Damien was nearing the Ancient Boneyard Forest and said to Valentina, "Valentina, get into my soul space. It's safer there. I will somehow deal with the two of them following us."
Valentina bit her lips but nodded as she knew there was nothing she could do to help him now, especially against Heaven Ethereal Realm cultivators.
But that was precisely why she was worried about how Damien was going to deal with the two of them and wondered if he had any other special tricks up his sleeve.
"Okay, but please be careful, Damien, and call me if you need my help," Valentina said with teary eyes.
Damien chuckled, feeling touched, and gave her a quick kiss on the lips as a way of assuring her.
She softly smiled before turning into a red flash of light as she entered Damien's glabella. Inside his soul space, she could only bite her fingers in anxiety and hated herself for not being stronger.
If Damien knew her thoughts, he would chuckle in embarrassment. She was already too strong enough for her age and even compared to him based on raw power only.
"Luna, am I going to be fine if I enter that eerie-looking forest? Is there some kind of scary beast inside there?" Damien asked as he got closer and closer to the forest ahead of him.
He couldn't even see the inner region of the forest, except dense fog that didn't even let the moonlight enter. That was how thick the fog was.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})Luna said in a severe tone, "I doubt if there is even any living being inside there. Because the whole forest is poisoned!"
Damien gulped as he felt that it was not shocking since the whole forest seemed withered and dead after scanning the area with his spiritual perception.
There were even a lot of corroded bone fragments, ones that mostly seemed to belong to humans, making the forest look more scary and ominous. He wondered if this was the reason why the word 'Boneyard' was included in the name of the forest.
He at first thought the forest must have died due to some natural disaster or because someone destroyed it during ancient times.
'Seems like the rumors were indeed true.'
But only now he learned the real reason. And if the poison was strong enough to destroy such a large forest, wouldn't that mean he would die a horrible death within a few seconds?
Luna read his expression and said, "Don't worry about the poison. I will take care of it. No matter how strong the poison is, even if it's a god-killing poison, I can take care of it."
Luna indeed had no qualms about neutralizing a poison no matter how deadly it was. There was no way there existed a poison that could overwhelm her abilities, especially not in this mortal plane.
Damien didn't know whether he should be astonished or not, sensing the absolute confidence in her tone. But he was concerned about one thing, "Won't you use up your soul essence then?"
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})Luna said calmly, "Not really. All I am doing is just neutralizing the poison when it enters your body and not healing you. Since I already possess the Shard Of Essence, it's like lifting my pinkie for me. Besides, it isn't like I have any other choice. Your life is not the only thing that's at stake here."
Damien felt his heart easing up after getting her assurance, but at the same time, he again realized that he had a goddess literally depending on his lifeline.
He didn't know if Luna was hiding specific details to not make him think too much or if it was the whole truth. Still, as she said, he didn't have the luxury to overthink and could only helplessly get inside the forest.
As soon as he entered the Ancient Boneyard Forest, he noticed that the fog had a greenish hue, and as soon as it caressed his face like a lover stroking his face, he felt an intense burning reaction all over his body at that split second but suddenly, that feeling disappeared.
"Haaa…" Damien let out a sigh of relief as a drop of sweat rolled down on his forehead. His eyes were still wide with shock realizing how potent the poison was!
Within just a split second, he felt that agonizing reaction and wondered if he would have died the next second if it were not for Luna.
And indeed, as he expected, Luna said in a serious tone, "The poison pervading this forest is not ordinary. It can even kill a Prime Ethereal Realm within hours! And the worst part is, the poison seems weakened. You shouldn't dare to imagine how potent it should be at full strength."
Damien was utterly flabbergasted as he never expected such kind of poison to exist in the mortal plane where even the Prime Ethereal Realm cultivators might just die within mere hours.
So, how did such a kind of poison end up here in the first place?
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})But a sudden realization struck him, 'Did the Xeton Emperor lure Lily's father to his death by bringing him here?' Damien couldn't help but speculate since the Rong Ancestor had mentioned that the poison he was exposed to was no child's play but something that could even terrify supreme existences like him.
Even Lily's father was killed within a few seconds after getting exposed, and the Rong Ancestor was bedridden for all these years after getting exposed to it for a couple of seconds.
Damien was so glad that he instructed Valentina to enter his soul space. Otherwise, even with her enhanced healing and resistance, there were only so many seconds she could resist such a terrifying poison.
He also thought that he finally found the place where Lily's father met his end. He knew that Lily had a right to know, but at the same time, he decided not to tell her about it even if he meets her unless it was necessary.
If even the most powerful cultivators can succumb to this poison, then not even the Profound Ethereal Realm practitioners could stand a chance against it.
He felt it lucky that the Rong Ancestor was only exposed to a small fraction of the poison. Otherwise, even his Rank 6 Supreme Tier Pill wouldn't have been effective at treating him.
He also learned from the Rong Ancestor that this poison's reaction after entering the body was unordinary and could not be treated using conventional methods. And Damien himself witnessed how deadly the poison was when he inspected the Rong Ancestor's body.
The medicines and treatments the Rong Ancestor tried when he first got afflicted with this poison only seemed to aggravate it. Only because Damien used a very potent poison herb to suppress and overwhelm the weak strand of poison in Rong Ancestor's body was he able to treat him.
However, the only one who looked the least bothered was Misty. It was flying so casually through the forest, and Damien envied it for being an undead. He felt like he wouldn't mind becoming an undead as long as he doesn't look disgusting or all skeleton-like.
True undead like Misty indeed do not fear death, but their intelligence would be too low without a master.
He was not worried about his pursuers anymore after getting Luna's confirmation. He was sure that either they fled before they realized how potent the poison fog was or succumbed to their deaths.
And just as Damien expected, Bevis and Rene were fleeing feebly towards the direction they came from!
"Damn it...this demonic poison!" Bevis felt his entire body burning from within as if his organs were being burned and melted. Rene was also suffering the same thing, except he was already vomiting blood along with pieces of his organs and collapsed on the ground.
Bevis also could no longer maintain his flight and succumbed to the ground as veins popped up all over his body, his face completely pale and green.
Their Heaven Ethereal Realm energies wildly rushed towards all organs in their bodies to expel out the poison. But all their desperate tries were of no avail since it only seemed to worsen their injuries and fastened the spread of the poison in their system.
They couldn't comprehend what kind of poison this was to make them literally helpless even with their high cultivation that they had painstakingly built over centuries. How could a mere whiff of poison cause havoc in their iron-like bodies like this?
And within a few seconds, just like that, two Heaven Ethereal Realm practitioners who stood tall in this world died a horrible and painful death in the middle of nowhere.
Never in their dreams, they thought that such a nightmarish poison would exist in this world. They could only die with grievances and regret for foolishly trying to follow them. And right before their deaths, they realized the true purpose of the barrier placed near this region.
