The change was imdiate.
A pressure spread outward from him, invisible yet overwhelming in its effect. It was not sothing that crushed or suppressed in the conventional sense. It was sothing deeper, sothing that touched the instinct of every elental present.
Predator.
That was what they felt.
The reaction was instantaneous.
The elentals did not hesitate. They scattered in all directions, fleeing with a frantic urgency that spoke of pure instinct. Those that had been nestled within the junkyard abandoned their positions, slipping into cracks, burrowing into deeper layers, or retreating toward distant areas where the influence of Lin Mu's technique felt weaker.
They knew, without understanding how, that remaining here ant being consud.
The elders watched this with narrowed eyes.
They had seen elentals behave cautiously before, but this was sothing entirely different. This was not caution. This was fear. And it was directed toward Lin Mu.
The next mont, the junkyard itself began to react.
A faint tremor spread across the ground.
Then it intensified.
Pieces of tal shifted. Fragnts of stone rolled slightly before lifting off the ground. Slag, dust, and broken materials began to rise, slowly at first, then with increasing speed.
A vortex ford.
Lin Mu remained at the center, unmoving, as everything around him was drawn inward. The debris circled him, spinning faster and faster, forming a massive rotating field that expanded outward in all directions.
He rose into the air and his body settled into a cross-legged posture, suspended within the swirling mass. His breathing slowed, his presence becoming calm even as the chaos around him intensified.
Then the transformation began.
The materials that entered the vortex did not remain intact for long. The mont they crossed a certain threshold, they began to deteriorate. tal lost its structure, breaking down into fine particulate matter. Stone crumbled into dust. Slag dissolved into granular fragnts.
It was not simple destruction, it was refinent as the impurities were stripped away. And what remained was essence, pure elental energy. Streams of it began to erge, separating from the disintegrating materials.
Dense currents of earth and tal energy ford first, flowing toward Lin Mu in thick, steady streams. Smaller traces of other elents appeared as well, subtle but present, remnants of the complex compositions that the dwarves had worked with over the years.
Faint strands of fire energy lingered within certain tals. Traces of wood essence could be found in fragnts of old handles. Even hints of frost, lightning and wind appeared in rare materials that had once been imbued with specialized properties.
All of it was drawn inward and all of it was absorbed.
Within minutes, Lin Mu's figure beca obscured entirely. The vortex thickened, its density increasing as more and more material was drawn in. Dust filled the air, swirling in dense layers that blocked all vision.
From the outside, he was no longer visible.
Only the massive rotating field remained.
The elders observed in silence.
Their expressions were filled with curiosity and a hint of disbelief.
One of them spoke quietly.
"This… resembles the Grand tal Assimilation Technique of the First Dwarves."
Another shook his head slightly.
"It is broader than that," he said. "He is absorbing earth as well. It is closer to the principles behind the World Quaking Atlas Bloodline."
They continued to compare.
Each of them recognized fragnts of familiar techniques within what Lin Mu was doing. Elents of ancient thods, traces of long-lost practices, and hints of multiple cultivation paths seed to be woven together.
Yet none of them could fully identify it.
"This is not a single technique," the Rune Dwarf Elder finally said. "It is sothing… combined."
They fell silent again, choosing to observe rather than speculate further.
Ti passed.
The vortex continued.
The junkyard, once filled with mountains of discarded materials, began to shrink visibly. Layers of debris vanished one after another, consud and reduced to nothing but residual dust that quickly dissipated.
Days turned into weeks.
The dwarves of Mantleheim beca aware of what was happening. So ca to observe from a distance, standing at the edges of the cliff, watching as the vast junkyard slowly disappeared.
This was not a small accumulation of waste.
This was the result of tens of thousands of years of forging.
Materials had been gathered from shattered worlds, mined from deep within planetary fragnts, and collected from asteroids drifting through the space. Countless failed attempts, discarded experints, and leftover residues had all ended up here.
What had once been considered worthless was now being consud entirely.
Mountain after mountain vanished.
The vortex never slowed.
At its peak, it stretched across the entire junkyard, drawing in everything within reach. The sound of grinding materials and swirling dust filled the air continuously, a low, constant hum that beca part of the environnt itself.
Finally, after a full month had passed, the process ca to an end. The vortex weakened as the rotation slowed before it stopped. The dust settled a few minutes later and what remained was a barren landscape.
The junkyard was gone.
In its place lay bare, dark rock and scattered remnants of fine dust that no longer held any significant energy.
At the center of it all, Lin Mu still floated.
His eyes remained closed, his expression calm.
Within him, the changes were profound.
Before this, his elental cores had already reached significant levels. The Earth core had been the most developed among the three he was focusing on, standing at seventy percent completion. The Fire core followed closely at sixty-nine percent, while the tal core lagged slightly behind at sixty-seven percent.
His Wood core was ahead of all of them at seventy-three percent, having benefited from previous cultivation materials. anwhile, the Wind and Lightning cores remained in early stages, at ten percent and seven percent respectively.
Now, those numbers had shifted.
The imnse influx of elental energy had pushed his progress forward.
The Earth core surged first.
It climbed steadily, absorbing the dense, stable energy drawn from countless stones and ores. Its structure beca more refined, its presence within Lin Mu's internal world growing stronger and more defined.
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