Lin Mu was standing some distance away from the huge beast that was sleeping in the cave. It was curled up against the wall of the cave and steam could be seen coming out of its mouth and nose.

"Damn, so the warmth in the cave is due to its body temperature…

" Lin Mu muttered.

The great slumber Bear's condition was much better than before and it had recovered completely. There were no more bone spurs on its body and the black patches had disappeared as well. Lin Mu could see the triangular pattern on its body much clearer than before.

Lin Mu chanted the severing heart sutra and sensed the faint fluctuations of spirit qi that were coming from the great slumber bear. Since he couldn't use his spirit sense due to the chance of him walking the beast up, Lin Mu could only do this.

'What!' Lin Mu exclaimed in his mind so as to not alert the beast.

"How did it reach the peak stage of the core condensation realm so fast?

" Lin Mu wondered.

The spirit qi fluctuations coming from the beast were quite faint, but they were still enough for Lin Mu to tell that.

~Sigh~

"This is gonna be difficult, isn't it?

" Lin Mu muttered to himself.

He returned back to the other cave and sat down on the ground. He started thinking about whether he would be able to kill the beast or not this time. He had been able to successfully injure Gu Yao, who was at the pseudo Dao Shell realm, thus he knew he could do it forcefully if he needed to.

But he needed the entire body of the Great slumber bear if he wanted to refine the Bloodline. The more parts that were lost, including blood, the lesser his success rate would become.

~sigh~

"May as well practice for now…

" Lin Mu decided.

He took out the corpse of the snow fix and also a small barrel to collect its blood. The snow fox was much smaller than the trunk faced cow and thus would not have the same amount of blood as it. He had not wasted much of its blood back when he killed it, as he had stored it rather quickly.

Lin Mu held its body over the barrel upside down and let the blood flow out of the neck.

~Drip~

The blood started dripping into the barrel and was fully drained after ten minutes.

"Now that this is done, the next step is to set up the runes.

" Lin Mu recalled.

He took a small amount of blood from the barrel and started writing runes on the floor of the cave. than fully the ground was solid rock and thus, he didn't have much problem in writing the runes. If it was soil or dirt, the runes would not have been properly written.

About thirty minutes later, he completed this and go ready for the next step. He placed the barrel in the center of the formation and then the corpse of the snow fox. Finally, placing the core of the beast, he started pouring his spirit qi into the formation and started the process.

~Shua~

The runes lit up and the corpse of the snow fox floated up. Streams of blood rose from the barrel and started wrapping around the corpse.

~hum~

The core of the Snow fox started humming as a small illusory figure of a snow fox appeared in the air. This figure was much fainter than the Trunk faced cow's and Lin Mu understood this was due to the bloodline being lower ranked than the trunk faced cow's.

The rest of the process went rather smoothly, and about an hour later, Lin Mu had the bloodline crystal of the snow fox in his hand. He looked at the red crystal and saw the imprint of the snow fox inside it. Lin Mu looked through the beast records he had and discovered that the bloodline ability of the snow fox was enhanced camouflage.

Their fur would meld with the snow and their aura would be surprised as well.

'So this is why it was able to get close to me despite being in the range of my spirit sense…' Lin Mu understood.

While the bloodline ability was useful in a snowy area, it wouldn't come in handy in other regions. It was not that an idea appeared in Lin Mu's mind.

'What happens if I give the bloodline crystal to little shrubby?' Lin Mu wondered.

He knew that beasts could improve their own bloodlines by consuming other beasts, but this was in the case of raw meat and unrefined cores. Lin Mu didn't know if there would be a detrimental effect or a beneficial effect if Little Shrubby ate the core.

The beast was staring at the crystal in his hand and thus Lin Mu knew that he was interested in it. Little shrubby had watched the entire process of refinement from the start to the end intently and had sat in his place patiently.

Lin Mu was about to place the bloodline crystal of the snow fox in his ring when a voice sounded in his mind.

"Seems like it took me more time than I had expected,

" Xukong spoke.

"Senior! You're back!

" Lin Mu said in excitement.

"Yes, I am back. I didn't think that expending my spatial qi would end up having such an effect.

" Xukong replied.

"What exactly happened back then?

" Lin Mu questioned.

"Well… when the ward activated, I knew that I had to stall Gu Yao for longer than normal. Even if he wasn't able to act, he could very well send his newly acquired 'servants' after you. He had… already controlled the supreme elder and Yi Deng by then.

" Xukong answered.

"He did!?

" Lin Mu said with shock.

"Yes, he did. That's why I had to ensure that he would be in no condition to speak for a while. For that, I had to use more of my cultivation base, which ended up with me tearing a hole in the world's barrier. This led to the world's will suppressing me, which took me five days to get out of.

" Xukong explained.