Poison God's Heritage

"Projection?" I questioned.

"Something similar, call it… a will," he said.

"I suppose everyone who clears this trial ends up meeting you," I asked.

Du Shen shook his head, "No, I placed a condition for this will to appear, and it only appears when one manages to do what even I couldn\'t," he said.

"To save Mei Ling," I said.

"Exactly," he replied a smirk on his face.

"So, why are you here?" I asked. "I don\'t suppose you\'re here to declare me as your true and only heir," I said.

"Not so fast, only the one who gains my acknowledgment gets to own the omnibus," He said

"Then why are you here? There is more to this trial I suppose," I said.

"Yes, I\'m here to say that you should give up, you won\'t obtain the inheritance," he said.

"That does not sound pretty convincing of an argument for me to give up," I said.

"Then you\'ll die," he said.

"I\'ve come here expecting that outcome, only the weak perish," I said.

"You\'re not even from this world, your whole existence is unregistered in this world. You\'re not part of the vast expanse, you will not survive," he said.

"You talk a big game for someone who couldn\'t even save his girl, Du Shen," I replied.

A smidgen of annoyance was clear on his face, but he sighed. "Then so be it, I warned you, and you failed to see my warning," he said.

"Then you shouldn\'t have come here in the first place, I\'m not someone who is easily persuaded, and you\'re nothing but a ghost, you have no influence over this world, or how it works, a relic of the past, you died and your heritage is all that is left, let the younger generation claim it and make a name for themselves. You who failed in a task so easy shouldn\'t have the right to talk so much shit."

Du Shen trailed for a moment before he said, "Though I failed in saving her, I made this whole thing for that purpose, I couldn\'t lock her soul out of the wheel of reincarnation, but I did the second-best thing. I locked figments of her will in all of the copies all of you are facing, and I only needed one person to save her, thus I waited, even after my own death, I waited, and now you\'ll see why," he said.

"The hell are you talking about?" I questioned.

"You shall know soon Shen Bao, for now, since you saved she who is my most beloved, I must reward you lest my Dao Heart shatters for being treacherous. You may take that book with you, for as long as you can hold on to it, for I shall come for it," the words spoken and the world itself shone brightly as I found myself alone in the massive platform that allowed us to enter the next trial.

In my hand was the golden book I got from the trial, so I packed it inside my holding bag.

Not more than a few minutes later a female cultivator appeared right next to me, she looked a bit confused, and before she could even talk her entire body began shaking and shuddering, her whole being seemed to be convulsing, her veins began rippling and her face began disfiguring.

"H-HELP ME!" she screamed as her entire body was remodeled… remodeled in the shape of someone I knew.

"Mei Ling?" I muttered and suddenly the person who now had the appearance of Mei Ling took a deep breath, sighed then looked at me.

She tilted her head and asked, "Who are you? What is this place?" she asked.

Not before I could even put one and one together, a ghostly apparition, far too similar to DU Shen\'s own appearance came to us.

"Finally my love, we meet," he spoke.

And before Mei Ling could even reply, the ghostly apparition waved its hand and the two of them disappeared, before the ghost gave me a sly grin.

"The fuck is happening here…" 

Some time later, Dao Shen was the first to appear, he smiled as he looked around, "That was thrilling," he said as he looked at me.

"Oh, you\'re actually faster than me, how did your trial go?" he asked.

"Oh, pretty annoying to be honest, wait, why are you looking all giddy up and happy? Something good happened?" I asked him.

"Yes, I had my fill of fighting stronger opponents, it\'s been a while since I fought someone while I\'m at a disadvantage," he said grinning ear to ear.

"You fought the Fire Lord?" I asked.

"Who?" he questioned.

"The ascendant," I replied.

"Oh, no wonder he was familiar, I only know the fire lord from verbal description. But yes," he said.

"You\'re alive…" I questioned.

"So are you," he said, "Since you mentioned the fire lord you must have faced him too, so how long did you survive for?" he asked.

"Survive? I killed him," I replied.

Du Shen frowned looked at me and somewhat seemed to look beyond me.

"You\'re not telling lies I can see… how did you manage that?" 

"Like I said I have my tricks, but it wasn\'t easy. Anyway for you, you said you survived, meaning that you ended up being dunked into the poison pool," I said.

Dao Shen shuddered, "Yes, I really hate the fact that I got put into that pool again. One is one time more than anyone should ever have to be in that pool." He said.

"Yeah, what about Mei Ling?" I asked.

"Oh, I killed her, that bitch was very annoying, she talked way too much," he said.

I didn\'t have a reply for that…

"More people are coming out," he said.

Many cultivators came forward, fear and complete distraught clear on their face.

I suppose having their meridians destroyed and then forcefully being dunked into the Poison Pool did a number on them.

Not a long while later it seemed that no more cultivators were coming out. From the two thousand and some cultivator no more than five hundred made it. And we seem to still have more ways to go about this trial.

Looking around, I was surprised to not see a certain cultivator.

"You\'re looking for Shi Situ?" asked Dao Shen hitting the nail on the head.

"Yes, can\'t find that slimy ass anywhere, and here he was bragging about killing me," I said.

"Look no further," Dao Shen said as he was looking at a scared looking cultivator.

When my eye landed on the cultivator, something happened. As if a black snake seemed to emerge from his neck, twisted around it and then snapped it. 

The man fell to the ground immediately, and suddenly his whole body began eroding and corroding, turning from a healthy young looking man to an old corpse that barely had any sings of life in it.

Maggots grew from inside the corpse\'s body and began eating it as the corpse that was half a skeleton and half rotten meat stood up.

It snapped its head back in position and looked around.

"Damn, that\'s nasty…"

"He had an insurance plan, impressive though cowardly," said Dao Shen.

"What do you mean by an insurance plan?" I asked.

"He tagged several cultivators before he entered the trial, and he left an imprint of his soul on them. So I guess he failed in the trial, and used his backup, emerging here again…"

"I guess even without the Poison God\'s Heritage of Death he still has many tricks up his sleeves," I said.

"Yes, that\'s why we, the Poison God cultivators are not that easy to kill, though he is a special case, since he isn\'t a cultivator, but a rogue Acolyte," Dao Shen said.

"I should have consumed him when I had the chance, sadly that bastard Mao caught me off guard. I guess I\'ll have to find another way around that tricky cultivation method of his," I said.

"You\'re the only one who talks about eating Acolytes like they\'re snacks," Dao Shen said.

"Better than eating entire planets you damn glutton," I jested.

Dao Shen smiled at my joke and the two of us immediately snapped our heads to the north.

Something was happening on the other side of the platform. 

The whole world seemed to rumble as what appeared to be hordes of creatures were making their way toward us.

"Something is coming," Dao Shen said.

And the first of the running group was a pack of Steel Fanged wolves, they were coming at breakneck speeds.

Looking at their expressions, their tails behind their legs as they ran and their floppy ears… they were running away from something.

"Something is coming alright, and it\'s fearsome enough to scare those pups, we\'re in trouble," I said as I pulled out my sword.

"I guess you\'re right," Dao Shen said as he stood with his arms behind his back, waiting for what is to come.