Chapter 3489: Another Reference For Meng Bai

Meng Bai stared at Lin Mu as if looking at something unreal.

"I... I cannot even imagine how you did that," he admitted. "From what I’ve heard just understanding the Sixth Stage alone takes centuries if not millennia for most people."

Lin Mu smiled faintly. "I did not plan it. I adapted."

SMACK

Cattaleya suddenly laughed and stepped forward, slapping Lin Mu on the back with enough force to make the ground crack slightly.

"That’s more like it," she said cheerfully. "If anyone was going to tear a technique apart and rebuild it, it was going to be you."

Elyon crossed his arms, eyes thoughtful. "There is a more important question," he said.

Everyone looked at him.

"What does this mean for your cultivation level?" Elyon continued. "Are you now equivalent to a Sixth Tribulation Stage Immortal? Or Seventh, since you added a new stage? And what of the original Seventh Stage, the Aperture Closing Realm?"

Lin Mu nodded. He had expected this question.

"In raw terms," he said slowly, "with just the Three Apertures Invoking Technique, I can likely touch upon the power of a Seventh Tribulation Stage Immortal."

Meng Bai inhaled sharply.

"And the next stage?" Daoist Chu asked.

Lin Mu’s gaze drifted briefly toward the ocean.

"The Aperture Closing Realm," he said, "which may now be considered the Eighth Stage... I cannot say for certain. But if completed successfully, it may allow one to step into power comparable to the Transcendent Realm."

Silence fell again.

This time, it was heavier.

Daoist Chu exhaled slowly. "That is... terrifying."

Elyon nodded in agreement. "And dangerous."

Cattaleya grinned, utterly unbothered. "Sounds fun."

Meng Bai swallowed, his fists clenching unconsciously. The distance between him and his master felt larger than ever, yet strangely, it also felt like a path he could see more clearly now.

Lin Mu looked at them all, his expression calm.

"This path is not for everyone," he said. "But there are insights here. Ones that may help you too."

Daoist Chu’s eyes flickered with interest. Meng Bai straightened, determination burning behind his gaze.

The courtyard fell into a thoughtful quiet, broken only by the gentle bubbling of Little Shrubby’s cooking and the distant sound of waves. The place remained quiet for several breaths after Lin Mu finished explaining his estimate of power.

Even for people who had seen him do impossible things repeatedly, the idea that a body cultivation technique could be pushed to the edge of the Transcendent Realm was difficult to digest.

Daoist Chu stared into the distance as if replaying the explanation again and again in his mind, while Meng Bai simply stood there, fingers clenched, eyes burning with a mixture of awe and pressure.

Cattaleya was the first to break the silence.

"Heh," she said, rolling her shoulders. "I knew you were hiding something disgusting like this."

Lin Mu chuckled softly. "I am not hiding it. I am still figuring it out myself."

Daoist Chu finally exhaled and looked at Lin Mu again. "You understand that what you have done will shake more than just body cultivation circles," he said. "If word spreads, there will be people who try to replicate it without understanding the foundation."

Lin Mu nodded. "Which is why I do not intend to spread it. At least not yet."

Then his expression shifted, becoming more focused.

"However," he continued, "there is something that might be immediately useful."

Meng Bai looked up at once.

Lin Mu raised a hand and projected a faint construct of immortal essence into the air. It was not an illusion, but a simplified schematic. Three large nodes appeared, representing the apertures, but unlike traditional diagrams, the space between them was filled with countless intertwining lines.

"This," Lin Mu said, "is the Essence Meridian Casting network."

Daoist Chu’s eyes sharpened. "You think this can help Meng Bai."

"Yes," Lin Mu replied without hesitation. "Your problem was never talent or understanding. It was compatibility. Your body does not cultivate like mine, and the Lapiz Link Body Array Totemic Art still requires a body cultivation foundation. But this network is different."

Meng Bai stepped closer, staring at the construct. "Because it does not fully rely on strengthening flesh first," he said slowly.

"Correct," Lin Mu said. "It creates pathways for immortal essence first. The body adapts after which would help the Aperture Closing Realm."

Daoist Chu’s breathing grew slightly heavier. "This is closer to a bridge than a foundation. A transitional structure."

Lin Mu nodded. "Exactly. I am not saying you should replicate it. That would be reckless. But studying it may help you design something compatible with Formation Dao. Something that distributes energy without tearing your body apart."

Meng Bai swallowed. "Master Lin... if this works..."

"It will not be quick," Lin Mu said calmly. "And it will not be easy. But now you have two references. Blueback’s totemic arrays, and my Essence Meridian Casting network. Between them, there is a path."

That was all Meng Bai needed to hear.

For the next several days, the White Bubble Inn became strangely quiet from the outside, but inside one of the courtyards, an intense atmosphere formed.

Lin Mu, Daoist Chu, and Meng Bai worked together from morning until deep into the night.

Lin Mu projected his internal network repeatedly, refining the schematic layer by layer. Daoist Chu annotated every detail, noting flow directions, pressure points, and structural redundancies. Meng Bai asked questions constantly, sometimes naive, sometimes piercing, forcing Lin Mu to articulate things he had done instinctively rather than deliberately.

They mapped how the links avoided vital organs when possible yet still provided them immortal essence, how they wrapped around bones to anchor stability, how excess immortal essence was redirected into circulation instead of storage. They discussed failure points and hypothetical collapses.

By the end of the third day, the courtyard walls were covered in floating diagrams and written notes.

No technique was created yet.

But a door had opened.

When the research finally paused, it was not because they were finished, but because their minds could not take any more.

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