After Lin Mu was done eating he could not even believe, that he had eaten half of an entire boar by himself. He looked at his belly and found it to be stretched taut, but there was still no way that all that meat could fit inside there.
Since he could not figure it out, he just dropped the thought. He had more important things to do for now. Lin Mu could feel a massive amount of energy being absorbed from the meat in his stomach.
He sat down cross-legged to chant the calming heart sutra. He felt the energy being assimilated in his muscles and in his skin. This time he could focus even deeper and could sense a slight trickle of energy permeating his blood vessels.
'Is this the next tier of the body tempering realm? But isn't it only after reaching the 8th stage, that one can temper their blood vessels, so why can I feel them strengthening very slightly?' thought Lin Mu.
The hypothesis that Lin Mu had in the morning about being able to assimilate more vital energy, proved to be true. Even though he still had around forty percent of energy still being stored in the body, he still assimilated more vital energy than ever before.
It also took him around 45 minutes before he stopped chanting the calming heart sutra and could not assimilate any more vital energy. He looked up at the sun and guessed it should be around 5 pm.
Now that he had completely finished the entire boar, he needed to get more meat. Lin Mu wondered if he should not have sold the meat of the two beasts, those two beasts were much stronger than the Red-snouted boar and would have had an even greater amount of vital energy in them.
Lin Mu first decided to check the traps and then go further into the forest, if he did not catch anything in them. He also needed to dispose of the two corpses of the men and what better way than to dump them in the forest and let the beasts deal with them.
He reached the trail where he had set up the traps after 10 minutes. He checked the first three snares and found nothing caught in them. The next one he checked had a Thorn-tailed rat caught in it, which he could not eat. He broke the neck of the Thorn-tailed rat and kept it in the ring to use it as a bait.
He then checked the remaining two traps and found them to be empty as well. Getting unsatisfactory results with the traps, Lin Mu decided to just abandon them and only check them for bait in the future.
Lin Mu switched the path and walked deeper into the forest. He found a larger trail where there were tracks of larger beasts and dumped the dead bodies of the two men near it for the beasts to eat.
He also checked their bodies for valuables and found 22 silvers combined on both the men. He also took the light leather armour from the muscular man. He tried it on and found it to be too big for him. He could only tighten it and bind it roughly to be able to wear it. He still put it on as some protection is still better than none.
Lin Mu searched for fresh tracks of beasts to hunt. It took him half an hour to find some hoof tracks. He guessed them to be of a juvenile Six-pronged stag that had probably been separated from its herd.
Lin Mu followed the tracks for a few hundred meters, after which he found the juvenile Six-pronged stag grazing at some grass behind a thicket. He silently approached the beast, making sure not to step on any sticks and avoid making any noise. It was Lin Mu's luck that there was headwind blowing, which prevented the beast from smelling his scent.
Once Lin Mu was a few steps away from the beast, he focused his strength on his legs and lunged at the beast who was completely unaware. The short sword was able to slash the neck of the beast, who started to bleed profusely.
Because of the intense pain, the beast instantly collapsed on the ground, unable to run. Lin Mu quickly touched the beast and put it inside the ring, as he did not want the cries of the beast and the scent of the blood to attract other beasts.
Done with his hunt, Lin Mu turned back, as the sun had already started to set. He reached the hunting shack after 50 minutes and then went towards the stream to skin and prepare the beast.
He drained the remaining blood and then started to skin the juvenile Six-pronged stag. While he was skinning the beast with the new skinning knife he had bought, a thought appeared in his mind.
When he had thrown the knife at the tall man, only the knife had appeared without its sheath. But now when he withdrew the knife to skin the beast, the knife appeared with its sheath.
He was intrigued and wanted to test it out, so he stored the knife back in the ring and then withdrew it. The knife appeared in its sheath. He then tried it another time, this time only wanting to withdraw the knife and not the sheath. He succeeded, and only the knife appeared in his hand.
'It seems like I can control what I want to withdraw, even if the two objects are attached.' Lin Mu concluded.
