After condensing the esoteric rune the Saintess stayed on the asteroid for a while more. She tried to see if she could sense what was the source of her unease, but still couldn't.
'If it exists even now, the cause should be hidden on the Rust Sky world…' The Saintess thought.
Knowing that she wouldn't be able to gain anything more by staying here, she decided to return to the ground. But just as the Saintess was about to leave, she sensed something approaching.
~PIIIIIIIII~
The loud cry of a beast could be heard coming from the distance.
The Saintess looked at it before narrowing her eyes.
It was a large bird beast that had six wings. Its feathers were a mix of white and red, while two long orange tail feathers swayed at its back. The beast's claws were sharp and looked like meat hooks.
Its beak was blood red in color, while its eyes were a mix of orange and yellow.
"A Six Winged Bloom Tail Crane?" The Saintess identified the beast.
It was clear that the beast was an immortal beast and seemed to be at the sixth or seventh tribulation stage of the immortal realm.
But this wasn't what bothered the Saintess, but rather the fact that the beast wasn't coming from the Rust Sky world below.
It was coming from somewhere in the space!
As the beast approached, its sense alerted it to another presence.
~PIII~
A wary cry escaped its beak as it paused its moment.
"Sha'er what's the problem?" A voice asked with concern.
If one looked closely, they would see that an old man was sitting on the back of the beast. He had long white hair and beard, along with eyebrows that reached his chin. No matter what angle one looked at it from, they would feel that this was an expert elder.
His cultivation base wasn't low either, being at the Seventh Tribulation Stage of the Immortal realm!
The old man looked at its tamed beast with concern before understanding why it was behavior like this.
"Someone's here?" the old man muttered.
~SHUA~
In the next moment, his immortal sense spread around covering an area of several tens of kilometer. But he didn't just stop there, taking out a compass and activating it. The compass let out a wave of energy that further boosted the range of his immortal sense, while also showing several objects around him.
But just as the compass was about to reach the location of the Saintess, it was stopped.
"Begone."
~KREEE~
The Six Winged Bloom Tailed Crane felt an unprecedented sense of danger and flinched. It was such a strong enough reaction that the old man sitting on its back was thrown away too.
The old man's instincts told him that there was danger inbound, and he quickly reached.
"Forgive me senior for disturbing you!" The old man cupped his hands in the air before bowing his head.
A few seconds later he controlled his tamed beast and flew in another direction, avoiding the location where the Saintess was.
Once the old man was gone, the Saintess narrowed her eyes.
"For him to come from outside the world like this… he certainly isn't a native here. And his cultivation base is also very high for this world." The Saintess didn't know if the old man was a visitor, or not, but her earlier unease had only increased after encountering him.
Not wanting to stay here anymore, she directly jumped off the asteroid, descending onto the Rust Sky world.
Lin Mu was unaware of the events that had happened hundreds of kilometer above him as well as the Saintess's unease.
Right now, he was sitting in the courtyard and assimilating all the vital essence and immortal Qi that had been absorbed from the food he had eaten.
Most of the food that little Shrubby cooked included immortal ingredients and thus had a lot of immortal Qi in it. Lin Mu manually assimilated all the energy form this, allowing his stores of immortal Qi to rise a little.
He spent an hour doing this before opening his eyes.
~huu~
"That should be all of it… the meal was certainly good." Lin Mu felt content and was ready for his next task.
This was the task he had been excited for while now.
"I can finally start with the Three apertures Invoking Technique now…" Lin Mu muttered to himself, as a smile appeared on his face.
Xukong had already taught Lin Mu the Three Apertures Invoking technique, and he had fully memorized it. All that was left for him was to actually start practicing it.
Recalling the mnemonics of the technique, Lin Mu took out an Immortal Essence Crystal.
It was a low grade crystal and was about the size of a fingernail. But despite being this small, Lin Mu found it to be as heavy as a piece of lead. It was a lot heavier compared to an immortal stone of an equal grade.
He brought it up to his chest and held it at the top part of his sternum.
'I'm supposed to absorb it this way… let it flow into my body and open up the first aperture…' Lin Mu recalled the first step.
The Three Apertures Invoking technique was one of the older body cultivation techniques and involved opening up three apertures in one's body. These apertures were located in three locations in their chest.
The first was at the top of one's sternum, the second at the bottom of the sternum, just above the diaphragm and the third being two inches above the belly button.
A cultivator would accumulate immortal essence into each aperture, slowing growing their strength. Lin Mu realized that this technique was actually quite similar to normal Qi cultivation, just that one didn't store the immortal essence in the Dantian.
'This is almost the same as growing three new organs entirely…' Lin Mu understood.
~huu~
After a few minutes of concentration, he pulled the first wisp of Immortal essence into his body.
