As for why he did not start a fight with the two husky fellows guarding the mountain path, Mo Wen had his own considerations. He did not know about the Changtian sect. It was not rational for the current him to provoke a sect.
After all, he wasn't here to contest strengths. He was only here to find spiritual medicine.
If he could stealthily steal the spiritual medicine away and also not make enemies with a strong sect, it would be a desirable outcome.
He quietly scaled the cliff, approaching the mountain from a dense part of the forest. Everywhere he looked, he saw lush green, followed by the sound of birds and the fragrance of flowers.
Impressively, Mo Wen discovered that atop White Rock Peak, there was actually the faint presence of spiritual energy in the air. The spiritual energy was thin, but clearly present.
He had practiced the Cultivation Practice Method before, so he was was more sensitive to spiritual energy than normal people. Before, when he was wandering around in the Changbai Mountain Range, although he had discovered the presence of spiritual energy in a few areas, they were all only confined to a small area.
But on White Rock Peak, the whole peak felt like it was enveloped in spiritual energy.
That sensation was as though Mo Wen had returned once more to his previous world. Since he had entered the dream again, he discovered that the world's spiritual energy was very thin. Modern cities basically were void of any spiritual energy. As for the mountains, the spiritual energy was thin and it was hard to find its presence.
For cultivators, spiritual energy was the basis of all things. Without spiritual energy, they could not achieve anything.
This was the reason why Mo Wen knew a few common Cultivation Practice Methods, but did not practice Cultivation. It was because based on what he knew, he did not have the fundamental conditions to practice Cultivation.
But on White Rock Peak, he could clearly feel the presence spiritual energy. Although it paled in comparison with the peaks in the mysterious foggy mountains, it was undoubtedly a pleasant surprise.
With spiritual energy, it meant that in the future, Cultivation had become a possibility. If there was spiritual energy atop White Rock Peak, naturally it was possible for other places to have it as well. Places that were suitable for Cultivation could very possibly exist too.
No wonder the Changtian sect had occupied the entire peak, claiming White Rock Peak as its own. Based on the fact that there was spiritual energy atop White Rock Peak, he knew that the peak surely had spiritual medicine growing about, and that their numbers would not be few.
Aside from that, places with spiritual energy brought great benefits for the growth of normal medicinal herbs.
White Rock Peak was most likely a medicine mountain, so that was why it was so prized by the Changtian sect.
Mo Wen's mood got pumped up. Spiritual medicines were what he needed the most now. If he could find some spiritual medicine on White Rock Peak, it would be immeasurably beneficial for his practice.
Unfortunately, after he went around White Rock Peak once, he discovered many precious medicinal herbs, but did not come across any spiritual medicine.
Although he had obtained quite a few precious medicinal herbs, he could not help but feel slightly disappointed for not seeing any spiritual medicine.
However, the spiritual energy on White Rock Peak was still rather thin, so growing spiritual medicine was not such a simple thing. Even if occasionally a few stalks grew, they would most likely have been marked by the people from the Changtian sect and harvested.
He discovered that on top of White Rock Peak, there were many places where people were hiding. They all wore the same standard garb, crouching as they guarded some areas. If it wasn't for Mo Wen's strong sense of perception that made him able to detect these hidden figures early, he would have been discovered instantly.
"Such a tight guard."
Mo Wen's eyes flashed past a glint of surprise. Based on what he knew, atop of White Rock Peak alone, there were no less than two hundred people hidden. Even without counting the people in the other areas, he had already discovered so many.
Some of them even had Sea of Qi realm cultivation. The weaker ones were also of the Regulated Breathing realm.
"The Changtian Sect sure is grand!"
Mo Wen slightly squinted his eyes. They were deep in thought. For so many people to be lurking atop White Rock Peak, what exactly were they planning to do?
Or, what were they guarding?
Could it be the Flame Flower?
Mo Wen still remembered the old man dressed in black saying that the Flame Flower would mature within these two days before he died.
For the Changtian Sect to send so many people to guard the area, it was most likely to prevent others from stealing the Flame Flower. The old man dressed in black obviously knew of this, so he had instigated Mo Wen to come over and find the Flame Flower.
Mo Wen touched his chin. If that was so, then obtaining the Flame Flower would be troublesome.
What he found strange was that since the Changtian Sect had so tightly guarded the Flame Flower, how did the old man dressed in black know the approximate location of the Flame Flower?
He took out the map, and compared the location of the Flame Flower marked on it, He discovered that the flower was not on the peak, but was half way up the mountainside, in a valley on the north face of White Rock Peak.
The map shouldn't be fake. It was impossible for the old man dressed in black to create a fake map to trick him beforehand, knowing that it would end up in Mo Wen's hands.
So the position of the Flame Flower marked on the map shouldn't be wrong.
Mo Wen's eyes lit up as he quietly made his way to the valley on the north face.
No matter what happened, he had to go over and take a look. The value of the Flame Flower was too high; it was impossible for him to easily give it up.
