The toad immediately hid back inside its cave. The poison god's book began shaking, almost exited. I placed my hand on my chest and received a mental note.

***

Blight Bearing Toad.

A creature that is most suitable to accompany you disciple of mine. A Blight Bearing Toad is the best furnace to condense and store some of the most lethal poison in the world, in a certain sense the Blight Bearing Toad almost holds the same ability as me and you, but it has a poor battling prow. That is unless it ascends and it can become a harbinger of pestilence and doom.

I have also raised a Blight Bearing Toad and it proved extremely useful to my ventures, sadly it had died when I faced against a fearsome foe, Ruler of the Rain Realm, Tian Yu as it gave its life in order to protect mine and inflicted several diseases and sicknesses upon my enemy.

Though it would have been a great boon to your arsenal if you were to have a Blight Bearing Toad as a companion, it cannot be this one, as it seems to have reached the end of its natural life span and it had failed to cultivate to the next level. Though be warned, this very toad seems to have many poisons and diseases within it and I'm sure some of them are more powerful than your current cultivation realm that they could outright annihilate you.

***

Now, this is kinda worrisome, not the fact that the Blight Bearing Toad is hella powerful, but the book seems to be more and more sentient, could the Poison God really be dead? How come the book be able to perfectly analyze and describe events that I just encountered if the owner is dead?

But I'm in a world of cultivation so nothing is far-fetched, it could be a figment of the owner's memories and analysis hidden within the book, this figment is enough to have a simple comprehensive and understanding conscious within the book. But I should be a bit wary, I don't like keeping things that could think for themselves, lest it would influence me to do things I don't want.

I decided to pay more attention to the book's interventions from now on, though it never brought me disadvantages, I wouldn't blindly trust the book from now on, I'll at least take a careful look at the options it presents me before acting.

Now with the Blight Bearing Toad here, it would be pretty hard for me to infiltrate and steal the rose. But if I stay here I'll definitely be noticed by the cultivators behind me.

Then I had a thought, a pretty nasty crazy thought, so crazy that it might just work. I grinned as I went into the cave, and took note of the whole area, I made sure to make light steps and not use any Qi, even my own poison Qi as it would undoubtedly notify the toad.

Once I peered into the cave, I managed to memorize the layout. There was a rose alright, it was pretty big, as big as a human in fact, and the toad seemed to be happily resting by its side. It looked right and left every few seconds, careful of its surroundings it seemed that the toad had sensed me arriving, and instead of going out to look for me, it decided to stay right next to its 'treasure' and wait for me to act first.

The cave was vast but had several groves and rocks protruding all over it, good hiding spots. Also behind the toad, there seemed to be a passage that led deeper inside the cave layout that's where the Heart Flame should be as I could feel heat surging from that entrance.

Damn smart little bugger. The toad was as large as a damn elephant, so little was not a perfect description, and it looked lazy as it gazed at the rose, mesmerized by it.

Thankfully due to the size of the toad, if I make it into the cave behind it, it won't be able to chase after me. But I'm not gonna bet my life on that, the toad could easily break the cave and hunt me down, that's of course if it didn't want to just outright split me in half with its massive tongue.

Back to my task, in fact, it's easy to destroy the rose, it would be pretty simple, especially with my revolver. But I need the rose, I could use it in making a few pills that will help me a lot in my cultivation. But how to get the toad out of its cave will not be easy.

Suddenly, I heard a few booms and echoes outside the cave, it seems that the cultivators and demons sent by Vitra'Ghoul are nearby.

The toad reared up and then sat back down, it decided that it would stay and guard its treasure than try and leave. I'm more than certain that the toad knows I'm here and would rather remain here than be lured outside.

Pesky little bugger. I kept hiding until I sensed a divine sense scrying around me, but the moment it came in contact with me, it recoiled as my Sky Pearl sent the user of the divine sense painful images of death and torture.

I heard a loud yelp from outside, thankfully the yelp gave me a few seconds as the Toad warily glanced at the entrance and I was able to move even deeper into the cave and hid far away from the toad.

Suddenly, I saw a few shadows entering the cave, and then the toad angrily stood up and croaked loud enough that the whole cave shuddered.

"This is the toad lord Vitra warned us about, ready the formation," the first man said, he looked like a cultivator that came from a prominent sect, especially with all of his white and heavily decorated sect robes."

A few other cultivators stepped in, all of them holding small flags.

The first cultivator added, "Don't use divine sense, the toad seems to be able to retaliate. It will break your will." He said.

Thankfully the Sky Pearl inscription helped me there, they don't seem to have noticed my presence, and if I keep hidden I'll be able to fish in muddy waters. What's the proverb? When the clam and the catfish fight, it's the fisherman who profits… or something like that.

I kept watch on the standoff, but the toad didn't even seem bothered with the few cultivators, it simply croaked like a regular dumb toad, then when one of the cultivators planted the first flag, his head flew off.

I couldn't even see it, but the toad's tongue was so damn fast that the cultivator didn't even have time to react.

"HURRY!" the cultivator in white said as the rest of the cultivators used defensive treasures, and dashed around the cave planting flags.

One of the cultivators was so close to me, that if he just turned his head he'll spot me, but his fear from the frog so encroached in his mind he didn't have time to take a look at his surroundings.

Once all the flags were placed, and three more demons and cultivators were dead, the man in white struck the last flag on the ground, creating an array of sorts that began pressing against the toad's skin. Even then, the toad didn't seem too bothered.

"This will hold the toad in place, increase the strength of the flags, once the toad is immobile we'll retrieve the rose!" the cultivator said.

Suddenly, a few of the pustules on the frog burst open from the pressure. Blue liquid poured from the frog's skin and dripped to the ground melting it, and from the blue liquid, a paler blue gas began emitting from it, slowly creeping on the ground and air.

"Use the anti-poison pills!" the first cultivator said and they all chugged in a few pills.

I didn't have any anti-poison pills, but this blue poison didn't seem that dangerous, as soon as it made contact with me, it felt as if I was being energized with a sweet-scented incense stick.

"Damn, what a powerful poison, even with the anti-poison pills, I'm still having a hard time circulating my Qi," one of the cultivators said.

"Just hold, we'll crush this toad in no time, thankfully it's an arrogant creature and rarely thinks anyone can survive its poison, its own arrogance will be its demise." The decorated cultivator said.

And he was right, the toad didn't yet seem to be bothered with the cultivators, until another pustule burst, and an even stronger poison emitted from it.

The poison tis time was purple in color and was far faster than the blue one, it shot out like arrows into the nostrils of a cultivator that was too focused on feeding the array with his Qi than to protect himself.

The poison immediately seeped into his nostrils. The cultivator's eyes turned red, and he roared, his muscles grew disproportionally as if he had taken an anima-sized shot worth of steroids.

The man screeched and roared then pointed his sword at the closest cultivator.

But the cultivator in white immediately ate a pill and shot at the berserker, decapitating him in a second then asked another cultivator to take his place.

The frog finally began to think that these cultivators are a threat, as it croaked loud and began assessing his situation.

"Add more power!" the cultivator in white said and the rest of the cultivators added more qi into their array, forcing the frog to lay flat on its stomach.

"We'll take it out in no time, keep it under!" the cultivator said.

'Seems like they've exhausted a lot of their power,' I judged, 'It would be a shame if I were to intervene right now, a real shame…'

My grin was too much for me to hide as I slowly approached the closest cultivator.