Chapter 586: Chapter 585 Absurd Guess
Three days later.
Bear Mountain Primitive Forest, Yunwu Mountain’s Medicinal Herb Base.
For three days and three nights, Hu Lizhong had been cultivating in his room without ever coming out. The prolonged effect of the Six Harmonies Energy-Introducing Needle Technique on him surprised even Yang Fei.
At the same time, Yang Fei was somewhat speechless.
In such a place with an extremely high concentration of spiritual energy, not only did Hu Lizhong show no signs of breakthrough, but even the True Qi in his body was still being continuously refined and purified, his realm slowly becoming more solid and stable.
Yang Fei really began to doubt whether his unique-tier strength had been exaggerated.
Tong Yunshu had also been immersed in cultivation these past few days, but she still accompanied Yang Fei to wander deeper into the mountains every day.
After three days had passed, Yang Fei and Tong Yunshu, using Yunwu Mountain’s Medicinal Herb Base as the center, had checked the surrounding mountain regions and found no place better than Yunwu Mountain’s valley.
Another five days went by, and Hu Lizhong was still in closed-door cultivation. That day, Yang Fei took Tong Yunshu to the most mysterious region of Bear Mountain.
This place was among the few world-famous primordial forests. For thousands of years, countless people had entered and never came back, leading it to be known as a forbidden area.
Yang Fei had thought that the concentration of spiritual energy here would be higher than in the Yunwu Mountain basin, but the result was a huge disappointment.
Compared to urban areas, the concentration of spiritual energy here was indeed slightly higher, but only by a little. It was far inferior to the concentration of spiritual energy at Yunwu Mountain’s Medicinal Herb Base.
"It seems we can only choose the medicine land at Yunwu Mountain," Yang Fei said somewhat regretfully to Tong Yunshu.
Tong Yunshu nodded in disappointment.
Since the day she spoke to Yang Fei about considering the future, he had opened up to her the very next day, saying he would try his best to find a new suitable base for the Military Department to refine medicine, while the Yunwu Mountain area would serve as the Tong Family’s property. He would set up a large formation there, separating business from personal affairs, and promote development on parallel tracks.
Having control over spiritual elixirs that could enhance martial artists could definitely make him a person sought after by people of the Martial Arts World. Not only would it be an opportunity to collect the wealth of the world but also to attract a multitude of powerful individuals for his own use.
Yang Fei thought Tong Yunshu made sense.
Helping Qin Yanyang’s Military Department to develop was his unshirkable responsibility, but at the same time, he couldn’t afford to lose himself. He needed to have his own power to prevent any situation of losing control in the future.
"If it were possible to utilize the Hidden Sect for myself, I could utilize their resources to produce genetic liquid medicine in large quantities," Yang Fei said with some regret.
Tong Yunshu had heard from Yang Fei about his affairs in the Hidden Sect and her heart stirred upon hearing his words. "It might not be impossible to collaborate. The Hidden Sect Eight Great Forces aren’t united; many Hidden Sect powers can be utilized. If we can find supporters and suitable partners, we can take a different path and develop our own forces," she said.
Yang Fei thought of Helian Rong.
If he could cure Helian Rong, he might win the approval of Helian Zhan, and then the Qingtian Sect would support him.
And since Helian Rong was the saintess of the Poison Sect, Ouyang He was extremely fond of her, and the Poison Sect had close relations with Qingtian Sect—it might also be settled.
With the support of these two powerful sects, it was not impossible for him to carve out a place for himself in the Hidden Sect.
But Yang Fei quickly suppressed this thought.
The Hidden Sect was too dangerous; he wasn’t considering entering it for the time being.
At least not in the short term.
After returning to Yunwu Mountain’s base, Yang Fei asked Zhou Fu, "Has Hu Lizhong come out of his room?"
"No. Young Master Yang, Mr. Hu couldn’t have had an accident, could he? He hasn’t eaten or drunk anything, not once in eight days and seven nights, nor stepped out of his room," Zhou Fu said with some worry.
