Muscles, nerves, bones, skin, and my blood itself seemed to reach the boing of breaking and melting as they roiled in incredibly forbidden and wanton power. The strength behind the blood of the Golden Titan revealed itself in a madness that impacted not the mind but the body itself.
Completely removing any and every fetter and limitation the body imposed upon itself to save it from breaking and causing every pore to open, and every cell to be imbued with all and every bit of Qi I had within me.
Steaming fumes of poison and Qi shot out from my body as the veins on my arms and skin began throbbing pumping blood at incredible speeds throughout my body to further increase the load of energy being consumed to be in this state.
For a moment I was able to see what was going on as the world seemed to slow down, but that moment seemed to pass as I felt like I lost control over my body.
I shot forward, roaring against the heavens themselves as I came in contact with the sword spirit's incoming sword swing.
Duck or dodge was out of the question as my body acted on its own, moving a fist to connect against the incoming sword of the sword spirit.
The sword easily cut right into my fist, but I didn't feel pain, no, something incredible happened. Instead of having my fist torn in two, it fused back just as it was cut, locking the sword inside the bone of my arm while my fist continued its primary object of sending a deafening punch that smashed the cultivator in the face with enough force that he was sent flying.
Unwilling to let go of his sword, the force of the punch ripped the sword out of my arm.
I then jumped back and came down with my knees and the bottom of my closed fists into the location of the Sword Spirit's body.
He managed to roll to the side as I came crashing against the ground with enough power that the explosion alone was enough to crater and blow him away several hundred meters in the air.
My kneecaps snapped broken, and so did the bones on my hand and arm, yet the madness within me was so powerful that it didn't register the pain and flexed the arms and leg correcting and repairing them instantly then jumped toward the cultivator who seemed to no longer be wanting to fight.
"Running on fumes," he said as he spat blood, "Then all I need to do is wait you out!" he said.
Smart, since I probably didn't have much time left in this state, and if he focuses on running he'll be able to survive long enough for me to fully exhaust myself.
Yet, even with a smidgen of control on my part of my body, I was able to do something about that.
As I was chasing after the sword spirit who decided to take to the skies and fly away, I willed the mad body with everything I had to use the Domain of Delusions.
It wasn't anything too complex, I only needed to apply the domain around the sword spirit even for a fraction of a second.
Desperately straining my mind against both the ravaging insanity of the Golden Titan's Madness, and applying the complicated Domain of Delusions not around me but in a distance from me, I was able to create a bubble of Delusion that was barely enough to trap the Sword Spirit's body for a fraction of a second.
The application of the Domain had one purpose, to deny inertia. And once that happened, he stopped, only for a fraction of a second, and that was all I was capable of doing as my mind was blanking out of consciousness.
In that fraction of a second, the sword spirit was suspended in the air, having his momentum completely stopped and interrupted, I managed to reach him and grab him by the neck.
Slamming him in the ground was the first thing the body did as he grasped tightly against his neck. The other fist then began pummeling on his face, each and every blow vibrated through the entire terrain we were in. One after the other, explosion after explosion as the first few blows mashed his face into the ground, then the following fist blows broke his skull and his brain matter.
The madness however refused to stop even after confirming the death of the sword spirit's body and continued blowing into his face again and again, until the bones of his skull turned to dust, roaring with every hit and blow the mad body continued on and on and on, until it could move its fist no more.
Suddenly the Madness was gone before it completely consumed me, thanks to exhaustion otherwise it would have continued to sap my Qi and then my vitality.
Unable to move or function I was losing consciousness.
"Automaton…" I muttered," Shen…Mo," I said.
The automaton instantly obliged opening a portal and releasing Shen Mo's body, allowing my consciousness to wake up in the second body while my main body shut down completely unable to function.
Shen Mo's body was far weaker than my original body, but seeing the dead body of the sword spirit I had nothing to fear.
Suddenly, the chest of the headless sword spirit shuddered.
Fearing the worst, I backed away, I had no way to beat this guy using Shen Mo's body, it didn't have the required Qi nor the power to contest and contend against it.
Yet what appeared was something I didn't expect, the chest of the sword spirit spat out six similar-looking books.
"Poison Books…" I muttered as I grabbed them, confirming the obtention of all twelve books of the Poison God's heritage.
"My lord, the books inside your main body are reacting, should I allow them to exit?" he asked.
"Yes, let them leave," I said.
And then I saw the rest of the books all appearing in front of me with the addition of the empty golden book.
Thirteen books and one of them larger than the rest. Finding each other in one place they began fusing into the golden book that absorbed each and every book into itself.
