Duan Ke went silent, and Jing Wei was lost in thought as well. Both of them stayed the same for an incense sticks worth of time until Jing Wei spoke.
"What did he want to do with the beast corpse?" asked Jing Wei.
Duan Ke broke her silence and looked up at her grandfather.
"He wants to sell the materials from the beast corpse and keep the meat for himself." Duan Ke replied.
"Hmm, you can't give him the meat, we don't know what effect it could have. Besides, if it is as you say, we have to investigate further." Jing Wei spoke.
"So what should I do grandfather?" Duan Ke asked.
Jing Wei thought for a moment before replying,
"Find a beast of equivalent strength and give its meat to him. As for the cost of the materials, you can decide that yourself."
"Yes, grandfather. I'll do as you say." Duan Ke replied.
Jing Wei turned back and walked towards the manor. As he reached the door of the manor he stopped and spoke,
"Refine the beast corpse and use it to investigate any new traces that may turn up. We don't want a repeat of last year's incident."
Duan Ke did not speak and only nodded her head in acceptance. Jing Wei had entered the manor and disappeared from her view. Knowing what she had to do, Duan Ke waved her hand to make the beast's corpse float. She then gestured and a small formation array appeared over the beast's corpse.
Slowly flames bloomed on the corpse and the formation array started to turn.
"Refine!" Duan Ke spoke out loud.
The beast's corpse was being reduced to a pool of blood. Once the entire corpse turned to blood, Duan Ke threw four small stones the size of pearls, which started to revolve around the pool of blood. The stones spun faster and faster, making the pool of blood to swirl as well.
After five minutes the four stones had stopped revolving and the pool of blood was converted into a small dark red marble. Duan Ke withdrew the four small stones and picked up the dark red marble floating in the air.
Done with the refining process, Duan Ke snapped her fingers and appeared in the small room behind the shop. She walked out of the door and waved her hand to remove the formations placed on the shop's door. She then exited the shop and saw the crude-looking sled kept at the side. Ignoring the sled, she looked around for people. Seeing that there was no person nearby, she withdrew a paper talisman and tore it.
As soon as the paper talisman was torn in half, Duan Ke turned translucent and eventually invisible. The Invisible Duan Ke withdrew a sword that floated in front of her. She jumped onto the sword and flew away towards the Northern forest.
Duan Ke flew at such a speed, that if she was visible, she would only appear as a blur to the human eyes. She reached the depths of the forest in a couple of minutes. This was the region where spirit beasts were in abundance. No Hunters would ever dare to come this far, only a handful of cultivators would be able to survive in this region of the forest. One could hear the roars and howls of a myriad of beasts. The forest was dark and dense, sunlight could barely penetrate its canopy.
Duan Ke hovered over the forest and sent out her spirit sense to search for a suitable beast of the 9th stage body tempering realm. It was but a second later that she found one. She did not even descend on the ground and only gestured with her fingers, and a spirit qi dagger the size of palm was condensed in the air.
She pointed to the location where the beast was located and the spirit qi dagger shot forward. No cries of the beasts could be heard the moment Duan Ke released the spirit qi dagger. It was as if they were all too frightened to utter a single sound. The spirit qi dagger returned after five seconds, and along with it the corpse of a beast that was around the same size as the coyote beast.
Duan Ke waved her hand and the beast corpse was dissected in a second. She stored the meat in her spatial treasure and took out a wooden disc. The wooden disc had a circular groove at its center.
Duan Ke then withdrew the dark red marble she had refined from the coyote beast's corpse and put it in the groove that was present on the wooden disc.
Once the dark red marble was slotted into the wooden disc, it started to glow. The wooden disc floated from Duan Ke's hand and then flew towards a direction, with Duan Ke flying behind it.
Lin Mu was unaware of all this and was currently checking out the inns in the town. He had inquired in nearly half of the inns and had still not found a single one to stay at. He was standing in front of another inn right now. This inn was located close to the exit of the town and was of a lower quality than the previous ones.
