"Roar~~!"
A massive, multicolored tiger stood in Chen Mu's path.
The tiger was over three meters long, with a powerful, muscular body covered in dark golden fur streaked with brown stripes.
A pair of broad, powerful wings grew from its back, their feathers slightly longer than the fur on its body.
Two sharp fangs protruded from its lips, and a single roar displayed all the majesty of the king of the forest.
It was a Golden-Winged Tiger!
Chen Mu had seen this kind of demonic beast in books, but on closer inspection, this Golden-Winged Tiger seemed a little smaller than the ones described.
He was somewhat disappointed.
This one was clearly a juvenile. An adult Golden-Winged Tiger had sixth-tier strength, while this one was probably only fifth-tier.
Still, a fifth-tier demonic beast ought to be enough to give Mingye some trouble, right?
"Stay right here and don't move!"
Mingye called out a warning, then rushed past Chen Mu toward the Golden-Winged Tiger.
Chen Mu fought down the urge to flee. This still wasn't the best opportunity.
Clang! Clang!
The Golden-Winged Tiger beat its wings, sending out two blades of wind, which Mingye blocked with her dagger.
"Roar~!"
The Golden-Winged Tiger opened its bloody maw and lunged forward, but Mingye moved like a phantom, circling behind it in an instant and leaving two bloody gashes across its back.
Seeing the Golden-Winged Tiger kick up its hind legs, Mingye prepared to leap onto its back and attack. To her surprise, it beat its wings, whipping up a gust that forced her back a step.
The Golden-Winged Tiger seized the chance to launch a series of attacks, keeping Mingye occupied.
Seeing this, Chen Mu acted decisively. He immediately took a talisman from his storage ring and activated it, setting it alight.
An Invisibility Talisman!
Once the talisman took effect, he avoided touching anything around him as much as possible and vanished into the dense forest like a ghost.
After a while, Mingye drove the Golden-Winged Tiger back. Noticing that Chen Mu had disappeared, she let out a cold snort.
She attacked with all her strength, her speed surging. Like a butterfly flitting among flowers, she left countless wounds on the Golden-Winged Tiger.
The Golden-Winged Tiger was skilled in speed to begin with, but it hadn't expected Mingye to be even faster than it was. At last, it felt fear and forced its way through to flee.
Mingye didn't give chase. The Golden-Winged Tiger wasn't her target, and demonic beasts were tenacious; killing it would take quite a bit more effort.
She returned to the spot where Chen Mu had disappeared, carefully examined the traces around her, chose a direction, and gave chase.
Meanwhile, after fleeing a hundred meters, Chen Mu stopped worrying about the traces he left and began running for his life.
He knew an assassin like Mingye was sure to be skilled at tracking. The Invisibility Talisman could probably only throw her off for a while; he would only feel at ease once he had put enough distance between them.
The white mist in Soul Severing Valley proved very useful at a time like this. Even a Martial Master couldn't see more than fifty meters here, which made Chen Mu's escape much easier.
It was already dusk, however, and darkness would soon fall.
For Chen Mu, who was fleeing for his life, the night had both advantages and drawbacks.
Visibility would be even worse at night, making it harder for his pursuer to track him and forcing her to spend more time searching for traces.
But more demonic beasts would come out to hunt at night, and most of them didn't rely on sight to find their enemies. If he ran, demonic beasts could easily detect him.
Although he wasn't afraid of ordinary demonic beasts, if he became locked in a fierce battle with one, Mingye, who was tracking him from behind, could easily find him.
So, if he continued fleeing at night, he would be gambling on whether a demonic beast would block his path.
Chen Mu wasn't someone who liked to gamble.
He thought as he ran and ultimately decided to find somewhere to hide first.
The hollow in that large tree in the distance was a good choice.
He didn't stop. He continued for several hundred meters before activating a Windwalking Talisman to make himself lighter, then slowly walked back to the tree hollow.
Along the way, Chen Mu did his best to disturb his surroundings as little as possible. His spirit was far more sensitive to physical matter than a martial artist's five senses, and he believed that no matter how skilled Mingye was at tracking, he could still conceal his trail for a while.
After entering the hollow, Chen Mu immediately took out talisman flags and set up an illusion array at the entrance. It had no offensive power and was only meant to mislead outsiders, preventing them from seeing that there was a hollow in the tree.
After setting up the illusion array, Chen Mu finally breathed a sigh of relief.
The inside of the hollow was very dry and had a musky odor. It had probably been the den of a fox or some similar animal.
Chen Mu couldn't worry about whether the fox would be unable to find its home. He sat down cross-legged and began circulating the Acala Heart Sutra to restore his Internal Force.
After a while, he opened his eyes and looked outside the hollow.
It was completely dark outside. Apart from the buzzing of a few mosquitoes and insects, it was utterly quiet, eerily so.
Chen Mu thought for a moment, then took a wooden box from his storage ring.
Inside the box were five pale blue pills: the Qi Gathering Pills he had obtained from Hou Sailei.
Ever since the Five Elements Spirit Gathering Array had been completed, Chen Mu had occasionally spent some time cultivating, so his martial cultivation had progressed rapidly. He had long since reached the peak of the ninth stage of the Body Tempering Realm.
He hadn't been in a hurry to break through in the Martial Dao. After all, he primarily cultivated the Dao of Talismans, and with the Acala Heart Sutra, his Martial Dao realm would easily catch up after his spirit realm broke through.
But things were different now. Mingye was far too powerful, and he had no room to resist her at all. His only choice was to make use of every bit of power available to him; then, at least, he would have a sliver of hope.
Chen Mu adjusted his state, picked up a Qi Gathering Pill, and put it in his mouth.
The Qi Gathering Pill melted in his mouth, and its medicinal power naturally traveled with his blood into every limb and bone in his body.
"Come on!"
Although he knew he would become a Martial Master one day, he was still excited now that he had actually begun his breakthrough.
He circulated the Acala Heart Sutra and began frantically absorbing the spiritual power around him. At the same time, he mobilized the spiritual power within his body, directing all of it toward his lower abdomen.
As more and more spiritual power gathered in his lower abdomen, it gradually formed a vortex that spun without stopping.
When its rotation reached its limit, Chen Mu sensed what seemed to be a point at its center.
Once the point appeared, the Spiritual Qi gathered in his lower abdomen seemed to be pulled by some force and rushed frantically into it.
Inside the point, a strange space came into being, expanding continuously like a balloon.
"How amazing!"
Chen Mu observed the changes within it with his spirit and couldn't help exclaiming in wonder.
When all the spiritual power in his body had entered the point, the space within it finally stopped expanding and stabilized in his lower abdomen.
The space that had formed was the so-called Qi Sea!
With a Qi Sea, the spiritual power he absorbed from now on would have a place to be stored. Unlike before, any that his body couldn't absorb would no longer simply dissipate.
At that moment, Chen Mu's Martial Dao cultivation officially entered the Qi Nourishing Realm.