Following the GPS directions, Bai Mo once again stopped his car about a kilometer from the volcano, rolling down the window to gauge the concentration of Spirit Qi in the air.
From his senses, he could roughly determine that the Spirit Qi concentration at this location had reached sixty to seventy percent of what he typically achieved during his daily Qi cultivation.
Exposed to such a high-concentration Spirit Qi environment, he instinctively took a deep breath. Even though he no longer relied solely on mouth and nose breathing, some instincts remained immutable.
Bathed fully in the ocean of Spirit Qi, Bai Mo felt every cell in his body cheer, a satisfied smile naturally gracing his face. However, Bai Mo quickly regained control of his emotions and continued driving forward.
After calming down, he began to ponder his situation again. In the two-plus months since he began cultivating, he estimated the number of times he had considered his own circumstances probably exceeded the total of the previous twenty years.
In his life prior, he had maintained an indifferent attitude toward most things outside of studying and reading novels, casually dealing with them.
Eating, good enough; dressing, just enough to go out unnoticed; socializing, essentially zero.
Ever since his parents passed away, he had become obsessed with various web novels. His life outside of textbooks revolved entirely around fiction.
To him, the beautiful structures hidden behind the world, revealed by knowledge in books, were just as captivating as the intricate worlds within novels.
All of this led him to invest most of his energy into his world of thought, rather than the mundane realities of life.
But everything changed with his discovery of the Spirit Stone's uses. All that had once existed only in fantasy began to surface.
The feeling of bearing a great secret yet being unable to confide in anyone brought immense pressure upon Bai Mo, forcing him to focus all his attention on himself. Every day, he would engage in self-reflection, considering secrecy, evolution, and survival.
Barring any unforeseen circumstances, if this life of pretense continued for a few more years, Bai Mo would at least develop schizophrenia, or even suffer a complete mental breakdown.
As someone who had never undergone relevant training, the pressure he bore was greater than that of a spy lurking in a foreign land or behind enemy lines. A spy at least had an uplink to contact (though not necessarily someone to trust), but he had no one to tell the truth to. He could only continue to wear a mask and act, slowly progressing towards that distant goal of becoming a force capable of rivaling an entire nation.
Thus, in the uninhabited, Spirit Qi-rich area at the foot of the volcano, Bai Mo's mind could finally relax somewhat, as he didn't have to constantly wear a mask pretending to be an ordinary person.
"Another few hundred meters ahead and I'll be at the volcano's base. The Spirit Qi concentration here is already on par with what I get during my regular cultivation. If all this Spirit Qi is being heated and released by Spirit Stones, then the number of Spirit Stones hidden beneath this volcano must be astronomical to form such a vast Spirit Qi domain."
"Though this immense Spirit Qi domain is almost imperceptible, the forest's mutations won't remain hidden for long. Excessive quietness is equally attention-grabbing."
"In a few days at most, the forest's anomalies will be exposed to the world, and the United States authorities will send people to investigate. With their professionalism, following the clues will reveal the truth within a week, and it's quite possible the existence of Spirit Stones will also be discovered."
"As a tourist, I can ensure my safety by staying as far away from the eye of the storm as possible. Right now, I need to make one last big score before it's exposed. It will be very difficult to come back here once official intervention begins, and I can't gamble on the possibility of Spirit Stones existing elsewhere."
Having finalized his plan, Bai Mo walked towards the crater, following the path where he sensed the highest Spirit Qi concentration.
Clearly, this volcano wasn't a tourist area; there were no stairs to ascend, nor safety ropes. Lacking climbing equipment, he could only rely on his superhuman physique to force his way up the slope.
As Bai Mo ascended, he used his eyes' ability to observe the mutated beasts holed up in their caves. Perhaps due to the higher Spirit Qi concentration, most of them had already awoken from their slumber.
Fortunately, it seemed the beasts knew their days of undisturbed enjoyment of this high-concentration Spirit Qi were limited. Each one remained lazily in its cave, offering little obstruction.
The higher he climbed, the more alarmed he became, as the animals occupying the path grew stronger; the entire mountain peak was a pyramid of powerhouses. After reaching halfway up, the evolved beasts already exuded a somewhat dangerous aura, but luckily, they all remained in their dug-out caves, reveling in the Spirit Qi baptism.
In their eyes, as a mutated creature even stronger than themselves, Bai Mo encountered no obstruction even halfway up the mountain.
These animals, having gained much sentience under the guidance of Spirit Qi, also possessed rudimentary perceptive abilities. They could sense that the "beast" passing by was not to be trifled with, and a fight would be meaningless, serving only to hinder Spirit Qi absorption.
Thus, step by step, he climbed to the summit, watched by the surrounding beasts.
No sooner had he reached the summit than Bai Mo felt a jolt of alarm. He quickly used his eyes' ability to scan the surroundings and discovered that the alarming auras belonged to two masters: a large python and a feline creature resembling a tiger.
"Are these trying to evolve into an Azure Dragon and a White Tiger?" he muttered to himself. "What about the Vermilion Bird and Black Tortoise?"
Somewhat different from the pythons in his memory, this snake was vividly colored all over, clearly an evolution in size from a small venomous species. As for the "White Tiger" in Bai Mo's eyes, it was actually a feline creature with unscientific wings.
To minimize the chance of them attacking him, he for the first time fully released his aura, creating a standoff among the three parties.
After Bai Mo ceased suppressing himself, both the "Azure Dragon" and "White Tiger" tacitly acknowledged the presence of this formidable being, whose perceptive abilities were no less than their own. The Spirit Qi resources at the mountain peak were ample; there was no need for a life-and-death struggle.
With a Spirit Qi concentration nearly five times that at the foot of the mountain, the Spirit Stones here must certainly be of much higher quality than the samples his mentor had casually collected below. So, he quickly gathered all the surrounding Spirit Stones.
If his hiking backpack hadn't already been packed to the brim, Bai Mo likely wouldn't have stopped. Carrying an extra hundred catties was no big deal for him.
After accomplishing his primary objective for climbing the mountain, he began to seize the opportunity to absorb Spirit Qi. The Spirit Qi concentration at the peak was excessively high; even the concentration obtained from daily heating of Spirit Stones for Qi cultivation was only one-fifth of what was available here.
The two beasts and one human became engrossed in the feast of Spirit Qi. However, while they remained in their caves, Bai Mo simply sat cross-legged on the ground. Thus, half a day slipped by.
After continuously absorbing high-concentration Spirit Qi for half a day, he felt an ineffable, profound sensation. His overall understanding of this world seemed to have deepened by another layer.
When he used his eyes' ability to perform introspection on himself, Bai Mo discovered that his perceptual accuracy had again improved. He could now "see" some of the internal operations of cells..