Thump~
Coming to a stop a short distance away from the Poisonous Devil Trees covered in Devil Bugs while thinking about the method that Yi Min had told him to safely pass through the border that had been formed, Xuan Hao could not help feeling a bit nervous as he watched the Devil Bugs crawling all over the Poisonous Devil Trees in front of him.
The thought of killing them never crossed his mind after personally seeing them and feeling how weak they were compared to himself, as he understood that they would be impossible to kill. Even for someone in the Soul Ascension Realm Expert according to what Yi Min had told him.
Not to mention that attacking the Devil Bugs would not do anything other than provoking them for no reason and making it impossible to enter the inner region of the Great Poison Swamp… And that was considering that he would be able to escape from the Devil Bugs after attacking them!
"Haa…"
Taking a deep breath as he thought about this, Xuan Hao calmed down before taking a step forward and entering the small layer of Poisonous Devil Trees separating the outer region of the Great Poison Swamp from the inner region.
During this process, he moved at a slow pace and made sure to ignore the countless Devil Bugs that ended up crawling up his legs and all over his body.
From what Yi Min had told him about passing through this place, the most important thing was to ignore the Devil Bugs no matter what. Even when they crawled all over his body, he had to ignore them unless he wanted them to attack him.
After leaving the thin layer of Poisonous Devil Trees where they lived, they would leave his body on their own.
"…"
Even then, Xuan Hao found it difficult to ignore the countless Devil Bugs that crawled all over his body.
The outside!
After spending close to half an hour slowly walking through the thin layer of Poisonous Devil Trees like this, Xuan Hao could not help happily exclaiming inside his head when he saw the row of Poisonous Devil Trees coming to an end.
Rustle~!
Stepping outside only a few seconds later, Xuan Hao could not help being filled with relief after feeling the countless Devil Bugs all over his body quickly leaving and rushing back towards the Poisonous Devil Trees again.
Even if the Devil Bugs didn't hurt him, it was not a pleasant sensation to have them crawling all over his body. If possible, he wanted to avoid something like that happening again… But then again, he still had to pass through the border of Poisonous trees one more time if he wanted to leave the Great Poison Swamp…
"I'm really not looking forward to that…" Shaking his head as he said this while looking back towards the Poisonous trees and the Devil Bugs behind him, Xuan Hao turned towards the inner region of the Great Poison Swamp that spread out before him.
Different from the outer region of the Great Poison Swamp where the strongest poisonous demon beast and insect would at most have the strength to kill someone below the Domain Lord Realm, the creatures found inside the inner region were far more dangerous.
Not to mention the fact a normal Early Stage Domain Lord between the First and Third Stage of the Domain Lord Realm would end up dead if not careful. Even someone who had reached the Peak of the Domain Lord Realm might die if they happened to get bitten by some of the most dangerous insects inside the inner region of the Great Poison Swamp!
Of course, with a domain to scan the area around them, it was unlikely to get bitten by any of these insects unless they had developed a way to hide from the powerful senses of someone in the Domain Lord Realm.
In the end, the main threat to Domain Lord Realm Experts came from the powerful poisonous demon beasts that could be found inside the inner region of the Great Poison Swamp. Although their poison was far weaker than the insects, their strength was already far stronger, with the most powerful ones even reaching the later stages of the Domain Lord Realm!
For some reason, although it was said that the Great Poison Swamp was the safest of the special places surrounding the large empty plain, it seemed far more dangerous compared to the Thousand Wind Mountains…
Could it be that the danger of the Great Poison Swamp only takes the outer region into account?
Smiling a bit wryly as he thought this to himself, Xuan Hao decided not to think about it any longer. In the first place, he had already decided to go through the Great Poison Swamp and it was not really like he would be in any danger against a few poisonous demon beasts in the Domain Lord Realm!
Whoosh~!
With that in mind, Xuan Hao began making his way deeper inside the inner region of the Great Poison Swamp. Intending to pass through the core of the place and have a quick look around to see if he could find any precious poisonous spiritual herbs before continuing on his way out of the Great Poison Swamp and towards the capital city of the Sky Empire.
…
BANG!
"Hmph! These demon beasts are getting more and more powerful the closer I get to the core of the Great Poison Swamp…
According to what Yi Min said, the number of poisonous demon beasts that has surpassed the Sixth Stage of the Domain Lord Realm and reached the Seventh Stage like this one should be extremely low, but I have already encountered three of them so far… And that is not mentioning the number of Domain Lord Realm poisonous demon beast below the Seventh Stage!"
Frowning as he looked down at the dead demon beasts beneath his feet, who's head he had just crushed with a massive hammer made from ice a second ago, Xuan Hao could not help narrowing both of his eyes as he felt the powerful aura belonging the Seventh Stage of the Domain Lord Realm still lingering around the dead demon beast.
Even if killing it had been rather simple with his current strength, Xuan Hao could not help feeling that something was wrong with the number of powerful poisonous demon beasts he had encountered so far.
Given what he understood of the Great Poison Swamp, he should still have quite a distance before reaching the most dangerous core of the Great Poison Swamp.
If the strength of the poisonous demon beasts continued to increase like they were, Xuan Hao felt that he might end up running into a poisonous demon beast that had reached the Soul Ascension Realm by the point he reached the core of the Great Poison Swamp!
No matter how confident Xuan Hao was in his strength, he didn't want to risk his life fighting against a demon beast in the Soul Ascension Realm… Much less in a dangerous location like the Great Poison Swamp, where he might end up bitten by some dangerous poisonous insect during combat!
"But then again… Turning around at this point in time would waste a lot of time and its not really like the rest of the special areas are in a much better state. In the worst-case scenario, I can always escape."
Shaking his head as he said this to himself while looking towards the core region of the Great Poison Swamp, Xuan Hao understood deep down that part of him was looking forward to encountering a Soul Ascension Realm demon beast.
After all, ever since his sword and ice domain had merged together and his strength had surpassed what could be considered the Domain Lord Realm, Xuan Hao had been looking forward to trying out his new strength.
The Soul Ascension Realm Expert he had encountered inside the Thousand Wind Mountains would be a good opponent, but the situation was not really ideal and he didn't want to risk exposing his current strength to the upper echelons of the Sky Empire as of now due to it possibly bringing unwanted attention to the Star Shattering Sect before it had enough strength to defend itself against the attack of someone in the Soul Ascension Realm without his or the Chaotic Qi Formations help.
"Encountering a Soul Ascension Realm demon beast really is the best option… Ah…" Unknowingly saying this out loud as he thought about what he might encounter when entering the core region of the Great Poison Swamp, Xuan Hao could not help smiling wryly before shaking his head and continuing towards the core region of the Great Poison Swamp.
Fighting a demon beast in the Soul Ascension Realm to test out his current strength really was the best possible option, as it wouldn't risk him exposing his strength to the powerful experts of the Sky Empire.
Not to mention, the strange restraining force engulfing the entire Great Poison Swamp didn't just prevent him from flying, but also kept the overall stability of the Great Poison Swamp and prevented it from getting destroyed by a fight between powerful experts.
Even if Yi Min had not told him anything about this, Xuan Hao had experienced it first-hand, when the strange restraining force inside the miasma forcefully dispelled the aftershocks of his attacks when fighting against the Domain Lord Realm demon beasts.
Although the strange restraining power did not lower the strength of his attacks towards his opponent, it did lower the damage to the surrounding swampland, which in turn made it far harder to sense that a battle was taking place from far away!