Chapter 229 - A Nostalgic Encounter Lin Mu sat down and tried to observe the status of his body now. He wanted to see what exact difference was there, now that his foundation had been strengthened. He chanted the severing heart sutra so that his perception could be at its peak and then used his spirit sense to observe his body. While he had seen it before when he was still eating, it was not as thorough as he was distressed by the pain of hunger and thus couldn’t focus. But now that he was free from it and was feeling better than ever, he had no such restrictions. Lin Mu went from the top of his body and went all the way down. He observed his meridians, which seemed to have slightly increased in diameter and had even gotten a bit thicker. He then observed his stomach, which seemed to be looking the same as before, yet he had this innate feeling that something had changed. He finally came to his dantian and saw the same painting like scene, except this time he wasn’t as amazed. The spirit qi wisps were still floating around above the pond of liquid spirit qi but from time to time they would leave the dantian and enter the meridians on their own and circulate in his body before returning. He also observed that the number of wisps was actually increasing slowly and this speed was much faster than his previous natural rate of recovery, which came as a surprise to him. ’Seems like having a strong foundation has way more hidden benefits than I thought...’ Lin Mu thought to himself. Having thought of this, he decided to return to his routine and left for the kitchen so that he could cook more meat. But when he reached there and was about to light the fire, he realized something. "Huh? I’m out of wood. Hmm, guess I should go buy some, or I can just ask Hei Ping, I think. He did say that I can request him some things." Lin Mu muttered to himself. He thus left the kitchen and started walking towards the door of the courtyard. He opened the door and looked for Hei Ping but did not see him there. ’Did he go somewhere else?’ Lin Mu thought before scanning the area with his spirit sense. "Not here? Was he called by the Hei corps, perhaps?" Lin Mu thought out loud. Taking a few more glances around, he reckoned that he would have to get it himself. Thus Lin Mu started walking in the direction of the market. While he still did have some cooked meat present in his ring, Lin Mu did not want to take any more chances with the nameless technique. He didn’t know how much more could his hunger intensify, thus he wanted to be fully prepared. Besides, he had plenty of money with him right now. Lin Mu took a brisk walk and took in the sights of the town. He had been in seclusion for a rather long while, thus it was actually feeling a bit refreshing to him. ’This is kinda nice. Perhaps I should take a long walk, relax myself and clear my mind.’ Lin Mu thought to himself. "That would be a good idea. You should try out your techniques and skills, now that your strength has increased. You should always have a good grasp on your capabilities and limits." Xukong advised. "Your right, Senior. I’ll do as you suggest." Lin Mu replied before reaching the town market. The market was relatively empty than usual as the winter was still in full effect and it was currently snowing. Lin Mu himself wasn’t even wearing any thick robes and was in his simple clothes. Before he could at least feel relatively cold, but now he felt no different from being in his house. His vital energy which was fully contained within his body was protected from the weather. Some of the people that were selling their wares were shivering with cold, due to not having adequate clothing. While others were simply weak and had low body tempering realm cultivation. Lin Mu curiously did a scan of the entire market with his spirit sense and found out that out of the tens of people there, barely four reached the fifth stage of the body tempering realm. Most of the adults that he saw were at the fourth stage of the body tempering realm and below. Only the guards that were standing at the entrance of the streets and square had a cultivation that was at the sixth stage of the body tempering realm. Lin Mu quickly found a few people that were selling wood and bought it all. In fact, he bought all the stock that was available in the market currently. The people who were around looked at him with strange looks, and some of the sellers were even suspicious if he even had that much money. But once he showed them the coins, their attitude changed three-sixty degrees and they quickly accepted it. Lin Mu knew that he shouldn’t store the wood in his ring here, thus he asked all of it to be delivered to his house, which they gladly accepted. Lin Mu spent about half a gold coin to buy the entire stock of the wood. This display of wealth also garnered some unsavory looks, but they went unnoticed by Lin Mu. ’Let’s take a walk to the forest, I need to test my skills too.’ Lin Mu thought before changing his direction to the forest. But there were a couple of people following behind him. They stayed a fair distance away from him thus Lin Mu did not notice them and currently, his focus was on something else, making him lost in his thoughts. Lin Mu eventually reached the outskirts of the town and exited from the northern part. Just as he got a sufficient distance away from the town, his ears picked up something, they were footsteps. While he was in the town he had not paid attention to it as there were many people around, but now even outside they were following him. ~Sigh~ "This is nostalgic..."