Chapter 29 - State of Mind

A few hours went by.

Swish!

Thud!

With a swing of his axe, Lin Mufa killed the last bandit.

At this point, countless bandits had died from his axe.

The screams from the villagers had long died down. Only a few sobbing could be heard. 

Lin Mufa stood in the middle of the village, surrounded by dead bodies while closing his eyes. Almost all of them were the bandits' bodies with only a few from the villager who had died earlier.

Even though he was fighting in close combat, there was not a single injury or even a hint of blood on him.

With his cultivation in the Foundation stage, fighting a few mortal bandits was as easy as bullying kids.

At the same time, he could easily create a thin layer of qi to protect his body.

If he was still at the Qi Condensation stage, he might have run out of energy earlier. His Foundation Building stage qi could easily last him days.

It was also this ability that allowed him to stay unscathed from mortal weapons.

The bandits were only mortals who didn't have any cultivation and only had a bit of martial strength. 

Fighting a cultivator was too much for them to handle. In front of a powerful cultivator, a mortal would just be the same as weeds.

Lin Mufa stayed in place, surrounded by dead bodies while closing his eyes. He was adjusting his state of mind.

This was the first time he had killed so many human beings, and it was a one-sided slaughter!

Lin Mufa felt a bit of a heavy feeling weighing his mind.

He meditates silently in the middle of the dead bodies. Slowly, the heavy feeling in his mind lessens.

Suddenly, something crossed his mind!

An epiphany!

Flashes of insights seemed to fill his mind.

They were insights!

Lin Mufa had to close his eyes for a while longer.

The remaining people of this village were either in hiding or were still too scared by this whole situation to come out. After all, who wouldn't be afraid of a bandit raid, and suddenly a man holding an axe started killing those bandits.

Even though the villagers were relieved the bandits were dead, seeing single a man slaughtering tens of bandits was still something they were scared to see.

Meanwhile, Lin Mufa still stood there silently while closing his eyes. The killing was something new for him.

Although he didn't like it, he didn't find it repulsive about what he just did.

There's some sense in him that felt like killing people shouldn't be done so easily. Perhaps he didn't like a senseless killing—killing without purpose.

Like when he was chopping the trees. The purpose of chopping the trees was to eventually use them for something. And killing the bandits serves the purpose of saving the villagers.

After a while, Lin Mufa opened his eyes.

He looked around and saw some villagers hiding inside the houses that were still intact, while some were hiding behind ruined houses.

After a simple scan of the village, Lin Mufa departed in silence, retracing his steps along the path he had taken when arriving.

Thinking back to the flash of insights earlier, he still could not grasp it completely.

He walked towards the mountain village without uttering a single word to the villagers he had rescued.

'Perhaps I could ask the young master about this.' he thought.

Shaking his head from the thought, Lin Mufa continued to walk.

As he walked, his mind became somewhat vacant, overwhelmed by a sense of detachment.

Whatever just happened seemed like a distant dream, slowly fading away as the adrenaline coursing through his body gradually subsided.

His mind was filled with memories of his old village, each scene playing out vividly in his thoughts.

If only he had possessed such powers back then, he mused to himself.

Maybe he could have saved some of the people he knew, who had tragically perished one after another. In those days, he had felt utterly powerless, and everything that unfolded afterward seemed like a blurry haze.

Recollections rushed through his mind—hiding in the forest, being pursued by a bear. And then, as if awakening from a dream, he found himself rescued by a young immortal master. It was his fortune to be saved by an immortal. Usually, immortals don't bother to save mortals.

Following his rescue, he was bestowed an axe, along with the mysterious means to cultivate and become an immortal master himself.

Lin Mufa, though occasionally still feeling a sense of unreal, knew deep down that this newfound path was undeniably real. Especially when he wielded the axe given to him by Young Master Wang. While it appeared ordinary at first glance, there was an indescribable elegance and uniqueness to it, unlike any axe he had ever seen.

Unquestionably, it was young master Wang's guidance that allowed him to ascend to the ranks of immortal master. All he needed to do was faithfully follow the young master's lead.

