For the next few days, Bai Mo treated his time in Hawaii entirely as a vacation, rather than an investigation.
Every day, he either holed up in his hotel room cultivating Qi, or went to the beach to practice skin breathing. Occasionally, he would visit a supermarket to buy a mountain of food to combat the hunger pangs that arose after cultivating Qi.
Teaching someone whose instinct was to breathe through their nose to instead breathe through their skin was far more difficult than teaching a left-handed person to write with their right hand.
Yet, even with minimal results, he persisted in his practice, incrementally increasing his proficiency. Humans were truly peculiar creatures; it was like knowing the effort put into collecting a "Dedicated Fu" was entirely disproportionate to the few yuan gained, yet still diligently toiling away at it.
On the tenth day of his arrival in Hawaii, he discovered that, spurred by his ceaseless training and the stimulation of spirit qi, the two systems were combining faster than expected, already merging into an organic whole. This was a full half-month earlier than he had anticipated.
"I still have twenty days left, what should I do?" Bai Mo began to ponder. "There are really only two choices... either continue to coop myself up in the hotel, or go investigate at the foot of the volcano, as my mentor suggested."
"I only have six Spirit Stones left. If I continue to stay cooped up, they won't last much longer. I should go to the foot of the volcano first and collect some Spirit Stones to meet my future needs. According to my mentor, the kind of stones he marked at the foot of the volcano are easy to pick up, and their plain black appearance means no one would pay them any attention, so there's no fear of someone getting there first."
For secrecy, he directly asked the hotel staff to help him rent a car, then acquired a large rucksack filled with a complete set of wilderness survival gear. This was the convenient thing about capitalist countries: as long as there was demand, someone would prepare all sorts of wilderness equipment and deliver it right into your hands. The only issue was that it cost Bai Mo twice the usual price...
Weighing the rucksack in his hand, Bai Mo estimated that with the experimental equipment, it totaled around eighty jin. However, with his current physical prowess, carrying dozens of jin was like a normal person carrying a few jin worth of fish. The only potential problem was that its bulk might somewhat impede his movements.
After putting the experimental equipment into the pack, he tossed the rucksack onto the passenger seat of the rented SUV. Having the prior experience of needing to gorge himself after absorbing spirit qi, Bai Mo, to ensure no awkward situations arose, then had someone deliver enough provisions for two months for a normal person, stuffing them all into the back seat and the rear of the vehicle.
He knew clearly that relying on himself, with absolutely no wilderness hunting experience, to impulsively rush into a forest and always catch prey to sate his hunger, like the protagonists in the xuanhuan novels he usually read, was practically impossible if he ever encountered cultivation issues that led to ravenous hunger...
Even with physical qualities far superior to a normal person, hunting in the forest without experience or weapons would be extremely difficult. Animals, if they couldn't win, could always run... and the forest severely limited the speed of those unfamiliar with it.
After some calculations, he began his journey toward the destination.
The road he took was almost entirely desolate forest highway. He noticed that the closer he got to his destination, the higher the concentration of a certain familiar gas felt in the air. Halfway there, Bai Mo pulled the car over to the side of the road, got out, and meticulously examined his surroundings.
"This is actually spirit qi... Could this volcano possibly hide a Spirit Stone mine beneath it?! Or is it connected to a Grotto-Heaven and Blessed Land?" The moment Bai Mo realized the gradually increasing concentration belonged to spirit qi, his thoughts once again drifted to xuanhuan novels.
Ultimately, he was still just a student obsessed with novels; it was merely a coincidence that he enjoyed thinking, which was why he had studied physics.
"It seems I need to prepare for the possibility of dangerous animals appearing the closer I get to the volcano." Bai Mo was well aware that spirit qi had a significant catalyzing effect on biological evolution; he himself was the best example.
It was hardly surprising for spiritual beasts and demonic beasts to evolve in such a dense forest. Moreover, they generally hadn't yet evolved the intelligence to reason with humans; their minds were likely still completely dominated by the law of the jungle.
Bai Mo got back into the car, took out a small amount of compressed biscuits from his rucksack and stuffed them into his pants pocket, then fastened his military knife and water bottle to his waist, one on each side. After preparing for battle, he re-entered the vehicle.
He gripped the steering wheel tightly, ready for any sudden developments.
The SUV proceeded slowly. Bai Mo utilized his extraordinary vision to peer around, attempting to spot any clues, but the dense forest clearly severely obstructed his view.
Although his "through-sight eyes" had seen a significant increase in usage time after a round of body modification, they were still far from being usable at will, as the ability's use came at the cost of physical stamina.
Wasting stamina in a potentially dangerous place would naturally have dire consequences. Therefore, Bai Mo could only choose to conduct detailed scans in areas that felt highly suspicious but were obscured from his vision.
As expected, he soon sensed something strange: it was simply too quiet along the way, as if the entire forest had fallen asleep.
Within Bai Mo's perception, he found that the observable animals were either hiding in tree hollows or in burrows dug underground. Even the few animals that hadn't entered holes were concealed, and small creatures were nestled even beneath thick layers of withered branches and decaying leaves. Without exception, they had all fallen into a deep slumber.
Herbivorous animals often had large piles of plants around them, while carnivorous animals frequently had several carcasses of other creatures nearby. Some of these corpses bore bite marks, appearing incomplete and mangled.
Evidently, a rather brutal struggle had occurred earlier. Based on the number of carcasses he observed, and factoring in the proportion of carnivorous animals in the forest ecosystem, Bai Mo estimated that a quarter to a third of the animals in the forest were gone.
"It seems my timing for departure was rather good. I chose to leave after this bloody battle; if I had rushed to the volcano right after arriving in Hawaii, the trouble I'd have encountered would have been far greater."
He continued to think as he controlled the car's speed and direction, guiding the vehicle slowly along the path that seemed to slice through the forest, heading towards his destination.
But even with such eerie occurrences, he did not abandon his intention to go to the foot of the volcano.
Because, according to his estimation, as his "cultivation level" increased, his demand for Spirit Stones would very likely grow ever larger. The Spirit Stones he currently possessed would probably last him less than another month.
To ensure his dream of pursuing transcendent power could continue, he was determined to make the trip to the volcano, no matter what. In his heart, he had already prepared himself to hack through brambles and thorns.