Walker Of The Worlds

Chapter 3923: Stepping Into The Air

Lin Mu silently estimated the effort involved.

Even with healthy people the process remained incredibly dangerous. These prisoners, however, suffered from severe malnutrition. Several possessed broken bones and many could barely stand.

The slightest mistake would send the entire chain plummeting into the darkness below.

Lin Mu slowly shook his head. "Forget it."

The prisoners blinked. "My lord?"

"It’ll be easier if I descend alone." Lin Mu stated.

Confused expressions immediately appeared across every face.

One younger prisoner scratched his head. "...How?"

Another looked over the edge. "There isn’t another path."

Lin Mu simply smiled faintly and he stepped away from the cliff.

Then... He began hopping.

Once.

Twice.

Again.

The prisoners looked at one another. "My lord?"

But no answer came as Lin Mu continued hopping. The rhythm remained perfectly consistent while the prisoners gradually became more confused.

"What is he doing?"

"Training?"

"It looks strange."

Several minutes passed, when finally someone gasped.

"Look!" Everyone immediately focused upon Lin Mu’s feet.

For the briefest instant they remained suspended. It was barely longer than a blink and then Lin Mu landed again. The hopping continued as another minute passed. His pauses gradually lengthened and each jump lingered slightly longer than the previous one.

The surrounding prisoners slowly fell silent as minute after minute passed. Eventually Lin Mu no longer merely paused. He actually stood in midair for several breaths before gently descending again.

Eyes widened throughout the gathering and the old man’s mouth slowly opened. Another three minutes passed and Lin Mu performed one final jump.

But this time... He never came back down.

His feet rested calmly upon empty air as though an invisible staircase supported him. He casually took another step, then another and each movement remained perfectly natural. The air itself seemed to become solid beneath his feet.

"He..." One prisoner stammered. "He can fly?"

Another immediately shook his head. "That’s impossible!"

"Our cultivation is sealed!"

"How is he doing that?"

Even the old man stared in complete disbelief. ’Without cultivation... Without spiritual Qi... Without flying treasures...’ His thoughts were in disarray.

Lin Mu calmly stood several meters above the ground. Only Lin Mu himself understood what had truly happened.

This technique was the Ascending Air Steps.

A body cultivation movement art he had obtained from the library. Most cultivators required years of relentless practice before reaching even the introductory stage. But Lin Mu had mastered it in barely ten minutes.

His terrifying comprehension continued demonstrating itself in ways that would leave even the creators of the technique questioning whether such talent should truly exist.

The prisoners remained frozen where they stood and every pair of eyes followed Lin Mu as he calmly stood upon empty air. For several long breaths nobody spoke. The only sounds came from the distant dripping water echoing through the enormous cavern.

The old man slowly blinked.

His remaining eye never left Lin Mu’s feet. He had lived for nearly two centuries within the Mad Demon Depths. He had witnessed countless prisoners. He had seen body cultivators of remarkable strength.

He had even watched people perform astonishing feats before their cultivation was sealed.

Yet, never once had he witnessed someone standing upon air with their cultivation completely suppressed.

One young prisoner quietly swallowed.

"He’s..." His voice barely emerged. "Really flying..."

Several prisoners unconsciously looked toward their own shackles. For them those restraints represented absolute truth. Once the shackles locked around their wrists and ankles, cultivation ceased to exist.

Everyone became equal and everyone became prisoners.

Lin Mu had casually shattered that belief.

"He isn’t using Immortal Qi." One elderly prisoner whispered. "I can’t feel any fluctuations. It has to be a body technique."

Another slowly nodded before immediately shaking his head again.

"No... What kind of body technique lets someone walk through the sky?" The question lingered unanswered.

The old man’s thoughts drifted back toward the glowing array surrounding the crystal skull. Then toward Lin Mu. The young man had exposed their false deity and he possessed knowledge beyond anything they remembered.

He carried treasures beyond imagination, he handed out fresh food as though it meant nothing and he even revealed ancient arrays. Now, he stood upon empty air as if it were solid earth.

One prisoner quietly muttered,

"Perhaps..." He hesitated before continuing. "...perhaps he really is a deity."

Several nearby people immediately looked toward him.

The young man hurriedly explained himself.

"I don’t mean..." He pointed back towards the direction of the abandoned effigy. "...that thing."

His voice lowered. "I mean... A real deity."

The words spread rapidly throughout the gathered prisoners as several nodded unconsciously. The old man remained silent as for the first time in nearly two centuries he found himself comparing two beings.

One demanded blood, the other gave food. One hid behind an ancient array and the other casually exposed it. One weakened those who worshipped it while the other possessed strength that defied their understanding.

Perhaps their faith had merely been directed toward the wrong existence all along. But none of them dared to voice that thought aloud. Yet the seed had already been planted. Lin Mu paid no attention to the expressions behind him.

His focus remained entirely upon the vast underground world waiting below.

Then without another word he stepped forward.

WHOOSH!

The air beneath his feet rippled and one step carried him several hundred meters forward. Every step caused a ripple and soon his figure became a blur. Each movement appeared simple but each step covered astonishing distances.

Within only a few breaths Lin Mu had already disappeared into the darkness beyond the cliff. The prisoners continued staring toward the empty sky. Eventually one man quietly scratched his head.

"So... What do we do now?"

Nobody answered as no one knew it. The old man slowly sat upon a nearby rock. His gaze drifted towards the location of the abandoned crystal skull. Then toward the direction where Lin Mu had vanished.

The world he believed in yesterday no longer existed and everything had changed within a single day.