Taking advantage of the night, Lin Mu left the towering stone walls of Black Blood Stockade and stepped into the territory of Black Wind Ridge.
It was early spring. The wind in the mountain forest still carried a biting chill.
Snow had not yet fully melted, covering the grey-black rocks in mottled patches.
The ground was thawed mud mixed with rotting withered leaves; one step meant a shoe full of sludge.
Most of the trees around were bare, their branches reaching toward the sky like ghostly claws. Only a few scattered, cold-resistant shrubs managed to reveal a sickly grey-green.
There was no poetry here. Only the naked laws of survival.
Lin Mu lowered his body, stepping on protruding tree roots to move forward, trying his best to make no sound.
He mobilized the Primeval Essence in his aperture, simultaneously activating the scouting instincts of the Red Mud Gu and the Swift Ant Gu.
The Red Mud Gu sensed faint heat. The Swift Ant Gu captured ground vibrations. The two combined to construct a crude but practical "biological radar" in his mind.
Once activated, the feedback made Lin Mu's heart shiver slightly.
The seemingly silent forest instantly lit up with dense signals on his "radar." Every wisp revealed latent danger.
On an old tree to the left, a section of "withered branch" that blended perfectly with the trunk suddenly moved slightly—a Withered Wood Snake.
Its scale pattern matched the bark perfectly. Its eye slits opened slightly, a forked tongue flicking quietly.
Clearly, it had awakened from hibernation, its cold vertical pupils scanning the shadows.
Beneath a shrub to the front right, balls of grey shadow curled up tightly—a nest of Red-Eyed Rabbits.
Their ears were pinned dead against their backs, their breathing suppressed to the extreme. Only their fur trembled slightly from fear.
They dared not move, evidently having already sensed an unknown threat hiding in the forest.
"Indeed, beneath the calm lies nothing but killing intent."
Lin Mu ignored these low-value targets, but he didn't rush to push forward either.
The hour was late. Shadows in the forest began to stretch. The sense of crisis that lurked originally was multiplying as the light faded.
Lin Mu knew clearly that the night at Black Wind Ridge belonged to true predators.
Humans with limited vision could barely move an inch here. If he got greedy and advanced rashly now, he wouldn't even know how he died.
"No rush. I am the hunter, not the prey."
He retracted his aura and found a leeward, dry rock crevice. He scattered a circle of potent beast repellent powder bought from the caravan.
The pungent smell of the powder permeated the area around the crevice, cutting off the approach of low-rank beasts.
Only then did he manage to snatch a light sleep. He curled up in the shadows, sleeping fully clothed.
That night, he slept very lightly.
His hand remained tight around the newly bought refined iron combat blade.
In his ears were the mournful howls of beasts in the distance and the rustling of leaves in the wind. Every strange sound tightened his nerves a degree further.
The next morning. Dawn broke with a glimmer of light. The chill was intense.
Lin Mu moved his somewhat stiff limbs. His stomach issued a timely protest.
He didn't rush to find big game. Instead, he locked his gaze on a grey-feathered pheasant that had just poked its head out of a bush.
His fingers curled slightly. A wisp of Primeval Essence quietly empowered his fingertip.
Whoosh!
Relying on the throwing skills honed over the past few days for the Stone Bullet Gu, a sharp-edged stone accurately hit the pheasant's head.
The prey fell to the ground twitching without even letting out a scream.
Simple skinning and bleeding.
He dripped the warm chicken blood onto the Red Mud Gu.
The little creature immediately wriggled excitedly, extending its mouthparts to devour the blood.
Its dark red carapace, slightly dull from sealing the Liquor Worm for so long, became oily and bright again, as if coated in a layer of glaze.
After tending to the Gu worm, Lin Mu didn't drink blood like a beast.
He retreated deep into the rock crevice, blocked the wind with a few large stones, struck a few sparks with flint, and lit a small pile of withered twigs.
The flame was kept very low, just enough to roast the chicken meat.
Moments later, he swallowed the sizzling, oily meat in large mouthfuls.
The hot meat fragrance slid down his throat, turning into a warm current that flooded his limbs and bones, dispelling the chill of the vigil.
"Stamina recovered. Gu worm state full."
Lin Mu wiped the grease from the corner of his mouth, his eyes cold.
After a night of dormancy and morning replenishment, he was now truly ready to hunt.
He stood up, advancing toward the periphery like a ghost, looking for a "touchstone" to verify his new tactics.
Two hours later. The sun hung high. The opportunity came.
A massive Ironhide Boar, covered in bristles hard as black iron, appeared in his field of view.
