"Senior brother!? Senior Sister!?"
Walking through the poisonous devil tree forest covered in devil bugs from head to toe, the young boy could not help exclaiming in surprise upon discovering his senior brother and sister in the process of harvesting the leaves of a mature poisonous devil tree in the distance.
Out of all the things he expected to encounter while passing through the poisonous devil tree forest, the last thing he expected was to encounter his senior brother and sister in the process of harvesting the mature poisonous devil leaves!
"Junior brother!?"
Hearing him calling out, the young boy's senior sister who was focused on gathering the mature poisonous devil leaves turned around as she looked towards her junior brother who had appeared out of thin air over an hour after they had begun the slow process of gathering the mature poisonous devil leaves without using their cultivation base.
"Huh? Junior brother really appeared!?"
Not lacking too far behind the young boy's senior sister, his senior brother also turned around and looked towards him filled with disbelief.
It was obvious from first glance that both of them had not expected to see him again. Especially considering that it had already been over an hour since they had lost sight of him.
"Hehe. Looks at both of you, be careful not to lose focus in case you end up alerting the devil bugs!" Chuckling to himself as he entered the mature poisonous devil trees sphere of influence and felt all the devil bugs on him escaping, the young boy could not help feeling happy after seeing his two seniors once again.
"You... You are not even the slightest bit scared of the devil bugs anymore, what on earth happened to you over this last hour...?"
Picking up on just how different the behaviour of her junior brother was compared to when she had last seen him, the senior sister could not help asking this as a curious expression appeared on her face.
"Well... It's a long story, I will tell you about it after we get out of here..."
Knowing that it was not suitable for them to stay inside the poisonous devil tree for any longer than necessary, the young boy soon began helping his two seniors with gathering the mature poisonous devil leaves before all three of them finished taking the last of the poisonous devil leaves-
Rustle~!
Rustle~!
Rustle~!
Resulting in the devil bugs outside the sphere of influence created by the mature poisonous devil tree to swarm inside and cover all three of them over the next few seconds. Unfortunately for them, the mature poisonous devil leaves did not help with warding off the devil bugs after they had been taken off the poisonous devil tree...
"Let's get out of here..."
""...""
Followed by the suggestion of the senior sister who could barely open her mouth to say this, the young boy and his senior brother both nodded their heads together before the group of three all began making their way out of the poisonous devil tree forest together.
...
"I'm not ever going to return to this place...!"
Looking back towards the poisonous devil trees behind him as he said this, Xuan Hao vowed to himself to never try and enter the inner region of the Great Poison Swamp again. At least not before he had enough strength to enter the inner region without having to get covered by the devil bugs...
Turning his attention away from the poisonous devil trees, Xuan Hao utilized his divine sense to its full potential as it spread out all around him-
Whoosh~!
Although it was still limited due to the miasma of the Great Poison Swamp, Xuan Hao had managed to negate most of the restraining effect that the miasma had on his divine sense after he realized that the miasma was created by a plant closely related to the Dao of Corruption.
It looks like I managed to get out on the other side of the Great Poison Swamp...
As his divine sense reflect the situation close to a hundred miles around him, Xuan Hao did not take long to figure out where he was from the different cultivators exploring the Great Poison Swamp all around him... But at the same time, Xuan Hao was taken aback by the sheer number of people wandering around inside the Great Poison Swamp looking for poisonous spiritual herbs or rare poisonous insects.
Even if he had already expected for there to be a lot of people inside the Great Poison Swamp, the number of people cautiously moving around inside the Great Poison Swamp was far beyond any expectations he had.
Not to mention the fact that most of these people exploring the dangerous Great Poison Swamp were actually not even in Core Formation Realm!
Hm? Poisonous Life Lotus? A chance to become the personal disciple of a Peak Domain Lord Realm Expert?
After focusing his attention towards the many weaker cultivators who had only reached the Foundation Establishment Realm searching through the Great Poison Swamp, Xuan Hao did not take long to figure out why they had all entered a dangerous place like the Great Poison Swamp.
Apparently, one of the Peak Domain Lords in the Sky Empire had announced that he would owe anyone who could bring him a Poisonous Life Lotus a favour. Even promising to take in the person who brought him the Poisonous Life Lotus as a personal disciple if they wanted
Among the people searching for the Poisonous Life Lotus, there was even rumours about the Peak Domain Lord Realm Expert ensuring that they would be able to reach the Domain Lord Realm!
"Lord of the Jade Crystal Palace? Interesting..." Figuring out the name of the Peak Domain Lord Realm Expert, Xuan Hao could not help feeling curious as he recalled the information recorded about him in the book Yi Min had given to him.
The Lord of the Jade Crystal Palace, one of the few Peak Domain Lord Realm Experts inside the Sky Empire and by far the oldest among them. From what little information that was accessible, it was obvious that the Lord of the Jade Crystal Palace could be considered one of the strongest people in the Sky Empire.
The Jade Crystal Palace that he was in charge of was the largest merchant organisations inside the Sky Empire and it was even noted that the Jade Crystal Palace itself was a part of a far larger merchant organisation that operated across the entire continent in a similar way as the Explorer Union. The only difference between the two was the fact that one focused on exploring unknown regions of the continent, while the other was solely focused on trading all kinds of spiritual treasures and precious artifacts.
With all of this in mind, Xuan Hao could not help feeling even more curious about the Poisonous Life Lotus that the Lord of the Jade Crystal Palace was searching for. After all, given that even someone like the Lord of the Jade Crystal Palace who was connected to a massive merchant group that had spread across the entire continent in a similar way as the Explorer Union, it was obvious that the Poisonous Life Lotus was incredibly hard to find...
Even Xuan Hao who had managed to gain a deep understanding of all sorts of different spiritual herbs with the help of the system, had no idea what kind of spiritual herb the Poisonous Life Lotus was!
Only after using his divine sense to scan over the description of it carried by the horde of Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators who had entered the Great Poison Swamp did he manage to understand what the Poisonous Life Lotus looked like.
"It should be located somewhere in the core region of the Great Poison Swamp..." Muttering this to himself after doing a quick sweep of his surroundings while looking for the Poisonous Life Lotus that all the Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators were searching for, Xuan Hao quickly concluded that the Poisonous Life Lotus should be somewhere inside the core region of the Great Poison Swamp... Not a place that these Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators would dare enter with their strength!
Swish~!
Not wasting any time as he began to leave the Great Poison Swamp, Xuan Hao didn't even think about entering the core region of the Great Poison Swamp to search for the Poison Life Lotus.
Not to mention the fact that he had no idea what use the spiritual herb had, he would also risk running into the terrifying creature from the ancient sect ruins that was possibly inside the core region of the Great Poison Swamp at the moment!
Even if he was lucky and the terrifying creature had not entered the core region of the Great Poison Swamp, Xuan Hao did not want to risk running into the group of Soul Ascension Realm Experts that were undoubtably not too far away from the half dead Soul Ascension Realm Expert he had met... Well... Considering they had managed to escape alive...