1978 Not Above Mortal Needs And Desires

The broken pieces of the warthogs jaw bone had allowed the tough jaw muscles around it to be tenderized properly by Little Shrubby's flames. The spices and herb flavor penetrated deep into it, making it the first thing that Lin Mu ate.

~RIP~

The meat tore off with the bones easily, while meat fibers released a rich and savory juice.

"Now that is some tender flesh," Lin Mu couldn't resist and threw the entire thing into his mouth.

The meat melted in his mouth, while he easily crushed the bones like chips.

~CRUNCH~

Lin Mu's jaw strength exceeded that of a beast, and breaking bones was nothing for him. It didn't matter if the bones belonged to a fifth tribulation stage beast and could be used to make immortal weapons.

They were still a source of nutrition to him.

Especially in a state where his hunger did not seem to be fully under his control, even the odd sources of nutrition were working. Lin Mu's stomach continued to continually digest them, while the obscure marks on them continued to glow lightly.

The obscure marks had grown in number and so had the rings that they arranged themselves into. They continually absorbed the energies from the food that Lin Mu consumed, and stored them within them before entering into the stomach again.

This process repeated as more and more obscure rune markings appeared and absorbed the energy, then joined into a ring and imprinted themselves onto the stomach before disappearing.

Hour after hour passed by, as Lin Mu finished all the food that Little Shrubby had made.

In fact, the beasts and the Saintess had long since finished eating their part and were full. Little Shrubby simply kept on cooking, since Lin Mu's appetite did not seem to end.

The Saintess who was watching all this was also confused.

"Are you sure you're okay?" She questioned.

"I should be." Lin Mu answered. "My hunger does get out of control at times, but I simply need to eat more to handle it. I was deep in cultivation and, as such, didn't eat for seven months. That seemed to have triggered my hunger and made it a bit overbearing." He explained in short.

"I see… still, how much more do you need to eat?" The Saintess inquired feeling quite curious. 'Even the giant serpents of the guardian mountains do not eat as much as he has eaten so far.' She thought to herself.

It was quite a conundrum since the volume of food that Lin Mu ate did not fit his body. For those that knew of Lin Mu's spatial skills, they might just think that this was an application of that too.

But in reality it was entirely different. It was a skill that even Lin Mu, or Xukong didn't know much about. Its secrets were something that was yet to be fully discovered, and the more Lin Mu practiced them, the more complex they got.

He had thought that he had the pattern for it figured out, but his current situation told him that he was not even close to learning 10% about the Nameless technique of the Lost Immortal.

As such, Lin Mu didn't quite know how to answer the Saintess' question.

"I… have no idea." Lin Mu replied honestly. "It is something I need to find simply by continuing to eat. Previously I was able to estimate it, but it seems like I was merely mistaken." He answered.

"I see… when you say you were able to estimate it, how long ago was that?" The Saintess asked next.

"Hmm… back when I first used the innate ability of the Great Slumber Bear, the Well of Slumber, I had relied on my appetite to get me through it. Back then I had eaten enough beast corpses that would be enough to feed a few people for a couple years or more. 

Later on, I had consumed amounts that were ten times as much as this, and they lasted me two years when I first arrived in the Rust Sky World. I was unconscious during that time too, and thus the food I had consumed before that had come in handy.

But now the amount I need to eat has increased once more." Lin Mu answered. 

"The factor that has changed here is your cultivation base, isn't it?" The Saintess replied. "Which simply means the higher your cultivation base goes, the more you need to eat." She stated.

"So much for being above the mortal desires and needs of a human." Lin Mu chuckled. "Now that desire is simply multiplied several fold." 

"That is true. But it does have some of its advantages too, doesn't it?" She replied.

"It sure does." Lin Mu muttered and picked up another platter of meat.

The Saintess let him focus on eating and went back to her own task.

She had already finished eating, and as such, she could resume her search for that ominous feeling.

Lin Mu continued to eat, and the night had passed. The sky had lit up, and it was now nine am in the morning.

Even now, Lin Mu felt like he could eat more and did not stop. Though he did have to slow down, since Little Shrubby had almost started to run out of all the beasts he had gathered in this time. 

It was a lot, and it was quite astonishing for both the beasts and Lin Mu.

"We'll go get more beasts." Xiao Yang offered. 

"Alright, be careful you two." Lin Mu nodded his head.

"We'll be back soon~" Xiao Yin said, and the two quickly rushed away.

Their sense of smell was strong enough to track the scent of beasts hundreds of kilometers, as such, it wouldn't take long to gather them.

Xiao Yang had his own Spatial Storage Gem now and could utilize that to store the corpses and bring them back.

While they were doing all this though, the Saintess suddenly stood up.

"I'll be back in a bit." She said shortly before disappearing.

~SHUA~

"Saintess…" Lin Mu muttered as he saw her figure fade quickly.