Ten days passed, and during these days all I did was try and recuperate as much as I could.
The beast that belonged to the Poison Sect arrived screeching and howling its presence to all the sect members to appear.
And just as it stood on the upper mountain right outside my hut, everyone from the sect's inner sanctum arrived.
The disciples and the elders that have been left at the sect approached the beast and they all clasped their hands at the Sect Master.
"We welcome your safe arrival!" they said.
But soon, one of the elders noticed that something was off.
"Sect Master, a couple of disciples seemed to not have returned, did the Demon Sect act out in hostility?" they asked.
The Sect Master went down and said, "No, an unforeseen incident happened," he looked at the rest of the worried disciples and said.
"The truce has been established with the Demon Sect, we'll also be holding seasonal competition and friendly spar sessions along with friendly relations with the Demonic Sect. I must emphasize that all and any issue one has with the Demonic Sect to be discussed and handled in an appropriate manner, if the dispute is worthy of a battle to the death or about honor one must uphold the new rules that have been established," the sect master said and then in an even more overbearing and revibrating voice he spoke.
"From this day on, all hostilities with the Demonic Sect shall be stopped. If any of my sect members is found to be of fault with one of the Demonic Sect members and ruled to be the aggressor then they will be judged and condemned based on the severity of their infraction!"
"So, we'll just become friends with them? after all, they did to us?" the person who spoke these words was probably not the sharpest tool in the shed, since in the presence of all of these cultivators even a hushed and toned-down remark like that is as loud as his yelling it.
The Sect Master looked at the disciple in question and said, "You, do you even know the reason why we're fighting with the Demonic Sect?"
The disciple stuttered before he said, "Because they infringed upon our ancestor's land." He said.
"But this was their planet, to begin with, we're the invaders, so do you think that it was right of us to invade, kill enslave them, and then expect that they do not retaliate?" he asked.
The disciple quieted down.
"Our ancestors didn't know any better, but we're not them, we're here to forge new relations and new friendships. Anyway, From now on I expect every member of my sect to abide by the rules, if you find yourself at a disadvantage however, you may ask for an elder of any of the sects to mediate. All the elders' rulings will be forwarded to both sect masters to judge upon them. For now you are all dismissed," said the Sect Master.
Soon, the disciples dispersed but a few elders remained.
"Sect Master, what happened there? Your Qi seems destabilized," he asked.
The Sect Master sighed, "We were attacked," he said.
"By the Demonic Sect?" another elder asked.
The Sect Master Shook his head, "No, it was a foreign enemy, a Spear of the Fire Lord." He said.
The Elders looked confused, "Are you sure? The Spears of the Fire King are all King Level cultivators…you should be dead if they were to assault you," an elder said.
"That was the supposed outcome, but we were aided by a Poison God's Disciple," he said and sighed.
The elders looked at each other in confusion, "Where is he? If a Poison God cultivator was to arrive to our sect he'll be our most honored guest, after all our sect's Dharma is the Poison God's Teachings,"
The Sect Master shook his head, "I'd be ashamed to show the Poison God's disciple this shabby sect. We don't have the knowledge, ideology or even the ability to serve as their servants. Our poison knowledge is far too little compared to that person and he was only an Ascendant cultivator, but he still managed to defeat and kill a King Class cultivator with ease."
"Damn, it would have been great to forge a good relationship with them," the elder said.
"No worries, because I believe we already have, isn't that right, Shen Mo?" the Sect Master asked me.
I shrugged, "Not that I know of, I mean he isn't a bad guy."
The elders looked at me then rushed me, "Do you know him? can you have him come over, we'd love to see the Poison God's Cultivator up close," they said.
"I don't know, he's really eccentric and really does not like crowded places, if I get the chance to meet him again I'll let him know," I said.
"How do you know that person?" an elder asked.
"He aided me once, and I'm learning a few things from him," I said.
"Ah, no wonder your understanding of poison and alchemy had grown so much in the past few years, having a Poison God's cultivator as a teacher is a great blessing, but…"
"But?" I asked."
"Be careful, most if not all of them aren't really good here," he said as he tapped his head with his finger.
"You mean they're whack and crazy?" I asked.
"That's an understatement," said the Sect Master. "Poison God cultivators, or what the people call them The Acolytes of the Poison God are usually deranged people, since the books they hold to cultivate the way of the Poison God always end up consuming their hosts. Just make sure you learn as much as you can and disappear the moment you notice your master is losing his sanity or started to behave strangely."
"I'll make sure to keep that in mind," I said.
