The First Cultivator - Changing Existence

Skymender began to comb through every foot of the hundred mile by hundred mile area. He knew exactly what the flower looked like, and with its distinctive red color, it would be hard to miss it unless he wanted to. He moved quickly, not wanting to spend more time here than necessary.

However, it was not easy to cover such a large area thoroughly. Luckily, he could ignore the mountains, as the flower would not grow on anything but soil. He could narrow it down further, but did not dare to without certainty.

Days passed without finding anything, but he was not discouraged. It was already a long shot to come here. Although the conditions to grow the flower were so perfect that it would be hard to believe there wouldn't be one, that didn't mean he would find it.

It could have not grown yet, or grown long ago and either died or been picked by someone.

Weeks passed as Skymender moved back and forth, sometimes on horseback, or sometimes running. Finally three months passed. Skymender moved past an area near a mountain, not finding anything unusual, when a vibration revealed a petal on the ground in the distance. Although he saw with vibrations, he could still see color, even if slightly more bland.

That only made the brightly colored red petal on the ground, which should have been blander, stand out that much more. Skymender instantly bolted towards it.

As he got closer, he could sense something underground. The vibrations were a bit distorted for some reason, but he could sense a red flower.

Skymenders shock and urgency could not be described as he took his sword out of his sheath and began to carve into the ground. He had never expected the flower to be underground, and had not brought anything to dig with.

As he dug, he thought about his luck. Nobody else besides him could possibly find this flower. It was tens of feet underground, to where even he could barely sense it. Combine that with the strange interference occurring near the flower, he would not have spotted it had it not been for the petal that had somehow made it to the surface.

Despite everything lining up, and Skymender being confident that nobody understood the flower on such a deep and personal level as him, he had truly expected that, even if he had found where it had been, someone else would have picked it.

Both the Emperor and the Ruler had mysterious methods of gathering information that he could not understand. It was to the point it did not follow logic.

However, the flower was here, and there was no one to take it away from him, either now or in the past.

It was difficult to dig deep with a sword, but Skymender's endurance was among the top in the world. At one point, even his strength was at the level of a rank one Sword Master. Unfortunately, not physically pushing himself for an extended amount of time caused his strength to wane. Still, it was quite impressive.

Skymender spent three hours straight digging, pushing himself as far as he could, before he finally poked into the spherical space that contained the flower.

He could instantly tell that it was the flower itself that was obstructing his sense of vibrations. Skymender did not immediately pick the flower, but observed it. Seeing it in this state, it seemed stronger, more full of life. Perhaps it was not that it was still in the ground, but that it was younger, older, or an even stronger variant.

Skymender hesitated, but decided that it would be worth it to find out.

If he could gain a greater understanding of the flower, he would receive extremely valuable knowledge, knowledge so valuable that a price could not be put on it.

He pushed all the dirt he had dug up back into the hole, erasing any traces of his existence, before leaving.

He took his horse, and traveling as fast as he could, made it back to the Empire's city.

He did not alert anyone of his presence, but grabbed his tools, which he had not used in a while. Among them were cauldrons, testing devices, and a few other advanced tools made over the years. Some had been developed by others, while some had been created by him, many for the sole purpose of experimenting with the flower.

He then left the same day, not waiting a moment. The travel time was long, but he made it back within a reasonable amount of time.

He looked around, but everything had remained untouched. Skymender dug once again. It was easier this time due to the dirt being loosened by him.

In just an hour, he uncovered the flower. It was just as strong as before.

Skymender began to conduct experiments. He first meditated near the flower, sensing his body. After an hour, he noticed the pull that the flower had on him.

He had tried this same test with the flower provided by the Emperor, but had not felt a thing. This time, he was able to notice that although very slight, the flower was devouring a bit of his life force.

This proved that this flower was better than the other one, though he was unsure why.

Next, Skymender began to measure many things around the flower. This included the air pressure, the ground's firmness, the ground's composition, and the air quality. He also dug around the flower, finding the end of its roots.

Despite it having normal roots for a flower, Skymender could not help but feel it had a longer, unseeable connection with its surroundings.

After all, he did not know if this area had naturally been so barren and wasted, or if the flower had caused it. If the flower had caused it, how long had it taken? It would be fine if it was a thousand, or perhaps even a few hundred years. However, if it could cause this level of damage within a hundred years, it was extremely dangerous to allow it to exist anywhere.