Just as Lin Mu thought his observation was about to end and prepared to withdraw the Eagle Eye Gu's sight, a sudden change occurred.
Inside the dilapidated grass hut, the youth who had just returned to his thin human form and appeared to be lying down peacefully suddenly curled up violently, like a shrimp thrown into a boiling oil pot.
"Hah... hah..."
Lin Wuxie's mouth gaped open, producing turbid sounds from deep in his throat like a broken bellows being pulled, yet he never dared let out a single loud scream.
His hands clutched desperately at the flesh of his chest, fingernails digging deep, gripping so hard that blood flowed freely.
But he seemed unable to feel the pain—or rather, another kind of agony within his body had long since overwhelmed mere flesh wounds.
Under the Eagle Eye Gu's microscopic vision, Lin Mu clearly saw that beneath Lin Wuxie's deathly gray skin, strange protrusions were frantically crawling about.
They were like countless tiny venomous snakes, rampaging through his blood vessels and the gaps between his muscles.
Those were beast-type Dao marks that hadn't been fully digested, assaulting his human body.
The human body has its limits and its exclusivity. Forcibly devouring the flesh of other species and converting it into one's own power was itself an act against heaven.
Those violent bestial residues were now madly backlashing against this frail shell.
A full cup of tea's time passed.
Only then did that hair-raising subcutaneous movement gradually subside.
Lin Wuxie's whole body convulsed as he suddenly rolled onto his side and with a "blurgh" vomited out a large mouthful of blackish-red stagnant blood.
That blood seemed to contain some undigested meat scraps and bone fragments, emitting a nauseating stench.
After expelling this blood, his entire being completely collapsed. As if his spine had been pulled out, he fell unconscious on the straw pile, motionless.
Outside the hut, in the shadows.
Lin Mu quietly withdrew his gaze, the golden gleam in his eyes fading.
He didn't linger any longer, turning to melt into the dark alley, his footsteps so light they made no sound at all.
But the raging storm in his heart could not be calmed for a long time.
"Devouring flesh and blood, digesting black light, bestial backlash..."
Walking on the road back to the Silent Stone District, Lin Mu's mind rapidly flipped through the vast memory library of the original novel, trying to find a reasonable explanation for this bizarre method.
"It's not pure Strength Path. The Strength Path school cultivates beast strength phantoms, or modifies the body's structure through Gu worms. There's no need to eat raw meat and drink blood like a wild beast."
"It's not Transformation Path either. Transformation Path emphasizes 'unity of form and spirit'—becoming a beast, not eating a beast."
When you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how incredible, must be the truth.
Lin Mu stopped walking and raised his head to look at the crescent moon in the night sky. Two words slowly escaped his lips:
"Food Path."
This primitive, savage method of directly plundering foundation through "eating" could only belong to that legendary school created by the beastman race—the Food Path remnant chapters.
In the distant era of Ren Zu and the subsequent period of beastman rule, beastmen survived harsh environments by strengthening themselves and solving hunger through "eating."
They ate the heavens, ate the earth, ate humans, ate all things.
Later, as the human race rose, the beastmen were slaughtered to near extinction, and the Food Path inheritance was severed and lost.
Combined with the fact that early Food Path often involved cruel methods like "eating humans" and was rejected by the righteous path, very few techniques were passed down.
"I never expected that in this remote Black Blood Stockade, I would see the shadow of such an ancient school."
A gleam of light flashed through Lin Mu's eyes.
"Lin Wuxie must have been lucky enough to pick up a fragment of ancient Food Path inheritance in some unknown ruins or beast cave."
"But he clearly didn't obtain the complete method, or lacks the key core Gu worm to assist digestion."
"He's swallowing raw."
No preliminary processing, no auxiliary methods—directly swallowing the raw flesh of a Rank 1 demon beast. This approach was practically suicide.
"Food Path is one of the schools most likely to cause physical mutation."
Lin Mu continued his deduction, his logic gradually forming a closed loop.
Except for the legendary Sovereign Immortal Fetus Body, ordinary people's apertures and physical bodies naturally reject foreign Dao marks.
Eat fire path meat today, eat water path fish tomorrow, and the water and fire Dao marks will fight inside your body. Light cases result in internal injuries; severe cases cause cultivation regression, or even explosion and death.
Moreover, "eating" produces impurities.
When ordinary people eat, they excrete waste. When Food Path Gu Masters eat "Dao mark materials," the impurities expelled aren't just feces, but also the violent wills and toxins that cannot be digested.
"Looking at his condition just now, the impurities in his body have already accumulated to a critical point."
"Those crawling 'little snakes' are the stagnated bestial Dao marks."
"If he doesn't use special methods to cleanse his body in time, sooner or later he'll explode and die, or transform into a corpse beast that only knows slaughter and has lost all reason."
And this knowledge was something only Lin Mu, who had thoroughly read the original novel, had the chance to understand even a little.
After all, in the later stages, Fang Yuan had obtained the complete Food Path inheritance and even used it to optimize Immortal Gu ingredients.
Unfortunately, this youth Lin Wuxie couldn't possibly fully understand the origins of Food Path.
Moreover, looking at his methods, he had definitely only obtained peripheral Gu worms. The core Gu worms had probably long been destroyed by time, but Lin Wuxie was helpless—he could only sink deeper and deeper into this vortex.
Beyond this, Food Path had an even more fatal flaw.
The stronger you became, the hungrier you grew.
Food Path methods were often accompanied by intense, pathological hunger. This hunger wasn't stomach hunger—it was every cell in your body roaring to eat.
If you didn't eat, the body would consume itself, losing flesh, losing cultivation, until it devoured itself hollow.
"In the early stages, eating ordinary demon beast meat is still manageable."
"In the middle and late stages, ordinary food simply cannot provide enough Dao marks. You must eat heavenly treasures and rare Gu worms. This is even more expensive than raising Gu."
Having figured all this out, Lin Mu turned back once more to look toward the Rotten Shed District.
"No wonder he wants to participate in the Grand Competition. No wonder he does missions like a madman, even at the cost of overdrawing his life."
He lacked money, lacked resources, and even more desperately lacked a lifeline.
He must have noticed the abnormalities in his body but didn't know how to resolve them. He could only place all his hopes on that ethereal position of "True Inheritance Disciple."
He hoped to gain access to the clan's core treasury, to search for spirit medicines or Gu worms that could suppress the backlash within his body.
"Laughable, yet pitiful."
Lin Mu shook his head, a mocking curve lifting the corner of his mouth.
"The Grand Competition hasn't started yet. His identity as a demonic path Gu Master remains unexposed because he's hidden in the Rotten Shed District."
"But if he truly reaches the arena under everyone's gaze, under the eyes of the Rank 4 Patriarch Lin Cang, and is pushed to desperation enough to use these Food Path methods..."
That would mean immediate suppression and execution without mercy.
However, in this remote Southern Border small stockade, probably even Patriarch Lin Cang wouldn't recognize this as the long-lost Food Path. He would only treat him as a blood path demon who had cultivated evil arts.
"Placing hope in ethereal things—that is the most tragic of all."
Lin Mu withdrew his gaze and pressed down his hat brim.
He had now uncovered the full details of this variable named Lin Wuxie. Though his combat power was terrifying, the hidden dangers were immense—a bomb that could detonate at any moment.
"As long as I don't let him get close and explode, as long as I drag out the time, he'll collapse on his own."
Lin Mu had his calculations. After all, information asymmetry was the key to his survival in this world.