Walker Of The Worlds

Chapter 3676: A Junkyard

Lin Mu shook his head slightly, amused.

After that, he turned his attention to his beasts.

Little Shrubby appeared entirely at ease. The intense heat of Mantleheim suited him perfectly, and Lin Mu could feel that his cultivation had been progressing steadily.

”You seem comfortable,” Lin Mu said.

Shrubby gave a satisfied rumble.

”This place is good,” he replied. ”The fire energy is strong.”

Lin Mu nodded.

”Keep cultivating,” he said.

Then he looked at the twins.

Their situation was more surprising.

He could sense changes in their energy.

”What have you two been doing?” he asked.

Xiao Yin and Xiao Yang exchanged a glance before answering.

”We’ve been helping the dwarves,” Xiao Yin said.

”With their waste,” Xiao Yang added.

Lin Mu raised a brow.

They explained further.

The byproducts of dwarven forging, slag, toxic fumes, and impure energy, were normally handled through complex formations designed to cleanse and disperse them. They were in an enclosed space after all, thus the methods needed to be a lot more precise. The twins, however, had discovered that they could consume these byproducts directly.

They would absorb the impurities, refine them through their innate Yin and Yang comprehension, and convert them into usable energy.

Lin Mu listened carefully.

”So you’re turning waste into cultivation resources,” he said.

The twins nodded proudly.

”It also helps them,” Xiao Yin said.

”They don’t need to spend as much effort cleaning it,” Xiao Yang added.

Lin Mu smiled faintly.

”That is good,” he said. ”Continue doing it.”

The twins brightened at his approval.

After ensuring that everyone was settled, Lin Mu allowed himself a brief moment of calm.

It did not last long.

A few hours later, Jing Wei approached him.

”The elders are ready,” he said.

Lin Mu stood immediately.

Jing Wei walked alongside him as they made their way through Mantleheim.

”I didn’t expect you to have held back on forming those Dao Embryos,” Jing Wei remarked.

Lin Mu gave a slight shrug.

”I was unsure which path to take,” he said. ”It seemed better to wait.”

Jing Wei chuckled.

”Or maybe you were just waiting for something like this,” he said.

Lin Mu considered that.

”Perhaps,” he replied.

Jing Wei nodded.

”If it’s you,” he said, ”then I don’t doubt you’ll succeed.”

They continued walking.

The path gradually shifted, leading them away from the central activity of Mantleheim and toward its outer edges. The sounds of forging grew distant, replaced by a low, continuous roar.

Soon, they reached their destination.

It was located on the edge of a massive cliff.

Below, a vast lava fall cascaded downward, glowing like a river of molten gold as it poured into an immense sea of fire beneath. The heat radiating from it was immense, yet controlled, shaped by the natural and artificial structures surrounding it.

To one side of this dramatic landscape stood something entirely different.

A sprawling junkyard.

It stretched across a wide area, filled with heaps of discarded materials. Broken weapons, fragments of armor, slag from refining processes, raw ores, and half-processed metals lay scattered in organized chaos.

Lin Mu’s eyes scanned the area sensing that there was movement.

Small figures shifted within the piles of material, their forms blending with the environment.

Elementals.

Earth and metal elementals, born from accumulated residues of countless forging processes.

Jing Wei gestured toward them.

”This is where many of them form,” he explained. ”Over time, the materials gather enough energy to gain awareness.”

Lin Mu nodded slowly.

He understood.

In a way, what he was about to do mirrored their existence. They were born from accumulated elemental energy. He would absorb and refine that same energy to elevate himself.

Ahead, the Transcendent elders were already waiting.

Near them stood several large chests.

Lin Mu could sense immediately that they were not ordinary containers. Each one was a spatial storage treasure, capable of holding vast quantities of materials.

The Rune Dwarf Elder stepped forward.

”We have prepared everything,” he said.

He gestured toward the chests.

”These contain materials categorized by element and quality. Fire, metal, and earth. From the weakest traces to the most concentrated forms.”

The Fireforge Elder added,

”We did not limit the variety. You will find ores, refined metals, raw slag, elemental crystals, and everything in between.”

The Mountain Dwarf Elder pointed toward the junkyard.

”And beyond that,” he said, ”there is more. The discarded materials still contain residual energy. Individually they may be insignificant, but together they hold considerable potential.”

Lin Mu looked over the entire area.

He could feel it.

The elemental energy.

Diffuse in some places, dense in others, layered and varied.

Exactly what he needed.

He turned back to the elders.

”This is more than enough,” he said.

The elders nodded.

”Then begin,” the Rune Dwarf Elder said.

Lin Mu stepped forward.

He took a slow breath, letting the heat, the energy, and the environment settle into his awareness.

Everything was in place.

Now, it was up to him.

Lin Mu did not delay once everything had been prepared. The moment he stepped into the junkyard, the atmosphere around him shifted in a way that even the Transcendent Dwarf elders could feel.

The scattered heaps of discarded materials, the fractured metals, the dull stones, and the remnants of countless forging attempts all seemed to fall into a strange stillness, as if something fundamental in the environment had recognized a change.

He walked to the center of the junkyard and stopped.

Around him, the elementals stirred.

They had been quietly moving among the debris until now, blending into the piles of slag and ore, their forms indistinct and loosely held together. Most of them were small, barely more than clusters of animated particles. A few were larger, more stable, but none approached the size or presence of the Great Earth Elemental, Rocky that Lin Mu had encountered earlier.

These were minor and lesser elementals, newly born from accumulation and exposure.

They watched him as Lin Mu closed his eyes. Then he activated the Omnicore Ascendancy Technique.