Lin Mu felt surprised at this and wondered if he could do the same. If he could, then his power would skyrocket again.
Lin Mu closed his eyes and willed for a Nascent soul to be born.
"I knew it was too much to wish for something this big." Lin Mu said after seeing no results.
"Do not worry, you will just need more time. You are bound to reach the Nascent Soul realm, eventually." Xukong assured.
Lin Mu nodded his head and checked for any other changes that he may have had. It was now that he remembered something.
"Wait, every time I progressed my cultivation base the ring gave me a new skill. Why hasn’t it done yet?" Lin Mu wondered.
"Well, you’ve been dormant for a long time so that could be the reason behind it." Xukong guessed,
"I’ll try to see if I can get it to activate..." Lin Mu said.
He focused on the ring and suddenly disappeared from the cave. He appeared inside the ring and saw the Silvery Grey streaks of spatial energy that flickered in the sky. In the distance, he could see a vortex of them that was swirling above who could only be senior Xukong.
The vortex dissipated, and Xukong came flying towards Lin Mu.
"Ah, seems like you were able to pull yourself into the ring consciously now," Xukong said.
"Yes senior. When trying it, I felt that I could finally do it and thus entered the ring." Lin Mu said.
"Good... and can you estimate how long you can stay here without problems?" Xukong questioned.
"Hmm... I have this gut feeling that I can stay for thirty minutes." Lin Mu said.
"That’s great, actually. If it were a Dao Shell cultivator, even he would have a hard time staying here for more than ten minutes. Your compatibility with the spatial attribute has definitely increased." Xukong praised.
"Thank you, senior." Lin Mu said in a grateful voice.
He looked towards the faint glow that was coming from the distance and started walking toward it. About two minutes later, he reached the barrier that surrounded the Ethereal altar.
Lin Mu looked towards Xukong and asked, "have you managed to get past the barrier yet senior?"
"No..." Xukong replied as he shook his head, which looked a bit comical. "This is the farthest I’ve come, and even now I can’t go past it. Only you can." Xukong added.
"I see... I guess the key to getting past the barrier is the key itself." Lin Mu hypothesized.
He touched the barrier, and it split apart for him to pass. He could feel the calling from the Altar and knew that his previous hypothesis was right.
The reason the ring had not summoned him directly was because he could enter here on his own now and didn’t need to force him to come. This was better for Lin Mu, as he didn’t know if there would come a time in the future when he would be accidentally pulled into the ring while he was doing something important.
He saw the altar as it started to get brighter and new runes startled appearing from it. Lin Mu placed his hand on the altar’s surface and triggered it. The runes turned into streaks of light that entered his head one by one at a great speed.
Lin Mu felt a sharp pain in his head, but bore through it. About five minutes passed before it stopped and the transmission of information had been completed. A new memory had appeared in Lin Mu’s mind, and he could tell that it was the new skill that the altar had bestowed upon him.
"So... what did you get this time?" Xukong questioned.
"I got the fifth skill from the altar. It is called... Meld." Lin Mu revealed.
"Meld? Do you know what it does?" Xukong questioned.
"It can basically allow me to alter the fabric of space, up to what level I do not know that." Lin Mu answered.
"That is... rather strong. This is not something that can be done by anyone. Though why do you seem apprehensive?" Xukong spoke.
"Umm... this skill. It seems complex... I feel like while I know the working of it, I do not know if I’ll be able to use it. This skill is... quite different from the other four which directly worked; this one seems to require manual control from me." Lin Mu revealed.
"Hmm... I see. Well, manipulation of the spatial fabric is no joke and thus it is understandable that it would be difficult. Your previous four skills focused on a particular aspect of spatial manipulation and thus could be used automatically I think, but this one had more functions than just one." Xukong explained.
"I’ll have to use and see it myself. I cannot do it here, I must return to the real world." Lin Mu stated.
"Let’s go back then, I’ll observe," Xukong replied.
"Alright senior," Lin Mu said, and willed himself to leave the ring.
Lin Mu appeared in the real world and felt a bit disoriented for a second before recovering.
’Will take a few tries to get used to that...’ he thought.
He then focused his mind on the fifth skill Meld and triggered it while targeting the wall in front of him. Suddenly a large chunk of his spirit Qi got drained in an instant, which made him flinch.
Lin Mu held his head, which was spinning now, and tried to calm himself down before looking at the wall that he had targeted.
"Huh? What is this?" Lin Mu muttered in confusion.
The part which he had particularity targeted was now popping out of the wall. It was as if a brick had been moved from a large wall and that’s what it looked like to him, except it was a large part of the rock wall instead of a brick.
The part of the wall was about two meters wide and was poking out of the wall halfway. Looking at its depth, Lin Mu could tell it was half a meter wide as well.