Yang Fei shook his head and said, "Don’t worry about him. Remember my words, don’t disturb him no matter what."
"Well... okay then." Zhou Fu no longer dwelled on the matter and asked, "Mr. Yang, what shall we eat tonight?"
Yang Fei replied with a smile, "Is there anything left that flies?"
"There is, I understand." Zhou Fu said.
After Zhou Fu left, Tong Yunshu looked at Yang Fei and commented, "I’ve never seen a martial arts master with such a craving for food."
Over the past few days, the game they had hunted and stored in the deep mountains and forests was almost completely devoured by Yang Fei.
After dinner, Yang Fei and Tong Yunshu went for a walk in the basin of Yunwu Mountain.
The basin was extremely large, with the Medicine Land spanning thousands of acres. Tong Yunshu followed Yang Fei who stopped and started as they walked, seeing him stand in one spot for several minutes, and then moving to another area to stay for a short while, seemingly sensing something intently.
Tong Yunshu followed him step by step without disturbing him.
After more than an hour, as Yang Fei continued to observe in this manner, Tong Yunshu finally couldn’t hold back and asked, "Are you looking for something?"
Yang Fei answered, "The spiritual energy in this valley is clearly more than ten times higher than the outside world, even exceeding the concentration in many places of the Hidden Sect; this is quite abnormal. Such a spiritually endowed place must have some unique feature."
Tong Yunshu pondered and then said, "Could it not be due to the special terrain here? The entire valley is like a massive bowl that can absorb the essence of heaven and earth. Then, given the valley’s depth, it could also effectively conceal the absorbed essence, couldn’t it?"
Yang Fei’s heart stirred upon hearing this, and he looked up around him.
In the night, the mountains stood tall around the valley, but the walls of the mountains were not particularly steep, spreading out from the valley and becoming broader.
Indeed, the whole valley resembled an outwardly expanding gigantic pot.
"Could it be that the spiritual energy in this valley does not come from deep within the earth’s veins, but from above?" Yang Fei looked up at the surroundings of the valley, a look of confusion on his face.
He had cultivated the orthodox cultivation technique of the Taoist Mysterious Sect, was exceptionally gifted, and wasn’t of a low realm. He had a profound understanding of the medical skills mentioned in Taoist records. Besides, he had also studied Taoist formation techniques and knew a thing or two about them.
However, he really did not understand much about astronomy and geography.
According to common sense, spiritual energy is the essence of the earth’s veins, produced from underground. Ancient Taoist texts recorded that there used to be Spiritual Springs and even Spirit Ores, where a small Spirit Stone could contain vast amounts of the essence of heaven and earth. While cultivating, one could place the Spirit Stone nearby, absorb its essence, and transform it into True Qi, thus accelerating their cultivation speed.
But now, the Earth’s spiritual energy is scarce, with only the Hidden Sect, Heaven, and Penglai having delineated boundaries, imprisoning a large amount of spiritual energy.
Yet, according to many people from the Hidden Sect, the spiritual energy of these three places is also diminishing sharply, even close to failing to sustain the normal operation of the three Small Worlds, very likely leading to the collapse of their plane worlds.
Wait a second...
The continuous disappearance, even sharp reduction, of the spiritual energy in the Hidden Sect World...
Those plane worlds are completely closed off, with no development of modern technology inside, and their earthen veins’ feng shui has never been disrupted. Logically, their spiritual energy should be self-sufficient, able to maintain a balanced state.
Why would it diminish sharply?
Where did all that disappearing spiritual energy go?
A preposterous idea suddenly sprang to mind.
"Could it be?" As he considered this possibility, Yang Fei shook his head while muttering to himself, showing a very peculiar expression.
Seeing him suddenly gaze at the sky and murmur, Tong Yunshu asked curiously, "What’s wrong?"
Yang Fei said, "Do you think the spiritual energy here could really be from above, as you suggested?"