Chapter 62: Hunting The First Spirit Beast (1/2)

Lin Mu stood up and spread his spirit sense, which had now grown to one and a half meters long. He had depleted nearly half of his spirit qi in increasing the range of his spirit sense.

'I'll have to be a little careful as I only have half of my spirit qi stores left.' Lin Mu thought.

Lin Mu focused on the sound and estimated the location of the spirit beast. He guessed that the beast shouldn't be much farther from his location. He was also wondering why the beast wandered this far out.

Lin Mu entered the forest and swiftly moved through the trees. With his legs strengthened by spirit qi, he could run faster and made little sounds. The wind was blowing through the trees, rustling the leaves and masking the sounds of Lin Mu's steps.

A few minutes later Lin Mu reached the location which he had estimated as the site from where the roar came from. The claw marks and damaged trees confirmed his assumption. Lin Mu, therefore, kept his sense alert for any sign of movement.

He went closer and examined the claw marks that were on the trees and the ground. The marks were thin but long, making him unable to identify the beast that could have caused it. Lin Mu was not much knowledgeable about spirit beasts, except for the more common ones that the elite hunters killed and brought to the town.

Lin Mu looked at the footprints on the ground and found them to be rather shallow. The distance between the footprints was also narrow, making him think that this was a small spirit beast. Still, the claw marks made him wary of the beast.

Lin Mu looked at a corner where most of the trees were damaged and found a small pool of blood along with another different set of footprints. This made him think that it was a fight between two beasts, but the other beast was probably weaker than the spirit beast.

Lin Mu searched for any more tracks but could not find them. Suddenly he heard the sound of rustling coming from the trees. He looked up at the trees but could not find anything. He then probed with his spirit sense and found the perpetrator camouflaged in the tree.

The beast was about the size of a dog and had thin and long limbs. Each of its limbs had two sharp claws that looked like hooks. The beast had no fur and the color of its skin was dark brown, this along with the darkness of the night made it easy for the beast to camouflage.

Lin Mu saw the bloodstains on the beast's claws and determined that it was probably this beast that attacked the other beast and also made the roaring sound. He was also able to sense the spirit qi hidden within the beast. He found out that the spirit qi was concentrated in one spot within the beast's torso.

'That should be its beast core.' Lin Mu thought.

Lin Mu braced himself and studied the beast's behavior. It seemed to be biding its time and waiting for the right moment to attack. Lin Mu guessed that while he had discovered the beast, it did not realize that.

Wanting to take advantage of the beast's unawareness, Lin Mu formulated a plan. He turned around and looked in the other direction while extending his spirit sense towards his back. He then waited for the beast to react. Seemingly his plan worked, and he did not have to wait long, as the beast could not resist attacking his unguarded back.

The beast pounced from the tree towards Lin Mu's back with great speed. Its claws were extended and were aimed at his neck, intending to end him in one stroke. But as soon as the beast entered the range of Lin Mu's spirit sense, he triggered the first skill Flicker.

Lin Mu's body turned blurry and the beast simply passed through it. The beast fell on the ground five meters away and looked a little disoriented, as it had not expected this to happen. Lin Mu grasped this opportunity and used the second skill blink, teleporting to the side of the beast.

He drew the short sword and strengthened it with his spirit qi before slashing at the spirit beast's head. In the next second, the head was decapitated and the spirit beast was dead.

~Huu~