Understanding just how weird the current situation was, Xuan Hao decided to hide himself with his domain before slowly proceeding through the core region of the Great Poison Swamp.
Even if there was no way for him to hide with his domain from a demon beast that had reached the Soul Ascension Realm. At the very least, it should allow him to sense the other party when he got found. Allowing him a short time to prepare himself.
Whoosh~!
Making sure that he was fully prepared for a fight at any moment, Xuan Hao continued forward while keeping an eye out for any poisonous demon beasts or insects that might still be around inside the core region of the Great Poison Swamp-
"Hm?"
Even then, Xuan Hao did not have to wait for long before he encountered a poisonous demon beast...
"Its... Dead...?"
The only problem, was that the poisonous demon beast in question, was already dead!
Not only dead, but its blood has been drained and in a similar fashion as to how a demonic cultivator would drain the cultivation base of their opponents after defeating them.
"So... I might not be dealing with a poisonous demon beast, but a demonic cultivator that is proficient in draining the cultivation base of demon beasts?" Muttering this to himself as he gazed down at the dead poisonous demon beast in front of him, Xuan Hao could not help feeling that this matter was getting far more complicated than he had originally signed up for.
Not to mention, dealing with a demonic cultivation that had reached the demonic cultivations equivalent of the Soul Ascension Realm, the True Demon Realm, would be far harder compared to a Soul Ascension Realm poisonous demon beast. The main reason for this being the fact that demonic cultivators were by far the hardest to kill, Xuan Hao had experienced this first-hand when fighting with a demonic cultivation in the Third Demonic Transformation Realm not too long ago...
Maybe there might even be a group of powerful True Demon Realm Experts working together on something inside the core region of the Great Poison Swamp...
"Haa..."
Letting out a sigh as he thought about this, Xuan Hao contemplated whether or not to just turn around now and leave before he ended up getting involved in something troublesome-
BOOOOM-!
However, before Xuan Hao had managed to make up his mind on whether or not to proceed on his path through the Great Poison Swamp at the risk of possibly encountering more than one demon cultivation in the True Demon Realm, a loud explosion filled with a power that made a shiver run down his spine echoed out behind him.
"This... Looks like I won't be able to turn around anymore..."
Feeling the strength behind the explosion far surpassed the Domain Lord Realm, Xuan Hao could not help smiling wryly as he felt the sound of fighting in the distance growing closer and closer to his current location.
If he didn't move anytime soon, let alone leaving the Great Poison Swamp to avoid a troublesome situation, he would soon be forced to join the battle against his will!
Normally, Xuan Hao would not mind getting an opportunity to fight with someone in the Soul Ascension Realm... But from what he could sense, the number of people who had surpassed the Domain Lord Realm fighting in the distance was far more than one or two people, a closer estimate would be between 5 or 6 people in the Soul Ascension Realm all fighting with each other!
No matter how eager Xuan Hao was to test his newfound strength, there was no way he would join in on such a troublesome situation that almost certainly involved Soul Ascension Realm Experts from the Sky Empire!
I have to leave this place!
Whoosh-!
Not wasting any time after coming to a decision, Xuan Hao quickly used all his strength to escape in the opposite direction of the fighting, while at the same time doing his best to not get spotted by the people who were busy fighting in the distance.
Even then... Given that Xuan Hao couldn't use the Drifting Cloud Steps due to the strange restrictive force inside the miasma, his speed was far lower than normal and it would only be a matter of time before the battle in the distance caught up to him.
At this point, the only thing Xuan Hao could hope for was that the people battling it out would not be moving in the exact same direction as himself!
...
"Even knowing that these devil bugs won't do anything to me if I don't do anything wrong. Forcefully sealing all my qi inside my dantian is far more difficult than I expected... At least the Poisonous Devil Leaves over there should be good enough and we should soon be able to leave this place!"
At the same time Xuan Hao was trying his best to avoid getting involved in the terrifying battle taking place behind him, the junior sister among the three youths could not help muttering this to herself as she looked towards the poisonous devil tree not too far away from herself and her senior brother's current location.
Different from the normal poisonous devil trees, the one that the junior sister was referring was far more colourful and was far larger than the rest of the poisonous devil trees around. Not just that, but the leaves of the tree were also slowly creating a thin hazy green mist that kept the devil bugs away. Allowing one to see the rare sight of a poisonous devil tree that was not completely covered in devil bugs.
"Indeed... It looks like this is a mature poisonous devil tree that is ready to have its leaves harvested..." Standing not too far away from her, the senior brother nodded his head happily before making his way towards the mature poisonous devil tree.
Rustle~!
Rustle~!
Rustle~!
Soon enough, both the junior sister and the senior brother reached the mature poisonous devil tree, as both of them happily watched as the devil bugs covering their bodies left and returned to the still immature poisonous devil trees around them.
"Ah! Finally able to escape from those bugs!"
"Haha, indeed! Let's wait here for a bit to recover before harvesting the leaves!"
Filled with happiness, the two quickly laid down to relax from the stress of having a seemingly endless number of insects crawling all over their bodies for what seemed like an eternity.
Although both of them had managed to stay calm to the point of being able to talk with each other, there was no way they could remain completely unaffected by the insects covering their body. Especially considering that both of them were still young.
However, the most difficult thing for them to deal with, was stopping any of their qi from leaving their dantian!
The moment even a sliver of qi left their dantian, the devil bugs covering their bodies would sense it and would attack them and with their strength at the Core Formation Realm, there was no way for them to resist for more than a few seconds before getting killed.
Then again, the only reason they would be able to resist for such a long period of time, was because the strength of the devil bugs would increase depending on the opponent that they faced.
The limit to the strength of a nest of devil bugs covering a single poisonous devil tree had enough strength to fight equally with someone in the Peak of the Core Formation Realm.
As for the limit of the massive devil bug nest that covered the forest of poisonous devil trees that made up the border between the inner and outer region of the Great Poison Swamp...? That limit had not been found yet, but it was at the very least somewhere in the Soul Ascension Realm or above considering a Soul Ascension Realm had died facing the massive nest of devil bugs...
Below the mature poisonous devil tree. Not only would they be able to not worry about the devil bugs crawling all over them, but they could also relax the restriction on the qi inside their dantian, as the mature poisonous devil tree helped obscure their qi from the devil bugs outside.
Although it did not allow them to fully undo the restrictions they had put in place, it was at a level that they could easily keep in place. Allowing them to partially recover and prepare themselves for the trip back after they harvested the poisonous devil leaves.
"By the way, I haven't seen junior brother for quite some time, do you think that-"
"He should have left ahead of us. After all, he should understand that he had no way to continue given his state of mind. Even if he wants to become a core disciple, there is no way he would be dumb enough to lose his life over it!"
Interrupting the junior sister as she said this while looking back towards the location they had come from, the senior brother quickly shot her down. Not wanting something affecting his junior sister or his own current state of mind when they still had to get back outside safely without getting killed by the devil bugs.
"..."
Not saying any more after hearing what her senior brother said, the junior sister just gazed in the direction that they had come from with a sad expression on her face.
Even without any of them saying anything, she understood very well that her junior brother would not be one to give up... And given that he had not appeared yet, it was obvious what had happened to him...