Lin Mu looked at the broken statue in detail, making sure that he didn't miss anything. The statue was that of legs that were cut off just below the knee. Or rather, they were broke from that point.
It was unknown where the rest of the statue was, but from the way it was broken, he could tell it was struck by something hard. Or perhaps, the statue had just been built like this. There was a certain mystery to it that could not be revealed.
No matter what angle Lin Mu looked at the broken statue from, it seemed rather normal. There were no spirit Qi fluctuations coming from it and neither was there any other kind of energy coming from it.
"Just what is it?" Lin Mu wondered.
The twin snakes were still a bit wary, but Lin Mu also felt a hint of confusion from them. It was as if even they didn't know what they were worried about before. This made Lin Mu feel relieved too.
'I guess they were just wary of the Proto-fissure rather than the actual statue inside.' Lin Mu guessed.
It made sense that the instincts of the twins were good enough to make them careful about space and the void. Both were dangerous when not stable and could kill even the strongest of cultivators.
Fifteen minutes later, Lin Mu was sure that the broken statue had no peculiarity. Even the material it was made out of seemed to be a normal stone. Though Lin Mu had not given up on it entirely.
'Since it is here in such a space that was quite certainly manufactured, there is bound to be some secret to this.' Lin Mu thought.
He considered it for a bit before deciding to touch it with his hand. The spirit sense was also useless in this situation as it simply passed through as if it were air. It meant that there were no defensive or security arrays on the statue.
Having confirmed this, Lin Mu decided to just keep it for the time being.
'Perhaps, I'll learn more about it in the future…' He thought.
Lin Mu's hand extended and his index finger finally touched the surface of the broken statue.
~HUALA~
And when he did, Lin Mu felt alarmed.
"NO!" Lin Mu's blood raged and several of his abilities activated.
The golden body glowed bright and the armor of the Mortal Strengthening Scripture appeared. Even his sword intent awakened, protecting Lin Mu unconsciously. The True Earth Heart Dao Embryo within his beat like a war drum.
~ROAR~
Even the bloodline of the Great Slumber Bear awakened, as the illusory form appeared over his body, roaring at the broken statue.
Despite all these abilities and defenses though, Lin Mu realized that he had failed.
A barely perceptible wisp entered his body. It was almost transparent and if it weren't for Lin Mu's instincts telling him, he might not have even found it. Lin Mu's spirit sense tried to follow the wisp and soon sensed it enter his Dantian.
But once it was there, it halted.
This allowed Lin Mu to see the form of the wisp clearly. It was smaller than a rice grain in size and yet its presence was quite imposing. How could something this small cause such and effect was a mystery to Lin Mu.
What was even more shocking was the speed of the wisp.
~WOONG~
But just as Lin Mu was watching the wisp, a new energy pulled onto it. This energy forced the wisp to split apart, telling it that it was not welcome
~RIP~
It was at that time that a change occurred. The wisp was torn apart into two fragments. One of them was pulled along the tendril of energy that had appeared in Lin Mu's body while the other rushed into the Nascent soul.
There the fragment of wisp turned into a small bracelet that hung on the Nascent soul's wrist. The second fragment though, continued to be pulled away.
'Where is it going?' Lin Mu wondered.
Tracking the path of the energy tendril, Lin Mu found it to be entering his right hand. Or more accurately the hand with the ring.
~HUSH~
The fragment of wisp entered the ring and disappeared inside. But Lin Mu didn't stop there, he was after all, worried about what it was. Hence, with a single thought, Lin Mu's mind arrived in the ring.
There, Lin Mu finally saw what was pulling the fragment of the wisp.
It was actually coming from the grey orb of spatial energy!
"Senior?" Lin Mu was surprised.
Xukong had been in a dormant state for a long time now and that great orb of spatial energy was where he was located. His avatar continually absorbed the spatial energy as an means to grow and recover.
While Xukong hadn't told Lin Mu how long he would be in a dormant state, he had started to think that it should not be too long. And now that he saw this scenario, he was feeling like that even more.
'Did Senior Xukong interfere to protect me?' Lin Mu wondered.
~POOF~
The wisp was quickly pulled into the grey orb of spatial energy, evidential being consumed by the being inside or something.
The surroundings felt eerily silent after that happened, and Lin Mu simply stood while observing everything. Ten minutes passed like this and there was no change to the grey orb of spatial energy.
~Sigh~
"Guess I was just hoping too much…" Lin Mu said with a sigh.
He withdrew his spirit sense and peered back into his Dantian, focusing on his Nascent Soul.
'It turned into this bracelet?' Lin Mu confused upon seeing the object.
As far as he knew, Nascent souls were not solid and any normal object would pass through it. And yet there was now a physical bracelet hanging from the Nascent soul's hand.
Lin Mu brought the Nascent soul closer, wanting to look more, but then he heard a voice.
"Lin Mu…"
"Senior!"
