Lin Mu blinked. "A hundred years?"
"Yes," Lin Mo confird. "Barely a droplet in your ocean of ti, but still, that was the true price. The heavens took a century from your thread of fate in exchange for what you summoned. They always take their due, even if the loss seems small to you."
Lin Mu stood there quietly, his eyes reflecting thought.
A hundred years... in the grand span of his life, it was nothing. But the principle behind it unsettled him. It was still longer than the entire ti he had been alive after all.
The heavens did not forgive, nor did they forget. Even the smallest defiance was recorded, balanced in ways mortals could not comprehend.
"I see," Lin Mu finally said. "So that was the price."
Lin Mo nodded. "Yes. And rember, the sword spirit itself is resting too. It may take ti before it awakens again. When it does, you'll feel it."
Lin Mu looked thoughtful. "And if it never wakes?"
Lin Mo smirked faintly. "Then it's waiting for you to ascend higher. Its obvious that, Celestial weapons prefer celestial hands, after all."
Lin Mu chuckled softly at that. "You always know how to make things sound more mysterious than they are."
Lin Mo shrugged, his grin widening. "I rely tell you the truth, Lin Mu. What you do with it is your choice."
The devilish figure began to fade, his form turning translucent as the mind space started to dissolve.
"Still," Lin Mo added, his voice echoing faintly, "you got off easy this ti. Don't test the heavens too often. I don't wish for us to perish."
Lin Mu's eyes opened again, the real world returning to view. The faint evening breeze brushed his face as he sat silently beneath the temple caves.
He looked down at his hands, then at the sheath resting against his back.
"A hundred years..." he murmured quietly, a smile ghosting his lips. "If that's the price for saving the world, then it's cheap!"
And with that, Lin Mu leaned back, letting the calm of dusk settle around him, his heart at peace once more.
A few quiet days passed after Lin Mu learned the truth about the price he had paid.
The knowledge brought him an unexpected sense of peace. For weeks, the question had haunted him, lurking in the back of his mind like an unsolved riddle. Now that he finally understood what the heavens had taken, the unease that had shadowed his thoughts was gone.
A hundred years, in the grand tide of his life, was a small cost. It was a fair price for peace, both within and without.
His body felt lighter, his thoughts clearer.
He resud his daily training, though this ti with an ease that had been absent since his recovery began. He would walk the temple gardens in the morning, ditate beneath the shade of ancient trees, and sotis sit beside the lotus ponds to feed the fish.
He even took the chance to further improve his Omnicore Ascendency Technique with the various gifts that the people had brought him in the banquet. The progress for each of the cores was varied.
His tal Core grew by a tiny once percent, reaching sixty two percent. His Wind core rose to about seven percent while his lightning core was still stuck at a tiny three percent. His Earth and fire cores both reached sixty six percent, but the biggest progress was in his Water core.
After the Water elental Tribulation it had grown to ninety percent, as such the growth was quite slow even with the hundreds of materials Lin Mu had been gifted. But as he was checking his stores, he discovered the fragnt of the Greater Ice Elental he had killed.
He had almost forgotten about it due to the war and being asleep later, but he decided to use it. Even though it was an Ice Elental treasure, Lin Mu reckoned he could still use it with a little bit of help.
This of course, ca in the form of Xiao Yin and Xiao Yang that consud the fragnt and altered its composition, turning it from an extre Yin oriented Ice elent to a more neutral water.
Lin Mu then absorbed that pure elental energy, which allowed his Water core to grow three more percent reaching ninety three percent.
While it seed as small as the others, it was still greater considering the fact that growth slowed down the greater the size of the core beca. This was a pleasant surprise in the peace that had co.
But in that peace, a new dilemma began to take root.
For the first ti in decades, Lin Mu had no direction.
The wars had ended, his enemies were gone, and the Silent Lotus World was thriving once more. The great struggle that had defined his life for so long had concluded, leaving behind a stillness that was almost too quiet.
One warm afternoon, Lin Mu sat in his courtyard with a group of familiar faces gathered around him.
Daoist Chu lounged on a stone bench, his robes loose and his posture relaxed. Monk Hushu sat cross-legged beside the koi pond, muttering short mantras while occasionally reaching for the teapot.
Elyon leaned against a pillar nearby, the afternoon light catching his sharp features. ng Bai sat respectfully near Lin Mu, while Cattaleya, in her usual confident manner, occupied half a chair, her muscular fra seeming slightly too large for the delicate furniture.
Daoist Chu broke the silence first. "So, Lin Mu," he said, lifting a brow, "now that your strength has returned, what do you plan to do next? Will you continue cultivating here, or go sowhere else?"
Lin Mu looked at the distant horizon, his gaze thoughtful. "I'm not sure," he said after a pause. "For the first ti, I don't have a goal waiting ahead." Cattaleya laughed, her voice rich and lively. "Co on, it can't be that hard to pick sothing. You're acting like an old hermit with no hobbies."
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