1963 More Meat Stock

Lin Mu and Little Shrubby continued to kill the beasts with Lin Mu focusing on the Basalt Scaled Hippopotamus.

With its tough body and dense bones, it was not easy for Lin Mu to kill it with his normal attacks. 

~SHING~

Lin Mu slashed out several times with Afternoon Pine, marks on the scales of the beast, but the attack didn't go deeper than an inch or two.

"Definitely a tough defense." Lin Mu reckoned most of the competitors from the tournament of the Four Guardians would also have a hard time breaking through the defenses.

'It's a beast that is specialized in defense like me.' Lin Mu understood.

~WHOOSH~

With that in mind, Lin Mu flipped in the air and put some distance between himself and the Basalt scaled Hippopotamus. And while in the air, he brought his fists to his waist, and let the immortal Qi stir within it.

And the moment Lin Mu landed on the ground, he punched out.

Boulder Collapsing Fist: Second Form - Piercer!

~SHUA~

A needle of immortal Qi shot from Lin Mu's fist and struck the beast.

~THUD~

The needle shot through the head of the Basalt Scaled Hippopotamus and came out its back while the beast collapsed onto the ground. 

Blood tricked out of the Basalt Scaled, Hippopotamus's orifices, showing that its insides had been destroyed. Even the cracks in its rocky scales were now leaking flesh and blood, showing the sheer extent of the damage.

~phew~

"That's one down." Lin Mu muttered and looked at Little Shrubby's work.

He had already cleared out the rest of the beast, and only a few stragglers were left. The Fork Beak Jungle Fowl had the best survival instincts and had started to run away after Little Shrubby had killed a bunch of them.

They had the advantage of being on the home turn and climbed to the higher branches of the Evergreen Pillar Bamboo trees, thinking that they would be safe. Unfortunately for them, Little Shrubby was not one to let go that easily.

All the beasts were slaughtered, and the stockpile of meat had increased once more.

"Let's gather them." Lin Mu said to Little Shrubby.

"Yes!" Little Shrubby responded eagerly.

In just a couple of minutes, all of the beast corpses had been gathered and stored away safely in Lin Mu's ring.

With that done, Lin Mu now had the time to wonder just what had happened.

"Why would they suddenly attack us?" Lin Mu questioned, thinking about the strange behavior of the beasts.

While beasts could attack others, if they intruded on the territory, it would only be one kind of beast and not several types like this. 

Either only the Basalt scaled Hippopotamus should have attacked them, or the pack of the Iron Hoof Wolves or the group of the Fork Beaked Jungle Fowl.

It didn't make sense that all three species were considering them as the shared territory as they were all enemies of each other in the first place.

"Were they here for the fruits, maybe?" Little Shrubby guessed.

"Hmm… it does seem possible. Perhaps they were rushing here to get the fruits as soon as they could, but they encountered us." Lin Mu replied, trying to think of a potential reason.

Knowing that they needed more information about it, Lin Mu and Little Shrubby decided to explore the Evergreen Pillars Forest a bit.

"Now that the Natural Befuddling Array is gone, we can explore it further and go deeper." Lin Mu said to Little Shrubby. "But before that, let me take the bamboo pavilion first." He said, and the two went back to the location where had built it.

~shua~

There, Lin Mu barely had to touch the bamboo pavilion he had made and it was stored in the ring instantly. He had made it in such a way that it was basically a single piece, making it easy to move around.

~RUSTLE~

Once the bamboo pavilion was moved, the rest of the bamboo that were growing and bending around it were released, causing them to sway.

A few seconds later, they straightened themselves and stood tall, filling the empty spot completely in the forest. However there was another large patch just a few kilometers from them.

This was the same spot they had fought in and had been mowed down by the Basalt Scaled Hippopotamus.

While it seemed like large scaled destruction that was bad for the forest, it would recover rather quickly in just a few weeks. The spot where Lin Mu had built the bamboo pavilion had been replenished by new Evergreen Pillar Bamboo in just a month.

And while they weren't as tall as the other bamboos yet, they were already over two hundred meters tall. 

This was basically ten meters of growth almost every day. This was an astonishing growth rate even for bamboos.

'They definitely have growth cycles as they seem to slow down growing after reaching the five hundred meter mark.' Lin Mu thought to himself.

"Let's go deeper into the forest." Lin Mu said and made his way with Little Shrubby.

He wanted to see the taller Evergreen Pillar Bamboos that were two thousand meters and higher. He wondered if there was something different in the area, as well as figure out the particulars behind the appearance of the Natural Befuddling Array.

Lin Mu wished to learn more about it as its applications could be endless, especially after seeing how effective this Natural Befuddling Array was.

If by simply planting the Evergreen Pillars in a certain pattern was enough to create such a strong array, it certainly necessitated the need to learn it in detail.

Not only was there no need to use immortal stones or external Qi sources, it would also repair itself which made it highly economical and efficient. 

At the very least, it was perfect for a passive mode of defense when needed.

With this hope in mind, Lin Mu and Little Shrubby trod into the depths of the Evergreen Pillars Forest.

It took them four days of travel before they finally arrived at their destination.