Lin Mu could be seen disappearing from one place to another. He would fade from one location and materialize a few meters away from the previous location. 'Blink' the second skill that Lin Mu had obtained allowed him to teleport over short distances.
He discovered that he could teleport up to a maximum distance of 10 meters in a single use of the skill. He also learned that he could only teleport to a place that he was able to see with his eyes. For example, he could not teleport to a place behind him, but if he turned his neck and gazed at the location, he could teleport there.
Another Limitation he discovered was that if there was a large object present between Lin Mu and the location he wanted to teleport to, he could not teleport. He needed to have a clear sight of the location he wanted to teleport to. Otherwise, the skill would fail to activate, even though the spirit qi would still be consumed.
Lin Mu had to unwittingly stop as he had nearly run out of spirit qi. He had been enjoying the feeling of using the skill as it was the fastest Lin Mu had ever moved.
"I shouldn't get carried away, I still need to check out some things." Lin Mu said to himself.
Lin Mu prepared some meat to cook and cultivated until it got ready. He had learned that the more he depleted his spirit qi the faster he could cultivate and recover it. Sleeping also helped him recover some spirit qi passively, but the process was slow as only half of his qi was replenished after eight hours of sleep. Thus compared to actively cultivating spirit qi, it was inefficient.
Lin Mu also found that the maximum amount of spirit qi he could recover by sleeping was the total amount he had when he actively cultivated. He could not exceed it and had to actively cultivate if he wanted to increase the total capacity.
Soon his lunch was ready, and Lin Mu started eating it. While eating he had the idea about testing out the strength of the boulder collapsing fist. It was mentioned in the booklet that boulder collapsing fist was compatible with many energies and they could also be freely combined.
Lin Mu wanted to see the true might of the martial technique once he combined vital energy along with spirit qi. Though he was a little apprehensive as the martial technique would completely drain his vital energy in one use, he did not know if it would be the same with spirit qi.
A few minutes later, Lin Mu was done with his lunch and was ready to test out the capabilities of boulder collapsing fist.
'Let's see how this goes.' Lin Mu thought to himself.
Lin Mu stood in the horse stance and harmonized his breathing with the fist technique. But instead of vital energy, he controlled the spirit qi to form an energy spiral in his right arm. He carefully guided the spirit qi from his dantian into the meridians of his right arm and let it swirl.
Soon a vortex was formed, but the spirit qi did not stop being absorbed. Once the spiral was created Lin Mu did not need to consciously guide the spirit qi, as it moved into his right arm automatically. It was only when he had consumed half of his entire store that the spirit qi spiral stabilised.
Lin Mu then braced himself and executed the technique.
"Boulder collapsing fist!"
~Whoosh
A strong jet of air was shot forward and a sharp whistling sound could be heard, which hurt one's ears. The jet of air stuck a tree that was in front of Lin Mu with a huge impact. The bark that covered it was directly stripped away, and a shallow fist imprint was left on the tree's bare trunk. The tree started swaying as the jet of air split into two and impacted more trees, making them shake as well.
Lin Mu took a deep breath and relaxed his body. He was shocked by the effect of the boulder collapsing fist.
"If it's already this strong when I just hit the air, what would happen if I directly hit a person with it?" Lin Mu wondered.
'And what if I combine spirit qi with vital energy, how strong it would be then?' Lin Mu thought.
The thought about combining spirit qi with vital energy kept on repeating in Lin Mu's mind. He had only tested the technique on air, but not on a solid object yet. He wanted to witness the power of the entire potential of the technique, as he did not know if he would ever fall into a dire situation where this technique would be his only way out.
Lin Mu could no longer hold himself back and wanted to try out the technique that instant. But as he wanted to test the true potential of the technique, he had to find a suitable target to test it on. He could not test it on a person or on a beast, thus he decided to find a large boulder.
"What better way to test the martial technique, rather than to see if it actually lives up to its name." Lin Mu said with a chuckle.
Lin Mu walked to the small stream, as he knew that there was a boulder located a short distance away from it. He reached the spot 10 minutes later, after which he checked the surroundings for any people or beasts that could disturb him. He especially did not want to expose the technique to other people.
Once Lin Mu confirmed that there was no person nearby, he stood in front of the boulder which towered over him, being more than three meters tall. He then entered the horse stance and harmonized his breathing with the fist technique.
Now came the hard part. Lin Mu had to combine the spirit qi with the vital energy. He had not done this before, so did not know if he would be successful in the first try.
Lin Mu first allowed the vital energy within his body to form an energy spiral within his left arm. He chose his left arm, as it was his non-dominant arm, and would not bother him too much if it was injured. He knew that he would get slightly injured whenever he used it on a person or a beast. Though he would soon recover in a few hours after that.
Soon most of his vital energy had started spinning within his left arm. He then guided the spirit qi through the meridians into his left arm. He had originally thought that it would be a difficult process and he would not succeed in the first try. But reality showed him that he was wrong, as the spirit qi merged with the vital energy with ease and assimilated into the energy spiral.
Lin Mu observed that the energy spiral within his arm had started to undergo a certain kind of metamorphosis. The energy spiral was getting more and more condensed. Soon, from a gaseous form, the energy spiral had turned into a liquid form.
Lin Mu could sense the raw power that was stored within the liquid energy spiral. It was completely unlike he had ever felt before. When the energy spiral finally stabilised, Lin Mu had depleted all of his vital energy as well as his spirit qi.
He knew he only had this one chance, thus he took a deep breath and executed the technique.
"Boulder collapsing fist!"
~phew ~~~~~KABOOOM!!
This time there was no whistling sound, no jet of air, only raw power that was shot forward. The moment Lin Mu's fist connected with the surface of the boulder, the energy spiral within his left arm transferred into it.
It was as if the world had turned still, but in the next instant, the boulder that was in front of Lin Mu disappeared along with a large exploding sound. The sound of the explosion spread through the sky and could be heard far away. The boulder had turned into small stone fragments and had pelted the entire area that was behind it.
The impact of the stone fragments broke the trees that were close directly, while those that were far had been embedded with the fragments. Some unrecognisable masses of meat could also be seen lying around; these were the unfortunate birds and small animals that had borne the impact of the fragments.
The noise of the exploding boulder had drowned out the sounds of the forest as it continued echoing.
A few kilometers away, deep in the forest, a group of people were currently fighting a spirit beast that looked like an oversized pangolin. They were moving with great agility, and their every attack had immense power within it. One could clearly tell that all of them were qi cultivators from an elite mercenary team.
They were engrossed in fighting the spirit beast when suddenly the sound of an explosion echoed from afar. The sound of the explosion made the mercenaries as well as the spirit beast wary. The spirit beast halted for a moment, as if it had sensed something terrifying. The pangolin spirit beast could not bear it and curled up, rolling away with extreme speed, leaving the mercenaries behind.
"What was that sound, why did it scare the spirit beast away?" one of the men asked.
"It was not just the sound, there was spirit qi contained within it; extremely strong spirit qi." A woman that was wielding a whip spoke.
"Estimating the distance the sound travelled, and the spirit qi that was contained within it, I would say it was a cultivator at the peak of the qi refining realm; if not the core condensation realm." Spoke a man that looked to be the leader of the team.
"Should we investigate it, leader?" Another man asked.
"No, it is not our job. Leave it." The leader spoke with apprehension in his eyes.
Back at the site of the explosion, Lin Mu was writhing on the ground, holding his left arm. The noise of the explosion had not only suppressed the sounds of the forest, but it had also drowned out the screams of Lin Mu.