Lin Mu continued to resist the Wood Elemental Immortal Tribulation, his skills and strength prevailing against the Vines.
~SHING~
And after a certain point, he started to use the skill of Afternoon Pine as well, sending forth metal pine trees that ripped apart the vines.
An hour passed like this, with the Vines managing to touch him from time to time, draining a part of his vitality. Fortunately for Lin Mu, he had a mountain of vitality stored within his body.
The part that was getting stolen, was merely the surface of it. And this wasn't even considering the unknown amount of Vitality that was stored within his stomach as well. Lin Mu didn't even know how much his stomach could store.
He only knew that it would automatically replenish, once his vitality fell to a certain level. It was how he had managed to survive cultivating a lot of his techniques after all. Even the Well of Slumber depended on his stomach to let him survive.
~SHUA~ SHUA~
Fire raged, sword slashed, while fists ripped.
Lin Mu fought the Wood Elemental Immortal Tribulation without stopping, feeling excited the entire time. To him, it was as if he was going against a great adversary and winning.
It wasn't that far from the truth either. After all an Immortal Tribulation was a trial given by the heavenly will.
But that wasn't all, as the more Lin Mu fought it, the more he learned.
At first, he didn't sense much, but as time went by as the energy of the Tribulation spread in the area, and Lin Mu started to pick up on things. Particularly the Dao Traces that were permeating the air now.
Every vine he tore, burned or chopped had them too.
'The Wood Dao Traces are vibrant… Fresh… Abundant…' Lin Mu observed.
Bit by bit, Lin Mu could feel that he was starting to learn more about the Dao of Wood. Of course, since he didn't have an innate affinity to the wood element, it wasn't that good. But gaining some comprehension was better than none.
Taking advantage of this, Lin Mu immersed himself in it fully. He even went so far as to slow down his fight, letting the vines persist for longer. This allowed him to observe them better and longer.
And while Lin Mu was doing all this, there were several eyes watching.
The Saintess, the twins and Little Shrubby were all observing him from the distance. A barrier had already been deployed at the start, thus there were no issues of others getting affected by it.
"Master is doing well…" Little Shrubby growled.
"He sure is." The Saintess muttered.
Even though she couldn't hear Little Shrubby, it wasn't hard for her to make out his thoughts.
"Master… Strong!" The twins spoke as their eyes shimmered with excitement.
Little Shrubby had already gone through the Wood Elemental Immortal Tribulation before, and thus knew that Lin Mu was safe. There was no worry in his eyes, and he knew Lin Mu would be able to get through it.
The Saintess though had different thoughts.
'He's able to overcome it with such ease that he's actually extending it to observe the Dao Traces.' She thought. 'I guess this much should be expected from a disciple of the Great Senior.' She reckoned.
They observed for hours, and when twelve hours had passed, the Wood Elemental Immortal Tribulation started to die down.
The Tribulation energy fluctuated, while the vines reduced in number. They couldn't regenerate as fast and simply disappeared when Lin Mu damaged them.
~BOOM~
A blast of fire, exploded from Lin Mu's fist turning the remaining parts of the vines into ash.
~Huu~
"Was that the last of them?" Lin Mu questioned, as he looked around.
The Spatial Cracks were getting smaller and Lin Mu could also tell the Tribulation energy had been depleted.
"Guess it is the end…" Lin Mu said before closing his eyes.
He sat back down cross legged, and peered into his Dantian.
~shua~
There, a change was currently underway.
His Nascent soul sat on his Dao Shell, while the True Earth Heart Dao Embryo within it lay calmly.
The ocean of immortal Qi underneath it swirled nonstop, as if eagerly awaiting something.
~HUALA~
And a few seconds later it finally happened!
Strong energy fluctuations washed over Lin Mu's nascent soul while a green mist appeared in his Dantian. The green mist swirled around his Nascent soul before forming into a Green Halo around it.
~HONGLONG~
The Nascent soul opened its eyes, while two halos shined behind it.
