章節 99: Returning To The Camp
Now that he knew a bit more about the place Lin Mu decided to return for now. He reckoned that spending any more time here would be just wasting it and thought it would be better to leave it to the Hei Corps.
But there was another problem that presented to him. He couldn't justify to them how he got into the cave in the first place. Neither could he tell them how he got there in the first place. After all, he could not tell them that he walked through the territory of a terrifyingly strong beast, could he?
Not to mention that even if he did show them the path, they wouldn't be able to take it, anyway. He was the only one who could walk through solid objects like that.
"You'll have to find an alternative path for them," Xukong spoke.
"Yes, Senior. Seems like I'll need to go around the mountain once I bring them here. This mountain is visible from far, so it shouldn't be hard to guide them here. Though I'll need to do something about that boulder at the entrance." Lin Mu replied.
He then walked up to the boulder and thought for a minute before finding a solution that was rather simple and straightforward.
Lin Mu unsheathed his short sword and amplified it with his spirit qi. Once it had a sufficient amount of spirit qi in it, he slashed it at the edge of the large boulder where it was the thinnest.
~Swish~
~Thang~
The corner of the boulder was cut cleanly and fell down to the side making some noise. If one looked at the surface of the cut boulder, they would see that it was smooth and completely uniform. Lin Mu's sword had sliced through it effortlessly.
"If I can't get through, I'll just cut it apart." Lin Mu thought out loud.
He then pushed the piece of rock that he had cut to the side and walked out of the cave. He then turned back and looked at his handiwork.
"Now they shouldn't mind it." Lin Mu muttered and started walking towards the cave of the Great slumber bear.
An hour later, he reached the cave and walked all the way over to the beast's location. He checked to ensure that it was still sleeping and then entered the wall by using Phase and appeared on the other side of the mountain.
The fire that he had lit was still burning albeit it had grown smaller because no extra fuel had been added to it. Lin Mu looked up at the moon in the sky and estimated that there was still quite a long time till the morning.
"I'll eat some food and then cultivate. I should be able to return to the camp by tomorrow afternoon if I'm fast enough." Lin Mu spoke to himself.
He then withdrew some of the meat and started cooking it. The meat he had taken out was the meat of the core formation alpha steel back wolf. Lin Mu generously dressed the meat in spices and prepared it well before cooking it.
A tantalizing aroma spread in the cave, which made his mouth water and taste buds tingle. He sliced a piece of the meat and put it in his mouth. The roasted meat was juicy and flavorful. His taste buds jumped in joy and he felt amazed.
"Delicious! Seems like the stronger the beast, the better the taste." Lin Mu exclaimed.
As soon as the first piece of meat was swallowed down into his stomach, a familiar warmth spread from his stomach. The vital energy and spirit qi that was stored in the meat started being absorbed by his body. It took Lin Mu a few seconds to snap out of the strange sense of euphoria.
He quickly ate the rest of the meat and soon got full. The meat of a core condensation beast was rather filling for him and had satisfied his appetite for the first time after quite a bit. Lin Mu then sat cross-legged and started chanting the calming heart sutra to quickly assimilate the vital energy.
Half an hour passed by and Lin Mu felt a wave of energy spread from his body. It was as if a stream of energy was drilling into his bones. Lin Mu understood what was happening and quickly focused on it. He channeled more energy and intensified the process.
Soon the small stream of energy turned into a raging river and Lin Mu directed it into his bones. The energy reached his marrows and started dousing them in it. A strange sense of pressure appeared in his body and he felt as if a weight was placed on him.
The pressure intensified until when...
~Pop~
It was as if a dam had broken and a tremor passed through Lin Mu's body. The waves of energy stopped being emanated from his body and he opened his eyes. His eyes glimmered in under the flames of the fire in front of him.
~Huu~
Lin Mu let out a breath and a streak of black gas came out. The gas traveled forward and met the wall of the cave.
~Sizzle~
As soon as the gas touched the wall, it started sizzling and corroded. A hole that was about an inch deep and three inches in diameter was formed after the black gas was dissipated.
~Gulp~
Lin Mu swelled his saliva in slight fear after seeing this sight. He had seen this happen before back in his house, but that was a wooden wall. Now it was a solid stone wall that was affected.
"That looks very dangerous." Lin Mu spoke in a nervous tone.
"Indeed, this is quite strange," Xukong spoke in an equally nervous tone.
Lin Mu wiped the sweat off his forehead and took a deep breath.