It seemed to be alone, grunting as it rooted for plant tubers in a mud pit, oblivious to the surrounding danger.
"Rank 1 Initial Stage. Thick skin and flesh. Perfect for testing my blade."
Lin Mu narrowed his eyes. He no longer masked his aura, slowly standing up from his hiding place.
Almost simultaneously, the Ironhide Boar sensed the stranger's scent.
It whipped its head around, two small crimson eyes locking dead onto Lin Mu. A threatening growl rumbled in its throat.
Then, it lowered its head, revealing two tusks glinting with cold light, and charged madly like an out-of-control tank.
The ground trembled slightly. A foul wind assaulted his face.
Facing this ferocious momentum, Lin Mu's expression didn't change. He didn't even draw the steel blade in his hand.
"Earth Ring Body, rise!"
With a low shout in his heart, the deep dark green Primeval Essence in his aperture boiled instantly.
The Ironhide Boar's charge was fiercer than anticipated. The amplitude of the ground tremors tightened Lin Mu's heart slightly.
He subconsciously clenched his fist; the speed of pouring Primeval Essence was half a beat slow.
When the Earth Ring Body activated, his ankles went slightly numb, and his lateral movement was half an inch shorter than predicted. The foul wind of the pig's tusks grazed his sleeve.
The Swift Ant Gu hissed in his leg meridians, explosive power maxing out instantly.
Simultaneously, the Red Mud Gu spat a stream of dark red blood mud, solidifying into rings of tough mud around Lin Mu's ankles and knees.
Boom!
The mud beneath Lin Mu's feet exploded instantly.
In the split second before the Ironhide Boar smashed into him, his figure seemed to shift laterally by three feet out of thin air.
No stumbling. No stiffness.
The massive recoil force that should have made his leg meridians ache unbearably was perfectly absorbed and dissolved by those rings of dark red mud.
Lin Mu was like a light civet cat, dodging this fatal collision with an agility that defied science, appearing relaxed and free.
This was the Earth Ring Body.
Not just fast, but stable.
Missing its target, the Ironhide Boar couldn't brake. Its clumsy body slid forward under inertia, plowing a deep trench through the mud pit.
"It's over."
Lin Mu didn't give it a chance to turn around. In the moment they crossed paths, a green light flashed in his right palm.
"Iron Leaf Gu!"
A deep azure leaf blade, edges covered in serrations and hard as iron, empowered by the high-grade dark green Primeval Essence purified by the Liquor Worm, emitted a tooth-aching sound of tearing air.
It sliced precisely into the weakest point of the wrinkles on the Ironhide Boar's neck.
Shlick—
The muffled sound of a sharp blade cutting into rotten leather.
The beast's body, arrogant just a moment ago, stiffened violently. Then, a jet of blood sprayed from its neck.
The massive body crashed to the ground, hooves twitching a few times before ceasing to move.
One hit kill.
Lin Mu retracted the Iron Leaf Gu. Looking at the corpse on the ground, he nodded slightly.
"Not bad. The mobility provided by Earth Ring Body allows me to easily control the rhythm of combat. Combined with the Iron Leaf Gu empowered by high-grade essence, killing this kind of thick-skinned beast is effortless."
The only drawback was...
He sensed his aperture. Just that one burst and one attack consumed nearly ten percent of the dark green Primeval Essence.
"The power went up, but the consumption is real. After all, it's forcibly activating two Gu worms in coordination while maintaining the killer move form."
Lin Mu knew the score, but this was within an acceptable range.
He stepped forward, skillfully drawing the dagger at his waist and slitting the Ironhide Boar's artery.
Scalding, crimson pig blood gushed out.
"Red Mud Gu, time to eat."
Lin Mu activated his aperture. The Red Mud Gu immediately flew out, diving headfirst into the steaming pig blood, devouring greedily.
The slight physical energy consumed to maintain the mud rings just now was rapidly recovering under the nourishment of fresh blood.
Sustaining war with war.
As long as there was prey, the Red Mud Gu could maintain peak condition, thereby feeding back into Lin Mu's physical body.
After processing the corpse, Lin Mu cut off the most valuable piece of pig skin and prepared to leave.
Suddenly.
A strong smell of blood spread with the mountain wind.
Rustling sounds came from the distant bushes as several Red-Eyed Rabbits fled in panic.
And on the treetop higher up, the Withered Wood Snake that had been sleeping flicked its tongue. Cold light flickered in its vertical pupils.
It slowly loosened its body from the branch, sliding toward this direction.
Lin Mu's gaze congealed.
"The smell of blood has spread. The real trouble is just beginning."