Lin Mu kept his eyes trained on the black smoke and unsheathed the short sword from his back. He had seen the black smoke before and had a guess of what it was. The last time he had seen black smoke such as this was when it rose from Dongfeng Zhao's dead body.
Lin Mu's guess turned out to be true as the black smoke accumulated into a black mass that then turned into a figure that had bone spurs coming out of its body and had skulls present on it.
"Invader!" Lin Mu muttered and entered an attack stance.
Lin Mu did not know if this black figure of the invader was dangerous or not. The last time it had just disappeared and had not attacked him, but that could have only been because it was much weaker than this one.
Looking at the black figure of the invader, Lin Mu could feel the same repulsive feeling that he had felt before, except this time it was much stronger. It was as if there was something deep within his soul that was commanding him to erase the presence that was in front of him.
But Lin Mu did not act of this command, he knew better than that. If by some chance he were to wake up the Great slumber bear, then it could spell his doom. Thus he wanted to wait and would only attack if the invader were to attack him first.
Lin Mu kept on looking at the invader and was bracing for it to do something, but strangely nothing happened. Although this time the invader seemed to be much more stronger than before, it did not do anything. It did not even screech and made no sound.
The invader simply disappeared and left behind a small black dot that only Lin Mu could see. It was the spatial point that was left behind. Lin Mu knew that even if he used the ring to open a spatial gate at that spatial point, it would not lead to the location of the invader.
Senior Xukong had already told him that the invader's main body was most likely in a different world and even if he used the ring to open a gate, it would only lead to a location in the lesser void. The black smoke that was released by the Great slumber bear was but a part of the invader's avatar in this world.
But now a big question presented in Lin Mu's mind.
'Why did the avatar of the invader leave the body of the great slumber Bear?'
Lin Mu could understand why it had happened in the case of Dongfeng Zhao since it was a dead body and the avatar of the invader could do nothing but leave it due to being forced by Lin Mu. But in this case, the great slumber bear was still alive and was also weakened enough. And from what Lin Mu could tell, the invader had become a parasite and had taken over a part of the beast's body.
Lin Mu's gaze returned to the Great slumber bear and then he saw a change happening to it. The black patches it had on its fur were starting to fade away. A minute later they were completely gone, and the raw and injured flesh beneath it was revealed.
Evidently, the invaders' hostile takeover had injured the beast plenty. But Lin Mu could notice another thing. The injuries were actually not bleeding and seemed to be slowly healing.
"What is happening?" Lin Mu muttered to himself.
"The great slumber bear, it's expelling the invader from its body. I should have expected this before, the bloodline of a great slumber bear is not something that can be easily challenged." Xukong suddenly spoke up.
Lin Mu observed with his spirit sense and discovered that the aura of the great slumber bear was actually getting weaker. The minuscule waves of spirit qi that were emitted from its body had gotten even more weak than before.
"It's cultivation… it's regressing?" Lin Mu questioned.
"Indeed, in order to expel the invader from its body, the great slumber bear is sacrificing its cultivation base," Xukong answered.
"But isn't this dangerous for it? I mean if it gets too weak won't other beasts attack it and kill it." Lin Mu presented his doubts.
"That is true, but just the innate strength of the great slumber Bear's body is enough to defend against Core condensation beasts. Although it is sacrificing its cultivation, it is also saving itself, because if the invader takes over its body it will die, anyway.
Besides, the Great slumber bear can easily recover its cultivation base back by using its bloodline ability. It is just a matter of decades and the beast will return to the peak of its strength back again." Xukong explained.
Lin Mu heard senior Xukong's words and kept on staring at the changes that were happening in the beast. Its wounds had healed after a few minutes and it had stopped twitching. Even while all this was happening, the great slumber bear had not woken up.
"The beast does live up to its name, its slumber is indeed 'great'." Lin Mu spoke internally.
Though the number of black patches on the great slumber bear had reduced for now, there were still many bone spurs and black fur left on the torso of the beast.
"This does present an opportunity for you. Now, you just have to wait for the beast to expel the entirety of the invader from its body. Once that is done, it should become weak enough that you will be able to kill it." Xukong stated.
Lin Mu heard senior Xukong's words and indeed found them to be accurate. Now all he had to do was to wait and watch. Once the beast became weak enough, that would be the opportunity to strike. Still, there was another question, and that was how long would this take.
"How long would I need to wait senior Xukong?" Lin Mu questioned.
"From the speed, it's expelling it and its current cultivation base, I would say at least a year," Xukong answered.