Each section of the Forest of Despair has its own natural border that marks its boundaries. From the outer section to the inner, there is a river, and from the inner section to the core, there is a valley surrounding the core region, which Aldrian can now see from the high ground. He saw that the core area was a vast hill covered by a thick, mysterious white mist that obscured his view. From the outskirts of the inner section to this place took him about two hours, evidence that the inner section is larger than the outer section.
Aldrian, who now rested after continuously using his wind-based movement technique, was amazed by the scale of the forest. During his journey to this place, he passed many dangerous areas like a poisonous swamp that could instantly kill a duke stage cultivator, a natural illusion formation that even grand dukes could get lost in, or man-eating plants strong enough to consume grand duke stage beings, which shrunk away from him to avoid his detection.
But not everything he passed was bad, there were some good things that caught his eye, and he also gained something new.
40 minutes ago
He was moving at a fast speed when suddenly he saw a lily plant in a natural pond that seemed to contain rich energy. He stopped and looked at the lily to assess it.
"I can feel rich water energy from this. If I give this to Eleine, it can help her cultivation," he thought. However, he didn't know if the lily was safe to consume, what if it was poisonous? At that moment, he regretted not studying alchemy to learn about spiritual herbs. The only thought in his mind was, "If only I knew what precious plant this is." Then he felt a strange sensation inside of him before an information screen appeared in front of him.
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Celestial Silver Lotus
Age: 1550 years
Description : A lotus that absorbs a huge quantity of water energy. The silver color on the petals is a sign of its maturity, which takes thousands of years to achieve.
Effect: If directly consumed, it can tremendously increase the comprehension of water element cultivators and boost their cultivation level. If processed into pills with the right mixture of ingredients, the effect can be doubled.
How to pick: There is no special treatment required to pick this herb.
Note: It's better to store the herb in a special box for spiritual herbs to prevent the potential of their energy and efficacy from fading.
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The change came as a big surprise to him because he didn't know that his Eyes of Heaven could be upgraded in this way.
"Wow, so my Eyes of Heaven can be used as an appraisal tool too." he marveled. But he wondered why it had just upgraded like that.
"Is it because I wanted this, so my Eyes of Heaven adjusted according to my will?" He shook his head, this was not the time to think about it yet.
The treasures, like spiritual herbs to help one's cultivation, were scattered in many places he passed. Luckily, the places he had passed had not been visited by many people, and some spots were untouchable to outsiders, so the herbs grew healthy without disturbance. Spirits only needed the richness of energy surrounding the spiritual herbs for their cultivation, so even though they wouldn't eat or take them, they would defend the herbs from anyone trying to take them.
Aldrian, who saw all those precious herbs, didn't want to pass up the chance, so he took them and put them in his storage ring. Spiritual herbs should be stored in special boxes to prevent the potential of their energy and efficacy from fading, but since he didn't have those, the storage ring would do the job for now.
At the current time
All of the places he passed gave Aldrian new epiphanies and comprehension of the power of the emperor stage.
"It's amazing that this vast forest is the technique of a cultivator. Is this the true power of the emperor stage? Their techniques can really change the vast landscape. No wonder if the emperor stage battles each other, the destruction would be immense," he thought.
"Is it a divine technique? I know I can't create a technique on this scale at my cultivation level because I lack the energy needed to unleash it. 'Slash of the End' can produce that much destructive power because I pour the energy from my domain. I wonder how strong it would be if I poured my own energy into that slash. But whatever it is, this is also good; it gives me the inspiration to create a technique with a vast effect."
He knew he couldn't always depend on his domain, and there would be times when he had to fight outside of it. He believed his comprehension was enough to create such a technique, and the only thing he lacked was the energy. He believed he could create and unleash a technique of the same effect if he had that much energy on his own, and to do that? Of course, by increasing his cultivation.
He then stood up and dusted off his clothes. "Time to get back to business." He disappeared, moving towards the core region.
A few minutes later, Aldrian stood on the edge of the mist area. He tried to peer into what lay behind the mist, but his senses were obstructed by something as soon as they touched the mist.
"The mist can disrupt senses, and from what I feel, it also has a hallucination and disorientation effect for those who pass through this place," he thought.
"It has to be an artificial formation created by someone who can manipulate nature-based formations." This realization piqued his interest because he could learn how to create natural-based formations from it. So far, all of his formations were created by drawing the pattern using the energy of heaven and earth without the help of materials.
The weakness of these formations was that they would lose energy over time because they couldn't replenish their energy on their own, resulting in a reduced strength. However, if he could create natural formations, he could shape the surrounding environment into a formation that would hold for a long time, even forever, as it would continually replenish its energy—unless someone broke the formation.
"I have to pass through this place anyway."
Without hesitation, he stepped into the mist, and his body was slowly swallowed by its thickness. Aldrian walked for about 30 meters before his sight became disoriented and his senses could only spread about 20 meters, a distance more than enough to instantly kill him, especially in the core section where the king of this forest dwelled. He had never been this solemn since he emerged from the secret realm. Truthfully, he felt a little anxious now, but his innate instinct to face challenges, the feeling of "how dare you challenge me," and his excitement peaked in situations like this.
Was he reckless? Maybe. Was he walking to his own doom? Only time would tell, but he just wanted to challenge his limits, as he always did. He stopped for a moment to ponder.
"This can't go on. I have to know how to pass through this mist effectively." He looked around, trying to find a clue, but all he saw was thick white mist. He then closed his eyes to sharpen his senses. One minute, two minutes, five minutes passed, and he still hadn't moved.
After ten minutes, he sensed a slight fluctuation of energy 15 meters to his right. With his eyes closed, he moved toward the source of the fluctuation. He stopped at what he sensed was a small rock among many scattered rocks. There was nothing special about this rock, so if someone looked at it, they would just assume it was ordinary.
He stood in front of the rock, waiting again, and ten minutes later, the rock fluctuated with a little bit of energy. He touched the rock and tried to move it, but it wouldn't budge, as if it was embedded in the ground.
"As I thought, the formation utilizes the surrounding heaven and earth energy to replenish its energy and maintain the formation. It has a point where the formation gathers energy. If I disturb this—" he inserted his energy into the rock, and suddenly the surrounding 100 meters of mist became much clearer.
He opened his eyes and smiled. He teleported to the edge where he could see the farthest and stood still. A few moments later, the mist returned to its original state, and he closed his eyes to repeat the process of disturbing the formation. He kept doing this until he found a square cave with carvings and a head statue. The carvings depicted a creature like a lion with tree roots covering its entire body, and the statue was the head of the lion, with its mane made of tree roots.
Aldrian looked at it for a moment before heightening his senses again. With a solemn face, he entered the cave with solid steps.