Chapter 258.2: Paradise on Earth
They swiftly entered the multicolored poison clouds. The Ultimate Ice was extremely effective at clearing the path ahead, and not a single ounce of the poison cloud broke through to their defenses.
This is fantastic! Huo Yuhao was ecstatic. His adventurous and explorative heart was piqued once more, and he could tell from the current situation that he had a much better chance of finding that mystical herb.
The multicolored miasma here was thick, just like it was in the sky. Huo Yuhao couldn’t see anything at all, and he couldn’t even detect anything with his Spiritual Detection. However, he still left his Spiritual Detection activated, channeling soul power into his protective barrier at the same time, so that he could avoid all possible threats and dangers.
What happened next proved that Huo Yuhao’s meticulousness was warranted.
A black shadow suddenly appeared soundlessly within his Spiritual Detection’s area of effect, and swept towards them at an alarming speed.
“Watch out!” Huo Yuhao growled.
Hovering in midair at this moment was undoubtedly the most dangerous thing they could do. Huo Yuhao didn’t dare to conserve soul power as he swung his right hand out and instantly slashed through the dense mist with his Darkgolden Terrorclaw. His right hand slashed through the air with lightning speed, using the complete version of his Darkgolden Terrorclaw.
The Snow Lady and Huo Yuhao’s mind were connected, and that meant they had exceptional chemistry with one another. She blew in the direction of the attack, and cold energy burst ahead of them. Large patches of poison clouds dissipated and cleared up their vision.
It was a dark-blue vine dotted with rainbow-colored patterns. It was as thick as a human thigh, and whipped towards them like an enormous python.
However, the Darkgolden Terrorclaw was the Darkgolden Terrorclaw Bear’s signature move, and Huo Yuhao gave everything he had with this strike. A dark golden streak of light flashed by, and the thick vine was immediately cut into a million pieces as it drifted away in the wind.
Huo Yuhao raised his voice and reminded Wang Qiu’er, “It’s clear that there are precious and exotic things here that are extremely beneficial for plant growth. This should a place inhabited by many plant-type soul beasts, and they are extremely powerful. Be careful.”
Several other thick vines swept towards them at this moment. The rainbow colors on these vines were clearly caused by the toxic miasma, and the fact that they were completely fine meant they probably contained acute venom as well.
“You control our descent. Let me try!” Wang Qiu’er shouted as she thrust her Golden Dragon Spear forward while she grabbed the other end of it, so that her Golden Dragon Spear could reach the maximum area of effect.
She was the Golden Dragon after all, and she was always dominant and fearsome.
Perhaps she had been stifled for too long after dealing with the poison clouds for two days, or perhaps this was a cathartic release of her fury towards Huo Yuhao, but her strike was exceptionally ferocious.
She was using her Golden Dragon Spear like a flail. A thick blue vine whipped towards her, and Wang Qiu’er swung her Golden Dragon Spear towards it like a lightning bolt. A boom could be heard as she smashed the vine into the distance.
Vines were typically quite flexible and elastic, and the front parts would still whip forward even if the vine itself was struck.
However, the vine didn’t react this way as it was struck by the Golden Dragon Spear. The vine flickered with golden light and rippled back into the distance, breaking apart into pieces as it flew through the air. Light circled around the Golden Dragon Spear, and Huo Yuhao could clearly feel that Wang Qiu’er’s life energy had become a little stronger than before.
The Golden Dragon Spear lived up to its name as a god’s weapon. It could absorb life energy from its target. Huo Yuhao felt faintly terrified in his heart, and he was consoling himself on his good fortune when he managed to defeat Wang Qiu’er that day.
Bam, bam, bam! The Golden Dragon Spear waltzed through the sky, every strike accurately struck the dark-blue vines that were whipping toward them, and every single vine eventually disintegrated into pieces.
Wang Qiu’er didn’t seem like she was under any pressure at all, even though more vines continued to appear. Golden light continued to flicker around her as she protected Huo Yuhao and herself impeccably.
Huo Yuhao controlled their descent, but he didn’t dare to move too quickly, as he didn’t know what awaited them at the bottom. He extended his Spiritual Detection in the direction of those flying vines and attempted to find their source.
He quickly discovered where these vines came from – they were all growing on the cliff, and some of these vines even reached a hundred feet long. They could feel Huo Yuhao and Wang Qiu’er’s presence, so they launched their own attacks. Furthermore, the number of vines growing on the cliff walls increased the further down they went.
“Let’s go further down.” The vines are limited in length after all, I can just fly along the cliff wall.
Huo Yuhao took Wang Qiu’er along as they dropped tens of meters deeper into the valley. The aggressive dark-blue vines that were attacking them eventually disappeared, and it was clear that the two of them had exceeded the vines’ attack range.
An agile mind was enough to help them avoid some problems.
They descended a lot faster than before without the blue vines attacking them, and split the clouds open as they pushed ahead. They dropped about three hundred meters before the poison clouds around them suddenly cleared out, and their blocked vision instantly became became clear.
