860 A Cruel Technique

If one found out their path was cut off after the struggle of bearing the first and second stages of the True Gold Body Forging Arts, they would prefer to be dead than live to be in pain longer.

Lin Mu couldn't help but shudder at reading it all.

'And it's not even the final step…' Lin Mu thought as his gaze went to the last two lines.

The final step started with the refinement of the gold as well. But this time, one needed forty times their weight in gold, which then needed to be reduced to just ten percent of its volume.

Once this was done, they would have to jump into the molten gold and be completely submerged in it. They would then stay it in and let the gold cool and harden. This was the most decisive step in the technique.

Ninety nine percent of the people that reached this point would die, and only one percent would live. Once the gold was completely solidified, it would be roughly in the shape of the body with the outline of the container within which it was melted.

The cultivator that was within the gold would then have to further cultivate while being encased in the gold. They would have to learn to 'breathe' through the gold. Once they succeeded in that, they would then start to see that the gold was responding to them.

Eventually, if they kept it up, the gold would start to shrink and if they were successful, the gold would have completely been absorbed into their body. Their skin would gain a golden sheen, and their defenses would skyrocket.

It would make them impenetrable!

Though Lin Mu had doubts about just how 'impenetrable' one would become. He had read a lot and gained a lot of knowledge from Senior Xukong and knew just how many powers there were in the world.

There was no power that could claim to be number one in the universe, and there would always be something that could counteract it.

"Even if all this works out… just what kind of a defense would they gain in the end? Would it be enough to sustain an attack from an Immortal?" Lin Mu couldn't help but question.

~Sigh~

A long sigh escaped his lips and he wondered if it was even possible for him to practice something like this. And as he thought of this, he grasped a few more things.

"Hang on… the amount of gold that this takes… even if we consider a conservative amount and take the weight of a cultivator as 100 kilograms, the initial amount they would need would be 200 kilograms.

The subsequent stage would take 400 kilograms and the final stage would need 4000 kilograms!

The final total came to about 4600 kilograms!" Lin Mu calculated.

While Lin Mu certainly had more than enough gold to attempt this, he understood that it was not a technique that just any cultivator could even think to afford.

"You're wrong." Xukong suddenly spoke.

"I'm wrong? Where?" Lin Mu asked.

"After the first step, they would apply the gold to their skin. That would add 200 kilograms to their initial 100 kilograms, taking it to 300. Then the second step would need 1200 kilograms.

And the third and final stage would need 40 times that which is 48,000 kilograms of gold." Xukong replied.

Hearing this, Lin Mu felt lost and tried to reread the entire thing. After doing that a couple of times his expression fell.

"This is vile!" Lin Mu said in a tone of discomfort.

"No wonder so many would fail this technique! They would get the measurements wrong from the very start!" Lin Mu added.

"Indeed. It's a clever trick of words that can't be understood with ease. While it looks like the technique is very harsh on the body, that's not all, it is also harsh on the mind. One would not only have to be physically strong but also mentally, so that they would pick up on the trickery at the start.

Only that would grasp it correctly would succeed in the end. As for the ones that made a mistake at the start, they would be forever doomed to fail." Xukong stated.

Lin Mu frankly felt a little terrified of whoever made this body cultivation technique. After all, in order to make a technique like this, one would have had to go through many trials and errors.

Lin Mu had learned very well how difficult it was from the Nameless Technique of the Lost immortal.

"Its creator would have to be many times harsher on himself than others to be able to devise something like this. His willpower must be simply… undying." Lin Mu muttered.

While thinking of this, another facet of the technique struck Lin Mu.

"Hang on… the weight of the gold… it's increase with each step and stays with their body. Then doesn't that mean that by the end of it… they would be nearly 50 tons in weight?" Lin Mu analyzed.

"Possibly. Though it is not something that's too unnatural in the world of cultivation. There are plenty of beasts that are heavier than that, not to mention they wouldn't even have to have that high of a cultivation base." Xukong added.

"Oh right! With the size of Xiaobao he should be at least twice that weight." Lin Mu recalled.

"Exactly. Plus, if they are really cultivating through each stage steadily, their bodies would have already gotten used to that weight. Living with that much weight would be nothing but a natural thing for them at that point." Xukong explained.

Lin Mu felt the entire session to be very enlightening though now he didn't know what to do with the technique. He was obviously going to keep it with him, but the actual question was about his Five Treasures realm cultivation.

He didn't know if this body cultivation technique could even be used for it or was even suitable for it. While Senior Xukong asked Lin Mu to ponder on it for some time on his own later, it was still not confirmed whether it was useful.