Chapter 8：Onward To The Town (1/2)

Lin Mu reached the trail where he had set up the traps. He checked the first three traps which were not triggered, he then moved ahead to check the other traps when he heard the sound of leaves rustling and then a loud screech echoed. Lin Mu rushed to check and found it to be his trap which was triggered. The snare trap had caught a thorn tailed rat.

Thorn tailed rats were the size of a person's arm, were grey or black in colour and had a characteristic ash coloured tail with short thorns made up of hardened skin on it. They were a common beast found nearly everywhere in the forest and made up the lower part of the food chain. Though they were lower tiered beasts, the sharp thorns on their tails could give nasty cuts to anyone who was careless in handling them.

Lin Mu picked up a large rock and slowly lowered the snare from which the squirming thorn tailed rat was hanging. Careful not to get hurt from the whipping tail of the thorn tailed rat, Lin Mu put his foot down on the tail and used the rock to crush the rat's skull. Picking up the carcass, Lin Mu went on to check the remaining traps. He found another trap which was not triggered, but the last trap was a surprise to Lin Mu.

The trap and its surrounding area was utterly destroyed. Looking around, Lin Mu found the larger trees to have claw marks on them while the smaller and thinner trees were directly snapped at the base. There were paw prints which were much larger than an adult males' hands everywhere. Darting his eyes around Lin Mu searched for any beast that could be lurking, waiting to pounce on him. Not finding any signs of a beast, Lin Mu backed away and ran back to his shack.

”That was terrifying, those paw prints were definitely of a middle tiered beast at least. What is a beast of that level doing here in the outskirts of the forest? They rarely wander this far out.”

Lin Mu thanked his stars, feeling lucky that he did not encounter a mid-tiered beast as that would most likely end in his demise. Lin Mu walked back to the stream to skin the thorn tailed rat, he used his previous method of poking a hole with a sharp stick to drain the blood and then ripped the skin from the flesh of the rat.

The flesh of the thorn tailed rat was tough and had an unpleasant taste, so Lin Mu discarded it and only took pelt of the thorn tailed rat. The Pelt would not sell for much, at least not as much as the black-horned rabbits would sell for. It could only be used to make some hard leather, unlike the black-horned rabbit's pelt which could be used to make pouches or soft gloves.

Lin Mu stored the pelt in the ring and walked back to the hunting shack to rest and eat his supper. He cooked the apples and ate them, while planning for the next day. He decided he would go to the town to sell the pelts and buy some rice, as did not want to eat the sour apples for his every meal. He would also enquire when exactly the merchants would be coming next week so that he could sell the fragrant wood box.

There was still the question of how he would find out more about the alchemical pills he found in the spatial rift. He could not exactly just show the pill to people nor would describing the appearance of the pill to people work unless they themselves were cultivators or were of a prominent position.

From what he knew there were only a handful of qi cultivators in the Northern town, namely the town head, the captain and the two vice captains of the town's guard and also the two top hunters of northern town; none of which he could come in contact with. The only other way he could think of was to try his luck in Wu Lim city and find an itinerant cultivator who would be willing to trade for information but even that would be expensive not to mention the tax he would have to pay upon entering Wu Lim city.

Thinking about all the expenses he would have to incur made him sigh with helplessness.

”Selling the fragrant wood box is the only way of getting a significant amount of money for now. I hope I get a good enough price, till then I can only slowly accumulate money by selling the pelts I get from trapping some small low tier beasts.”

Having sorted his plans for tomorrow, Lin Mu decided to practice chanting the calming heart sutra. As he chanted the sutra, a calming feeling washed over his body and mind, making him able to sense the flow of blood in his veins and the faint waves of energy in his muscles. Focusing his mind on the waves of energy, he could feel them slowly increase and then decrease.

Eventually Lin Mu fell asleep and found himself back in the familiar dark place.

”Am I going to come to this place every time I sleep now? What exactly is this place? I may as well just explore and see if this place has an end”