32 Spirit Stones

With excitement on his face, Lin Mu searched the spatial rift. He did not have to search for long as the object itself found him, or rather hit his hand. The object was quite hard and felt painful to him when it hit him. He pulled his hand out once the object was stored inside the ring.

Lin Mu withdrew the object to examine it. The object this time was a pouch that seemed to be made out of high-quality beast leather. The texture and feel of the pouch made Lin Mu think that it was something only nobles or rich merchants would use.

He opened the pouch to take a look inside. The first thing that caught his eyes was the glow that came from inside the pouch. As it was still nighttime and there was barely any light except for the stars, Lin Mu could not figure out what was inside the pouch as the glow covered the items inside it, making it hard to distinguish them.

Lin Mu went back to the hunting shack and lit a lamp to illuminate the place. Once there was sufficient light, Lin Mu poured the contents of the pouch on to the table that was inside the shack. Small stones started to pour out from the pouch and soon formed a pile on the table.

The stones were translucent and were glowing with a pale white light. There were nearly a hundred of them in the pile, with each stone being the size of a fingernail. Lin Mu's gaze was locked onto the pile of glowing stones. He picked one up and felt a comfortable feeling coming from his hand that was holding the stone.

"This is… this is a spirit stone!" Exclaimed Lin Mu.

"And… and there are so many of them." Thought Lin Mu out Loud.

Lin Mu had once seen a spirit stone before. It was two years ago when he had visited the Wu Lim city to watch the annual martial competition. The top three prizes of the martial competition were spirit stones. One of the top hunters of the northern town had participated in it at that time and won the third prize.

The third prize was a single spirit stone. The hunter who had won it back then showed it off to many people during the celebration party that was organised in the northern town. Lin Mu had the opportunity to observe it back then.

That hunter who had won the third prize became a cultivator six months later by obtaining a cultivation manual. Though no one knew where or from whom the hunter obtained the cultivation manual, as the hunter never answered those questions. That hunter is one of the only two hunters of the Northern town who are cultivators.

There were numerous thoughts that were going through Lin Mu's head, so much so that he had to chant the calming heart sutra to forcibly calm himself down. Once he calmed down, Lin Mu systematically went through the multiple points he had thought of before.

He first checked the pouch in which the spirit stones came, for any symbols or insignias which could tell where it came from or whom it belonged to. Lin Mu inspected the pouch inside out and could not find anything that could point to the ownership of the pouch.

Second, he thought about the origin of the spirit stones.

'The Four vessels restoration pills came from the Tri-cauldron peony sect, so could these spirit stones have come from there as well?' thought Lin Mu

'The only other place it could come from would be Wu Lim city, only the rich families or the mayor could own such a large amount of spirit stones.' He thought next.

Third, Lin Mu thought about the value of the spirit stones. He counted the spirit stones and found that there were 103 of them exactly. Even though he knew that there were at least a hundred of them, the sheer amount of them still shocked Lin Mu.

Even in the martial competition that Lin Mu watched, the first prize was only 5 spirit stones, which a person from the city had won. He could not imagine how many gold coins would be equivalent to the spirit stones he had now. The closest thing that could compare to their value would perhaps be the- four vessels restoration pills.

Fourth, Lin Mu thought about what would be the best way to utilize these spirit stones. The most obvious method would be to use them for his own cultivation, but for that, he would have to wait until he obtained a cultivation manual. The other straightforward method would be to sell them, but this method will definitely invite trouble on his head. Lin Mu directly discarded this thought.

Lin Mu then took a deep breath and stored the spirit stones in the pouch before storing it in the ring.

'Whatever I want to do with the spirit stones, first I'll have to be very careful. At the very least I need to reach the 8th stage of the body tempering realm before I think of anything further.' Concluded Lin Mu, ending his brainstorming session.

Lin Mu took a look at the sky and saw that it was still dark. So he lied down on the bed and went back to sleep. He later woke up three hours later when it was already bright outside. Lin Mu started his morning routine of training and eating breakfast.

Today was the day that he had to go to the town to inquire about a room at the inn. Lin Mu hoped that he will be able to find a room to stay in for the winter so that he can stop worrying and focus on his training.

After he was done with his morning routine, Lin Mu prepared for his trip to the town. He withdrew the sled he had made and put the corpse of the coyote beast on it and covered it with the large sack. He then started his trip to the town.

The journey to the town was uneventful, and he did not see many people. After the merchants had left the town, the number of travellers coming to the town had significantly decreased. When he passed by the spirit apple orchards, Lin Mu felt a little surprised as he sensed a familiar feeling coming from the spirit apples.

He tried to remember the feeling and found it to be of spirit qi. The spirit qi he had felt from the spirit stones was a little similar to the one that the spirit apples were giving off, the only difference being that it was much more concentrated in the spirit stones.

'I wonder how the small purple spirit fruit I found would compare to the spirit stones.' Thought Lin Mu.

Lin Mu entered the town and observed the absence of the merchants. All the stalls and shops that were present three days ago were nowhere to be found. The aura of the town had returned back to how it was before.

Lin Mu thought about where he should sell the corpse of the coyote beast. Now that the merchants had left the town, he would have to sell it to a shop in the town. He remembered the incident from last time and decided against it.

'If I try to sell it to a shop, many people will see it and some of them will definitely want to try to steal from me again.' Though Lin Mu.

As he was thinking about this, Lin Mu had unknowingly reached the main street of the town. An idea suddenly stuck his mind, and he determined where he could sell the beast corpse.

'That's it, I can sell it at Jing Wei's emporium. That woman and the old man will definitely not bother me, and I can also buy more weapons there.' Thought Lin Mu.

Thus he changed his path and walked towards the desolate alley which housed the dusty shop. Once he reached the shop, Lin Mu put the sled to a side and then opened the door of the shop, which was still hard to open, and creaked loudly on opening.

After the door was open, he picked up the beast corpse and walked inside the shop. He saw that there was no one at the counter, so he rang the small bell that was kept on it. Lin Mu waited for five minutes before the woman Duan Ke walked out of the door behind the counter.

Duan Ke was dressed in a light pink dress and had a small hairpin in the shape of a lily in her hair. Seeing this, Lin Mu wondered how many types of hairpins she owned. Duan Ke looked at him the same as before, with her signature poker face.

She walked up to the counter and asked,

"What do you want today?"

"I want to sell a beast corpse, I wonder if that's fine?" said Lin Mu with a polite smile on his face.

"That's fine. Show me the corpse." Replied Duan Ke.

Since Lin Mu had slung the corpse of the beast on his back, Duan Ke could not see it clearly. Lin Mu pulled the corpse from his back and put it on the counter. He then turned his eyes on Duan Ke's face and saw surprise on her face for the first time.