Death Marsh

Death Marsh

Cloud Empire, Myriad Scorpions City.

Unlike the prosperity of the Jia Ma Empire, this city shrouded in a faint gray mist exuded a chilling, sinister air everywhere.

The sky was dim and gray. The buildings lining the streets were mostly constructed from black stone and dark timber, their style sharp and oppressive. Most pedestrians wore gloomy expressions and hurried along, their bodies carrying more or less a faint trace of poisonous aura.

The roadside stalls sold not ordinary fruits or cloth, but cages of brightly colored venomous snakes, fist-sized poisonous scorpions, and all manner of strange poisonous herbs that gave off a rank stench.

Han Feng led Yaoxin slowly through this frontier stronghold of the poison masters' nation, like two travelers who had wandered into a demonic realm, utterly out of place amid their surroundings.

He wore a spotless blue robe, his expression calm.

Yaoxin wore a plain white dress. Her lovely face held a trace of curiosity, as well as an instinctive aversion.

"How does it feel?" Han Feng asked casually.

Yaoxin felt the ever-present cold poisonous aura in the air and frowned slightly. "I can't really say. It's a little uncomfortable, but inside my body... it also feels strangely excited."

"That's right." Han Feng smiled and explained, "The earth veins throughout the Cloud Empire are filled with a cold, poisonous miasma. To ordinary people, this place is a land of deadly poison, and living here for too long will shorten their lifespan. But to poison masters, it is a holy land for cultivation."

"And for someone with the Calamity Poison Body like you," he said, glancing at Yaoxin, "this place is like an enormous dining hall. Your body is craving these mixed poisonous vapors."

Yaoxin nodded thoughtfully.

"Our destination is Soulbreak Poison Marsh, on the westernmost edge of the Cloud Empire. It is the place with the densest poisonous aura in the entire empire. Perhaps we can find a rare treasure there that is highly compatible with your poison body, something that can replace the Heaven-Poison Scorpion Dragon Beast's magic core."

"There's no need to hurry today. Look around as you like. If you see any poisonous insects or herbs you need, remember them. I'll buy them for you."

"Mm." Yaoxin obediently agreed.

The two began strolling through the city, and Yaoxin's attention was quickly captured by the countless strange toxic creatures.

"This is a Three-Tailed Wind Scorpion. Its tail stinger is highly venomous and can numb a Dou Shi's nerves."

"And that one is a Black Jade Venom Spider. Its silk is tough and coated in corrosive venom."

"Wow, that is... a Hundred-Legged Centipede. Every one of its legs carries a different toxin!"

Yaoxin's eyes shone with the same light an alchemist would have upon seeing rare medicinal ingredients. These deadly creatures, which others avoided at all costs, were treasures in her eyes—materials for medicine and poison refining.

Han Feng watched her curious, absorbed expression with a faint smile, following behind her and paying for everything.

But such ostentatious spending naturally attracted some ill-intentioned attention.

When Han Feng once again handed a vendor a gold coin to purchase an entire cage of Black Widow Venom Spiders, three mercenaries with chilly auras and clearly malicious faces surrounded them.

"Kid, you're pretty rich, aren't you?" The scar-faced leader licked his lips, his triangular eyes roaming brazenly over Yaoxin's pretty face and graceful figure.

"You two look unfamiliar. You're from out of town, right? Do you know the rules of Myriad Scorpions City?"

Han Feng could not even be bothered to turn around. He merely handed the cage of venomous spiders to Yaoxin and casually asked, "Do you like them?"

Yaoxin took the cage and nodded.

"Hey! Kid, I'm talking to you!" Seeing himself ignored, Scarface flew into a rage and reached for Han Feng's shoulder.

However, his hand had not yet touched even the edge of Han Feng's clothes.

Puff.

A nearly inaudible sound rang out.

A bizarre crimson flame sprang to life on Scarface's body without warning.

He did not even have time to let out a scream. In the span of a breath, his entire body, along with his clothes and weapons, turned into the finest black ash beneath that tiny flame and scattered in the wind.

It was as if he had never existed in this world.

The vicious grins had yet to fade from the faces of his two companions when they watched their leader vanish into thin air. In his place, two equally bizarre red flames ignited on their bodies.

Puff. Puff.

Two more soft sounds.

Only three wisps of green smoke remained on the street, slowly curling upward.

The whole process had been so swift that the surrounding people had not even reacted.

When they realized what had happened, the greed and covetousness in their eyes toward Han Feng had become utter terror.

From beginning to end, Han Feng had not even lifted his eyelids. He simply turned back to Yaoxin and continued asking, "What else do you want to see?"

After this display of killing the chicken to scare the monkeys, their subsequent purchases went incredibly smoothly.

Wherever they went, every vendor practically wanted to carry their stall directly before them, their attitudes respectful as servants.

The next morning, a green flying boat formed from Han Feng's Dou Qi carried the two of them into the sky, speeding toward the westernmost region of the Cloud Empire.

