Poison God's Heritage

"You can\'t be telling me it\'s that easy and be done with! The curse of the Demon Visage is something that the greatest physicians of the Poison Sect and the Medicine Sect couldn\'t even figure out, and you cured it in less than a breath\'s time?!"

"Well, that\'s because you all been looking at it as a Curse, when it was not," I said.

"What do you mean? The more you speak the more confused I become," the Sect Master shook his head.

"It\'s a disease, more than it is a curse, that demonic-looking face on your arm was basically a rash, as for the disease, it was causing the troubled fluctuations of your inner Qi. So by administering a specific poison, you can immediately reverse the effects," I said.

"A poison? When did that happen?" he asked.

"When I grabbed your hand, I applied a bit of Poison Qi, it was based on a diluted version of the Breath Sealing Poison and a Berserk Blood Poison. Both these poisons combined can help your body\'s Qi fluctuation to stagnate, and increase your blood flow, this stopped the Demon Visage disease from spreading and at the same time helped your own body get rid of the sickness because the only thing that was stopping your body was the rampaging Qi fluctuations," I shrugged.

The sect master scratched his head and said, "This is becoming even more cumbersome, I was going to reward you handsomely for the Soul Wrenching Pill, but now that I\'m cured, I don\'t even know how to reward you," the sect master sighed.

"Nothing much really," I said.

"Ah, you really don\'t understand the feat you just did, do you know who is our mortal enemy?" he asked.

I shook my head.

"Right, you\'re a new inner sect member so you probably don\'t know. Though this entire planet is ruled by the poison sect, that\'s basically a lie, it\'s actually shared between two clans. Ours and the Demon Clan. They inhibit the other part of the planet." He said.

"I suppose you suffered this injury at the hands of one of these demons?" I asked.

"Not anyone, but their own sect master, we\'ve been at war with them since time immemorial. Without any of us having the upper hand, yet, with this, we can fight back again." He said.

I frowned, "Why are we fighting the Demon Clan again?" I asked.

The sect master looked at me then stared at me for a moment, and said... "I-I don\'t know..."

"Right... I\'m sure that you wouldn\'t," I said jokingly.

"No... wait, you\'re absolutely right. Why are we fighting? The poison sect, our ancestors, and their ancestors have been fighting the Demon Clan since the foundation of the Poison Clan, but we only inherited their hatred and their grudge... without ever knowing the reason why," he said.

"Ah... the monkey and the ladder..." I said.

"Is that supposed to be a joke? Because calling us or our ancestors monkeys is enough to have your head," he said.

"Sadly it\'s not a joke. It\'s reality," I said.

"How?" he asked.

"A wise man once caught five monkeys and had them placed in a room, he then placed a ladder in the middle of this room and some fruits at the top of the ladder."

"Where is this going?" asked the sect master.

"Wait until I finish," I replied.

"Go on ahead then," the Sect Master said as he poured more tea for the both of us.

"The old man then got a bucket of water and waited for the first monkey to go up the ladder to eat the fruits. He then poured water on the other four. And whenever one of the monkeys go up the ladder, he would douse the other four with water. It was so frustrating for the monkeys that they would start beating up any of the monkeys that go up the ladder so they don\'t get wet," I said then drank some tea to catch my breath.

"After a while, none of the monkeys dared to go up the ladder for fear of being beaten or doused with water. Then the old man replaced one of the monkeys with a new one. Of course, the new monkey had no idea what was going on, and when he saw the fruit on top of the ladder he tried to go up and eat. But the moment it placed its hands on the ladder, the other monkeys began beating it up. So, after several attempts, the new monkey understood that going up the ladder means to get a beating. Then the old man replaced another older monkey with a new one. What happened was interesting, when this new monkey tried to go up and eat the fruits all the other monkeys went to beat it up, along with the monkey that was replaced before this one." I said.

I tried to see if the Sect Master could figure out where I was going, but then just had to finish the story for him.

"The old man then continued replacing all the monkeys until none of the first-generation monkeys were there," I said.

"Ah, I think I understand what you mean," the sect master said.

I nodded for him to give his take.

"Since they were all replaced, none of the new monkeys actually know why they shouldn\'t go up the ladder, which was the water dousing. And all they know is to beat whoever goes up the ladder, without actually knowing why they were doing so. So you\'re saying that we\'re the new generation of monkeys, fighting against the demon clan without actually having a valid reason or purpose to our grudge and vendetta," he said.

"Something along those lines," I said.

The Sect Master smiled, "Indeed, Monkeys and Ladder. We\'re indeed monkeys who have no idea what happened before but still do the same as what our ancestors did." He then sighed, "But just because we know this, wouldn\'t mean that the situation would change, I understand that you\'re hinting at something along the lines of Truce," he said.

\'Truce? Why the hell would I think that?\' as I was about to disagree.

"Great, that\'s actually a great idea, I\'m sure that even the current Demon Clan Sect Master knows not of the reason for our grudge, we might as well use this opportunity to burry the hatchet, this war had gone on for so long for no obvious reason," he said as he stood up.

"ELDERS OF THE POISON SECT! COME FORTH!" the sect master spoke in a voice so domineering and powerful it spread through the entirety of the sect.

It didn\'t take more than a few seconds for a dozen or so elders to immediately appear in front of the sect master.

"WE GREET THE SECT MASTER!" they all said, elders, old or young, woman or man, they all clasped their hands.

"I\'ve listened to what Shen Mo had suggested, and his idea is brilliant," he said.

\'Euh, I didn\'t say shit! Stop putting words in my mouth!\' I was about to blurt that out when the sect master patted my shoulder and said, "And since you\'re the one who came up with this idea I\'ll have a great role for you for what is to come!" he said.

"I really don\'t think I\'m that crucial to whatever plan you\'re cooking!" I said trying to get away from this responsibility.

"No, you must be there, it\'s a great honor and a great merit to the sect, once you complete the mission I\'m about to give you, you\'ll be awarded with the highest merit badge of the sect, granted a meritorious achievement, and will have the full support of the Poison Sect behind you!" he said.

\'I mean this is good and all, but can you figure out a way that isn\'t involving me in these matters? this isn\'t even funny, this sect master is taking things into his own hands and including me in his own misunderstandings! I have to fix this!\'

"What is this plan you\'re talking about," asked one of the people present, unlike everyone he didn\'t seem too \'polite\' when talking to the sect master.

This man was the same person I always saw on the entrance of the Poison Sect.

"Shen Mo had proposed a truce with the Demon Clan," the Sect Master said.

\'Oh believe me I didn\'t!\'

"Did you grow senile? Why would we lower ourselves to ask for a truce, not to mention to have a truce we need to be in a position of power, with you already injured... wait, why is your Qi flow back to normal?" asked the same man.

"Sect Guardian, Because it was thanks to Shen Mo that I was cured, now do you think we don\'t have enough leverage?" the Sect Master said.

Oh so this guy is the sect guardian. So he must be the strongest person here, no wonder he speaks informally to the Sect Master.

"Interesting," the guardian said.

"So, I already thought up a plan," he said.

"And what is this plan?" asked the guardian.

"Of course, there is no better way to solve issues like a grudge than a martial arts tournament!" he said.

\'Really? Solving violence with more violence? Holy shit, these cultivators! Man!\'