Edward sensed with his Soul Perception the poison from the vial entered their bodies and started attacking the plant that is growing within. The Life Taker seemed to reel back in panic like an animal that accidentally touched flames. But the poison from the mire is something that even immortals would fear, and it quickly latched on and spread across everything it touched.

The Life Taker, a living poison, felt severely threatened by this new foreign substance. It could tell that its preys, Alan and Jim, would soon be snatched away and it ferociously bared its fangs like a starved beast.

Following its retaliation, the poison from the swarm started invading the Life Taker itself, while the latter continuously grew while trying to wear its enemy down.

The poison from the mire thinned as the Life Taker ceaselessly diluted it, but the deadly plant also started to lose ground.

At the end, when the swamp poison reached the Life Taker’s roots, everything was used up, and both vanquished each other.

This could only happen thanks to Kairos’ delicate handling of the amount he let Alan and Jim ingest. If he had overdosed the content, they would be killed by the swamp poison instead, and if the amount is too little, the Life Taker would have survived and quickly turn the two into new sprouts.

After the Life Taker died, a miraculous thing happened. Alan and Jim started recovering quickly like inflated balloons; their skin became clear and smooth once again. A radiant glowed from within, seemingly even more vibrant than before.

Curious to find out what happened, Kairos sent a trace of Origin Energy into his two unconscious friends. He was shocked to find that their life energy had strengthened significantly - Almost fifty percent of what they had before!

The improvement may not feel much when a practitioner at least a fold stronger from increasing in rank, but in fact, it is tremendously beneficial. So much so that if others know that there is a way to improve their vitality, they might murder even their own brothers for it.

With more life force, one can heal from wounds more serious than before, have faster recovery, and generally last longer. Just a tiny improvement could make the difference between life or death in a fight.

Furthermore, for Origin Cultivators, it means that their Infusion ability will be able to sustain for much longer. Most importantly, life energy restores itself extremely slowly, so any form of an increase in capacity will help immensely in the long run.

In an ironic turn of events, the poison that once gobbled up their life force now nurtured it.

The Life Taker that is a parasitic plant is also covered with deadly poison reproduces by taking root in its host. It invades and travels through one’s bloodstream until it turns the person or animal into a new Life Taker.

However, what makes it so frightening that cause it to be placed on the ranked poison list as number seven is it’s overwhelming life force, which can be seen from its rapid growth rate to wear out the poison from the mire.

When its roots died, all these life energies flowed into Alan and Jim, becoming part of them.

A short moment later, the two sat back up like nothing had happened. They wiped the saliva off their mouths and gave Kairos and Edward an apologetic smile.

“Wow… It looks like we finally found it!” Alan said excitedly, already forgotten how he was frothing from the mouth moments ago.

Jim, of course, had an animated look on his face. He could feel the changes within himself and cannot believe how they gained such a benefit by randomly eating herbs.

“Looks like the myths were correct!”

“Found what?” Kairos asked with a voice that demanded answers.

“Oh! Kairos, you should try some too!” Alan offered a small piece of Life Taker, retrieved from his Time-Space Ring and said, “This thing is the miraculous cultivation boosting herb that the stories always mentions. If you ate this, you can be like us. Heh heh!”

“Like how you almost lost your lives?”

“Lost our lives…? Haha, you’re so humorous, I feel much better than before, how could it be deadly?”

“That’s the used-to-be incurable poison that you’re holding, ranked seven, the Life Taker,” Lugh explained, instantly making their faces turn white.

“No way, if this is one of the top ten impossible poisons, how are we still alive?”

Lugh turned towards Kairos; he is also curious about how this miracle took place.

“You’re fortunate that the Life Taker is a braggart. It claimed that where it came from, there is nothing that it could not infest. Only the black waters it needs to avoid.”

“Hold up! Are you saying you can talk to the plants?” Lugh is extremely astonished. If one can uncover the secrets of spirit herbs this way, the potential is simply immeasurable.

“Hahaha, talk to plants? That’s unbelievable…,” Kairos dismissed it with a laugh, clearly saying that he wouldn’t answer the question as he kept the leftover Life Taker. The portion Alan saved up is perfect for Kairos, Edward, and Tommy.

The group spent the rest of their time searching for the spirit herbs they needed. Already frightened by how they almost died, the two no longer put everything they found in their mouths, but having seen how they easily found spirit herbs, Luciette and Lugh requested them to continue taking the lead.

After a while, the group had completed their task without any more incidents. Until the moment they need to leave the gorge, the two were still gleeful over the vibrant life energy they had gained. But while they were exiting, after everyone stepped past, the gates suddenly activated and barred the two.

