Divine Emperor of Death

Fortunately, as an Alchemist, Davis had bought many ingredients in sealed containers in the past, so he had thousands of empty jade containers to seal of the potency of these poisonous herbs.

He could seal the herbs for thousands of years and have them not rot or lose any efficiency for over about a thousand years. As for making them not lose efficiency after a thousand years, he would have to place them in Sky Grade containers.

The Earth Grade containers he possessed could only protect and stop leakage from Earth Grade Herbs. With time, the containers would gradually be unable to contain the efficiency and instead, start to decompose from the potency of the energy contained.

They would then start to leak energy before turning useless.

Hence...

He plucked the poisonous herbs one by one according to the various types of viable methods and took a small container to store it in the respective container methodically. To fasten the process he used his soul force in tandem and harvested multiple ingredients.

Normally, there was a chance that he could be poisoned when harvesting because these herbs would more or less have defensive mechanisms or reactions.

However, a normal harvester might be afraid of poison but he wasn't!

With Fallen Heaven's death-like energy in his soul, he was basically impervious to poison as long as its grade wasn't higher by a stage, or so he mused after dealing with Evelynn's poison and other poison attributed herbs.

Once he collected all the herbs, he looked to the side and saw that there was a wide hole situated on the wall of an inclination, where the foggy atmosphere emerged from. He narrowed his eyes in scrutiny and realized that the fog had a certain element to it but he was unable to put his finger over it.

He also saw those vines which were present over the exterior of the Sunset Tear Mountain. It was as if omnipresent in this mountain but clearly, these vines seemed to be alive yet dead, doing not much other than making people cry when showered with rays of sunset.

Even Magical Beasts below Lord Beast Stage; Saint Beast Stage Magical Beasts were affected by this Sunset Tear Phenomenon. 

However, only a little amount of sunlight fell through a few small holes over the ceiling and the light that fell was where the vines were present.

'Or it's the opposite. The vines are there on the ground where sunlight... No, the rays of sunset fall...'

Davis mused over for a minute, thinking of what exactly could this mysterious fog and vines be. Feeling increasingly curious, he abruptly hurled his soul sense into the wide hole and probed.

His soul sense traveled a kilometer towards the underground.

Two kilometers...

Three... ten... hundred kilometers... 

But then, his soul sense was quickly met with a restriction. It was as if his soul sense entered a quagmire, no longer advancing at a fast pace. It slowed down, and he could no longer see what his soul sense found over that region as his view distorted.

In short, after a hundred kilometers towards the underground, he could no longer see what was happening.

Davis took in a deep breath and took back his soul sense as he understood. 

In truth, he discovered this fog had a restriction over soul sense before but it was too weak to curb his soul sense in the surface above. It was the same here, and down to a hundred kilometers. After that point did the fog ultimately curb his soul sense, making it incredibly slow and scrambled.

Given that something is suspicious about the entire fog, he walked towards one of the vines that were present and took hold of it into his grasp.

There were no thorns on the vine, it just felt like a rope to hold. It felt alive but that was it. It looked as if it were the same as any plant life present in the mountains.

Davis pursed his lips and penetrated his soul sense into the vine and then he discovered that it visibly trembled.

It was nothing of concern since all plant-lifeform would so some kind of reaction but Davis became astonished that it could react to his High-Level Mature Soul Stage soul sense which could actually compare to the extreme peak of the Mature Soul Stage or could even compare to near Supreme Soul Stage's soul sense.

He became increasingly curious and sent his soul sense as he traced the vine towards the underground. 

One kilometer...

Two, three. ten, twenty kilometers...

Davis's expression became solemn.

The more his soul sense invaded the extremely long vines, the slower and heavy it became, just like encountering the quagmire of that foggy substance.

His soul sense made it to fifty kilometers before he turned shocked. His soul sense could still follow the vine but he no longer tried to do so since he felt that he had almost neared his limit.

This vine actually stretched more than fifty kilometers underground, perhaps even a hundred kilometers like the fog. He took a deep breath and let go of the vine, not willing to disturb it anymore.

This vine has been present for who knows how long, giving the mountain the name, Sunset Tear Mountain.

He believed that the vine definitely led to an enormous monster, capable of causing disasters!

'A Peak-Level King Grade Lifeform? No! It's probably at the Low-Level or perhaps even at the Mid-Level Emperor Grade!'

Davis thought and took a deep breath again as he left this place. He was no fool and could instantly tell this was why perhaps the Ethren Empire hadn't laid a hand on this vine.

Perhaps they had tried before but no longer dared to do so since they haven't had enough manpower or the guts to do so.

"Or it is also possible that they don't have Soul Forging Cultivators like me... Mature Soul Stage Cultivators were probably non-existent in the Ethren Empire's line up."

"As for those who are at Mature Soul Stage, perhaps, the elders of the Thousand Pill Palace Branch and the likes, they are probably busy." 

Fortunately, he realized his own weakness and didn't probe deeply or it could be better said that he was unable to probe as his soul sense reached its limit, being heavily obstructed by the fog and the vine.

The fog extended a hundred kilometers underground, hence, he felt that he stood a long way from meeting danger by just probing the vines.

Davis mused as he arrived above and exited the lair.

"Good work on protecting Evelynn..." Davis patted Nadia's fur with his palm.

She was a hulking nine-meter tall female wolf, however, she sat comfortably on the surface while Evelynn sat above a branch on a nearby tree.

"Hmph! Took you long enough..." Evelynn snorted with a displeased expression on her face.

Davis chuckled on seeing that she was irritated. 

Normally, she would have curiously asked what he had obtained but now... He understood why since his actions were rather over the limit and erotic as he tightly embraced her pleasured her nape and the sides of her neck to death.

He glanced up and saw that the dark clouds had already dispersed. Contrary to what they thought, it didn't rain. A while ago the dark clouds had already become scarce so Davis already deemed that it would not rain.

That said, he could see that dusk is nearing as the skies have darkened, giving off a crimson glow.

In a few minutes, sunset would shine and the Sunset Tear Phenomenon would occur. Fortunately, they did not need to worry since there were no visible vines nearby that could affect them.

"Let us settle down here for the time being..." Davis commented as he shook his head.