The area that Lin Mu and Little Shrubby were now in was a mountainous one.
Each of these mountains was at least seven to eight kilometers tall and there were hundreds if not thousands of them here. This was certainly Lin Mu's first time seeing such a massive mountain range.
The strangest part was that these mountains were all clustered together with little gap between each other.
"So this is the Blood Spine Mountains…" Lin Mu muttered.
While he had read about the area, it was still a different thing to actually see it with his two eyes. It was impressive to say the least but would also be difficult to traverse for most cultivators.
But for Little Shrubby it was not so. The beast could easily weave between each of the mountains and traverse them by jumping off them.
~boom~
~Boom~
~Boom~
The sound of explosions was heard as Little Shrubby leaped from mountain to mountain, traveling according to Lin Mu's instructions. Here too the general direction they needed to go was in a straight like and they only needed to go around the mountains that stood in their track.
There were beasts inhabiting these mountains as well as the strange stone flesh creature that they had come across at start. The Stone Flesh creatures tried to attack Little Shrubby and Lin Mu, but were unable to keep up with them.
Their attacks never even came close to hitting them even if there were stronger version of the Stone Flesh creatures here.
Lin Mu estimated that there were Stone Flesh Creatures that were equivalent to the Second Tribulation Stage of the Immortal realm here, but they were not able to attack them on time.
Another thing Lin Mu learned was that these creatures wouldn't really chase them. At most they would move a hundred meters or so before returning to stand at the place they were originally.
'Are they bound to that location or something?' Lin Mu wondered.
He was tempted to halt and check these unique creatures out, but decided against it.
'I'll have time later once I'm done with the ruins and the Violet Mystic Life Tree.' Lin Mu reckoned.
Half way through, Lin Mu had gained enough confidence that he wouldn't have any issues with letting Little Shrubby pick the path himself. It didn't seem like they were encountering any dangerous beasts either and with how complex the mountains were, no cultivators came across them either.
Though Lin Mu also knew that this was due to the fact that many simply avoided these mountains.
Flying across these mountains was not a good option as one would simply become a target for the beasts of the mountains. It was the same as standing out in the open and becoming an easy prey.
Thus one needed to either fly low, or simply walk through the mountains. Lin Mu and Little Shrubby were doing something in between, but had the great advantage of speed which basically allowed them to ignore most obstacles.
And once Lin Mu had the confidence that Little Shrubby would be able to travel without issues, he decided to continue cultivating.
He took his third Tri Essence pill and started to absorb it.
Just like before his stomach insulated any excess energy from leaving his body and perfectly absorbed it all. Little by little his amount of Immortal Essence in his first Aperture started to increase.
This time around though Lin Mu noticed that his Aperture wasn't really expanding. It had become stable and simply continued to absorb the Immortal Essence that he was providing.
This lessened the time it took to fill it up and in just two days, he was at a critical juncture: His First Aperture was now full!
At this point, Lin Mu had to forcefully shut off the absorption of Immortal Essence, letting his stomach contain the one that was still being released from the Tri Essence Immortal pill.
'I've barely absorbed half of the efficacy of the Tri Essence Immortal pill. I got a lot left, but the first aperture is already full… I'll need to open the second Aperture…' Lin Mu thought to himself.
If he didn't do that, the only option he would have would be to either waste a significant portion of the Immortal Essence or let it be fully infused into his stomach. The second option was what he would prefer, but he didn't know when he would get that energy back.
So rather than doing that it was better to just get started on the second Aperture.
~huu~
Lin Mu took a deep breath before chanting the Calming Heart Sutra.
He remembered the process of opening the fire Aperture and making the ring of Immortal Essence wisps. This gave him a good advantage and Lin Mu found the empty 'gap' for the second Aperture soon enough.
The location of the Second Aperture was at the base of the sternum, at the Xiphoid Process.
Similar to the First Aperture's location, there were fine gaps between the tissues of this place. Lin Mu didn't take long to find a suitable gap that could easily accommodate an Aperture.
And since he already knew how big the ring of the Immortal Essence wisps was going to be, he didn't have to make mistakes in picking the wrong gaps. Another advantage he had was the fact that he wasn't absorbing Immortal Essence wisps from the Immortal Essence crystals now.
Rather than that, he would simply be utilizing the Immortal Essence wisps coming from his stomach. Since he had more than half of the efficacy of the Tri Essence Pill left over, it would be a waste to not use it.
Lin Mu carefully controlled his stomach and released a single Immortal essence wisp before guiding it to the base of his sternum. The distance between the two was quite short and Lin Mu had no issues in doing so.
Once it was there, Lin Mu pulled the second wisp.
Then the third… the fourth… the fifth!
The numbers kept on increasing until finally Lin Mu had gathered enough to make a ring that spun in a stable orbit!
