Lin Mu carefully controlled the threads, ensuring that they didn't go haywire.
It took him thirty minutes, but he finally stabilized them. And once that was done, all that was left for Lin Mu to do was to combine them.
~Shua~
He spun the rope made from the immortal Qi threads and allowed them to merge together. There was no instability this time due to the method Lin Mu had used, and this caused the merger to be a success.
'It is done!' Lin Mu felt like he could now move on to the next step.
Right now he had only managed to condense and combine the three elemental immortal Qis. He hadn't actually utilized them with the Longgui Bulwark Armor's method.
Lin Mu followed the mnemonic of the technique and circulated the newly merged Qi.
~HONG~
As soon as he did that, power surged within his body, and he could feel his strength rising.
"So this is Magma Strengthening." Lin Mu clenched his fists before creating a small flame on his palm.
~HISS~
The water on his palm immediately boiled and turned to steam, showing the intensity of the flame.
'This is at least twice as strong as before.' Lin Mu estimated.
He had used a very small amount of fire elemental Qi to light this flame, but despite that, its power was greater than it should be. This was none other than the amplifying effect of the Magma Strengthening.
Next Lin Mu released a bit of Metal Qi, coating his fingers in them.
~SHING~
He lightly flicked his finger in the air, creating a cut that could be seen tearing through the air, as well as the water.
"The sharpness of the Metal Qi has improved too… And this isn't even Sword Intent." Lin Mu was surprised.
He did the same with Earth Elemental immortal Qi, creating a small stone. Lin Mu pinched it between his fingers and tried to break it.
~CRACK~
After five seconds, the stone finally cracked before dissipating into Earth Elemental Immortal Qi.
"Its density and toughness is also twice as much as before. If I use this with the Earthen Armament Aspect, all the attacks will be stronger and the weight will also be greater when the Aspects of Heaviness is activated." Lin Mu was very impressed with the technique.
Having succeeded with the first component of the Longgui Bulwark Armor, Lin Mu was now looking forward to the other two.
"Now for the one that I got this technique for… The Armor itself!" Lin Mu said before following the mnemonic of the Longgui Bulwark Armor.
The Second component was Magma Hardening and one needed to remove the fire elemental immortal Qi from the combination of the three elements. But one couldn't just do it within their body, as that would lead to the energies getting unstable and possibly exploding.
'First to expel it from the body.' Lin Mu focused on the mixture of energies flowing through him and guided them out of his body.
They flowed through his meridians until they reached the surface of his skin. Once there, the mixture came out of his pores, looking like a tricolored gas.
~Sizzle~
But in just a moment, as if a transformation had happened the tricolored gas transformed into boiling hot magma! Belongs to (N)ôvel/Drama.Org.
The heat from the magma made the surrounding air expand, while also making the hot spring below boil. Thankfully, even if the water was boiling hot, everyone inside it could handle it with ease. Lin Mu had a tough body, while Little Shrubby's body was highly resistant to heat.
In the case of the twins, they didn't even register the heat and simply continued to consume the immortal Qi from the air and convert it into their respective Yin or Yang Immortal Qi.
'It's good that I'm in the private area, or others would certainly have been bothered by this.' Lin Mu thought to himself.
In fact, even if Lin Mu and the beasts were resistant to the heat, that didn't mean that the others were too. The immortal cultivators might be able to bear the heat, but that didn't mean they would like it. Not to mention, there were weaker cultivators in the Hot Springs too.
Lin Mu had noticed some that were at the Dao Treading Realm or below, which was a bit surprising but also made sense since they would want to get strong too.
These cultivators wouldn't be able to take the heat and could very easily get injured from it.
'I shouldn't let the Magma be here for too long,' Lin Mu thought to himself and continued to the next step. 'I need to create individual armor pieces that would be formed from the Magma first.'
~shua~
The Magma responded to his commands and floated around him, before taking on the vague shape of an armor. The type of armor that would be formed from Magma Hardening was not the same for everyone. In fact, it was completely up to the cultivator to design.
For the time being, Lin Mu made a simple armor that only consisted of a breastplate.
The Magma covered the front and back of Lin Mu's torso, making the water sticking to him evaporate instantly. The heat from the magma was quite high, and it was even touching Lin Mu's skin. Any other immortal would be severely burned from this if they did not have resistance to heat.
This was the reason why not just anyone could cultivate the Longgui Bulwark Armor.
Even those with Fire elemental affinity would get burned by this, despite having a higher resistance to heat than others. One needed the Metal and Earth element to offset this heat. In Lin Mu's case though, not only did he have all three, but he also had a tough body that had been tempered a lot.
This gave him great resistance to heat, allowing him to perform this with ease.
'Now to extract the Fire Elemental Immortal Qi,' Lin Mu focused on the three energies that composed the magma and singled out the fire element.
This was a difficult thing to do, as the elements could quickly become unstable if one's control was not good. Thankfully for Lin Mu, not only did he have good focus, the method that he had used to combine the three elements also meant that he could disassemble them the same way.
Lin Mu simply unwound the Fire Elemental Immortal Qi string from the rope and this caused a transformation to take place.
The red hot Magma quickly became dark and started to harden. A couple seconds later, it had solidified and turned into a black breastplate that protected Lin Mu's Torso!
"Here it is…" Lin Mu gazed at the rock armor that was encasing his torso.
~THUD~ THUD~
He knocked on it a few times, testing out its toughness and couldn't even put a scratch on it. Not just that, the vibrations from the knocking were also absorbed by the armor, preventing any of them from reaching Lin Mu's body. This meant that even when he was hit by attacks, the impact wouldn't be transferred to his body directly.
'There is definitely a limit to the impact dampening… once it exceeds a certain limit, I'll definitely feel the impact.' Lin Mu reckoned. 'The effect of Magma Strengthening also disappeared when I formed the armor. Guess it is a choice between the two when I am to use it.' He understood.
Having formed the Chest piece successfully, Lin Mu now tried to revert it back into Magma and dispel it. After all, he needed to know how to remove it as well.
~SHUA~
~SIZZLE~
This part didn't take much effort from him though, and the solid rock armor readily melted down, transforming back into red hot Magma. All Lin Mu had to do was to inject the Fire Elemental Immortal Qi into it, which automatically combined with the Metal and Earth elements within it.
"And it's dispelled." Lin Mu reabsorbed the energy back into his body, making the Magma disappear as if it never existed.
The energy flowed into Lin Mu's meridians, continuing to circulate keeping Magma Strengthening active.
'Magma Strengthening activates immediately upon the return of the mixed energy.' Lin Mu noted. 'I should practice it more though. I need to be able to summon it at a moment's notice. Only when I am able to summon it instinctively, would it be really useful. Otherwise, I'll always have a vulnerability.' He understood in depth.
As such, Lin Mu repeated the action of hardening the magma and then melting it again several times. He also attempted making other armor pieces, just so that he would be able to do it when needed. Once he felt like he was getting good enough, he started to condense multiple pieces of the armor at the same time.
He did the helmet and chest piece together, then added the gauntlets, then the boots, vambraces and finally the shoulder pauldrons.
With that, Lin Mu had fully formed the armor!