Michael lifted the herb gently, "I need to save Christopher and make him reach the Soul Refining stage no matter what" he then stored the herb in his system storage so its medicinal effects would not dissipate.
Michael could not help but smile when he gathered another precious herb to plant in his herbal garden. The Blue Camellia flower was extremely rare as well as hard to grow in ordinary locations, if it wasn't for the system, he wouldn't have uprooted the plant as he wouldn't be able to grow it somewhere else.
"This is not the place nor the time to go on a treasure hunt kid" Spectre's voice appeared again as he turned to see the old man still following him.
"The mist must have some chemicals that induce hallucinations, just like the Fear Toxin. That was definitely not just an illusion" he said to himself looking at Spectre, his mentor. He was doing his best to ignore the old man but it was damn hard to neglect a lifelike person who follows him everywhere.
"Since I'm here, I might as well make the most of it" Besides following the trail of Lailah, he decided to occasionally deviate from his path to find more rare herbs.
Michael no longer paid any more attention to Spectre. He just used the Lightning Dash, turning into a bolt of lightning to move in the direction of Lailah's trail.
The scenery around him suddenly began to change greatly just after traveling a few kilometers. The world suddenly darkened. He discovered that he had strangely arrived at a vast starry sky. Countless stars filled every inch of the space, so densely packed that it was innumerable.
He had no sense for direction at all in the vast starry sky. It was the same everywhere, without any differences. Michael discovered that he was completely and utterly lost when he had arrived here, actually unable to tell which direction was north or south, east or west. He could not even tell which way was up or down, left or right.
"Oh come on, another freaking illusionary formation" Michael murmured with a soft voice as he became stern. He knew that the formation this time was much more powerful and profound. It had already conjured a starry sky as soon as it appeared. Other ordinary formations could not be compared to this.
"This'll be troublesome. I'm completely disoriented, so I probably can't walk out of it. Just how am I supposed to break out of this illusion? It must have been cast down by a great person from the ancient Dragon clan looking at the handiwork. I might not be able to break the formation using raw strength but if I could only find its source" Michael mumbled. The memories of Abras came to help, apparently, Abras had learned about Formations in the sanctuary from the Elders. Cultivators who were on or above the Soul Refining stage could use the Celestial Energy to break most of the formations, it was the simplest and fail-proof method. Considering Michael didn't have Celestial Energy in his body, he had to look for a source which is powering the formation. Finding the source would be pretty hard and nearly impossible for others but him, it was relatively simple thanks to the perception pills.
Inside the illusionary formation, he was surrounded by countless stars as he felt like he was floating in the middle of the freaking Milkyway.
"Alright, where are you hiding?" He looked around the stars after eating perception pills like tic tacs. Since he maintained a healthy diet, exercise, and his cultivation were regulated through the system, he did not have to worry about polluting his body by taking too many pills, it was one of the perks of having a system.
After taking the perception pills, the milky way surrounding him became more lucid as he could see each star clearer. All the stars around him were flickering twice in a regular interval. Each star radiated a unique color, none looked similar to another one. Staring at thousands, even millions of stars, his head ached as he rubbed his temples. Eventually, after a few hours of studying the patterns of the flickering stars, he found a star in the distance that flickered a millisecond faster than the others, this difference would have been impossible to find out if it wasn't for the perception pills. Locking his gaze at the star, he felt a sense of accomplishment.
"There you are" he unsheathed his sword and threw the sword aiming right at the star. The sword soared through the starry sky, soon piercing the star while producing a faint humming sound.
After the sword pierced the start, he only felt the wild whistling of the wind, and soon afterward, his vision suddenly brightened. He had already left the illusion of the starry sky, returning to The Treacherous Ocean once again. Around him stood the familiar mountains and hills.
"Heck yeah!" He couldn't help but shout with a sense of pride after breaking the formation without depending on Lailah. However, he did not dare to linger any longer.
"Lightning Dash '' he activated the spell, turning himself into a bolt of lightning before advancing through the depths of the mountain at an extremely great speed. Soon enough, he stopped before a small, three-meter-tall tree. The tree was neither too wide nor too thin, it was a healthy tree with dense leaves and thick branches, and through the dense thicket were a few, fist-sized red fruits, slightly obscured by the leaves. They were like apples but their red skin glowed.
"Silk apples' ' His eyes sparkled in excitement. Among all the potions and pills he knew, 90% of them tasted horrible, including the perception pills he just took. When he was eating them, he felt like he was chewing a rubbery egg. Although silk apples didn't have medicinal qualities like Blue Camelia, it was one of the very few fruits that could change a pill's or a potion's fragrance and taste as well as enhance the pill's effects to a certain level. An Alchemist would pay a small fortune to get their hands on silk apples because these fruits were extremely scarce in Elon or any other continents.
Michael climbed slowly making his way up to the tree to pick the fruits. One by one, he picked all the fruits, and because the system storage would keep herbs as well as fruits like this fresh without letting the medicinal qualities dissipate, Michael cleaned the entire tree with no concerns.
A smile appeared on Michael's face as he looked at the twenty glowing apples in the system storage. He could feel the extraordinarily great alchemical effects of the fruits. They were at least a thousand years old, or even several thousand years old.
"These fruits should be able to enhance the effects of my products by quite a lot," Michael mumbled to himself, before taking one fruit for storage and exiting the system.
Crack!
"This is good '' he couldn't help but praise the fruit when he took a bite. The silk apple was soft yet crunchy and juicy. The sweetness made his taste buds in the tongue dance in joy. While savoring the apple, he resumed his journey following the trail left behind Lailah and he did not forget to check his surroundings for more rare fruits or herbs.
On his way following the trails, he avoided many mutated beings with the help of the baby dragon's aura. Due to Michael's utmost calmness and cautiousness, Spectre's figure flickered constantly. He felt the effects of the mist fading away from his body. After a long time, he experienced calmness and breathed a sigh of relief.
However, this feeling did not last long because suddenly, many mutated beings at various stages detected Michael somehow. They produced angered roars as they began chasing him.
"Oh come on!" Michael's mood became gloomy. He quickly unsheathed the two swords from the dual sheaths attached to his back.
Several wild beast-like roars immediately arose in response as soon as they saw a group of mutated beings following Michael's presence. Several dozen powerful presences appeared immediately, quickly approaching the area.
The roars from the surroundings grew closer and closer. Michael could already see the figures of a dozen or so mutated beings, currently him.
He immediately filled every corner of his body with Arch Energy, making preparations for the strategic retreat aka running away.
The surroundings around Michael suddenly changed greatly. The lush mountains and forest disappeared and so did the figures of the mutated beings. He had arrived at a blood-red world, where an edgeless sea of blood laid beneath their feet. It constantly bubbled like boiling water, but there was no heat at all.
"Fuck, it's another formation" Michael cursed realizing that he had fallen into another formation.
The sea of blood below began to surge suddenly, like a roaring wave. A big cluster of blood rose from it, slowly forming a huge dragon head.
Roar!
The dragon head, completely made from blood, roared at the sky. Powerful sound waves rocked through the entire world of blood and shortly afterward, the head rose from the blood towards the sky, revealing a hundred-meter long crimson scaled dragon. He felt like he was in the hobbit movie, only this time, it was terrifying. Although this dragon resembled Smaug, the dragon in the hobbit movie, this dragon was at least a five-times bigger, meaner, and frightening.
A few figures flickered in the surroundings at the same time. The mutated beings who were pursuing Michael had also entered the formation. They directly charged for Michael, paying no heed to the blood dragon.