Lin Mu touched his face and ensured that he really was in the real world and had woken up. He then sat up and touched his surroundings as well. Once he confirmed that everything was as he had known, he took a breath of relief.
'So that really was a dream, a strange one at that. It was as if my spirit sense was really trapped.' Lin Mu thought.
But just as he thought that, an idea popped into his mind. Acting on this idea, he released his spirit sense and extended it. As soon as he extended it though, he was shocked. He had a hidden feeling that what had happened in the dream was not completely fake.
And that's what it was. In Lin Mu's dream, he remembered that his spirit sense was hundreds of meters long and was incredibly strong. The same had happened here. Except that it was not exactly the same. While it had increased its range, it was only extended up to eighty meters, ten times of what it was before he went to sleep.
"This is amazing! How is this possible though?" Lin Mu spoke out loud in surprise.
But him extending his spirit sense had another effect.
~Shing~
A strange sound was heard that was similar to how unsheathing a sword felt. A swooping sound was heard as a few people shouted out loud.
"WATCH OUT!"
"WHOA!"
~Rip~
A tearing sound was then heard as the canvas walls of the tent were torn and an object entered from it. It came to float in front of Lin Mu and hovered there while humming faintly. It was none other than Lin Mu's short sword. Somehow it had come flying to him.
"What?…" Lin Mu spoke in shock as he saw the short sword floating.
"Hold it, it's responding to you now." Xukong suddenly spoke.
Lin Mu heeded his words and held on to the handle of the short sword. As soon as he held it, the short sword stopped thrumming and calmed down. Lin Mu looked at it from top to bottom and couldn't see any differences in it.
Xukong saw this and knew what Lin Mu was thinking.
"It's not a physical change. It just the spirit control link that it had established with you. While it responded before back when you didn't have a strong enough spirit sense, it was only acting on instinct. But now that your spirit sense is sufficiently strong, it will heed your commands." Xukong explained.
"Try connecting your spirit sense with it. You should be able to control it." Xukong added.
Lin Mu did as he was asked and connected his spirit sense with the short sword. He thought that it would be complex at first, but it wasn't. Instead, it was as if it was instinctive, his spirit sense attached to the short sword, and Lin Mu felt as if it was now like a part of his body.
Lin Mu let go of the short sword and it kept on floating in the air. He flicked his spirit sense and with it, the short sword moved. But in his amazement, Lin Mu had forgotten where he was. The small flick of spirit sense was too large, and the short sword moved with a fast momentum.
That small movement of spirit sense was amplified much more in the short sword and it slashed out, destroying the canvas tent. The tent fell apart in two parts, and Lin Mu was revealed to the elements. Faint sunlight dappled his face as he looked at the members of Hei Corps that were staring at him with dumbfounded expressions.
They were first scared by the short sword which had suddenly started flying and had barely missed their heads, and now it was a tent that had been split in half. They felt as if this was going to be a long and tough day.
"The short sword… it's flying?" someone who had not noticed the short sword until now spoke.
"It's a spirit sword! A high grade one at that." One of them exclaimed.
But just as that man shouted that out loud, another one of the men slapped him on the back of his head.
"Watch what you say!" The man whispered to him.
The man immediately zipped his lips and looked on over at Lin Mu. He had a nervous look on his face and was worried that he had offended Lin Mu. But to his relief, Lin Mu was instead focused on the short sword itself.
Lin Mu was waving it around and trying to get a judgment of how much force he was supposed to apply. Since his spirit sense had grown much more stronger than before, about ten times. He was not accustomed to using it and was experiencing the problem.
A few minutes later he finally got a good grasp on it and could control the short sword freely like a third arm. But along with this, he realized another thing. With each passing second that Lin Mu used the short sword, one wisp of spirit qi was used.
After sleeping and waking up, Lin Mu only had about six hundred wisps of spirit qi in his dantian. And now that he had used it for a couple of minutes, that amount had fallen to below a hundred wisps.
"You need to be careful with your spirit qi consumption. Cultivators usually don't have a spirit sense as strong as you in the qi refining realm, thus your consumption of spirit qi is much higher. You shouldn't use the full range of your spirit sense when it's not required, or you will deplete it fast."
"In addition to this, there will be a spike in the consumption of spirit qi when you use your spirit sword to attack. So you need to be extremely sure when you strike. But once you reach the peak stage of the qi refining realm and have refined enough liquid spirit qi; you'll be able to use the spirit sword freely." Xukong explained.
Lin Mu felt even more amazed and understood much better now. But along with this, another idea popped into his mind and his eyes lit up with excitement.
"Before you think of this, know that you still can't fly on the spirit sword. The consumption will be immense and you will drain all of it in a few seconds." Xukong spoke in a cold tone and broke the excitement of Lin Mu.
Lin Mu felt as if water was spilled on his plans, but soon picked himself up as he remembered there were far too many things he needed to take care of for now. Lin Mu first decided to check up on Hei Yingjie. He had told the team members to inform him if anything happened and they hadn't, so it meant that everything was going well.
Lin Mu went to the tent in which Hei Yingjie was resting and walked inside. He saw that he was still unconscious, but his condition seemed to be well from the outside. Lin Mu used his spirit sense and checked his internal condition and discovered that while the injuries had not completely healed, they were still better than before.
~Sigh~
"At least he's improving." Lin Mu muttered.
After checking up on Hei Yingjie, he walked back outside and saw that the men were cleaning up the destroyed tent. One of them saw him and walked up to him.
"Do you have any orders, senior?" The man asked. It was the same man who was the first in supporting Lin Mu in healing Hei Yingjie.
"We need to inform the other team. I don't think we can continue the mission like this." Lin Mu spoke stating the problem.
The man's expression fell, and he nodded.
"That is true senior. With our strongest expert down, there isn't much we can't do. Before you woke up, we were discussing our course of action, but we didn't want to decided it without you. Now that Senior Hei Yingjie is injured, you're the one who's in command." The man spoke.
Only now did Lin Mu realized that he had never asked the man for his name. In fact, he had not asked anyone's names somehow.
"Umm, what's your name?" Lin Mu asked.
"Ah, my name is Xie Bohai." The man introduced himself.
"Xie? Not Hei?" Lin Mu asked, feeling perplexed.
"Oh yes, Senior. We did not take up the Hei name as we were to be the reserve force of the Hei Corps. Since we had to disguise and live a normal life for a long time, the Lord had decided that it was better this way." Xie Bohai explained.
Lin Mu nodded in understanding and then took a look around at the rest of the members.
"Xie Bohai, tell me how are the others? Have they recovered?" Lin Mu questioned with a straight expression.
"Yes, Senior. All of us have recovered and are ready for any task you may deem necessary." Xie Bohai spoke in a respectful tone.
"That's good. Now the first task is to inform the other team, do you have any suggestions?" Lin Mu questioned.
Lin Mu didn't know if they had the means to contact others, but seeing their previous methods and them being resourceful, he was kind of expecting something.
"Of course, Senior. We still have the locating compasses. As long as we are close to them, we will be able to find them." Xie Bohai spoke.
"Very good. How long will it take you to inform them then?" Lin Mu questioned.
"I'll dispatch two of our men right away. It shouldn't take more than a day or two at the most." Xie Bohai answered.
"Yes, do that. Meanwhile, I have something to do." Lin Mu replied and then walked towards the copras of the alpha steel back wolf.
