31: Chapter 31 Supplies and Departure from Taihe Mountain

When Chen Mo got out of the car in the suburban industrial zone, a box truck was already parked on the side of the road waiting.

The truck door bore the logo of a grain and oil wholesale market; the driver was leaning in the driver's seat scrolling through his phone, only poking his head out when he saw someone approaching to state the recipient's name and the last digits of the order number.

After verifying it was correct, he pulled open the rear cargo door of the truck.

Five hundred kilograms of peanut oil, divided into one hundred plastic barrels, five kilograms per barrel, were neatly stacked on four wooden pallets.

The plastic barrels were semi-transparent, and one could see the golden yellow color of the oil inside.

One ton of glucose powder, divided into forty cardboard boxes, twenty-five kilograms per box, contained independently sealed moisture-proof aluminum foil bags, stacked on another six pallets.

Beside them were also two sacks of edible salt and various seasonings.

Chen Mo scanned the code to pay the balance and nodded to the driver.

He had the driver take him along to move the supplies back home.

After arriving home, Chen Mo unloaded the supplies and placed them in the backyard.

Calculated based on the current consumption of thirty to forty thousand calories per day, this batch of oil and sugar totaled about eight million calories, which theoretically could support him for over two hundred days.

But the consumption rate is dynamically increasing—the higher the punch force, the greater the training intensity, and the more calories burned each day.

Conservatively estimated, this supply of provisions, taking into account the accelerated consumption, is still enough to maintain three to four months of closed-door bitter cultivation.

Three to four months of uninterrupted training.

Based on the previous speed of a net increase of sixty to seventy kilograms of punch force per day, after leaving the training environment of the Deep Pool, the growth rate should decrease somewhat.

He tidied up the things.

He took a shower, changed into clean clothes, sat in the Main Hall, opened his notebook, turned to a blank page, and began to write the plan for the next phase.

First was the research conclusion regarding Spiritual Qi and the next observation plan.

The exploration of the Shennong Mountain Range had already proven that Spiritual Qi is evenly distributed on a macro scale, and there are no "Grotto-Heaven" style enrichment zones.

Neither plants nor animals showed obvious mutations, nor were there any organisms found that could actively absorb spirit energy particles.

The next place to go, Taihe Mountain, was the last target to be verified—if the thousand-year-old Daoist temple where the Quanzhen Sect is located also had no special characteristics, then it could be basically concluded that those claims of "Qi sensation" and "Meridians" in the Cultivation Technique classics were not based on real Spiritual Qi, but were purely constructed from philosophy and health-preservation experience.

The second plan was that he could start preparing in advance; it was expected that in about a month, the world would discover that human bodies were becoming better and stronger, chronic diseases were recovering, and plants and animals were growing at an accelerated rate.

And he also needed to hide himself while observing the changes in this world, looking for whether there was any way to actively absorb spirit energy particles.

The third plan was his Standing Post training, which also needed to continue to be developed; now he could already control half of the muscles on his body simultaneously to perform antagonistic training.

After writing the plan, the time had already passed 11:00 PM.

This was the first night after returning from the Shennong Mountain Range; there was no roar of the waterfall, no water pressure from the Deep Pool, and no roaring of wild beasts.

But that sense of tranquility brought back from the ancient forest was still there, and the vastness that poured into his chest while looking up at the starry sky from the hundred-meter cliff top was still there.

The next morning, Chen Mo got up early.

After a simple breakfast, he called a car in the town, and the destination was Taihe Mountain.

The car ride from home to the foot of Taihe Mountain took more than three hours.

Taihe Mountain is the premier mountain of Daoism and the ancestral home of the Quanzhen Sect, with swarms of pilgrims and tourists every year.

Chen Mo leaned against the seat, his eyes calmly watching the mountain shadows passing by outside the window.

He was not going to Taihe Mountain for tourism.

There was still one unresolved question—the Secret Manual for the Cultivation Technique.

Would those Internal Skill Mind-Cultivation Techniques that had been passed down for hundreds or thousands of years have a different manifestation in a thousand-year-old Daoist temple like Taihe Mountain?