The first halo was brown in color, signifying that he had overcome the Earth Elemental Immortal Tribulation, and the second green for the Wood Elemental Immortal Tribulation!
"It is done…" Lin Mu spoke, opening his eyes.
~HUALA~
A vortex of Qi appeared above his head, while his body rapidly started to absorb it. The breakthrough had been smooth, and the influx of Qi was allowing him to replenish all that he had consumed for the Wood Elemental Immortal Tribulation.
"Congratulations on reaching the Second Tribulation Stage of the Immortal Realm." The Saintess said as the barrier around him dissipated.
"Thank you Saintess," Lin Mu replied before the beasts jumped into his embrace.
"You did it!" little Shrubby said with joy.
"Master Strong!" The twins shouted as well.
"Ahaha," Lin Mu simply reveled in this joy, celebrating it with a few head pats and rubs.
"Well, what are you going to do now?" The Saintess asked. "You seem to have broken through earlier than the deadline, right?"
"Yeah… I got a lot of days till the next match." Lin Mu nodded his head. "Though I guess I can spend it further in cultivating." He added. is the owner.
"Mmhmm, that's always a good choice." The Saintess replied. "You will still need to consolidate your cultivation base anyways." She reminded.
"Indeed." Lin Mu nodded his head. "I feel like I'll be able to increase my Qi stores further." He said before standing up.
The three beasts got off from his lap, while Lin Mu put on some new clothes. His robes had been torn off a long time ago and now he needed new clothes again. His tough body had allowed him to be free from damage and no injuries were on his body.
'I think this was the easiest breakthrough I've had… Such a huge contrast against my first Immortal Tribulation.' Lin Mu thought to himself.
The ease of breakthrough even tempted him to attempt another Immortal Tribulation. But then he quickly suppressed that thought.
'I shouldn't get ahead of myself. Need to stabilize my cultivation base first and gather more immortal Qi.' Lin Mu affirmed his thoughts.
With that done, he quickly entered the bedroom and started to cultivate.
Lin Mu didn't sleep though, and actively cultivated. Wisp after wisp of Immortal Qi entered his body, before being condensed in his Dantian. He could feel that his Dantian had become a bit 'less full' after the breakthrough.
And this wasn't just because he had consumed it. But rather the entire capacity of his Dantian seemed to have risen.
'No that's not all…' Lin Mu realized more things.
He focused on his Nascent soul and saw that its absorption of Immortal Qi had increased as well.
Normally, a Nascent soul would continue to absorb Immortal Qi and be nourished by it. This was how the cultivation base of an immortal progressed bit by bit. It took a long time for a Nascent soul to reach the point of a breakthrough, thus it wasn't common for an immortal to trigger an Immortal Tribulation beforehand.
But Lin Mu could tell, the speed of absorption of his Nascent Soul had increased.
"Hmm… that's new." Lin Mu took note.
While the absorption was faster, Lin Mu didn't know if it would affect the overall strength of the Nascent soul. After all, the stronger a Nascent soul was, the better control it would have over the Dao Embryos.
Lin Mu looked at his Dao embryos and found them to be absorbing Immortal Qi too.
"Can I speed this up too?" Lin Mu willed his Nascent soul to work.
~SHUA~
In the next moment, the Two Dao Embryos that were present in his Dantian started to actively absorb the Immortal Qi. Both the True Earth Heart and the Rune Shaping Brush were bathing in the immortal Qi, while it was absorbed into them.
The Four Faceted Nebula stayed hidden though, not doing the same as others.
'The requirements for its growth are different. It doesn't just need normal Immortal Qi.' Lin Mu knew.
He recalled that the Four Faceted Nebula had shown some reaction when passing through the Void. He wondered if it needed the spatial Qi from there or something more. But at the same time, his understanding of the Four Faceted Nebula was still lacking.
All it was doing right now, was to passively improve his understanding of the Space.
"Guess I can work on this then…" Lin Mu made up his mind and took out the Spiral Flake Crystal.