Valley of a Thousand Mountain Peaks

My mind was at peace. For a moment.Then I heard a whoosh and a squeak, and an instant later the little fox was gone while its Soul remained behind.I slowly turned my head and saw some kind of bird of prey disappearing in the distance, the body of the little guy gripped tightly in its talons.The warm feeling in my heart froze over in an instant and my gaze hardened. I turned back to the campfire and just stared into the flames.[This game sucks…] I murmured. Something at the back of my mind kept telling me it was not a game, it was real, but I didn't really care. If it was a game it would have surely received some negative reviews for that encounter alone. Life was really cruel like that sometimes. I knew that, heck, I was the one being cruel sometimes, but moments like that really put things into perspective.In the eyes of some, I was that little fox. I was the prey. A tasty morsel. In the eyes of the old ancestor, we all were but pawns to do his bidding.I didn't like it. I had to get stronger.Closing my eyes and taking a deep breath, I restarted my Qi vortex. I sucked in all the surrounding Qi as my stores still weren't completely full despite absorbing it for an entire day. I was barely over half!Luckily flying took close to no energy, but at the same time, it wasn't the best practice for recharging it either. Base Qi was lazy and moved slowly. It needed some time to get pulled into the body, so when I was flying around at a significant fraction of the speed of sound, I passed by most of it.The night was still young but I didn't feel like moving. I just stayed near the fire, my eyes closed, and meditated. The sounds of nightlife came from all around me, small critters scurrying around, nocturnal animals battling each other for the scraps of food in the semi-desert, yet none of them dared approach anymore.I guess the feeling I was giving off wasn't exactly inviting. Animals were often good at reading the room like that. I wished more humans were like them. A lot of them were just so clueless sometimes.While deep in meditation, time went by quickly and the first light of day came. Everything was quiet around me, with no sign of nocturnal struggle.I dusted off my clothes and rose to the sky, heading east.As I flew for some time, the warm morning sun heating up my body, I noticed a very slight increase in Qi. Before, when flying in circles, I didn't notice this particularity, but it was definitely there. Every ten kilometers or so, the density increased by 1%. It was a rough guess, of course, but the number felt right.It was difficult to tell when the changes were so gradual. I continued flying, slowly at first, then faster and faster. The energy expenditure was so minimal, a Mortal could do it. Well, they could float for a few seconds until they ran out of Qi, but that didn't matter.The fact was that becoming weightless was way too easy for what it allowed you to do. But clearly, that was only the case when there was a low density of Qi in the environment.I thought about it a lot and became convinced it was the Qi density in the area that strengthened space, making it harder to manipulate. It wasn't the spells of stronger Cultivators. It was the excess energy they were spewing out everywhere. Space, like every other thing out there, could be reinforced with Qi. Simple as that.***As I continued east for a few hours, I realized the increase in energy wasn't uniform. Just like the shape of the land changed below me, so did the density of Qi. But overall, it was still slowly increasing.Soon I reached the general area I was dropped in, and I noticed the disturbance in the sky. Where the wormhole opened, space was all messed up. It was rigid and messy, appearing like a three-dimensional scar in the sky. Of course, that was only visible to my Spirit Senses. Normal vision couldn't detect it.It was clear that the crack was healing, I just wondered how long it would take. My guess was from a few weeks to a few months. While it was closed, the scar remained, and it was improving at a snail's pace.Leaving the shattered sky behind me, I flew further east. The land was getting good. I could already stay in one spot for almost fifteen minutes before the Qi there would be exhausted. That was a 50% increase from the land near the desert. Progress!But anyway, the forest beneath me began to thin out after a while as I continued my journey to the east, and the land gave way to a fascinating natural formation. Hundreds, thousands of stone mountains, or better yet, pillars, thin, straight, and full of foliage, rose to the sky.I believe some people called them the Avatar Mountains back home. It must have taken tens of thousands of years for it to naturally form and it was for sure one of the most beautiful landscapes on the planet. Top five at least.And it was not a small landmark either. After flying around for a while, exploring the place and whatnot, I came to realize it must have been at least as big as the area controlled by the Myriad Beasts Sect, if not even larger.The place also had many levels. It was not a uniform plane. Little crevices and sheer cliffs were everywhere. Plant life was abundant there, and with that realization, I noticed the Qi inside the valleys was much denser than the outside air. I dropped down into the misty jungle and took a deep breath of the fresh aromatic air full of Qi.It was as if something held it in place down there, not letting it escape elsewhere. Very peculiar. And if I had to roughly guess, I would say I could spend 30 minutes and up to an hour Cultivating in there before needing to move. Because the Qi density inside was drastically increased compared to the surrounding land, though it still varied and some places had more than others.As I walked around, the Qi shifted slowly, yet some pillars attracted more of it than others, creating small pockets of abundance.The place was also teeming with life. I had yet to see something big, but small birds, lizards, and especially monkeys were everywhere. They were feasting on all kinds of fruits that grew on the vines over sheer cliffs, and they didn't seem too concerned with being loud, screaming their lungs out as they ate.The white mist that snaked through the valley gave the place an ethereal look, even more than the natural formations already did. It was the perfect place to relax a tired mind, and I was almost sad I would have to leave it behind.But then I realized… Why should I leave?There was no rush. The war in the Sect was over and the only thing I really cared about, my few friends, were fine. While I did consider the Myriad Beasts Sect my home, it was more of a default choice than a conscious one. I mean, I was there for three years, but so what? That was but a blink of an eye in a Cultivator's lifespan.I was decently strong already, certainly enough to travel the world, so considering I didn't even know where home was, why hurry? I could take some time to grow into my power, it didn't matter if I was safely at home or exploring the unknown, my Dantian needed time to grow and expand. Also, considering I was alone in the wilderness, I could hunt and fight as much as my heart desired.Not to mention all the natural treasures I could find. I could already see some plants I recognized from the infinite knowledge my mind contained. They weren't all that valuable by any stretch, maybe up to a few dozen Spirit Stone Shards each, but considering the amount, the Avatar Mountains probably contained tens of thousands of Spirit Stones worth of herbs and rare alchemy reagents alone.I had barely just seen a tiny fraction of it, yet wealth was everywhere, just there for the taking. Not to mention any possible beasts that were sure to have made their home in such a fantastic place. Their cores would be worth a mountain of gold. Or Spirit Stones, in this case.[Maybe I should take a little vacation.] I murmured to myself as I examined a particularly large leaf of a plant I was certain was used in the creation of a burn-healing poultice. It wasn't worth much for one such as me, but gathering thousands of them would certainly add up. And I had an entire storage ring empty and waiting to be filled.***Shortly, I came to a decision. I would explore the wonders of the Avatar Mountains for a few weeks, see what secrets they hold, and then gather the most valuable things before moving on. When playing video games, RPG's mostly, I always had that impulse to loot everything. While I didn't need 99% of the things I collected, it was great seeing numbers go up, and if I was ever in need of money, I could just turn my treasure trove into cold hard cash.Ultimately, in reality, my limited storage didn't allow for such a nondiscriminatory looting plan. Trash had to be left behind, unfortunately. That's why scouting out the place was mandatory. To fully explore would probably take years, but I doubted the place could keep my attention for so long. Still, it was worth giving it a look. I couldn't wait what treasures I would find.