"I guess I just need to be more careful. Though it seems like I progressed in progressing my body tempering realm by a little." Lin Mu spoke, feeling a little happy now.
"Yes, that's good. This is the effect of the core condensation beast meat. Though this will only be a one-time effect I think, since it's the first time you've eaten it. The next time should be rather mild." Xukong replied.
Lin Mu nodded and scanned his body with his spirit sense. He could feel the vital energy that was saturated within his skin, muscles, blood and now his bones. He tried to go deeper and was able to feel his marrows, which did not have as much concentration of vital energy as the rest of his body.
Xukong could guess Lin Mu's thoughts and understood what he was thinking.
"When you reach the thirteenth stage of the body tempering realm, your bone marrow should be saturated with the vital energy as well. Once you reach the peak of the Body tempering realm, you should be ready to assimilate the bloodline of the Great slumber bear." Xukong explained.
'Though you will need a little extra help before that. Hopefully, you reach it before the deadline and I'm able to give it to you.' Xukong internally spoke.
Lin Mu nodded and responded, "I understand, senior."
He then sat back down and chanted the severing heart sutra to continue his cultivation. An hour later the clouds covered the sky again and winds started to get stronger. Snow soon started falling, and the forest became shrouded in it.
Lin Mu peacefully cultivated until the morning and only stopped when the sunlight illuminated the cave. Faint beams of sunlight would enter the cave and get dissipated in the darkness. Since the cave was at a diagonal angle and was blocked by the trees, sunlight barely got through.
Still, it was enough for Lin Mu to sense it and he opened his eyes. The sunlight that diffused through the branches of the trees dappled the floor of the cave. He stood up and looked up at the sun that was hiding behind the horizon.
~Sigh~
"Time to return." Lin Mu muttered as he looked back at the cave one last time.
The fire had gone out a long time ago and the embers had cooled down, leaving behind a pile of ash and unburnt charcoal. Lin Mu lightly stretched his body before he started out in a jog. The light jog soon turned into a sprint and he burst forward.
章節 100: Revealing The Findings
Lin Mu was passing through the trees with ease. He would wade and flicker through them, dodging each and every obstacle. His spirit sense was spread forward and helped him sense the upcoming path. With the help of his spirit sense, he would know everything that was there.
A couple of hours passed by and Lin Mu was still running. He would slow down once he felt the fatigue building up, but would never stop. His progress in his body tempering realm had also helped in increasing his stamina by a notch.
After he slowed down, he would soon feel better and then he would continue on and increase his speed again. Three hours passed like this, and even now Lin Mu could not see any spirit beasts.
"Where did they go? Even if they hide, they should at least have nests nearby." Lin Mu spoke while running.
"The spirit beasts are smarter than normal beasts, so they should have retreated to the edge of the forest instead. But for the normal beasts, they probably stuck where they are because of the fear or they too filled the spirit beasts. Either way, you should probably see them soon." Xukong replied.
Lin Mu simply nodded his head in response and kept on running. Another hour passed and Lin Mu finally saw his first beast. It wasn't a spirit beast, but rather just a common bird beast that could be seen anywhere in the forest.
"Seems like they ran pretty far." Lin Mu muttered.
He then spread his spirit sense around in all directions and observed if there were more beasts nearby. His search showed him that there were plenty of beasts here, and they all seemed to be a bit startled. When he passed by the beasts, they ignored him and let him pass by without bothering him.
The number of beasts was now much larger than before, and it became impossible for Lin Mu to avoid them anymore. Eventually, he had his first encounter with a spirit beast. The spirit beast looked like a mongoose and was the same size as that of a normal one.
If it were not for the faint spirit qi waves coming from the beast, Lin Mu would have not been able to tell that it was one.
'Oh, it should have been obvious. No normal mongoose would live this deep in the forest, that too in a cold place like this.' Lin Mu thought to himself.
The mongoose beast looked at Lin Mu with sharp eyes and watched his every move. With every step that Lin Mu moved, the beast would move to. The beast was wary of Lin Mu and seemed to be a little afraid.
Lin Mu watched the beast as well but did not attack it as he didn't want to be needlessly involved right now. Seeing that the beast had no desire to fight, Lin Mu moved a little distance away and walked away. The beast did the same and just watched him go away.
"Well, that was strange." Lin Mu said to himself.
"Most intelligent spirit beasts won't attack straight away, especially in tense situations such as the one right now when most of them have been scared by the great slumber bear. They will avoid getting into a conflict as the other beasts may take advantage of this fact and catch them off guard." Xukong replied.
