Listening to Lin Mu's words, Xukong understood that the technique was not as simple as the Mortal Strengthening Scripture.
"But that's not all is it? It absorbed a part of the meteors." Xukong asked Lin Mu.
"Yes, it can absorb materials. Its one of the ways it grows stronger. And also how I'm supposed to unlock the other qi skills." Lin Mu replied.
"Do you know how many qi skills are contained in it?" Xukong questioned.
"I don't… I just know that Sky Prop is the first but there are several more." Lin Mu answered. "And… I think I sensed something more during the Immortal Tribulation." He added.
"Dao Traces? It was a variant immortal Tribulation so that is likely." Xukong agreed.
"I just don't know what type of Dao Traces they were. I feel like I'll recognizing them once I see them again." Lin Mu spoke.
"Hmm… you just grasped the Spatial Dao Traces very recently so it isn't unusual to find it a bit difficult to grasp another Dao. This is normal and even the greatest of the geniuses would find it exhausting." Xukong assuaged Lin Mu's worries.
"I see… that makes me feel better." Lin Mu nodded his head.
"Still, Two Dao Embryos in the First Tribulation Immortal stage is a rather good start. Most experts don't start forming their second Dao Embryo till the fourth or fifth tribulation immortal realm." Xukong spoke.
"They don't?" Lin Mu was surprised as he reckoned there should be more than enough time to do so.
"Indeed. For most experts, just surviving till then is a huge achievement. It is only the younger experts who reached the Immortal realm early that actually form more Dao Embryos.
You are the peak example of that. You now have nearly 8000 years of longevity before you even need to undergo your second Immortal Tribulation." Xukong explained.
"That's true… but I think I can overcome my second tribulation soon enough too. If I take the metal tribulation, I should be able to overcome it with my Metal Affinity as well as my sword intent." Lin Mu replied.
"You shouldn't rush in with that for now though." Xukong said in a concerned tone.
Picking this up, Lin Mu wondered if he was going to be facing something more complex. "Will there be issues in this?" he asked.
"Seeing a variant immortal tribulation, that too a very dangerous one as your first is concerning." Xukong replied.
"Yeah, but that was because of the technique I cultivated." Lin Mu said, not seeing the problem.
"Yes, but the True Gold Body forging arts isn't a normal technique either now, is it?" Xukong chuckled.
Hearing this Lin Mu realized the absurdity of the technique.
"Oh yeah… that is really not good." Lin Mu had no idea of it would also trigger something.
"Not to mention, it is said that if you have a variant immortal tribulation as your first immortal tribulation, you are more likely to have them again too." Xukong added, only making Lin Mu more anxious.
"Looks like I'll have to pick another elemental tribulation for my second one then." Lin Mu replied.
"Mmhmm, you should pick an element you are not as good in. That might help normalize the chances of a variant tribulation." Xukong state.d
"So that leaves me with Wood, Water, Wind and Lightning." Lin Mu counted. "Wind and Lightning are out of the choices, they are far beyond me to overcome. So its either wood or water." He analyzed.
"You might be able to do the Water tribulation here since the Haima tribe has specialized arrays for that." Xukong suggested.
"Hmm… I'll do one later. I first need to stabilize my cultivation base and adapt to it." Lin Mu replied.
~HISS~
And just as he did that he felt his sleeves move and two heads popped out.
"You guys are up too… you actually slept through all that?" Lin Mu was surprised.
He had almost forgotten that he had the two snakes with him through the entire Immortal Tribulation. Even when he used Sky Prop and tanked the meteors the two of them hadn't moved at all.
"This is quite unusual… they are entirely unaffected." Xukong said in a confused tone.
"Wait, shouldn't they have affected my tribulation as well?" Lin Mu asked.
"They should have, but they certainly did not. I can't say for sure, but perhaps it is because they didn't interfere or help you in your Immortal Tribulation." Xukong guessed.
~hiss~
The twins rubbed their heads on his wrist finding it to be pleasing. Lin Mu could sense the emotion coming from them and found it to be 'concern'.
"I'm okay. You two can go sleep again if you want to. Or just look around." Lin Mu spoke.
~hiss~
~WHOOSH~
The twins nodded their heads before they shot out of his sleeves and disappeared into the distance.
"Are you sure it's fine letting them roam around?" Xukong was doubtful.
"Lanbao can watch over them, right?" Lin Mu turned to the mermaid who was flotation around the side.
"Yep, I can. I know where they will be at all times." She nodded her head like a chick pecking rice.
Merely a minute had passed by since he had last talked to her and the conversation between him and Xukong was very fast due to being in his mind. The mermaid had no idea that there was a third person there too.
Lin Mu returned with Lanbao to the city to meet up with Elder Niji and the rest a few minutes later. They talked for a while before deciding to retire for the day.
There were more than enough houses for each person in the city, thus no one had an issue.
As for Lin Mu, he was given a rather large mansion close to the very center of the city. There was a garden with unique plants in it as well as a a cultivation field that could amplify the immoral qi in the area.
All in all, there was no way for Lin Mu to be displeased with it.
…
A few weeks had passed by since Lin Mu's breakthrough.
The Haima tribe had mostly settled into their true home and the same could be said for the other humans too.
The people of the tribe had already distributed their work accordingly and had started their jobs too. Though a majority of them had to switch from their old jobs.
Back in the land of exile, a lot of the Haima members worked as mining excavators to keep on expanding their living space as well as to obtain more metals. But here there was no need for that.
The area of the Deep Sapphire Island was rather large and Lanbao even said that there were more areas underground too. In fact, there were several mineral mines as well as an Immortal stone mine underground.
While the Haima members took a look, Elder Niji asked them not to touch the mines for now. The reason being the fact that there were more than enough resources stockpiled in the stores. So much so that they were quite literally overflowing.
Plus there was also the fact that most of the Deep Sapphire City's areas were automated due to Lanbao's existence and thus there was no need for a lot of the jobs there.
This meant that other than a handful of mandatory duties such as keeping records and distributing food, most of the Haima tribe was now just focused on cultivating.
Elder Niji distributed the cultivation resources to each tribe member, asking them to reach the Immortal realm as soon as possible. Head Warrior Kulo also became the second immortal in the Haima tribe while three more higher ranked members broke thorough subsequently.
The Haima tribe bore a huge karma and they would repay it for sure.
It didn't matter how many years it would take them, but they were surely going to pay it back. Now it wasn't them that needed to worry, it would be the empires and the kingdoms that would have to do that.
In these few weeks, Lin Mu had also discussed a lot with Elder Niji about how things would be going after this.
Their original plan was to find a place to settle the Haima tribe while keeping away from the humans. They would make use of the human convicts to trade while slowly growing their strength.
But now it was kinda the opposite.
The Haima tribe was safe and in the best place the could be in with all the resources they could wish for. As for the human convicts, they were quite literally in a sacred land of cultivation.
Some of them were actually part of the upper echelons of the kingdom and thus had seen what those blessed areas for cultivation were like. But even with that, they had never had the opportunity to ever use them.
And now, simply walking around the city or the Deep Sapphire Island alone was enough to raise their cultivation base slowly
With such benefits, there was no way they would want to be kicked out either. Especially after knowing that there was a legendary Artifact spirit watching their every move. Lin Mu had asked that Lanbao monitor them for a while just to be safe.
Even if they had been vetted and were not that bad of a criminals, it was better to be safe than sorry. Thankfully though, it was the convicts that were more worried about it all.
They went out of their way to ensure that no displeasure came to any Haima member and no rules were broken. And some were even willing to be servants!
