Poison God's Heritage

The people around the arena where I stood were all shocked and stupefied. Unable to understand what was going on at first. But then another man stood out saying, "Nice tricks you got there, mind if I take you on?!"

His words finished with him jumping on the arena and challenging me. The man had a ragged appearance. And stank of alcohol, you could smell it from a mile away.

He also carried a polearm that was the only thing that was 'clean' on his body.

Most of his clothes were torn in many places and patched in others and he seemed to not have taken a shower in the last decade.

But, that wasn't enough to fool me. His cultivation base was at the Origin Realm. He wasn't someone weak or to be trifled with.

"Are you both ready?" asked the referee.

To which I nodded and the man expressed his agreement by twirling his polearm and slapping it tight under his armpit, pointing one of its ends towards me while his other hand was in fist form tucked under his chest.

"Are you not going to use your weapon?" he asked as the two of us kept staring at each other.

"Why should I? Only a fool would fall for such a thing after seeing it," I said.

"I guess you're smarter than you look," he said.

"I should be the one saying that," I replied, "But sadly, you're not."

The man immediately jumped backwards and began spinning his polearm in front of him, creating a cyclone like wind that pushed the air aside.

"That was close!" he added.

"I'm surprised you noticed," I said.

The people around us were all confused.

They had no idea what just transpired, but for an acute eye, or someone with good foundation in cultivation they would have noticed the poison on the arena floor.

I had released it from my body when the match started, slowly and invisibly a powerful and potent poison that would knock anyone down. But this guy saw through it right before it touched him.

"Seeing as you're a poison master, fighting you at range is nothing but suicide!" he said and charged forward.

I immediately pulled Creeping Demise, the needle-like sword with an arrow-like tip. A weapon that would look to the unaware as nothing more than a tool used to prick people. However, for a man of higher understanding, that thing was devastating.

The polearm user thrust bladed part of his weapon towards me, releasing a powerful Qi blade that shaped itself into mightier, bigger, and far more threatening energy. A gigantic blade made of Qi.

For the people looking my puny sword wouldn't be able to block or parry the incoming swing. However, one shouldn't judge things by size, especially if my sword is a grower, not a shower.

With a single swing of Creeping Demise, the sword's small stature instantly enlarged itself, manifesting itself into the shape of a gigantic horned serpent made of pure metal.

The serpent's maw opened and closed instantly against the incoming sword wave, crushing it and crunching it inside it. In another case, in another situation, this wouldn't have happened.

The difference between my and his cultivation is like heaven and earth. While I'm far weaker, he is far stronger. But since he can't use Origin Qi, he had to lower the power of his attack to the Void Shattering Stage.

And only because of that was I able to destroy his attack. Though for him, this isn't more than a simple attack, for the onlookers to see a Void Stage cultivator defeat an Origin Stage cultivator was something out of this world.

I say defeat not because of me simply beating one of his moves, but because my sword was just about to start.

The jaws of the serpent opened up and blasted a powerful dose of poison cloud forward.

The polearm user folded back twirling his weapon once again to blast away the poison.

Seeing the poison about to seep out of the stage I was about to withdraw it not to cause unnecessary damage to the spectators. However, the man who was managing the stage simply pulled a small disk and pressed on a couple of formations on it. A massive cube-like formation appeared all around the stage fully closing us inside.

"Oh… this is rather unlucky for you," I mentioned.

"Quite unfortunate!" the polearm user said. "With me closed in here, your poison should have better odds of trapping me, but sadly you don't have enough poison to do so!" he said and simply used more power to funnel the poison aside pushing it all towards me and behind me, leaving himself safe.

"Well, I guess one serpent isn't enough to fully trap you here," I said.

"Indeed!" he said as he was preparing to charge at me again.

"Then how about eight more!" I said and injected Creeping Demise with more of my Poison Qi.

The base of the sword erected eight more serpents of the same size as the first one, creating what looked like the heads of a nine-headed hydra. They opened their jaws and spat out incredible loads of poison all around me. Of all types and forms and colors. Liquid, gaseous and eve incendiary poison, all spread out and covered the whole inside of the cube.

