章節 90: The Beast Core
Lin Mu came to stand in front of the Alpha steel back wolf and observed it. The large stab wound in its skull was still dripping with blood as his short sword was only recently retrieved. There were other smaller wounds on its body, but they were no longer bleeding.
Compared to Hei Yingjie, the Alpha steel back wolf was relatively unscathed. This made Lin Mu wonder why. Although Hei Yingjie was supposed to have a higher cultivation base than the beast, he still lost. He wondered if the Bloodline awakening was really that impressive.
"It is indeed rather surprising that Hei Yingjie lost. From what I observed, it seemed to me as if his spirit qi stores were much lesser than they should have been. We've already seen his core, so it's obvious that there is some problem that we don't know of." Xukong spoke.
"We should get some idea after observing the Alpha steel back wolf's beast core." Lin Mu replied in his mind and then extended his spirit sense.
Now that his spirit sense was ten times as stronger than before, Lin Mu had an easy time scanning the corpse. Lin Mu knew that when beasts reached the Core condensation realm, they would similarly form a spirit qi core, which was called as the beast core.
Though there were some exceptions as well. There were some beasts that could form a core before they even reached the core condensation realm. The cores that were formed when they were in the qi refining realm were called as pseudo cores.
Any beast that could form a pseudo core was considered to be exceptional and was often multiple times stronger than its normal counterpart. While this usually only happened with beasts that had high ranked bloodlines, sometimes normal beasts could also achieve this through a stroke of luck.
Lin Mu's spirit sense pierced the Alpha steel back wolf's body and started scanning around for the beast core. Depending on the species of the beast, its core could be anywhere in the body. Though in most cases it was either in their head or their chest.
Lin Mu didn't have to search for long as he found the core easily. The core of the Alpha Steel back wolf was in its chest, right above its heart. Lin Mu observed it and found that it was completely different from Hei Yingjie's core.
Not only was it bigger in size, but its color was also different. While Hei Yingjie's core was of a white color, the Alpha steel back wolf's was of a Grey color and had a brown pattern on it that was similar to the one on its body. Wanting to observe it even better, Lin Mu used his short sword and swiftly dug out the core.
Blood that was still warm spilled from the beast's chest and stained Lin Mu's clothes. He didn't mind it as he was still wearing the tatted clothes from yesterday and had the mind to throw them away, anyway. He pulled out the bloodied beast core and rubbed it on his clothes to clean it.
The beast core slightly gleamed in the sunlight and seemed to be heavier than its size. Lin Mu guessed that the core was easily more than two hundred grams, even though it was only about the size of an olive. Hei Yingjie's core was even smaller and was the size of a pea.
Lin Mu probed the beast core with his spirit sense and felt as if he was blocked.
"Huh?" Lin Mu muttered in surprise.
"The beast core has an immense amount of spirit qi condensed in it, of course your spirit sense can't penetrate it," Xukong spoke.
"Not only that, but this beast has also awakened a bloodline ability. You see those patterns on the beast core, those are the mark of an awakened bloodline. Usually, if a beast core has marks such as those, it means that the beast that it belonged to had awakened a bloodline ability. Though there are certain exceptions to this." Xukong explained further.
"So we know that something is definitely wrong with Hei Yingjie then?" Lin Mu questioned.
"Yes, that is true. Unless we can observe a few more core condensation realm cultivators, this is all that we can do." Xukong answered.
"Alright, now this is done, I want to check up on something more." Lin Mu spoke with a serious tone.
"Oh? What do you want to do?" Xukong asked, feeling strange.
"I want to go and search for the clues on my own. Now that I have a stronger spirit sense, it should be relatively safe. And even if someone does find me, I'm confident I can escape using my skills. If I stay with the Hei Corps, won't be able to freely use my skills and with Hei Yingjie out of commission our protection is gone anyway." Lin Mu spoke and took a pause.
~Sigh~
"This way at least this trip won't go to a waste. Hopefully, by the time the other team gets the news, I'll be back as well." Lin Mu continued in a tired tone.
'Hmm, although his decision is risky, it's good that he's taking it. He needs to learn to take risks. Anyway if push comes to shove, I can temporarily help him hopefully.' Xukong thought to himself.
"Fine, then. Though I don't think you can tell these people what you are going to do, can you?" Xukong replied.
Lin Mu thought for a bit over it. It was indeed true that the Hei Corps may not be open to Lin Mu leaving on his own. They were now down one man and were overall weakened. Their morale was also lower than before.
"I'll just have to make an excuse, I guess." Lin Mu spoke and then walked towards Xie Bohai.
Xie Bohai had just finished telling his fellow members of Lin mu's orders and saw Lin Mu approach him.
"Do you have any more orders, senior?" Xie Bohai questioned.
"Yes... well, not exactly. I just want to inform you that I'll be cultivating on my own for two days." Lin Mu answered, cooking up a lie.
