Leaving the rest of the investigation team behind, Xuan Hao quickly made his way towards the north west side of the Fire Rock Mountain.
The trees were sparse on the mountain side and the heat around the mountain was high as smoke could be seen coming out from small cracks in the ground. Using his divine sense to peek into the cracks along the way, Xuan Hao managed to see a large amount of lava flowing beneath. Ready to surface at any time.
The Burning Mountain Range was well known for its many active volcanos and from the looks of it, the Fire Rock Mountain was one of them.
One of the requirements for the Infernal Heart Grass to grow was an extremely hot environment. An active volcano more than fit the description of that requirement… The only thing left was to find out where the Infernal Heart Grass could be found.
Even if he knew that it might be at the north west side of the Fire Rock Mountain, there is always a possibility that it was not there and instead might be on the east side of the mountain or simply not there at all…
The north west side of the Fire Rock Mountain was hot to an unbearable degree and magma was flowing out from openings in the ground. Normal people would most likely die in this kind of environment, but Xuan Hao was a cultivator, so he was fine. At most he felt a little uncomfortable.
"Hm… In this kind of environment even weaker Foundation Establishment cultivators would have a hard time. No wonder that the Explorer Union had a minimum requirement of peak Foundation Establishment Realm… At least a rare spirit herb like the Infernal Heart Grass should be able to grow here."
Looking around, Xuan Hao carefully started to carefully spread out his divine sense to search the area. Making sure to restrain his divine sense as much as possible, so as to not randomly offend random bigshot A in hiding, who happened to be secretly cultivating here.
"Ah, found something!" It did not take long before Xuan Hao found some of the people who had mysteriously disappeared.
Walking over to the place, Xuan Hao crouched down and inspected the body.
The body was burnt and had bite marks all over it, meaning that the culprit was most likely a demon beast or some demonic cultivator who had gone through a demonic transformation already.
Hopefully, it would just be a demon beast, after all, even the weakest demonic cultivator that had undergone a demonic transformation was at the Nascent Soul Realm. Further transformations would be even more terrifying.
Xuan Hao had heard about an extremely powerful demonic cultivator at the third transformation going up against a Domain Lord, also known as a King Realm cultivator, without losing!
The thought of encountering such a terrifying being was enough to make Xuan Hao want to turn around immediately.
Luckily, demonic cultivators were extremely rare in the Heavenly Sky Kingdom, as the Empire it belonged to was against demonic cultivation and actively hunted them down.
From what Xuan Hao heard, most people considered demonic cultivators to be a scourge and a source of evil to be exterminated.
Them going around devouring people did not really help with their reputation…
"ROAAAAR"
Just as Xuan Hao was about to be lost in his thoughts and start side tracking, a roar came from afar interrupting. From the sound and power behind it, Xuan Hao guessed that it was most likely a demon beast around the Core Formation Realm.
At least it looked like he could rule out the possibility of it being a demonic cultivator…
"If there is a Core Formation demon beast over there, the Infernal Heart Grass might be over there as well!"
Not caring about the body on the ground anymore, Xuan Hao stood up again and moved in the direction of the roar he had heard earlier.
…
"I thought you said that there would be nothing dangerous about the Fire Rock Mountain!"
A shrill voice echoed in the surroundings when Xuan Hao made it to the location of the roar that he had heard earlier.
"As I said before, most of the demon beast had left, I never said that there wouldn't be a possibility that some of them were still left!"
Looking ahead, Xuan Hao saw two young people, a man and a woman arguing with each other. In front of them, a giant tiger like demon beast was slowly approaching them.
"Ah~ Look at the situation that you landed us in~" The young woman let out a clearly fake pitiful voice as she tried to look depressed.
"Who are you fooling! Damn vixen!"
"Who's a vixen! Damnable playboy!"
"…"
Xuan Hao had no idea what to do in the current situation, were they not in trouble? Was this not the time where he came by and saved them or something? Why does he feel like not helping them at all…?
"Roar?" The tiger like demon beast also let out a confused roar, as it did not see the fearful expressions that it had expected.
"Shut up! Can't you see we are having a conversation!?" The man shouted rudely at the poor tiger demon beast before turning back and arguing with the young woman once again.
"…"
Should I just show myself? Xuan Hao thought as he looked at the couple arguing more and more intensively.
"Ah, the Infernal Heart Grass!" Looking around the area, Xuan Hao spotted the Infernal Heart Grass a few dozen meters behind the tiger demon beast.
Sneaking over, Xuan Hao quietly harvested the Infernal Heart Grass and put it in a special bag he had prepared for it beforehand.
"… Well, that was easier than I thought." Talking quietly to himself, Xuan Hao turned around and looked at the young woman and man still arguing in front of the confused tiger demon beast.
"I should just leave for now. No need to get entangled with those two troublesome kids and their cultivation should also be around the Core Formation Realm, so they should be fine without my help anyway." Taking one last look at the arguing couple before heading towards the location where the investigation team would meet up later today, Xuan Hao had a feeling he would be unfortunate enough to meet them sometime again in the future.