~shua~
Lin Mu unrolled the beast leather scroll and saw a map that was drawn on it. But unlike the map that Alchemist Ruoxian had, this was in a good condition and every detail was clear to read.
"Hahah!" Lin Mu laughed out loud reading some of the information on it. "Just what I was searching for… no wonder the prince and those people were willing to kill each other."
The map was of equal caliber to the one that Alchemist Ruoxian had, for it depicted not one but two Immortal Stone mines!
The location of these Immortal Stone mines was different from what Lin Mu could tell, though reading it was a bit difficult for him.
"Hmm… I might be able to compare the translation that Alchemist Ruoxian provided. Some of these words seem identical." Lin Mu muttered and took out the other document.
He spent a few minutes comparing them and figured out the location that the map was talking about.
"Hah! Perfect, one of the Immortal Stone Mines is in the Blood Strewn battlefield itself. And it's not that far either." Lin Mu exclaimed.
"That might be why the prince and the others fighting him were here." Xukong replied.
"Indeed." Lin Mu nodded and looked at the map again. "As for the second one, while I can't figure out the location's name I can still tell where it is." He stated and pointed to the map.
The location that Lin Mu was gesturing on the map, was adjacent to the Blood Strewn Plains. And figuring out from that, Lin Mu easily discovered what the words meant.
"The Grey Slate Ravines… that's the location where the prince was before this. The immortals were running from there, due to him too since he was killing them all." Lin Mu said.
"The prince probably mined these Immortal stones from there too." Xukong replied.
"Hmm… now that I look at them again, they do seem a little crudely shaped." Lin Mu saw the Immortal stones and found them to be irregularly carved.
Normal Immortal Stones that were in circulation were of an equal size most of the times. But the ones in the prince's pile were a bit rougher than that. It looked like someone had carved them out in a hurry.
"No wonder he had so many of them. He had just obtained them freshly. He probably intended to go and get more of them later, once the people were afraid of entering the Grey Slate Ravines." Lin Mu inferred.
Having seen the map though, Lin Mu was not done as he looked through the other documents and books too.
"Oh? He actually has several body cultivation techniques." Lin Mu discovered tens of body cultivation manuals in the loot.
He read through them and recognized a few of them.
'I've seen them in the Grand Sky Pavilion before… they were up for sale.' Lin Mu recalled.
But as he continued to read through all the cultivation manuals, his excitement about the died down.
"These… aren't really good." Lin Mu said after going through them.
"Of course they won't be." Xukong replied. "Compared to the Three Apertures Invoking Technique, these are too low."
"Indeed… while they can increase my strength directly which the Three Apertures invoking Technique does not, it's not worth it. The Tyrant Bull Marrow secrets will have a much better effect if I'm just looking for strength." Lin Mu spoke.
"Yes. While these techniques might offer you a short term gain, they would be too bad in the long term. Plus, there is always the issue of incompatibility." Xukong agreed.
"Yeah… all these techniques are exclusive. One cannot cultivate another body cultivation technique if you use them." Lin Mu stated. "No wonder the prince had so many of them. Looks like he was looking for a good technique for himself too."
"He did have a body cultivation though." Xukong spoke.
"Yes, he did… which makes me wonder why is there no body cultivation technique matching that here." Lin Mu replied.
He had memorized the energy signature of the prince, and knew that none of these techniques could compare to that.
"Well, the prince did have the ring with him. Perhaps he received one like you too?" Xukong replied.
"Hmm…" hearing this, Lin Mu furrowed his brows.
It was one of the things that was bugging him.
After all, he had seen the prince use several elemental skills, as well as those pure elemental marbles that he would make. Then there was the Seven Heavens Divine Armor, the strongest of his skills.
None of these were what Lin Mu had obtained from the altar.
"The Prince certainly did not get the Omnicore Ascendancy Technique." Lin Mu was sure. "He got something else… but then why did I get this?" he wondered.
Xukong was intrigued by this too and wondered why it was so.
The two of them went silent and thought for a while before Xukong broke the silence.
"Perhaps… The skills that the ring imparts are unique to each person?" Xukong hypothesized.
"Unique to a person?" Lin Mu thought about the spatial skills he had obtained from the grey ring and how more had been given to him as he improved.
"The altar only gave you skills when you had adapted to the old ones, or were capable of using the new one. It was a similar case with the Nine Divine Heart Sutras too. You only got the next sutra when you fulfilled certain requirements." Xukong explained.
Hearing this, Lin Mu realized that it all made sense.
"We do know that the ring is sentient… and by that extension the altar should be its 'brain'. Then if it can 'think' and pick the right skill for its user, then… I guess it deemed Omnicore Ascendancy right for me?" Lin Mu concluded after thinking for a bit.
"That might really be it." Xukong said.
"But doesn't this also mean… there are more skills and techniques hidden within it? Just the Seven Heavens Divine Armor alone is something that can compare with my skills." Lin Mu stated.
