Chapter 27 - Progress In The Martial Technique
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.
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?"