The second stage of the True Gold Body Forging Arts was a cruel one.

One needed to cut open their flesh to reveal their bones and then pour the liquid gold inside to refine them. Both the act of cutting the flesh and pouring burning hot gold was inhuman to most people, and they wouldn't even imagine doing it.

Refining the gold for this stage was also a long process, since Lin Mu needed to reduce it to a quarter of its original volume. The amount of gold that he was refining for the second stage was 1506 kilograms, which was a significant amount. 

Putting all that gold into the cauldron put it at about half of its capacity in the solid form and when it melted completely, it was about one third its capacity.

'Now come's the hard part…' Lin Mu thought and looked at little Shrubby. "You can stop heating it now. I need to do the rest of the parts myself. I'll tell you when I need you to heat it again." He spoke.

"Alright, I'll wait." Little Shrubby replied.

Nodding his head, Lin Mu began the refinement process that was even longer than before. With the quantity of gold, it took Lin Mu about four days before he reduced the volume of the gold by half.

But this was not enough and he needed to reduce it even more to a quarter. 

'The more I refine it, the harder it gets…' Lin Mu understood.

The spirit Qi consumption was also far higher than before, such that Lin Mu actually needed to use more of his stored spirit Qi. Before this, his passive spirit Qi absorption was enough to compensate for the continuous use.

Day turned to night and time passed. Another five days passed before Lin Mu was finally done with the refinement of gold. He had successfully reduced it to a quarter of what the volume used to be.

Though the weight of the gold was still the same. 

"Now that I think of it, the increase in my weight is almost unnoticeable." Lin Mu just realized.

He couldn't even tell that his weight had increased by almost three times what it was originally.

"And after this stage, it will be even more… I can't even imagine the effect by the final stage." Lin Mu muttered to himself.

Compared to Little Shrubby, Lin Mu was still rather light and thus there being no extern signs was normal. Lin Mu could imagine leaving behind deep foot prints by just casually walking.

While he didn't know how much Little Shrubby's eight was exactly, it was certainly more than a ton considering how large he was. 

'Will he even be able to carry me and run at that point?' Lin Mu couldn't help but wonder.

"If he breaks through again and reaches the Dao Shell realm, I doubt it will be a problem for him. Even now, lifting a weight like that isn't a problem for him or you, though running might not be possible for long distances." Xukong suddenly spoke.

"Hmm… I see senior." Lin Mu replied and looked at little shrubby, sensing his cultivation base.

Thinking for a bit, Lin Mu tried to estimate if Little Shrubby could breakthrough during this time as well or not. 

'I don't know how long the third stage will take. I will give little Shrubby as much as beast Qi during that time and hopefully both of us can breakthrough in that period.' Lin Mu thought to himself.

Little Shrubby was a true companion of Lin Mu and a part of his own strength, as well. His speed was one of the things that allowed him to do the many things that he had done. Without him, Lin Mu might not have even been alive by now.

He was truly grateful to him for that and will forever be.

~huu~

Taking in a deep breath, Lin Mu steeled his heart and took out the short sword.

"This is gonna hurt." Lin Mu muttered and placed it against his skin.

~CREAK~

The sound of metal grinding could be heard as the short sword grazed against his skin. The toughness made it so that no damage was inflicted other than a faint white mark on his skin.

"This is a problem…" Lin Mu muttered.

Even though he had deactivated the Armor of the Mortal Strengthening Scripture, it was still rather difficult for Lin Mu to break his skin's natural defenses.

He gripped the handle hard and poured more spirit Qi into it, amplifying the strength of the short sword. While he was doing this, Little Shrubby was watching with rapt attention, feeling both anxious and a bit afraid.

'Master be fine…' he hoped.

~SLICK~

Finally, after pouring enough spirit Qi into the short sword, it managed to cut through the skin. But it was still not enough, as the cut was not deep.

"Dammit! Need to push more. It has to be touching the bone." Lin Mu gritted his teeth and extorted even more force while blood spilled out from the cut.

~drip~drip~drip~

A small pool of blood was quickly formed under him as the cut was finally completed. Currently, the entirety of Lin Mu's left forearm, elbow and shoulder bones were exposed, looking rather ghastly.

To most people, such a wound would be devastating and they might just faint from the paint itself. Lin Mu had been through worse pain and held on with all his might.

~clang~

The Short sword fell to the ground as Lin Mu's hands trembled. He carefully scooped out the liquid gold that was at least a hundred kilograms heavy and poured it into his hand.

"AH!" Lin Mu grunted in pain.

Unlike before, when he didn't feel any pain on his skin, the pain was certainly there when the liquid gold touched his exposed flesh and bone.

"DAMMIT! Can't break me this easily!" Lin Mu said with determination and started cultivating according to the second mnemonic of the True Gold Body Forging Arts.

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