Lin Mu, Lady Kang and Little Shrubby glanced at the newly expanded lake.
"That… was definitely overkill." Lin Mu said, seeing the sight.
The Lava Lake that was about two kilometers wide previously had now expanded to a size of nearly six kilometers!
Not just that, but its depth had also changed, due to the level of lava falling by several meters. And this was despite the fact that the surrounding rocky ground had been melted down from the heat and added to the volume of the lava lake.
"While it was overkill, the skill definitely did what it was supposed to." Lady Kang spoke. "There's no sign of the lava slug." She added.
"That's true." Lin Mu said before turning to Little Shrubby. "Do you sense any more of them?" he asked.
~sniff~
Little Shrubby sniffed the air for a few seconds before shaking his head.
"Nope, nothing nearby." Little Shrubby replied.
"I see…" Lin Mu said as he spread his Immortal sense and scanned the area for anything new. "I suppose we now go and find the second key." He stated.
"Yeah…" Lady Kang agreed. 'Hopefully it wasn't in the area that was destroyed… though I suppose if there was a key there the trial would have already failed us.' She thought to herself.
Though watching Lin Mu's little skill test definitely allowed her to learn better about his capabilities. She now knew that if Lin Mu really wished to, he could probably compare against Immortals several times stronger than him with ease.
But that also left the woman a bit baffled as to how he was actually handling the consumption of Qi.
'That attack definitely consumed a lot of his energy… it was certainly not a casual one.' Lady Kang thought. 'Though his immortal Qi fluctuations seem to say otherwise.' She reckoned sensing that Lin Mu seemed to be the same as before.
If it were any other immortal, they would be exhausted and the immortal Qi fluctuations coming from their body would become irregular or downright erratic. Then there was also the fact that there would be a load on their body too from the skill they had used.
In this part though Lady Kang was correct.
'Using the Mountain Collapsing Fist is certainly a lot more taxing on my body…' Lin Mu thought to himself, as he checked the condition of his arm. 'My meridians are fine, but they are definitely a tensed… the same can be said for my muscles. And all this was just from five percent of my energy stores.' He analyzed.
Lin Mu estimated that a single use of Mountain Collapsing Fist's Third Form was the same as at least four to five uses of Boulder Collapsing Fist's third form and that too at ten percent at the very minimum.
'Though the effect is ten times greater too… The energy consumption was lowered for a greater power as well as greater strain.' Lin Mu reckoned. 'I wonder how much more I can increase it. Though handling that much energy might also destabilize it.' He thought.
That was one of the reasons why Lin Mu had used the skill with just five percent of his energy. It was his first time using the Mountain Collapsing Fist, and he had even started with the third form right away, which was supposed to be the most complex.
Though this also meant that Lin Mu now had better confidence in using its first and second form, as he didn't think they were that complex.
'Merging Immortal Qi with Immortal Essence into a double helix is certainly harder than doing it with just one type of energy,' Lin Mu concluded.
By going for the harder option, Lin Mu had raised his confidence while also testing his own limits.
'I should test the upper limit of the Mountain Collapsing Fist at a latter time… or unless I'm forced to do so during a battle,' He noted in his mind.
At the very least, Lin Mu was now sure that he had a stronger trump card to destroy foes that stood in his path. While Lin Mu had a variety of skills, he still knew that having a strong skill that could kill an enemy in one go was important to have.
'Considering how this went, I should have no issues using the First Form of Mountain Collapsing Fist with the power of the Tyrant Bull either. They should synchronize well enough and improve the power further.' Lin Mu reckoned the strain on his body would still be less than that of the Third Form Devastator.
With his self reflection finished, Lin Mu reckoned it was time to search for the next key. Though he didn't know what they would face now.
"There's definitely a chance we would face similar beasts again." Lin Mu spoke. "Little Shrubby, will you be able to sense them?" he asked.
"I'll try." Little Shrubby replied. "Though Ashy seems to have already found something." He added, having received a message.
"Oh, she did?" Lin Mu was surprised, causing Lady Kang to listen in too.
He had already gotten the bird to move away from the battle zone earlier, as he knew there was always a chance of it getting injured in their conflict. Instead, he let Ashy go on ahead and search for the next key or another area that might be peculiar.
And by the time they had finished the battle, she had already accomplished that goal.
"I suppose we can go see what she found now." Lin Mu said and urged Little Shrubby to run towards Ashy's location.
"How far is the next location?" Lady Kang asked, seeing that they were already moving.
"About fifty eight kilometers." Lin Mu replied while keeping his Immortal sense extended.
~WHOOSH~
The trio didn't take long to reach the position of the bird, who was perched on top of a rather sharp and tall granite pillar.
"Master! Here!" Ashy called out to Lin Mu. "Look!" she said, pointing to the area below with her wing.
