Annoying.
What was he supposed to do about this?
Cars kept driving past, and pedestrians came and went around him.
Su Mu sat on the bench, looking rather glum.
Ding!
Just then, Su Mu's phone vibrated, and a message caught his eye.
"An @everyone?"
Su Mu opened his phone and saw that it was the Foundation Establishment Group he had joined earlier. The group owner had tagged everyone.
"Further training tomorrow! Sign up if you want to come!"
"That kid Qingshan was really lucky last time. He even found a ginseng root there and sold it for tens of thousands!"
Ginseng?!
Su Mu's heart gave a jolt when he saw that message.
It wasn't that he thought he could go there and find ginseng himself.
He had remembered what Xiao Wu had told him before: medicinal herbs would generally grow where spiritual power gathered.
Judging by what the other person meant, it should have been wild mountain ginseng. And if it could sell for tens of thousands, it was probably quite old.
Then wouldn't the spiritual power there be very dense?
Thinking again about how the other person had said he was aiming for Foundation Establishment, the possibility that this place contained spiritual power became even greater.
Su Mu instantly perked up.
"Um, big shots, I'd like to go for some further training too."
He was now just one step from crossing the threshold. As long as this place had sufficient spiritual power, he could fully reach minor accomplishment.
According to the cultivation method's instructions, reaching minor accomplishment would grant some additional abilities and effects.
Su Mu was quite eager to find out just what those abilities and effects would be.
Su Mu rarely spoke up in the group, but when the group owner saw that he wanted to join, he cheerfully agreed.
After a final headcount, five people were going in total.
The group had twenty-nine members to begin with. Having five people go was quite a lot, proportionally speaking.
The group owner personally added Su Mu as a friend, then sent him a location and told him to arrive punctually at eleven tomorrow to meet up.
After replying that he had received it, Su Mu checked the location. It wasn't exactly close; the high-speed train ride would take four hours.
Seeing this, Su Mu checked the train tickets. If he got up to catch the train tomorrow, he would still make it in time.
After booking his ticket, Su Mu went home and packed. All he really did was put a few changes of clothes in his bag, so he could simply carry it with him tomorrow.
With all that done, he only needed to set an alarm.
The next day, after his alarm rang, Su Mu washed up, had breakfast by the roadside, and timed his arrival at the station. He boarded the train without trouble and found his window seat.
The high-speed train ride was rather boring. After sitting for a little while, Su Mu hesitated, then tried cultivating.
Soon, Su Mu entered a meditative state.
Once in meditation, Su Mu emptied his mind completely, and his breathing grew extremely slow and deep. Although he couldn't sense the slightest trace of spiritual power around him, he could mobilize the little spiritual power within his body and circulate it along the cultivation method's route from before.
As his spiritual power began circulating little by little, Su Mu's expression grew increasingly serene.
Su Mu wasn't afraid of being disturbed while cultivating now.
Only after he began cultivating did Su Mu discover that he had already committed the cultivation method's circulation route to memory. Even if someone disturbed him, it wouldn't cause Qi Deviation.
Su Mu had been meditating for a little over two hours when he suddenly felt someone touch him.
He opened his eyes and saw a young woman beside him, looking at him apologetically.
"What's wrong?"
Su Mu stopped cultivating and asked in puzzlement.
"Um, I can't get my suitcase up there. Sorry for the trouble, but could you give me a hand?"
The woman looked rather apologetic. Hearing her, Su Mu glanced at the suitcase she was holding, nodded lightly, and stood to help lift it onto the overhead luggage rack.
Yet the woman beside him now had a rather odd look in her eyes.
When she had called out to Su Mu just now, her first impression had been that he seemed to possess a slightly captivating air.
But after he woke up, that feeling had vanished.
Thinking about it now, perhaps it had been her imagination.
What happened on the train was only a minor interlude. Seeing that it was nearly time, Su Mu didn't dare meditate again, lest he miss his stop.
Meanwhile, the people in the group had already exchanged hundreds of messages.
Su Mu glanced through them and noticed that they seemed to have mentioned cultivation. He immediately perked up and began lurking behind his screen.
But after reading for a while, Su Mu found that they hadn't said much, only giving some very simple descriptions.
Qingyi said that her cultivation lately had left her feeling considerably more clearheaded and refreshed.
Judging by what the other person said, she should have been a woman.
Someone else said they hadn't sensed the slightest trace of Qi.
After reading for quite some time, Su Mu still couldn't make heads or tails of it. Seeing that the train had arrived, he picked up his bag and got off.
The meeting point was just outside the high-speed railway station.
Following the location he had been given, Su Mu found the group members without trouble in the parking lot at the east plaza.
The group owner at their head was a middle-aged man who looked rather refined. Another was a thin, frail-looking man in glasses, who appeared to be about 1.8 meters tall.
Another person had a somewhat dark complexion, though it was unclear whether he had been tanned by the sun, and looked quite mature.
Then there was a young woman wearing shorts that revealed her slender, lovely legs.
It seemed this group really did encompass quite a variety of people.
"You're Qingyuan, right?"
The group owner walked over, looked Su Mu up and down, and asked to confirm.
Qingyuan was Su Mu's nickname in the group, and he immediately nodded.
The group owner smiled at this. "This is Xiao Guan, and this is Wu You. Don't let his dark skin and older looks fool you. He's actually only twenty-seven, though he looks like he's in his thirties."
The group owner introduced the two men beside him to Su Mu.
Hearing this, Su Mu reached out and shook hands with both of them, saying hello.
"And this is the only girl joining us this time, Ming Lan."
The group owner then introduced the last person, the woman with the rather lovely figure.
This time, Su Mu didn't offer his hand, merely nodding lightly to her.
"All right, introductions are done. Let's get going. I imagine you're getting impatient too?"
The group owner chuckled and called everyone into the car.
Only then did Su Mu notice that the vehicle the group owner was getting into was actually the minivan beside them.
Su Mu didn't know much about cars, but after making a rough estimate, he was slightly startled. This car must cost over a million!
Was the group owner actually a rich guy?
"Looks like you didn't bring any food, but that's all right. We've stocked a little over there, though it isn't very good. The food during our training won't be great. You don't mind, do you?"
As he drove, the group owner asked Su Mu.
Su Mu shook his head to show he didn't mind, looking rather expectant. "Anything will do for food. I'm more curious about where we'll be cultivating. Is it a good place?"
Hearing this, the group owner immediately chuckled, and the others started laughing too.
"Don't worry. Once you get there, you'll definitely be very satisfied."
Seeing their expressions, a trace of anticipation rose in Su Mu's heart as well. From the looks of it, he really could look forward to this.
Whether he could cross the threshold in his cultivation method would all come down to this trip!