Lord of the Poison Lake, Grotto-Heaven Ruins

Lord of the Poison Lake, Grotto-Heaven Ruins

Han Feng let a trace of his Three-Star Dou Saint aura leak out.

It was only a trace, like tossing a red-hot star into a placid lake.

"Boom—!"

In that instant, the entire Ten Thousand Poisons Lake completely erupted!

The lake surface, formed from poison water accumulated over ten thousand years, churned and roared like boiling water. Deep beneath the lake, that aura had initially carried a hint of probing caution, but the instant it touched the trace of Saint pressure Han Feng had released, it was like a mouse seeing a cat, immediately drowned in endless terror!

"Splash!"

A pillar of water shot into the sky, and a figure burst from the lake amid a rain of poison, hovering in midair.

He was a middle-aged man in black. His face was sinister, his skin covered in bluish-black scale patterns, and his vertical pupils were a dark gold like those of a snake, filled with coldness and violence. Behind him, a pair of draconic wings condensed from pure poison qi fluttered uneasily.

He stared fixedly at Han Feng, his vertical pupils filled with shock and fear.

He could not sense the cultivation of the green-robed man before him.

But that was precisely what made him even more terrifying!

A mere trace of aura had made even his soul tremble. This was an absolute suppression from the level of life itself, something he had never felt before!

Run!

That was the only thought in his mind.

Yet the moment that thought arose, he discovered in despair that the surrounding space had somehow solidified like steel. His prideful Late Seventh Tier power was as insignificant as dust before this imprisoned space.

"Come here."

Han Feng did not even raise a hand. He merely uttered two words calmly.

The middle-aged man let out a terrified howl as an invisible force forcibly dragged him down from midair. Like a chicken seized by the throat, he slammed heavily into the mud before Han Feng.

"Thud!"

He tried to struggle, only to find that he did not even have the strength to move a finger.

"P-Please spare my life, Senior!"

The fear of death made him cast aside the dignity of a seventh-tier magical beast. He lay prostrate on the ground and repeatedly kowtowed, his voice trembling.

"This junior failed to recognize greatness and did not know that Senior had arrived. If I have offended you in any way, I beg Senior's forgiveness! This junior is willing to offer every treasure within Ten Thousand Poisons Lake, so long as Senior spares my life!"

Han Feng looked down at him, his expression utterly calm.

"I have no interest in your scraps."

He spoke slowly, his tone so calm it carried not a trace of emotion.

"I only want one thing."

"Your magic core."

As those words fell, the black-clothed man's body shook violently, his eyes instantly filling with endless despair.

A magic core was the source of a magical beast's power and life. Taking his magic core—how was that any different from killing him?

He knew that he could not escape disaster today.

A ferocious brutality and unwillingness, born of a savage beast, surged up from the depths of his heart.

Since death was inevitable either way, rather than be tortured to death by this terrifying expert, he might as well end it himself!

A glint of resolve flashed through his eyes as he prepared to forcibly detonate the magic core within his body and perish together with the poison lake that had raised him.

But just as he was about to act, his gaze inadvertently swept over the white-dressed girl standing beside Han Feng, her face tense with anxiety.

With just one glance, his dark golden vertical pupils abruptly shrank to needlepoints!

That aura... that innate poison power, sharing the same origin as Ten Thousand Poisons Lake yet purer and more domineering...

It was... that legendary constitution!

A mad thought exploded in his mind, and he instantly seized upon his last straw of hope!

"Senior! Please wait!"

He used every ounce of strength in his body to cry out hoarsely, terrified that if he was even half a second too late, his little life would be gone.

"Senior wants this junior's magic core... could it be for this young lady?" He was not certain and could only venture the guess cautiously.

Han Feng's brow lifted slightly, and a trace of surprise flashed through his eyes.

This poison wyrm had some discernment after all.

"Oh? What have you seen?" he asked with interest.

"The Calamity Poison Body!"

The poison wyrm shouted without hesitation, his voice filled with excitement and certainty.

"This young lady must possess the Calamity Poison Body, a constitution seen only once in ten thousand years! Though this junior is merely a magical beast, I have cultivated in this poison lake for many years and possess an extremely keen perception of poison power throughout the world. I cannot be mistaken!"

Seeing that Han Feng did not deny it, the poison wyrm knew he had gambled correctly and hurriedly threw out all his remaining bargaining chips.

"Senior! Please listen to me! This junior's magic core was cultivated after birth and is impure and mixed. If it is truly used by this young lady, it may contaminate her primordial poison qi. That would be bad!"

