Sage had already picked out a few locations for his first treasure hunting foray. Technically he was still part of the exploration expedition so he wasn’t permitted to just wander off whenever he wished. He could wait for the expedition to end before heading out to treasure hunt, but they were scheduled to be out here another couple more months. The other problem was that they were quite some distance from the Sect grounds and if he wanted to come out here again later it would be quite the voyage. He certainly didn’t have clearance to take one of the Sect’s Flying Ships out by himself, nor would he be able to afford such a thing anytime in the near future. The Sect itself only owned a few Flying Ships, and they were the ones most people came to in order to purchase them! Although the Sect itself only owned a few, the Peak Masters and many of the Elders had their own Flying Tool and Treasures, the Flying Ships were simply too large and expensive to be in wide circulation. Most large Sects would only have one, using it as a symbol of their might. Only the wealthiest of Clans and Powers would use them on a personal level, but a few dozen were used for long distance travel and shipping.

Deciding to make use of the expedition, Sage focused on stocking up on food supplies for a few days. When he was earning his badge as a 1 Star Chef he had taken advantage of tips and tricks he’d seen on cooking shows from back on Earth. While taste and technique were important, the ‘Chefs’ here gained badges based on the rank of beasts they were able to prepare effectively. Spirit Animals, Plants and Demonic Beasts had bodies far stronger than regular Cultivators and their meat was inundated with energy and nourishment. If they were prepared properly they would have special effects upon those who ate them, strengthening their muscles, enhancing the function of their internal organs, and some even had unique functions. That said, a ‘Chef’ Cultivator only needed to make the prepared foods bestow their effects. Most of them cared little about taste, texture, smell, or presentation like a mundane Chef did.

While Sage wasn’t much when it came to culinary skills he was able to include a few tricks that were uncommon among Cultivator Chefs and brought along far more spices than the norm in order to make his meals that much better than the usual. For example, his preparation at this time was centered around using a Flash Freezing technique from modern day earth. Pre-cooking the ingredients for the dishes and then rapidly freezing them individually. Afterwards he could combine the frozen goods into smaller packages that merely needed to be heated up. Just like the frozen food isle. I wonder if I can capitalize on TV dinners in this world?

Sage’s lower body undulated rapidly. His entire lower body was that of a huge snake, slithering through the underbrush and appearing to glide over the top of the mud. Not having to step in the mud and get his boots waterlogged happened to be one of the fringe benefits of his transformation. His vision and sense of smell had also been vastly improved, but in return his sense of hearing was a bit worse. After showing the Elders and Disciples how simple it was to warm up the meals he’d prepared for them, they gave him clearance to head out for a few days. He had used the excuse that he wished to collect and study the local Insect populations, and given no one else had the slightest interest in such a field, they allowed him some time. It wasn’t like they couldn’t make their own meals, but why take along a Chef if he wasn’t going to cook for them?

From his calculations, the first point of interest he was going to look into was only a few hours away. It was a location that the map indicated as ‘Soul Training Grounds’. The name was pretty vague and there was no telling whether anything was still there after so long, but he wouldn’t know until he gave it a look.

There was a large rock formation off in the distance that he was using as a reference to match up the modern and ancient map and according to his calculations he was nearing the right area. The gnarled yellow vegetation and murky violet swamp water were still striking to look at, even in spite of how gloomy and overgrown this place was. Up ahead, a purple fog rose off from the violet waters, an ominous sight that he’d been staring at for the last hour as he grew ever closer. Only now did he finally reach the edge of where the fog began to thicken and block his vision. It was only now that he was closer did he have the right angle to see that the purple fog was rising up over what seemed to be a lake. The thick mud and yellowed grass gave way to more of the violet water. What had been muddy creeks, streams, and small rivers now became a quite large body of water. If the lake was as large as the fog cover, that meant the lake spanned at least five miles across.

Before leaving he’d got the most recent map of the area, the one that the Inner Court Disciples were creating in this expeditions, and confirmed that the ‘Soul Training Grounds’ was smack dab in the center of where they’d indicated a large lake. One team of Disciples had been in this area previously and had walked the outer edge of the lake before diving in. They had turned back after encountering swarms of huge mosquitoes flying out of the fog. The mosquitoes were the size of a fist and said to be only rank 1, but they traveled in great number and so were troublesome to deal with. Yikes. Mosquitoes strong enough to kill normal people? Horrible.

The main reason Sage decided to follow up on this lead was that the Inner Court Disciples also mentioned a white flower that was growing up out of the roots of the trees and moss at the bank of the lake. Now that he’d arrived he noticed the white flowers and gave a nod. They were the White Ghost Flower, a parasitic Spirit Plant that sapped the energy of other plants and usually grew in places with strong Yin nature. A place with many ghosts and spirits would gradually become saturated with cold and darkness, a place heavy with Yin. Sage had made the guess that if the white flowers were in fact the White Ghost Flower than there was a good chance that something remained of the ‘Soul Training Grounds’.

Examining the shore, Sage saw nothing of interest and he also knew that the Inner Court Disciples from before had already explored the edge of the whole lake and found nothing. That meant the Soul Training Grounds either no longer existed, was hidden very well, or it was somewhere in the lake. Since he only had a few days he didn’t have time to do a careful and thorough search around the edge of the Lake. Nobody had swam out to the center of the Lake, so Sage hoped that he could find some clues along the way. If not he’d have to try his luck and swim down to the bottom for a look around.

As his serpentine form slid out into the murky water, Sage tried to keep calm. He wasn’t looking forward to meeting a swarm of giant mosquitoes, but he was banking on his scaly hybrid beast body to provide him with protection and deter the bugs. Can mosquitoes bite between scales?

His body was slithering through the water in a corkscrew manner when he noticed something buzzing over. Gathering his Qi, he was ready to use a bit of flame, hoping it would work to roast off their wings just like it did on normal size mosquitoes back on Earth. Fortunately, it wasn’t a swarm of mosquitoes. Instead it was a huge dragonfly, easily five feet long with even larger wings. Its multifaceted eyes made it hard to see where it was looking, but Sage felt like it was sizing him up. Sage gauged its aura and found it near the peak of rank 2, a level 29 compared to his 32. After a few moments it turned away, its flight path taking it away from Sage. Just as he thought it would move far enough into the fog to leave his view, he was astounded to see a swarm of mosquitoes. With a furious chitter, the Dragonfly smashed into their disorganized flying formation and caught one of the mosquitoes right on the neck behind its head and bit it near clean in half. Holding the spindly body of the dead mosquito in its arms it flew after the others even as it bit into its captured prey.

Dragonflies are savage. Maybe I should catch a few…