724 Extracting Poison, Refining Poison~

Turning his attention back towards the Great Poison Swamp, Xuan Hao observed a few different poisonous insects that were hiding in the trees and mud around the edges of the Great Poison Swamp.

Even if these poisonous insects were far too weak to pose a threat to him and the strongest among them could at most kill someone in the First Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm. Observing them still allowed Xuan Hao to get a better idea about which places would be best to avoid when he had to pass through the more dangerous parts of the Great Poison Swamp.

After all, the powerful poisonous insects that had poison strong enough to threaten someone in the Domain Lord Realm did not grow more intelligent after their poison had reached such a terrifying level. Instead, they behaved just like the poisonous insects with weaker poisons!

The only exception to this, was if the poisonous insect's cultivation realm had also increased like the strength of its poison. Although insects had an extremely low chance of getting more intelligent after their strength increased, the chance still existed!

However, considering that insects that managed to develop that level of intelligence was extremely rare to the degree that the number of such insects appearing inside the Great Poison Swamp over the years the years had not exceed ten, Xuan Hao was not really worried about encountering that kind of poisonous insect during his journey through the Great Poison Swamp.

Instead… The main thing he worried about, was the poisonous demon beasts that could be found inside the Great Poison Swamp!

Different from the poisonous insects that were far easier to predict and go around, the poisonous demon beasts inside the Great Poison Swamp did not only have extremely potent poison, but also had a cultivation base that made them deadly even without their poison!

In the deeper parts of the Great Poison Swamp, poisonous demon beasts reaching the Domain Lord Realm could be found… And if he wanted to pass through the Great Poison Swamp, he would inevitably have to pass through the deeper parts of the Great Poison Swamp.

At the very least, the strongest of the Domain Lord Realm poisonous demon beasts should only have reached the first few stages of the realm from what Yi Min had told him.

Of course this did not mean that stronger poisonous demon beasts didn't exist inside the deeper parts of the Great Poison Swamp, it just meant that they were extremely rare and hard to encounter.

"Well… With my current strength, I should be fine even if I encountered the more powerful poisonous insects or demon beasts…" Muttering this to himself as he gazed towards a small insect no bigger than a centimetre in length crawling up a small tree branch, Xuan Hao used his domain to catch the small insect before closely inspecting.

Ptsh!

Extracting the poison inside the small insects body. Killing the small insect in the process, Xuan Hao could not help looking towards the small drop of poison floating in front of him.

How can a tiny bit of this drop of poison kill someone in the Nascent Soul Realm? The poisonous insects of the Great Poison Swamp really are amazing in their own way, but… I wonder what would happen if I refined this drop of poison with alchemy…

Thinking this to himself, Xuan Hao took out a small cauldron he had been carrying with him in his interspatial ring before throwing the drop of poison inside of it. Not wanting to risk the drop of poison exploding during the refinement process and ending up on him.

Even if there was a good chance his domain would be able to stop it before this happened, Xuan Hao saw no need to take such a risk… And the small cauldron also had an effect that would help it more smoothly process poisonous materials like the drop of poison he had just extracted from the poisonous insect…

Fwoosh~

Carefully igniting a small flame, Xuan Hao carefully began to refine the drop of poison inside the caldron by slowly burning away the inherent impurities that were present inside of it.

The process of refining the poison and removing the impurities inside was an extremely precise process that would be hard for someone below the Artisan Alchemist Realm to do. Even Xuan Hao who was already an Artisan Alchemist found it hard to precisely burn away all the impurities inside of the drop of poison without accidentally destroying it or causing it to explode.

Whoosh!

"Success!"

Spending the next few minutes carefully removing the impurities from the drop of poison extracted from one of the poisonous insects, Xuan Hao could not help smiling upon seeing that he had successfully managed to remove the impurities from the drop of poison without causing any accidents or destroying the drop of poison in the process.

Well… Even if he ended up accidently ruining the drop of poison, there were more than enough poisonous insects around to get more poison from…

"I wonder how strong this poison is now…"

Carefully controlling the poison and having it float out from the cauldron so he could inspect it more closely, Xuan Hao could not help showing a surprised expression on his face the next second.

"This… It's actually strong enough to kill someone in the Fourth Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm!?"

Feeling shocked as he muttered this to himself while looking at the drop of poison that only had the ability to kill someone in the First Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm before the impurities inside of it was removed, Xuan Hao began to understand why so many people came to the Great Poison Swamp for the numerous poisonous insects that could be found inside of it.

For an alchemist focused on poisons, the insect from the Great Poison Swamp would allow them to increase the level of the poisons they made. Not to mention, the process of removing the impurities was a good way for an alchemist to train his or her control of fire.

I should take a few drops of poison from different insects back with me for Qing Yi to train with…

Thinking this to himself as he put away the drop of poison he had finished refining into a small glass vial before throwing it into his interspatial ring to end up forgotten in a few hours, Xuan Hao extracted the poison from a few dozen poisonous insects around him before gathering it in different glass vials and similarly throwing them into his interspatial ring.

Whoosh~

Not having anything more to do and already having a decent grasp over the behaviour of the poisonous insects roaming around inside the Great Poison Swamp, Xuan Hao used a different movement technique he had picked up over the years called Earth Shrinking Steps.

Although it was far inferior to the Drifting Cloud Steps that he normally used, the Drifting Cloud Steps were not really usable inside the Great Poison Swamp. After all, the last thing he wanted to do was make a mistake and accidently teleport into the air and get pressed into the mud below by the restriction covering the Great Poison Swamp!

…

"Senior Brother… Are you sure it's a good idea to follow Elder Proud Bear around…?"

"Are you still thinking about what happened earlier when we first entered the Great Poison Swamp? Don't worry about it, it happens to everyone who tries to fly inside the Great Poison Swamp… To be honest, I even heard that the great ancestor of the Dark Sky Kingdom once came here with his grandson and ended up in a similar situation…"

"Really!?"

"Yes! What senior brother said is true, my aunt was around when it happened and she personally saw how the great ancestor of the Dark Sky Kingdom crashed down into the mud after trying to fly inside the Great Poison Swamp. Haha, she even told me that the old ancestor originally wanted to kill everyone around to stop what happened from leaking out, but one of the Sky Empire's generals was also around, so that old ancestor could only give up on this!"

"Haha, if it even happened to someone like the great ancestor of the Dark Sky Kingdom, it's no wonder Elder Proud Bear who only reached the Domain Lord Realm a few years ago ended up in such a situation. Although… It makes one wonder why he even tried to fly in the first place even after knowing the outcome…"

At the same time Xuan Hao began making his journey to cross the Great Poison Swamp, a group of three youths were also making their way inside the Great Poison Swamp while happily chatting with each other without any worry on their faces.

The main reason for this, was the old man standing not too far away watching over them.

From their conversation alone, it was obvious that this old man should be the Elder Proud Bear they were talking about, a Domain Lord Realm Expert!

For them to have such a powerful cultivator watching over them, it was obvious that these three youths did not have a simple identity…