Poison God's Heritage

Chapter 922: Prespective

Once we got on the ship, I asked the Dusking Sun, "Where to?" The vessel sealed behind us with a heavy metallic hum while formation lights flickered across the interior walls. Outside the viewing panels, the asteroid outpost slowly drifted away as the ship prepared for departure.

The silence between us carried an unusual weight now. Not tense exactly, but focused. Ever since Shi Situ’s name had entered the conversation, it felt like the air itself had sharpened.

"They gave me a map, it should be several billion miles away, it’s not a short trip."

The Dusking Sun tossed over a jade slip containing the coordinates. I caught it and pushed a thread of divine sense into it, instantly feeling the route unfold inside my mind. Vast stretches of empty space. Sparse relay points. Regions of unstable gravitational tides. The sheer distance alone was absurd.

I looked at the map, and squinted my brows, "Even at top speed, it’ll take us a month just to get there..."

That estimate already assumed we pushed the ship hard enough to strain its formations continuously. Space travel always sounded simple when spoken aloud. A month. As if that were nothing. But crossing billions of miles through unstable cosmic territory was never pleasant, even with advanced vessels.

"Do you not like the idea of going?"

"No, I’ll still go. Matter of fact," I said as an idea formed immediately. There was no point wasting that amount of travel time sitting around staring into empty space while anxiety chewed at my mind. If Situ really had that much time ahead of us, then every wasted second mattered.

I called Y, who immediately showed up from within the pagoda space. The giant construct appeared with its usual eerie efficiency, stepping out from the spatial fold without a sound. Its glowing eyes shifted toward me attentively.

"Take the wheel, to this destination. Also inform me if anyone calls. I’ll be cultivating within the pagoda." I said.

The moment I handed over the route, Y immediately began interfacing with the ship’s formations. The controls around the main console lit up one after another while the vessel adjusted orientation.

I then turned to the Dusking Sun and asked, "What about you?"

"I’ll head inside the pagoda if I feel bored."

That made me snort faintly. Bored. We were heading toward what might be a Yang Stage monster wielding the Dao of Death, and this lunatic described the journey as potentially boring.

"Fine then, I’ll be leaving," I said as I walked into the same portal Y came from.

The moment I crossed through the spatial gate, the atmosphere shifted completely. The pagoda’s inner world greeted me with its sterile white expanses and controlled silence. The contrast between open cosmic space and the endless artificial calm inside the pagoda always felt strange, like stepping between entirely separate realities.

Once inside I headed into the white floor, there were several rakshasas still there, dead of course, "Get rid of this filth, purge them all," I said to the puppets there.

Even dead, the corpses offended the eye. Melted flesh. Hardened black blood. Remnants of creatures that should never have existed. The lingering smell alone was enough to sour the mood.

They moved with mechanical precision, dragging away the remains before dissolving them completely through cleansing formations. Soon the room returned to pristine emptiness, as if the battle’s residue had never touched it.

There were several reactors still in the pagoda which I used.

The massive constructs hummed faintly in the distance, dormant until fed resources.

I placed the majority of the Qi crystals I got from Tonfa’s ring.

The moment the crystals entered the reactors, the machines awakened fully. Deep vibrations rolled through the floor beneath my feet while light spread through the channels carved into the walls.

Once they went inside the reactors, they began filling the place in Qi.

Dense.

Pure.

Violently abundant.

The atmosphere changed almost instantly. Qi saturated the air to such a degree it became visible in pale drifting currents. My skin tingled under the pressure.

All of this energy here... I cannot simply use. I’m after all a man denied the heavenly Qi.

"Come out, start eating, we need to go up in rank," I said to the primordial serpent god.

From my tattoo, the serpent emerged out, and coiled around me, massive in size, but still not even a fraction of its world devouring former self.

Its scales shimmered darkly beneath the reactor light while its enormous body circled through the white chamber. Even diminished, its presence still carried ancient hunger. Golden eyes opened slowly, reflecting greed the moment it sensed the overflowing Qi.

It simply closed its eyes and began absorbing the massive amounts of Qi that were pouring out of the reactor.

The effect became immediate. Entire rivers of Qi bent toward the serpent’s body, disappearing into it like storms collapsing into an abyss. The creature consumed without restraint, its breathing slow and monstrous.

The serpent consumed, and I got the byproduct. Poison Qi. Abundant and rich Poison Qi.

Before I was fully swarmed with it I gave a final command.

"Automaton, set the time difference to the maximum."

"Understood," the automaton replied and did as asked.

The formation activated silently.

Reality shifted.

The flow of time inside the chamber subtly warped, stretching apart from the outside universe. The sensation was faint but unmistakable. One of the pagoda’s most terrifying abilities. A treasure capable of stealing time itself.

While I was cultivating, I split my consciousness in two.

The transition carried the familiar sensation of dividing attention between bodies, though it never truly became comfortable.

Consciousness stretched strangely during the process, like forcing the mind to exist across separate realities simultaneously.

Waking up somewhere strange, I opened my eyes the place was a box, or a coffin.

The interior smelled faintly of metal and old spiritual oils. Darkness pressed close around the body until I pushed upward.

Prying it open, I stood up, this time as Shen Mo.