Yan Zhong took a deep breath before speaking again.
"The elite team of the Ashen Cloak mercenary company was not like the other elite teams. It was bigger, much bigger." Yan Zhong spoke.
Lin Mu was getting tense upon hearing this, thus he gulped before asking.
"How many were there in the team?"
"Eighty mercenaries." Yan Zhong replied.
"All cultivators?" Lin Mu inquired.
"Yes, all cultivators." Yan Zhong answered while nodding his head.
Lin Mu went silent for a bit as he contemplated about the situation.
"How were they found?" Lin Mu asked.
Lin Mu understood that the more he knew about the situation, the better it would be for him. He had been hunting spirit beasts in the forest all this time, but now that there was a strong and ferocious spirit beast on the prowl, he may have to change his plans.
"The Ashen Cloak mercenaries sent out a search party later at night when the elite team did not return. They searched the entire night but still could not find them. It was only around four hours ago that they found them, or rather their remains." Yan Zhong answered.
"Remains? You mean there were no bodies?" Lin Mu asked.
"Yes, all that they found there was splattered blood and chunks of flesh along with the bits and pieces of their armor, which helped to identify them." Yan Zhong replied with a heavy voice.
Lin Mu was shocked by this, as he could not think of any beast that could do this. Sure, a beast would be able to kill such a large number of mercenaries, but it certainly could not eat them all. Still, from Yan Zhong's words, he could sense the hint of truth and dread.
If all that Yan Zhong said was true, then the Northern town had a huge problem at its hands. If such a beast wandered out of the forest, it would spell doom for the town.
"Where were the remains exactly found?" Lin Mu questioned.
"About Eight kilometers deep, in the northwestern side of the forest.��� Yan Zhong answered.
Lin Mu secretly took a breath of relief, as it was still very far from the town. He knew about the area Yan Zhong had spoken about. The Northwestern part of the forest was accessible from the western exit of the town. It was the same exit where the mercenaries and hunters had set up their camp.
If one went further in the northwestern part of the forest, they would found mountains surrounded by ridges. It was a dangerous area that was very difficult to cross, as the mountains and ridges acted as a natural barrier. This not only prevented people from crossing it, but it also stopped the stronger spirit beasts from crossing over.
The only way to cross this region was to travel through the frontier bridge or to use the smaller passes and tunnels. The frontier bridge was far towards the west, so the mercenaries had most likely used the smaller passes to cross this region.
Lin Mu did not think they would take the risk of traveling through the tunnels, as they were notorious for collapsing. Some beasts would also reside within them and use them as their nests or dens.
"Do they have any idea what kind of beast it was?" Lin Mu asked.
"They don't know much about the beast except that it is likely to be very large in size and has four limbs with sharp claws." Yan Zhong replied.
Lin Mu could not do much with such a vague description, so just decided to look out for any large beast. There were far too many beasts that would fit this description, as the region beyond the mountains and ridges was filled with them.
Lin Mu bid farewell to Yan Zhong and went to eat his breakfast. After quickly finishing his breakfast, he then went to the hunting shack. While Lin Mu was no longer living in the hunting shack, he still cultivated near it.
It was the perfect location that was hidden and granted him privacy. Now that the winter had started it was even safer for him as not even the local hunters would come near there. The only problem would be the beasts, but Lin Mu was strong enough to handle most of them, and if he encountered a stronger beast, he could just run away.
The two skills that were imparted by the ring, not only allowed him to dodge strikes, it also gave him the ability to escape easily. Though that kind of situation has not occurred yet, and Lin Mu was hoping to keep it that way.
Another thing Lin Mu had done in these three weeks was to find out information about Gan Ma. He had not forgotten about the test that senior Xukong had given him and was intending to complete it as fast as possible.
But Lin Mu had reached a wall in his search for Gan Ma, as he has somehow disappeared off the face of the earth. He had tried asking around, but the answers he got were all different. He had asked the hunters as well as the taverns which Gan Ma frequented, but to no avail.
Lin Mu then tried finding the hunters who were part of his group, but found out that they had disappeared as well. Some people said that he had gone to the forest to hunt, but now that winter had started, he should have returned.
Lin Mu also heard that Gan Ma had instead gone to Wu Lim city for some reason. He had thought about it but could not figure out any reason for it.
The sun was hidden behind the clouds as the chilling wind blew. It was a little later than noon when a change could be observed in Lin Mu. A faint wave of energy emanated from his body as it slowly disappeared.
Lin Mu opened his eyes, which were glowing with joy. He had just reached the mid-stage of the Qi refining realm. He observed his dantian and saw that half of it was now filled with spirit qi. But the thing that surprised him was the actual quantity of the spirit qi wisps.
Lin Mu counted the number of spirit qi wisps and found that instead of a 1000 wisps there were actually 1112 wisps of spirit qi in his dantian. Earlier when he had started cultivating, he had estimated the maximum capacity of his dantian to be of 2000 wisps, the half of which would be a 1000 wisps.
Somehow along the way, the maximum capacity of Lin Mu's dantian had increased. He tried to sense the entirety of his dantian, but found that it seemed to be of the same size as before. Thinking that he may have just made a mistake back then, Lin Mu pushed this thought to the back of his mind.
Xukong was closely observing Lin Mu's progress and knew exactly what was happening with him. He had already known that the ring was subtly affecting the growth of Lin Mu's physique, but did not know to what extent.
Lin Mu breaking through to the mid-stage of the Qi refining realm had given him a measure. If Lin Mu kept on cultivating at this pace, Xukong estimated that when he reached the late stage of the qi refining realm, the maximum capacity of his dantian was likely to increase beyond 3000 spirit qi wisps.
The increase in the size of his dantian would slow down Lin Mu's cultivation progress, but it would also increase his overall qi. Xukong guessed that when Lin Mu finally reaches the core condensation realm, he would probably have the same amount of spirit qi as that of a Nascent Soul realm cultivator.
Lin Mu sensed the vital energy coursing through his body and saw that it had reached a breaking point. He estimated that he would probably break through to the 11th stage of the body tempering realm at any moment.
Lin Mu focused on his spirit sense and spread it around. Over the three weeks, Lin Mu's spirit sense had increased to a range of five meters. He had been cultivating and refining his spirit sense every day. Perhaps if he had not refined his spirit sense, Lin Mu would have reached the mid-stage of the qi refining much earlier.
Even though Lin Mu knew that he could break through to the next stage faster by stopping his refining of spirit sense, he chose not to. He was determined to increase the range of his spirit qi to at least ten meters, which was also the maximum teleportation range of the second skill Blink.
Senior Xukong had also told Lin Mu that, by stabilizing his pace of cultivation, he was only helping his future progress. His foundation would become more stable, as his body acclimatized to the increased amount of spirit qi.
Lin Mu cultivated all the way to midnight and only stopped when his spirit qi was reduced to 200 wisps. After this, he returned to the town and went to the inn to eat his dinner. But while he was walking towards the inn, a pair of eyes were hidden in the darkness, watching him.