The main book of the Poison God's heritage was in front of me. Looking at it, it was far more majestic than the other books, the golden writing of the words Poison God's heritage were written in such a way that they felt as if they would come to life. The golden jade around the book was a testament to the preciousness of such a book.
It then entered my body and suddenly the entire world around me began shaking and shuddering.
"Alas… one who had earned the right to own all the books had appeared," someone spoke.
"Indeed, he who holds what we couldn't"
"He who carries the weight of such knowledge," another spoke.
"He who will carry the will of the master!"
"He who shall be hated and despised by the world."
"He who will not have a day of rest."
"He who holds the most power…"
"He who will carry the weight of Poison,"
"He who will hold the path to knowledge…"
"He who shall be branded as the Devil,"
"He who might become the Savior,"
"He who has the Poison God's Heritage…"
Looking around me, the silhouette of twelve people appeared men and women, all who had a most dignified look and presence to them. They all looked at me with pity, compassion, envy, and expectations.
"The Acolytes… the first Disciples," I said.
None answered.
A louder voice boomed through the entire area and I recognized this voice.
"You have obtained what many wished to use, I plead that you know that the path you have chosen is a path that only I have crossed, but even I have never managed to reach its end. Use my knowledge, use my will, and use my Heritage to forge the path you wish to seek yourself. Vile, or Benevolent it matters not, here I end my teachings to you dearest disciple, with the full heritage I have left behind you need no mentor. Learn for yourself, and add more to these teachings, and when you're able to cross and escape this prison, you may spread these teachings or keep them to yourself, but do know that the price of power is steep…"
Suddenly the entire arena began disintegrating and breaking apart as a portal appeared right next to me.
Looking back at the area and the destruction I've left here, I couldn't help but sigh.
"Wish if I could have had you as a friend Dao Shen, you've been good company, as a rival and a companion," I spoke to the corpse of Dao Shen that was possessed by the sword spirit.
"Don't talk as if I was dead," I heard and that made me yelp.
Turning around I couldn't find the reason or the person who spoke.
"Here, here!" I heard and turned to the corpse, "Yes the corpse, mind giving me a pill, poison one," the corpse said.
"I'm really confused…" I replied.
"And I really don't have much time if you keep blabbering, give me a pill," he said.
I pulled out several poison pills and asked, "Which?"
"All of them," he said.
"You have no mouth to swallow them though," I said.
"Just throw them at me," he said. and I obliged.
Suddenly the pills that fell on his body began fusing inside him and the mush and broken parts of Dao Shen's skull were slowly regenerating and repairing themselves.
"What in the world is happening…"
Slowly Dao Shen's body was fully repaired, and he stood up, cracking his neck and then sighing, "Damn, I thought you were going to lose for sure," he said.
"How…are you still alive?" I asked.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, the sword spirit possessed you."
"It momentarily possessed me, not because I was weak, but because I allowed it to, I mean, I'm the Devourer, I could easily take my body back, but decided against acting in case I would fail and the Sword Spirit becomes wary of me. If it had succeeded in obtaining all the books then I would have come out to consume it and reclaim my body," he said.
"Then how come you managed to… do that, I mean your skull was…mush," I said.
"I devoured the Sword Spirit's ability to regenerate, somehow when you used that punch of yours, even as it turned to nothing but a skeleton it still managed to repair its body, I guess it has to do with the nature of its soul. So, I consumed the remains of its soul when you were pummeling on it and learned that technique then repaired my body using some of the pills as nutrients…" he said.
"That…actually is pretty damn smart…" I said.
"Yep," he replied nonchalantly.
"So…"
"So…"
"You want to go at it for the books?" I asked.
"Nope," he said holding both hands up. "I give up, not that I can't beat you, after all if I really wanted to I can immediately dispose of you," he said.
"Then why don't you want the Poison God's heritage," I asked genuinely confused and concerned.
"Because I discovered the path of Devouring. The teachings of the Poison God only touch upon it from the surface, and when I was consuming that Sword Spirit and learned many of its secrets, it was like an epiphany for me, many paths have opened for me to further understand the Dao of Devouring, and if I keep seeking it through the Poison Path, I'll be lost. So I'm giving up on the heritage, but that doesn't mean I'll no longer be able to use the Poison Arts," he said smiling.
"Best of both worlds…" I said.
"Indeed, now, how about we leave, it looks like this whole place is going to disappear soon," he said.
"Yeah, let's leave," I replied and went into the portal followed by a laughing Dao Shen.
This 𝓬ontent is taken from fre𝒆webnove(l).𝐜𝐨𝗺