188 Distortion?
Xukong was currently floating around in the mysterious ring and a small distance away from him was the ethereal altar. During the time Xukong had spent in the ring he had tried to approach the altar many times, but he never could unless Lin Mu himself was present here.
Every time he would get close to the ethereal altar a mysterious barrier would appear and would block him. This prevented him from going any further and the closest he could reach was within a hundred meters of the altar.
The barrier that blocked Xukong was an enigma to him. He could not recognize any of the runes that were present on it and neither could he recognize the script. It wasn't written in the Dao scrips and neither was it written in any of the other common scripts that numbered in the millions.
From the countless years of experience that Xukong had, he had seen many incomprehensible things, yet this was one of the times where he was the most confused he had ever been. He could swear on his bloodline that this was perhaps the most complex array of runes he had seen.
Even though Xukong did not understand the runes, he could still tell that the formations that made up the barrier were beyond any grade that existed.
While he was floating near the ethereal barrier, Xukong was thinking of Lin Mu. He had been seeing what he was doing and could read some of his surface thoughts. From his memories, he could see that he had revealed around seven of the nodes of the illusory formation array that was hiding the Jing Wei's emporium.
"How did I not notice this before? It just took him two hints before he was able to reveal an illusory formation on his own, even high grade spirit formation masters will take a day before they would be able to do the same." Xukong muttered to himself.
'Is it just formations or is his talent in other professions similar too… No! I need to make sure of this. Just his talent in formations is good enough to open up a lot of opportunities for him. If he has even ten percent of the same in any of the other professions, his potential would be endless.' Xukong thought while swaying in the empty space.
He was not floating around the barrier, the same ways a person would pace while they were thinking about something deeply. Along with Xukong's every movement, the spatial energy in the surroundings would stir while being attracted to him.
Ever so often a streak of spatial energy would be absorbed by his body and disappear into it. Even while thinking, Xukong was unconsciously cultivating. He then suddenly came to a halt as more thoughts appeared in his mind.
'While his talent in formations seems evident, testing for the others would be difficult at this point. He still needs to reach the peak stage of the qi refining realm before he would be able to ignite qi flame… no wait, his dantian's capacity is much higher than others! It should be possible for him to do it much earlier.
I'll tell him about it when the time is right. As for weapons forging and spirit tool refinement, we'll need to wait till he gets the proper equipment. Though if he can have a good understanding of formations, he would simply be to place formations on weapons and tools. He can take that route as well, although it may be much long-winded.
Beast taming… Hmm, that is a complex one. At his current cultivation base, it would depend on the beast itself rather than his talent. Perhaps I can ask him to try to tame a few smaller spirit beasts…' Xukong thought to himself and was interrupted.
Xukong suddenly felt a wave of energy in the ring and looked towards the ethereal altar. The altar was now faintly glowing, or rather more accurately a few of the runes of the altar were glowing. Unlike before, when Lin Mu received the skills or the nine divine sutras, the altar was less active.
There was no blinding glow of light but a rather more somber tone. Xukong could feel the change in the spatial energy as the streaks of it were moving in a uniform manner now. The silvery grey streaks of spatial energy in the mysterious ring were now circulating around the altar.
"What is happening?!" Xukong exclaimed, feeling confused.
Xukong realized that in his thoughts, he had forgotten to keep an eye on Lin Mu. He hurriedly used his connection with Lin Mu and saw what was happening. And when he saw it, he was surprised once again.
"How did he…?"
***
Out in the real world, the snow was still falling and Lin Mu had his eyes closed. His eyelids suddenly trembled, and he opened his eyes. The space that was in front of him stirred and a storage distortion appeared. The space turned blurry, as if there was a foggy mirror there.
While the things behind it were still visible, it looked as if one was looking at them through a fogged up glass.
The snow that had settled on Lin Mu's head and shoulders fell down as he moved. A hint of confusion appeared in his eye before turning to a look of understanding in the next moment.
"So this is the full extent of the formation…" Lin Mu muttered to himself as he walked closer.
He extended his hands towards the space in front of him and the ring on his middle finger hummed in response. The distortion in the space that looked like a foggy mirror at first soon changed to a twisting appearance.
The twisting appearance lasted for a few seconds before it settled and the fabric of space in front of him unraveled. A circular opening had now appeared in front of Lin Mu that was about two meters in diameter. But unlike the spatial rifts that he had opened before, this was not black.