Would those Daoist priests who meditated and practiced all year round have undergone any changes under the nourishment of Spiritual Qi?

At 9:00 AM, the car stopped at the parking lot at the foot of Taihe Mountain.

Chen Mo pushed open the car door and looked up.

Taihe Mountain was steeper than he had imagined.

The whole mountain looked like a giant sword stuck upside down, rising straight up from the flat ground, with everything above the mountainside cut off by thick clouds and mist, making it impossible to see the outline of the summit.

The entrance at the foot of the mountain was noisy, with tourists queuing to pass through the turnstiles, tour guides holding flags and using loudspeakers to greet their groups, and vendors selling incense candles and souvenirs hawking along the road.

Chen Mo bought a ticket at the ticket office, passed through the turnstile, and walked up along the mountain climbing stone steps.

He walked up, measuring the mountain step by step with his own feet, perceiving the concentration of Spiritual Qi at every point along the way.

The mountain climbing stone steps were about two meters wide, flanked by stone railings mottled with moss.

The stone steps wound up along the mountain, and every so often there was a resting platform with stone benches and small stalls selling water.

Chen Mo moved upward at a jogging pace; his speed was a notch faster than the average tourist, but he kept it within a range that would not attract attention.

A young man with an SLR camera next to him saw him run past, froze for a moment, muttered "This stamina is just too good," and then raised his camera to continue shooting the clouds and mist in the distance.

Chen Mo ignored him.

All his attention was focused on perception—his ability was continuously operating, sensing the existence and concentration of spirit energy particles in the surrounding air.

From the foot of the mountain to the mountainside, there was no change in the concentration of Spiritual Qi.

It was the same as the mountain behind his house, the same as the core area of the Shennong Mountain Range, and the same as every other place in the outside world.

The sun gradually rose higher, the clouds and mist were thinned a little by the sunlight, and the Golden Summit of Taihe Mountain above his head appeared and disappeared in the gaps of the clouds.

Chen Mo maintained a constant speed, and the stone steps under his feet were like a gray belt continuously extending upward.

He would stop after walking for a distance; on the surface, he was looking at the scenery or drinking water, but in reality, he was pausing to perceive the distribution of Spiritual Qi around him.

Every time he stopped, the information fed back was exactly the same—uniform.

The concentration of Spiritual Qi also had no fluctuations.

Two hours later, he arrived at the Golden Summit of Taihe Mountain.

The Golden Summit was a relatively flat terrace, with a bronze-cast golden hall standing in the center, and the roof of the hall shimmered with a dull golden light under the sunlight.

The bronze hall was surrounded by a circle of stone railings, and outside the stone railings was an abyss; clouds and mist surged up from the valley, and at the edge of the stone railings, they were torn by the wind into wisps of white air currents, floating toward the sky.

Standing at the edge of the Golden Summit and looking down, the sea of clouds was vast, and he could see nothing; only occasionally, through the gaps in the clouds torn open by the wind, could he vaguely see the villages and roads below the mountain, as small as markers on a map.

There were not many tourists on the Golden Summit, scattered sparsely around the stone railings taking pictures.

At the entrance of the bronze hall, two Daoist priests were sitting on prayer mats, with a Karma donation box and a bamboo stick tube in front of them; their expressions were calm, and half-burned incense was inserted in the incense burner.

Chen Mo walked to the stone railing, leaned his back against it, closed his eyes, and expanded his perception to the maximum range.

Golden Summit.

No Spiritual Qi gathering.

Inside the bronze hall, none.

On the cliff wall below the stone railing, none.

The Spiritual Qi concentration in the entire Golden Summit area was exactly the same as at the foot of the mountain.

He opened his eyes and stood by the stone railing for a moment.

Just as expected.

Spiritual Qi does not favor any place.

It is evenly sprinkled on every inch of land on Earth, whether it is a virgin forest or a thousand-year-old Daoist temple, whether it is a deep valley rarely visited by humans or a mountain top with prosperous incense.

He stayed at the Golden Summit for a quarter of an hour, then turned around and walked down the same way he came.