Chapter 278 - Assessing His Situation

Lin Mu was now at a point where he had to review his position according to the goals that he had set up. He had satisfied the first minimum condition that was required for him to assimilate the Bloodline of the Great slumber bear.

Since he was at the thirteenth stage of the body tempering realm, that too at the very peak, Lin Mu should relatively not have many problems in assimilating it. But there were still two requirements that were needed for him to survive the process.

He still needed to make sure that the Nameless technique of the lost immortal was working and that he had understood its effects. His current close call with death had only made him more worried as the nameless technique seemed to have a hand in that.

But it was also that very technique that had allowed him to directly reach the peak of the body tempering realm in one go. Then came another requirement that could change depending on the condition of the great slumber beast.

If the great slumber beast was sufficiently weakened, Lin Mu would be able to kill it even with his current strength. But if it was not so then, he would have to reach the peak stage of the qi refining realm to be on the safe side.

'Hmm, I'm already close to the breakthrough. Just a few more drops and I'll directly breakthrough. My foundation is already stable and senior Xukong had already said the transition between late stage and peak stage of the qi refining realm is relatively milder, similar to the early and mid stages.' Lin Mu thought to himself.

Xukong could already guess what was going through Lin Mu's mind and was a bit happy that he was able to handle himself after nearly escaping death. But he was still doubtful about the ring. He didn't know if it was deliberate on its part or perhaps it would have really let Lin Mu die.

Whatever it was, Xukong knew that Lin Mu needed to get stronger quickly. The duty that comes with being the world's ordained is not easy, and it needs to be fulfilled satisfactorily.

"Are you going to attempt to breakthrough right now?" Xukong questioned.

"No, at least not now. I want to check up on a few things first. Seeing that I had that close call, I want to review my situation for a bit." Lin Mu answered after thinking for a bit.

Xukong hummed in agreement as he could see the wisdom in Lin Mu's decision. It was better to be cautious than to jump in face first into a situation.

Lin Mu meanwhile looked around for Little shrubby as he could not see him in the bedroom. He sensed his connection with Little Shrubby and found himself to be in the kitchen. Upon walking into the kitchen, Lin Mu spotted the small beast attempting to cook… again.

Little Shrubby had apparently not given up on cooking, even after getting cooked food to eat. Especially after its intelligence started increasing, it had become even more determined to cook. Lin Mu found it strange, but just attributed it to the beast's uniqueness.

Lin Mu saw it turning the skewer of meat around on the stove, although the meat was badly charred. In order to make it easier for the beast to cook, Lin Mu had made a few modifications. He had lowered the stove and made it broader so that Little shrubby could stand at the side and control the food.

While for fire, Lin Mu had simply set up a long burning lamp which was always lit and he would simply add oil to it whenever it started to go out. The lamp had enough fuel that it could burn for about two days straight, and since the oil used was none other than the melted fat from beast meat; it was even easier for Lin Mu to do it.

Little Shrubby merely needed to take a stick and light it using the lamp before putting it into the base of the stove to ignite it. As for the wood for the stove, there were plenty of wood logs that were placed in the storage. Little shrubby had no problem lifting them as his strength was quite enough, being at the mid stage of the qi refining realm.

Lin Mu had set this up about a month ago and Little Shrubby would attempt to cook there every day with only failures to present. All of the meat that it cooked was charred and burned. But thankfully the beast did not mind this and ate the meat that he burned.

Little Shrubby saw Lin Mu and stopped what it was doing before jumping down from the platform and nuzzling against Lin Mu's legs.

~Nyaa~

Little Shrubby purred in pleasure as he rubbed his face again and again upon Lin Mu. He had not been able to interact with Lin Mu that much these few weeks because of him being engrossed in cultivation fully. He could also sense the increase in his master's strength from the connection that they had.

Little Shrubby was perhaps the only one that would be able to tell the true cultivation level of Lin Mu because of their connection. All others would simply think of Lin Mu as having no body tempering realm cultivation, while his qi refining realm cultivation would also be a bit of a mystery because of his ability to use the Spirit sense.

Though this was soon about to change as Lin Mu would be entering the peak stage of the qi refining realm soon, and thus this advantage would disappear. But the others would still not expect for Lin Mu's spirit sense range to be as long as eighty meters, as most peak stage qi refining realm cultivators only had a max range of ten meters.

Lin Mu now took out the jade slip that was given to him by Jing Wei and contacted him. He held it in his hand for about a minute before opening his eyes.

"Perfect!"