Lin Mu soldiered on and finally reached the end point.
~HONG~
The moment, the process was complete, a loud hum was heard. The sound came from Lin Mu's heart. The sound slowly got louder and louder and its tone changed. Before it was like a light bell, but slowly it was morphing.
~Rumble~
~HONG~
Soon Lin Mu's heart was beating like the thunders of summer storms. It was as if a roaring fire was burning within his heart and it had become a furnace. The sounds were like the call of prominence and were heard in an area of over a hundred kilometers.
Little Shrubby was the closest and heard it the clearest. He quickly rushed to Lin Mu's side and checked upon him. Finding that Lin Mu was good, just in a unique state, he took a breath of relief.
But at this point, his ears twitched.
~GRRR~
Little Shrubby bared his fangs and looked towards the distance. In the forest away from the grotto, he could see several glowing lights and if one looked closely, they would see pupils within those lights.
~ROAR~
Little Shrubby let out his own roar and shot out towards the glowing eyes. Soon a battle ensued and fire raged. Lin Mu though, was completely unaware of it and was in a strange state right now.
He had no sense of the external world and was within the space of his mind. There he floated calmly. In front of him, he could see a body floating.
"Is that… my own body?" Lin Mu questioned.
At his current position, the body looked a bit blurry and thus hard to tell who it belonged to, but from the silhouette, he could kinda tell that it was none other than himself. He thus got close and finally confirmed it.
"It really is my body!" Lin Mu said in shock.
He was shocked because his body looked massive to him now. It was as if his body was that of a giant and was the size of a mountain. The only thing that was as big as this that Lin Mu had seen before was none other than the main body of Senior Xukong.
Lin Mu focused on his body and saw that he could zoom into certain parts if he wanted to and could also look into the different organs of the body. It was like he was able to separate out the different layers of his body.
He thus checked them and went through each layer one by one. But when he arrived at the internal level after having passed through the skin, and muscles, he saw two eye catching things.
The first was none other than his Spleen. It was tucked under his left lung and was almost touching his liver. But that was not the thing that caught his attention, rather it was the heaviness that was exuding from it.
Lin Mu was not even holding it and yet could tell that it was heavy. And not only that, but now that he was looking at it, he could see a brown glow coming from it as well.
"Is this perhaps the effect caused by the Five Treasure realm?" Lin Mu wondered.
He then looked at the second thing that was pulling his attention, which was none other than his heart. It was a vibrant red in color and each and every vein on it was prominent. It beat with vitality and seemed powerful.
It also emanated a heat that was like the depths of a furnace. Focusing on it, Lin Mu could see a ball of fire burning within it that looked like a sun. Seeing this, Lin Mu was now sure of what it was.
"It truly is the effect of the Five Treasures realm… every organ that is refined will gain a property like that it seems… the only thing is why am I seeing this?" Lin Mu muttered.
~HONG~
It was at this moment that his heart let out a humming sound again.
~SHUA~
Then it spontaneously combusted and let out a torrent of flames. These flames spread all over Lin Mu's body and threatened to burn him.
"ARGH! GODDAMMIT! WHAT IS THIS!?" Lin Mu cursed in pain.
His entire self felt like it was burning and felt incredibly hot. He couldn't even do anything and simply held on. And while in pain, a memory came to him. It was about the time he had broken through to the second stage of the Five Treasures realm and had just finished the refinement of his Spleen.
"IT'S THAT!" Lin Mu remembered.
When he had finished his spleen's refinement, it was like a very heavy gravity was placed on him. He felt like he would be pressed into a flat pancake. But he had borne through it and had eventually come out on top.
'It's like a tribulation… but at every stage of the Five Treasures realm? No wonder it's so difficult for others…' Lin Mu thought.
Going along with this assumption of his, Lin Mu just gritted his teeth and decided to endure it till the end. He had confidence that he would be able to come out on top again and won't lose now.
The fire crackled, and the pain continued.
Lin Mu had lost track of the time a while ago and didn't know just how long it had been. It could have been hours, or it could have been days, he did not know. All he knew was that he had to endure.
Time passed…
***
In the real world, the sounds of battle could be heard.
The forest near the grotto of the Thousand year old Hong Lin Trees was burning. A scene of devastation and death could be witnessed. Broken and burnt trees were laying on the ground along with several beast corpses.
Some were mangled, some burnt, some crushed.
~ROAR~
A thunderous roar burst through the raging flames as the face of a beast appeared.. Its eyes were a glowing red and red flames burnt all over it.