“Wha… why did they activate the barrier?” Jim asked as he pounded on the invisible energy wall.

A stern-faced guard saw this from far away and walked over staring steely at them, “You twerps must have purposely stolen from the site. Wait here while we find out what you did.”

After saying that in a deathly tone, he took out a small crystal ball and started manipulating the screens on it.

“Welcome to the monitoring systems. What would you like to access?” the viewing crystal politely asked. A powerful family like the Steel Rose would have an Artefact Soul imbued into their more important surveillance systems.

The guard responded normally, like it was something common, sneering when the boys stared wide-eyed in curiosity at him, “Bring up today’s records.”

“A moment please, sir.”

A series of scenes flashed across the crystal ball, beginning from morning until it reached the point where the students entered the gorge. When the guard pin-pointed Jim and Alan, he tapped the screen and halted the picture.

“Focus on these two,” he indicated to the Artefact Soul before the pictures resumed.

This time, the screen is zoomed in on the two, and followed their every step. The crystal ball started vibrating every now and then, becoming a hum that created audible voices. Everything that happened during the three hours they were in the gorge had been recorded. The guard fast forward until he saw Alan and Jim consumed their first spirit herb.

“You thieves, did you think no one will notice? You will regret touching the things of a Great Noble.”

He happily made a note of the herb then continued speeding up the video. After a short while, a frown etched on his face when he spotted another spirit herb being consumed and the healer in their group promptly saving them again.

“Preposterous! Not only are you thieves, but you also planned to damage the spirit herbs in our gorge.

I don’t know which family you came from, but you will regret challenging the Steel Rose House.”

Of course, he did not know that even his family head, Floretinus, dared not touch Kairos’ men.

He scrutinised their every activity, with a frown deepening on his brow from every herb that was ate as he busied jotting them down. And with every word he wrote, he sneered happily.

With his expression repeatedly changing from a sneering grin to a deep frown, the custodian’s face seemed like a living entity separate from himself.

Instead of becoming guilty, Alan and Jim started staring at the guard intensely with great interest.

The guard, on the other hand, felt a strange sense of satisfaction.

"So what if you may be born in a good noble family and groomed with the best resources? Just watch me. Even if you are some spoilt brats that are placed on the pedestal by your parents, you can only take a knee in front of me. Hahaha!"

As a ‘mere guard’, he may be lowly and unimportant in the Steel Rose house, but here in this place, even members of other great nobles could do nothing except watch him. After all, it’s not the guard dog but the master of the house that mattered.

“His face is so interesting… Hey, do you think he is bipolar?” Alan asked Jim without much concern about the situation they are in.

The guard almost coughed blood out. The frown on his face deepened once more, but it only sent Jim into a hysterical laughter.

“I think he might be possessed… With that kind of creepy smile for us, I’m sure it is a paedophile-turned-evil spirit.”

“Do these two twerps fail to understand the situation they are in?! Fine! I will make them regret laughing at me!”

The guard made plans to extort them. After all, no matter how indignant he felt, he couldn’t directly go against any of those rich heirs. And students that can get into the pill making class surely has a formidable background.

But, when the video showed the last herb the two ate, the frown on his face deepened like never before, croaking, “T… this… this is impossible!”

“No no… it’s your face that’s impossible,” Alan replied, though obviously distracted by how much the guard could scrunch up his face, “You… don’t seem to have a limit to switching expressions… Are you really a human?”

“Enough on that! How did you survive this?”

The guard tapped the screen with more strength then he intended, and picture enlarged on the Life Taker.

“This is a ranked poison!”

“Are ranked poisons a big deal?” Jim asked seriously. While others may felt astonished, but it is hard to impress the boys anymore. Are you kidding? Even the best healers couldn’t find an antidote, but the poison still must bend its head to their big brother Kairos.

In their eyes, this isn’t anything out of the norm.

Unfortunately, the others wouldn’t think this way, and Kairos instantly rolled his eyes - an action that he suspect he will be repeating for years to come.

Kairos had yet the chance to tell his friends about the Earth Mother Gaia and warn them how much a miracle it was for them to survive the Life Taker. If they acted suspicously right now, the two could face some... troubles.

He isn’t afraid of his ability to talk to plants and spirit ores being exposed since there is too little evidence around. However, in his haste to save the two dumbasses, he couldn’t make any preparations beforehand.

With the bad blood they had with the Steel Rose family before, the two may be used to try and force out his secrets as revenge.

"Oh well, what's the worst that could happen?"

The guard that is ignoring them started playing the video again. This time, even more, determined than before to uncover the truth. He carefully followed every word that was ever spoken in the group.