Lin Mu's body emitted cold waves of air as spirit Qi thrummed within it.
He gazed at his body that was overflowing with power, power that he had never felt before. The power stirred his spirit Qi and only urged it to circulate faster and faster.
Peering into his body, Lin Mu checked the condition of his kidneys. There he found them to be full of vitality, with all its cells having been refined to an entirely new level.
'So this is the Five Treasures Realm Kidney…' Lin Mu tried to sense what kind of improvement his kidney's brought for him.
Each Treasured organ would bring some level of improvement in addition to just the increase in body cultivation. When Lin Mu refined his spleen, it had improved the quality of his blood and when he refined his heart, it had improved the circulation of his blood, which in turn improved his overall body.
Then the refinement of his lungs had improved his breathing capacity, along with stamina.
This only made Lin Mu wonder what the kidneys could bring forth. While it might seem like these improvements were not that much, they were very important. After all, in a battle, even a difference of a fraction of a percent could decide the victory or loss.
Thus, any improvement for Lin Mu was good.
He continued to observe his kidneys and found the chill coming from it disappear. After about five minutes, it was entirely gone. After all, it was only the residual effects from the flesh of the Glacial Shell Snail Queen.
Lin Mu actually didn't have an affinity with the water element, thus he wouldn't be able to control it. He only had the affinity for the Earth and the metal element. For the fire element, he was only able to use it because he had the Embrace Of Hong Lin, which allowed him to use fire.
But in the case of the water element, Lin Mu neither had the natural affinity nor a technique to compensate for it.
As Lin Mu continued to observe his kidneys, he finally felt a new feeling from his kidneys.
"Oh?" Lin Mu was intrigued.
He could see that his kidneys were actually affecting his blood. Not only would they remove the natural toxins from it, but they were also improving the rate at which new blood was produced.
And due to this new improvement, Lin Mu could tell that the density of vital essence in his blood would only increase more.
Vital essence was the very life force of a being and the more one had, the better their bodies would be. Lin Mu had gained a lot of it from the flesh of the Glacial Shell Snail queen and it was now being reflected in his body.
~shua~
The more blood that passed through his kidneys, the richer the vital essence was setting in it. And not just this, the aura of Lin Mu started to increase as well!
This was not the usual aura that one would have just due to the virtue of their life, but rather the aura one could develop when their vitality had reached a boundless level.
~HONG~
Finally, all of Lin Mu's blood had completed one cycle of circulation through his kidneys. This resulted in a chain reaction and his body let off a wave of pure vitality.
~Crack~
Just this alone was enough to send cracks spreading across the floor of the outpost.
Little Shrubby who had been observing everything since the start, felt his fur standing on its end as a deep feeling of threat rose from Lin Mu.
The beast's ears perked up, and only after the aura settled did he calm down. Even though Little Shrubby knew that there was no threat from Lin Mu to him, it was an instinct that was causing him to react like this.
"Master?" Little Shrubby spoke, seeing that Lin Mu had calmed down.
~huu~
Lin Mu let out a breath before looking at Little Shrubby. "Yes?" he responded.
"Did you breakthrough?" Little Shrubby asked.
The beast could tell when Lin Mu had a breakthrough in his spirit Qi cultivation, but couldn't do the same for his body cultivation.
"Yes. I have… I am now in the fourth stage of the Five Treasures realm!" Lin Mu stated, a hint of joy and excitement in his voice.
"GREAT!!" Little Shrubby exclaimed.
Lin Mu rubbed Little Shrubby's head and looked at the Dao Shell above that was still absorbing spirit Qi.
Little Shrubby's Dao Shell had reached a rather large size too and was two meters wide in size. Lin Mu looked at his own Dao Shell within his Dantian and estimated that it was only a little bigger than Little Shrubby right now.
Though Lin Mu also knew that there was a difference in his Dao Shell.
'Little Shrubby might reach the Dao Treading realm in Qi cultivation before me most likely.' Lin Mu thought to himself.
"That is expected. After all, in your case, you need to discover your Dao Embryo and form it on your own. But for Little Shrubby, his bloodline will automatically form the Dao Embryo at a certain point." Xukong spoke after a while.
"Mmm… though I have equivalent strength in the Body cultivation, so it shouldn't matter. I can now contend against most experts." Lin Mu replied and wondered what his capabilities were now.
After all, even if he had broken through, it would take him practice to adapt to his new strength.
Lin Mu lightly pressed his hand on the ground and formed an imprint on it.
"Certainly not the same as before." Lin Mu muttered to himself.
Another thing he sensed was his control over his weight was better than before.
He felt like he was 'lighter' than before.
This was actually not a decrease in his weight, but rather the improvement ins his strength allowed him to feel as if the weight was nothing.
Lin Mu concentrated on his body and thought for a minute.
~shua~
Then a few seconds later, his body floated up, but there were no spirit Qi fluctuations coming from him!
