As the mist got closer to his body, it slowly started changing from being gentle and almost invisible, to a thick tree demonic looking tree root that seemed to be connected to the strange tree structure.
During all of this happening, Xuan Hao did not notice the large root that had suddenly appeared in front of him and was instead still staring towards the strange tree structure with an increasingly helpless expression on his face.
Ten meters, five meters, three meters, slowly the tree root closed the distance and was soon no more than two meters away from reaching him!
However, just at this moment, the small flame symbol located between his brows suddenly lit up. Followed by this, a blue flame covered his entire body-
"Hm? Ah!?"
Swish-!
Instantly waking him up from the state of helplessness that he had been trapped in. Allowing him to just barely escape from the tree root before it could reach him. Even if he had no clue what the tree root was, he had still instinctively felt the danger of it touching him, thus resulting in the almost instantaneous escape the moment he had recovered.
Whoosh~
Following Xuan Hao escaping into the distance, the tree root that had manifested from the gentle mist dispersed back into gentle mist that was soon absorbed into the strange tree structure. Returning everything back to normal, like nothing had happened in the first place.
"…"
Feeling a shiver run down his spine as he looked back towards the strange tree structure in the distance, Xuan Hao felt could felt a sense of fear that he had never experienced before. The feeling of being trapped in the feeling of helplessness without even realizing that he had been trapped, was not something he wanted to experience again.
If not for the fact that the small flame imprint had suddenly activated and freed him from the weird trance he had entered, he would not even have realized that he had been trapped and would be at the mercy of the tree root!
"What was that just now…?" Muttering this to himself as he slowly calmed down, Xuan Hao could not help wondering just what the strange tree had done to him.
A soul-based attack?
Thinking about this, Xuan Hao realized that this would be the only thing that made sense. After all, for something to affect his emotions, it would first have to be something that was targeted at his soul. The only problem was that he had never sensed something happening to his soul, let alone being affected by some sort of attack!
From this alone, it became clear that the strange tree structure was far more terrifying than just a simple shrine left behind by the people who had once lived on the Main Star Peak in the past.
As for what would have happened to him if the tree root had managed to reach him, Xuan Hao didn't dare think about this, but… From ancient records and other historical texts that he had gone through in the past, the most logical conclusion would be some sort of ancient spirit killing his soul and taking control of his body!
However, techniques like this had a critical flaw… And that was the fact that it would be close to impossible to succeed if the opponent was already aware of what was happening, as the other party would be able to keep an eye on their own emotions and notice any abnormality that might occur.
Of course, to do this in the first place, it was still required for someone to at least have reached the Peak of the Core Formation Realm, as having developed a divine sense was the minimum requirement.
Knowing this, Xuan Hao cautiously began to approach the strange tree structure to see if the strange mist and the tree root was going to appear again. Ready to react the moment he felt a change in his emotions.
"Nothing…?"
However, to his disappointment and relief, the strange tree root did not appear to try and attack him again. Instead, the strange tree remained quiet without anything happening. Even when he felt his confidence increase and tried to touch the strange tree, nothing happened.
If not for the fact that he had personally witnessed the strange mist and tree root, he would have thought there was nothing wrong with the strange structure, outside of the fact that it was invisible to his divine sense.
Did it get scared off by the flame imprint?
Knowing that there had to be a reason for the strange mist hiding away and not daring to attack him again, Xuan Hao could not help touching the flame imprint between his brows. From the looks of it, other than saving him earlier, it had also ended up scaring the strange tree from attacking him again.
Ching~
Boom-!
Trying to launch an attack to see if he could force the strange tree to act, Xuan Hao was left speechless after seeing his sword attack bounce off the strange tree before flying into the distance and destroying a small hill a few thousand meters away.
"This…"
Even if he had not used all of his strength in the attack just now, it would have been more than enough to kill someone who had undergone a single tribulation in the Soul Ascension Realm!
Maybe I should just leave it alone for now. My strength is clearly too weak to do anything to it at the moment…
Knowing that he would not be able to force the strange mist from earlier to appear, Xuan Hao could only give up on trying to find out more about the strange tree for now and explore the rest of the Main Star Peak. Maybe, if he was lucky, he might have a chance to encounter a strange tree that was in a far more damaged state than the two he had encountered so far. At the very least, this way, he should be able to properly examine it and figure out more about the strange mist from earlier.
…
At the same time Xuan Hao resumed searching through the Main Star Peak without the use of his divine sense, Chu Yang and Qing Yi were hiding beneath a large mushroom more than a dozen meters tall.
""…""
Both of them did not dare to say a single word as they looked fearfully towards a large mouse demon beast busy searching for something beneath a similarly large mushroom. No, they were not looking towards the large mouse demon beast, but instead the large shadow that had appeared on top the large mushroom in the distance.
Even if they could not clearly sense the strength of the large shadowy figure on top of the mushroom, they had still instinctively felt how dangerous it was. In the end, this was what had caused both of them to immediately hide.
Squeeeak!
Havin found what it was searching for, the mouse demon beast excitedly jumped around filled with joy, completely oblivious to the large shadow that had slowly started descending down towards it from the top of the mushroom cap.
"A Transcendent Grade Spirit Shroom Root!?"
However, just as the large shadowy figure was about to reach the unsuspecting mouse demon beast below, Qing Yi ended up exclaiming loudly with a shocked expression on her face. Having discovered how precious the spiritual herb that the mouse demon beast had found was.
Not to mention the Star Shattering Sect, even when considering the Sky Empire, Transcendent Grade Spiritual Herbs were nowhere to be found. The only reason Qing Yi recognized the Spirit Shroom Root, was because it was a common spiritual herb that could be found in different grades, all the way down to the Mortal Grade that was considered one of the most common spiritual herbs used for practicing beginner alchemy potions and pill.
For this reason, Qing Yi could not stop help herself from showing a shocked expression on her face after realizing that the spiritual her that the mouse demon beast had dug up was actually a legendary transcendent grade spiritual herb.
Squeak!? Squeaaaak-!
However, the sudden exclamation from Qing Yi, allowed the mouse demon beast to realize that there were others around-
Swish-!
Thud~
Allowing it to just narrowly avoid the fangs of the shadowy figure that had been preparing to ambush it. Resulting in the fangs penetrating the rocky ground instead of the mouse.
Following the shadowy figure landing on the ground, this allowed both Chu Yang and Qing Yi to see the true form of the shadow figure.
"This-"
"A spider!?"
Indeed, the identity of the shadowy figure lurking above was a giant spider demon beast, that was easily the size of the large mushroom caps of the trees around them!
What's more… It seemed like the earlier exclamation from Qing Yi, that had ended up scaring the mouse demon beast into running away, had caught the attention of the large spider demon beast...