Walker Of The Worlds

Chapter 3545: Pondering On The Water Core

They had left in a hurry. The teleportation array had been activated under duress. There had been no time to ask about travel duration, stabilization cycles, or spatial current alignment.

Daoist Chu stroked his beard thoughtfully.

”From old records,” he said slowly, ”a journey to the Fox Scion World should take roughly four to six months under normal conditions.”

Meng Bai frowned. ”Should?”

Daoist Chu nodded. ”The array was activated hastily. Power redirection, emergency stabilization, and forced alignment all introduce variables. There is a chance the spatial currents are not optimal.”

Elyon added, ”Which could stretch the travel time.”

”Yes,” Daoist Chu agreed. ”It might take longer.”

Lin Mu listened quietly.

Four to six months.

Possibly more.

He exhaled and closed his eyes, allowing the Qi gathering arrays of the Mobile Courtyard to begin their work, drawing power from the large chunks of Immortal Stones Lin Mu had set in their storage. Immortal Qi flowed gently into him, soothing the strain on his meridians and calming the residual tension in his mind.

”Then we rest,” Lin Mu said calmly.

He opened his eyes, his expression already returning to its usual composed state.

”This journey is not over yet.”

Two weeks passed quietly within the Spatial Channel.

Time flowed strangely here.

There was no sun to rise or set, no wind to mark the passage of hours. Only the endless rivers of distorted darkness with occasional flashes of spatial energy outside the Mobile Courtyard hinted that they were still moving, drifting steadily toward the distant Fox Scion World.

As always, the group fell into a familiar rhythm.

Meng Bai trained every day without exception. His mornings were spent cultivating, stabilizing his realm, and refining his understanding of Formation Dao under Daoist Chu’s guidance.

His afternoons were far less pleasant, as Cattaleya took over. Sparring with her was never gentle, and while she held back enough to not cripple him, she did not spare him pain.

Bruises, exhaustion, and shattered confidence were common, but so was improvement. His movements became sharper. His reactions faster. His ability to combine formations into combat steadily improved.

Daoist Chu hovered between instructor and observer, correcting Meng Bai’s mistakes with a sharp tongue while secretly approving of his progress. Occasionally, he would step in to demonstrate a formation principle, drawing glowing lines of Qi in the air that left Meng Bai scrambling to keep up.

Little Shrubby mostly watched from the sidelines, sometimes offering commentary that was entirely unhelpful, other times providing blunt insights that oddly hit the mark. When bored, he cooked. When inspired, he experimented with new ingredients gathered from their previous travels.

The twins came and went, sometimes cultivating, sometimes playing in the Sleepscape, sometimes simply coiling atop the courtyard roofs to nap. Since the incident in the forest, they had been quieter, more alert.

They still trusted Lin Mu completely, but they had learned a lesson about restraint and the cost of underestimating human greed.

Yet despite all of this activity, Lin Mu did not join them.

For the first time in a long while, he withdrew from active teaching and sparring.

Instead, he focused inward.

More specifically, on the Water Core.

The moment he had raised the waters of an entire city, something had shifted. At the time, his mind had been consumed by urgency and control, but once the danger had passed, the aftertaste of that experience lingered. It was like standing before a door he had unknowingly pushed open, only to realize there was a vast space beyond it that he could not yet fully see.

It was close.

Painfully close.

But still veiled in fog.

Lin Mu sat cross legged in the central pavilion room of the Mobile Courtyard, eyes closed, his breathing steady. His immortal sense was turned inward, tracing the flow of Qi through his meridians, organs, and cores.

The Water Core rotated calmly, its surface shimmering like a deep, endless sea. Compared to his other cores, it felt gentle. It did not roar with destructive intent like fire, nor did it crush with overwhelming pressure like Earth. And yet, its presence was pervasive, subtle, and endlessly adaptable.

After the battle in Three Union City, Lin Mu had already confirmed that his control over water had increased dramatically. Precision, range, responsiveness, all of it had improved. But he knew that was only the surface.

The Water Core was not merely about controlling external water.

It was about life.

Flow.

Purification.

Balance.

The physical changes had been the first clue.

Over the past two weeks, Lin Mu had noticed clear differences in his body. His endurance had improved, but not in the explosive way that Wood or Earth provided. Instead, it was smooth and sustained. His recovery rate had increased. Fatigue faded faster. Even minor internal imbalances corrected themselves naturally over time.

After careful observation, he pinpointed the cause.

His kidneys.

They were functioning at a level far beyond what they had before. Lin Mu estimated at least ten times their previous efficiency. Blood filtration, electrolyte balance, toxin removal, all of it had reached an absurd level of optimization.

This alone explained why his metabolism had accelerated. Impurities that would normally linger were expelled almost immediately. Even residues from high grade pills and elixirs were broken down more cleanly.

But that still did not explain everything.

There was more.

Lin Mu began experimenting.

He started with something simple.

Water.

He drank a cup slowly, focusing entirely on the process. His immortal sense followed the liquid from the moment it entered his mouth.

At first, everything seemed normal. The water passed through his throat, flowing toward his stomach. But then Lin Mu noticed something strange.

Before the water even reached his stomach, nearly half of it vanished.

Not physically.

It transformed.

The moment the water touched his internal Qi pathways, a portion of it was instantly converted into Water Qi. This conversion did not occur in the stomach or intestines, but along his meridians themselves, as if his body recognized the presence of water and absorbed its essence directly.