Not even Elder Storm Hawk's triumphant smirk could goad him into trying to fight her.
He saw something totally different from her harmless smirk. What he saw terrified him and made him give up on his nonsense.
He wouldn't have fought her in the past when he only had his two eyes to see and was blind to mana. He has even more reasons not to do so now that his mind has been activated and he can sense more.
He gained a spirit sense when his mind became active. He can't see physical shapes and features accurately with it, but he can perceive energy now thanks to it.
Thanks to his spirit sense, he can now see mana flowing everywhere around him. He can pull this mana into himself and refine it into his internal energy.
He can also see that Elder Storm Hawk isn't a human. She is a walking ball of lightning. She breathed in mana like a whale would while he is struggling to sip the mana surrounding him.
If mana was water and he was a fish, she was a whale. It is clear that he shouldn't mess with her at all.
Instead of doing something so suicidal, he focused on himself and the changes he had undergone. Thanks to his spirit sense, he could see within his body and outside of it better.
His spirit sense is not like his eyes. It is a product of his mind being capable of perceiving mana and understanding the information contained within it to a certain extent.
Mana is like sound and light. It is energy, and it interacts with everything in the world.
It bounces off of objects and interacts with objects. Each time it does this, it changes. He can interpret the changes that mana undergoes to perceive the world through it.
He knew all of this intuitively. His spirit sense is a new sensory organ, but he didn't need anyone to explain to him how it works and how to use it.
He is definitely not as good as more experienced people in using his spirit sense, but he is good enough to use his spirit sense to determine that his hair and eyes had become green.
This made him check the color and texture of his skin in a hurry. He sighed in relief when he confirmed that his body was still normal and he hadn't turned into a tree.
After making sure that everything was fine with himself, he changed his focus to other things. The first thing he looked at was within himself.
He looked at his internal organs. He saw his heart beating and blood flowing through his blood vessels and from him cells. It was an eerie and interesting sight.
There wasn't much change in his internal organs apart from the vibrant life force. But there was a new organ in his body.
This organ was beside his heart. Physically, it was a round ball of flesh constantly growing and spreading its tissues all over his body.
It looked like a tumor, and a cancerous one at that. It was slowly and surely metastasizing his flesh and internal organs, but he wasn't afraid.
This organ is called the life seed. It is the sign of transcending the first mortal coil.
The life seed is why cultivators at the second mortal coil can accelerate faster and are stronger than those at the first mortal coil even though they have the same body at the tenth transformation. So it is a good thing that it is connected to major arteries and veins and is slowly spreading all over his body.
The life seed serves as the container for his internal energy. It is also the one responsible for burning his life force and converting it into power for him to use.
That's why, in his spirit sense, the tumor looks green instead of red. It looks like a green seed slowly sprouting roots throughout his body in an attempt to germinate.
All of these confirm that he has reached the second mortal coil. But he still checked his system to be extra sure.
MOUNTAIN SITTING DAO
State of Existence: Second Mortal Coil (First Transformation of the Body Refining and First Transformation of Energy Refining)
Life Span: 17/(111+124)
DIVINE ABILITIES
1. Mountain Karma: Level 3 (249,782,194/1,000,000,000)
2. Mountain Foundation: Level 2 (52,927/10,000,000)
3. ????: ------
POWER.
Power (Body Refining) = 10 (Body) × 2 (Life Force) × 3 (Mountain Karma) = 60.
Power (Energy Refining) = 1 (Spell) × 2 (Internal Energy QLTY) × 3 (Mountain Karma) = 6.
ATTRIBUTES.
Mind: 1 >>> 2. Mental Energy: 17 > > > 100.
Internal Energy (Quantity): 100. Internal Energy (Quality): 2.
Body: 10. Life Energy: 30 >>> 100. Life Force: 2.
TECHNIQUES
A: RANK 1
1. Everlasting Wood Intent: 100% Mastery.
2. Savage Sword Weapon Technique: 100% Mastery.
B: RANK 2
1. Chasing Wind Palm Technique: 10% Mastery.
2. Five Stars Claw Technique: 10% Mastery.
3. Unification of Hearts, Mind, and Body Weapon Technique: 6% Mastery.
His eyes boggled when he saw the changes that he had undergone. The most important one was that the Mountain Dao System had awakened a second ability called Mountain Foundation.
This was the most important thing to him, so he concentrated on it to find out what it was. But before he found out what it was, he was interrupted by Elder Storm Hawk.
She had been observing him while he was observing himself. Now that she was done, she said, "It seems all is well. You even look better than I expected. You don't look drowsy or lazy."
He hadn't noticed it until she mentioned it. This made him check his body again.
Before he transcended, the side effects of the technique were already plaguing him. He was lazy and sleepy every time.
The side effects should have gotten worse now that he had transcended, but they disappeared completely. His body and mind felt better than ever before. He feels full of energy and active, which he shouldn't feel.
He couldn't find anything wrong with himself physically, so he said to her, "I feel fine. There doesn't seem to be anything wrong."