~shua~

Lin Mu slid back on the ground as he bore the impact from Little Shrubby's attack. 

He had asked little Shrubby to attack him again to test the defensive ability of the Mortal Strengthening Scripture to see its effects, but not a single difference could be seen on the brown layer, which had stone like patterns on it.

This was already the third attack of Little Shrubby and Lin Mu could now consider it to decent for defending against most attacks below the Nascent Soul realm. This combined with Lin Mu's own body's toughness, should protect him from quite a bit of harm.

~phew~

"This is pretty good. I'm looking forward to the next stage of the technique now. But I'll need resources for that." Lin Mu said.

'Hmm… resources… can those pills work, maybe?' Lin Mu wondered.

"Senior can I use the earthen Qi pills for furthering the Mortal Strengthening scripture. You said that it has no minimum requirement right? So this can work too?" Lin Mu questioned.

"Hmm… they should work. You may as well try it out, the pills won't be worth much to you now anyway with the mortal strengthening scriptures defenses." Xukong replied.

"Alright, I'll try it." Lin Mu said, before withdrawing the bottle that contained the earthen Qi pills.

He ate one of them and practiced the method for the third stage of the Mortal Strengthening scripture. The medicinal properties of the pill spread in his body but instead of forming an armor, they started being absorbed into the brown layer instead.

In less than ten seconds, it was completely absorbed and Lin Mu could not see any difference.

"Need more, I guess…" He muttered and ate another earthen Qi pill.

There was still no effect and only when he ate a total of six pills did he see some change on the brown layer. The stone like pattern on it had become a little fainter and instead a set of lines were now appearing on it.

Lin Mu felt like he needed to supply it earth attribute spirit Qi and thus he did. He poured all the remaining earth attribute spirit Qi he had before the lines on his skin became more apparent.

~huu~

"Seems like I will need much more than just this… but this change is still good." Lin Mu spoke.

"Indeed. The Mortal Strengthening scripture takes an average person who has no affinity with the earth element about a year to reach the same level as you are right now. While you only took a day, this is extremely good." Xukong praised.

"Really senior? It's that much of a difference?" Lin Mu asked feeling shocked.

"Yes… the difference in elemental affinity can be a great game changer. That is why sects do affinity exams for their more talented disciples before they start to cultivate. This way the most appropriate cultivation technique can be chosen for them. 

In your case, we didn't have the right tools to check you and I could not use the power of my main body either or it would have been easy. Thankfully, the earthen Qi pill helped a lot and showed your affinity with the earth element." Xukong spoke.

"I have two affinities right, senior? Space and earth?" Lin Mu asked for clarity.

"Yes. Though there is a slight difference between them. Your affinity with earth is something you were innately born with, while your affinity with the spatial element is something that has been bestowed upon you by the ring. 

Another part is that your affinity with the spatial element is still growing and currently it cannot be said to be at an acceptable level." Xukong replied.

"It's not at an acceptable level?" Lin Mu said with confusion.

"Indeed. Cultivators who have an innate affinity for the spatial element would also have spatial sensing abilities. If I were to give an example, I guess we can just consider the ring itself.

If it was a cultivator with a proper spatial affinity that obtained the ring instead of you, I reckon he would have already been able to manipulate space just on his own without depending on the skills provided by ring." Xukong explained.

"Hmm… I understand." Lin Mu nodded his head but did not feel bad, as it was the truth.

"Though I think the reason why the ring gives you the skills at certain points may be related to this," Xukong added.

"Why is that so senior?" Lin Mu asked.

"Hmm… it is like the ring is giving you skills that are usable at that specific cultivation base. It gave you skills that only manipulate one specific aspect of space at once. This allows you to gain a better understanding as you can observe it better.

This… may be the way the ring is teaching you and increasing your proficiency of the spatial element. I think the latter goal would be so that you are able to manipulate space on your own without depending on the ring.

Of course, this is just my hypothesis." Xukong explained.

Lin Mu was lost in thought after hearing senior Xukong's words and found them to be quite logical.

Lin Mu then remembered one of the abilities of the ring, which was not actually a skill.

"Wait, senior does this relate to how I can open the spatial rifts? I mean it is not actually a proper skill that was given to me by the ring. It's just something that I automatically knew." Lin Mu said feeling unsure.

"Yes, that is indeed a good example. If you can do that, you should be able to do a lot more things once your proficiency with the spatial manipulation increases. The fifth skill 'Meld' should help you in this aspect as it seems to have a lot of applications that I can think of." Xukong answered.

"I see…" Lin Mu spoke after hearing Xukong's words.

After a while, he laid down on the ground and slept, appearing in the Sleepscape while the Well of slumber activated automatically and spirit Qi started stirring in his body.

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