The Fire Lord, rage, incredible amounts of it was portrayed in his ugly expression. He was not having it, and I'm sure as hell we'll pay for what just happened.
"I guess you don't have the balls to go after that book," Mei Ling said taunting.
Figuring out that we were caught and had no way out of this mess, she thought by throwing away that golden book, it would be the best 'fuck you' she can give to the fire lord before he would finish us.
Stupid.
Just as he started gathering Qi to retaliate, I snapped my fingers. And suddenly the world turned dark.
"What is this?" asked the Fire Lord as he looked at the darkness surrounding us unable to understand what is going on.
"Domain? This complex, from a Nascent Soul cultivator?" he questioned, intrigued.
"Yes, just something I prepared in case something like this happens," I said.
"Where is she though?" he asked.
"Pretty far away, probably outside of this forest too," I said.
"Lies, the whole area is sealed from teleportation, there is no way outside of this forest, it shall be your graves the both of you," he said as he tried to approach me only to end up taking a step back.
Flustered, and unable to understand what's going on, I smiled at him.
I already realized what's going to happen and acted accordingly. The poison god was wrong, Du Shen shouldn't have tried to fight this guy, he'll never win.
As for the golden book, that is the original tome, the omnibus of the poison god, only that it had something written on it before it dropped into the pool.
"Imperial Corium", it must be an art for the Imperial Family, and from its name, it's probably the only heritage left of that family. This man as a person who is going to later become the fire lord needed this book to grow strong, and with Mei Ling throwing it into the poison pool she basically cut away one of his paths.
And I could figure out what happened just from this. Du Shen and Mei Ling must have encountered the Fire Lord here, he overpowered them, killed Mei Ling, and did something to Du Shen that caused him to become what he is.
I already assured the survival of Mei Ling, the inscription I've written along the way had one purpose. To extend the effects of my Domain of Delusions to cover her, and at the same time to guide her out of the Poison Mist Valley.
She will be untouched by the beasts, though she won't understand why, she will also be invisible to the cultivators since this domain will be creating illusions and delusions surrounding her. And finally, a compass inscription will guide her to the exit at the far north.
I need time, about half an hour here at most. And I'm going to buy it.
"You like this domain?" I asked.
"Neat trick, but it's worthless, Domain of the Infernal Iron Mountain!" he called.
And surges of flame came out as if it was a tectonic wave of lava willing to consume the world itself.
"Domain of Delusions, Illusion within Illusion! World Reversal!" I slapped both hands together, and immediately, physics went out of the window.
The hot and searing lava wave turned colder than the bit of frost.
The wave shaped like liquid became harder than stone and at the same time, it compacted upon itself into globules of ice.
Some floated up, some went sideways and some hovered without a direction in mind.
"What in heaven's name is this," the Fire Lord asked, completely shocked at what just happened to him.
"Looks like your domain is pretty weak," I said.
"How is it that a Nascent Soul cultivator is able to use a domain this powerful! Who are you?!" he asked as he tried to approach once again, only to have his body forcefully move back away from me.
"You haven't figured it out yet? your senses are messed up, you can no longer tell direction, and this should affect everything, including this," I said as I threw a pill toward him.
He tried to swing his arm to split it away, only to have his arm swing behind him, to the point it felt like it was about to break.
The pill landed squarely on his forehead exploding in a gust of poison.
The Fire Lord stumbled unable to remove the smoke away.
"BURN!" he called.
"Fool," I replied smiling.
This proved my point immediately afterward, the Fire Lord didn't 'burn' anything, because he didn't realize that not only do I completely switch senses, it also affects his cultivation.
To use Qi, and to create his cultivator fire, he needs to have his Qi move in order, from a specific meridian to another, in order to create a diagram to release a certain spell. But with his senses confused, he did the opposite and started where he should have begun.
Blood sprayed out of his mouth like a geyser.
Coughing, and struggling to wipe his mouth as the blood and poison was mixed in them. He smirked, "Funny, I've never seen something so vexing. You're able to control my senses, my feeling of touch, and even my understanding of space itself. You're good with spatial awareness manipulation, BUT THAT'S ALL YOU HAVE! BURN!" he said.
And there and then, I understood how a genius works. And this guy was.
He immediately used the same skill from before only he purposefully reverted the circulation of his meridian, which, in this reversed domain caused it to function normally, and a blast of fire Qi came hunting at me.
But… that was all there is to it, and geniuses, I've met many. They're nothing special.
The fire wave though came at me with wanton abandon willing to eradicate me, still fell to the effect of World Reversal.
It stopped a few meters in front of me, coiled into hardened ice globes, and began floating all over the place.
I smiled as I looked at the floating ice balls, and then I got closer to one of them and began writing something on it.
The fire lord, confused by my nonchalant attitude tried to call upon another spell of his, only to realize that I was done.
"You know, I always thought you were some big shot, indeed you are, but right now, you're still a brat. So, take this as an opportunity to learn about spatial displacement," I said as I punched the ball slightly.
The ball flew at a rather peaceful pace until it touched another ball. Then the second ball was imprinted with the same inscription and flew at twice the original ball's speed.