Amazed by this new discovery, Lin Mu continued his task of skinning the beast. After he was done completely skinning the beast, he put the meat and other materials away in the ring.
From the juvenile Six-pronged stag, he obtained its pelt and small undeveloped horns. Even though the beast was only a juvenile, it was still roughly in the 4th stage of the body tempering realm.
'Humans and beasts simply cannot be compared. Even a juvenile is strong enough to compare to an average adult man.' Thought Lin Mu.
After he was done with the beast, Lin Mu started to practice the boulder collapsing fist. Since he had experienced some success after using it during the fight, Lin Mu was optimistic in progressing further.
Lin Mu stood in the stance, regulated his breathing according to the breathing technique, and then started to practice the fist routine. He felt like his coordination had indeed increased than before. Though he could not perform the same as he did during the fight. The vital energy in his body did get agitated, but it still got stuck and could not find the right path.
He focused on the feeling he got during the fight, on the spiral of energy that had formed in his hand. Lin Mu continued practicing until it was midnight and stars were painted across the night sky. Eventually, after countless tries, he felt the same spiral of energy forming in his hand. As soon as the spiral formed in his hand, it stayed stable for a few breaths, before starting to dissipate.
Sensing that the energy spiral was getting unstable, Lin Mu executed the technique and threw a punch. This time he could properly see with his eyes the effect of the technique. The punch that stuck the air generated, a small gust of wind that made the leaves on the tree four meters away from him shake and fall down.
Lin Mu collapsed on the ground after executing the technique, as he felt all the energy he had obtained from the previous meal depleted. He struggled to sit cross-legged but was able to sit and chant the calming heart sutra.
Lin Mu finally felt the remaining vital energy that was stored in the body, assimilating into his muscles and skin. After thirty minutes he had completely assimilated all the energy and was hungry once more.
He went back to the hunting shack to prepare his dinner. Lin Mu ate with gusto and replenished his stamina. After he was done eating, he laid down on the wooden bed and soon fell asleep. Lin Mu appeared in the Sleepscape and continued his practice.
After some time, he felt like he could not progress anymore as he needed to feel the vital energy within his body to be able to execute the technique. So Lin Mu decided to sit down and recall the memories of the fight. Lin Mu did not understand some aspects of the fight, thus wanted to analyse every part of it.
In the Sleepscape, Lin Mu was able to clearly recall his memories. He went over them again and again, analysing his mistakes and finding possible solutions to them. In the end, he was able to understand all aspects of his fight except for one big mystery.
Lin Mu could not understand how he was able to dodge the pincer attacks of the two men. He did not understand how the attacks simply passed through his body as if it was made of air.
Now that he closely recalled it, he remembered that at that moment, a fuzzy feeling spread throughout his body. He felt as if a thin invisible sheet of some kind had wrapped his body in its entirety.
The next thing that happened after it was that he felt a great drain on his energy. About half of his entire store was depleted. He could not find the reason for that, and in the end, reached the conclusion that it was related to the mysterious ring. Somehow the ring had enabled him to dodge those attacks.
'I wonder if I can replicate that again. If I can, it would be a major skill I can use in future battles that I'll have.' Thought Lin Mu, before he left the Sleepscape and woke up.
Lin Mu stood up and the first thing he did was to set up some meat to cook on the stove. He found himself thinking more and more about food, as he trained each day. After he was done with that, he went outside to practice the boulder collapsing fist.
From the minor success he had obtained last night, he was able to build on that experience. He continued training until he was sweaty and tired. The breakfast was long ready for him to eat. Once he was done with the meal, he followed the routine and sat down to chant the calming heart sutra to assimilate the vital energy.
He could feel that he had progressed a little further in his training and was on his way to the 7th stage of the body tempering realm. Suddenly Lin Mu felt like he had forgotten something and remembered the reason why he had put himself in danger two days ago.
He withdrew the purple grape-sized fruit and stared at it while thinking,
"Should I eat it?"