In front of Lin Mu, one of the warriors had just achieved a breakthrough.
Lin Mu had seen him before, but didn't know the man's name. The only thing he knew was that he was one of the stronger warriors of the Haima tribe and was roughly at the start Nascent soul realm.
But now, the man had actually broken though and the spirit Qi waves coming from him showed that he was at the middle of the Nascent soul realm.
'From the Infant Soul stage to Child soul stage… this breakthrough is good.' Lin Mu estimated the gain that the warrior had.
Elder Niji and the rest also observed the man, sensing the increase in his strength. The breakthrough caused waves of spirit Qi to spread from the man, allowing everyone to feel it clearly.
Usually a breakthrough would not be this apparent as the spirit Qi in most Haima Tribe members would stay contained in their bodies. But now that it was done though an actual cultivation technique, the effects were clear.
"$#^($&&(?" The Haima Tribe warrior who had just broken through was surprised as well.
"Who is he?" Lin Mu questioned.
"This is Warrior Tumela." Elder Niji answered for Lin Mu.
"Warrior Tumela, congratulations on successfully cultivating as well as breaking through." Lin Mu spoke.
The man in question didn't understand all of Lin Mu's words, but then Elder Niji translated for him. Once warrior Tumela understood them, he saluted Lin Mu in respect. He was truly grateful to Lin Mu for teaching them this.
He could after all sense the increase in his strength. Even if it was small, it was still a good increase which would normally take him several years to achieve. And yet that long-term gain was obtained in less than two hours.
In all cases, it was worth a lot to them.
Even for Lin Mu, this was a lot of new study and research material. With this initial success, he now knew what path to take for the future.
'I never would have thought the two baby snakes would allow me to have this epiphany… fortunate encounters can truly present in the most unexpected ways…' Lin Mu thought to himself.
He let the warriors continue cultivating and observed them. From time to time, he would give them some advice and make a correction in their circuits. Even for Elder Niji and Head Warrior Kulo, there were a lot of suggestions.
And in just three more days, ten more warriors had broken, though. While it was just a minor breakthrough, it was still better than anything they had felt before. During this entire time, Lin Mu could see some flaws in the technique he had made as an experiment, too.
It allowed him to learn more and deepen his own understanding about cultivation, thereby increasing his own expertise. Then, after analyzing these mistakes and changes, Lin Mu improved on them further enhancing the experimental technique.
Two weeks passed in this and the warriors of the Haima Tribe continued to improve. It was around this time that Lin Mu discovered another issue.
"How will they form a Nascent soul?" Lin Mu wondered.
Many of the warriors that Lin Mu was teaching right now already had cultivation equivalent to that of at least the Infant Soul stage of the Nascent soul realm. There was no one else lower than that as the test candidates were only those that were strong.
'The cultivation of the Haima Tribe is mostly passive and is somewhat of a mix between body cultivation as well as Qi cultivation. But it doest not give them the abilities of either path. But now that they are actually cultivating with a technique, they are still unable to follow the normal path of Qi cultivation.' Lin Mu pondered.
Forming a Nascent soul was very important for qi cultivator as they would be unable to comprehend the Dao Traces without it. A nascent soul allowed one to dissociate oneself from the normal cycle of 'mortals', giving them a chance for rebirth.
Their true souls would be able to make use of the Nascent soul and sense the profundities of the Dao, allowing them to progress further.
The lack of a Nascent soul was also what Lin Mu estimated as the reason for a lack of progress. Even Elder Niji was only stuck at the peak of the Dao Treading realm in terms of the spirit Qi he had.
He was unable to progress any further despite hundreds of years of consumption of Stone Flesh mushrooms. The minimum requirement for reaching the Immortal Ascension realm was one needed to touch upon the Dao traces.
For Qi cultivators, having no Dao Embryo basically made it impossible. And for a Dao Embryo to form, they needed a Nascent soul.
And it wasn't like they could take the body cultivation path, either. While the body cultivation path had no need to form a Nascent soul or Dao Embryo, it would still do the same, but though a different route.
The refinement of the five treasured organs was very difficult without the right techniques and resources.
While Lin Mu had managed to make an experimental Qi cultivation technique for the Haima Tribe, he sure as hell wouldn't be able to make a body cultivation technique.
'There are still some provisions for mistake correction in Qi cultivation… but for body cultivation the range for mistakes is very narrow. Not to mention I do not have enough references to make anything.' Lin Mu thought to himself.
The only reason he was even able to make the experimental technique for Qi cultivation was because he had literally thousands upon thousands of cultivation techniques and manuals in his storage.
Not to mention the many more documents and books that gave one insight and tips for cultivation.
As for body cultivation, Lin Mu had a grand total of two techniques; the mortal strengthening scripture and the True Gold Body forging arts. It was already a miracle that Lin Mu could use the passive effects of other techniques to reach his current body cultivation.
And it wasn't like Lin Mu hadn't tested the use of Mortal Strengthening scripture for the Haima Tribe either. The results of that had only shown it to be incompatible with them. Thus, with all the failures, the only path left was Qi cultivation.
Days upon days passed like this and Lin Mu continued his research.
Two more months went by when Lin Mu finally had some significant progress with the experimental technique.
"Of course! I need to follow the example of the Great Slumber Bear. Senior Xukong told me that immortal beasts that were directly born in that realm merely needed to will it and their Nascent souls would be born." Lin Mu said out loud.
In front of him, a large stone board could be seen. Runes could be seen written on it, and they glowed with a faint white light.
Lin Mu used his fingers as a writing tool and quickly added more runes onto the board.
~shua~
Once he did, a qualitative change seemingly happened and the runes automatically assembled themselves into a unique order.
"There… let's see if this works." Lin Mu muttered to himself.
He quickly called Elder Niji and asked him to bring in some weaker members of the tribe. Five minutes later, the elder had appeared at his doorstep along with five Haima Tribe members.
~Creak~
Lin Mu opened the door and gazed at the new candidates, finding them to be roughly equivalent to the mid to late stage of the core condensation realm.
"They will work perfectly." Lin Mu said.
"What do you need them to do, noble Lin Mu?" Elder Niji inquired curiously.
"They will cultivate with the new version I have made." Lin Mu plainly said before explaining it to the Haima Tribe members.
In the past few months, Lin Mu had been steadily learning the Haima Tribe's language. And while he had not mastered it, he was at least able to converse in the language.
"Is this all we need to do, noble Lin Mu?" The Haima Tribe members anxiously asked.
"Yes. As long as you follow this method, you should see some gain." Lin Mu replied in the Haima Tribe's language.
"O-okay." The members agreed right away.
They quickly sat down and first mediated for a few minutes to optimize their condition. A majority of the tribesmen had mastered the breathing method taught by Lin Mu, thus there were no issues in that.
Once that was done, they finally followed the experimental technique and made two circuits in their body. The slow circuit and fast circuits quickly pulled the spirit Qi in the air, forming a point of focus on their bodies.
'It's certainly faster than the first version.' Lin Mu could see the improvements right away.
Thirty minutes passed as the members steadily absorbed the spirit Qi, until finally… one of them formed a core!
~HUALA~
The spirit Qi within the body quickly turned into a core, but didn't stop there.
~RUMBLE~