If he let a spiritual medicine like the Flame Flower end up in the hands of the common sects, it would be a tremendous waste of such a divine item.
The common sects would usually use the precious spiritual medicine to concoct pills, but they knew nothing about alchemy. Naturally, the pills that they concocted could not be of any good, wasting the value of the spiritual medicine.
But the alchemists in the sects of the martial art circles had no idea that they were ruining such precious items, feeling elated that they managed to concoct pills with some effects.
Along the way, Mo Wen avoided many sentry points. Using his superb jungle lurking ability, he traversed most of the forest without being discovered by anyone; the whole way, he was unobstructed.
Not long after, he arrived in front of the mouth of a narrow valley. However, it was heavily guarded, with twenty people on sentry.
There was even a leader of the Qi Nucleation realm, sitting cross-legged with a stern expression on a rock at the mouth of the valley.
Mo Wen hid in the tall overgrowth, surprised. The mouth of the valley already had such tight defensive power. He had not even seen what it was like in the valley. Surely, there would be more people.
Now, he could almost be certain that the Flame Flower should be located in the valley before him.
Also, he felt the spiritual energy in the valley was far thicker than White Rock Peak and the other places.
The valley most likely had other spiritual medicines apart from the Flame Flower.
Mo Wen felt a searing passion inside. If he could snatch away all of the valley's spiritual medicines, it would be a grand harvest.
However, the valley was guarded so tightly, and experts were everywhere. To steal food from the mouth of a tiger was not going to be an easy task.
His eyes spun, then he retreated into the trees. He silently caught a wild rabbit, then knocked the rabbit unconscious, placing it where he was before.
After that, he stealthily reached one side of the mouth of the valley, hugging behind a cliff wall. The position was very close to the mouth of the valley, but was not easy for him to be discovered.
After around half an hour, the unconscious wild rabbit suddenly awakened, shook its head lightly, then spread its legs and ran.
"Who's there?"
A rustling sound came from the trees, immediately drawing the attention of the Qi Nucleation realm elder at the mouth of the valley.
The next moment, a silhouette shot past, traversing a distance of more than ten feet. In a few leaps, it had chased up to the wild rabbit.
The Qi Nucleation realm elder roared. The people guarding at the mouth of the valley had jumped in fright, all of them turning to look in the direction it came from, not knowing what was going on.
Yet, when they turned their heads and shifted their attention all towards that spot, a faint shadow slipped past them, quietly slipping into the valley. No one noticed that someone had slipped past them.
"A wild rabbit."
The Qi Nucleation realm elder caught a brownish gray rabbit by the ears, and with a few dashes returned to the mouth of the valley.
Once everyone heard this, they gave out a sigh of relief. Today was the day the sacred flower fully matured. If anything were to happen to it, none of them could shoulder the responsibility.
...
Although the mouth of the valley was small, the valley was actually quite big and open.
The moment Mo Wen managed to get into the valley, he felt the pores over his entire body slightly open up. The feeling of spiritual energy in his face, across two dimensions of time and space, once again fell upon Mo Wen.
Like a thirsty person who suddenly found a stream, his entire body was indescribably comfortable from top to bottom.
He could be certain that there was spiritual energy in the valley, absolutely sufficient for the Cultivation needs of low level cultivator. To come across such a place on Earth was a rare occurrence.
Since there was spiritual energy on Earth, were there cultivators?
From a world's development perspective, a world with spiritual energy would most likely bring about cultivators.
In the long history of the world, it was not impossible for a few people who could attain enlightenment of the ways of the heavens, create Cultivation Practice Methods and remove themselves from the bondage of Heaven and Earth to appear.
Mo Wen's eyes were deep in thought. If the Earth had such a Cultivation heritage, then where was it hidden?
At least based on what he knew, there did not exist any cultivators on Earth. Even the Huatian Palace, although it was powerful, had no signs of cultivators. At the very least, the people from the Huatian Palace he had come into contact with were all ancient martial arts practitioners and not cultivators.
He suppressed the thought in his mind. Now was not the time to be thinking about this. Finding the Flame Flower was the number one priority.
He looked around, then quietly headed in a direction, sneaking past. About a hundred feet in, a huge boulder appeared before him.
The boulder was the size of a soccer field. It was twenty, maybe thirty feet tall. Its base was deeply etched into the ground, revealing just the upper half.
Mo Wen silently smacked his tongue. Such a large boulder was no different from a small hill.
Around the boulder was a shallow depression. The further it went out, the taller it was, forming a steep slope.
The geographical surroundings were as though a meteorite had fallen out of the sky and crashed atop of White Rock Peak.
As for the valley, it was most probably a product of the huge meteor crashing heavily into the ground.
At this moment, on top of the huge boulder was a group of people. There were more than ten of them. Although there weren't as many as in the valley, every single one of them had cultivation that was at least at the Sea of Qi realm.
Mo Wen drew in a cold breath. Aside from that, there was a Qi Nucleation realm ancient martial arts practitioner. Another person was even at the later stage Qi Nucleation realm, while another was at the intermediate stage Qi Nucleation realm.