Chapter 4：The Mysterious Ring

Lin Mu found himself in a dark place once again, but this time he could see his body clearly even though there was no source of light present there. Lin Mu did not understand how he ended up there and felt scared. He could help but think if he was back in a dream.

"How do I get out of here? Should I just wait till I wake up naturally? Since I'm here, I may as well walk around and check this place out"

After being in the dark place for a couple of minutes now, Lin Mu's eyes started to adapt to the darkness and could see things more clearly. Looking around in all directions, he found a pale glow of lights coming from one direction. He decided to walk towards it and find out what it was. While walking towards the pale glow Lin Mu observed some changes to the black sky.

"What are those faint streaks of light in the sky? I've never heard of phenomena like this before. Guess I'm definitely in a dream"

There were silver and grey faint streaks of light in the sky which would fade away into darkness and then appear again. Thousands of them could be seen, and they were dancing in a mysterious harmonic pattern.

After a few minutes, Lin Mu reached the source of the pale glow that he had observed from far. Finally, seeing the object he found it to be an altar, but it was made up of faint glowing runes and mysterious scripts which were floating in the air, forming the shape of an altar, the altar itself not having a physical presence.

"Those runes and scriptures look similar to the ones that were carved on the outside of the ancestral temple of Wu Lim city. But aren't they used by cultivators to make qi formations, why would they appear in my dream?"

Lin Mu still remembered when he visited Wu Lim city with his father during the New Year's festival two years ago. His father had brought him to the ancestral temple to pay their respects.

Commoners could not go inside the temple, so they paid their obeisance from outside. He remembered when his father found him staring at the carvings on the ancestral temple; he explained that those carvings were used to create qi formation by qi cultivators, which were used for various things such as fortifying, strengthening, offence, defence and many more.

As Lin Mu approached the altar, the various runes and scriptures became more vibrant. Feeling an urge to touch it, Lin Mu had placed his hand upon the altar and found it to be solid even though it had no physical body. A moment later he felt a sharp pain in his head and then felt a rush of information in his brain. There were mysterious chants filling and imprinting on his mind.

"The Nine Divine Heart Sutras, assimilate the essence of the nine paths, understand a million hearts as one and ascend the path of the great cosmos"

As soon as the chants stopped in his mind Lin Mu found himself back in the old hunting shack. For a moment his eyes lost focus, and he remembered where he was. He checked his body and found everything to be normal.

He tried to remember the chants that filled his mind, but could only remember one part of them. He tried to remember the rest of the chants but felt as if there was a fog obscuring his memories.

"I can only remember the first part, The Calming Heart Sutra. Maybe I should try reciting it, there's no harm in trying."

As Lin Mu chanted the calming heart sutra, at first he felt nothing, but after completing the first chant he felt a calming wave spreading all over his body as if all his worries were washed away. This incredible feeling lasted a couple of minutes before fading away, and then the normal sense of self returned to Lin Mu.

"What an incredible feeling, I felt as if I could sense every part of my body clearly. I felt the blood flowing and the small waves of energy in my muscles, this makes me want to try this again"

Reciting the chant once again, Lin Mu felt the calming feeling washing over his body. This time he tried to sense the waves of energy that were moving in his muscles. As he focused on the waves of energy in his muscles, the waves intensified and then he felt a marvelous feeling of strength filling his body even more than the morning when he had put on the mysterious ring.

"Haha, I broke through to the fourth stage of body tempering. What luck two breakthroughs in one day, this chant is definitely a body tempering technique and sensing the similar wave of energy when I put on the ring, I guess it originated from the ring."

"This ring is definitely a treasure or it could be a spatial storage ring that qi cultivators use."

Now Lin Mu did not want to sell the ring at all, for only a fool would let go of an opportunity like this. He knew that it would only bring benefit to him. As for whether the ring was a spatial storage ring, he could not verify it as he was not a qi cultivator yet, nor did he know how he ended up in the dark place with the altar made of glowing runes and scriptures.

Thinking that he may be able to fulfill his dream of becoming a qi cultivator one day he felt an excitement he had not felt ever before and all the feelings of sadness and despair from yesterday's events were washed away.

"If I become a cultivator, I'll be able to buy back my house and I will no longer have to live with my head down."

"I'll be able to walk proudly with my head held high and the townsmen will have to treat me with respect."

Now knowing the direction in life that he was supposed to walk, Lin Mu was filled with determination. Still, he knew that if he wanted to become a qi cultivator, he would need a lot of resources like herbs and fierce beast meat rich in vital energy.

He could not hunt the beasts which had rich vitality in the forest as he was not strong enough and would simply be courting death. He could trap smaller beasts, but they will only fill his belly and would not be of much use in tempering his body.

"I guess I'll just have to make some traps and catch some small fierce beasts like the black-horned rabbits and thorn tailed rats and sell them in the town."

"They won't sell for much but I must start somewhere, at least until I can save enough coins to buy a weapon good enough to kill stronger beasts."

Lin Mu went in search of small animal trails where he could set up some traps. Upon finding one, he used the vines growing nearby and some slender and flexible trees to set up snare traps.

Now he only had to wait until something was caught. Feeling hungry again, Lin Mu saw the position of the sun in the sky and felt that he had two hours until sunset. He walked back to the apple tree and plucked a few more apples for his dinner.

He doubted whether he would be able to catch anything in the traps and even if he did, going to the forest at night time would be dangerous. Even though it was in the outskirts, if a stronger fierce beast wanders off, it could mean his death; so he thought it would be better to just eat the apples again.

Walking back to the shack, he once again filled the pot with water and put the chunks of apples in it. Then he set it on the stone stove to cook. While waiting for the apples to cook, Lin Mu decided to chant the calming heart sutra once again.

He felt the feeling of calmness spreading through his body once again but did not feel the waves of energy that flowed through his muscle increasing, no matter how much he focused they stayed the same.

"Huh, I guess the calming heart sutra only helps if I have the necessary vital energy in my body. It only helped me breakthrough because I had the surge of energy that was released from the ring in the morning. Now that it's depleted I'll have to train and eat more food to slowly accumulate vital energy."

Thinking about the mysterious ring, he lifted his right hand to look more closely at the ring and its peculiar design. As Lin Mu focused on the ring he suddenly felt a force pulling his hand.

Shocked at this and unable to react, his right hand was pulled towards a direction, forcing him to walk towards there until Lin Mu's eyes went wide as his hand was pulled up in the air, where then a rift opened and his hand was pulled in.