True strength is the foundation for equal dialogue.
Lu Wen understood this principle. He gathered his inner strength and with a wave of his hand, his fist unleashed a gale that howled through the air.
The old herbalist, witnessing this power firsthand, was stunned.
Such a punch would have severely injured a tiger. Unconsciously, he became even more respectful.
Only then did Lu Wen ask if there were any stories or legends in the Miao village.
The old herbalist made a living collecting herbs around the village and was interested in these stories and legends.
Behind these stories and legends might lie a dangerous place or a blessed land, possibly containing deadly ghosts, ferocious beasts, or poisonous creatures, but also potentially valuable medicinal herbs.
"There's not much to say about the county defense line, but there are more legends in the deep mountains. There are stories of tigers and black bears around the Miao village."
After introducing the stories surrounding the Miao village, the old herbalist seemed to remember something: "There's an Old Bear Ridge in the deep mountains, with treacherous terrain and wild beasts everywhere. Legend has it that a Corpse King sleeps within a bottle-shaped mountain there, and when it wakes up, it will bring disaster."
Hearing this, Lu Wen finally had a guess about this world: "So it's the 'Grave Robbers' universe, specifically the '怒睛湘西' storyline? This world has supernatural phenomena, but why can't I sense any supernatural energy in the environment?"
This puzzled him, but having a guess about the world, Lu Wen also knew how to proceed.
He sensed the Phoenix-Breed '怒睛' Rooster in the cage and didn't detect any supernatural power.
Saying farewell to the old herbalist, Lu Wen thought as he walked, "The Bottle Mountain was a treasure land for emperors of past dynasties, used for alchemy and refining pills. There must be a lot of good things inside."
"However, by now, the medicinal and poisonous energies have accumulated, the palace building is occupied by poisonous insects, and due to years of neglect, in the original story, both the卸岭 and 搬山 tomb raiding factions had to expend a lot of effort to enter the palace."
"But I'm different. The things inside the Bottle Mountain palace are nothing but a mere trifle for me."
Thinking this, Lu Wen directly headed towards the direction of the Bottle Mountain, as indicated by the old herbalist.
After leaving the Miao village, he opened his personal space.
Yui Kusanagi and the other women were all cultivating in their designated spaces. Seeing Lu Wen, they understood that they had arrived in a new world.
Yui Kusanagi asked, "Lu Wen-kun, what kind of world is this?"
"This is the Warlord era in 20th Century China. There are monsters in certain special environments. Is anyone interested?" Lu Wen said.
"Monsters!" The women were terrified, but also full of curiosity.
Nanri Kyou asked, "Are these monsters strong?"
Lu Wen thought back to the plot: "The monsters that exist in this world aren't too strong, but the monsters that exist in the background of the setting are pretty powerful."
Like the '怒睛湘西' storyline they were experiencing, whether it was the feral cat monster at the beginning or the six-winged centipede and Corpse King in the Bottle Mountain, even ordinary people could deal with them if they mastered certain skills, so how strong could they be?
But the snake god in the setting was a conceptual being, its power was beyond words.
The women were all intrigued. They stepped out of their personal space, ready to see the monsters of this world.
Traveling through the deep mountains and forests was difficult. Lu Wen was thinking about preparing transportation and casually summoned two teams of twenty Yin Spirit warriors.
He then took out a paper sedan chair that he had prepared in advance, infused it with energy to amplify it, and controlled the two teams of Yin Spirit warriors to carry the sedan.
Lu Wen and the women sat in the sedan chair, and with a thought, he controlled the Yin Spirit warriors to lift the sedan chair into the air.
Soul bodies can naturally fly, but now having Yin Spirit warriors carry the sedan chair and fly requires Lu Wen to continuously provide energy.
In this world, there's no supernatural energy in the surrounding environment, so ordinary supernatural beings need to carefully plan their energy consumption.
Lu Wen, who had a generator providing energy, didn't have to worry about energy restoration, so he could use such a luxurious means of transportation in this world.
The speed of the Yin Spirit warriors carrying the sedan chair wasn't fast, but it was much faster than traveling through the jungle, and it was more comfortable.
Looking at the endless green forest in front of them, with the natural breath coming at them, Lu Wen and the women felt like they were in a green ocean, their minds relaxed and their bodies eased.
In Lu Wen's perception, the life force of the forest below was strong, with many animals living within it.
After flying in the sky for half an hour, Lu Wen saw a mountain shaped like a bottle in the distance.
Traveling through the mountains and forests, from the Miao village to here, it would take at least a day.
But Lu Wen was flying in a straight line, so it was much faster.
Landing on a cliff, the Bottle Mountain was right in front of them. The misty clouds veiled the mountain, half-hidden and half-exposed. At a glance, it felt like a heavenly abode.
The women also marveled at the wonders of nature.
But Lu Wen furrowed his brows. He sensed that the Bottle Mountain was full of Yin Qi and killing Qi.
There was also spiritual energy, but it was very weak, almost negligible.
These supernatural energies were all confined to the vicinity of the Bottle Mountain and didn't spread outwards.
"What's going on?" Lu Wen was very puzzled. He guessed, "Could this be a true apocalyptic world, where these supernatural energies only appear in geomantic treasure lands and are also confined to the corresponding geomantic treasure lands?"
But this was just his guess, the exact reason remained unclear, but this didn't hinder Lu Wen's actions.
The Yuan Dynasty tomb on the top of the Bottle Mountain, Lu Wen wasn't originally interested in it. In the original story, it only contained some gold and silver jewelry and a Corpse King.
But he suddenly realized, "I've been arrogant again, taking the original story as the standard answer. This is a real world, the tomb on top of the mountain might have something good in it."
However, remembering that when searching for the tomb on top of the mountain in the original story, the Bottle Mountain collapsed, causing numerous casualties, Lu Wen decided to explore the palace beneath the cliff first before dealing with the tomb on top of the mountain.
Lu Wen waved his hand and summoned ten teams of Yin Spirit warriors, flying down the cliff to the ground with a light footstep.
Sunlight couldn't penetrate the valley bottom. As they descended, the temperature gradually dropped.
When they reached the valley bottom, even though it was daytime, the light was somewhat dim.
Lu Wen's sharp senses picked up rustling sounds around him.
Thinking about all the arm-long poisonous centipedes around him, Lu Wen felt a little creeped out.
But he was also a little curious, what did Hong Qigong's deep-fried centipedes taste like in the martial arts world of '射雕英雄传'?
He took out a few flashlights and illuminated the bottom of this canyon.
They were standing on top of a pile of roof tiles. Not far away, there was a large hole, and through the light, they could see wooden structures within it.
"There are such buildings at the bottom of this cliff valley? It's hard to imagine how ancient people built them," Mami exclaimed.
Lu Wen chuckled, "How was it built? It was built by piling up human lives, of course."
In this deep mountain forest, at the bottom of a hundred-meter cliff, even if there were other convenient paths, to build such a massive palace building would require unimaginable resources and manpower.