CHAPTER 2419  THE ASTRAL DIMENSION

Xukong's words were like a bomb to Lin Mu.

"WHAT!?" He couldn't believe it since it simply seemed impossible to him. "How's that possible!?" "I was just as shocked." Xukong replied, letting out a sigh. "But you somehow… managed to do it." Lin Mu went silent for a couple minutes, as he ruminated over it and finally spoke.

"But wouldn't that mean… I was dead?" he asked, great hesitance in his voice.

"Usually yes." Xukong nodded. "True Souls of creatures aren't meant to leave their bodies as they are very fragile and would perish without the protection of their 'vessel'. That is also why cultivators yearn to develop a Nascent Soul which allows them to have a second chance at life.

That way even if one's body is damaged beyond recovery, they can transfer their True Soul to a Nascent Soul as a new vessel and survive." He explained.

"Then, did my True Soul leave with my Nascent Soul?" Lin Mu questioned as that seemed like the most likely option to him.

"No… You're Nascent Soul was still in your Dantian." Xukong answered. "I don't know how… But you reached a state where your True Soul detached, but managed to leave behind a link to your body. This allowed your True Soul to return to your body after a period." He explained.

"So the dreams I saw… weren't dreams?" He muttered to himself.

"What exactly did you see in those dreams?" Xukong asked. "Tell me about them." He too wondered just where and how Lin Mu had managed to do this.

Xukong was limited to Lin Mu's body in his current state, and as such couldn't really tell where his True Soul had gone. If not for the fact that Xiao Yin and Xiao Yang could still sense that he was 'alive' from their connection to him, he would have really thought that Lin Mu had died.

After all, the grueling situation that Lin Mu had gone through and the battering his body had taken was not simple. He had done multiple things that would have killed other people a hundred times over. And yet had survived with just internal damage and great mental stress.

Thus, he wished to know just what kind of 'dreams' Lin Mu had seen and what he had experienced in those eleven years.

But the more Xukong heard, the more shocked he was. owns this.

'These really seem like dreams…' Xukong thought to himself.

The way every 'dream' had a different scenario and how Lin Mu's own cultivation base varied was very dream-like. Plus Xukong also noted the lack of his usual skills and items with him. He had none of his weapons and only a few of his skills could be used, many of which he had to re-learn in the dreams themselves. One particular thing that stood out though, was the lack of his Spatial Skills.

He basically had no spatial skills in the dreams and even his Spatial Perception seemed to have been reduced to the very basics which Lin Mu had to comprehend again in the dreams. Even if he had managed to comprehend it again, his other Spatial Skills were still beyond it.

'So he didn't have his ring in the dreams.' Xukong was intrigued. The ring was something that was bound to Lin Mu's soul and couldn't be removed in normal cases. Even if his body died and Lin Mu turned into a Nascent Soul, it would still carry on with him. But when he was in the dreams as a True Soul, the ring had not managed to go with him which was strange since in all other 'normal' dreams Lin Mu had, he always had his ring with him.

While it was still within the realm of possibility that it was just the setting in the dream, for it to happen for every dream was highly unusual.

Lin Mu didn't remember how many dreams he had seen as he only remembered the recent ones, but the ones he did remember still numbered in the hundreds!

With so many dreams having occurred, there should have been at least one in which he should have had his ring, even if he couldn't use it. Till now, Xukong continued to think that what Lin Mu saw was dreams, until finally he told him about two particular individuals he encountered last.

'A woman that seemed uncannily familiar to him?' Xukong looked at his shared memories but was shocked to see that he actually couldn't observe her face. "How's this possible?" he said in surprise.

"How's what possible?" Lin Mu asked.

"The face of that woman… Can you see— No, remember it clearly?" Xukong questioned.

Lin Mu furrowed his brows and tried to recall it, finding it to be incredibly blurry. It was like trying to look at someone's face through a dense layer of mist.

"I can't…" Lin Mu replied feeling surprised. "Did I forget it so fast?" "Was there anyone else?" Xukong asked.

"Yes, a man." Lin Mu replied before explaining what happened after he had been sent flying across the cosmos by the woman.

The description of it all was rather vivid and upon hearing it, Xukong now started to doubt whether they were really dreams. And once he heard about the giant planet with armies of various races facing off against the devils, Xukong became startled.

The mention of the Armored man who demonstrated the power of the Daos and showed Lin Mu what 'Zenith' was truly alarmed Xukong. Just to be sure, he looked at Lin Mu's shared memories and realized that the Armored man's face couldn't be seen either.

"He used over three thousand Daos." Lin Mu stated. "I could feel each and every Dao and their profundities." "I think what you saw weren't dreams." Xukong replied. "And your True Soul didn't just wander off in this world… it went to somewhere mysterious." He added.

"And where is that?" Lin Mu asked with incredible curiosity.

"The Astral Dimension." Xukong revealed, making Lin Mu's eyes go wide.

The ring was something that was bound to Lin Mu's soul and couldn't be removed in normal cases. Even if his body died and Lin Mu turned into a Nascent Soul, it would still carry on with him. But when he was in the dreams as a True Soul, the ring had not managed to go with him which was strange since in all other 'normal' dreams Lin Mu had, he always had his ring with him.