Poison God's Heritage

Chapter 930: Battle Against the Heavens IV

I smiled. He frowned. My fingers extended, long and sharp, the nails turning black. Poison gathered on them, not merely coating the surface but becoming part of the flesh itself. I stabbed toward my own neck.

The same method I had used above Solarous, when I controlled that absurd ocean of Qi and poison. A vile little shortcut. Dangerous, stupid, effective. The kind of thing that shortened one’s lifespan, damaged the foundation, and made every reasonable cultivator ask why. Thankfully, I had never been accused of being reasonable.

The poison-tipped fingers reached my neck.

“Enough!” The word stopped everything.

Not pushed. Not resisted. Stopped. The Enforcer’s hand caught my wrist before my fingers pierced the flesh. The black domain froze around us. My Qi halted in my meridians. Even the poison gathered at my fingertips seemed to shudder, suddenly remembering that there were greater authorities than Shen Bao’s bad ideas.

The Enforcer looked at me, and this time, there was no mockery in his face. “This fight was never meant for you to win it, you were only supposed to graze me once, you have failed. Doing this shortens your lifespan. You should train some more and come back.”

For a moment, I didn’t answer. I breathed. Just once. A small breath, ragged and full of blood. Then I smiled. “But I didn’t fail.”

The Enforcer’s expression changed. Not much. But enough. His gaze sharpened, and the pressure around us shifted. “Explain.”

“The back of your left shoulder,” I said, tasting blood on every word. “There is something there.” The Enforcer went still. Truly still. Then the black domain shattered.

Light returned. The chamber came back in pieces. The throne, the walls, the red carpet, the carved warriors all reassembled around us as if reality had been waiting politely outside the door. But the moment the Enforcer’s Domain of Delusions False and Real broke, another domain became visible. Mine.

It had been there the whole time. Weak. Thin. Almost laughably faint. It rested atop his domain like a layer of dust over black glass, spread so carefully and so slowly that no one who was focused on a grand battle would bother noticing it. Not unless they were using perception far beyond the Sun Stage. Not unless they cheated. And he had promised to limit himself.

The Enforcer turned his head slightly. Embedded in the back of his left shoulder was a needle. It was thin enough to be mistaken for a strand of hair, dark enough to drink light, and so saturated with poison that the air around it trembled.

I straightened as much as my broken body allowed. “Domain within domain,” I said. “I already had mine setup atop yours, slowly, weakly, almost imperceptible, since you focused all your attention within your own Domain of Delusion and upon the one I used to protect my mind, you never noticed it, and that needle has enough poison in it to kill a sun stage cultivator if they didn’t remove it fast enough… you’ve had it embedded in your shoulder for the past twelve hours.”

The Enforcer reached back and touched the needle with two fingers. For the first time since this whole absurd tribulation began, he looked genuinely amused. I continued, because if I stopped talking now I would probably fall over. “You told me to graze you once. You never said I had to do it with my fist.”

He pulled the needle free and held it up, studying it. It dissolved between his fingers a moment later, not because the poison was weak, but because he finally stopped pretending to be limited. The domain I had spread collapsed under that attention instantly. The Enforcer looked at me. Then he smiled.

“I would have noticed it if I didn’t limit my perception to the Sun Stage… good, you have passed!” The words echoed through the chamber, and my knees finally gave out. I dropped onto the red carpet, breathing hard, body screaming, meridians aching, bones protesting every stupid decision that had led me here. Still, I laughed. It came out ugly and wet, but it was laughter nonetheless.

The Enforcer watched me for a moment before speaking again. “You are reckless.” I looked up from the carpet and said, “I prefer creative.”

He continued, “You are willing to damage yourself to win.” I breathed through the pain and answered, “I didn’t win. You made that very clear.”

The Enforcer said, “You passed.” I managed a faint grin.

“Same difference when one is lying on the floor.”

The Enforcer looked at the spot where the needle had been, then back at me. “Your path is poison, deception, endurance, and audacity.” I closed one eye, since the other was swelling shut, and said, “That sounds about right.” He said, “It is not a noble path.” I answered, “Noble paths tend to have shorter life expectancies.”

For a breath, the chamber was silent. Then the Enforcer turned toward the throne, hands once again behind his back. The pressure of him began to recede, though not entirely. Something vast still watched from behind that human-sized frame. Something that reminded me that I had passed only because he had allowed rules to exist.

Had he fought seriously, I would have died from a sneeze. No exaggeration. Probably not even an impressive sneeze either. A casual one. The thought was humbling. I hated it.

The Enforcer spoke without looking back. “Remember this, Shen Bao. Against those beneath you, your tools will be calamity. Against those equal to you, your mind will be your edge. Against those above you, only preparation made before the battle begins will matter.”

I pushed myself up to one elbow, wincing as several things inside my body disagreed with the motion. “That’s supposed to be advice?”

He answered, “It is a warning.” I muttered, “Those are usually the same thing, just with worse tone.”

He turned slightly. “You have touched the edge of the Sun Stage. You have not yet understood it.” I said, “I figured getting beaten for twelve hours would help.” He answered, “It did.”

I exhaled. “Wonderful. I feel enlightened already.”

He corrected me. “You feel pain.” I nodded faintly. “Also that.”

The Enforcer raised his hand. The red carpet beneath me lit up, and the pain in my body sharpened before beginning to settle. Not healing, not exactly. More like the damage was being acknowledged by the heavens and told to stop being dramatic. I coughed once, and blood splattered onto the carpet. “Disgusting,” I muttered.

The Enforcer ignored me. “Your tribulation is complete.” The chamber began to fade. The carvings blurred. The throne dissolved into light. The red carpet stretched longer and longer beneath me, turning into a path that seemed to run through clouds, stars, and laws I was still too weak to understand.

Before everything vanished, the Enforcer’s voice reached me one last time. “Train, Shen Bao. The next time, a graze may not be enough.”

My vision darkened. I smiled anyway. Of course. Because apparently, passing a tribulation was just the heavens’ way of telling you the next beating would be worse. And I’ll need to grow stronger not to beat it, no, that’s not in the books for me. Grow stronger as in, just so that I survive the beating….

Again, what can I say… how wonderful.