Their destination: Soulbreak Poison Marsh.

As they continued westward, the color of the land began to change.

Green vegetation became increasingly sparse, replaced by bare black mountains and dark red barren earth. The poisonous aura in the air also grew denser and denser.

Several hours later, when the flying boat reached its destination, Yaoxin was completely stunned by the sight before her.

It was a vast, boundless swamp.

The swamp stretched ten thousand li from east to west. To the north, it met the border wasteland of Sunset Fortress; to the east, it connected to the tail end of the Heavenly Scorpion Mountains; and westward, it extended all the way to the uninhabited desert at the edge of the continent. It was the largest natural poison domain within the Cloud Empire's territory.

In the low-lying marshes lay the rotting poisonous herbs and carcasses of toxic insects accumulated over countless years. Cold poisonous miasma continuously surged from deep within the earth veins, mixing with the ground-level pestilential vapors to form a permanent poisonous fog of dark purple, gray, and black that shrouded the entire marsh. Even sunlight struggled to penetrate it.

This was a forbidden zone for life, yet a paradise for poison masters.

"Let's go down."

Han Feng dispersed the flying boat and led Yaoxin down slowly onto the outskirts of the marsh.

The moment she landed, Yaoxin felt as though she had stepped into warm water. The poisonous aura that had made her uncomfortable outside now caused every pore of her body to open, while the Calamity Poison Body within her gave off a joyful hum.

"It feels... so comfortable here," she murmured.

"This is only the shallow outer marsh." Han Feng looked around calmly. "The deeper we go, the denser the poison becomes—and the more dangerous it gets."

As they walked, he introduced Yaoxin to this Death Marsh.

"The entire marsh can roughly be divided into three layers: the shallow outer marsh where we are now, the middle Corrosive Poison Mire, and the core region, Myriad Poison Lakeheart."

The two began heading deeper into the marsh.

The ground in the shallow outer marsh was still fairly solid, though it was littered with black mud pits and foul-smelling pools of poisonous water. Brightly colored venomous mosquitoes occasionally flew through the air, each one as large as a fist.

These poisonous creatures, capable of easily killing a Dou Shi, seemed to encounter their natural nemesis whenever they came within three feet of Yaoxin. They screeched and fled, not daring to approach her at all.

Before long, they entered the middle-layer Corrosive Poison Mire.

The scenery here became even more horrifying.

The ground had completely turned into bottomless black mud, bubbling with poisonous blisters. Enormous, half-decayed beast bones jutted out from the mire, silently telling of this place's dangers.

"Hiss—"

A massive black python over ten meters long suddenly shot out from the mire. Opening its bloody maw, it lunged at Yaoxin.

It was a fourth-tier Blackwater Profound Snake, its strength comparable to that of a Dou Ling expert!

Yaoxin's face paled as she instinctively prepared to activate the Poison Scripture.

But Han Feng merely lifted his eyes slightly.

The aggressive Blackwater Profound Snake suddenly froze in midair. Its enormous beast eyes filled with utter terror, as though it had seen its natural predator. It even forgot to attack, forcibly twisting its huge body in the air with a mournful cry as it tried to dive back into the mire.

"Too late."

Han Feng flicked his finger, and a wisp of golden Yang Fire landed soundlessly on its body.

There was no scream, no struggle.

That fourth-tier magical beast, comparable to a Dou Wang, was burned from head to tail by that tiny golden flame into the purest energy, which dispersed into the air.

Instant kill.

Only then did Yaoxin slowly loosen her clenched fists.

She knew that as long as this man was by her side, this so-called forbidden zone of death was as safe as a backyard garden.

After crossing the perilous middle mire, they finally reached the ultimate destination of their journey when the poisonous fog had grown so dense it was nearly liquid and even light could no longer penetrate it.

Myriad Poison Lakeheart.

It was a vast black lake stretching beyond sight.

The lake water was not truly liquid. It had been formed from the purest and most ancient innate poisonous aura, condensed into liquid after ten thousand years of accumulation.

A layer of seven-colored oily radiance floated over the lake's surface. It was a wondrous sight created when the deadly poison evaporated and reacted with the air—beautiful, yet lethal.

Even an ordinary Dou Huang expert would have their flesh corroded completely away by the horrifying poison if they dared remain here for more than a moment.

A faint golden barrier rose around Han Feng, completely blocking out the poisonous fog that seeped through every opening.

Yet the moment Yaoxin stepped into this region, she let out a comfortable sigh.

She felt the Calamity Poison Body within her completely come alive at that moment. The hunger she had suppressed for years screamed madly, wanting to devour the poison lake before her whole.

"This is the place."

Han Feng gazed at the rolling poison lake before him, his eyes profound.

He could sense a late seventh-tier Blackscale Poison Flood Dragon lurking in the deepest part of the poison lake.

He wondered whether this poison flood dragon's magic core could serve as a substitute for the Heaven-Poison Scorpion Dragon Beast's magic core.