Lin Mu came to stand in front of the Alpha steel back wolf and observed it. The large stab wound in its skull was still dripping with blood as his short sword was only recently retrieved. There were other smaller wounds on its body, but they were no longer bleeding.

Compared to Hei Yingjie, the Alpha steel back wolf was relatively unscathed. This made Lin Mu wonder why. Although Hei Yingjie was supposed to have a higher cultivation base than the beast, he still lost. He wondered if the Bloodline awakening was really that impressive.

"It is indeed rather surprising that Hei Yingjie lost. From what I observed, it seemed to me as if his spirit qi stores were much lesser than they should have been. We've already seen his core, so it's obvious that there is some problem that we don't know of.

" Xukong spoke.

"We should get some idea after observing the Alpha steel back wolf's beast core.

" Lin Mu replied in his mind and then extended his spirit sense.

Now that his spirit sense was ten times as stronger than before, Lin Mu had an easy time scanning the corpse. Lin Mu knew that when beasts reached the Core condensation realm, they would similarly form a spirit qi core, which was called as the beast core.

Though there were some exceptions as well. There were some beasts that could form a core before they even reached the core condensation realm. The cores that were formed when they were in the qi refining realm were called as pseudo cores.

Any beast that could form a pseudo core was considered to be exceptional and was often multiple times stronger than its normal counterpart. While this usually only happened with beasts that had high ranked bloodlines, sometimes normal beasts could also achieve this through a stroke of luck.

Lin Mu's spirit sense pierced the Alpha steel back wolf's body and started scanning around for the beast core. Depending on the species of the beast, its core could be anywhere in the body. Though in most cases it was either in their head or their chest.

Lin Mu didn't have to search for long as he found the core easily. The core of the Alpha Steel back wolf was in its chest, right above its heart. Lin Mu observed it and found that it was completely different from Hei Yingjie's core.

Not only was it bigger in size, but its color was also different. While Hei Yingjie's core was of a white color, the Alpha steel back wolf's was of a Grey color and had a brown pattern on it that was similar to the one on its body. Wanting to observe it even better, Lin Mu used his short sword and swiftly dug out the core.

Blood that was still warm spilled from the beast's chest and stained Lin Mu's clothes. He didn't mind it as he was still wearing the tatted clothes from yesterday and had the mind to throw them away, anyway. He pulled out the bloodied beast core and rubbed it on his clothes to clean it.

The beast core slightly gleamed in the sunlight and seemed to be heavier than its size. Lin Mu guessed that the core was easily more than two hundred grams, even though it was only about the size of an olive. Hei Yingjie's core was even smaller and was the size of a pea.

Lin Mu probed the beast core with his spirit sense and felt as if he was blocked.

"Huh?

" Lin Mu muttered in surprise.

"The beast core has an immense amount of spirit qi condensed in it, of course your spirit sense can't penetrate it,

" Xukong spoke.

"Not only that, but this beast has also awakened a bloodline ability. You see those patterns on the beast core, those are the mark of an awakened bloodline. Usually, if a beast core has marks such as those, it means that the beast that it belonged to had awakened a bloodline ability. Though there are certain exceptions to this.

" Xukong explained further.

"So we know that something is definitely wrong with Hei Yingjie then?

" Lin Mu questioned.

"Yes, that is true. Unless we can observe a few more core condensation realm cultivators, this is all that we can do.

" Xukong answered.

"Alright, now this is done, I want to check up on something more.

" Lin Mu spoke with a serious tone.

"Oh? What do you want to do?

" Xukong asked, feeling strange.

"I want to go and search for the clues on my own. Now that I have a stronger spirit sense, it should be relatively safe. And even if someone does find me, I'm confident I can escape using my skills. If I stay with the Hei Corps, won't be able to freely use my skills and with Hei Yingjie out of commission our protection is gone anyway.

" Lin Mu spoke and took a pause.

~Sigh~

"This way at least this trip won't go to a waste. Hopefully, by the time the other team gets the news, I'll be back as well.

" Lin Mu continued in a tired tone.

'Hmm, although his decision is risky, it's good that he's taking it. He needs to learn to take risks. Anyway if push comes to shove, I can temporarily help him hopefully.' Xukong thought to himself.

"Fine, then. Though I don't think you can tell these people what you are going to do, can you?

" Xukong replied.

Lin Mu thought for a bit over it. It was indeed true that the Hei Corps may not be open to Lin Mu leaving on his own. They were now down one man and were overall weakened. Their morale was also lower than before.

"I'll just have to make an excuse, I guess.

" Lin Mu spoke and then walked towards Xie Bohai.

Xie Bohai had just finished telling his fellow members of Lin mu's orders and saw Lin Mu approach him.

"Do you have any more orders, senior?

" Xie Bohai questioned.

"Yes… well, not exactly. I just want to inform you that I'll be cultivating on my own for two days.

" Lin Mu answered, cooking up a lie.