Lin Mu nodded and then continued on his journey. He had more encounters with spirit beasts, but all of them acted the same way the mongoose beast had. They watched him but did not attack, and when he moved away, they let him go.
Lin Mu was rather intrigued by this behavior. In the past, he had thought of all beasts as having zero to no intelligence and only having basic instincts that an animal has. He of course knew that senior Xukong was a beast as well, but he was way beyond his comprehension. Thus did not include him in his list.
Lin Mu felt fascinated by the intelligence of the spirit beasts and wondered if he would get to see any beasts that had the same intelligence as humans here. He also wondered if the great slumber bear would be smarter than this or not.
Lin Mu had seen how the core condensation realm Alpha steel back wolf had acted and led his pack of wolves. Common of that kind needed a certain level of intelligence, which perhaps only beasts above that of the qi refining realm have.
Lin Mu had traveled even more far and guessed that he was rather close to the camp now. His guess turned out to be true as he could soon see clouds of smoke rising from the front, a few hundred meters away from him. Lin Mu approached the camp with a little apprehension and stayed alert.
While Lin Mu knew that the camp would be safe because of the scent of the alpha steel back wolf, he was still a little worried in the back of his head. He wondered if the roar of the great slumber Bear had scared the spirit beasts so much so that they would ignore the scent of another core condensation realm beast.
Lin Mu's hidden worry turned out to be for naught as he saw the camp was safe and calm. There were two men standing guard at the border of the camp, while four tents were set up in a circle with a Bonfire in the center.
Seeing that the others were not here, Lin Mu guessed that they were most likely resting in the tents.
~tap~ ~tap~ ~tap~
Lin Mu walked into the camp and made sure to make some noise of footsteps so as to alert the guard. He didn't want to surprise them too much by directly turning up behind them and wanted to announce his arrival. He could tell from their expressions that the guards had been a little stressed, as the fatigue could be seen on their faces.
The two guards turned to look at the source of the sound and saw Lin Mu enter.
"It's senior Lin Mu!" One of them spoke.
"Senior Lin Mu has returned!" The second one announced to the camp.
Upon hearing the shout, four people walked out of the tents. Xie Bohai was one of them and looked at Lin Mu, who had just walked in. Lin Mu approached them can came to stand in front of them. All six of them cupped their hands in greeting and spoke.
"Greetings senior."
"I hope Senior had a breakthrough in his cultivation." Xie Bohai spoke.
Lin Mu nodded in response and spoke, "Ah yes, I did indeed."
Lin Mu then looked at the last remaining tent and the others followed his gaze. Xie Bohai instantly guessed what Lin Mu was thinking.
"Senior Hei Yingjie is better than yesterday and has improved. His condition has been stable now." Xie Bohai reported.
Lin Mu simply nodded and walked into the tent. Upon entering, he saw the unconscious Hei Yingjie that was calmly sleeping. Lin Mu extended his spirit sense and checked the internal condition of him. The number of Small clots and internal bleeding had reduced by a lot.
Though it still seemed like it would take a long time for Hei Yingjie to recover his cultivation base, which had regressed. Lin Mu observed the man's dantian and saw the pale White core floating in the center. It would let out faint wisps of spirit qi at regular intervals and would similarly absorb spirit qi that appeared in the dantian.
"Hmm, at least his spirit qi circulation is still working normally now. He just needs to rest more and recover his cultivation on his own." Xukong explained.
"I guess it's good that there were no culprits in the cave there. At least we won't have to clash with them now that we don't have a core condensation realm expert of our own." Lin Mu spoke in a slightly relieved tone.
He then turned around and left the tent. He saw Xie Bohai waiting for him outside, and he looked to be calm.
"Senior, there has been some strange activity with the beasts since last night. We also heard a faint roar coming from the northwestern mountains." Xie Bohai reported.
"I know, it was caused by another core condensation realm beast." Lin Mu replied.
Xie Bohai seemed to be a bit more nervous after hearing Lin Mu's response.
"You know about it senior, but how? Weren't you cultivating?" Xie Bohai questioned.
"My cultivation went smoothly, and I had a breakthrough rather early. After I was done with my cultivation session, I heard some noises, so I went to check. I ended up finding what we came for here." Lin Mu answered.
Xie Bohai became surprised after hearing Lin Mu mention about his findings.
"Senior, you don't mean, you..." Xie Bohai spoke but was then interrupted.
"Yes, I did indeed. I found the hideout of the culprits."
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