After Lin Mu and Lady Kang had finished listening to Daoist Chu's explanation of all that had happened to them, they realized that the trials would indeed be quite variable.
The Frozen Wasteland added a difficulty that might have bothered them as well if they were there.
'Perhaps the Volcanic area was an easier option.' Lin Mu thought to himself.
'There are still others who haven't arrived and are taking their trials. Perhaps they might be in an even greater trouble than Daoist Chu and Min Ju.' Lady Kang thought.
Whatever it might be, they knew that there was nothing they could do other than to wait.
~groan~
It was around this time, that another groan was heard before a head rose up.
"Min Ju," Lady Kang spoke.
"L-lady Kang…" Min Ju was also disoriented like Daoist Chu, but she was quickly brought up to speed by Lady Kang.
Once she knew that they were safe and fine, she took a breath of relief and the stress that had been clouding her mind faded away as well. The two had been walking on the edge of a sharp sword, that could cut them the moment they lost their focus.
As such, now that it was all over, they were incredibly relaxed.
Though it was hard to say how long this would last for, as this was merely the second trial and there was more to come.
"So it's just us four that have finished the second trial?" Min Ju asked.
"We haven't finished the trial… But it is indeed just us four." Lin Mu replied.
"We haven't?" Min Ju furrowed her brows.
"The trial completion message hasn't appeared yet." Lady Kang replied this time. "Those keys that you collected they need to be used before the trial will be deemed completed." She said, pointing to the elevated platform in the center in which the keys had all been inserted.
About 30% of the holes had been filled by the keys, but there were still more left.
Lin Mu and Lady Kang had obtained more keys than Min Ju and Daoist Chu. As such, they didn't even know if the number of keys others will obtain would be stable or not. If they were short, even a single key, things would not turn out well.
And with how many variables there were present, Lin Mu had already prepared a contingency plan.
'We can't be stuck here after all. If things don't work out, I'll simply have to tear open a rift for us to escape from.' Lin Mu thought to himself as his Immortal sense went deep inside his Dantian where his Spatial Dao Embryo stayed hidden.
The Four Faceted Nebula was formless and didn't even appear inside his Dantian normally. If others scanned his Dantian, they wouldn't be able to spot it. Only when Lin Mu chose to make it visible would the Four Faceted Nebula Dao Embryo appear.
Its powers were elusive and Lin Mu had only understood its first facet.
'If I use the First Facet and activate Warp, I will definitely be able to leave this place.' Lin Mu knew. 'But I don't know if bringing others along with it would be possible or not… I also don't know where we would end up at.' He pondered on it.
Warp was the more surefire way of getting out that Lin Mu reserved for last.
With the conditions of the Four Faceted Nebula still a bit obscured, Lin Mu didn't know how long it took to use Warp or how long it would take for it to renew. He knew for sure that the skill needed a massive amount of Spatial energy to work and it accumulated over time.
It wasn't even something Lin Mu could consciously feed to make it work.
Thus, it had to be his very last resort when nothing else worked.
"You two should cultivate for the time being. We don't know when the others will be arriving." Lin Mu stated, looking at Daoist Chu and Min Ju.
"Yes, best be prepared for whatever this inheritance ground will throw at us," Lady Kang agreed.
"We'll do that." Daoist Chu nodded and cupped his hands. "I thank you once more for healing us, Lady Kang." He said again.
"It was merely what needed to be done." Lady Kang said calmly before returning to sit on her cultivation mat.
Min Ju accompanied her and sat next to her on what seemed like a pillow made out of beast skin of some kind.
It was also an Immortal tool, but it was not as strong as Lady Kang's.
Daoist Chu didn't take out a cultivation mat through but instead set a pillow and sat down to read through some books. He seemed to be fully focused on it and it seemed to be quite important, from what Lin Mu could tell.
'Time to return…' Lin Mu internally muttered and sat down some distance away with his back turned to them.
~SHUA~
More Earth elemental materials came out of his ring and started being broken down by the Omnicore Ascendancy technique.
Hour after hour passed as Lin Mu grew the size of the Earth Core inside his spleen, unaware to all the others.
He didn't know how long it would take for others to arrive, thus was trying to be faster than usual.
'If I manage to bring at least five cores unto the immortal level, it'll make things more streamlined for later.' Lin Mu thought to himself.
About two days passed, as Lin Mu finished, bringing the Earth core to the Immortal level.
'Time to switch,' Lin Mu decided to go with the Metal Core now as it was the next element that he had tons of resources for.
He had mountains' worth of ore and other metal elemental items that could be used for it. As such, he wanted to get it out of the way first.
But only a day had passed before Lin Mu was interrupted.
~HUALA~
