Chapter 3487: Essence Meridian Casting Realm

When Lin Mu finally opened his eyes again, the sun had already completed a full arc across the sky.

He rose slowly to his feet.

SHUA

With a simple thought, the moisture in the air gathered around him. A thin veil of water flowed across his skin, washing away dried blood, grime, and sweat. The water carried everything off his body before dispersing harmlessly back into the ocean breeze, leaving him clean and refreshed.

’Truly convenient.’ Lin Mu found the Water affinity really great.

Only then did Lin Mu turn his focus inward.

What he saw made him fall silent.

The Three Apertures Invoking Technique was no longer what it had once been.

Calling it a deviation felt insufficient. Calling it an evolution was closer, but still incomplete. This was not refinement. It was not optimization.

It was mutation.

At the heart of his body, the three apertures still existed. They were larger than before, deeper, their vortexes slow and dignified rather than violent and hungry. Each one rotated steadily, drawing in immortal essence and releasing it without strain.

But the links were what truly defied understanding.

At first glance, near the apertures themselves, the structure appeared orderly. Smooth, concentric curves connected the vortexes, layers of immortal essence channels wrapping around them in symmetrical patterns. These inner links resembled a carefully drawn diagram, elegant and deliberate.

But the farther the links extended from the apertures, the more chaotic they became.

They curved sharply, twisted unexpectedly, branched and rejoined in ways that defied classical logic. Some paths looped around organs before reconnecting. Others threaded themselves between muscle fibers or traced along bones like glowing veins of light.

And yet, despite the apparent randomness, nothing was unstable.

Every link connected exactly where it needed to.

The flow of immortal essence through this vast network was smooth and uninterrupted. There was no turbulence, no dead ends, no accumulation points that risked overload.

It was now alive and functioning on its own.

Lin Mu watched as immortal essence circulated through his body, not confined to narrow paths, but spread across a web that touched every part of him.

His organs were bathed constantly in energy. His muscles were reinforced from within. Even his nerves and senses were subtly strengthened, reacting faster, transmitting information with greater clarity.

Nothing was left untouched.

Xukong’s voice echoed in his mind, filled with awe.

"This is... unprecedented," the ancient spider said slowly. "It is almost like you have grown a second meridian system inside your body."

Lin Mu nodded faintly.

"That’s what it feels like," he replied.

Xukong continued, his tone thoughtful. "Meridians are meant for Qi even if they can carry other energies. They are narrow, directional, optimized for flow but limited in capacity. What you have created is different. This network is not meant to refine Qi at all."

Lin Mu watched the immortal essence pulse through a particularly dense cluster of links near his spine.

"It’s for immortal essence alone," he said.

Lin Mo let out a low chuckle from within his mind.

"Another set of meridians," the devilish presence said. "But not carved by the heavens upon birth or inherited from bloodlines. They were forged by desperation and stubbornness."

Xukong agreed, something rare enough that it made Lin Mu raise an eyebrow.

"He is right," Xukong said. "These links function as essence meridians. They allow circulation, buffering, and distribution on a scale that traditional apertures could never achieve alone."

Lin Mu frowned slightly as he studied the structure more closely.

"There are too many of them," he said. "Hundreds. Maybe thousands."

"And yet," Lin Mo added, "you control them all."

That was true.

Lin Mu focused, and the entire network responded instantly.

He could accelerate the flow in one region while slowing it in another. He could redirect excess immortal essence away from sensitive areas and into regions better suited to endure it. He could even temporarily thicken certain links, increasing their capacity on demand.

This was not just storage anymore.

It was like infrastructure backed up by the power of a logistics team.

He slowly straightened, his expression shifting as understanding settled in.

"The Sixth Stage no longer describes this," Lin Mu said.

Xukong hesitated. "Indeed. This is no longer simply the Aperture Linking Realm."

Lin Mo grinned audibly. "Then name it."

Lin Mu considered that.

Naming a stage was not a trivial matter. Cultivation stages were frameworks that defined understanding. Once named, they shaped how future practitioners would interpret the technique.

But in this case, Lin Mu was not merely advancing within an existing framework.

He had created a new one.

"These links," he said thoughtfully, "they cast pathways of immortal essence throughout my body. They are not apertures, and they are not meridians as they were originally conceived."

He paused.

"Essence Meridian Casting," he said finally.

Xukong repeated it slowly. "Essence Meridian Casting Stage."

Lin Mo laughed. "It suits it. You are literally casting new meridians out of immortal essence itself."

Lin Mu nodded.

"It fits between the sixth and seventh stages," he said. "The apertures are still open, but the body is already adapting to full essence circulation. This stage prepares the body for eventual Aperture Closing, instead of rushing into it."

"A sixth and a half stage," Lin Mo mused. "Or perhaps..."

"Perhaps the seventh should no longer be the seventh," Lin Mu said calmly.

Xukong fell silent for a long moment before speaking again.

"If you formalize this stage," he said, "then Aperture Closing would naturally become the eighth stage."

Lin Mu smiled faintly.

"No one is here to tell me I am wrong."

Lin Mo snorted. "Even if the original creators of the technique appeared right now, they would probably kneel and ask you to teach them."

Xukong, surprisingly, agreed. "This path is safer. More stable. It resolves the greatest bottleneck of the technique without relying on external aids."

Lin Mu exhaled slowly.

Then it was settled.

The Three Apertures Invoking Technique now had a new stage.

The Essence Meridian Casting Stage.

And with it, the path ahead had changed.

The heavens might not approve. The future tribulations might be terrifying.

But Lin Mu had already proven something far more important.

When the path ended, he would build a new one himself.

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