Su Lin grunted and heaved finally reaching the edges of the mountain's third layer. It was not quite where she wanted to be but it was just barely enough.
Holding on to a couple of sturdy rocks for her dear life, she crawled forward and propped herself up against a nearby tree.
She closed her eyes and slowly tried to concentrate. She extended her wounded soul sense and tried to reach the dispersed spiritual energy fog.
"Yup. This is going to be painful and take a long time." Su Lin nodded her head. The concentration of spiritual energy was way too low.
Like a fisherman waiting for the fish with the casted net, Su Lin had to patiently wait for the energy molecules to randomly and entropically reach her soul sense. There was no other way.
And with this insanely low concentration, no mortal living in this world, with an undeveloped soul could even touch this energy.
So at least she didn't have any competition for this pitiful amount of energy.
Soon hours passed and days passed...
Cultivating in this kind of atmosphere was extremely boring and tedious, but what to do? This was the only option available to Su Lin and she had to patiently endure it.
An entire month passed and Su Lin finally managed to collect about 5% of the foggy dispersed energy. Even this small amount had a tremendous effect on her soul.
The absorbed energy coupled with intermittent rock climbing improved her physical fitness as well.
After an entire month, she was finally able to climb that additional few meters and reach the highest point in the third layer of the mountains.
Su Lin sat down on the lush green ground with a wide grin. Since this was the highest point in the third layer, the energy was a bit denser here.
She greedily absorbed every single energy particle that she sensed like a vacuum cleaner. Her wounded soul quivered and ate the dispersed spiritual energy like a starved animal.
Compared to her earlier progress, this time around the absorption was much faster and within a few minutes, she had completely absorbed everything in the area.
Su Lin grinned. So far, this has been a very satisfying and fruitful trip!
Forming a stage 1 soul core needed a lot of energy, but healing a stage 1 wounded soul core didn't need much.
When Su Lin transmigrated to this world, her cultivation base was completely broken down but the foundation was somewhat still there.
So she was able to easily reach the first step in cultivation, forming a soul core.
And thus another month passed in silent cultivation...
Meanwhile...
"Boss the cutie is at it again! What do you think she is doing?" Monkey wondered.
"Hmm..." Luther shrugged his shoulders unable to answer his brother's question.
Luther and his brothers belonged to a criminal organization with its headquarters currently in the Kawa Karpo mountain ranges.
Luther was the unofficial head of this small group of assassins and oversaw the group's operations from the shadows.
For the past few days, they have been meticulously observing Su Lin from a distance to make sure that she didn't accidentally stumble into their criminal organization's hideout.
But the woman's behavior completely baffled them. She sat in a weird pose for hours together and just simply closed her eyes.
They couldn't help but wonder if she was broken in the brain!
"Boss, I think I am going to go for it. Jump in with my arms open. Do the deed. Go to town. It's time for me to get a girlfriend."
"Huh?" Luther was confused. Where did this fickle-minded idiot find a woman in the mountains? Then he realized he was talking about Su Lin.
"Boss listen I know that look. You damn womanizer. Cutie is all mine, okay? I saw her first. I have dibs on her."
"..."
"You were sleeping when she peed on you. Besides, marking the territory is the other way round. You have to pee on her and not the opposite."
"..." Luther's lips twitched as he watched his brother continue to run his mouth in excitement.
"Boss... please..."
"....."
"Hmph. Let the best man win!"
Panther and some other guys had returned back from their respective missions and the cave was pretty lively today.
"Who are you guys fighting over? That woman sitting near the tree and crying every day?"
Monkey immediately got defensive and retorted, "Hey! Watch your mouth!! She is not crying! It's called finding inner peace."
"Pfftt... Find your sister. I bet some dude dropped her ugly ass and missy is crying every day to get over it."
Watching the shenanigans, Luther chuckled and remained silent. But monkey continued roaring, "Hey, hey, she is not ugly. She is pretty darn cute."
"Loser. You need to get the hell out and do some missions once in a while. She is an ugly ass bitch compared to those blonde babes in California!"
"Say whatever you want, she is my princess!" Monkey puffed out his chest and declared.
Then noticing the silent Luther, "Boss I don't like this silence. Open your mouth and say something. For heaven's sake, normal people like me can't compete with a handsome god like you."
"..."
"Boss boss come on now. You don't even like her!"
"Who said I don't like her?" Luther mischievously smirked. He was not really interested in the plain-looking woman, but he couldn't stop himself from messing with Monkey.
Though Monkey looked quite pleasing to the eyes as well, if Luther stands next to him, then...
"You heartless bastard." Monkey whined.
"Ha Ha... I am feeling a bit lonely these days. I think I might need a girlfriend too!" Luther winked at Monkey with an evil grin and left for his daily work out.
"Ha Ha Ha. Sorry monkey. It looks like you are out of luck." Another man chortled slapping his thigh loudly.
"Too bad monkey."
"You will get your chance the next time for sure." Everyone's favorite pass time was messing with the poor guy.
"Bastards you are all laughing aren't you! Why god ?! Why me?! How will I ever get a chance when that bastard seduces everything in sight!"
"Why did you make that fucking womanizer more handsome than me?"
In reality, Luther never intentionally hit on anyone. His single glance was enough to make women submit themselves to him.
Monkey cursed and sulked and disappeared into the forest, leaving behind a sea of mocking giggles and chuckles.