Lin Mu had been in the state of cultivation for two more days now and he was at the very cusp of a breakthrough. The bottleneck had already loosened and he would be overcoming it any moment now.
In his Dantian, the spirit Qi was filled to the brim and his nascent soul was completely submerged into the liquid spirit Qi. The scene was a bit strange as ever so often, the level of the spirit Qi would fall.
But this wasn't because it was depleted, but rather because the Size of Lin Mu's Dantian would increase. The pressure exerted by the spirit Qi would steadily expand his Dantian and right now it had already reached a size that was twice as big as before.
Lin Mu's Nascent soul had stopped absorbing spirit Qi a while ago since it had already reached a saturation point. Lin Wu was now focusing on reaching the Dao Shell realm but was unable to.
He was simply a bit lost and was looking for a solution on his own. This was nothing but the bottleneck that was now loosened.
After a certain amount of time, Lin Wu's Nascent soul suddenly opened its eyes. A powerful gaze was let out by it and it waved its hands. Lin Mu wasn't in control of it right now and the Nascent soul was acting on its own.
Lin Mu had reached a state of hyper-focus, such that he was mostly unaware of everything other than his own body. The Nascent soul worked on its own and manipulated the spirit Qi around him.
His fingers and hands formed obscure gestures and controlled the spirit Qi as if it was his own part like a limb.
~SHUA~
The spirit Qi in the Dantian started to move like a cyclone and spun at a great pace. Soon the entire Dantian started to shake and move with the momentum of the cyclone. The spirit Qi started to gather at one point and it looked like it was condensing further.
At the bottom of the cyclone, one could see that the spirit Qi had turned into something like yarn. This 'yarn' turned into a flat circle and then started to expand in three dimensions.
From a flat circle, it soon turned into a hollow sphere instead. By the time Lin Mu actually awakened, he realized that the process was already complete.
"Huh? What happened?" Lin Mu questioned.
He looked within his Dantian and saw the spherical outline floating below his Nascent soul. His Nascent soul had returned to its normal meditative state and had its eyes closed. Lin Mu looked closer at the outline and knew that he had succeeded.
"Its… it's done! I broke through!!!" Lin Mu exclaimed.
~HONG~
His aura erupted like a tsunami and washed over the entire hall before spilling out of it. The moment was rather strong and it was a testament to just how stronger Lin Mu had gotten.
"Congratulations on breaking through, Lin Mu." Xukong spoke.
"This was a bit unexpected though senior. I thought there would be a far different effect when it formed. I don't feel particularly strong either?" Lin Mu stated.
"Well, that is due to several factors. The first being that you have only formed the outline of your Dao Shell and you are in the Shell Initiation stage. Only when you reach the Shell Genesis stage will the power of your Dao Shell reflect on you.
But you have another reason why this seems so underwhelming. Your body is not weak either. You have completed two treasured organs and thus it was already strong. Due to the power difference being so little, the impact of power you felt was less.
Right now other than your control over spirit Qi improving, there shouldn't be as many changes." Xukong explained.
Lin Mu heard everything clearly and realized that it was all true. He clenched his fist and could feel a slight increase in power. He could also feel the spirit Qi within his body respond to him far faster than before.
Thinking of the spirit Qi made him look around him.
"Huh? The spirit Qi… it is already gone?" Lin Mu observed.
"Of course it would be gone. The amount you took was rather massive. Plus, with your every expanding Dantian the spirit Qi simply continued being absorbed into your body without any limitations.
Even if you see no spirit Qi here, it's still there in your Dantian and you can use it. The spirit Qi you have leftover is still enough to help you progress quite a bit into the next stage of the Dao Shell realm." Xukong replied.
"I see… and what was it that you wanted to speak to me about? You told before that you would explain after I broke through." Lin Mu asked.
"Yes… the thing that I wanted to tell you was… to ignore the Shell expansion stage of the Dao Shell realm and reach the Dao Treading realm directly." Xukong replied.
"What?! Why? But didn't you say that it decides the future potential of a cultivator? If I ignore it won't I have problems in the future?" Lin Mu questioned feeling shocked and confused.
"Indeed, that would be true for most cultivators. But you are a special case. You see, you are focused on the spatial element and a lot of your skills are based on it. Thus if you want the best potential, you would have to form a Dao Embryo related to the spatial Dao and then comprehend it from there on.
But the problem we have is that this world will not be able to support something like that." Xukong stated.
"Huh? Then what do I do?" Lin Mu asked.
He already knew that he would like to focus on the spatial Dao as it was the one he had come into contact with, the very first time and was related to most of his skills. It was something that he definitely did not want to give up on.