Chapter 497 - The Herb Peak

There were many warehouses where the herbs were stored. This was a necessary part of the peak since most of the herbs took a long time to grow. Thus if they wanted a sufficient quantity and a stable supply, they needed to grow a lot of them at once.

Even the low grade spirit herbs needed few months to years to grow. While those that were of high grade would even need centuries to grow. Currently, the herbs that Lin Mu was seeing everywhere, were of either low grade or mid grade herbs.

These herbs were not as valuable as high grade herbs and did not have growth conditions that were as strict as those for the high grade herbs. The high grade herbs were grown in specific gardens that were well controlled by the elders of the peak.

As for the peak grade herbs, those were far too rare to be grown here. One could only chance upon them and not cultivate them. Though there were sometimes when a sect was able to grow a peak grade herb successfully. But any such instance was exceedingly rare, and repeating it would be taunting the heavens.

Not to mention the amount of time needed for a peak grade herb was far too much, often exceeding for a thousand years or more. Most cultivators were not even able to survive for that long.

Many plants had longer lifespans than animals. Even common trees could live for thousands of years if they never cultivated. Such was the blessing bestowed upon by the heavens, but in exchange, they did not have the movement or the intelligence that animals had.

Thus when these plants became spirit herbs and gained the ability to absorb spirit Qi, their aspects such as these were amplified further. Accordingly, they needed more spirit Qi the higher their grade was, because of which the higher the grade of the herb the further up they were grown on the Herb Peak.

Lin Mu was currently on the level where only the low grade herbs were grown. He could see a wide variety of flowers blooming along with herbs that had exquisite looking leaves and stems. Their colors so vibrant, that one could not help but admire them.

The aroma of herbs that spread in the air was ever-present and the closer Lin Mu got to the location of the warehouse, the stronger the aroma got. This just made it easier for him to find it. He continued on ahead and finally reached a large building, which had three floors.

There were of course, disciples present around it that were acting as guards. They had a sharp look in their eyes and vigilantly watched every one that passed. Whenever one needed to enter the building, they were stopped a hundred meters away from it and their identity badges were checked.

Only after they were verified would they be allowed to get closer. Then, when they actually entered the building, their badge would be scanned once again. Lin Mu carefully watched the entire process, including the part where the formation would get activated when checking the badges.

Lin Mu got closer to the warehouse while still underground and saw that there were multiple barriers surrounding it from all sides, including the ground below it. He checked the formation with his spirit sense and tried to find the nodes.

"Hmm… I should be able to resolve this if I get some time. I'll need to make a schedule after I confirm the locations of all vaults and warehouses." Lin Mu muttered to himself.

The warehouse in front of him only had low grade herbs in it, and even then the security was quite high. If he wanted to steal all the resources, he would have to sort out the formations protecting them beforehand.

'I should see the other warehouses as well. Then there is the vault at the very top too.' Lin Mu thought to himself.

The most important herbs were kept in the vault, which was personally under the protection of the peak master and elders. Accessing it was going to be the toughest part of Lin Mu's mission, not to mention there were a total of twelve that existed, of which Lin Mu needed to rob from at least four.

The herb peak had only one vault, which meant that Lin Mu definitely needed to rob this one. The Pill peak had two vaults and the main peak had three vaults instead, so Lin Mu would have the option for those peaks. Along with these, there were six storage pavilions in the entire sect.

Two of these were the warehouses that were located in the herb peak, then the two pill repositories in the pill peak and the final two treasure pavilions in the main peak. Lin Mu would have to carefully pick his targets or he would never be able to complete his mission successfully.

Lin Mu continued on ahead and reached the second warehouse. This one was located halfway up the peak and was smaller than the previous one, which was understandable since the mid grade herbs took a longer time to grow than the low grade ones.

Lin Mu checked the security, which was obviously better than the previous warehouse's.

"I will need more time to figure out the formations in this warehouse. If these are already this difficult, how will I open the vaults?" Lin Mu wondered to himself.

Lin Mu recorded the number of disciples guarding the warehouse as well as their patterns. Though there weren't many changes to it, as they mostly stayed in the same place for twelve hours. Before a different disciple would replace them. There wasn't even a lapse between the shift change as the second disciple would be here before the shift even began.

~Sigh~

"Let's just see the vault and then on to the next peak." Lin Mu muttered to himself, feeling a bit overwhelmed.

He continued on ahead to the top of the peak. This was where the peak master resided and the core disciples lived as well.