Walker Of The Worlds

Chapter 3844: Ascending Air Steps

Lin Mu browsed several movement skills like the Thunderous Ground Step, Mountain Leaping Art, Hundred League Charge and a rather strange sounding Exploding Heel Movement. Then he found something unusual.

"Ascending Air Steps?" Lin Mu raised his brows and picked up the manual.

The skill was intended for body cultivators who had reached the Immortal Realm. Its purpose was simple: Walking on air.

Lin Mu immediately became interested and began reading.

The Ascending Air Steps had three major levels.

Fleeting Step.

Solid Step.

Corporeal Step.

The Fleeting Step was the foundation.

The practitioner used an explosive release of vitality through the sole of their foot to compress the surrounding air. For an incredibly brief moment, the compressed air would become dense enough to provide resistance.

The body cultivator would step upon it. But the foothold lasted less than a second. Sometimes only a fraction of a second. Yet that fraction was enough. A skilled practitioner could leap into the air, create a Fleeting Step, push themselves higher, and repeat the process.

Lin Mu imagined it and it was essentially running through the sky.

’Crude, though effective.’ He thought.

The second level was the Solid Step. This stage required considerably greater control.

Instead of producing a momentary foothold, the practitioner continuously compressed the air beneath their feet. As long as they maintained the flow of vitality, they could stand in the air for several seconds.

The manual warned that maintaining the Solid Step consumed tremendous amounts of vitality.

Lin Mu continued reading and then he reached the third level.

Corporeal Step.

Lin Mu’s eyes narrowed slightly. "This is interesting."

The Corporeal Step brought about a total transformation in the technique. It required monstrous control over vitality or Immortal Essence. Though the manual strongly recommended Immortal Essence.

Using vitality was possible, though the creator had written several warnings about it. Poor control could cause the compressed air to violently rebound against the practitioner’s feet and legs.

The resulting injuries could shatter bones or even tear muscles. In extreme cases, the backlash could send the practitioner spinning through the air before they crashed into the ground.

Lin Mu could imagine several Wild Peak disciples attempting it anyway. The actual method of the Corporeal Step was fascinating. The practitioner used Immortal Essence to trap a pocket of air beneath their feet.

That alone was insufficient as the trapped air would be pushed downward by the practitioner’s weight and escape within a fraction of a second. The solution was continuous circulation.

Fresh air had to be pulled into the pocket and compressed while the older air had to be expelled. The process repeated continuously. The practitioner essentially created a constantly renewing cushion of compressed air beneath their feet.

Lin Mu stared at the diagram. "Interesting."

He read it again as the principle was remarkably clever. It did not imitate Qi cultivation flight. It used physical principles combined with the control provided by Immortal Essence.

"This is basically making a platform out of air," Lin Mu muttered.

"A continuously rebuilding platform," Xukong corrected.

Lin Mu nodded.

The Corporeal Step allowed the practitioner to hover, walk, run and even change direction in the air freely. With enough mastery, a body cultivator could move through the sky almost as freely as a Qi cultivator.

Lin Mu felt genuinely appealed by the technique. Of course he did not need it. With his Spatial Skills and cultivation base, Lin Mu already possessed far superior movement methods.

Still, the idea fascinated him. More importantly, it suited Little Bull. If Lin Mu eventually needed to display aerial movement while maintaining his disguise, the Ascending Air Steps would provide a perfect explanation.

He could fly without revealing Qi.

Lin Mu looked at the manual again.

Then a thought appeared in his mind. "Senior Xukong."

"Hmm?"

"Do you think I could use Spatial Qi instead of Immortal Essence?"

Xukong remained silent for a moment as Lin Mu’s interest grew. The air pocket was the foundation. The technique used Immortal Essence to contain and circulate the air. Spatial Qi could potentially create a far more stable enclosure.

Lin Mu looked down at the diagrams as a small smile appeared on his face. He had entered the library looking for an excuse to pretend that Little Bull was learning cultivation. Somehow, he had found another technique he genuinely wanted to experiment with.

"Ascending Air Steps," Lin Mu muttered.

He issued a copy of the manual.

"I’ll take this one too."

After putting away the copy of the Ascending Air Steps, Lin Mu continued deeper into the skill section of the library. The movement skills had proven far more interesting than he had originally expected, and that had raised his expectations for the remaining categories.

According to the information transmitted by the central array, the next section contained support skills, a classification broad enough that Lin Mu expected to find healing methods, vitality recovery arts, sensory techniques, and perhaps specialized methods that assisted a body cultivator during battle.

At first, that was exactly what he found.

There were several minor healing skills that taught body cultivators how to direct vitality toward injured areas. One technique accelerated blood clotting and could close shallow wounds within seconds.

Another taught the practitioner how to isolate damaged muscles so that the surrounding muscles could continue functioning. Lin Mu even found a rather useful method that allowed a cultivator to temporarily lock a broken bone in place by tightening the surrounding muscles and tendons.

None of these techniques were particularly useful to Lin Mu, especially with his Absolute Body Control Art and the incredible regenerative abilities of the Burdenless Dominator Physique, though he could see their value to ordinary body cultivators.

Body cultivators suffered injuries far more frequently than Qi cultivators, and many of them continued fighting despite those injuries. A technique that allowed them to keep a shattered arm stable or prevent blood loss could easily save their lives.

Lin Mu continued browsing and found several dodging skills too.

These did not focus upon speed as much as controlling the body with great precision. One taught cultivators how to twist their joints at unusual angles to avoid attacks.