1640 Testing And Exhaustion

Tyrant Lift was the first innate skill of the Tyrant Bull Marrow Secrets and was supposed to be the weakest out of them. And yet, Lin Mu could feel that this was possibly one of his strongest moves right now.

'Perhaps only the Boulder Collapsing Fist can exceed this in raw power. But the energy consumption will also be greater.' Lin Mu thought to himself as he felt the cloud pillar be torn.

While it was indeed made of clouds, the Saintess's skill had turned it solid. In fact, its toughness could already compare to greatly tempered steel. And yet, Lin Mu's arms had torn through it as if it were just cotton.

The cloud pillar was sent flying into the sky, and even Lin Mu's body launched along with it. The force of the attack had enough momentum to carry Lin Mu along with it.

~WHOOSH~

The Cloud Pillar was sent hundreds of meters high into the air, while Lin Mu stopped after just a hundred meters, taking control of his flight. He landed back on the ground and watched the cloud pillar that was still ascending.

"Umm… was that supposed to happen?" Lin Mu asked, not knowing.

The Saintess had said to use the Cloud Pillar as a target dummy so Lin Mu didn't know if the durability was intentionally set like this. He didn't know if it was too low. What Lin Mu didn't know was that the Saintess was wondering the same thing.

'That pillar shouldn't have been damaged even by a fifth Tribulation Stage immortal… and yet he tore it apart like that…' The Saintess felt baffled.

She had seen the Tyrant Bull Marrow Secrets practitioners a few times in the past and had even seen a few of them use their skills. On top of this, she had also read about them before thus knew a bit more.

"That wasn't supposed to happen…" The Saintess spoke truthfully.

"It wasn't!?" Lin Mu raised his brows, wondering how the Saintess had made a mistake. 'She's never made a mistake before this.' He thought.

"Your strength exceeds my expectations…" The Saintess uttered.

"It does?" Lin Mu was both surprised and a bit pleased at the same time.

"Indeed." The Saintess nodded her head.

"You are certainly right in picking the Tyrant Bull Marrow Secrets as your body cultivation technique. It suits you well." The Saintess stated, not going into the details of just how much Lin Mu had exceeded her expectations.

There were several reasons for it, such as the fact that she didn't want Lin Mu to lose his focus of getting stronger, but secretly it was also because she felt a bit embarrassed.

'I should have just made it strong enough to withstand a seventh Tribulation Stage Immortal's strength.' The Saintess cursed her mistake.

It was unlike her to do things like this and she wondered if it was due to her being in her temple alone for too long.

'I do have the guardians to talk to though…' The Saintess wondered. 'Have my social skills fallen?'

Thankfully Lin Mu was unaware of her thoughts and simply looked at her with a gentle expression. To him getting the acknowledgment of the Saintess felt rather nice. He didn't think much about the reasoning behind it though, just accepting it as it is.

~SHUA~

And by this time, the Tyrant Bull Totem also deactivated, having depleted its supply of Immortal Essence.

"Ugh!" Lin Mu suddenly swayed feeling as if his body had turned rigid.

But before he could fall, he regained control feeling rather confused.

"What was that?" Lin Mu looked at his hands.

"That must be the overload on your body." The Saintess spoke, her tone turning neutral.

"Overload?" Lin Mu raised his brows. "I don't think that should happen though… I've used far great amounts of energy at once than this." He said in doubt.

"It isn't about the amount of energy, but rather how it was used. Especially since this is Immortal Essence which your body hasn't fully adapted to yet." The Saintess explained.

"Oh? I never expected this…" Lin Mu was shocked and wondered if he'll have issues in battles.

"You'll be fine after you use it a few more times. Its just the Immortal Essence pathways that your body needs to adapt to." The Saintess answered, as if having read Lin Mu's mind.

"I see… that's good then." Lin Mu could deal with that much.