"Let's see if I can find a room here." Lin Mu spoke to himself as he entered through the door of the inn.
He walked up to the front desk and spoke to the clerk sitting there.
"Do you have a room available for the winter?" Lin Mu asked.
The clerk looked towards Lin Mu with a polite smile on his face and replied,
"Yes, we have a room available. But you will need to pay in advance and then you'll be able to stay in that room in five days from today." The clerk replied.
Lin Mu had expected for the clerk to reject, so he was a little joyful upon hearing his words. He did not mind that he would have to wait five days to stay in the room, nor that he would have to pay in advance.
"I would like to book that room then, for the entire winter." Said Lin Mu with a pep in his voice.
The clerk nodded and took out a register.
"Please pay three gold coins and I'll add your name to the register." The clerk said.
Lin Mu took out 3 gold coins which he had prepared beforehand and passed them to the clerk.
"What's your name?" asked the clerk as he dipped a brush into the inkwell.
"My name is Lin Mu."
The clerk took out a small wooden plate on which the name of the inn was carved. It spelled 'Northwind inn'. Lin Mu took the wooden plate and stored it in his pouch.
"Come back five days later and show this to whoever is sitting here on the counter, they will take you to your room." The clerk explained.
Lin Mu nodded to the clerk and turned around to leave the inn.
'I should return to the shop, it's been around three and a half hours since I left it. Duan Ke said to return in three hours, so she should be ready now.' Lin Mu thought.
Lin Mu walked back to the shop and reached there in 10 minutes. He saw that his sled was still kept at the side of the shop.
"Guess no one would even bother to steal such a crudely made sled." Lin Mu spoke to himself with a little mirth in his voice.
He then opened the creaky door of the shop and entered the shop. He walked up to the counter and was about to ring the bell when the door of the shop opened. Lin Mu turned around to look and saw Duan Ke entering the shop.
'Huh, why was she outside?' Lin Mu questioned himself.
"I'll bring the meat, wait here." Duan Ke spoke to Lin Mu as she passed by him and entered the door behind the counter.
She returned a minute later with a sack that seemed like it was completely full. She put the sack on the counter, gestured to Lin Mu, and spoke.
"Here's you beast meat. As for the money…" But before she could complete her sentence, Lin Mu interrupted her.
"Umm, instead of coins, I want some weapons." Lin Mu spoke.
"You want more weapons? Are you not satisfied with the short sword?" Duan Ke asked.
"No, I like the short sword. I just want more weapons in case I lose the short sword in a fight or something. And I also want to learn to use more kinds of weapons." Lin Mu Explained.
Duan Ke nodded and said, "As you wish, look around the shop and pick whatever you want. But if you want to get a proper appraisal, it will cost you extra."
Lin Mu went around the shop and picked up whatever caught his fancy. In the end, he had chosen 12 items from the shop. He brought them all and placed them on the counter. The total weight of all the weapons was nothing to Lin Mu, now that he had reached the 6th stage of the body tempering realm.
The weapons he had chosen were of multiple types. He had chosen a pair of battle gauntlets, a long sword, a slim and flexible sword, a normal broad sword, a large axe, a small hatchet, a buckler, a large shield, a spear, and three different types of daggers.
Duan Ke was a little surprised by the varied choice of weapons but did not show it on her face.
"Is that all?" Duan Ke asked.
"Yes, how much would this all cost?" Lin Mu questioned.
"It should be around the same price as the cost of the materials of that beast." Duan Ke replied.
Lin Mu nodded happily and piled all the weapons on the large shield before putting it on the sled outside the shop. He then carried out the sack of meat and left the shop. Duan Ke watched him leave.
'He's a little dumb, isn't he? He didn't even ask how much the materials exactly cost.' Duan Ke spoke to herself before waving her hand and sealing the door with formations.
She then entered the door behind the counter and left the shop.