Then it went into another ball, and then another.
And soon, every ball in the room began moving at absurdly high speeds slamming into each other and into the walls of my own domain.
"Now, usually you'll be able to dodge these, in your normal stance, but can you do that with your whole body functioning against your own will?" I asked mocking.
My words were a taunt to the 'esteemed' Ascendant, and the moment one of the balls struck at him, he snickered.
"These feel like being brushed with a feather, if you think this would even harm me, I don't even need to move." He said as he tried his best to regain the full function of his body and adapt to the twisted sensation.
"True, but you know the saying, even a drop of water can break the stone, so how long can you stand there?"
Many of the ice balls continued clashing with each other, with the occasional one going right at him.
He easily tanked the first dozen, then the first hundred, then by the thousand hits, you could see visible signs of stress on him.
The ice crystals had three inscriptions, one of hardness, one of speed, and one of imprint.
And whenever they touched another ball, they'll reinforce the basic inscription, making them stronger and faster. As for me, I didn't even need to move or dodge since I'm the ruler of this spatial domain, I could easily create a spot where no ball would ever come toward me even on purpose.
I feel like the villain here.
About the ten thousand or so blow, the fire lord dodged the first ball.
Then he dodged the second, gaining even more confidence, he got hit by one but still managed to dodge the one after, then the one after and he continued doing so until he was fully able to dodge every one of the projectiles coming at him.
He then laughed, "If you hadn't done this, I would still be struggling, if I were you I would have attacked while my opponent was unable to use his body, but you gave me time to learn of your domain and understand it, and now you're certain to die." He spoke as he took one confident step after the other.
Indeed, it would have been the case, if it was actually something I didn't account for.
That's why I said geniuses aren't something special.
Just as he got closer and right up to my face, I disabled the Domain of Delusions.
For a second, the Fire Lord looked confused, and just as he tried to strike at me, the dagger that belonged to Mei Ling had already made its way into his neck.
"Guess what?" I said to the wide-eyed Fire Lord, "You should have seen this coming a long way, I actually made you learn how to function in reverse." I said as I twisted the dagger.
"Since if I didn't and approached you inside my domain, you could have done something to fight back. But now that you're mentally tuned to function in reverse, once we're back in the real world it will take you time to get back to your original function, and that time is all I need to have the perfect opportunity to kill you," I said as I ripped the dagger away.
The Fire Lord, unbelieving of what happened took several steps back, he tried his best to stop the bleeding, but no Qi would come out.
"The poison pill I hit you with when you were inside my Domain had the ability to seal your Qi. And since your brain is currently fighting the urge of functioning normally or to function in reverse, you cannot use it. You're currently a mortal," I said as I pressed forward and went up to the Fire Lord's face.
"Listen here, and listen well, though you're nothing but a figment… let's not go there, I wish if you truly had perished here, but life isn't fair, and you'll live to wreak even more havoc soon. So, though it is pointless to say there, git fucking good."
I swung the dagger once again decapitating the man.
I thought the challenge would end right there, but something was off.
Nothing happened even with the death of the Ascendant.
Just as I got closer to investigate the Fire Lord's body, some sort of wrathful and vengeful Soul surged out of his body.
A screech of agony and indignation came out of the vengeful soul and it wanted to charge at me.
But the moment it took a look at my own soul which for some reason I felt. I saw the small vengeful soul screech in incredulous fear as it flew away at blinding speed burning its own essence to escape.
"Damn, I wanted to eat that," I sighed.
I guess even killing the Ascendant won't end the challenge.
Du Shen must have been able to kill him at least once, he isn't anything special. Though it's very hard for a Nascent Soul cultivator to kill an Ascendant, in the tens of thousands of attempts Du Shen took for this very trial, considering his genius, he must have been able to take vengeance at least once.
But many factors come in to stop that, first things first he didn't have my Domain of Delusions which is almost cheat-like. And even if he did kill the Ascendant, I doubt he survive the vengeful soul.
And lastly, even if he did win the fight, beat the ascendant, and did survive the soul, he never saved Mei Ling. She was supposed to die the moment she threw away the book into the poison pool, only I, who was able to temporarily displace her thanks to my understanding of space was able to save her from certain death.
But, I realized two things.
The time I spent inside the Domain of Delusions was no shorter than half an hour, but at the same time, while applying temporal manipulation, the time that passed in the world outside the Domain of Delusions must have been a day at least.
So, Mei Ling should be more than capable of having escaped the forest which is an objective that not even the Poison God had set for us.
The second thing is this pool and the book.
So, I'm sure that this is my way out. And I could already tell how it was supposed to go.
The Fire Lord must have killed Mei Ling and then destroyed Du Shen's cultivation base along with all of his meridians, in his rage, he threw Du Shen into the pool of Bone and Body Grinding Poison.
With the conditions met, Du Shen must have had a change and become the Poison God.
But what does the book factor in on this?
I then decided that it was time for me to check it out, and doing that requires me destroying all my meridians and jumping into that pool, another…fucking…time.
This is gonna hurt.
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