~Crack~
~THUD~
~RUSTLE~
The sounds of trees moving and wood cracking could be heard coming from the front. Lin Mu narrowed his eyes as he could tell that whatever was approaching was a rather large beast.
His spirit sense was already spread around, but the beast was not within its range, meaning that all of these sounds were coming despite the distance between them.
"Can you tell what beast it is from its scent?" Lin Mu questioned Little Shrubby.
"No… It's something I haven't seen before. But it's stronger than me." Little Shrubby answered.
"Stronger than you, huh?" Lin Mu furrowed his brows and tightened his grip on the weapons.
~HOWL~
The moment the next howl came, Lin Mu felt the beast entering his spirit sense range. The beast sensed him as well with its own spirit sense and now knew about each other. Lin Mu's eyes went wide as the beast rushed forward at a great speed.
~HOWL~
The beast let out a loud howl while running and broke all of the trees that were on its way. To the beast, all the trees were like brittle toothpicks, easy to snap. The ground shook with each of its steps, showing just how heavy and bit it was.
Lin Mu decided to act first and gestured with his left hand, pointing his middle and index finger towards the beast.
~shua~
The short sword hummed lightly and flew towards the beast at a great speed. Anything that was in its way was cut immediately and the moment it reached the beast, a loud clang was heard.
~CLANG~
~WHOOSH~
Little Shrubby joined the fray and spat out flames that burned everything that touched. The hardened wood trees of the forest were unable to withstand it and lit up in red flames. As Little Shrubby ran, the flames spread around with him.
"Iron Thorn Bloom!" Lin Mu chanted and thrust the Iron Thorn spear.
~Shing~shing~shing~
Tens of black blades made out of energy shot out of the spear and attacked the beast that was approaching. The beast had not even made its full appearance and was already facing three attacks at the same time.
~BARK!~
An angry bark was heard coming as the trees finally broke apart under the force of the sound.
~clang~
The short sword seemed to have hit something and was deflected.
~DENG~DENG~DENG~
The black blades made by the iron thorn spear seemed to have made contact with the beast as well, and multiple collision sounds were heard. But hearing the sounds, Lin Mu didn't really feel good, as he knew that they had been blocked.
"Not going to be easy this time… a True Dao Shell realm beast," Lin Mu muttered.
~GRRR~
The beast finally made its true appearance and it could be seen fully now. It was a large Wolf beast with Bronze colored fur that looked tough. Its fur was like steel wires that would not break and provided it with great defense.
Its eyes were a deep green in color while its tail was bushy but could hit like a whip if the beast chose to use it like that. The wolf's canines were also about a foot long and the rest of its teeth were no less fierce.
Its claws were like hooked knives that would easily tear apart the flesh of anything that dared to go against it. And the beast was as big as a house, being the biggest beast that Lin Mu had seen till now that wasn't Senior Xukong.
But Lin Mu was also able to recognize the beast and had actually read about it before.
"Bronze Tribe Wolf, a variant of the Steel Back wolves that is many times stronger than it and can cultivate all the way to the Dao Shell realm. They live in large packs, and the leader of the pack is the strongest one of them.
This is definitely the pack leader." Lin Mu identified.
While he had understood what the beast was, he now needed to know just how strong the beast was.
He could tell that the beast was at the Dao Shell realm, but what stage? That was the question.
If the beast was in the Shell Genesis stage or above, Lin Mu would escape right away. A beast of that level was not something he or Little Shrubby would be able to deal with. But if it was at the Shell Initiation stage, he would still have a chance.
And thus, Lin Mu's spirit sense probed the wolf beast, without caring about its feeling and drilled directly into its Dantian. This of course, angered the beast even more, but Lin Mu got what he wanted.
"Haha, at the Shell Initiation stage I see…" Lin Mu said with a smile.
He could see a faint outline of a sphere in the beast's Dantian. It was floating above its nascent soul and looked somewhat like a bubble. Lin Mu had already learned that it was the outline of a Dao Shell and that was what the initial Dao Shell would be looking like.
~GRRR!~
"You dare ignore me?" Little Shrubby's growl came from the back.
The flames that little Shrubby had spat out were meant as a visual distraction, as the beast couldn't see around easily with the flames hiding everything behind them. As for its spirit sense, the wolf was focused on Lin Mu.
Little Shrubby took advantage of this and had circled around to attack it from the behind.
~BOOM~
He quickly sped up, and a sonic boom could be heard.
~KACHA~KACHA~KACHA~
~SPARK~
The sound of metal being grinded could be heard as numerous sparks shot out of the Bronze Tribe Wolf's back. Lin Mu took a look and smirked.
"Of course, Little Shrubby would be able to damage even if he has a lower cultivation base… those bloodlines are not for nothing." Lin Mu muttered.
'Time for me to join in as well.' Lin Mu thought as a fierce expression appeared on his face and the spear was raised.