With his destination in sight, Lin Mufa continued his journey towards the village at a steady pace as he recalled his epiphany from earlier.

As he climbed halfway up the mountain, his ears caught the sound of a commotion from a clearing in a nearby area. Intrigued, he turned towards the source to investigate.

As he looked at the center of the clearing, a bear and a wolf were exchanging blows.

The bear had minimal injuries around some parts of its limbs, while the wolf's body was riddled with injuries.

Evidently, it was clear that the bear was stronger than the wolf. 

Looking at the bear, Lin Mufa's eyes lit up. 

Meanwhile, the bear and wolf had just finished exchanging another blow when Lin Mufa arrived.

Looking at the bear, Lin Mufa was reminded of the bad times before he met Young Master Wang.

At that time, he was still a mortal and was running away from the bandit raid on his village.

Although it was just not long ago, it felt like ages for Lin Mufa who now has a new life.

Just as Lin Mufa recalled those times, the bear and wolf had another clash.

The bear lunged forward with a powerful charge. The wolf tried to dodge, but with the injuries on its body, it failed.

With a mighty swipe from the bear, the wolf was knocked to the ground, and pinned by the bear with its paw. Then, a figure appeared in its field of vision.

Lin Mufa had appeared silently in front of the bear.

Without waiting for the bear to react, Lin Mufa swings his axe towards the bear.

Thunk!

The axe hits the bear with tremendous force, creating a deep and heavy sound as it pierces the bear's hide and bone. The impact sends the bear flying, and it crashes into a nearby tree with a deafening thud, leaving the bear momentarily stunned and dizzy.

After the bear hits the tree, Lin Mufa looks at the wolf whimpering on the ground. He was wondering if he should end the wolf's misery or save it.

After crashing into the tree, the bear, dazed and furious, attempts to charge toward Lin Mufa. But before it can cover more than a few steps, Lin Mufa's axe strikes the bear's head with a swift and lethal blow. With a final, echoing thud, the bear died to the devastating force, falling lifelessly to the ground.

After another look at the wolf, Lin Mufa decided to save the wolf.

Even though he didn't know how, Lin Mufa could sense that its vitality was fading, all he had to do was to give the wolf some qi to revitalize it.

As the wolf lay injured, its intermittent breaths and soft whimpers filled the air, with Lin Mufa's surge of qi, like a burst of life, coursed through its body, infusing it with newfound vitality and resilience.

After the wolf had received the healing energy of the qi and was no longer on the brink of death, it slowly succumbed to its exhaustion and injuries, ultimately falling unconscious, its body finally granted a respite from the pain and struggle.

Meanwhile, Lin Mufa turns his attention back to the bear, sprawled near the tree where it lay dead. The axe lays nearby, marked with the blood from the bear.

"I guess we'll be having bear meat for dinner. I hope young master like it." Lin Mufa muttered to himself. 

After Lin Mufa retrieved the axe, he proceeded to put the bear on his shoulder. When he was about to walk, he heard a noise behind him. 

It was the wolf struggling to stand on its feet. 

It had managed to gain consciousness in just a few moments.

The wolf looks cautiously at Lin Mufa for a few moments before it lowers its head as if thankful and then howls before slowly staggering away into the forest.

Lin Mufa just stares at the wolf while it moves away.

After the wolf was gone from his vision, Lin Mufa went towards the village.

As he walks back, Lin Mufa's mind is occupied with thoughts about the bandits, and the bear.

He was lucky about the bandit raid since he was not at the village at that time, but not so about the bear. He had to toil around the forest to run away from the bear. 

Now that he thinks about it, perhaps he was lucky as well when he was running away from the bear.

Shaking his mind off the thought, Lin Mufa slowly finds his mind blank of any distracting thoughts as he walks.

As he did so, the surrounding qi surged into his body without his knowledge.

Meanwhile, back in the village, Wang Tian had been watching and paying attention to Lin Mufa ever since he went down the mountain.