Having learned about the Blood Spring carps, Lin Mu was a bit surprised as he had not expected them to be in the plane as well.
They were something the sects would very carefully raise, and it took a long time to grow. Even a single Blood Spring carp, when fed properly, would take at least a hundred years to reach maturity enough for them to be considered for harvesting.
"Did you get more of them?" Lin Mu questioned.
"I have three more." Little Shrubby answered.
"The place where you got them, were there more of them?" Lin Mu asked.
"YES! There are more. But when I went there, they got scared and entered an underwater cave. I didn't want to go into the water, so I just got these four." Little Shrubby replied.
"I see… this may come in handy later…" Lin Mu took note and got to eating the cooked Blood Spring Carp.
The rich vitality within the carp was good for Lin Mu and quickly restored his condition to the peak along with the alchemical pills he had eaten. Not only that, but the blood loss he had experienced was also taken care of and restored.
Lin Mu's entire body felt warm for quite a while after eating the entire Blood Spring carp.
"This is actually better than the pills…" Lin Mu realized.
"Do you want me to make more?" Little Shrubby questioned.
"Yes, that'll help. Keep them ready for when I need them next." Lin Mu answered.
"Okay~" Little Shrubby replied as he took out the grill he had in his storage and got to cooking.
Lin Mu meanwhile, got to practicing the True Gold Body Forging Arts and cut open his left leg. The cut went from his foot, over the shin, knee and all the way to his hip. This time the bleeding was far worse, but Lin Mu quickly poured the Liquid gold into his leg, which soon stopped the bleeding.
"Ugh!" Lin Mu grunted slightly as he tried to focus on cultivating.
His legs took longer than his hands and almost thirty six hours went by before they had fully assimilated the gold.
This time Lin Mu couldn't even stand due to how heavy the leg felt. It wasn't that he didn't have strength but more his body feeling imbalanced from the core.
"It's not my muscles… it's the spine that can't handle it properly…" Lin Mu understood.
Realizing that he would need to finish it all to be able to walk properly again, Lin Mu sped up. He didn't feel the need to eat the Blood Spring Carp that Little Shrubby had pre-prepared for him and went to refine his other leg.
Another thirty six hours later, he had finished with it as well.
"Damn… I can't even move." Lin Mu said, feeling as if his legs were frozen.
He could fully feel them, but controlling them seemed to be hard to do. Nothing seemed to be wrong with his body or the nerves, but Lin Mu didn't know why this was happening.
~Sigh~
"All will come to fruition when I'm done…" Lin Mu muttered to himself and got ready for the next step, which was a severe one.
Though first he finished the second Blood Spring carp that Little Shrubby had made, and restored his condition.
Now Lin Mu needed to cut open his back and reveal his spine, after which he needed to slice his chest and expose the sternum. One's spine was a very important part and even the slightest injury could kill oneself. While for a cultivator, this might be a bit different, it would still result in a crippling condition.
'I can cut my sect with ease but the spine will be a bit difficult…' Lin Mu thought to
Lin Mu first cut open his chest and poured the gold onto his sternum and let it cool. If he poured it onto his spine first, he would not be able to move at all, thus the sternum was the better choice.
Then, Lin Mu poured a lot of spirit Qi into the short sword, enough to amplify its strength by many times, even when being controlled using his spirit sense. The short sword floated over to his back as Lin Mu sat straight and dug into the back of his neck, right below the nape.
"ARGH!" Lin Mu cried in pain, making Little Shrubby anxious.
Gesturing him with his eyes, Lin Mu got the beast to calm down as he continued slicing the flesh on his back. Bit by bit, the short sword slid down, revealing each of his vertebrae one by one, until finally it reached the very bottom where his coccyx was.
By now, a lot of blood had pooled below his body since the speed at which Lin Mu did this was slow. He had to be a lot more careful with his spine, so going slow was the only option for him.
"Pour the gold little shrubby!" Lin Mu shouted, knowing that he won't be able to move now.
~shua~
The prosthetic hands flew to hold the bowl before scooping out the gold from the cauldron before pouring it down the top of Lin Mu's neck. Lin Mu leaned forward so that the gold could properly flow down his back and now spill out.
~hiss~
The sicking sound of his spine being scorched by the gold could be heard as a soul chilling pain rocked Lin Mu's sensed. Only by chanting the Severing heart sutra could he hold on and had almost fainted.
It took thirty minutes before the gold had cooled down enough that Lin Mu managed to start cultivating. His gaze was getting blurry, but the voice of Xukong kept him awake.
"Do not falter!" Xukong spoke up.
Lin Mu's bloodshot eyes opened wide as he practice the mnemonic of the True Gold Body Forging Arts.
Time passed by as Lin Mu stayed in the same position for four days. He was in intense pain the entire time but soldiered on regardless.
