Chapter 138 - Preparations - II
~Huu~
Lin Mu opened his eyes and let out a breath. He had been refining his spirit sense for the entire day and now it was nighttime. He extended his spirit sense and saw that it had now reached a maximum range of eight meters.
In this entire day, Lin Mu was able to increase its range by one whole meter. He also failed multiple times, which caused him to lose a certain amount of spirit qi. But he didn"t falter and was able to replenish it rather fast.
Now that he had reached the late stage of the qi refining realm, Lin Mu"s speed of replenishing his spirit qi had increased two-fold. Previously it would take him over four hours to replenish the entirety of his dantian. But now it only took him two hours to do the same.
Feeling satisfied and a little happy, Lin Mu stood up and walked to the window. He gazed at the sky outside and saw the waxing moon in the sky that was close to half its maximum size. Looking at the position of the moon, Lin Mu determined that the time right now was probably close to midnight.
"Hmm, I should rest now, this was enough for today. I still have to resume my practice with the new weapons in the Sleepscape." Lin Mu muttered. to himself.
He thus returned to his bed and sat down. Just as he was about to lay his head on the pillow, he suddenly remembered something.
"Wait, don"t I have that bolster I got? I should use it, it"s surprisingly better than this pillow." Lin Mu spoke to himself.
He then withdrew the white bolster from his ring and placed it down on the bed. He touched it and compared it with the pillow that was already there.
"The bolster is indeed much better." Lin Mu thought.
He pushed the other pillow aside and laid his head down on the bolster to sleep. Lin Mu"s choice trend out to be for the better, since it didn"t even take him a minute to fall asleep. His consciousness faded for a moment and then appeared in the Sleepscape.
Lin Mu opened his eyes and saw that he was back in front of the spirit apple tree. He looked at it and saw that it had five more apples growing on it.
"Oh? Did the number increase again?" Lin Mu spoke, feeling a little surprised.
He walked forward and saw that out of five of the apples, two were completely ripened and the other three were still raw. He plucked the two ripe ones and left the others hanging on the branch.
"Seems like their number increases by one each time you progress in your realm." Xukong"s voice came from behind Lin Mu.
Lin Mu turned around in shock as he saw him floating behind him.
"What? How did you come out senior?" Lin Mu questioned.
"It looks like your increase in cultivation is also increasing the development level of the Sleepscape. It actually allowed me to enter on my own here." Xukong answered.
"Oh, that will be convenient. But wait, can you come here when I"m awake?" Lin Mu questioned again.
"No, I don"t think so. The basic requirement is still that you should be here for me to access it." Xukong answered.
Lin Mu nodded in response to senior Xukong"s words and began his training with the new weapons. He took out the booklet of the Thousand armament blade Scripture and glossed over it once again before starting his practice.
He withdrew the first weapon, which was a pair of slim swords. The swords were identical in shape and size and looked quite light. Lin Mu held each of them in his hands and executed the moves that were mentioned in the manual.
Lin Mu practiced for around four hours, after which Senior Xukong interrupted him.
"It is time for your Dao script lessons," Xukong spoke.
"Ah yes, senior." Lin Mu replied hurriedly.
He was too engrossed in his training and had completely forgotten about them. Lin Mu had already learned enough of the characters so that he could read the nameless technique that was created by the lost immortal.
This lesson was the last one that he needed in order to be clear about the contents of the technique. An hour later Lin Mu was finally done and took a breath of relief.
"You should be able to read the wooden slip now," Xukong spoke in a content tone.
"Yes senior, I"ve been waiting for it too." Lin Mu replied.
He then took out the wooden slip from the ring and opened it to take a look. The twenty-five individual wooden strips glowed for a moment before the characters appeared on it. Unlike before, when Lin Mu was unable to read anything, this time he could clearly understand the words.
While the entire technique was contained within those twenty-five strips, the sheer amount of information condensed within it was astonishing. With each character of Dao script that Lin Mu read, he was able to devise multiple meanings and could find multiple derivations.
By combining and utilizing these characters in a complex manner, one could explain a lot of information in a small s.p.a.ce. The more Lin Mu read, the more his expression changed. Sometimes it was confused, and sometimes it was enlightened.
Another hour pa.s.sed by and Lin Mu had finally finished reading the entire technique. A perplexed expression now dressed his face as he looked to be bothered and troubled. Xukong saw this and wondered what had happened.
"What"s the problem? Were you unable to understand something?" Xukong questioned.
Lin Mu gently shook his head in response and thought for a moment before speaking.
"It"s not that senior. I understand the technique in its entirety, but it doesn"t seem to be of much use to me."
"Oh, is that so? What does the technique describe, though?" Xukong asked.
"The technique mentions a special method that allows one to eat as much as they want." Lin Mu answered.
Now even Xukong was feeling perplexed upon hearing Lin Mu"s words. While he had heard about the lost immortal"s story and his objective behind making the technique, what Lin Mu had just said didn"t seem fully right.
"Is that all it describes?" Xukong asked, wanting to gain a better understanding.
"No, there are a few bits of information there that bother me. There are also some warnings on it." Lin Mu replied.
"And what are they?" Xukong spoke.
"The warning states that since it is an incomplete technique and hasn"t been cultivated ever before, the exact effects of it will be unknown. The technique says that it was made to ensure that its user would never starve, but it doesn"t say how it will exactly do that, except for that fact that it will allow me to eat a lot more." Lin Mu explained.
After hearing Lin Mu"s explanation, Xukong could understand his apprehension a bit more. Xukong knew about the risks and dangers of cultivating an incomplete or an unknown technique. He knew that whenever a new cultivation technique was made, it had to go through rigorous testing and trials.
The creator of the technique would usually spend many years just testing out the aspects of the technique before even starting to cultivate it. Even when a technique had been successfully created, there were still some hidden risks that wouldn"t present themselves easily.
Especially for a technique like this whose creator was dead and never had the chance to test it, the risks could be unbearable.
"I understand you. There are indeed a lot of risks in practicing such a technique, especially when even its creator put warnings in its description." Xukong spoke.
Lin Mu nodded in response and wondered what he should do now.
"Still, whether you want to cultivate this technique or not, I"ll leave this up to you. The final decision is yours to make." Xukong added after thinking for a bit.
After hearing senior Xukong"s words, Lin Mu felt a little content.
"You"re right, senior. I"ve decided that I won"t cultivate this technique right now. I will first learn more about it and gain more understanding of it. The lost immortal left his life"s experiences in the wooden slip as well. I think I will definitely find some insights in there, that will help me judge and make the right decision." Lin Mu replied.
"Yes, you should check the memoirs that are recorded in the wooden slip." Xukong agreed.
Lin Mu nodded and went to sit against the spirit apple tree. He opened the wooden slip again, but this time flipped over to the other side. The wooden slip faintly glowed once again, and some new words appeared on the strips.
The wooden slip had the nameless technique recorded on one of its sides and the memoirs on the other side. Lin Mu took a deep breath before he started reading the memoirs.
The first part of the memoirs described the early life of the lost immortal. This was back when he was a mortal child. He was an orphan and didn"t know who his parents were. Ever since he could remember, the lost immortal knew that he had always lived at an orphanage.
The orphanage he lived at was located in a rundown building that was part of the slums. The orphanage was actually one of the many orphanages of the kingdom that the lost immortal had been born in and was located in the very capital of that kingdom.
The divide between people was great and one could easily see this. The slums were poor and dirty, while the main city was well developed and luxurious.