it to be as easy as lifting his finger. While he was practicing Senior Xukong was observing Lin Mu's closely, and once he found that he had learned this step, he continued his explanation.
"Slowly extend that wisp of spirit qi as far as you can, then stop and hold it when you can't push it any further. After that revolve that wisp of spirit qi in a circle around your body." Xukong spoke.
Lin Mu extended the wisp of spirit qi and stopped after it reached a distance of one meter. He then let the wisp rotate around his body. It took Lin Mu half an hour after which, he felt that his connection with the wisp had stabilized and did not take much of his effort to control it.
Xukong inwardly nodded after seeing Lin Mu's minor success.
'He already has an advantage in terms of refining his spirit sense. It seems that I made the right decision about not telling him to wait till he liquefied his spirit qi.' Xukong thought.
'Though if I did, it would take him a long time, especially since his dantian is already twice the size of a normal cultivator and I don't think it has stopped expanding either.' Xukong contemplated.
Xukong then taught Lin Mu the next step in refining his spirit sense.
"Now, maintain your connection with that wisp of spirit qi and guide another wisp out of your dantian. Once you have it hovering outside your body, repeat the steps you had followed before, but at the very end I want you to link the two wisps of spirit qi together." Xukong said.
Lin Mu was able to replicate the process, but when it was the moment to link the two wisps of spirit qi, he was overwhelmed and lost control. The two wisps of spirit qi disappeared into the air, leaving Lin Mu breathless.
"Rest for a bit and try again." Xukong consoled.
Suddenly Lin Mu felt his stomach rumble and remembered that he had not eaten for a while now. Actually, ever since he returned from the Grand Void, he could not tell what the time was. When he looked at the sun, he saw that it was lower than it was before he left, prompting him to think that he had spent an entire day in the Grand Void.
Lin Mu then withdrew the beast meat from the ring and set it to cook on the stove. Senior Xukong saw the sizeable amount that he cooked but did not mind it at first. Only when senior Xukong saw that he could actually finish it all, did he became surprised.
'It seems that his abnormally high appetite is linked with the growth of his dantian. I wonder if he knows about this.' Xukong thought.
"Lin Mu, do you eat the same quantity of food every time?" Xukong curiously asked.
"No senior, I used to eat a normal quantity of food back when I was in the 2nd stage of the body tempering realm. But ever since I found the ring and progressed to higher stages, my appetite has kept on growing." Lin Mu explained.
'Hmm, so my suspicion was correct. The ring has been subtly changing his constitution as well.' Xukong confirmed.
After Lin Mu was done with his meal, he assimilated the vital energy and restarted his training. This time he was able to link the two wisps of spirit qi together. After linking, the two wisps turned into a small thread of spirit qi.
"Now that you've understood these steps, what you have to do next is to keep adding more and more wisps of spirit qi until they form a long thread that connects to your body." Xukong spoke.
Lin Mu was overwhelmed when he heard senior Xukong's words, but then reinforced his resolve. Determination flashed in Lin Mu's eyes as he drowned himself in the process.
The sky had turned dark, and the moon was peeking from behind the clouds. Lin Mu was currently drenched with sweat, but instead of looking tired, elation could be seen on his face. After countless tries and ten hours, Lin Mu had finally succeeded in linking all the wisps of spirit qi.
The spirit qi no longer looked like a thin thread; it had instead turned into a tendril. Lin Mu had just accomplished another feat that would even shock the top sects!