Lin Mu was sitting on his bed and was wearing a clean white robe. His face was currently filled with veins yet looked to be relatively calm. His lips were silently moving, chanting the Burning heart sutra.

He maintained this state for over two minutes before he finally stopped and let out a breath.

~Huu~

Lin Mu opened his eyes that were now filled with tranquility.

"Finally…" Lin Mu muttered to himself.

"Good, you've finally gained a good grasp over the burning heart sutra. Now you can at least maintain your state without stressing yourself." Xukong praised.

Lin Mu nodded before standing up and stretching his body. Over the past month, he had been following his new routine and had become more habituated to the burning heart sutra. Unlike before when it ended up harming his mind when he didn't have a target to unleash it upon, Lin Mu could now bear with it with much fewer problems.

This wasn't the only thing in which Lin Mu had progressed in this past month. His skill with the thousand armament blade Scripture had also increased by another stage. By now, Lin Mu had already learned ten percent of the weapons that were included in the thousand armament blade scripture.

His cultivation too had greatly progressed and he now had over five hundred drops of liquid spirit qi, which put him at one third of the way to the next stage of the qi refining realm. Once he reached the cumulative number of fifteen hundred wisps, Lin Mu would be said to have entered the peak stage of the qi refining realm.

In this process, though the basic qi pills had helped him a lot, his rate of refinement had also increased and now he could refine fifteen drops of liquid spirit qi from the previous ten. This had increased his pace even more, though he still used half of them to practice the nameless technique of the lost immortal.

In this past month, Lin Mu did not have a severe reaction as before. While his hunger did increase, it was a steady increase and not an abrupt one as he had experienced before. But this had also resulted in him finishing a quarter of all the beast corpses that he had stored in the ring.

Now he only had the final quarter of meat left and Lin Mu knew that with his current increasing pace, it would barely last two weeks.

~Sigh~ 

"I need to go hunt. Thankfully, the winter is at its last legs now." Lin Mu spoke as he looked outside the window.

While it was still cold, there was no snow anymore. The people had started to come out more, and even some of the trees and plants had sprouted new leaves. Spring was just around the corner and the worst part of the year was over.

Lin Mu looked at the box of basic qi pills that was kept to his side and saw that there were much fewer pills left in it. He did a rough estimate and figured that only one third of the pills were now left in it.

"Hmm, so I now have a total of a little more than thirteen Hundred basic qi pills left. This should last me at least three more months, even if I consider the increase in my refinement speed." Lin Mu spoke to himself.

He then closed the box and stored it in the ring before quickly finishing up his breakfast and leaving the room. Upon exiting the room, Lin Mu looked up at the clear sky and basked in the sunlight for a few seconds before letting out a breath of relief.

'This feels so much better.' Lin Mu thought to himself before opening the door of the courtyard.

Hei Ping immediately spotted him leaving and hurriedly went to greet him. He had already been informed of the incident from last month and was thus a bit tense. But now that Lin Mu was out of seclusion again, he wanted to check up on him.

Last time he had been at the safe house when Lin Mu went out, thus had missed him. This time he wanted to make up for it.

"Good morning Senior Lin Mu. Seems like your seclusion went well." Hei Ping spoke.

"Hmm, it was decent." Lin Mu acknowledged.

"So you are leaving right now? May I ask where you are heading, I can help you if it's within my capabilities." Hei Ping asked.

"I'm going out to hunt. No need for you to follow me, I want to be alone." Lin Mu answered in a calm tone.

"As you wish, then. Farewell." Hei Ping greeted before letting Lin Mu go.

While Lin Mu was heading towards the forest, Hei Ping was heading towards the town center to inform Hei Bao.

***

Lin Mu subconsciously headed in the direction of the hunting shack and the apple tree. He reached there after ten minutes and took a look around.

The hunting shack had become more damaged over the winter, and the wood it was made from was now rotting. A few planks from its roof had also been broken from what seemed like wind and had gone to who knows where. 

Lin Mu then took a look at the apple tree and found it to be rather bare. It did not have many leaves left and there were no apples on it anymore. Still, fine green sprouts could be seen, which showed that it would soon be rejuvenated.

~Sigh~

A sigh filled with nostalgia escaped Lin Mu's lips as he spoke, "So much has happened, and even more has changed." 

He took one last look at the apple tree before leaving to head deeper into the forest. 

Now that it was nearing spring, the beasts should start returning. But that wasn't necessarily good for Lin Mu, as what he now required was spirit beasts and not normal beasts. Though, he wouldn't mind if he got some normal beasts either, even if they were a drop in the ocean comrade to his appetite.

But as Lin Mu was walking, he sensed something move. The memory from the last month came rushing back to him as he immediately turned to take a look.

"A beast?"

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.