It would not be wrong to say that Elder Niji had an almost absolute belief in Lin Mu at this point. After all, not only had he managed to get them all out of the Land of Exile but he had also helped them return to their real home.
With this in mind, Elder Niji wondered how Lin Mu would be making the Spatial Channel he had talked about.
"Let's start then…" Elder Niji said before making a few runes in the air, sending commands to the formation array.
~SHUA~
The linking formations were in the form long a long line of runes that looked like a tube in shape. The runes were relatively simple and their main function as to just carry the qi. It didn't matter whether it was spirit qi or Immortal qi either as the formation was relatively universal.
The only difference would be that this version was originally meant for spirit qi and the speed of Immortal qi transfer would be lower. But with the amount of Immortal qi that was there in the storage they didn't really need to worry about that.
It was the same as attaching a narrow pipe to a large water tank. Merely the force of the water might be enough to pierce open a new hole in it.
~HONG~
A loud sound was heard as the Immortal qi came out pouring into the Linking Formations!
Elder Niji watched as the nearly ten such formations were filled up in merely a second.
'If Kunzi didn't say that we might need these many, the supply might have broken this…' Elder Niji thought.
The supply of Immortal qi rushed several kilometers through the linking formation and reached the Spatial Array within a minute's time.
~huala~
The runes glowed in response as they started absorbing all the Immortal qi.
"Look! It's working!" Lanbao jumped up and down.
Lin Mu gazed at this work and hoped that it would work as intended.
"It still needs to be fully activated. The spatial channel also needs to open successfully." Lin Mu spoke before closing his eyes for a moment.
When he opened them again, his spatial perception was active, allowing him to sense the fine changes in the space. His immortal sense was also spread over the array, monitoring for any problems.
Thankfully Lin Mu's efforts had been worth it and all the mistakes had been rectified beforehand.
'So far so good…' Lin Mu saw that all the runes had been lit up now.
~HONG~
The runes linked up, turning into several formations that brought forth their effects.
~Ripple~
It was at this moment that the fabric of space started to ripple. Lin Mu narrowed his eyes as he watched it intently.
"Come on… open calmly…" Lin Mu muttered lightly and raised his hand, a few runes swirling around it.
These runes were none other than the coordinates of the minor plane where the Great Ocean Hippocampus was sleeping. Lin Mu kept them ready and when he felt like the right moment had been reached, he sent them out.
~SHUA~SHUA~SHUA~
The runes flew out and merged into the spatial fabric, allowing a large 'gate' to appear. The gate was made out of runes and was the entrance to the Spatial Channel that would take one to the Minor plane.
"Just a little more…" Lin Mu observed the gate and the spatial fabric.
The fine changes on it allowed him to further deepen his understanding of space as well, giving him a boost in the comprehension of a Dao Embryo. Lin Mu could already feel that he was on the cusp of finding his Dao Embryo, he only needed a little more progress.
~RENG~
Finally the spatial fabric within the 'gate' split open cleanly. There were no stray spatial energy fluctuation and neither were there any turbulent waves of qi. It had opened perfectly and its stability could be seen just from this.
The spatial fabric shrunk like a door was opening and revealed the Spatial Channel hidden behind it. The flickering lights of the Lesser Void were presented to Lin Mu allowing him to obtain more insights into the Dao of Space.
"Focus a bit more, you should be able to sense the Spatial Dao Traces at this point." Xukong advised.
"Yes Senior!" Lin Mu gazed deep into the Spatial Channel and let his Immortal sense enter it directly!
At first his Immortal Sense faced a little resistance from the gate, but Lin Mu pressed it ahead. With that, the resistance disappeared and he could now observe the interior of the Spatial Channel. In there, the first thing Lin Mu felt was a strange coldness.
This coldness was not felt by him when he had traveled through it just a few days ago.
'It isn't physical coldness, but rather… illusory coldness…' Lin Mu thought as he continued to sense this coldness.
The more he focused on it, the more Lin Mu realized that this wasn't coldness at all. Rather it was something else that was presenting to him as coldness.
'No… rather the closest feeling I could associate with it was coldness… what I'm sensing right now is…' Lin Mu thought to himself as he closed his eyes. "Its the Spatial Dao Traces!" he exclaimed.
Lin Mu felt a rush of understanding feeling his being as the Spatial Dao Traces started to cling to his Immortal Sense.
'The coldness was the ever present Spatial Dao Traces. As long as something exists in the universe, it will be within the confines of the many voids. And when something is in the void, it cannot hide from the Space.
"Ever present… Hidden… Accommodating, and… Free!" Lin Mu felt an image forming within his mind.
Deep in his Dantian the newly formed Dao Shell also reappeared. It flickered and twisted before pouring out of Lin Mu's body. It turned into a winding string that traveled along Lin Mu's Immortal Sense, directly jumping into the Spatial Channel.
Once it was inside the Spatial Channel, the Dao Shell expanded rapidly while using the Immortal Sense as a tether. It quickly reached its size of a hundred meters and released a wave of energy. Then in the next moment it morphed and took on a unique shape. It looked like two cones that had been joined together at the pointed end.
"Absorb!" Lin Mu opened his eyes wide.
~SHUA~
The Dao Shell created a strong suction force, pulling in the Spatial Dao Traces into it.
Lin Mu wasn't going to let the Spatial Dao Traces accumulate into his Dao shell passively. He was going to directly take away the Spatial Dao Traces that were present in the Spatial Channel!
Such a forceful action might be considered unusual or perhaps even unorthodox, but Lin Mu knew it was perfect for him.
"I've taken the path of freedom, so I may as well not follow what others do." Lin Mu stated to himself.
The Spatial Dao Traces rushed into the Dao Shell while more Dao Traces were pulled in from the lesser void outside the Spatial Channel. To the Spatial Dao Traces, the barrier of the Spatial Channel didn't matter. After all, they were the representation of space and a formation built on space couldn't stop them.
The Spatial Dao Traces were invisible but the change in the Shape of the Dao Shell signified that they were being accumulated within it. The two sided cone started to bulge from the middle.
Now it looks like two frustums were attached to an oblong sphere.
The more Spatial Dao Traces it absorbed, the more its shape changed. The bulge in the middle continued to expand and soon turned into a large sphere with two flipped hemispheres attached to it.
Lin Mu continued the process until the Dao Shell had taken a complete Spherical Shape. Its insides were completely filled with Spatial Dao Traces and were stirring within it.
"No, this isn't enough… it can take on more… more…" Lin Mu forcefully continued to absorb more Spatial Dao traces, making the Dao Shell expand beyond its limit.
At this point, it was clear that it couldn't suck in anymore Dao Traces.
But Lin Mu was not ready to give up at all.
"If there isn't space, then I'll make space…" Lin Mu muttered and raised his right hand forward.
"Meld!" Lin Mu directly used meld to grasp onto the space.
The entirety of the Dao shell and the Dao Traces within it were now in Lin Mu's grasp. He took a few moments to sense the right position before he took the next step.
"CONDENSE!" Lin Mu brought his two hands together in a ball squeezing gesture.
The Dao shell started to compress.
Lin Mu could see fine cracks appearing on the surface of the Dao shell but he simply poured more Spirit qi to fix it. A sharp pain also assaulted his senses upon the tearing of the Dao shell.
But to Lin Mu, this pain could be considered negligible, he had borne far worse before.
