Chapter 37：Consuming The Spirit Fruit (2/2)

After waking up, Lin Mu started preparing his breakfast and practiced the Boulder collapsing fist. He tried forming two spirals while using the technique, but could not as the vital energy would dissipate as soon as he tried pulling another strand to form the second spiral.

Lin Mu stopped practicing the martial technique after multiple failures and ate his breakfast. He chanted the calming heart sutra and assimilated the vital energy as always. He could tell that the rate of absorption had gone up by at least twenty percent, and he could absorb even more vital energy.

After he was done with the assimilation of vital energy, he practiced using the different weapons. While practicing Lin Mu came to the conclusion that he was more comfortable with swords, daggers, and the spear. He practiced with the axes but found them to be awkward to use and the shields did not matter much, as all he could do with them was defend.

While with the gauntlets, he found that he could use them in tandem with the boulder collapsing fist. The gauntlets were made of tough and hardened leather that was studded and reinforced with metal plates. They were okay to wear during a fight, but Lin Mu couldn't bring himself to wear them all the time, like he was doing with the leather armour he had looted from the thief.

While Lin Mu was training he was reminded of something now that he was in the 8th stage of the body tempering realm. He stopped and withdrew the grape-sized purple spirit fruit he had obtained by risking his life. As soon as he withdrew it, he could feel the dense spirit qi stored in it. The spirit qi was much denser than the spirit apples and was comparable with the spirit stones.

'It should be fine for me to eat it now.' Lin Mu thought.

Lin Mu had been waiting to enter the 8th stage of the body tempering realm so that he could become a cultivator. Even though he would need a cultivation manual to become an official cultivator, he could still eat a spirit fruit now.

Lin Mu made up his mind and proceeded ahead. He took a deep breath and popped the small fruit into his mouth. He bit the fruit in his mouth and felt a pleasant sweetness spreading in his mouth. After savouring the fruit for a moment, he swallowed it. Since the fruit was only the size of a grape, it was gone in one bite and gulp.

For the first minute after eating the fruit, Lin Mu did not feel anything, making him think whether he was mistaken, and it was a fake spirit fruit that he just ate. But after a minute passed, it was time for him to be in agony.

A scorching pain rose from his stomach and spread through his body. It coursed through his blood vessels, muscles, and skin until it reached the bones and touched his marrow. That was when he screamed out in pain.

”AAGHHHH!”

Lin Mu's agony filled scream echoed through the forest, scaring the birds into flying away. The spirit qi spread into what Lin Mu thought were his blood vessels until he determined they were something else completely. These vessels were similar to blood vessels and were located along with them side by side, with some spreading away from them as well.

Lin Mu finally understood what these vessels were. They were none other than the spirit meridians he had heard about from the stories and other people. The pain coursed through his meridians and reached his abdomen where it settled for a moment before rising up again, forming a cycle.

Lin Mu was too exhausted to even scream now. He was covered in sweat from head to toe and his grey clothes were drenched wet. After a few minutes of agony, he could sense the vital energy that was stored in his body multiplying. The spirit qi from the fruit was being absorbed by his body and used as a fuel to generate vital energy.

At this point, Lin Mu was finally able to gather some of his will and chanted the calming heart sutra. Inside the mysterious ring, there existed the ethereal altar that was made of mystical runes. The altar had been glowing ever since Lin Mu had eaten the spirit fruit and was becoming brighter and brighter by the minute.

When Lin Mu chanted the calming heart sutra, the ethereal altar started resonating and gave out its own pulses of energy. Suddenly Lin Mu could heart thundering chants of a thousand monks in his head. The esoteric chants were incomprehensible to Lin Mu, yet he could somehow understand their underlying meaning.

Under the influence of the thunderous chanting, the rampaging spirit qi was finally tamed and stabilised. The spirit qi stopped being unruly and settled down in Lin Mu's abdomen. He felt that the place it settled down was two inches above his navel and felt like it was intangible. Lin Mu was able to determine that the place was his dantian.