章節 91: A Cave
Xie Bohai felt confused after hearing Lin Mu's words. Lin Mu noticed this too and had a bad feeling, he wondered if he would buy it or not. But then he saw that Xie Bohai suddenly had a change of expression and his eyes made it seem as if he had just had a realization.
"Ah, senior just had an epiphany. It is understandable that you would want to capitalize on it." Xie Bohai spoke in an enthusiastic tone.
~Huu~
Lin Mu silently took a breath of relief. While he could still go off without considering the situation of the Hei corps, he would still not feel well doing that. Now that Xie Bohai had unknowingly given him a way out, Lin Mu jumped at it.
And technically, Lin Mu did have a certain kind of epiphany. At least that's what he told himself.
"Yes, that's exactly what I want to do. I would also like that you do not disturb me in that period." Lin Mu replied.
"That will be fine, senior. I doubt any more beasts will come here because of the Alpha steel back wolf's scent. They should stay away for a few days at least." Xie Bohai added.
Lin Mu's eyes went slightly wide, but he controlled himself. What Xie Bohai had just spoken had taken off another burden off his back.
"I'll be leaving after a while, I need to prepare for a bit." Lin Mu informed and then was just about to walk when another thought came to his mind.
"Umm, can you also skin and butcher the alpha steel back wolf as well as some of the other wolves for me." Lin Mu asked.
"Sure senior, it won't be a problem." Xie Bohai replied and then went to the carcass of the beast.
~phew~
Seeing him walk away, Lin Mu let out another breath of relief. He then picked a tent and went inside. Since his tent was destroyed and all others were empty, it was easy for him to choose one.
Lin Mu changed his soiled and tattered clothes and washed his face before sitting down on the bedroll. He then chanted the serving heart sutra and recuperated his depleted spirit qi.
Four hours later he was done and opened his eyes. He walked outside and saw the meat that had been butchered and cut into pieces. It had been wrapped up in their pelts for convenience and was ready for Lin Mu to take.
Lin Mu took one last look around the small camp and bid everyone farewell. He stored the meat in his ring and left the camp. He went towards the Northwestern direction and tried to see if he could find any clues. Lin Mu was also a little suspicious of the Alpha steel back wolf's attack and thus wanted to know more.
Alas, all the tracks of the wolf pack had been covered due to the Snow that had fallen last night. It was still snowing, but it was light. The snow on the ground was about six inches deep, but Lin Mu didn't have much problem navigating through it.
Lin Mu also left marks on trees so that he could find his way back. Although he was experienced with the forest, he was not so familiar with it that he could easily find his way back. The markings and his newly enhanced spirit sense would help him with that.
Along the way, Lin Mu spotted some spirit beasts and some normal beasts, but did not clash with them. He didn't want to create too much of a ruckus and attract attention to himself. Who knows if the culprits were nearby or not.
There were some times where he found the nests of beasts, and he had no choice but to go around them. This ended up extending his journey a little bit.
Twelve hours had passed since Lin Mu had left the camp behind. The sun had already set, and the forest had become dark. It had also started to snow, and Lin Mu felt as if a storm would be coming soon. The winds were getting stronger as well.
Lin Mu had walked far enough that he was now close to the mountains and the hills.
'This should be far enough for now. I'll find a place to rest.' Lin Mu thought to himself.
He didn't have to look far, as with one sweep of his spirit sense he found a suitable place. Not far from him, there was an opening that seemed to be a cave. It was just at the very edge of Lin Mu's spirit senses range, thus he could not clearly tell.
But once he walked towards there for a bit, he confirmed that it was indeed a cave. A couple of minutes later he was at the entrance of the cave. There were some big trees that were blocking the strong winds near the entrance of the cave, so it was a bit more comfortable here.
"I should be able to start a fire here with little problems." Lin Mu reckoned as he took out the wood from his ring.
Lin Mu had plenty of wood stored in his ring from back when he was living at the hunting shack. He had kind of forgotten about it, but now it was coming to his use, anyway.
A few minutes later, a fire was blazing inside the cave and illuminated its insides. Lin Mu had scanned the cave with his spirit sense and had determined that while the cave went deep, it was far too small for anything threatening to live in it.
The main area of the cave was about two meters tall and about four meters wide and it tapered down as one went deeper. After a certain point, it was less than a few inches wide. Lin Mu picked up a burning branch and went close to it.
"Huh? It's actually a fissure." Lin Mu muttered to himself.
Lin Mu looked down and saw some traces of water near his feet.
"Looks like it was created due to water coming through it. It probably gets flooded when it rains and the water comes through the mountains." Xukong spoke.
Lin Mu nodded and returned to the fire. He wanted to cook and eat dinner.
But just as he was taking out some meat from his ring, he heard it.
~ROAR~
It was a roar and not just any roar; it was one he had heard before a few months ago.
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