Feng Xin kept heading to the west side of the swamp showing no signs of stopping even with the unexpected stalkers cautiously following him at a distance.

This play kept on going before Feng Xin stopped at a spot that had a small round clearing. It wasn’t covered with vines and the trees here were thinner compared to the rest of the trees he had come across as he was making his way to the Green fog swamp sect.

“This place should be okay.” Feng Xin silently thought to himself as he removed his sword still sheathed from his waistband. The creatures on noticing Feng Xin take out his weapon, also halted their advancement cautiously eyeing Feng Xin at a distance.

“A corroding heron, an iron shot frog, rainbow mist toad that’s an interesting one the alchemist at the order would love to have it. It’s a walking trove of alchemy ingredients. This swamp really is an alchemy’s paradise. An iced beak egret is here too, looks my trip here would not be wasted. It will pair well with Yang Qing’s vermilion fruit wine. A mirage dragonfly too, I hope I can capture it alive might be a fine addition to the beast tamer hall of the order either that or I can always feed it to Ellie.

Mmmh what are these two doing in the same proximity? I must be a really tempting prize for them to willingly be within a few hundred meters of each other. The green flash viper and the rapid snapper cotton mouth. Their blood should be enough to make a few jars of the hundred potency spirit wine. Lastly our main pleasant surprise, the green flowered babirusa. I wonder why it’s even bothering to hide. Vision may be obstructed in this place, but that thing is a walking mountain. It sticks out like a sore thumb in this place.

But that size slurp...how many tonnes of meat is that? I could even trade some of it with a few mess halls to be taken off their blacklist. Those bastards, I don’t even eat that much. Just a few hundred kilograms of food a day. Where is their chef's Dao heart? It should be a chef’s dream to find someone who enjoys their cooking and can’t get enough of it as I do. They have the nerve to report me saying that I caused some of them to develop mental demons due to my eating habits. How dare they when it is the complete opposite? Ever since I started frequenting those mess halls the rate of cultivation breakthroughs from those chefs increased. I should be an honored guest instead of being blacklisted and getting called a food fiend and a gluttony worm.

Mmmh they all seem to be within an acceptable range. The green flash viper is a rather cunning one. It is still laying at the back leaving the encirclement to the rest. By their spacing, they seem rather wary of each other too. Looks like they are not a united front. It’s understandable seeing how treacherous this place is. To have survived this long to their level, cunning and strength must have played a part. They are all in the core formation realm and any one of them who can successfully devour the other has a high chance of advancing their cultivation realms.

Well, their distrust for each other works in my favor as dealing with them individually will have less strain on me than defeating them when working together. But it is still rather strange for a bunch of core formation spirit beasts to be together in one place in such a short amount of time. If this was a common thing the green fog swamp sect may have been raided even though I think the sect master may be able to hold off a few of them. Maybe it is Ellie’s cry that alerted them to an intruder. That damn bird.” Feng Xin silently thought to himself.

As the core formation spirit beasts were debating whether to encircle Feng Xin, he picked up a few leaves that were floating on the green murky water below. The moment the leaves were in contact with his hands they changed from their green color into completely white with their composition seeming glass-like as opposed to their earlier look.

“These should be enough.” Said Feng Xin as he threw those white glass-like leaves in the air as he rapidly unsheathed his sword that was just as pure white as the scabbard it was sheathed in.

“Flowing leaves of eternal winter.” Feng Xin silently muttered as he rotated his sword in a gentle slow counterclockwise manner hitting each of the falling leaves at different points with the tip of his long sword. A thin white misty coating surrounded the leaves the moment they were in contact with the sword.

Once the last leaf was coated with the misty aura, all the leaves suddenly froze midair before they explosively flew in different directions leaving a trailing white light in their wake. Their speed was as if a midpoint explosion had blown them away with tremendous force.

The stalking creatures rapidly reacted as they each felt a scary force of death that came from each of those leaves that seem to accurately pinpoint where each of them was.

The iron shot frog who was the closest was the first to be targeted by one of the leaves. The frog was almost 2 meters tall with a black metallic shin to it. It rapidly jumped up to try and dodge the incoming leaf as its throat swelled and it rapidly spit out a needle-shaped water shot that was dark in color like its skin. This was an innate skill of the frog. It was named the iron shot frog because that shot it produced was hard and sharp enough to penetrate the skin of an early stage core formation expert or pierce through armor in the lower tier of sky rank.

The shot from the iron shot frog quickly struck the incoming leaf however, it was blown apart easily causing no reduction in speed. The leaf was soon upon the iron shot frog before it was penetrated through and through in its mouth as it tried to shoot another iron shot. The force from the leaf dragged it back smashing it into the nearby trees as the leaf went on with unstoppable momentum penetrating every tree in its path before finally disappearing as broken shards of crystals.

The other creatures had no time to register the quick demise of the iron shot frog as they too were soon bombarded by the other rapidly flowing leaves.

The corroding heron was targeted by 3 leaves. The heron was a few meters shorter than the cloud-swallowing kite in height. However, the heron was still bigger than most of the animals present. Unlike normal herons, this one was a mix of dark green and black in color with a swollen gland at the base of its neck. It spout a huge wave of green black liquid targeting those 3 leaves aimed at it. That wave melted everything in its path inclusive of the trees before it soon covered the 3 leaves. The green-black wave was frozen solid upon making contact with the leaves before 2 of the remaining leaves penetrated the now green-black block of ice nailing both the wings of the heron and even causing it to be torn halfway on both sides due to the force before finally being nailed further back to a tree.

The ice-beaked egret was also locked on by the leaves however unlike the heron it was targeted by a single leaf that seemed a bit smaller than the rest but had a thicker misty aura covering it. The egret like its name had a beak that was pure white with a crystalline texture to it. The beak at this moment was producing mist similar to the ones on the leaves but on a much wider range. It screeched as a white mist was produced along with that screech.

The mist froze everything in its path including the ground. It was attempting to freeze the leaf. The mist soon reached the leaf however what the ice-beaked egret had expected to happen didn't happen. All the mist upon reaching a few inches from the leaf vanished completely with the leaf now having a faint blue hue to it. The egret in stubbornness blew a larger wave of mist at it only for the same thing to happen again only this time it made the leaf bluer than before. The egret sensed the danger level it felt from the leaf had now increased further. It quickly turned and attempted to fly away narrowly evading the now blue leaf that ended up a few inches below it. The egret put a faint smirk as it thought it was successful in its escape before a blinding thin white light struck the blue leaf and shattered it into tiny glowing blue particles that spread everywhere, especially around the egret.

The pupils of the egret froze in fear as it detected massive danger to its life. It tried to ignite its blood to increase the speed of its escape but it was too late. Everything within it and around it froze. Its qi circulation, blood, and even its thoughts were all completely frozen. It couldn’t move. Within a km of the egret, everything was encased in a massive block of ice with the iced beak egret at the center of it.

“Hehehe too naïve trying to play with ice in front of me.” Said Feng Xin as he sheathed his sword.

Now only the green flash viper, the rapid snapper cotton mouth, the mirage dragonfly, the coveted rainbow mist toad, and the green flowered babirusa were left. However, they too had their leaves to deal with.