Huo Yuhao hurriedly controlled their momentum and hovered in midair. It was a lot easier to run into problems if they were attacked when their senses suddenly changed.
However, his entire body froze right when he stopped in midair, and Wang Qiu’er was equally stunned.
They had been extremely careful and vigilant ever since the day they entered the Setting Sun Forest, and kept their guards up against any possible dangers that could appear.
They knew that their expedition wouldn’t be smooth-sailing or relaxed when they discovered the toxic miasma.
The multicolored miasma, the Jade Phosphorous Flowers of the Seven Absolutes, the Jade Phosphorous Poison Clouds, and the venomous vines growing from the valley’s walls… every single entity could have been fatal. This place was protected by so many fatal poisons, so what kind of sinister place was this?
But, but…
What was before Huo Yuhao and Wang Qiu’er now far exceeded their expectations. They had pierced through the multicolored poison clouds, and what they breathed in was an unprecedented fresh air full of life energy. The place they were looking at wasn’t sinister at all, it felt like heaven on earth!
The air was completely covered by the rainbow-colored clouds, and the rainbow colors shone and reflected over the valley, making it appear extremely enchanting.
The valley walls in the distance were full of the dark-blue vines that had ambushed them just now, and the entire wall looked like it was made from sapphires that flickered with a faint rainbow-colored luster.
The valley couldn’t be considered large, but many different plants were growing within it, while there were just too many colors to count as they gazed across it. There were so many beautiful flowers, and each was prettier than the last, bearing all sorts of fruits. Many plants shone with varying degrees of light, and one could tell even with the naked eye that these plants were exotic and extraordinary.
The most astonishing thing was the lake in the middle of these plants. The lake was clearly separated into two parts. One side was icy-blue in color and it exuded a faint white air, while the other side was fiery-red, and the light above this side was slightly distorted. One part was blue and the other was red, and these two parts were like colossal jewels engraved into the ground. The waters evaporating from this lake permeated the dense life energy from the lake all over the valley.
Ever since Huo Yuhao became a soul master, he had to absorb the vital energy of heaven and earth whenever he had to train using his Mysterious Heaven Technique. However, he had never encountered a place with vital energy as strong as the paradise that he was in right now.
Not even Clear Sky Peak could compare to this place. Huo Yuhao had only felt this overwhelming vital energy from the Frigid Jade Essence Bed that was now broken. However, the Frigid Jade Essence Bed had only contained pure cold and iciness, while this mystical world that they were in contained almost every single element, and also vast amounts of life energy.
Their eyes grew slack from their awe and astonishment. Everything before their eyes was just too enchanting and pristine!
“This… this is a paradise!” Wang Qiu’er’s voice was trembling. Her body shone with faint golden mist, as if were she responding to and reciprocating with the thick life energy within this valley.
“I am certain that there is nowhere else on the Douluo Continent that is as suitable for plant growth as this place is. The life energy in this place is at least five times that of the Great Star Dou Forest’s Core Region. How can there be such a place on the Continent? It’s possible that someone is protecting this place, too...”
Wang Qiu’er had the same opinion as Huo Yuhao did. Neither of them believed that the Jade Phosphorous Flowers outside had grown out by themselves. Their arrangement was just too neat.
Huo Yuhao heaved a sigh of admiration and said, “You do need formidable power to protect a paradise such as this. This place is just too beautiful. Why does the lake have two different colors? What is it, exactly? Do you know?”
Wang Qiu’er shook her head and said, “I’m not an encyclopedia. How can I possibly know everything? Let’s go down. There are no more miasmic clouds here.”
Huo Yuhao said, “But I feel like this place is even more dangerous than before. Have you not felt that most of the plants here have evolved into plant-type soul beasts because the life energy in this place is overwhelmingly dense?”
Wang Qiu’er was momentarily stunned, and gazed downwards carefully. Many plants had begun to sway because they had appeared, and some had even turned in their direction, while other plants shone more intensely.
“What should we do?” Wang Qiu’er asked, “We can’t just turn back, since we’re already here.”
The greatest disadvantage that plant-type soul beasts had compared to animal soul beasts was mobility. Many plants couldn’t move around, and were just rooted to the spot, so their attack and control range was limited to an area with their bodies at the center. This was like the vines that they had encountered on the cliff walls – they couldn’t reach beyond their maximum length and distance to attack the two of them.
However, plant-type soul beasts were extremely formidable in the range that they could reach, and were possibly stronger than animal soul beasts in this respect. This was the reason why even exceptionally powerful animal soul beasts wouldn’t want to come to a place where many plant-type soul beasts were gathered.
Huo Yuhao took out his map and looked at the map’s lower part.
The map that Niu Tian had drawn was separated into two parts. The first part depicted the Setting Sun Forest and the valley’s rough location within the forest, while the second, more simplified part depicted the location of the book that he had described in his letter.