Upon hearing Senior Xukong's words, Lin Mu did not feel disappointed. If anything, he felt calm as this only meant that he had more time to prepare for it. Not to mention even if he killed the great slumber bear, he still did not know how he would obtain its bloodline.
Lin Mu's guess turned out to be true as Senior Xukong soon continued his explanation.
"The bloodline of the Great slumber bear is very strong; thus you will need to prepare beforehand. Usually, when a beast is killed for the purpose of obtaining its bloodline, it is stored in a special container. But you don't have that luxury, thus when you kill the Great slumber bear, you will have to assimilate the bloodline right away.
But the next problem that you will face after assimilating the bloodline would be the activation of the ability 'Well of slumber'. If you do not prepare well and fall asleep, you will simply starve to death, thus during this time period you need to learn the technique of the lost immortal.
But simply having the technique won't be enough. Assimilating a bloodline is a tough task. You need a strong will and body to be able to successfully do it. Especially in the case of an immensely strong bloodline of the great slumber bear, your body will need to be very strong.
Thus for that, you will need to reach the completion of the body tempering realm and saturate your body with the maximum amount of vital energy that you can." Xukong explained in detail.
After hearing and comprehend senior Xukong's words, Lin Mu started to formulate his plans for the upcoming year.
He now had a goal, which was to obtain the bloodline of the great slumber bear. In addition to this, there were some other goals he needed to complete. The first of which was to investigate the culprits, and the next was to increase his own cultivation.
~Sigh~
Lin Mu sighed at the multitude of tasks that he needed to do, but his eyes seemed to be glowing with determination. He was not appalled at this, but was rather looking forward to it. Lin Mu was also feeling that they were making little waste after coming all this way.
"Seems like we will have to find the great slumber beast once again next time." Lin Mu spoke.
"That won't be much of a problem. A great slumber bear, once it enters its sleeping phase, won't move from its location unless it is disturbed. This cave seems to be rather isolated, and just the mere presence of the great slumber bear will repel most beasts.
Also, considering its current condition and its recovery period, it's likely that it won't wake up for more than a year at least." Xukong replied.
"That should make it easy for us. I'll have plenty of time too and should be able to prepare everything till then." Lin Mu said while nodding his head.
Now that Lin Mu knew what to do next, he wanted to check out the rest of the cave. He continued on forward and entered the wall. Only when he was a sufficient distance away from the Great slumber Bear did he come out of the wall and deactivate the skill phase.
Lin Mu kept his spirit sense alert and would scan the area that was in front of him every few seconds, ensuring that nothing dangerous was there. The way floor that he was walking on once again became sloping and he started ascending again.
Lin Mu must have walked for at least eight hundred meters more along the winding and curving cave until finally, he reached its exit. The exit of the cave was rather large, being about six meters tall and ten meters wide.
Lin Mu was rather surprised that such a big cave was unknown. The hunters should have known of it most likely, but somehow it had still stayed hidden. Only when he walked a short distance away did he realize why; the mouth of the cave was at a slanting angle such that the trees and the face of the mountain would hide it.
From far away, the mouth of the cave was completely hidden, and no hunter would spot it easily. The snow only made it easy to hide as well. Lin Mu looked around but did not see anything peculiar.
"I should climb a tree and get a gauge of the area. Perhaps I'll find something nearby." Lin Mu muttered to himself.
Lin Mu found a relatively short tree and used blink to appear at a branch that was at its top. From there he blinked to another tree and kept on going upwards until he finally reached the highest point he could for now.
Lin Mu took a look around and saw the white and green spread of land that was the northern forest. Behind him was the mountain out of which he had walked out of, and in front of him was the rest of the northern forest.
Far in the distance, he could see the Northern mountain ranges as well. Those mountains were perhaps the farthest any hunter had ever gone, as the area beyond them was considered to be a forbidden area due to the high amount of danger.
Lin Mu remembered the scary stories he heard from his parents about how there were monsters living beyond the northern mountains, and that's why it was called as a forbidden area. But now that he looked at the snowy white mountains, they looked anything but scary.
They simply looked…
"Beautiful…" Lin Mu muttered.
The clouds in the sky had flown away and the snow had stopped. The half-moon could be seen hog up in the sky and stars could be seen twinkling in the blanket of night. Gently flowing wind passed through Lin Mu's hair as he stood on the top of the tallest tree.
Having taken his fill of the picturesque scene, Lin Mu had decided to get down when he spotted some broken trees.
Because he was at the very top and the snow had covered the land, these trees were hard to spot. Lin Mu descended to some lower trees and went towards the location where he had seen the broken trees. He then discovered that a long trail of broken trees could be seen heading towards a particular direction.
Lin Mu immediately recognized what it was, and an idea appeared in his mind. He got down onto the ground and checked the broken trees. All of them were knocked down with some of them being splintered because of a great force.
Lin Mu looked at the leaves of the broken trees and judged that they were broken down not too long ago, most likely a week ago. The trail of broken trees came from the center of the forest and went all the way to the entrance of the cave.
"Was this done by the Great slumber bear?" Lin Mu questioned himself.
"Hmm, it does seem like it." Xukong acknowledged.
Suddenly Lin Mu remembered something.
"Wait, Zhou Ye told us that when he was attacked, the beast later ran away and while running away the beast had knocked down the trees. If we follow this, we can find the site of the attack!"