Having done the refinement for the left hand, Lin Mu decided to go for the right hand now.

"We'll know if there are any changes after the first stage is fully completed." Lin Mu said as he scooped up another bowlful of liquid gold and poured it on his right hand.

~hiss~

A similar hissing sound could be heard as the moisture in his right hand's skin evaporated. Still, Lin Mu didn't feel any pain and the gold quickly spread over his hand with a little hesitance.

Once it was fully covered and hardened, Lin Mu cultivated using the mnemonic of the True Gold Body Forging Arts and refined the liquid gold. Hour upon hour passed and just like the left hand, his right hand too fully absorbed the gold within it.

'Hmm… still no difference.' Lin Mu checked.

He began the refinement of the other parts of his body, picking his left leg this time. During all this, Little Shrubby continued to heat the cauldron so that the gold stayed hot and liquid.

It was a difficult thing for most people, as the time needed for Lin Mu to refine the gold was nearly sixteen hours. For anyone else not in the Nascent soul realm, such consumption of spirit Qi would be problematic.

Thankfully Little shrubby was not only at the Peak of the Adult Soul stage of the nascent soul realm, his two bloodlines that had proficiency with fire element also made it significantly easier to do the same.

In fact, the amount of spirit Qi he was exhausting and passively absorbing from the air was almost the same, thus making the net use neutral. This allowed Lin Mu to properly practice the True Gold Body Forging Arts as days went by.

It was now the sixth day since Lin Mu had started and he had refined all of his body's skin other than the head. This was also the part he was more anxious about.

~huu~

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"Hopefully there is no problem… it's gonna make it hard for me to breathe too…" Lin Mu understood.

Due to how the gold will be covering his head, Lin Mu would have to hold his breath for a few hours. At his cultivation base, both due to the spirit Qi cultivation and the body cultivation, even holding his breath for a day was not a problem.

But it was not something Lin Mu had attempted before, and things that were new to someone always made one nervous.

"Don't worry. If anything really happens, you can always break your way out of it. You have more gold, so refining it once more to repeat the process will not be a problem." Senior Xukong advised.

"I understand, senior." Lin Mu said, feeling a bit better.

"You can stop heating it now." Lin Mu spoke to little Shrubby.

"Okay~" Little Shrubby said and laid on the ground, continuing to watch Lin Mu.

He too had been nervous and worried for Lin Mu at first, but now that he had done it a few times, he was feeling comfortable. Plus, little Shrubby was ready to act if anything happened either way.

~huu~

Taking a deep breath, Lin Mu directly lifted the entire cauldron and poured the gold onto his head.

~FIZZ~

Some of his hair directly burned due to the heat of the gold, but half of it managed to stay intact. Lin Mu too, noticed this and couldn't tell why it was like this, making him check his hair with his spirit sense.

It was then that he discovered the part of the hair that had burned was different from the one that had not burned. It had a different composition and seemed to be weaker.

'It is the hair that I grew after breaking through to the Dao Shell realm. It is stronger than the one I had before… no wonder.' Lin Mu realized.

It was a new discovery for him and while it seemed to be small; it was an important one. Lin Mu could understand its implications in certain situations.

After the entirety of the liquid gold was poured over his head, Lin Mu sensed something.

'I can feel it…' Lin Mu thought, since his lips could no longer move.

From a distance, it looked like Lin Mu was wearing a gold colored helmet. Calming himself down in a few minutes and suppressing the nervousness, Lin Mu practiced the mnemonic of the True Gold Body Forging Arts and refined the gold over his head.

Little by little, it started to disappear into his skin and shrunk. For his head, the process was a bit slow, and it took him an entire twenty hours before the gold had disappeared.

~Phew~

Lin Mu let out a breath and opened his eyes, feeling the difference within his body.

"It did show an effect… it's minor, but it's something." Lin Mu said as he peered with in his body with his spirit sense.

His lungs were showing signs of refinement and the cell activity had changed. Lin Mu could feel both vitality and spirit Qi stirring within his lungs as if being attracted to it.

"If I were to estimate the refinement rate, it is not even at one percent. But this is still good enough for a start. Progress is not easy and hard work is what will get me to the end." Lin Mu motivated himself.

His determination was rock solid and he would not back down from a lack of results so easily.

Xukong was watching it all and felt content with Lin Mu's mindset at this moment. He knew just how cultivating in reality was and the things that most cultivators failed to have was patience and perseverance.

"What's next?" Little Shrubby asked, seeing that Lin Mu was up again.

"Now we refine more gold!" Lin Mu said as he threw the second pile of the gold into the cauldrons.

"I'll help!" Little Shrubby said, and started to heat the cauldron.

Lin Mu nodded his head and appreciated it.