Lin Mu was now excited to learn the new technique and also wanted to see its effects. But there were also some questions that he had.

"Senior, if it requires a lot of resources will I be able to cultivate it right now?" Lin Mu questioned.

"The first two stages shouldn't be much of a problem, as all you need is spirit Qi for them. The ones after that need earth attribute herbs to progress it. The good thing about the technique is that it has no specific requirement for the herbs and any would work.

No matter how low quality they are they can still be used, the only problem would be that they would need an even greater quantity to compensate for the quality." Xukong answered.

"Ah, I understand senior." Lin Mu responded.

"Now then, I'll transfer the technique to your mind," Xukong said.

Lin Mu nodded his head and felt a slight prick in his mind. It lasted for a couple of seconds before new knowledge appeared in his memories.

"So this is the Mortal Strengthening scripture…" Lin Mu muttered to himself.

The overall method of practicing the technique was rather simple. The technique would convert his spirit Qi into earth element spirit Qi and then use that to strengthen his skin. There were five stages to this skill, and each level increased the defensive ability exponentially.

According to the instructions, the first two stages only needed spirit Qi to progress while the others would need herbs. But the exact requirement for them was not set and depending on the person's affinity to the earth element it would be more or less.

For Lin Mu who had an innate affinity to the earth element, it wasn't going to be much. He followed the method and circulated his spirit Qi. The spirit Qi reached a different meridian, which he had not used before.

This meridian went to his Spleen, which was one of the five treasured organs. It was also the organ that represented the earth element. Lin Mu had already learned of the theories behind the different meridians and organs back in the Sleepscape.

This was something he was lacking in compared to the disciples of a cultivation sect, as they were taught this as preliminarily knowledge. But now Lin Mu knew it too, and had thoroughly memorized it.

Being in the Sleepscape had been really useful for him, as it had allowed him to narrow the gap he had compared to the sect disciple. And now it could be said that Lin Mu had far exceeded most of them. He was already at the peak stage of the core condensation realm and was close to the Nascent Soul stage as well.

As soon as he gets acclimated to his new cultivation base, it wouldn't take him long to reach the pseudo nascent soul realm. Most of the disciples who reached this point were already considered as the core disciples of a sect. And if it were a weaker sect, they would already be elders.

Lin Mu's spirit Qi flowed to his spleen and slowly started being converted into earth attribute spirit Qi. The conversion was not a hundred percent efficient and there was a loss of spirit Qi too. Though overall, he was able to convert around sixty percent of his spirit Qi into earth attribute spirit Qi. 

Lin Mu knew that this was only because of his lack of practice and once he gets more proficient in it the ratio would only increase and he wouldn't have to waste any of the spirit Qi. 

After the earth element spirit Qi was refined, it flowed back to his Dantian. In his Dantian it formed a separate pool that was brown colored. This pool was much smaller than the ocean of spirit Qi of course but was slowly growing, the more Lin Mu refined the spirit Qi.

About an hour passed like this, and Lin Mu had refined about a thousand drops of liquid spirit Qi. The pool of earth attribute spirit Qi had now become a lake and contrasted with the transparent ocean of the attributeless spirit Qi.

~huu~

Lin Mu opened his eyes and let out a breath.

"This should be enough for now. On to the next step now…" Lin Mu muttered before closing his eyes again.

The earth attribute spirit Qi flowed out from his Dantian and reached his arms first. There it seeped out of his skin and started covering it in a thin layer. Little by little, it spread from his arms to his shoulders and then onto his back, from there it finally reached his legs. 

Now his entire body leaving his head was covered in a thin brown layer that looked like mud. Lin Mu continued pouring more earth attribute spirit Qi into it, and the layer started to get thicker. When the layer reached a thickness of one centimeter, a wave of spirit Qi was released from his body and his skin glowed for a few seconds before calming down.

The brown layer that was covering his skin disappeared, and Lin Mu opened his eyes. He looked at his arms and wondered if it was successful. According to the technique, he should have completed the first stage now.

"You should test it out," Xukong suggested.

"Yes senior, I'll try." Lin Mu said before looking for Little Shrubby.

Little shrubby had become bored while Lin Mu was practicing and had gotten a beast to eat till then. It had already set up a small camp fire and was grilling the meat on it. He was even using his own claws as skewers, unafraid of the fire.

"When did he get this?" Lin Mu wondered and called out. "Little Shrubby, come help me." 

The beast looked at Lin Mu and stuffed the meat he was grilling on its claws into its mouth, before going towards Lin Mu.

"What do you need help with Master?" He asked.

"I need to test out a new technique, so I want you to attack me." 

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