Another month passed just like that, and Lin Mu finally felt a change in his body.
"It’s time for the breakthrough..." Lin Mu muttered.
"Is the spirit Qi already at peak for you?" Xukong asked.
"Yes, my Nascent Soul is already ready for it." Lin Mu replied and sat down.
He closed his eyes and chanted the severing heart sutra before using his spirit sense to observe his Dantian.
In there, the spirit Qi was like a turbulent sea as it kept on swirling around the Nascent soul. More spirit Qi kept on pouring in from the walls of the Dantian while the Nascent Soul absorbed a majority from the Dantian.
A strange cycle was created , which balanced the input and consumption of spirit Qi in Lin Mu’s Dantian.
’Despite using Spirit Qi all the time during these past five months, he still managed to reach the breakthrough. This pace is quite good and if he is able to keep it up, it will push him to the next stage soon as well.’ Xukong thorough to himself.
The Infant like Nascent Soul in Lin Mu’s Dantian kept on absorbing the spirit Qi till it started to finally grow. His arms grew thicker and his legs longer. His back grew taller and his head grew bigger too.
Soon the Nascent Soul changed from looking like an Infant to a Child that looked to be about five years old. This meant that Lin Mu had successfully broken through to the Child Stage of the Nascent Soul realm.
If one looked at the child soul in Lin Mu’s Dantian, one would find a lot more similarities between it and Lin Mu. When it was still an infant, it was hard to tell that but now the similarities would only increase till they looked the same.
Lin Mu let out a breath as he stabilized his spirit Qi. It didn’t really take him much effort to break through this time as it was the Well Of Slumber doing the work. But Lin Mu knew this could not be done always.
For bigger breakthroughs like those into major realms, Lin Mu would need to be fully awake and in control. Those breakthroughs brought about qualitative changes and without having proper control, Lin Mu would most likely die.
One could only imagine what would happen if Lin Mu was asleep when the heavenly tribulation arrived. While the Mortal strengthening scripture might be able to protect him for a while, if he was not in full control, there were still many problems that could appear.
At least for now, Lin Mu did not need to worry about it.
"How’s the difference in spirit Qi of the minor plane now?" Xukong questioned.
This was the main reason why they were doing this and needed for the minor plane’s spirit Qi to fully deplete. Only once that was done would they be able to leave this world by letting it fully collapse.
"Hmm, the concentration had fallen by about thirty percent I suppose." Lin Mu spoke.
"Thirty percent... it should only speed up from now. The higher the cultivation base gets the faster the depletion rate will get." Xukong replied.
"How long do you think it will take, senior? From what I can estimate it seems like five more months." Lin Mu spoke.
"Yes, that should be the right time." Xukong agreed.
Lin Mu nodded his head and looked around at all the mess in the Sleepscape. There were materials for formations lying around everywhere, along with broken or incomplete formations. There were even a few formations that Lin Mu had laid on the ground.
Because of the Source Vein of spirit stone mine which was now part of the Sleepscape, it was continually producing its own spirit Qi. While this amount was less than that of the real world, it was still enough for him to practice making some formations.
These were the formations that could operate continually without needing any additional spirit stones as they would absorb spirit Qi from the environment. Had it not been for the change in the Sleepscape, Lin Mu would have been unable to practice these.
Currently about a quarter of the Sleepscape was filled with these formations and materials, making it look like a scrapyard. The poor Spirit apple tree was stuck in the middle while being surrounded by a couple of ’hills’ of broken or defective formation flags.
Such was the life Lin Mu had adapted for now, and he was content with it. Though he knew this was temporary and that he would need to leave it as soon as the next step of the plan started. He continued this routine while improving his proficiency in formations and injecting the Grey egg with beast Qi for more time.
And just as Lin Mu had estimated, five more months passed before the concentration of spirit Qi in the air fell by a great amount. Right now it was barely five percent of what it was originally and it was still decreasing.
But it was just one part of it, as Lin Mu was now close to another breakthrough!
Lin Mu was sitting cross legged while letting the spirit Qi flow into his body freely. He didn’t even need to use severing heart sutra this time to peer into his Dantian and could do it freely due to the continued practice in this time.
Making formations needed a lot of spirit sense use. This led to him becoming better and better at controlling it. And now, he could use it much more easily and did not need the assistance of the severing heart sutra.
Lin Mu watched on as his Nascent Soul started to grow once more. This time the growth was much slower than before. Its limbs started to grow and its torso became bigger. About an hour passed before Lin Mu’s Nascent Soul was finally done growing.
And with this Lin Mu had broken through once again and had reached the Adolescence Soul Stage of the Nascent Soul realm. If one looked at Lin Mu’s Nascent Soul now, one would find that it looked the same as him when he was fifteen years old.