Lin Mu was contemplating whether this would be the right time to eat the spirit fruit or if he should wait till he reaches the 7th stage of the body tempering realm.
'The beasts were fighting to eat this fruit, and the ape beast was in the 7th stage. Maybe I should wait until I'm at least at the 7th stage of the body tempering stage as well.' Though Lin Mu.
He did not know what kind of effect the fruit would have on him, so Lin Mu felt like it would be better if he gets a little stronger before eating it. Lin Mu thus put the grape-sized purple fruit away.
Lin Mu stood up and decided to go hunt some beasts in the forest. He needed more and more meat if he wanted to keep up with the requirements of his training. Hence he entered the forest and searched for some beasts.
By the time Lin Mu returned to the hunting shack, it was already dark. He had been able to kill two beasts this time. One was a black-horned rabbit, and another was a Red-snouted boar's piglet. These two beasts would not provide him with much meat, but should last for at least two meals.
Lin Mu continued his practice with the Boulder collapsing fist and found himself steadily improving at the end of the training session. He then ate his dinner and chanted the calming heart sutra. Soon after he finished chanted the calming heart sutra and was about to sleep, he felt a spatial rift about to open.
The spatial rift opened just a few feet away from the hunting shack, thus he did not have to worry about entering the forest at night. Lin Mu searched inside the spatial rift and found a small pebble this time. He observed it closely but could not find anything peculiar about it.
Lin Mu was utterly tired and went to sleep. In the Sleepscape he recalled today's training and analysed it and tried to identify his mistakes. He continued his practice in the Sleepscape and improved his coordination between the breathing technique and the fist routine.
After waking up, he wanted to take a bath as he did not take one yesterday due to feeling too lazy and tired. The water in the stream had become colder, a sign of the approaching winter. Lin Mu also picked some sour apples while he was there. He had an idea that he wanted to try out.
In the hunting shack, he added the black-horned rabbit's meat along with some spices and condiments. But this time he also chopped up one of the sour apples finely and added it to the stew. He trained while the stew got ready. A different aroma could be smelled coming from the pot.
The stew had a little tartness that balanced the spices and cut the excess fat in the meat. It tasted refreshing to Lin Mu, and he thought he should cook with this method more often.
Lin Mu went to the forest again to hunt some beasts. While in the forest, he heard the sounds of fighting. He had taken his regular route, but this was the first time he had seen people on it. He followed the sounds and reached a clearing, which seemed like it was manmade. The trees were cleared in a radius.
He had come here a couple of days ago and the trees were still there. He continued towards the source of the sound and reached it after a minute. Lin Mu peaked from behind a bush and saw a group of men fighting three steel-back wolves.
There were four corpses of steel-back wolves lying on the ground, probably killed by the men. He took a closer look at their armour and spotted a symbol on each person. It was the symbol for 'Fierce Blood' mercenaries.
They were probably a part of the mercenary groups that had come to the town this week. There were five people fighting the steel-back wolves. Two of which were injured in multiple places and were dripping blood as they fought.
The remaining three mercenaries did not look to be injured, but one could see the numerous claw marks and scratches on their armour. Lin Mu decided to stand back and not interfere in their fight. One of the basic etiquettes of hunters was to not get involved in other hunter's fights unless asked or if they were in immediate danger.
Lin Mu could only guess that it was the same for mercenaries as well. He watched the mercenaries fight for 5 minutes, until another mercenary had gotten injured and was bleeding as well. They had also managed to kill one of the remaining steel-back wolves.
But it still looked like the steel-back wolves had the upper hand and the mercenaries had become tired. Lin Mu could see that they were getting slow and making mistakes.
"Keep it up brothers, we just have these two beasts left and then we can rest for the entire month." Spoke one of the mercenaries who was injured.
"Dammit, I knew we should have retreated beforehand, now we don't even have enough stamina left for that." Complained the mercenary who had just gotten injured.
"Shut it, you two, and focus on the beasts." Shouted the man who seemed to be their leader.
While fighting, one of the mercenaries missed his step while dodging and fell down. Taking this opportunity, one of the wolves lunged at the fallen man.
"NOOO! hold the beast back." Shouted the leader as he tried to block the beast but could not as the beast was much faster and the other steel-back wolf had also interrupted the mercenaries.
The injured mercenary who had fallen was still reeling from the impact of falling and could not respond in time. All the mercenaries were tense and had already accepted that they were going to lose one of their brothers-in-arms.
But as they continued watching in shock, the steel-back wolf who was in mid-air was suddenly hit with an immense force and was knocked into a tree. When the mercenaries looked at the steel-back wolf that was knocked away, they found it to be missing a major part of its skull.
The mercenaries who had fallen opened his eyes and found Lin Mu standing over him in a horse stance with his right arm extended. He could see the gory remains of the steel-back wolf stuck to his fist and his face.
The other steel-back wolf was startled by the sudden demise of its companion. The mercenaries took advantage of this and killed the beast with a coordinated pincer attack, which it could not dodge.
All the mercenaries exhaled with relief, now that the danger had passed. After his nerves had calmed down, the leader turned to face the person who had saved their companion.
The person in question was still standing in the horse stance and had his eyes closed. Lin Mu was currently trying to carve the feeling he got when he executed the boulder collapsing fist into his mind. He had nearly been able to perfectly execute the technique just now, but it was still lacking in the proper utilization of vital energy. The spiral of energy that formed in his hand collapsed before it could be released properly.
Lin Mu heard someone calling him and opened his eyes.
"Thank you for saving our companion boy." Said the leader of the group who was standing in front of Lin Mu.
"Huh, ah yes, it's fine." Said Lin Mu awkwardly.
Lin Mu was expecting them to be a little angry, but it was completely different than he thought. Since Lin Mu was so focused on memorising the feeling of the martial technique, he did not realise that his face was bloodied and when he talked, some blood entered his mouth and made him spit it out in disgust.
~Ptui~ 'That was disgusting.' Thought Lin Mu.
The leader of the mercenaries was also a little stunned by Lin Mu's awkward response and the subsequent act of spitting. The other mercenaries had also gathered to pick up and support their injured companion.
They brought him towards Lin Mu and spoke,
"We give our heartfelt thanks to you." Said the men in unison.
"We would like to reward you for saving our companion." Said the Leader.
Lin Mu was a little surprised by the mercenaries' offer and thought for a moment before answering,
"Can I have the meat of the steel-back wolf?"
"That's all?" questioned the leader with raised brows.
"Yeah, that's not enough for the help you provided us. You at least have to take an entire beast corpse." Said the mercenary who was nearly killed by the beast.
"No, right now I only have the need for beast meat." Replied Lin Mu while shaking his head.
"But for a person of your standing, you deserve more than that." Said the leader.
Lin Mu's brows were wrinkled in confusion of the leader's words. He did not understand what the leader meant by 'A person of your standing'.
"Yes, as a disciple of a martial sect, you can rightfully demand more. We won't mind it." Said another mercenary.
Lin Mu finally understood why the mercenaries were being so generous and courteous. They had mistaken him for a disciple of a martial sect. With the power, Lin Mu had displayed and his young age, it was no wonder they had mistakenly assumed he was a disciple of a martial sect. As even a person in the 8th stage of the body tempering realm would find it nearly impossible to split the tough skull of a steel-back wolf.
"Okay then, I'll take as much meat as you can spare." Replied Lin Mu after thinking for a moment.
Lin Mu thought that now that he had this free opportunity to get the meat of a strong beast, he may as well take it and not correct the mercenaries' assumption.