A serene silence was spread around in the room, but slowly a faint sound was appearing. This sound was none other than that of heart beats and was increasing bit by bit every minute.
Lin Mu was silently assimilating the vital energy from the meat that he had eaten and was assaulting the next stage of the body tempering realm. He was slowly eroding the barrier which prevented him from entering the next stage with each wisp of vital energy that he assimilated.
The vital energy would be absorbed into his body from the stomach and then assimilated into the tissues. As Lin Mu's skin and muscles were already saturated, the only place left was his bones and marrows. His bones were also on the verge of being completely saturated and the vital energy was slowly penetrating into the marrows.
Lin Mu's heart beats kept on getting louder and louder until eventually, they resounded in the room.
~Pop~
Then, an almost audible pop was heard and a massive wave of vital energy was released from his body. Lin Mu started trembling as the barrier which was acting like a dam was broken through and the vital energy rushed in like an unyielding river.
But the moment the vital energy entered Lin Mu's marrows, a sharp pain assaulted his senses. He felt as if boiling water was being poured into his bones and scalding them. Lin Mu gritted his teeth and held on.
He had already learned that the thirteenth stage of the body tempering realm was different than the previous stages, and the process would be much more harsh. The vital energy kept on pouring and seemed as if it was coming out of nothing. It seemed as if something strange was happening, as Lin Mu should have broken through at this point.
"The vital energy… it is much more than I expected. Is this the effect of the nameless technique of the lost immortal?" Xukong muttered in surprise.
Xukong kept on observing, and by now thirty minutes had passed since Lin Mu started the process. Xukong was now getting anxious, as he could not think of a reason behind this.
'If this was any other cultivator they would have broken through the moment the barrier was broken, but why is it not stopping? The vital energy should stabilize, if this keeps on going on he will kill himself.' Xukong thought to himself.
Another thirty minutes passed and by this point Xukong wanted to interfere. He tried to communicate with Lin Mu, asking him to stop, but his words fell on deaf ears. Lin Mu had subconsciously entered a state of trance to stop the pain from affecting him. But inadvertently this also meant that he had sealed his other sense too.
No matter how much Xukong tried to communicate with Lin Mu, there was no response.
'Do I really need to take that step?' Xukong thought with apprehension.
~Groan~
A pain filled grunt escaped Lin Mu's mouth as he started bleeding from his seven apertures. His eyelids trembled as streaks of blood escaped from its corners. His ears too had trickles of blood which then dripped down onto the bed, staining the sheets red.
The bleeding from his nose and mouth was the most intense, though. The blood flowed down and dyed his pristine white robes a deep shade of red.
Observing the scene in front of Xukong was barely able to hold on. He flew over to the lateral altar that was in the center of the mysterious ring and stopped at the barrier at its edge.
"Will you not interfere this time?" Xukong spoke.
"I know you can hear me!"
Xukong did not know what he was doing. He didn't know for sure whether his words were true or not, but he still wanted to give it a try. He had his guesses after seeing all the techniques and skills that Lin Mu received. All of them seemed to complement Lin Mu somehow and were filling in for the flaws that were presented.
"You've been modifying his physique and then you also gave him skills which would help him get attuned to manipulating space even with his low talent. An artifact of your level is definitely sentient. Answer me!" This time Xukong shouted.
But even then there was no response. The altar that was dimly glowing stayed the same.
In the real world, Lin Mu's heart beats that were once strong and loud were getting fainter and fainter. His skin was also getting paler by the minute as more blood was shed.
"Are you really going to let him die!?" Xukong said with anger.
Xukong gritted his teeth as he still received no answer. He took one last look at Lin Mu before making up his mind.
"FINE! I'll do it myself!" Xukong declared.
And with these words, the spatial energy within the ring started seething. The silvery grey steaks that flickered in the sky started revolving around Xukong's small palm sized body. His eight golden yellow eyes glowed with power as a massive surge of qi escaped the ring.
But just as Xukong was about to take the next step, he froze.
The obscure pattern that was created because of the wooden slip appeared on Lin Mu's abdomen. A net composed of obscure characters formed around Lin Mu's stomach. With each passing second, the net was increasing in density and more and more threads were being added to it.
Each thread was formed by linking multiple characters and they interwove. Suddenly the net started shrinking and covered the entirety of Lin Mu's stomach. Soon the net merged in its entirety with the stomach changing its color to a graying blue, making it seem unnatural.
But this did not stop here, and soon more characters appeared and started linking up, forming new threads. These threads interwove again and formed another layer of net above the stomach. But unlike the previous one, this one was not as dense and the holes in it were rather large.
A blue glow appeared from Lin Mu's stomach as an extremely intense wave of energy spread.
