Chapter 40 - Discovery

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