"Master?" Little Shrubby woke up from the sound.
He was deep in cultivation and wouldn't be disturbed easily, but the sound coming from Lin Mu was simply too loud.
Looking at Lin Mu, he saw the Dao Shell shining. It let out a bright light and seemed to be swirling in joy.
~HONG~
Another humming sound was let off by the Dao Shell, prompting Lin Mu to open his eyes.
"Come," Lin Mu ordered.
~shua~
The Dao Shell slowly descended and came to float in front of Lin Mu, giving him the chance to fully observe it. Even if Lin Mu had spent a long time designing his Dao Shell, this was still his first time seeing it in the real world.
He wanted to be familiar with it, for it was his Dao Shell and he would have to depend on its powers. Additionally, the way he had chosen his Dao shell's shape was also different, thus he needed to ensure that everything was according to his standards.
"So this is my Dao Shell…" Lin Mu muttered.
The Dao Shell had eight sides to the main body, along with an additional part that protruded from one side. It vaguely looked like the shape an acorn would have. It was flatter on both sides and there was a circular part in its center, having a wider space in it.
The Dao shell was a pale white in color and looked rather tough, being two meters long and a little less than two meters wide.
Lin Mu observed the Dao Shell for a few minutes, getting familiar with it. He could sense the connection between the Dao Shell and his body. It was on an intrinsic level and could be easily controlled with a thought.
'Just like senior Xukong said… a proper Dao Shell will be like the limb of a cultivator, able to move with just a thought,' Lin Mu thought to himself.
"Did you breakthrough master?" Little Shrubby finally asked, seeing that Lin Mu seemed to have returned to normal.
Lin Mu turned to look at his companion and noticed the Dao shell floating above him. It was shaped like a fan and had five sectors extending from its central sector. It vaguely looked like the shape of a hand.
"I did." Lin Mu nodded his head. "And it seems like you are close to it as well." He added.
"Mmhmm… I just need some more time." Little Shrubby replied.
Looking at Little Shrubby's Dao Shell, Lin Mu could tell that he was at about the 70% mark.
'About the same as me when we started,' Lin Mu thought to himself.
The speed of progress for both Lin Mu and Little Shrubby was very fast. Especially considering the fact that it had merely taken them two weeks to reach this point. This was something others spend decades or centuries to accomplish.
And yet, Lin Mu and Little Shrubby had done it in less than that. Though the cost for it was great too… no sane sect would expend all their resources in pushing two experts to the Shell Completion stage of the Dao Shell realm.
Though the resources used by Lin Mu and Little Shrubby were a little too much.
For any other expert, the amount of resources taken from the West ocean sect were enough to make them reach all the way to the Dao Treading realm. Forget them. Even if someone picked some random child from the streets and poured the resources in them, they too would reach the Dao Treading realm all the way from being a common mortal.
And even then, there would be plenty of resources left. Perhaps the resources would be enough to nurture multiple Dao Treading realm experts.
The standards of cultivation for Lin Mu and Little Shrubby were simply too high. One could attribute this to the cost of talent. One could cultivate fast without bottlenecks with great talent, but one would also have to consume an appropriate amount of resources.
"Hmm… there's still a quarter of the resources left." Lin Mu muttered after taking a look around.
Most of the things that were left were either spirit stones or raw spirit herbs and fruits. Of course, this was only when considering consumable resources. Other items like spirit ores, metals, crystal, and such weren't considered by Lin Mu.
They were still lying around in his ring and weren't taken out.
Lin Mu thought to himself, what he should do next.
'According to the goal Senior Xukong set for me, I'm supposed to directly skip the Shell expansion stage of the Dao Shell realm and reach the Dao treading realm. But if I want to do that I need to give birth to a Dao Embryo… I would do that no doubt, but how am I supposed to do that?' Lin Mu wondered to himself.
And just as Lin Mu was thinking to himself, he heard a voice in his head.
"Oh? You are already at the Shell completion stage?" Xukong said in a surprised voice.
He had been deep in cultivation since the strange black runes the Altar was making, and had not spent much attention to Lin Mu. And since Lin Mu didn't contact him for anything either, he left him to his devices.
Xukong was letting Lin Mu make his own decision, considering that there wasn't as much danger to him as there was in the past. Plus Lin Mu had learned enough about the cultivation world that he didn't need constant assistance.
"I… did senior." Lin Mu replied.
"Hmmm… that's good. But wasn't this too fast?" Xukong said.
"Well… some things happened, and it just ended up like this." Lin Mu replied.
Hearing this, Xukong quickly took a look through the memories and saw all that Lin Mu had done.
'Now this is not what I expected…' Xukong thought to himself.
Seeing that Xukong had not said anything for a while, Lin Mu was a bit anxious.
"Are you upset with me senior?" Lin Mu questioned, knowing that Xukong knew everything now.
"Upset? Why would I be upset? Ahahaha! For a measly thing like eradicating a small mortal world sect?" Xukong laughed.