"However! This junior knows of a place with a treasure a thousand, no, ten thousand times better than my magic core!"

"At the deepest part of Ten Thousand Poisons Lake lies a mysterious ruin! This junior was only able to cultivate to this level in just a few hundred years because I spent years outside that ruin, absorbing the traces of primordial poison qi leaking from it!"

"There is an immensely powerful sealing barrier outside the ruin. This junior has exhausted every method but could not damage it in the slightest. Yet the primordial poison qi emanating from the ruin is exactly the same as the aura within this young lady! This junior boldly guesses that there must be some peerless treasure inside that can truly help her!"

"This junior is willing to lead the way. I only beg Senior to spare my life!"

A mysterious ruin?

Han Feng's heart stirred slightly as well.

His soul power had long since covered the entire poison lake, yet he had not discovered any barrier.

There were only two possibilities.

Either the poison wyrm was lying.

Or the seal over that ruin had been arranged with such exquisite skill that it could deceive even the heavens.

The value of a ruin that even his Late Heaven Realm soul could not immediately detect was self-evident.

"Open your soul." Han Feng did not say anything further, merely issuing the command coldly.

The poison wyrm's body trembled at his words, but his desire to live kept him from resisting in the slightest. He closed his eyes in agony and completely relinquished his soul's defenses.

With a flick of Han Feng's finger, a mark containing the power of his soul origin entered the poison wyrm's brow.

From that moment onward, the life and death of this seventh-tier poison wyrm rested on a single thought from him.

"Lead the way."

Feeling that irresistible connection deep within his soul, the poison wyrm's heart turned cold, but he also secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

At least his life had been preserved.

He respectfully kowtowed to Han Feng, then transformed into a streak of black light and plunged back into the poison lake.

Han Feng raised an even more solid golden barrier around Yaoxin, protecting her within it as he followed her into the pitch-black lake water.

The poison lake water was bone-chillingly cold, and the deadly poison within could instantly corrode the protective Dou Qi of a Dou Wang expert to nothing. Yet before Han Feng's Nine Yang True Flame barrier, it was like docile spring water, completely blocked outside.

Under the poison wyrm's guidance, they continued descending.

The sights within the lake were strange and fantastical. All kinds of poisonous aquatic plants and glowing venomous fungi, long extinct in the outside world, swayed gracefully along the lakebed, forming a magnificent yet lethal underwater forest.

"Do you have a name?" Han Feng suddenly asked during their descent.

The poison wyrm ahead paused, then hurriedly answered respectfully, "Reporting to Senior, this junior... this junior is called Ao Li."

"Ao Li..." Han Feng nodded. "If you have not deceived me today, and there truly are gains to be made in that ruin—"

"I will not kill you."

Ao Li's heart leaped with joy at those words.

But Han Feng's next words extinguished half of the joy that had just arisen.

"However."

"From today onward, you will remain by Yaoxin's side as her guardian. After twenty years, I will remove your soul mark and return your freedom."

Be her guardian? Twenty years?

Countless thoughts immediately flashed through Ao Li's mind.

To a magical beast, twenty years passed in the blink of an eye. Trading twenty years of freedom for his life, as well as a favorable connection with a future expert possessing the Calamity Poison Body, was a deal that could not possibly lose!

"Thank you, Senior, for sparing my life! This junior... Ao Li, is willing to serve Miss with utmost loyalty!" he hurriedly declared, his tone full of the relief of surviving a calamity.

Han Feng said no more.

The group continued descending.

After some time, when they reached the deepest part of the lakebed, Ao Li stopped.

He pointed at a patch of black water ahead that looked no different from its surroundings and said respectfully, "Senior, it is here."

Han Feng focused his gaze.

To his eyes, that stretch of water was completely empty. But this time, he activated his Late Heaven Realm soul power. Rather than sweeping over a vast area, he used it like the finest probe, carefully distinguishing every faint fluctuation of energy in the space ahead.

Very soon, he noticed something amiss.

The space ahead appeared calm, but the frequency of its energy flow differed from the environment of the poison lake by an almost imperceptible amount.

The design of this barrier was truly ingenious. It had perfectly integrated the aura of the entire ruin into Ten Thousand Poisons Lake, making the ruin itself a part of the lake.

It was like hiding a drop of water within a rushing river.

If Ao Li had not pointed out the exact location, giving him a target, even with his soul cultivation, Han Feng could easily have overlooked it.

"Interesting." A playful curve rose at the corner of Han Feng's mouth.

It seemed that Ao Li had not lied.