The poison was thick and dense enough that no matter how much the opponent tried to push it away, it kept creeping up on him.

"Fuck!" he cursed as he was backing away from the incoming and incessant wave of poison.

And once he reached the wall of the arena he sighed, "I give up!" he firmly stated.

I frowned, he wasn't even harmed or touched by the poison yet, but he still gave up…

"You didn't even try?" I asked as I willed the poison to stop and consumed it back via the nine serpent's mouths.

"Ah, yeah, among those poisons were a couple that I don't want to deal with, especially since I still have nine more matches, man it's unfortunate that I'm badly matched against you, regardless good luck with the rest of the matches!" he said.

The referee opened a small spot for him to leave the stage while the poison inside it was all withdrew by me back into the serpents.

"Next one," the referee this time spoke up.

Seeing no one moving forward, the referee sighed and said, "If no one goes up the stage in the next ten breaths of time, a random cultivator will be forced onto the stage," he said.

I guess it is understandable, no one would actively want to fight a poison cultivator. Since they're hard to deal with, and even victory is fraught with danger. Since they can still cause irreparable damage with poison.

After ten breaths of time, the referee randomly chose one person. But the latter began protesting!

"That is unfair! I still want to watch and see, I need to come up with strategies! You must choose someone else!"

"Refusing to comply with the rules will be an immediate disqualification, you either go up on stage, or give up right there. If you choose neither, you will be fully disqualified from the competition," the referee said.

The man opened his mouth and closed it, then said, "I'd rather give up and fight others who have already lost, you guys can fight him for all I care," he said.

The referee snorted in disdain and said, "Next one, you!" he said as he pointed at an unaware man who also shrugged and said, "I'd also refuse, fighting a poison cultivator in an enclosed space is suicide."

More and more cultivators simply gave up and I was left stunned looking at the situation unfolding. Not long before I was fully given a by. Ten matches, I fought only two of them and was asked to leave the stage as everyone who was picked decided to give up rather than fight.

"Congratulations brother Du Shen, you're hereby the first to qualify to the top one hundred cultivators that should pass this trial. You may go and take a rest and wait until the rounds are done," the referee said.

"HAH!" the commentator laughed out loud enough for all to hear, "Good, you can come back and share a seat with us Brother Du Shen, your spot is still warm!" he added.

I smiled as I walked forward teleporting back into the spot next to the announcer.

"Congratulations on your victory," Eccentric Long said.

"Indeed, that was a beautiful display of poison prowess, I would have also done the same," said Xiao Du.

"Didn't you lose when you tried this the last time you partook in the Strongest Under the Sun trial?" asked Eccentric Long.

"Well, unlike brother Du Shen, I cannot fully protect myself from my own poisons. Especially the stronger ones, because not only are you trapping your opponent with you, you also trap yourself.

And in my last fight I had to use a stronger poison which harmed even me and I had to give up, that is one of the reasons why I started making the Ten Thousand Poison Pill… which I've seen some of its poisons used in that fight," Xiao Du said.

"Yeah, as long as I consume a poison, my body becomes capable of recreating it. It is one of my cultivation secrets," I said.

"What a powerful cultivation method," Xiao Du said.

"If you follow the book I gave you, you'll also be able to suppress poisons that you release," I said.

Xiao Du clasped his hands toward me and said, "I'll take your words to heart."

"Of the people on stage, who do you think will win?" the Dusking Sun who stayed with the group on the commenting area asked.

I took a quick glance at the stage and didn't see anyone worthy of note who was currently fighting. "There are a lot of hidden monsters, for now I can't say any of these people are able to win ten matches."

"I see." Replied the Dusking Sun.

"And who do you wish to see fight?" asked the Commentator.

"Brother Dao, Brother Zhang Tian, and that man," I said as I pointed at the man standing out the most on the arena floor.

The Fire King.