Upon gaining knowledge about the aspects of spirit qi, Lin Mu was enlightened. He understood that he cannot deplete his entire store of spirit qi or it will debilitate him in a battle. Now that he had some spirit qi in his dantian, Lin Mu continued chanting the severing heart sutra and circulated the spirit qi.
After two hours, Lin Mu had nearly replenished his spirit qi up to the previous capacity. He opened his eyes and saw the darkness had descended. The sky had turned black, with the clouds hiding the stars and the moon.
"It's already night, and I did not even notice. Is this what the legends mean when they say 'time is but dust to cultivators, can't notice it until it settles down.'" Lin Mu spoke to himself.
Lin Mu stood up and felt his stomach groan with hunger. He had consumed half of his vital energy to regenerate spirit qi, thus he was feeling quite ravenous. He took out the remaining portion of the 9th stage body tempering beast's meat and slathered it with spices and condiments. Then he set it on the big stove outside the shack and let it roast.
In fifteen minutes the meat was ready, and Lin Mu could not hold back anymore. He ate it like a beast and did not even notice when he had consumed all the meat. There were no bones in the meat, thus it was very easy for him to eat the meat.
Once he was done with his meal, he sat down to assimilate the vital energy within it. While he was chanting the calming heart sutra, Lin Mu heard a rustling sound coming from behind him. The sound came from far, yet it was as if he had heard it right beside him. Spirit qi had enhanced his hearing as well.
Lin Mu stopped mid-way and opened his eyes. He snapped back in a flash and glared at the source of the sound. He was able to see much better in the dark due to spirit qi and observed that there was a silhouette of a small four-legged beast standing amongst the bushes. He rushed forward, but the beast had noticed him the moment he had turned around and had run away.
'If it ran away due to me looking at it, then it should not be a strong beast.' Lin Mu figured.
Pushing the disturbance to the back of his mind, Lin Mu continued chanting the calming heart sutra. His speed of assimilating vital energy had increased by a large margin ever since he broke through to the 9th stage of the body tempering realm, thus he was done after 15 minutes.
All the vital energy that he had depleted was replenished, and the total capacity was also increased by a small amount. It would not take him much longer to break through to the 10th stage of the body tempering realm.
By now the clouds had been blown away by the wind, and Lin Mu could see the half-moon in the sky. He observed its position and estimated that it should be around 8 pm.
'I didn't get the chance to go hunting today and I've finished the 9th stage body tempering beast's meat as well. I still have the steel-back wolf's meat left so I can eat that, but I'll have to complete testing the skills before it's finished too.' Lin Mu thought.
Lin Mu wanted to gain a complete understanding of his skills before he enters the forest, as he wanted to be prepared for any unexpected situation. He had already become slightly paranoid ever since he saw the Razor-maw Ox and killed the coyote beast. He knew that he would not be this fortunate every time. If he encountered a spirit beast by any chance, it was likely that it would spell doom for him.
Lin Mu withdrew his short sword and started practicing with it. After the short sword, he practiced with the other weapons he had bought as well. He practiced all the way until midnight when he suddenly remembered something.
'The spatial rift, it has been more than a day. Why has it not opened yet? This has not happened before.' Lin Mu wondered.
Ever since Lin Mu obtained the mysterious ring, the spatial rift has opened every day. Sure, it opened at different times, but it was never more than a day. Lin Mu was confused and did not know the reason for this.
'Could it be? Is it because of spirit qi, that the condition for it to open changed?' Lin Mu questioned.
As Lin Mu thought about the spatial rift, he lifted his right hand and observed the ring on his middle finger. But as he was observing it, he noticed a small black dot hovering in front of him. Lin Mu was surprised and focused his attention on it.
When Lin Mu focused on it, the small dot started expanding. But along with the expansion of the dot, Lin Mu's spirit qi was also being consumed. When almost five wisps of sprit qi were consumed, the small black dot had turned into a spatial rift.
Lin Mu's eyes were wide open, as he saw the newly formed spatial rift. He noticed the difference this time, though. Unlike before his hand was not pulled towards the spatial rift, neither was it sucked into it. He did not feel any compulsion to touch it either.
'Why is it different this time?' Lin Mu thought as he approached the spatial rift.
Lin Mu put his hand inside the spatial rift and searched around for whatever object that was hiding inside the spatial rift. He had searched for nearly 10 minutes when the spatial rift started to destabilise. After the rift started shrinking Lin Mu pulled his hand back in defeat. For the first time ever, he was unsuccessful in finding anything inside the spatial rift.
'The spatial rift has never closed like this before. It only closed when I found the object hiding inside it.' Lin Mu thought.
Reeling from his failure, Lin Mu was about to return to his practice, when he saw another black dot floating in the distance. The black dot was hard to spot due to the flickering of the flames from the stove. Thus Lin Mu picked up a burning branch and used it as a torch.
He walked towards the flickering black dot with the torch in his hand and gasped.
"Can it be?" Lin Mu whispered as he extended his right hand towards the black dot.
Lin Mu's guess was right, as the black dot started expanding into a spatial rift. Another five wisps of his spirit qi were also consumed in the process. He put his hand inside the rift and tried finding something inside it again. Five minutes later his hand touched something small, and the item was stored in the ring.
Lin Mu pulled his hand out and observed the spatial rift. Usually, the spatial rift would stay open until he found something and then immediately close. But right now the spatial rift was still stable and showed no signs of closing. Lin Mu decided to wait and see, for how much time would it stay open.
It was not until five minutes later that the spatial rift started to close up.
'It seems that the spatial rift will now stay open for around ten minutes, whether I find something in it or not.' Lin Mu assumed.
After the spatial rift had closed Lin Mu withdrew the object he had found inside the rift. The object he had found was a small nail that looked very mundane and normal. Observing that it was another useless item, Lin Mu stored it back into the ring.
'I seem to be finding more and more useless items.' Lin Mu thought as he continued practicing with the weapons.
While practicing he had moved a little farther away from where he had started. Lin Mu was thrusting the spear when he saw another black dot in front of him. He was surprised by this and got closer. By now, Lin Mu had gotten an idea about how to open the spatial rift after doing it twice.
But he did not open the spatial rift as his attention was pulled towards another black dot that was floating to his right. An idea struck his mind, and he pulled out a branch from the ring and lit it up. With the help of the light from the burning branch, Lin Mu searched around for more black dots in the surroundings.
Lin Mu must have scoured a radius of around 100 meters, within which he found seven floating black dots. He could actually see more of them in the distance but did not bother checking them as he had already understood the situation well.
'So the ring now allows me to see the spots where I can open spatial rifts. Though it does not seem like I will be able to find objects hidden in every spatial rift.' Lin Mu concluded.
Lin Mu had the idea of opening every spatial rift he could find, but then rejected that idea as it would require him to consume his spirit qi. Right now Lin Mu's first priority was to gain an understanding of the new skills, and for doing that, having sufficient spirit qi was a must.
While Lin Mu had discovered another new function of his ring, the disciples of the Star catching peak of the sky precepts sect were currently in shock once again.