He checked his body with his immortal sense, and could tell that the activation of Tyrant Lift had indeed made faint Energy pathways in his arms that linked up to the Totem. They didn't seem to be material and were already fading away.

'This should be it then…' Lin Mu confirmed. "Looks like I'll have to trouble you a few more times, Saintess." He requested.

"Alright." The Saintess agreed.

Though internally, she wanted to fix the mistake she had made earlier.

~SHUA~

With that in mind, she made the handseal once more gathering clouds that soon condensed into a rectangular pillar. It seemed to look the same as before, but this time she had made it tough enough that it could withstand the power of a seventh Tribulation Stage immortal with ease.

'That'll do it.' The Saintess reckoned.

Seeing that the target dummy was ready, Lin Mu got into the stance once more.

"Here I go!" Lin Mu controlled his aperture and released Immortal Essence for the Totem.

~HUALA~

A tyrannical aura covered Lin Mu once more and the totem lit up under his robes. His arms grew in size once more and a red light coated it making them look even bigger.

"Tyrant Lift!" Lin Mu swung his arms towards the Cloud Pillar, as winds were swept up around him from the sheer force.

~THUD~

But unlike before, he didn't tear the pillar. Instead, his arms created blunt depressions in them while his fingers clasped at the back.

"HAAAH!" Lin Mu used the skills power, trying to lift up the pillar but was unable to.

The depression in the pillar did grew but the pillar itself didn't break or move.

~HUU~

Lin Mu let go of the pillar and withdrew his arms, feeling the disparity.

"That pillar is really tough…" Lin Mu couldn't help but mutter.

"It'll last for your attacks." The Saintess replied, but internally she was thinking about something else. 'His strength is still excessive for his cultivation. This doesn't seem to be just because of the Tyrant Bull Marrow Secrets either.'

The Saintess had all but confirmed that her earlier mistake wasn't exactly a mistake. Rather it was just an unexpected outcome.

'Is it due to the fact that he's dual cultivating both Qi and body? Or is it perhaps because of his bloodline?' The Saintess couldn't figure it out. 'Maybe it is something else entirely.' To her, the only thing she could do was to wait and observe.

It even made the Saintess curious about how far Lin Mu could go and how fast his improvement will be.

And while she was thinking of all this, Lin Mu had already executed the skill for the third time.

~THUD~

The cloud pillar which had recovered from its initial damage had depressions carved into it again from Lin Mu's attack.

Lin Mu held the pillar for a few seconds before letting go as his skill ran out of power.

~HUU~

Letting out a breath, Lin Mu felt the feeling of rigidness again, but this time it was a bit shorter.

"You're right… it's getting short already." Lin Mu nodded his head before an idea appeared in his mind. 'Perhaps this is why the practitioners of Tyrant Bull Marrow Secrets are required to battle a lot. Without that they won't be able to use this skills to the full extent either.' He understood.

The Saintess simply watched Lin Mu repeat the process over and over again, as the flares of his tyrannical aura spread in the courtyard. If not for the barrier that she had set up around the Hundred Fruits Pavilion, the Tyrannical Aura was bound to disturb several people living around them.

An hour passed like this, and Lin Mu had depleted nearly half of his Immortal Essence in his First Aperture.

~THUD~

Lin Mu finished his attack and directly slumped to the ground.

"Okay… that is really exhausting." Lin Mu could feel the fatigue building up faster than ever.

Normally he should have been able to bear it all, but for some reason the Tyrant Bull Marrow Secrets could still make him tired.

"This is already excessive. Any other user of the Tyrant Bull Marrow Secrets would have already collapsed." The Saintess spoke up. "You having practiced the Three Apertures Invoking Technique has greatly helped you here." She added.

"I see… perhaps I should be grateful for this then." Lin Mu stated. "I'm used to not getting tired otherwise."

"It might have been so with your other techniques and skills. But the  Tyrant Bull Marrow Secrets is taxing on the body. Even for its own practitioner."