'He is not wrong though, I've already met one of these cultivators and they really were fucked up in the head. The purple skulls that possess the books are ancient cultivators of an era long gone, and since these skulls want to come back to life, the best way is to deceive and control the owners of the book and then become 'alive' by possessing their deranged bodies. Servant Mao had spoken a lot of these cultivators…'
"I heard that something happened in the Wind Realm a few years ago, it was the birthday of the Wind Realm's prince, and he had befriended a Poison God cultivator. The fact that that man was the Prince's friend tells a great deal of how powerful he is, if I remember his name was Shen Bao," said one of the elders.
"Really? It was the same name as the person who assisted us," said the Sect Master, "So our benefactor is a friend of the royal family, this is good news, we must treat them with the utmost care if we were to meet them."
"You really are lucky to have such a person as a mentor, I also heard that he was the least troublesome of the known Poison Cultivators," the elder said.
"Really, do you know any others?" I asked.
"Not really it's mostly hearsay but the one who knows the most is elder Xian of the Disciplinary hall, he is responsible for gathering information, if you wish to learn more you can ask him," he said.
"That would be something good, I suppose Shen Bao will appreciate that information," I said.
"It's rude to call your mentor by his name dryly like that, call him with honorifics," the Sect Master sternly warned.
"Oh, right, Master Shen Bao, my bad," I said as I clasped my hand feeling a bit weird having to call myself 'Master'
I headed down to the disciplinary hall and found Elder Xian busy with paperwork, so much of it he looked like he was about to lose it.
"Need something?" he said as he was writing something.
"I'm here to ask about the Poison God cultivators," I said.
He looked at me, with a frown and said, "The topic is too much for you, just drop it, it's not something that will benefit you in any way," he said.
"My Master is Shen Bao," I said.
The moment my words entered his ears, he dropped the paper in his hand and looked me straight in the eyes, "Boy, don't you dare start lying to me right now," he said.
"Since you are responsible for information gathering," I said as I pulled out Creeping Demise "You must know what this is," I said.
The moment the Elder saw the sword he stood up, "How do you have that?" he asked.
"He gave it to me, said he didn't need it anymore, anyway, you believe me now?" I asked.
"It's true that Shen Bao used to have a sword that resembled that… but what do you gain from knowing more about the Poison God Cultivators?" Elder Xian asked.
I shrugged, "I thought I might tell Master Shen Bao, since he is a bit out of touch with the world he could use information like this," I said.
"Take a seat, this isn't going to be a short talk," he said.
Once I was seated Elder Xian sighed and said, "How many Poison God cultivators do you know?" he asked.
"I only know of Shen Bao and the one he fought Shi Situ," I said.
"Right, then… Let's talk about Shi Situ then, of the information I have gathered, that person is unkillable…" he said.
"But he died, that's what master said," I said.
"Did he now…" Elder Xian's words caused a shiver to run down my spine.
"My Master has his Book, isn't that enough?" I replied.
"If you think Poison God cultivators are that easy to kill then you're greatly mistaken. They are like cockroaches, killing their host isn't the same as killing the Acolyte, hell I even know that Servant Mao had killed a dozen Poison God cultivators, but why do they still appear?" he said.
"…"
"Because the only way to truly kill the acolytes is to complete the Poison God's trial, which shouldn't open any time soon, So, do you really believe that Shi Situ is dead?" he asked.
'Well, that came out of nowhere…'
"I guess not," I said.
"Good, anyway, he possessed the Book of Death, one of the most annoying books of the Poison God, it allowed him to return to life at a cost, and I'm sure he isn't someone who'll just die that easily. But to tell you the truth, he is but the weakest of all the current Poison God cultivators, even with the Power of Rebirth. Since the rest have a far greater and more dangerous ability," he said.
"Then, how do you classify Shen, I mean Master Shen Bao?" I asked.
"Eleventh in terms of power. Though he only gets to become the Eleventh because he defeated Shi Situ, otherwise he'd be dead last. The other Poison God cultivators have been around for a while, and only recently did the Poison God's Heritage of Alchemy appeared in the world."
'Damn they already know what type of Book I have… this is becoming more dangerous,'
"Then what about the strongest?" I asked.
Elder Xian took a breath and said, "Not much is known about him… all that we know is, that he has the ability to consume an entire planet, and is supposed to have the most dangerous Tome of the Poison God's heritage… The Book of Devouring. He is dangerous enough that he never leaves anything alive wherever he goes." He said.
"Then how did rumors about him spread if nothing is left alive wherever he goes?" I asked frowning.
"Because though he leaves nothing alive, he leaves death behind, an entire planet was recently found to have lost all vitality, even the planet's soul was absorbed and it's core had cooled down. That is the power of the strongest Poison God cultivator…"
"What's his name?" I asked.
"Dao Shen… and is supposed to be one of the descendants of the Poison God, a true heir…"
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