Little Shrubby was reluctant to say the least, but after a little bit of explaining, it finally agreed to Lin Mu's request.

"I'm gonna attack now, master." Little shrubby said.

Lin Mu extended his hand and Little Shrubby clawed at it.

~Shing~

A brown glow appeared on Lin Mu's arm and the thin mud like layer appeared on his skin, blocking the attack. After blocking it, the layer faded away and Lin Mu's arm returned to normal.

"Again, this time with more strength." Lin Mu ordered.

"Alright," Little Shrubby respondent before attacking him with more power.

~Shing~

The brown light appeared again, but this time it seemed to be a bit dull. 

'Hmm… looks like the first stage can only handle an attack up to this strength.' Lin Mu thought.

"Do it once more." Lin Mu spoke.

~Crack~

This time, as soon as Little Shrubby's claws hit his skin, the brown layer cracked and disappeared. This showed Lin Mu that two attacks were the current limit for the first stage and if he wanted it to last more, he would need to progress the technique further.

Lin Mu looked at his arm and felt the drain on the earthen spirit Qi he had refined in his Dantian. It was being consumed to repair the defensive layer on his arm. It took a minute before the layer returned to its previous state.

"Hmm… at least the repair doesn't take much of the earth attribute spirit Qi." Lin Mu muttered to himself.

He checked his Dantian and saw that he had about six hundred drops of earth attribute spirit Qi left. It had taken him four hundred drops to reach the first stage and now needed to see how much would be needed for the second stage.

'I think I'll need to refine more of the spirit Qi…' Lin Mu thought.

He followed the method for the second stage of the mortal strengthening scripture and poured the earth attribute spirit Qi into it. The layer on his skin became slightly thicker, and now it didn't look like mud. Instead, it was starting to look like stone instead.

But before it could be completed, his earth attribute spirit Qi ran out.

~Sigh~

"I'll just complete it later," Lin Mu muttered to himself as he felt a little hungry.

He looked at little Shrubby who was back to cooking and smiled.

"Show me how much you've improved in the time I was asleep." Lin Mu said.

"Yes, master!" Little Shrubby said happily, but then looked at the meat it had with a little lost expression.

"We will need more meat," Little shrubby said.

"Oh, yeah… we definitely will…" Lin Mu agreed and spread his spirit sense around.

There were a few smaller spirit beasts in the range, but nothing that would be worth his time.

"What are you doing, master? The beasts are there," Little Shrubby said.

"Oh wait, you can just smell them out!" Lin Mu realized.

"Yes I can, let's go get some." Little Shrubby nodded its head and ran in the direction it had pointed towards.

Lin Mu brought out his short sword and flew on it, following behind little shrubby. It didn't even take a minute before little shrubby dug its claws into the neck of a late stage Qi refining realm beast. It then threw it towards Lin Mu, who quickly stored it before continuing onwards. 

A minute later little shrubby found another beast that was at the peak stage of the Qi refining realm. Lin Mu also learned another thing during all this, nearly every beast was scared of little Shrubby.

It was especially proved when they came across a mid stage core condensation realm beast that looked like a wolf that had the horns on its head. There were four of them, one pair that came from behind its ears and went up and the second pair that went downwards below its chin.

"A horn helmed Wolf!" Lin Mu muttered, recognizing the beast.

The four horns formed a sort of a helmet around its head, hence the name. Usually, a beast like this would not have backed down without a fight, but as soon as it saw little shrubby it started running.

Lin Mu could hear the scared growls of the beast, but couldn't exactly tell what it was saying. Still, Lin Mu could understand the words of Little Shrubby and guessed the condition of the wolf from it.

"Where are you running? Come here, my master is hungry!" Little Shrubby spoke.

"Uhh… I don't think it will stop just because you say that…" Lin Mu muttered to himself, feeling a bit awkward.

He could tell that if little Shrubby wanted to catch the beast, it would be easy with his speed. Right now it was merely playing with the beast.

"Why don't you catch it now?" Lin Mu asked little shrubby.

"If I let them run for a bit like this, their meat tastes better later when I cook it." Little Shrubby said.

"Umm… okay…" Lin Mu replied.

"Looks like it has been focusing on cooking too, Ahahaha." Xukong laughed.

 Lin Mu watched as Little shrubby chased the wolf for about five more minutes before moving with a burst of speed.

A bright light flashed as its claws shined and heat exuded from them. The claws came close to the wolf's neck and started burning its flesh before they were even touched. The wolf let out a pain filled cry but was soon silenced as its neck was lopped off.

~thud~

~sizzle~

The head of the wolf rolled on the ground and no blood could be seen coming off from it or the body. The flesh had been burned by the claws of little shrubby and the cut had been cauterized which prevented the blood from spilling out.

The snow around the area evaporated too, and the fur of the wolf was singed from the heat as well. Lin Mu looked at the damage and thought that it was good he stayed behind or he would have lost another pair of robes.

"Well… lunch time." 

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