Lin Mu stopped in his tracks upon hearing senior Xukong's words.
"Now that your filial duty is complete, you can now focus on your cultivation. As for the test that I gave you, you can complete it whenever you can, as it seems like your target has disappeared." Xukong spoke.
Lin Mu nodded inwardly and agreed with senior Xukong's words. After paying his respects to his parents and ancestors, he was indeed feeling much lighter than before. An invisible burden was lifted from his mind, making him feel free.
Lin Mu returned to his house and sat down in his room. Sitting down, he started his cultivation session. Chanting the severing heart sutra emptied his emotions, allowing him to sense things he would not be able to normally.
Lin Mu could observe the difference in his sensitivity to spirit qi. It had increased by a little bit once again. He understood that the reason for it was the fulfillment of his filial duty, but he could not understand why.
'Is this perhaps why the disciples of the cultivation sects are ordered to sever their ties to the secular world when entering the sects.' Lin Mu muttered to himself.
Senior Xukong seemed to have heard his muttering, as he spoke in his mind.
"You are correct in this aspect. The secular ties of a cultivator weigh down on their mind, dampening the progress of their cultivation. Severing them is a necessity in order to be eligible to walk on the myriad paths of the Grand Dao." Xukong explained.
Lin Mu was deeply affected by senior Xukong's words. It was as if there was something inside him that was resonating with his thoughts. He then thought about the feeling of liberation he experienced after fulfilling his filial duty and linked it with senior Xukong's words.
Lin Mu felt that the feeling of liberation was a little similar to something he had felt before. Unknowingly as he went on this train of thought, he had stopped chanting the severing heart sutra. Instead of it, he had started chanting the calming heart sutra.
What Lin Mu grasped now was the tranquillity offered by the calming heart sutra. He correlated it with the liberating feeling and the calmness that occurred after that. Hours went by as Lin Mu pondered on his thoughts.
Slowly but steadily, Lin Mu was sinking into a state of trance. His breath had harmonized, while his mind had stilled. A bout of enlightenment filled Lin Mu's entire being as the chants of a thousand monks filled his mind.
Their esoteric and obscure chants started to make sense to him, and he started to grasp their meanings. His mind returned to the time when he first obtained the calming heart sutra. He started to remember the words he had seen imprinting in his mind, the same ones that he had forgotten.
While Lin Mu was lost in his enlightenment, Xukong was experiencing a different scenario. He saw a blinding light arising from the altar that was located in the ring. He did not dare approach the altar and stayed where he was, as after his last encounter, he did not want to suffer again.
In a surprising revelation to Xukong, it wasn't a peerless sword intent that had risen from the altar. Instead, it was the soothing and tranquilizing Buddhist aura. He felt as if an eminent Buddhist monk was chanting the sacred scriptures while banishing foul demons of the mind.
A similar effect was currently occurring in the northern town as well. The waves of Buddhist aura that were spreading from Lin Mu's body had covered the entire town and had even spread beyond it.
The residents of the town felt as if their struggles did not seem as awful as before. The earthly sufferings that a mortal suffered from, became gentle for the residents. The aggression and fights that were common once, had become rare now.
Tranquil expressions could be seen on the faces of the residents. Even the hunters and mercenaries who had recently suffered from losses came to terms with them. The mourning and acceptance, which would take a person weeks or months, was completed in a day.
The Northern forest had also become silent. Last time it had been intimated into being silent by the peerless sword intent, but this time it had become silent because of the absolute tranquillity granted by the Buddhist aura.
*****
In an elaborate courtyard there existed a luxurious mansion. Two people were currently sitting in this mansion, recuperating from their injuries. These two people were none other than the pair of grandfather and granddaughter, Jing Wei and Duan Ke.
While no physical injury could be seen on their bodies, their pale and weak appearance said otherwise. Both of them had suffered from internal injuries caused by the ward that was placed on Lin Mu by senior Xukong.
They had been recovering from their injuries for a month now. Yet their injuries were only healed by fifty percent. Even though they were using a formation that assisted in healing, their rate of healing was still slow.
Along with the physical injuries, they had also suffered from mental trauma, which was also inhibiting their cultivation base, which in turn restricted their speed of healing.
During their encounter with Lin Mu a month ago, they had experienced the presence of a being so strong that its mere imprint had shaken their cultivation bases and had destabilized their foundations. There was also a high chance that they would end up developing mental demons because of it.
Between the two of them, Jing Wei had borne the full brunt of the impact, in an effort to protect his granddaughter. His own cultivation base was sealed, thus he had ended up using the heirloom that was passed down in his clan.
In that situation, he had originally intended to break the seal on his cultivation base but knew that he did not have enough time to do that. Hence he was left with only one solution, which was to use the heirloom treasure.
Jing Wei had also seen the partial appearance of the being that had put its imprint on Lin Mu. The ten golden yellow eyes that he had seen had terrified him to his very core. Those eyed looked at him as if he was worth less than dirt. Its mere gaze had made him aware of his own mortality.
Having learned from this, he had chosen to distance himself from the boy named Lin Mu and thus had retreated into seclusion along with his granddaughter.
Suddenly a wave of tranquillity spread over the courtyard and penetrated into the mansion. The waves covered the bodies of Jing Wei and Duan Ke, permeating into their minds. They felt as if a great burden of theirs was relieved and all their stress disappeared.
The mental demons that were in the foetal stage were smothered. The waves of Buddhist aura culled their existence and brought forward peace in their minds. The wounds that were unable to heal had suddenly started healing at a great pace. With the assistance of the healing formation, Jing Wei and Duan Ke were soon returning to their optimum condition.
*****
Below the city mayor's manor in Wu Lim city, there existed a large cave. Inside this very cave, an emaciated man was sitting cross-legged in a large blood pool. The blood in the pool reached all the way up to his neck, leaving only his head exposed.
Outside of the blood pool, four large troughs could be seen. These troughs were carrying more blood into the blood pool. The supply of the blood seemed to be endless, yet the blood pool never overflowed, making one think where it went.
Currently, the emaciated man had an expression of pain on his face. He seemed to be trying his best to resist it, yet a few stray grunts still escaped his mouth. With each pain-filled grunt, the blood in the pool rippled.
Suddenly the wave of tranquillity penetrated the cave and started to spread into it. The waves eventually reached the emaciated man and his expression became peaceful. The pain that had been bothering him all this while had now been banished.
A few minutes later the blood in the pool stared reducing at a visible pace and the flow of blood in the troughs increased accordingly, in order to keep a stable level of blood in the pool. A few minutes later the blood in the pool stopped reducing and the flow of blood in the troughs also slowed down.
Sometime later, in the dim space of the cave, a pair of red eyes slowly opened and a peal of faint laughter echoed.
*****
Back in the Northern Town, five days had passed since Lin Mu had entered the state of enlightenment. He had been sitting in the same posture without moving, which had caused a faint layer of dust to settle on his body.
Xukong had been patiently waiting for Lin Mu to wake up from his trance. During this period even he had an acceleration in the speed of his cultivation. Back when he had created this avatar, he had not given it any of his cultivation base. He had been intending to use this avatar to only absorb the absolutely pure and refined spatial energy present in the ring.
Xukong's main body had long since exhausted its potential. He did not have any growth in his cultivation base for the past ten thousand years. His encounter with Lin Mu had renewed his hope, thus he had created this avatar to absorb the spatial energy and also to assist Lin Mu in the process.
In the blink of an eye, another two days passed by and now it had been a week since Lin Mu had entered his trance. Finally, on the morning of the eighth day, Lin Mu opened his eyes.