Running along the paved stone path as he did his best to not make too much sound, the young boy could not help feeling a shiver run down his spine upon spotting several large shadowy figures a few dozen meters away from him through the mist.
Thump! Thump Thump!
Listening to the loud footsteps as these large shadowy figures moved slowly through the miasma, the young boy had unknowingly come to a stop, as he fearfully observed the large shadowy figures slowly disappearing back into the miasma again.
"They are moving in the direction of the room I came in from…?" Muttering this to himself as he realized the direction of the large shadowy figures, the young boy felt even more anxious and quickly began moving in the opposite direction of the shadowy figures once again.
In the back of his mind, he had a feeling that if he did not manage to leave the ancient ruins he now found himself inside of, he would soon have to face the shadowy figures that had just passed by him!
Even if the shadowy figures had not attacked him or even turned around to look towards him, it had to be know that the young boy could very clearly feel a terrifying aura far stronger than even the dead demon beasts he had encountered when he had been teleported to the core region of the Great Poison!
No matter what, he was not dumb enough to believe that he would be able to fight with these shadowy figures just because he had managed to avoid getting detected by them. For all he knew, the reason he had managed to escape, could be because the shadowy figures simply didn't care about him at the moment. After all, there would really be no way for him to escape if they were as strong as he believed them to be from what he had sensed so far…
Whoosh~
Increasing his speed as he decided to take a risk of not being as quite as before, the young boy was excited to discover that the shadowy figures walking past him still ignored him.
Whoosh-!
Knowing that he would not get attacked by the shadowy figures along the path, the young boy quickly increased his speed even further before going as fast as his current cultivation base and movement technique could handle.
"This miasma is receding!"
Continuing along the paved stone path for a few minutes like this while ignoring all of the shadowy figures moving past him, the young boy could not help smiling excitedly after realizing that the miasma around him had slowly started to grow thinner.
At this point in time, he could already see over a dozen meters around him without any difficulties. Allowing him to see some of the ancient buildings located on the side of the massive road he was moving along-
"This… What in the world are those things!?" Unconsciously slowing down as he fearfully muttered this to himself, the young boy could not help shivering fearful while looking towards the tall shadowy figures.
After the miasma grew thinner. Not only did he grow capable of seeing more of his surroundings, but he also grew capable of seeing through some of the shadowy mist that covered the over three-meter-tall figures moving in the opposite direction of himself.
Different from what he expected, what was hidden beneath the shadowy mist in the shape of a three-meter-tall humanoid figure was not a puppet or golem like he had first expected, but was instead a mass of different coloured snakes that had been gathered together into the shape of a three meter tall humanoid figure!
Not only this, but each of the snakes gave off an aura comparable to Elder Proud Bear… Of course, the individual aura of these snakes was not what shocked the young boy the most. Instead, it was the fact that the aura seemed to combine together and gathered the power of the mass of snakes together!
"…"
Even if the young boy had seen quite a lot before, he had no idea how to react to the reality behind the powerful shadowy figures…
At first, he had been scared by what he saw… But after some time, he grew confused as he looked at the shadowy snake humanoid… puppets? Golems? Eh… Snake people…? Moving past him.
Part of him began to wonder where the snakes were moving, as he felt himself suddenly wanting to turn back and see what the snakes were up to-
"Hm?"
However, this dangerous thought was quickly purged the moment he felt his vision suddenly darkening again before feeling a familiar weakness spreading through his entire body.
"The poison from the miasma!? It's only been a little over 10 minutes! It should have at least lasted for one to two hours!"
Quickly taking out another detoxification pill before swallowing it, the young boy no longer thought about finding out what the snakes were up to, as he continued along the paved stone road with a clear look of desperation on his face.
Given how large of an area the ancient sect ruin covered, the young boy understood very well just how difficult it was for him to leave with the little over half an hour of time he had left with the remaining three detoxification pills.
For this reason alone, he even started increasing his speed beyond his own limit. Not caring much about the backlash he would inevitably end up suffering because of this. After all, if he could not make it out in time before he ran out of detoxification pills, he would not just suffer a backlash, he would die!
…
"Hm?"
Opening his eyes still surrounded by thick miasma, Xuan Hao could not help showing a surprised expression on his face after feeling that his injuries had all been completely healed in less than half an hour.
Originally, he had thought it would at least take him an hour to recover from the injuries he had received, but when he started healing his injuries, he discovered that the nascent sword soul inside his dantian could actually help speed up the process by acting as a weaker second soul. Allowing him to heal more than one injury at a time!
Even if it was far slower compared to him doing it himself, it had still allowed him to recover almost twice as fast as he originally thought he would due to it taking care of the more easy to handle injuries…
"Now… To figure out where I am…" Looking around himself as he quietly said this, Xuan Hao could not help narrowing his eyes upon discovering that the miasma around him had actually grown far thinner compared to before.
If he could only cover an area of a few dozen meters around him before. Now he could easily cover an area of over a thousand meters with his divine sense! Allowing Xuan Hao to get a better grasp of his surroundings.
Not too far away from where he had been recovering, Xuan Hao discovered that the swampy ground came to an end before a purplish green plain began.
"Purple Poison Grass…?"
Seeing the purple green grass, Xuan Hao instantly managed to find out the name of the grass growing in front of him from the information he had been given by the system when he became an Artisan Alchemist.
According to this information, the Purple Poison Grass was not only a rare kind of spiritual herb used in all sorts of poisonous potions and pills, but it could only be found in small patches covering a few dozen meters.
But… In front of him was an entire plain filled with Purple Poison Grass!
Even without knowing how large this plain was due to the miasma still preventing his divine sense from expanding more than a few thousand meters around him, it was simply unimaginable how much the Purple Poison Grass in front of him was worth!
"…"
Feeling something, he had never felt before when he looked towards the Purple Poison Grass that was just sitting there free for the taking, Xuan Hao took out an empty interspatial ring before spreading out his domain to cover the beginning of the Purple Poison Plain in the distance.
Whoosh-!
Whoosh-!
Whoosh-!
Soon enough, a small river of Purple Poison Grass formed mid-air before flowing towards Xuan Hao and entering the empty interspatial ring that was now floating in the air in front of him.
"Ah… I still need to figure out where I am!"
Feeling that the interspatial ring floating in front of him had been completely filled up with the Purple Poison Grass, Xuan Hao quickly put it away before turning his attention back towards his current situation.
Even if he had saved some time on recovering, he could not waste too much time waiting around in case the Soul Ascension Realm Experts that had chased after him showed up. Although… Collecting a few tons of Purple Poison Grass that would be useful for Qing Yi and the alchemists of the Star Shattering Sect wouldn't hurt anyone…